Fantasy Baseball Today - Who is Jose Fernandez?? Let's Rank Starting Pitchers! (4/1 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 1, 2026

CHASE DELAUTER HURT HIS FOOT! THIS IS NOT AN APRIL FOOL'S DAY JOKE (2:15)! ... Who is this Jose Fernandez kid (4:00)? ... Andrew Painter had a strong debut (8:53). ... Let's rank interesting starting pitchers (12:36)! ... News (23:08): Cody Ponce will miss significant time with a sprained ACL. ... What did we see in Shane McClanahan vs. Brandon Woodruff (30:10)? ... Let's fire up the Worry-O-Meter for Bubba Chandler (34:37). ... How excited are we about these waiver wire hitters (41:25)? ... Max Scherzer looked solid (50:40). ... We had a bunch of aces on the mound (54:57). ... Let's wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:03:14). 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. Who the heck is Jose Fernandez?

We'll talk about it. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on April Fool's Day. I am Frank Stample joined by Scott. white. We're going to rank some pitchers today. Our first wariometer of the year. We will talk about D-Backs prospect Jose Fernandez. But Scott, I wish this was an April Fool's Day joke. Can you believe it? Chase DeLauder left after one at bat on Tuesday night after he fouled a ball off of his left foot. That's the foot that he broke back in college. He had it surgically repaired in 2023. It's just like broken twice.

Why can't we have nice things, Scott? Why? Why? It's a fallen world, Frank. Gosh. I guess the good news here is that he was diagnosed with a contusion, so it doesn't seem like it's anything worse than that. Hopefully, just give him a couple days off, but... Hopefully. Man. That aisle stint's still possible, I suppose. But it's better than a fracture. I'll take a contusion over a fracture, and, yeah, we'll just have to find out.

if it's just a day-to-day thing or not, but it did make us all wince seeing that, given his, well, I think anyone off to that hot of a start leaving because it fouled a ball off his foot would obviously raise concerns, but especially DeLotter, given his history, with that particular foot. Yes, Chris, not on the podcast tonight. Chris and Scott will each have one podcast off per week throughout the course of the season,

but we did receive this text message from Chris right after it happened. De Lauder, no. Chris is an emotional guy. It's going to be okay, though. I certainly hope so. That is definitely newsworthy. Chase DeLotter. We'll see how he does.

Let's jump in with our players of the night. He did it. The kid didn't. That was the call on the D-Backs TV broadcast for Prospect. Jose Fernandez, who just had a historic debut. He went three for four with a double dong. Two homers in this one, four RBI, the second home run, a go-ahead three-run homer in the eighth inning of that game

off of future Hall of Famer Kenley Jansen. Quite the dramatic entrance here for Jose Fernandez, who was in the lineup in place of Nolan Aredado, who is off to a slow start with the debacks. but they do have a spot open in their lineup, Pave and Smith, dealing with the injury, obviously. Honestly, Scott, did not know much about Jose Fernandez when this day started, but now we talk about Jose Fernandez, who's 22 years old, has mostly played shortstop in the minors, has also played some third base, second base, first base.

Last year in the minors hit 272 with 17 home runs, 12 steals, 775 OPS at AA. and all of that obviously is not overly exciting or impressive. I think he's a sub-700 OPS in his minor league career. But I saw some people talking about what he did this spring. Apparently he had a really big spring breakout game. Those are the games where only the prospects play against each other. And in 10 spring training games, Jose Fernandez hit 280 with three home runs and 1148 OPS,

100.1 mile per hour average exit velocity. So I don't think that there's anything here. The minor league production doesn't really suggest that, but his spring numbers

were eye-popping, and obviously this game was super impressive. So he's 1% rostered Jose Fernandez. I think it's only NO only for now. Maybe if he plays more

the next couple days, works his way into like 15-team mixed leagues. This isn't a name for like 12-teamers right now, but obviously it was an amazing game. What do you make of all of it? Everything here.

Yeah, it's a great debut. I hadn't heard of Jose Fernandez. I hadn't come across him in all my prospect research in the offseason, and there's a good reason for it. So most major prospect outlets go 30 deep at each organization, which is pretty ridiculously deep. I mean, there are not 30 prospects worth knowing in any organization, much less every single one.

Baseball America didn't have Jose Fernandez in the Diamondbacks top 30 prospects. MLB.com barely did. They had him 27th. And mostly it seemed like defense is what stood out for him. There was a little bit of poppy. Did hit the 17 home runs last year, but that was at AA Amarillo,

which is a very hitter-friendly place. He still had an OPS below 800, it being so hitter friendly. As you point out, there isn't a lot in the minor league track record or in the prospect reports to get you excited. He is 22, though, and if anyone that young could make a leap, we saw him produce the spring, obviously, and so maybe the Diamondbacks, obviously they were quick to promote him at the first opening.

They started him over Nolan Aeronado in his debut. maybe they saw something here that leads them to believe there's more than meets the eye here with Jose Fernandez. Obviously, to Homer debut, that gets everyone's attention. I agree that there's no reason to rush out and add him in most fantasy leagues. I did check immediately to see if he was available to my NL only and my 2014 Dynasty League. But beyond that, I'm just going to see the way the rest of the week,

plays out, see how much playing time he gets, if he continues to produce. And by the end of this week, we'll probably be able to say more definitively if Jose Fernandez is worthy of our attention. So we know third base through second is pretty much locked up in terms of playing time. They have Aronado there. They have Perdomo. They have Cotele. Carlos Santana at first base.

DH is open with Pave and Smith hurt. You know, if they really want to get this kid some playing time, they could play him at first. They could give him some at bats at DH. They can give Catell Marte a half day off, play him at second base. So again, he's played all over the diamond in the minors. The name there, Jose Fernandez, I did look it up. He went three for three with three RBI in that spring breakout game earlier this year when all the prospects are playing up against each other.

So most people listening, 10, 12 team leagues, nothing here yet. Deeper leagues, let's pay attention here with Jose Fernandez. Scott, let's go over to you for your player of the night. My player of the night, I'm going to go with another one who made his major league debut here on Tuesday, and that was Andrew Painter. People know Andrew Painter, we've been hearing about him for a long time. He was supposed to make the Phillies starting five out of spring training.

Was that 2023 or 2024? It was supposed to happen as a 19-year-old, and it didn't because he hurt his elbow. 2023, yep. and had Tommy John surgery and hasn't looked the same since having Tommy John surgery. He looked like the best pitching prospect in the world, one of the best I've ever seen, which is why he was about to make the rotation as a 19-year-old. But he hasn't been the same, particularly his fastball hasn't been nearly as dominant since having Tommy John surgery.

It lost the shape that made it so effective. And initially this spring, we heard reports that Andrew Painter had worked to raise his arm angle up. And that had raised his arm angle up, you know, raise his arm ankle. And that had helped him to regain that fastball shape. But it didn't really seem that way this spring. He wasn't missing that many bats. He certainly wasn't on his fastball. So, you know, a guy had an ERA over five in the minors last year.

I wasn't, by the end of draft season, I wasn't that motivated to invest much of anything in Andrew Painter. Well, look what he did in his debut. Five in a third innings, one earn run, one walk, eight strikeouts. It's a great debut. Hard not to get excited about it given Painter's history and former prospect standing, and current prospect standing. He was in every top 100 list even with the struggles last year. So I would say if you have him, if you have a chance to pick him up, obviously it's worth doing.

Fastball still wasn't that great though. You know, it still wasn't that great. For having eight strikeouts, he only had nine whiffs. That was on 84 pitches, so that's not a terrible whiff rate or a terrible swinging strike rate by any means. But it, you know, it's just okay. Only led with his fastball through 40% of the time, only two whiffs on that. So about a 20% whiff rate on the fastball, which isn't terrible, but it's not very good either. He had great control, 68% of his pitches for strikes, and maybe he's broadened his arsenal enough that he doesn't need to have an electric fastball to be effective.

But this was against a bad nationals lineup, and the whiffs weren't especially high. And I still don't see this current version of painter having a huge, sky hide ceiling. There's some upside here, clearly. Again, worth investing in if you have the opportunity, you chase that upside early in the season. You try to corral as many breakout possibilities as you can, particularly at starting pitcher.

But I remain just lukewarm on Andrew Painter, I would say. Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it. I notice the same things with the fastball. The secondary pitches did perform well in this one. The slider, the curve, the change up all look pretty good. and he did a great job limiting hard contact. There was only one hard hit in this game, 82.3 average exit velocity again.

So all around, it's a great debut, but would like to see more from that fastball here with Andrew Painter. And you mentioned Scott, like trying to stack up breakout, potential breakout pitchers this time of year is so important. Let's talk about some other names that pitched really well also here. Kodai Senga, who we saw with increased velocity this spring, six innings, two runs, nine strikeouts. Did struggle a little bit with the control.

Three walks here, but had 16 whiffs on 92 pitches. Velocity was way up like it was this spring. Jose Soriano makes it two-for-two. Another strong start here at the Cubs. Six shutout innings for him. Four strikeouts continues to work in all these other pitches now. You know, previous years, he's mostly a two-pitch pitcher. Kind of feels like he's really kind of broadening this arsenal here for Soriano.

And then Casey Mize. He was great here in the nightcap at the D-back, six innings, one run. Nine strikeouts. Unfortunately, the tiger's bullpen blew the wind for him, but 15 whiffs on 93 pitches, and that splitter was money. So, Scott, talk to me about those three, and then afterwards, just rank them. Senga, painter, Soriano, Casey Meis. So Senga, which talked about him remaking his delivery,

working on his mechanics this spring. That's what he said. and had a great spring. Velocity was up on the fastball. It wasn't in season debut, too, nearly three miles per hour. So you understand of getting the nine strikeouts, the 17 swinging strikes.

Still seems like there are going to be control problems. You know, it's just one start, but obviously we have a whole track record of control problems for Kodai Senga. So, you know, I had some faint hopes that with those remade mechanics, it wasn't walking many guys this spring, maybe that would continue. still had the three walks and six innings,

still threw just 61% of his pitches for strikes. But a lot of reason to be encouraged here. And I think Senga should be rostered basically everywhere at this point. Casey Mize, great start, obviously, with the nine strikeouts and 15 whiffs. I don't really see what he did differently, you know? through the splitter a little more because it was working so well nine of the 15 whiffs on the splitter

threw it 30% of the time it was 24% last year so that's not that's in the same range I don't know that that was a conscious choice I'm going to throw my splitter more just he happened to throw it more of this start velocity was similar

for the most part pitch selection was similar movement on all the pitches was similar the slurve was very different i will point out the slurve had five more inches of horizontal break and eight more inches of drop but he hardly through it right yeah it was only 10% um yeah yeah and only 11% CSW so it wasn't it wasn't i don't consider that a major part of his arsenal so it wasn't i wasn't particularly moved by it and okay kesey maize was an all-star last year yes had a five eRA in the second

half had a bad strike out rate on the season not very good whip swinging strike rate was below 18 was below 11%. So I did not think of him as somebody of much interest coming into the year. And while he had a great first start, in every way, I don't really see reason to think he's a different pitcher. I don't see changes like we saw for Michael Soroka yesterday or Landed Rup yesterday. There were things we could point to to say, this is why this guy is going to be different potentially this year.

don't see that for Casey Mize. So that makes me a little less interested in pursuing him for as good as the start was. Not taking anything away from him, but I'm trying to project going forward. How is this going to look? And I don't see anything to sink my teeth into. Who else do you want me to talk about? Jose Soriano. Now, this is probably the one most worth getting excited about because he's done it twice in a row now.

obviously that counts for more. Like we're putting a lot on individual starts this early in the season. We're drawing a lot of conclusions from it because you have to to play the waiver wire this time of year. Somebody does it twice in a row. It's twice as convincing. It's not conclusive, of course, but it counts for a lot. He has yet to give up an earn run this year. Back-to-back six-inning starts.

And in terms of what's changed process-wise, mixing in that four-seamer. A lot more. He's always had the sinker. It's always been a great ground ball pitcher, but it seems like integrating that four seam fastball, you get the double fastballs there. Integrating that has made everything more effective. He threw it 22% of the time the four seamer again in this one.

Had another great start. So kind of like Kodi Isanga needs to be rostered everywhere. I would say Soriano probably needs to be rostered everywhere at this point. as for how to rank them. Tell me who I'm ranking again. That's the money question, Scott. We got Casey Mize, Jose Soriano, Andrew Painter,

Kodi, Senga, and I was going to wait to throw in Parker Messick, but since we're here, let's just do it. We've got five pitchers there. Throw Parker Messick in that mix as well. All right. Let's go Kodai Sanga one.

Agreed. Andrew Painter 2. Don't like that one. one. I think I would put Messick ahead of him, but it's close. Okay, Parker Messick 3. Yeah. Jose Soriano, four. Casey Mize 5, am I forgetting anybody? No, those are the five. I would have the same order except for Parker Messick ahead of Painter, but if you want to shoot for more upside, you know, once upon a time painter was, or not even once upon a time, entering this year, he was a higher ranked prospect then Parker Messick.

And I think upside is probably higher, but I like what we've seen from Messick, down the stretch of last year, performed well in the minors. He's just looked a little bit better at the major league level so far. So now to bring everything full circle, let's talk about the guys we talked about yesterday, where they fit in here. That's a lot of names.

So we had also Landon Rup, Mike Soroka. Uh-huh. Who else were missing? I don't know. Those are the two I remember. Obviously, Messick was one of them from yesterday. We already incorporated him. Okay.

So those two, Soroka and Root. Oh, Lance McCullors. And McCullors. I'm going to put them. I would put them ahead of only Mize. And really just Saruka and Saruka. Would I put them ahead of Mice even? And Kyle.

They might not be at the back of the line if I'm being. perfectly on and Kyle Harrison too. Kyle Harrison's on. Yeah. Ah. Like, I guess just what I want to stress here, though, is Sanga, Painter, Messick,

and Soriano. All four of those guys are must, must, must. While Rup and Soroka and Mize, whatever order you want to rank them, I won't quibble about it too much they're more it would be nice mccullers too it would be nice if i can make

room for this guy to see if it goes anywhere but i'm not going to uh you know i'm not i'm not gonna be myself up about it if i can't pick them up because the likeliest scenario is they end up being just waver fodder anyway the last name i swear jack lighter i think i would put jack lighter second on that list only behind senga Does that sound appropriate? Yeah, I think so. I think I'd take them over. I had a messick and painter.

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think so too. Before we hit our first break, just a reminder, if you haven't already, subscribe on YouTube and hit the like button if you're watching. We really do appreciate it. Let's take that break. We'll be back right after this.

Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes. Cody Ponce was placed in the IL with a sprained right ACL, and he is expected to miss. significant time. There was no official timetable. Scott, would you go ahead and drop Cody Ponce in leagues where there are no IL spots? In leagues with no IL spots. Yeah, I know it's going to be a lengthy absence. Hopefully he makes it back this year. Yeah, I try to stash him in an IL spot if you do have

that possibility just until we hear an official timetable. But it sounds like it's going to be a while either way. And it's just so brutal. You feel for Cody Ponce, who worked so hard, to get back to the majors, had himself a strong spring, lots of smart people excited about Cody Ponce this year, and look good in the limited action that we saw yesterday, but unfortunately suffered that knee injury. We have another prospect extension. The Mariners signed Colt Emerson to an eight-year $95 million extension.

The deal includes a club option for a ninth year and can top out at $130 million if all incentives are reached. And this is a record contract for, a player who has yet to reach the majors. He did go 0 for 4 at AAA here on Tuesday. So far he's hitting 278 with one homer in 816 OPS. For whatever this is worth, J.P. Crawford started a rehab assignment here on Tuesday. So Scott, I feel like whenever we see a prospect getting an extension, with the exception

of Cooper Pratt yesterday, our minds automatically say, oh, they're probably going to be called up, you know. Obviously, we don't have to worry about service time anymore. and he was added to the 40-man roster. But the way that the Mariners are kind of set up right now and Crawford is returning and Colt Emerson is still so young, I still think they're going to give him some time down in the minors for now. Yeah, I mean, Cooper, Pratt changes the game.

We had never seen that before, a minor leer getting a contract, even though he's not at the precipice of a promotion. And so, you know, now we see just a day later, how much of a difference that makes dollar-wise. Same number of years, eight. Cooper Prack got 50 million. Colt Emerson got 90 million.

So, you know, Emerson, it's, yeah, higher end prospect, and he's at the highest level of the minor league system. So I do think we're going to see him debut this year. But is it imminent? I don't see why it would be, particularly if J.P. Cross. Crawford's on the road to recovery.

Leo, I'm forgetting his last name. Leo Revas, thank you. Isn't doing much at the plate for the Mariners. But if J.P. Crawford's close to returning, I don't know why. I don't know why they'd bring up Emerson until they were sure they had a place to play.

Right. One thing I wonder about these prospect extensions, Sky, we'd get two in two days. You know, there's some, there was a tweet from John Heyman that the Cardinals are trying to work an extension out with JJ Weatherholt right now. Just wonder if maybe one of the sides

in the upcoming CBA negotiations knows something that could be coming, whether it's the owners or the players. That's where my mind went. I'm like, this is kind of weird that we're getting this many prospect extensions. I mean, granted, you know, Weatherholt and Emerson are top prospects in baseball,

so it makes sense to lock those guys up. But did you see anything or think about that at all? like maybe there's something coming in the upcoming CBA that would want them to, you know, lock some of these prospects up? No, I didn't think about that specifically, the idea that somebody knows something. Maybe, maybe not.

But I think of nothing else, like the impending negotiations are going to introduce a lot of uncertainty. And it's hard to operate a team. it's hard to create a multi-year plan when there's uncertainty. So just getting some certainty from players that you know are long-term building blocks. I think I'd be pursuing that too if I was heading up a front office right now. Pirates, get Connor Griffin's representative on the phone, and let's get that done so we could get Connor Griffin in the majors sooner rather than later.

Zach Eflin left his start early due to right elbow discomfort. for another rough injury here because he had the back surgery and was talking this spring about how great he felt and performed well this spring as well. Manager Craig Albernaz said Eflin is likely headed to the IL. The Orioles are expected to recall Albert, Albert Suarez, but kind of feels like Dean Kramer will just be back up in the majors pretty soon. You know, he is a major league talent.

And, you know, Zach Eflin actually looked pretty good in this start before leaving Scott. So, obviously, you fear the worst with an elbow injury. but he looked good before getting hurt. Yeah, it might be a moot point at this point, but he did. He was getting a lot of whiffs, which you love to see. Just got to see what happens with his elbow. Carlos Rodon experienced right hamstring tightness earlier this week.

He was supposed to go on a rehab assignment soon, but it sounds like this could delay him a little bit. Corbyn Burns through a 20-pitch bullpen on Tuesday as he works his way back from Tommy John's surgery. The expectation is that he'll be back. some point in the second half. Sayas Suzuki will begin a rehab assignment during Chicago's upcoming road trip.

Jorge Polanco was out of the lineup Tuesday as he works through that Achilles soreness that he's dealing with. Merrill Kelly will make a minor league rehab start this Friday at AAA. Lordes Griel has progressed to playing in simulated games. He's working his way back from a torn ACL.

Quinn Priester is scheduled to throw a 20-pitch bullpen before he, heading to the brewer's spring training facility to continue building up his throwing program. Anthony Volpe will take live BP on Wednesday. He's working his way back from off-season shoulder surgery.

The Brewers option catcher prospect Jefferson Caro back to AAA after acquiring outfielder Luis Matos via trade and just some position eligibility stuff on CBS. Brendan Donovan now has third base eligibility. Boba Chet also

has third base eligibility. J.J. Weatherholt has second base. There are a few other players that are, you know, one or two games away from gaining. And also, Yvonne Herrera just got his second start at catcher. So I think this is pacing out actually really well for Yvonne Herrera. So maybe two or three weeks from now, he will have catcher eligibility, at least on CBS,

where it's only five games in season. I know over at the NFBC, it's 10 games. So I'm going to take a little bit longer over there. Scott, all eyes on Shane O'Mack, Shane McClain, up against. Brandon Woodruff. These are two veteran pitchers who, when they were at the top of their games, they were aces in fantasy baseball, and both of them have dealt with a lot of injuries over the past couple of years. So what did we see? Shane O. Mack, four and two-thirds innings, three runs,

two of those earned, four strikeouts to three walks. Velocity was up on his fastball compared to where it was the spring. It wasn't up compared to, you know, previous years, but I thought the velocity was actually, at least the fastball velocity was pretty encouraging here for Shane O'Mac. And Brandon Woodruff, solid outing on the other side, five innings, two runs, six strikeouts for him. His fastball velocity basically in line with where it was last year, around 93 miles per hour. So what do you think here from Shane O'Mac and Brandon Woodruff? I was more encouraged by Woodruff. Very efficient.

Just needed just 67 pitches to get through the five innings. Velocity was fine after being down. during a spring where he was delayed by the lat issue, had a nice whiff rate. Everything looked good. He threw his cutter less than last year, just a little bit. Only 10%. It was 16% last year.

But you get to 10%. You're not throwing it much at that point. So I thought that was interesting because we've been crediting the cutter for him finding so much success, even with the velocity on his fastball declining. But, you know, got a ton of whiffs on them. that fastball. So it was obviously enough for this particular start, and I would be starting Brandon Woodruff with confidence moving forward.

As for McClanahan, could have been worse with the fastball, as you said, but still losing one and a half miles per hour is difficult to make up for. I would like to see him maybe emphasize the secondaries more. He's not somebody who throws this force him or crazy amount. anyway. It was 37% of the time in this start. But the pitch selection was pretty typical, I would say, about what it was before the second Tommy John surgery. And I'm not sure McClanahan's fastball is in a state where he can just keep doing the same thing. I think he's worth holding on to.

I think there, I still see the potential for Shane McClanahan to be an impact pitcher and fantasy. But this start, personally, it didn't relieve any of my concerns about him. And I'm hoping we see better next time now. I was a little bit more encouraged just by the velocity. I know, again, 95.4 on the fastball for McClanahan is down 1.4 miles per hour from 2023. But his fastball this spring was like 93-94. So for his first start to come out here and be up over 95, I thought that was pretty encouraging. The first inning, he was actually up in over 96.

and then it kind of like faded as the start went on. But, you know, if that's any indicator where he started in spring, 93, 94, and continues to build up, like, you know, he might be able to just sit 96 a couple of starts from now. And obviously we would, I think, feel really good about that for Shane McClan. Yeah, if it's part of a trend. I wasn't reading it that way. I was reading it more as he was throwing at 80% this spring, like they talked about a few times.

And now that the season started, he's, is. he's coming at at full force. So this is what the fastball is now. But you could be right. We're just reading different things into the same numbers. Yeah, 96.3 miles per hour in that first inning there for Shane O'Mac. So we'll see if he can maintain that. That would be really good to see from McClain-Han.

Scott, would you say that Shane O'Mac is back? I will let you decide whether or not we play the sound drop or not. I want to hear the sound drop. But you got to give me, you have to say something positive about Shane O'Mack. It could be anything. Like you like his name or something or his changeup was good today or whatever. His change up actually was kind of good today. I like his sound drop.

Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talk. Here comes the money. Let's hope that there is more money on the way for Shane O. Mac. So we can play that more. Our first Worryometer of the year, Scott.

And I have just one player on this. list, one pitcher on this list. Bubba Chandler at the Reds. Frank, how could you have Bubba Chandler on the Worryometer? He didn't give up a hit. What about six walks over four and a third innings?

Didn't give up a hit, but the whip was like 1.5. What a weird start for Bubba Chandler. Four and a third innings, zero hits, one unearned run, six walks, six strikeouts, 11 whiffs on 81 pitches here. He threw just

53% of his pitches for strikes. And earlier this spring, Scott, nine walks per nine, 22% walk rate. So where is Bubba Chandler on the Worryometer? 1 to 10. 10? You are freaking out. This is the most worried

you could be about a player. One? Not worried at all. Would 6 be too low in your estimation, or do you think that's appropriate? I think that's, it might even be a little bit high. might be a little high. Okay, I'll go with six, because I am concerned. I'm definitely concerned.

It seemed like he had whipped this issue for the seven appearances he had made in the majors last year, just four walks between them, and he threw 66% of his pitches for strikes, which is very good. But obviously, it's not completely new to Bubber Chandler. Early in his minor league career, he had walks. When his promotion was delayed a AAA last year, serious walk issues. And we attributed it, he himself attributed it, to being frustrated that he didn't get called up in May. I don't know.

I don't know where it goes from here. Obviously, it was discouraging the spring to see him walking so many guys. It was just spring. This is just one start, but it is a crazy number of walks for a guy who does have some history of it. Not as extensive as like Jacob Misirowski. Like we saw Chandler have stretches in his minor league career and again during his time in the majors where it seemed like he had turned the corner and was more of a strike thrower.

But he hasn't completely whipped the issue. And so that gives me pause when I'm setting my lineups, I would have to say. Yeah. I would have it at a five here on the Worryometer. I'm not overly concerned. I'm not not concerned by this with Bubba Chandler. Again, given the spring that he had, and just a reminder of what his walk numbers looked like in the minors last year,

4.8 walks per 9. Back in 2024, it was 3.1. In 2023, 4.1 walks for 9. So for a large majority of his minor league career, strike throwing was an issue. It was amazing down the stretch last year in the majors, but obviously that was a really small sample size. He threw his fastball a lot in this.

star like 75% of the time, but he honestly could not command any of his pitches. His overall zone percentage was 36%. Only 36% of his pitches were in the zone. I mean, that is, this is brutal. Yeah, throwing three quarters of his pitches as being fastballs. Like that, normally that's the easiest pitch to command. Now, that's not true for every pitcher. I actually don't know whether Bubba Chandler has struggled with fastball command in particular. But I read that as I'm just trying to throw something for a strike. And so I'll just keep pounding fastball's hard pitch to hit. Obviously, they didn't get a hit off of the Reds.

But he's searching right now, Bubba Chandler. The next question here, Scott, 62% started for Bubba Chandler. looks like he's in line for two starts next week. So he gets the Padres and at the Cubs. What do you do if you have Bubba Chandler? Oh, easier to do it in Points League. There's a higher margin for error there, at least in the CBS scoring format.

And you like the volume. Roto League, category league. Really, Roto League is what I'd be worried about here because if he does have a couple blow-up whip start those are going to stick with you all season long. I'd probably lean toward doing it this early in the year. I kind of just take a what could go wrong attitude, which is how I end up starting Carlos Estevez in week one

and getting those six earned runs in a third of an inning in Tau Wars. But that's probably what I do. I invested big in Bubba Chandler. It is just one start. He still gave up no hits. Good strikeout rate. let's hope it gets better and enjoy the two starts. All right, let's take our final break.

When we return, we'll talk about some waiver wire hitters off to nice starts. Have they done anything to change our perception or anything? Probably not. Look, it's been a week or whatever, but they aren't off to great starts. We'll talk about those right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's talk about some hitters. Waiverwire hitters off to nice starts.

Owen Casey continues to perform well here, one for two with a walk, a run, two RBI. he is batting 400 early on and the strikeout rate only 22%. He's up to 63% rostered. Still think that number should be higher. Also should be behind DeLauder and Carson Benj, obviously. The strikeouts are the number to watch here for Owen Casey.

I want to see where that number trends, but man, if he could keep it in the like 20 to 25% range, I think that would be really, really encouraging for Owen Casey. Cam Smith, Scott, I wanted to ask you about him. He's doing some interesting things early on here. Two for three with a walk. his first home run of the season had two hard hits in this game

and entering this game he had the fifth best bat speed in all of baseball. He's walking early on he's got five walks to five strikeouts 43% rostered last year a top prospect that was arguably

maybe rushed to the majors here with the Houston Astros. What do you think early on here with what Cam Smith is doing? It's interesting even more than the bat speed increase. he started all five of their games, which I didn't necessarily see happening. So bat speed is one of those things.

I'm not sure how much to fixate on it still. More bat speed seems better than less. I like when players increase their bat speed, but I think the effect it has on exit velocity, like that

is the more important measurement. And so if it doesn't have a significant effect on it. I'm not that interested. Now, obviously, we don't have a lot of exit velocity data yet, so it may be a precursor to that, a guy hitting a ball harder consistently. And that's all we have to go with.

I mean, bat speed it's up. So we'll see if it impacts his production. Obviously, the home run he hit wasn't that impressive, less than 100 miles per hour, less than 300 feet. But, you know, we're assessing him. on a five-game sample here, and bat speed is, I think, over that small of a sample, something you can look at and say, hmm, this might be an encouraging sign. Ryan O'Hern is off to a great start here with the Pirates, one-for-three with a walk and a three-run

homer. The home run came off of a lefty, 103.105 exit velocity, 401 feet, and previous stops where Ryan O'Hern has played, he didn't always get the opportunity of play against lefties. He has started all five games so far for the Pirates. He has more walks than strikeouts early on. He's reinvented himself the past couple of years and obviously parlayed that into a solid little contract here with the Pirates this offseason.

41% rostered. I kind of think maybe that number should be higher, Scott. But there also have been a lot of interesting first baseman the first couple of weeks, right? Like Jake Berger has looked really good. Nolan Shanuels been doing some interesting things. T.J. Rumfield looks good. So how excited can I get you about Ryan O'Hern in the start?

I wasn't giving him much of a chance to be an everyday player. Maybe I missed the memo on that. But yeah, started all five games, including two against left-handers. So he does, for now, as long as the production warrants it, Ryan O'Hern looks to be an everyday player. And given the improvements he's made at the plate over the past few years, Could be a very good development. I will point out that, you know, Pirates Home Park,

it's not considered to be hitter friendly, but that's mostly for right-handed batterers. For left-handers, it's pretty good. So I think this could work out for Ryan O'Hern, and I would be looking to roster him over Luke Rayleigh at the very least, who's off to a hot star, but we know he's going to be a platoon bat. Yep.

I would guess over like T.J. Rumfield, too. I don't think the Rockies have faced a left-hander yet, so we don't know how they're going to handle Rumfield in that situation. But my presumption is he'll generally sit against lefties. Yeah, they haven't faced the left-hander yet. Burger, you know, it depends what you need. I think if it's a Categories league, you need power, burger is obviously a priority there.

But if it's a points league or you're looking at OPP, or something like that, then maybe lean O'Hern. Andres Jimenez is off to a nice start here. One for four with his second steal. He has a homer already as well. He's got the two steals. He's got two walks to two strikeouts. Dealt with a bunch of injuries last year.

But in 2024, he had a pretty typical Jimenez year. It was 252, nine homers, 30 steals. So I kind of look at him as a very similar player to Bryson Stott. And he's probably going to play more than Bryson Stott. I think he's just going to play every day because his defense is so good. So 37% rostered. I feel like there are probably some leagues where there are middle infielders, where you start a middle infielder where Andrus Hennandez might be available, Scott,

and might not be a bad play. Yeah, in theory, he could be Bryson Stott. I used to consider them basically the same player for fantasy purposes. but it's been a couple years since Jimenez was actually that. 2023 was the last year. It was that 15-home or 30 steel type. He also did in 2022. So it was back-to-back years there.

But it's been a little while since we've seen him do that. Maybe he gets back to that this year. He's only 20-70. He's going to be playing a lot, as you say. So if you're in the sort of league where you're like, man, I wish I'd draft to Bryson Stod, then I think you could look into Andrejord. Jimenez. I don't know that many people are in that sort of league.

Yeah, I think Bryce and Stott will have a little bit more kind of oomph to his value. You know, probably hit more home runs than Jimenez. But the counting stats could actually favor Jimenez a little bit just because of that playing time. So keep that in mind with him. Two corner infielders in deeper leagues. We mentioned T.J. Rumfield, three for four with three singles here on Tuesday night. He's hitting 444 early on. They haven't even played a game in Corr's field yet.

Jake Bowers, he's taking advantage of this. opportunity with Andrew Vaughn on the IL two for four with his second home run he also has two steals has a little bit of power and speed we saw that last year also was a really bad batting average last year but Scott who do you like more between those two

like a deeper corner infielder T.J. Rumfield or Jake Bauer's right now? Oh Rumfield I like Rumfield a lot I don't know if that's gotten overshadowed by the concerns I have for him you know obviously was not

considered a huge prospect, is old to be getting this chance, could turn out to be a quadruplea player, I think he's going to sit against most lefties. I like him, though. You know, it's one of those situations where I could see a lot of obstacles to prevent him from making an impact

in most fantasy leagues. But in theory, I hope they don't end up being obstacles. I hope he just gets to play a lot, and I hope he performs well. I see how that could happen. So between those two, Jake Bowers, who of course has been around a while, and I don't think he has a lot of runway here with the Brewers or Rumfield, who, you know, sky's the limit.

I would bet against him being an impactful fantasy player just because of all those obstacles, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. Last name here I wanted to mention in deeper leagues, if you need speed, Nassim Nunez. He is often running three for four with his. his third steal already. He had, I believe, two seasons in the miners with 50 plus steals, and then another one with 49.

So three seasons with 49 plus steals. I don't know if he could hit, but I know he could defend, and I know he could run. So those are two things there for Nunez. Again, deeper league play. But Scott, if you just specifically need speed, would you rather Nassim Nunez or Luis Anhele Cunia, who feels like a very similar player?

I think if you're in the kind of league where you think, man, really wish I drafted Jose Cabiero, then Nassim Nunez is for you. But I don't play in many leagues like that. You know, stolen bases aren't exactly a scarce commodity anymore. And you don't have to abandon all other categories to secure them in this way. I understand in a pinch, you may need to because the waiver wire. only has so much to offer, especially getting some of those roto leagues where so many hitters are rostered. But it's a concession. It's a major concession. Yeah. I have some less exciting waiver wire pitchers again. We spoke about a lot of the exciting ones earlier on here, but Max Scherzer,

a vintage start against the Rockies, six innings, one run, four strikeouts here. I didn't notice anything that looked overly different about Scherzer at this point in his career. Next week, the matchups, however. He is in line for two starts. Jekyll and Hyde matchups here, Scott. Dodgers and Twins. So what would you do there? If you picked up Scherzer for like this Rocky start. Yeah. What do you do with Dodgers and Twins? I probably hold on to him for it.

I hate the Jekyll and Hyde matchups like that. It's hard to know whether to call him a sleeper when I'm putting together that article for week three. But I probably will. It's, to me, the calculation usually ends up being as simple as, well, would I rather him get a second start, even if it's a bad against a tough lineup? Or would I rather him just be a one-star pitcher? And I think in most instances, you'd rather him get the second start and just hope it doesn't go disastrously in the tough matchup, which doesn't always. And then you, if, you know, even if it is not a great start, well, the twins one should be.

And so maybe it'll wash out and you end up getting more strikeouts than you would have gotten otherwise. You know, maybe he'll get an ugly win against the Dodgers. Maybe it'll be a pretty win against the Dodgers. Like they have, they have games where they don't hit very well. That happens to every team. So I think I would roll the dice on Scherzer. I think he's still a pretty good pitcher. I think obviously his age is catching up to him.

But I think a lot of the blemishes on his game log the past couple years were health-related. And I think he's as healthy as he's been the last few years right now. One name just to watch here. And look, it's kind of a hold your nose. Let's see. But Jansen Junk, that's right. That Jansen Junk. Four in a third innings, two runs, five strikeouts.

The line doesn't jump off the page to you, but velocity was up. His fastball was up 1.8 miles per hour, average 95.4 miles per hour on the pitch. I had 11 whiffs on 79 pitches. That's a 14% swinging strike rate. And I saw these, and I think they're really useful. These pitcher list stat cards that are out on Twitter now.

They usually come out 20 to 30 minutes after a pitcher gets, you know, pulled from a start. they gave him an A plus stuff grade for Jansen Junk in the start. So I don't think you need to do anything with it, but it's just a deep league named to watch. Let's see where it goes. That's Jansen Junk with the Miami Marlins. Scott, two steps forward, one step back for O'Neill Cruz.

Kind of like he's playing the outfield, you know, two steps forward, one step back, he loses the ball. He did that again here on Tuesday night. But offensively, three for three with a double dong, three runs and three RBI in this game had two hits off of a lefty including one of the home runs the homer off the lefty

11 exit velocity 444 feet so like the defense remains a problem but he sat out their first game against the lefty and then bounced back here and had a huge game so I thought that was actually really encouraging for O'Neil Cruz yeah strike it out 47% of the time so far

so that's not so that part not We know he can hit balls very hard, even as bad as he was last year. He's still clobbered the ball. So he's going to have games like this. I don't know. I don't know that I've seen anything that would relieve my concerns about him. Him hitting two balls very hard and they just sail over the fence. Yeah.

Against the lefty, though, I think is encouraging. Okay. That's one. Yeah. It's one. Yeah, that's all it is. It's one game for O'Neill Cruz. We had a bunch of aces on the mound on Tuesday night.

Not all of them were great. Three who were, Shohei Otani, the pitcher. A pretty great first outing here, six shutout innings, one hit three walks, six strikeouts for him. His velocity was down in this start.

Fastball was down 1.6 miles per hour. The curve down four miles per hour. The splitter down almost three miles per hour. per hour. But the curve was just different. It had like a completely different movement profile and overall the pitch looked really good for him. Max Friede, great outing at the Mariners. Seven shutout innings with six strikeouts and then Hunter Brown six innings, one run, eight strikeouts to two walks here against the Red Sox. Scott, any thoughts on those three who came through here? Otani the pitcher. Max Fried, Hunter Brown. Well, Otani and Freed, really Brown kind of too, but

especially Otani and Freed. I don't know that it's, I don't know that it's worth thinking into the data at all with them. Like they're, they're basically always good, and it usually looks a little different every time, but the results are pretty much always the same. And I used stardom without having a second thought.

Brown, you know, Brown's always, Hunter Brown's a little, a little difficult to, it's a little difficult to analyzing him because for as good of a pitcher as he is for as many strikeouts as he gets, he doesn't miss that many bats.

The swinging strike rate is always low. He actually had the same number of whiffs as strikeouts in this game eight. On only 78 pitches, so that's not a terrible swinging strike rate, but it's not a particularly good one either. This is kind of his MO, and I think he's to a point in his career,

Hunter Brown, where we can stop fixating on that too. Like we know he's great despite that. Now many pitchers are, but he's one of them. And he had a great start here against a good lineup, obviously. That's what he's supposed to do. He drafted him as your ace. He delivered.

Yeah. I've gone on this rant before, Scott, so I won't waste too much time on it. But, man, in leagues where Otani is just one player, it just kills my soul. That you just watch these starts and there's nothing that you get from them, right? because he's always, almost always, 99% of the time, in your lineup as a hitter. So you just don't get any of this pitching production. And it's just, man, I think he's going to be so good as a pitcher this year.

And it's just, I actually kind of, when it first came out that there were leagues where he was two different players. And this is kind of dumb. But I actually, I think I favor that now. I know it's an option on CBS with the commissioner product. But like, why not? Why not have two different Otanis where, or just. just one Otani where you get all of the production, but then that's just kind of like a cheat code for fantasy. But I kind of like the two player Otanis because it's like, why shouldn't we

reap the rewards of his pitching? Like, he's so good. You know, I don't always have a lot of input on the product side of things. You know, I'm here to produce content. That's my role. That's CBS. And so people who develop the product, they do their thing. I don't have a lot of input on that, usually. I did have input on how Otani was introduced to the player pool. And I fought hard to have a single Otani. You could put it either spot because they wanted to just do the two Otanis thing. I was like, no, this is a special player. We got to have special rules for him. It was a major programming hurdle. I have regrets. I have regrets because what I wish I had fought for now was neither one of those. I wish I had fought for one player that you could put in both spots, either or or both. And I don't know that there's the inertia to make that happen now. I don't think there is. I think we're stuck with it.

But I wish that's how it gone. You know, at the time, at the time, I don't think anybody, myself included, imagined he would be this good at both. And in fact, the consensus was you're more like. going to want to start him at pitcher than hitter. But obviously, things have played out differently. Yeah. And look, there are leagues where I believe he's this one player and you reap all the rewards, right? I know in daily lineup leagues, if you have just one Otani, all right, you put him in your lineup as a pitcher when he pitches. Every other time you put him in the

lineup as a hitter. And there are just leagues where he's one player and you get all of his production. In leagues like that, I mean, he is so far and ahead than the top player because of how good he is at both, that I think in leagues like that, you probably need to do a third round reversal, just because he gives you such a leg up on the competition. So that's discussion for another day, but yeah, that's my mini Otani rant there. Three aces who didn't really come through here on Tuesday night. Jacob de Grom made his first start here, had the next soreness that he woke up with over the weekend. He was cruising until the fifth inning where things kind of fell apart. The final line, four and two thirds, three runs, seven strikeouts.

to zero walks. Logan Gilbert, kind of similar. He was two earned runs through five innings and then just fell apart in that sixth. Five and a third,

five runs allowed, six strikeouts to three walks. And Logan Webb, he struggled with the control here but did manage a quality start at the Padres, six innings, three runs,

four walks, five strikeouts. Anything, anything stood out for any of those three, Scott, Jacob de Grom, Logan Gilbert,

Logan Webb. Not really. and I know that's not a satisfying answer because they were all less than we wanted them to be but I didn't see anything beyond just oh look, Webb walked four guys oh look Gilbert walked three I didn't see a lot here to say

here's what happened to this guy I mean de Grom got a lot of whiffs on his slider he threw it a lot the velocity was up that doesn't explain why he had a bad start he gave up really hard contact I think it was just one of those days for all three of these guys. And unless it becomes a trend,

you shouldn't worry about it. Just keep running them out there. The one thing I noticed with DeGrom, because for the first time in, maybe ever or, I don't know, a decade, I have Jacob DeGrom in multiple leagues this year, so I was watching the start very closely. I felt like he was living in the zone too much, Scott.

He was throwing so many strikes. 71% of his pitches for strikes. His fastball had a zone. percentage of 86%. That is way too much in the zone. And his fastball had a 99.2 average exit velocity again. So I just felt like DeGrom

kind of lived too much in the zone in this one and that's kind of why you got to give up a lot of hard concepts. Former DeGrom could get away with that. I'm not sure he can anymore. His stuff is still good. It's just not otherworldly like he used to be. I did have a heads up here on Tanner Bybee because

during the game the stat cast data showed his fastball all kind of messed up. It showed that his fastball was down two miles per hour. The movement profile was all over the place. I was kind of concerned thinking, wow, all right, you know, first start after the shoulder injury, we could have a little problem here with Tanner Bybee,

but it turned out to be a stack cast classification issue. They were mixing his cutter and his four-seem fastball together. So I just looked at it now and they changed everything. And so overall, look, only four innings of work, but, you know, one run against the Dodgers, 74 pitches. Kind of a quick hook, but I think that makes sense coming back from the shoulder injury. So overall, I think okay outing here from a ton of cutters, 47% cutters. Yep, yep.

And remember he finished last year with a great three-star stretch. Part of that was emphasizing the cutter about 30% of the time, not 47. So I don't know, too much of a good thing. I think Tanner Bybee's still searching too. Yeah, no, I think that's totally. fair. Some hitting leftovers, Scott. Yordaun Alvarez. This man is locked in to start the season. Two for three with a walk and his third home run. He had two hard hits in this game. The homer, one 10.9 exit velocity. He's batting 381. He's got the three homers. He's got a steel.

So how about those legs, those knees working well for Alvarez. And he's got six walks to four strikeouts. So I was debating like an overreaction. Week one overreaction segment here, Scott. and Yurdon Alvarez would have led that segment. But I don't think it's an overreaction. I think he's finally healthy again. Sure seems that way. I hope it stays that way. We all do, especially Chris.

Corey Seeger now has multiple hits in three of five games. He hit his second home run. Shea Bengaliers, he's off to a great start, hit his fourth home run, which is tied for the league lead. Drake Baldwin, showing this power early on, his third home run of the season already, entering this game, his ground ball rate was still 54%. So I thought maybe, all right, launch angle change,

but still a good sign that is hitting for power early on here for Drake Baldwin. Jonathan Arranda, good news for you, Scott. He's off to a nice start as well. Second home run. He has started all five games for Tampa Bay, has hit second or third in each of them. John Carlos Stanton, two for four with two RBI. How about this?

Multiple hits in all five. five games, and I think I saw this correctly on the broadcast. That is just the fourth time that has been done in Yankees history. Multiple hits in each of their five games to start the season. I'm just impressed he started all five games. Yeah. I think he's going to play as long as he's healthy. It's just, he'll get a maintenance day here or there,

but I think he's just kind of like part of the everyday lineup. Sure seems that way. Yeah. Can't open a bag of chips, but he can't. the ball really hard still. Hey, the Giants, they're starting to hit a little bit. Nine runs on 16 hits. Willie Adamas has let off two games in a row

and perhaps has helped turn this around a little bit. Four for five with his first home run. Matt Chapman hit his first homer. Nice game for Jung Hu Lee, three for five with two doubles and three RBI. It's got this last one. The New York Mets multiverse. Pete Alonzo's first Orioles homer

came against Jacob de Grom in a game where Brandon Nimmo was playing left field for the Rangers. What a, or right field, rather. But what a weird thing to imagine like five or six years ago for the New York Mets. It's like Pete Alonzo, Homer's off the Grom in a game where Brandon Nimmo is playing for the Rangers. Who's that like Mets guy who's always screaming on social media? Oh, is that like the Frank the Tank guy?

Yeah, that guy. I wonder if he's screaming about this, turning all red-faced. Well, the Mets lost tonight. and I believe Richard Love Lady or Dickie Love Lady as he's called now gave up another run. Frank the Tank hates Dickie Love Lady so that's...

Does he really go by Dickie now? I think that's like his name on MLB.com. I could be wrong. I don't know if he has legally changed his name to that but it might be like how he's perceived in... No, it's Richard Love Lady. So forget everything I just said. but his nickname, Dickie Love Lady, there you go.

Call to the bullpen here for the Phillies. Yoan Duran got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He allowed a hit, but struck out two for his second save. For the Pirates, Dennis Santana entered in the eighth inning with a runner-on-first, no-outs, and it was a, I believe, a three-run lead at the time. Or a one-run lead at the time. No, what was it? No, I think it was a three-run lead at the time.

allowed a single, got the next three outs, the Pirates attacked on two more runs. Gregory Soto came on to close out the ninth inning. I'm getting a little nervous here, Scott, about Dennis Santana. I mean, look, there will be games where the biggest spot of the game is in the ninth inning. But one like this, he comes in in the eighth. Like, if it remained a safe opportunity, Gregory Soto would have just got the safe chance instead of Dennis Santana.

Don't love that. Yeah, I think it's fair to be a little nervous. but only a little. But it's fair. It's fair to be a little nervous. I mean, this is something Don Kelly talked about at the end of spring training. Soto has some closing experience.

I don't know why he keeps getting closing experience. I don't think he's that good. He throws hard. He doesn't know where it's going. Yeah. But, you know, so maybe this will all work itself out. I would still think Dennis Santan

is the reliever to have. in Pittsburgh, but it's a little worrisome, I'm sure. For the Rangers, Robert Garcia got the eighth inning with a four-run lead. He was facing the heart of the Orioles lineup. He threw a clean inning. Then Chris Martin got the ninth with a five-run lead. He gave up two runs on two hits, but he closed it out.

I think they're going to continue to mix and match, but Martin hasn't looked great so far. Garcia has looked better, so I think I would still rank Garcia at the top there with Chris Martin, the number two in Texas. For the athletics, they had a three-run lead up against the Braves heading into the sixth inning. They used Hogan Harris in the sixth, Justin Sterner in the seventh,

Scott Barlow in the eighth, Mark Leiter Jr. in the ninth, who allowed two hits, but struck out one for his first save. Scott, do you have any Deep League saves interest in Mark Lighter, Jr? Deep League, sure. He looks like the front runner

because he got a save. It's a mess. There are so many relievers who I think are in the middle. and none of them are particularly good. But now lighter immediately leaps to the front of the packing order, I would say, just by virtue of being used as closer in this instance. Do I think he has a firm grip on the roll?

No. Even if he did, would I be confident he'd hold on to it? No. But he got the save. And that's more than we can save for any other athletics reliever. For the Cardinals in a safe situation here, Ryan Stan, Stan, pitched in the seventh inning, Jojo Romero in the eighth. Riley O'Brien got the ninth, and he pitched a clean inning for his first save.

I feel like we've remained consistent with this guy. It's going to be messy at times for the Cardinals, but I still think Riley O'Brien is the name to roster here. Yeah, I think we've come full circle. I mean, they ended last season after trading Ryan Helsley away. O'Brien and Jojo Romero, I believe they got an equal number of saves, but O'Brien was the one trending toward it at the end of the season. And so he was the favorite coming in. I know Matt Svanson got a lot of attention in spring training.

There was that report that he would be part of the closing committee, not that he was the closer, but he'd be part of the committee. And by the end of draft season, I was seeing Svanson taking the highest of Cardinals relievers. I didn't get him anywhere. I did get Riley O'Brien in a few places. And I think we're kind of back to where we started, where O'Brien is clearly the Cardinals reliever to own. in part because Fonson just hasn't looked that good.

Yeah. For the Angels, Drew Pomeran's got the eighth inning with a two-run lead. He recorded the next four outs. He started the ninth inning because Pete Crow Armstrong was leading off. Then it was Jordan Romano who came on for the final two outs. He walked one but picked up his second save of the season. So it feels like Romano is just the guy. I mean, for now.

Can he keep the wheels turning correctly in the right direction? That is. And what happens when Kirby Yates comes back? That's a big question. But I do believe that if Romano, Romano doesn't do anything to lose the job, Scott, they probably just stick with him, but that's not 100%.

I would prefer Riley O'Brien to Romano myself, I think. And I would also prefer this next guy to both O'Brien and Romano. That is Paul Sewell of the D-Backs, who got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He struck out the side for his second save, his second in as many days. velocity down here

a little bit over a mile per hour on both his fastball and his sweeper I believe I had you rank yesterday Scott Ursaig Seawald and Romano and I think you had them in that order right it was Erseg Seewald Romano yeah and I think I'd still put them in that order

let's put O'Brien Riley O'Brien fourth in that order let me see here so I I had noticed that Seawald's velocity had been up. It wasn't his first appearance. It was in spring.

It was more like it was in 2023 when he got 34 saves. And so that was part of the reason for my optimism. The fact it was back down a little in this, you know, that's compared to that first appearance, right? Not compared to last year. Yep, yep. So I. It was him pitching on back-to-back days.

Yeah. And a third game in four days. So like maybe just a little bit of fatigue early on. Yeah, I still think there's a lot of reason to be encouraged here, and he does seem to be the guy in Arizona until he blows it. Hopefully he doesn't. Yeah. Would you, and this is for chalower category leagues,

because I'm getting a lot of questions about Dennis Santana already. Would you drop Santana for any of those names for a Seawald, an Erseg, a Romano? I don't think I would. Because we're presuming Erseg, it will have it all to himself. now, that's assuming Carlos Estevez doesn't magically find it again. I say magically, but like it could be a simple mechanical fix, right? So that's a possibility. Matt Strom could interfere with him.

We saw, what's that guy's name? Former Red Sox reliever he got a save the other day for the world. John Schreiber. We saw John Schreiber get a save. Strom and Lucas Urseg weren't available in that game. And so we presume that's the only reason why. but, you know, Matt Quattraro's out of the Rays organization. So, like, he knows how bullpen committees work if he wanted to go that route.

And so all of that is to say that none of those guys are slam dunks. Dennis Santana, I think, is the most proven. Not that he's super safe either, but, yeah, I think I'd still prefer to hold on to him over those others. To stream or not to stream, On Wednesday, we have Severino at the Braves, Kate Cavali at the Phillies, Matthew Libertor against the Mets, Mike Burroughs against the Red Sox,

and Adrian Houser at the Padres. I don't love this slate. Yeah. I think the only one I could muster any enthusiasm for is Burroughs, and of course I'd like it to be a much better matchup than the Red Sox. Agreed. And this first start didn't go well, so it's not like I'm eager to do it,

but he's the only one who I could stomach. I would not want to start any of these three, but if you need streamers this early in the season, I would go Burroughs, Hauser, and then Liberator. On Thursday, only a four-game slate. So we are going to have some fun on Thursday night, Scott. How about that? We've got Taj Bradley at the Royals,

Sean Burke against the Blue Jays, David Peterson at the Giants. And then a couple of TBD, so I don't know yet. I'd be okay with Bradley if you had to stream somebody at Kansas City. Seems like that could go okay. It could give you a nice strikeout total at least. But again, it's not like you have to do this. If you'd rather just play it safe, I totally get it.

All right, let's wrap there. For Scott, I am Frank, thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.