Fantasy Baseball Today - Woodruff's Return, Buy-High Candidates & Player Debates (6/29 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 29, 2022

Tarik Skubal seems to be fading (1:03). ... Framber Valdez or Luis Castillo (12:10)? ... Brandon Woodruff was awesome in his return (14:10). ... Let's fire up the Worry-O-Meter for Carlos Carrasco and Carlos Rodon (20:22). ... Should you buy-high on Marcus Semien and Alex Bregman (24:55)? ... News and notes (39:34): Fernando Tatis is feeling better! ... Frankie Montas or Robbie Ray (44:50)? Charlie Blackmon or Cody Bellinger? ... What's the deal with Zach Plesac, Jose Quintana and Dean Kremer (48:52)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (56:05). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott and Chris. Brandon Woodruff, my man, we will definitely take that start in your return. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, June 29th.

Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. We didn't plan all wearing blue purple shirts, but it looks pretty good. I got to say on YouTube right now. Anyway, today on the show, by high candidates. We've got player debates, the Wuriometer, Worryometer Wednesday, and much more. But let's jump in. Oh my goodness gracious. Oh my goodness gracious.

Who would we like to start with? We will go with Scott. All right. I think we need to have a little talk about Terrick Scoobel. because Terrick Scuba was bad on Tuesday, bad for the fourth start in a row. Frank, how many earned runs is he giving up in those four starts? 18. 18.

A lot of earned runs. Here's something else I noticed about those four starts for Terrick Scubal. Well, the line, you know, just to put it out there, the line on Tuesday at San Francisco, three earn runs and four and two-thirds innings with four walks and five strikeouts. So here's what else I've noticed about Scoobel in those four starts. He's given up three home runs and 11 walks in four starts. That's compared to in his first 11 starts, three home runs and 10 walks. So those two stats, basically the same total in these four starts that he struggled

versus the first 11 starts when he was awesome. And so I think, you know, I don't know specifically what he's doing. But a lot of this feels like aggression, regression, because his home run rate and walk rate in those first 11 starts was just such an outlier, that there's no way any pitcher, you know, he's not Greg Maddox. He's not going to be able to sustain that over the course of the full season. I will note that even with some home run and walk regression that he's seen here recently, all his ERA estimators are still excellent. the ex-fip, the X-FIP, the X-E-R-A, so the quality of contact has been strong. The whiffs have continued even during this rough patch for Tarek Scoubles. So I'm chalking it up as just a rough patch.

I know he wasn't the most decisive breakout early on. We had some doubts about him, but I'm not ready to pull the plug on him after these four starts. I think if somebody in your league is freaking out about it, it might be a good opportunity to buy. 18 earned runs over those last four starts, which we both mentioned, Scott, 8.95 ERA. Chris, Wuriometer, on Terrick Scoobel, 1 to 10. What do you have? I would say a 5. I mean, I'm looking under the hood at some of the pitch level data.

And the biggest thing so far is his slider has just been really bad in the month of June. He hasn't gotten whiffs on it all year, actually. His highest whiff rate in a month so far with the slider was 25% in May, which is pretty mediocre for a slider. This month is down to 22.9. That was before today's start with a 418 expected Wobah allowed. And that's really bad for a secondary pitch. You'll see guys with fastballs in that range, even relatively good pitchers.

But Scoobo having a fastball or a slider that's getting hit that hard is pretty concerning, especially because it was a good pitch for him last season. You know, that was kind of one of the things that he did have going for him amidst all of the, the changes that he made throughout the season. The slider was pretty constant. And so far, it hasn't been that, especially of late. And, you know, I don't know if that's the kind of thing that you can expect him to figure out or what, but that seems to be the biggest problem as well as his fastball is just getting hit really hard in the month of June as well. And that was a really big issue for him last season.

I remember one of the arguments against him was he had basically, you know, some of the worst quality of contact metrics for any starting pitcher. And all of a sudden, you know, he's up to a 384 expected Wobon contact for the season. That's still a lot better than 455 from last season, but still, you know, starting to creep up. 41% hard contact rate. and like Scott said when the control is good you know he can get away with that I think it's fair to assume that Terek Scoobble is probably always going to be

you know someone who gives up some loud contact that just seems to be baked into his profile at this point but he does have a very low XERA this year yeah 325 compared to 363 coming into today and actually only had three hard hit balls today so that wasn't the issue but yeah that you know it could just be one of of those things where the margin for error is relatively slim. You know, if the if the slider, which is, you know, arguably his primary pitch at this point

is, you know, not working for him. We know his fastball is, you know, he throws pretty hard, but it's not a great pitch. So that could just be one of those things where he just could just be a relatively frustrating, inconsistent pitcher a la maybe a left-handed Jose Barrios where he goes through some stretches like that. He has, you know, the difference there. would be Jose Bruez has three pitches where Terrick Scouble has like nine that he's thrown at the major league level. I don't know how many of them are actually good. And right now

he's got kind of, he's kind of settled on like four or five pitches that he throws. But yeah, he, um, I don't know, he's, he's definitely not right right now. All right. Just give me yes or no here, Chris. Buy low or no thanks, bro. Terik Scoobble. I'd be okay with buying low. That, all that being said. All right. Fair enough. Oh my goodness gracious stand out for you from Tuesday. Luis Castillo had himself a very, very good game. I think it was 23 swings and misses in this one. Most among any pitcher today.

Let's see, six shutout innings, 11 strikeouts, three walks. Cubs aren't a tough matchup exactly, but 19 swings and misses with his four-seem fastball. Didn't really even need to use the change-up all that much today. and I actually didn't get any whiffs with the changeup. I wonder how many times that's happened in his career. But he didn't need it. And, you know, the strikeouts haven't been there so far for Luis Castillo,

at least coming into this start. So this was a good sign. You know, I've been pretty confident that he was going to be a good pitcher moving forward, but this definitely makes me feel more confident. So frustrating for Luis Castillo. You might remember about a month ago, we talked about this awesome start that he had against. the Red Sox, where he threw his four-seem fastball much more than he had all season long.

And we were like, maybe this is the key to Luis Castillo. Don't throw that sinker as much because it really isn't a good pitch for him and throw that four-seem fastball more. And lo and behold, this start against the Cubs, he does the same thing. He uses the fastball 46%. There's been two starts where he threw his four-seam over 45%. And those are his only two-double-digit strikeout starts of the season. I don't know if it's maybe just a feel thing.

There are some games where he just doesn't have the feel for that foreseen, but it seems like that is the recipe for success when it comes to. I mean, I don't know that he has the same comfort level with it, since it's not a pitch he's leaned on so much in the past. But, I mean, 19 whiffs on any fastball for anyone is just an, that's an insane number. And if Luis Castillo can have a swing and miss fastball to pair with that bananas change-up,

as Chris pointed out, he hardly threw the change-up. 18 times no whiffs on the pitch that's supposed to be Luis Castillo's everything. And he still has a 23 whiff game with 11 strikeouts. I mean, if you compare a swing and miss fastball with that changeup, then he's going to unlock a new rung on the upside ladder. If you'll excuse the mixed metaphor, then unlock it. The one thing I will say is the four seamer has been a pitch that has gotten hit really hard throughout his career.

You know, like I said, with Scoobel, you'll see pitches in like the 400 X Woba range. That's usually where Luis Castillo's four-seem fastball sits. It does get a lot of whiffs. 30% last year, 37% in 2020. But, you know, I can see why he goes away from it from time to time. You know, he seems to throw it more against lefties than righties. So it could be a matchups thing as well. But yeah, it's interesting.

because generally speaking, I think more pitchers, I think most pitchers are better off throwing four seamers than sinkers. Yeah. At least in terms of, you know, if you're looking for whiffs. But, but Castillo does get a lot of ground balls as well.

So, you know, there's a trade-off there. Well, and, you know, to speak to that very specific, that exact trade-off, look at Robbie Ray. Robbie Ray had another great start here on Tuesday, one hit aloud and seven shutout innings against the Oriole

struck out eight walk three. He continued to emphasize that sinker that he kind of just broke out here in the month of June. He said it helps him keep his walks down. I don't know that that's necessarily proven true,

but it has made him less vulnerable on contact. His ground ball rate is way up in the month of June. He's had been a very successful month for him four awesome starts in a row. The strikeout rate is down relative to what it was in May, but the overall results are better.

And I don't think the strikeout rate is enough to worry about, because it's still, even this reduced strikeout rate, this reduced swinging strike rate in June would still be elite, even if it's not the best we've ever seen from Robbie Ray. And so that may be a worthy tradeoff for him, limiting some of the damage on contact while also limiting some whiffs because this stuff is so good that he's getting enough whiffs anyway.

So maybe that'll prove true with Luis Castillo too, but I think generally speaking, I'd rather have the whiffs than the soft contact. I mean, that's kind of just common sense. I wonder if it's a home roads thing. Is both of those? No, with Castillo. Both those starts where he threw the foreseen fastball a bunch

were on the road, at Boston, at Chicago. Not necessarily great pitchers parks, but with the aforementioned lefty-righty splits thing, you know, it could be, there could be some explanation there, but it's something to keep an eye on with Castillo just because of how good he's looked in those two starts.

That's interesting too, because it would make sense to try and induce more ground balls pitching in Cincinnati because obviously it's a much smaller ballpark. Right, but it might be even better to just, get a bunch of strikeouts. Yeah. Yeah. I think we all want the strikeouts for Castillo,

which for the most part, they haven't been there this season. So it was nice to see here on Tuesday. I was going to save this for later, one of our player debates, but Castillo versus Framber Valdez, it seems like pretty similar pitchers right now. Valdez doesn't get as many strikeouts, obviously,

but he has been so efficient. 12 straight quality starts. He was at the Mets on Tuesday, eight shutout innings, six hits, two walks, five strikeouts. and he lowers his ERA to 2.65 for the season. He's got a 67% ground ball rate.

There's some tradeoff here. Strikeouts for, I guess, better ratios, or at least that's what it's been so far this season. Well, the biggest tradeoff is one place for the Reds and one place for the Astros. So the biggest tradeoff is wins, which is, I would say, the most valuable pitching statistic. Scott, who would you rather have, Valdez or Cassio?

You know, I generally side with upside, and I do think Castillo has more upside and I'm stalling because I want to see how I have them ranked and I do have Castillo ahead of Framber Valdez but I may be inclined to change that based on what I just said particularly when we're already in the throws here of 2022 and we know one of those teams is really bad and one of those teams is really good and we're not guessing at it at the start of the year

so I'm going to say Valdez Scott I think you've got a I think you got to bump Valdez up a little bit. At least in your head-to-head points rankings. I've got them at 24 and you've got them at 43. Not that my rankings are like gospel or anything. It's that 30 to 60 range at starting pitcher. I mean, you could ask me on one day and I'll say one thing and on another day I'll say another thing.

It's frustrating. The Glob. Chris, who would you rather have Valdez or Castillo? I would rather have Valdez, actually. I think it's closer in Rodo, but. Valdez's in points for sure. Yeah, and you know, look, Valdez has done a better job with the whip this season, which has been an issue for him in the past.

So you do love to see that level of efficiency, obviously pitching for the Houston Astros. Oh my goodness gracious, for me, I've got Brandon Woodruff, man. In this return, it was just a fantastic start, returned with his second double-digit strikeout effort of the season. He only lasted five innings. They limited him to 76 pitches, but he had 10 strikeouts to zero walks, 17 swinging strikes in this start. You think he was fired up.

His fastball velocity was up nearly two miles per hour on both the four seam and the sinker. 39% CSW overall. Just one hard hit allowed. It was a great start for Woodruff, who, you know, we still kind of had some lingering injury concerns in the back of our minds. Renaud's syndrome. What is that? Yeah. What is that?

He's losing feeling in his fingers. That's a problem. You're a pitcher. Your whole life's your fingers. Yeah, it's pretty scary for Brandon Woodruff. But Scott, what do you think? Would you try to buy high on Woodruff after the start? Because if he is right, if he could return, you know.

He could be a top five starting pitcher rest of the season. He was actually the one who made me say, oh, my goodness gracious, coming off the IEL and just blowing, blowing everybody away. the rays I had to look at who yeah blowing the rays away 17 whiffs on 76 pitches the fastball

both versions of the fastball about two miles per hour and that's above like his career norm too it's not like his velocity was lacking so much when he was struggling

earlier this season so I think he was really fired up more than anything else and I don't know that he can an average fastball velocity of 97 plus. But this is the best he's looked all season.

And after a stint to take care of a health issue, I think that's a very encouraging sign. Chris, two questions. Would you look to buy high on Woodruff after this start? And where do you foresee moving him in your starting pitcher ranks now that he's returned? Yeah, I was just looking at that. And I think probably to number nine. I had him at 16 before.

Once he came on, once we knew he was coming off the aisle, I moved him up to 16. Obviously, we have the long-term concerns, although we were kind of extrapolating the Raynod syndrome thing to, you know, potentially concerning about, you know, having some concerns about,

like, thoracic outlet syndrome, is that those two things have been related. Renaud syndrome has been a leading indicator of thoracic outlet syndrome in the past for a lot of pitchers. So, you know, that concern is still there. But like,

that's not why he was on the IL initially. So it's possible that this was just a, a one-off thing that won't be an issue moving forward, in which case, yeah, I do think Brandon Woodruff are going to be one of the best pitchers in fantasy. So moving up to number nine. All right.

I think there's kind of a little gap between Sandy Oliver. Conter at eight and Shoahe Otani slash Aronola at 10 and 11. So to be clear, you'd rather have Woodruff than Max Friede or Shane Feeder. So it's not, yeah, it's not I'm not down on those guys necessarily. But yeah, I would I had Woodruff higher than them coming into the season. I'm not too concerned about the way he pitched early on. So it's really just the concern about the injury and after seeing him like this, I'm not really that concerned. I'll go 15 on Woodruff. I want to behind those guys. I want to behind, I think I'm going to move Robbie Ray up ahead of him with the improvements we've seen from him. And I think there's a drop

off there when you go from that tier to like the Pablo Lopez, Clayton Kirschaw tier. So I'll put Woodruff right there. I think I'm going to wind up somewhere between. I'm looking at like SP 13 just ahead of Manoa and Montas and Severino. But behind names like Gosman and Max Fried and Nola, who for the most part, have been really, really good all season long. An honorable mention here, oh my goodness gracious, for Patrick Corbyn. What, where, how, vintage performance against the Pirates,

eight innings of one-run ball, 12 strikeouts. He had 19 swinging strikes. his most strikeouts in a start since June 22nd of 2018. I don't think there's anything here, but what do you guys think? I don't think so, either. There's nothing here. Yeah, we'll see what his next start looks like. Maybe it'll start to look like something there.

But no, I'm going to treat this as a one-off for Corbyn right now. And there actually may be more to see from his opponent in that game, Jose Kentana, who had his second straight six-inning start with, six strikeouts, the whiffs have been up in both of them. It's not the first time we've brought Kintana up as a potential fantasy asset again. Remember he was for the first several years of his career. He's the reason the White Sox have, Aloi Jimenez. And I think somebody else notable, too.

Cease. They have Cease and Aloi Jimenez. Yeah. Because that's who, that's what Jose Cantana fetched back in the day. Anyway, yeah. Yeah, Kentana fell off right when the juice ball era started. And if we're thinking we're kind of in a new era now where that's, there's not as much damage being done on contact.

It might allow him to have a little bit of a rebirth. If he can go deep enough into games consistently. His swinging strike rate this year is actually pretty impressive. So I think Kentana, not rushing to Adam. He's on the pirates, of course. But there may be something there. 23% rostered is Jose Cantana. gets him a little bit later on,

pitting him up against some other waiver wire pitchers who were out and about on Tuesday. Let's fire up this Wariometer. We talked about Terek Skubel, a lot of pitching early on here. So don't worry, we'll get to some hitters later, but there was a lot of interesting pitchers on Tuesday. Carlos Carrasco, hit hard once again.

He gave up six earned runs over four and a third. His last two have been against the Astros, and he's really, really gotten hit hard in both of those. His last nine starts overall, 6.20 ERA, yet everything looks pretty good for Carrasco under the hood. It's very weird. Chris, what do you think?

Wuriometer on Carasco. I think you have to be like a seven. It's possible that we're witnessing. I mean, Carlos Carrasco is, I think, much older than most people really. He's 35. You know, because he had a lot of injuries and it was kind of a late bloomer. So I do think you have to be concerned that he's just kind of falling off. You know, the strikeout rate is kind of pedestrian now, 23%.

On the other hand, you know, most of the bad stuff that has happened to him this season has been against the Astros. That's a really tough matchup, especially. Right now where Jordan Alvarez especially looks like the best hitter in baseball, potentially. But, you know, before that, he had a pretty good four-star stretch to open June. So I don't want to overreact too much. He's not inside my top 40 anymore. He was before this. It's harder to justify that now.

So, yeah. Scott, are you still looking to hold Carlos Carrasco? He's 94% rostered, but again, an ERA over six over his last nine starts. My faith is shaken. I was pretty high on him coming into the year. And at first, that looked like a good call. And, you know, I'm sure anybody who listens regularly would not. will know that among my favorite stats for pitchers are swinging strike rate and

ex-fip and those both still look good for Carlos Carrasco. They both look a lot better than his ERA does. So just if I abide by my usual process, then I should still have faith in Carlos Carrasco. But given all the physical issues he's had, including this year, I'm not feeling great about him anymore. He's a top 60 pitcher for me, so just by, virtue of that, you probably should hang on to him. But it's not, you know, if it's a shallow league and you're looking to pick up somebody else interesting, I want to have a problem with that.

Would you drop him for say John Gray if he was available? I would. Yeah, I'm really excited about what John Gray's been doing. All right. We will get to him in just a little bit as well. Last one on the Wuriometer. Carlos Rodan makes it four straight quality starts. Kind of weird to put him in this conversation because for the most part, he pitched well, six innings, one run, four strikeouts. However, the fastball velocity down 2.5 miles per hour in this one. Swinging strikes were down. The fastball velocity 93.7 miles per hour.

I would venture to say that is a season low. And I noticed his fastball velocity had been down a bit in its previous two starts as well. Scott, what do you think? Worryometer on Carlos Rodon. One. I went through my worried phase with Carlos Rodon earlier this year. his velocity can fluctuate at times but obviously he came back with a vengeance

after that stretch of multiple starts where the strikeouts and whiffs were way down and so I'm not gonna I'm not gonna panic this time around all right Chris even knowing you know the history with the shoulder and last year how Rodon's velocity really tailed off

towards the end of the season what do you make of this wariometer frame yeah I mean he's probably made about as many starts as he did last season, right? What do he, what do you end up with like 20 starts last year? Uh, 24. So, you know, about 60% of the way there, but, you know, he's probably not far from this point when his velocity started to fall. So it's, I can't say I'm not concerned at all. It's probably like a two. If he, if we get some ominous quote after the game, maybe it'll be higher, but barring a reason for his velocity having been down, I can't be too concerned, especially since

he still pitched effectively. And it's not like, like there's been a little bit of a trend downward, but not like this. His velocity was 95.2 in his previous start. It was 93.7. So that's a big difference. All right.

Something to watch there with Carlos Rodon. By high candidates. I mentioned Woodruff earlier. Let's talk about a hitter. Finally, Marcus Semyon went three for four with a double and his eighth home run. He added three runs and four RBI on Tuesday.

Since May 1st, 51 games, 261 batting average, eight homers, 10 steals. That is a 24 homer, 30 steel pace over 150 games for Marcus Semyon.

Scott, I would imagine it will take a decent amount to get him, but what do you think about buying high on Semen the way he's played over the past two months?

I guess that's fine. I, like, he's still a top 10 second basement shortstop for me rest of season. So if you want to buy him is that, I'm going to be okay

with it. I still have questions about how he's going to play in this environment, an environment that seems to be improving for hitters pretty dramatically, but still is down from what we've seen in recent years. So, you know, I would proceed with caution on Simeon, but it does look like he's going to be, my guess is he's going to remain a must-start type of player going forward. All right, fair enough. Chris, I'm going to give you a different hitter. Alex Brighman. He went three for five with an RBI. His last 18 games, he's coming around as well. 308 batting average, three homers, 15 run scored, more walks than strikeouts. And he's hitting the ball much harder. 91.6 mile per hour, average exit velocity. What do you think about this recent stretch for Alex

Bregman? Would you look to buy high? I mean, this is a rough position at third base. What do you think? Yeah, I think he probably is a buy for me because, you know, what you're seeing if you look under the hood is strikeout rate as good as ever, walk rate as good as ever, and the quality of contact metrics. I mean, we know that the expected stats this season aren't going to correlate as well to production as they have in the past, but he's underperforming his expected stats for the first time in his career. And that is because, you know, he's, he's always been someone who overperformed his expected stats, largely because he has a very pull-heavy fly ball-oriented swing. that is how you get the most out of middling raw power, which is what he has. Even in an era of,

you know, a de-juiced ball, I think Alex Bregman is probably someone who you can expect to at least hit to their expected stats, if not outperform them. And so I, I think he's probably going to keep, you know, continue to hit better. I think he's probably more like a 265, 270 hitter than the 241 hitter that he's been. So, yeah, I think. think Alex Breggman is definitely someone to buy. If you can flip Terrick Scuba, I know he obviously he's on the downturn a little bit, but you know, people will probably still look at the overall numbers. If you could turn Scouble into Bregman, is that something you would look to do, Chris? I would definitely do that. So that seems like a pretty obvious win.

Scott, do you think that's a fair trade? Do you think you need to give a better pitcher than that to get someone like Bregman? It seems like a buy-low trade for Bregman. Yeah, I agree with Chris, that Breggman has better days ahead. You know, if you have a stud third basement already, I don't know how motivated you are going to be to make that trade, but just from a pure value standpoint, Breggman's the more valuable player. All right, two.

I think Breggman versus Aeronado is a kind of interesting one at this point. They might be pretty similar players overall, tilted differently, but might, you know, it might be time to just move Bobby Witt ahead of Nolan Aronado in Roto and have Aronado and Breggman battling for the sixth spot. Aranado's had a nice bounce-back month, hasn't he? I feel like his numbers have... He's been better, yeah.

He hasn't been as good as he was early on. Right. I flirted with Witt ahead of him at one point, but I don't know. Aronado is still firmly ahead for me. Bregman, I think, could maybe catch up to him in points leagues because the play discipline is so good for Bregman, but even there, even there, I'm going to say Aronado. rest of season for now.

Aronado in June 301 batting average, five homers, 17 RBI, 856 OPS. It has been a very good bounce back. Compared to the May, which was, you know, he still had four homers,

but yeah, sub 200 batting average in that month for... Have you guys, because I've referenced it a couple times so I thought to look it up. The home run to fly ball rate league wide,

it was 10% in April. It was 11.4% in May, and here in June, it's 12.2%. That is a dramatic increase over the course of the season. 12.2% is still lower than what we're looking at during the juice ball era, but it's higher than pre-juice ball era. So, you know, so it's higher than like 2015 previously.

So it's still a pretty home-run-friendly environment. You know, that dramatic, and I don't think month-by-month, home-run to fly ball rate specifically, changed that dramatically last year. So that might be the humidor effect that we've referred to. So you said what was it in June? 12.2. So that would be...

10 in April, 11.4 in May, 12.2 in June. So for a full season, that would be the lowest since 2015. Right. But it would be above every season before that, basically. So, yeah, I think that's... That feels like, I don't know, I don't want to get into it again, but it feels like a decent equilibrium has been reached in June. It just, you know, moving forward,

you might have to deal with awful April offensive numbers every year. If they keep this up. That would explain my roto teams that have flipped from pitching heavy to hitting heavy. And, you know, my default the past couple months has been to present, you know, sell high on pitchers to buy low on hitters. and now maybe we have to do the reverse again. Maybe we need to sell high on hitters and get some pitchers. I think it is worth remembering.

All your opponents are playing with the same league. So, you know, that doesn't necessarily explain why your hitters are. I mean, they're still have to perform relative to other hitters. Chris, we're on the same team, buddy. You're supposed to back me up. Okay. Sorry. Yes, thank you. That's exactly what I wanted to hear.

All right, two other pitchers I wanted to bring up as potential buy high candidates. Shane Boz turns in another quality start, not a quality start, solid start. He finishes one out away from quality. Five and two-thirds, one run, six strikeouts up against the Brewers, and John Gray, I mentioned earlier. Now, four solid starts in a row, seven innings of one-run ball, eight strikeouts, 78% rostered. You know, still actually could be available in your league as a waiver wire ad. Scott, what do you think about adding, not adding, buying high potentially on Shane, Baz and John Gray. Look, I don't know exactly what that means.

I mean, buying high is, I get that it's kind of cute phrasing, but, you know, obviously just from a, if we're taking it literally, it's always the wrong thing to do, right? Yeah, unless you think that these players are going to continue to perform well and... Don't be such a pedant, Scott. But then you're not really buying high. I don't mean, you know, I think John Gray may be having the breakout season

that a lot of us hoped he would coming out of Colorado. It took a while to get there because he's kind of had to rethink his entire arsenal now that he gets more movement on his pitches again and because he had some health issues early on that kept setting back his progress.

But last six starts now for John Gray, 239 ERA 101 whip, 10.5 K. per nine. And one of those six starts was pretty bad too, and he still managed to have those numbers. Strong swinging strike rate,

the slider especially, a pitch that is known to get flattened at Coors Field sometimes. The slider especially has been getting a lot of wifts lately for John Gray. And I'm pretty excited about it.

Somebody, interestingly enough, somebody in the podcast for the People League bought high John Gray from me for Kyle Wright. I hesitated. I hesitated. I think they're both part of that 30 to 60 glob

at starting pitcher that I referred to. I ended up taking the deal. I ended up taking Kyle Wright. But it may be a situation where he kind of sold high on Kyle Wright and bought high on John Gray, and it may work out for him. Fair enough. Chris, I did just want to ask quickly about Shane Bosz.

Look, the numbers haven't been eye-popping so far, but considering that he missed so much time early, I don't think he's going to be limited later on in the season, and that just seems very appealing to me. And I think he might have more upside than people like Jose Barrios or maybe even at Eric Scouble, right? So I kind of like the idea of buying Shane Bosn now before he really gets rolling.

What do you think? I mean, he's already rolling. Yeah. He's got 19 strikeouts to four walks. He's allowed two earn runs over his past three. Those are his stats over the past three starts. He basically had a bad start against the twins to open his season. And the three starts since then have been exactly as advertised.

I think he's an exceptionally talented pitcher. Everything that we've seen from him has been as advertised. The slider is absurdly good pitch, 47% whiff rate. So, yeah, I think Shane Baez, you mentioned Jose Brea, I've got Shane Boss at 44 entering this start in my roto rankings, Jose Brrios down at 30 or up at 37. I might just make that move. Yes.

I might just do that now. Yes. Because like I think Burrios is going to be better than he has been moving forward. I think that kind of goes without saying. But even the best version of Jose Barrios, I don't think is going to get the kind of swings and misses the Shane Boz can't. So I, you know, in a points league, I think Burrios probably has the edge just because if both are good, Brio's going to have just have a lot more volume, but I think Boss is just going to be awesome moving forward.

I mean, the thing, the biggest drawback to drafting Boss back before we knew he was going to miss the start of the season with injury was, okay, look at his inning's history in the minors. He's going to, the rays are going to have to be really careful with them. Yeah. But now he's missed a third of the season, so they're not going to have to be as careful with them. Yeah, but it's still, it's less, like he's, you know, not going to. throw 105 pitches in too many starts. I would guess, you know, probably not any starts. So I think you're probably going to have more. I mean, they've been more aggressive with Shane McClanahan than I thought they were going to be. So I don't know. Yeah. Have they been aggressive with him with pitches or

just is it like the one Blake Snell season where he was just so effective that he was pitching deep into games just because he was pitching so efficiently? That's the one I don't know. So, Yeah, only one start with 100 pitches for McLeanahan. Right. I mean, he's consistently over 90, but yeah, he has been very efficient. And for what, it's where it's Shane Boss through 95 pitches and this start. It's only his fourth start back, so, you know. You know, I don't think he's going to be 80 start pitches every start.

I think he's going to be between 90 and 100. I just, there are going to be more opportunities for Burrios to go push over 100 pitches than for boss. So if you're talking about a points league where, you know, that could be the difference between, a five innings start and a six innings start or a six in a seven inning start. I do think Bereas probably has the edge, but I would bet on BAUs having better ratios than

Barrios and more strikeouts the rest of the season. Definitely. Yes, yes, yes. All right, before we hit the break, just have a few reminders here. Sign up for our newsletter, if you haven't already. CBSports.com slash newsletters. You just click on the little FBT logo once you get there, punch in your email address,

and then you will get a newsletter in your inbox every morning for free. So why not? Sign up. And if you are playing fantasy football, make sure to sign up for the FFT newsletter as well. Chris does a great job with that. And Dan Schneier is the one most of the time handling our fantasy baseball newsletter.

A programming update. I will be out for this Friday, this Friday's podcast, Monday next week, and then Tuesday, I'm getting married. It's official. It's happening this weekend. So Chris and Scott will hold it down. On Friday, they'll have a normal preview

of the following week, and then they'll have a normal preview of the following week, and then they'll have a weekend recap on Monday and a mailbag, which will come out on Tuesday. Let's take a break. You know what that means. What up? We were invited to the wedding. Well, I'm going.

I'll be there. But it was kind of the last minute of things. You know, I didn't think you would travel to New York, Scott. I got to go. I wouldn't. That was going to be my follow up. I wouldn't have gone anyway. I was going to say, like, yeah, let's just end the podcast here.

Yeah, it's only like a 10 minute drive. for me. That became extra awkward. I was only looking for minimum awkward. That's fine. All right. Well, with that, let's take a break, and we will be back right after this.

The news and notes. Fernando Tatis came out happy from a doctor's appointment. I wish I was happy after every doctor's appointment. And it's expected to be swinging a bat at full speed within the next two weeks. We don't have an official timeline, but late July, early August,

sounds like it makes sense for Fernando Tatis. Ronald de Cunia has now, missed two straight after fouling a ball off his foot on Saturday. Mookie Betts will begin baseball activities Wednesday. He is on the IL with a fractured right rib. Max Scherzer now scheduled to make his next rehab start Wednesday at AA, which means he likely won't return to the Mets this weekend. Maybe he could be back early next week.

The big news from Tuesday, Kenley Jansen placed on the IL due to an irregular heartbeat, something that he has dealt with in the past. The Braves are optimistic that he'll be. be ready to return around the minimum amount of time. Doesn't necessarily mean the minimum, but hopefully close to it. And what do you know, the Braves get a save opportunity first game without him, and AJ Minter was the one who picked up the save. I will note that Will Smith pitched in four games last week,

including both on Saturday and Sunday. Scott, what do you think moving forward? Who gets the saves here, AJ Minter or Will Smith? Well, since it is hopefully a short-term absence for Janssen, I don't know that it matters that much. I would guess if they had a save chance tomorrow, it would go to Will Smith, because now AJ Minter's worked three of the past four.

So they have both been worked a lot recently, I guess Smith a little more. Mentor has actually been the Braves' best reliever this year, better than even Jansen, and had usurped Will Smith as the eighth inning guy. So I kind of wondered if, you know, since Will Smith kind of, after a perfect postseason, got bumped from the roll, so they could sign Jansen if Snitker would give him the first shot to close just out of loyalty.

But they'll probably split it. They'll probably split it for two weeks, and then Jansen will be back, and that'll be that. All right, Liam Hendricks is scheduled to throw a simulated game on Friday. Tyler O'Neill could begin a rehab assignment next Monday or Tuesday. He's on the IL with a hamstring injury. Jazz Chisholm was removed Tuesday after aggravating his back injury. He missed the previous two games with back spasms. This one's concerning.

There was a quote after the game. I think one of the reporters asked him like on a scale of 1 to 10, how it's the pain. And he was like, yeah, it's up there. So I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being an I else. Stent for Chisholm. Yeah, it would not surprise me either. And Jazz has kind of fallen back here in June.

So maybe he's been playing through it for a while. Jorge Polanco was activated for game two of Tuesday's doubleheader and promptly hit his eighth home run of the season. We can use it, so hopefully Jorge Polanco gets rolling. Michael Brantley went to the IL with right shoulder discomfort. Jake Myers started in center field with Chas McCormick in left. Scott, do you have any interest in Jake Myers in deeper leagues? I saw a few people touting him this weekend.

It was pretty interesting last year. when he emerged as the starting center fielder and had great numbers in the minors last year. So, yeah, I have him stashed away in a 15-team Roto League. I have him in the 2014-Scott White Dynasty League. I'm not counting on him being useful, but certainly in that lineup from a guy who's shown power and speed in the past, there's a chance.

There's a chance. And I'd like to see it play out if, if I have an extra spot for him. Tyler Glassnow through a bullpen session, his first since undergoing Tommy John surgery last August. Chris, are we expecting anything from Glass Now this season? I mean, I could see maybe he comes back in the bullpen, but I'd be pretty surprised if he was making an impact for fantasy

as a starter this year. Agreed. Zach Eflin was placed on the IL due to a bruise right knee, but is expecting a minimum stay. Zach Davies placed in the IL with right shoulder inflammation. Say, Suzuki. getting close to a rehab assignment. He's been on the IL since May 30th

with a sprained left index finger. Tommy FAM scratched due to lower back stiffness. Glauber Torres said he expects to return on Thursday. Austin Meadows transferred from the COVID-I.L. to the 10-day I.L. With strains in not one, but both of his Achilles. I don't even know how that happens. So I hope you are right, Austin Meadows,

but it seems like a kind of weird flukey injury. Nate Pearson, will be shut down for three to four weeks due to a strained right lat which, oh man, I traded for him. I think last year in the Scott White Dynasty League and man, that was a bad trade. Oh, man, I hope he does something eventually

but it's been a rough go. White Sox prospect, Lenin Sosa, was sent back to AAA by the White Sox. Mention earlier some player debates we did for Amber Valdez versus Luis Castillo. I wanted to bring up two pitchers who went on Tuesday Scott, you spoke about Robbie Ray, what he's been doing recently. Frankie Montas has been great all season long,

picked up his 10th quality start of the season. He was at the Yankees, six innings, two runs, seven strikeouts, and the ERA down to 3.20 for Frankie Montas. Scott, what do you think? With the recent improvements for Robbie Ray, upside might be a little bit higher. Where do you go, Ray or Montas? I go Ray.

I like Montas a lot. I like that he got back to throw in his splitter more in this start. hopefully he's regaining confidence in that. But he pitches for the A's, and his record is three and eight. You know, because of that, as well as he's pitched. I actually got offered him today in the original podcast league, the 12-team points league, where pitching is favored. It was a bunch of names in the deal, but the Duke two biggest pieces were Montas coming my way and Schwerber going the other way. I couldn't do it.

Couldn't pull the trigger. That is the format where record matters a little more because you lose points for losses in addition to not getting points for wins. So, you know, that's, I guess that impacts him a little more. Look, I have both these guys in my top 21. Montas is 19, Ray is 21.

So I think they're both awesome. But I'll go with Montas with a slight, slight edge. But it's effectively a tie. All right. How about two outfielders here? Charlie Blackman, this is kind of a floor versus ceiling debate, if you still think that Cody Bellinger has a ceiling. But Charlie Blackman went four for five with a double two-run scored on Tuesday.

In the month of June, he's been very good. 3-11 batting average, five homers, one steel. Not hitting the ball as hard, but the results have been there for Charlie Blackman. And then Cody Bellinger on the other side, he's hitting 21, he's got a sub-700 OPS, but he has nine homers, he has nine steals, still has a little bit of power, a little bit of speed. I just don't know that we're ever going to get back to the player he once was.

Chris, what do you think? Maybe the high floor versus the potential ceiling, Charlie Blackman versus Bellinger. I'll still take Bellinger, but man, it's rough. I don't really understand, like, the quality of contact for Bellinger's actually improved this season. 397 expected Wobah on contact. The problem is his Wobah is only 300,

because he's striking out 30% of the time, all of a sudden. Career high strikeout rate after even the bad 2020, his strikeout rate was very good. Last season, 27% was much worse. But this year, it's gotten even worse. And I'm not sure I understand why. Like, his chase rate is a little worse, but his whiff rate is a little better. I think better days are ahead for Cody Ballinger. I do view him as a buy low. and the fact that he's hitting the ball better gives me some hope. But man, it doesn't, I don't feel good about it. Scott, I was going to say it could be format dependent, go with Blackman in a points league, Bellinger in a Roto League, but looking more into it,

Blackman could be better in four out of five categories compared to Cody Bellinger. What do you think? Yeah. Look, if we were drafting for 2023, the season ended today, we're drafted for 2023. Give me Bellinger.

Give me the upside. But at this point in the season, I feel like I can plug in Blackman and feel pretty good about what I'm getting. While Bellinger, you know, it just feels, it's shooting for the moon. And I think I'd rather have Blackman at this point. I'm just not confident at all

in Bellinger's ability to turn it around. at least not mid-season. Fair enough. Let's rank a few waiver-wire pitchers. Zach Plessack makes it six quality starts in a row. One earned run or fewer in four of those starts. He had 17 swinging strikes on Tuesday against

the Minnesota Twins. He's 70% rostered. Jose Cantana, Scott, you mentioned, back-to-back quality starts. He was at the Nationals. Six innings, one run. 14 swinging strikes. He's 23% rostered. Ross Stripling has now allowed two earned runs or fewer in every start.

since rejoining the Blue Jays rotation. He is 62% rostered. And then Dean Kramer, I don't know what Dean Kramer is doing, but he's doing it. And really, all the Orioles pitchers, they've been pretty good. At the Mariners, seven shutout,

four hits, two walks, five strikeouts in this one. He's only 11% rostered. Scott, how do you rank these four? Plesack, Kintana, Ross Stripling, Dean Kramer. Uh, you may have just done it. That may be the ranking for me.

I don't love any of them I kind of made a case to keep an eye on Kentana Pliassac you know this stretch of quality starts has been I think what's really made me take a closer look at it is the last two he's thrown a lot more sliders

it's his best swing and miss pitch and they've been decent strikeout starts so maybe that's something Zach Plesack can build off of though I've obviously gotten burned by that in the past and I'm reluctant to dip my toe into those waters again so those are my favorite two stripling

stripling's been effective but and his ground ball rates up I I just got's too nice to say it so I'll say it these guys all stink none of them are in my top 80 starting pitchers none of them are likely to be anywhere close to my top 80 starting pitchers anytime soon.

I have almost no interest in any of them. Well, I want to say, I want to speak on Kramer specifically because the commenters have been talking about them all show. I think everything I said about Tyler Wells yesterday, another Orioles pitcher applies to Kramer, where there's nothing you can really point to in the stat line and say, okay, this is why this guy's succeeding,

doesn't miss a lot of bats. Fly ball rate is very high. You know, I think he's just to manage to avoid the line, long ball for now, but that's going to catch up up to him sooner than later, so I would steer clear of Kramer. Look, sometimes these things happen, and that's not to

say that like Kramer isn't decent. That's not to say that Zach Pleasack, like these guys are all talented, but to a certain extent, there's a bit of a random number generator aspect to

you know, major league baseball results. I know that's something that you say when you're a stat nerd and these guys are human and all that stuff. But like also sometimes these stretches just happen and guys pitch well and managed to get themselves out of tough spots with good pitches, but in ways that largely are not sustainable over the long run. I think that's the case with all of these guys where like Plizac can be decent at times, but he gets hit really, really hard and he doesn't get enough strikeouts to make up for it. So eventually it's going to catch up to him. I just,

I don't think there's much even in 15 team leagues I've got Pleasack and TGFBI and I've been starting him but I'm not happy about it you know I'm happy with the results so far but I think moving forward he's going to be more hurtful than helpful

Fair enough Scott Which pitcher do you dislike more for fantasy Sunny Gray or Zach Gallen Because man like trying to figure out either of those pitchers it is just not fun to do Gallin was going up against the Padres, no Manny Machado in the lineup. What does he do?

He gives up six runs over five innings pitched coming off of one of his best starts of the season when he had double-digit strikeouts. So I don't really know that there's anything to add. It's just Zach Allen's frustrating. It's the Spider-Man meme. Sunny Gray is my longtime nemesis as an analyst as an analyst. And I think, I think Zach Gallen is that for the new millennium. and I will say this about Zach Gallen. I traded him.

I unloaded him. That's unfair. I traded him in two dynasty type leagues this offseason. And nothing I have seen from him this year makes me regret that. I feel like if I have Sunny, if I have Zach Gallin,

I'm calling him Sunny Great Out. If I have Zach Gallin in a redraft league, I'm waiting for the next start like his previous one, that grade 11 strikeout effort, and I'm choosing to shop him right after he does that, because I just don't want him to be my headache anymore. All right, what about hitters off the waiver wire? Where to add any of these names, if anywhere.

Andrew McCutcheon, heating up over his last six games. He's got eight hits, three homers, only betting 248 overall. He's also got five seals, which is kind of interesting. 36% rostered. Chris, do you look to add, McCutcheon anywhere, maybe five outfielder leagues if you need one. Yeah, I mean, I actually kind of feel like there are, you know, not too many outfielders right now, but there have been enough

interesting outfielders getting called up, especially with Jared, Jared Duran and Riley Green and Alex Kirillov that I'd rather have any of those guys over McCutcheon. For sure. And that makes me think that McCutcheon's probably less of a priority in a five outfielder league, but he's okay. you know, he's fine to have a round. Are we watching the Elias Diaz comeback story? He went two for four with his fifth home run and over his last seven games,

he's batting 3.48. Three home runs during that span has started seven of the last nine games for the Rockies. Scott, two catcher leagues. Are you looking to re-ad Alias Diaz if he was dropped? I think he's fine for two catcher leagues

but I'm not really missing him either. All right. He's fine. Coming right back to you, Scott. Josh, H. Smith. If you're looking for Josh Smith of the Rangers on the CBS website, it's Josh H. Smith. He's now led off two games that he has, two games in a row that he has started, both against Ritees. I know you mentioned Scott something about a calf injury that he suffered in this game.

Bruised calf. Yep. But if he's leading off for this lineup, not that it's a great lineup, but hitting right in front of Semy and Seeger Adoli-Skarsia, that's kind of interesting. Yeah. Yeah, no, I brought that up on the Monday show. that that sounds like what they're looking to do with him. And you look at his minor league's track record, a guy walks a lot, steals a lot of bases. That sounds like things that managers like from a leadoff hitter. So it makes sense.

And Ezekiel Duran is out of the picture now. So provided this Bruce Calf doesn't put Josh Smith back on the IL, I think he is somebody who deserves more attention than he's getting. Hitting leftovers, Matt Olson had a double tongue on Tuesday. He is now up to 12 home runs and his launch angle is way up in the month of June. So earlier on, he was hitting too many ground balls. It seems like he has reversed course there, hopefully more power. He hears Braves fans pining for Freddie Freeman.

He needs to change the narrative. This Freddie Freeman story, it's just, it's getting more and more interesting, huh? Scott? I mean, your theories throughout the offseason, now it looks like Freddie Freeman is changing his representation. Well, I understand not everybody's followed the reporting as closely as I have, but like, yeah, I mean, this has been, this has been known for a while now. Like, Freddie Freeman has intimated in the past that he didn't, he didn't, he wasn't clear enough in expressing his desires to his agent. I haven't seen an exact quote, but that's been reported already. And so it was kind of like, well, what gives then?

why haven't you fired your agent? And now he has. And this was, of course, after a weekend back in Atlanta where he was crying every time he was on camera, basically. And it's downright rude to Matt Olson. Fraves trade for Matt Olson. All of a sudden, who even cares about Freddie Freeman? Matt Olson's better.

And all of a sudden, Freddie Freeman comes back and everyone's like, wow, he never should have left. Yeah. Matt Olson. He's hearing the Braves fans. Freddie he's he's heating up. Matt Olson feels like dad's second wife right now where like he's he's nice enough and you want to be nice to him.

Dad's second wife bought me a GameCube so there's something to be said for that. You know he's going to be around for a long haul so you want to make nice but at the same time no so that part not so much of who's not there so yeah it's a Matt Olson's not my real dad. He's not your second wife either. Anyway, your Don Alvarez went three for three with his 23rd home run. He's now batting 321. He is amazing.

Randy Rosarena went two for four with two more steals, now up to 15 steals overall. And since May 1st, he's hitting 283, seven homers, 12 steals. Rosarena, quite good. Tommy Edmund went two for four with a double and his 19th stolen base. Dylan Carlson, another strong game, went two for four, with a double, his fourth stolen base,

61% rostered. Not that I don't think anyone here wants to talk about Dylan Carlson anymore. I tried to bring him up yesterday, but it's probably not that interesting. Vinie Pasquantino went 0 for 4 in his debut, did have two batted balls over 98 miles per hour, zero strikeouts.

I like to see that. Jonathan India went two for five with his second home run, and maybe, just maybe. Corse Field can get Max Muncie back on track, who went two for four with a double and his sixth home run. Yeah, that home run was 102 miles per hour And the double was less than 100

So I don't know He occasionally has these games where he like Maybe this is the start of something But I still don't feel great about Max Muncie Yeah, I mean maybe he puts together a good series in Colorado And maybe you try to flip him for something That is Max Muncie The Call to the Bullpen for the Twins

Emilio Pagan is bad He entered in the eighth inning with a one-run lead, promptly gave up two runs, took his fifth blown save and third loss. I think we are getting dangerously close to Yohan Duran, just being used as a closer, or at least I hope so. For the Guardians, a manual Class A on the other side of that game, picked up his 18th save, his 11th in the month of June. For the nationals, Tanner Rainey, picked up his 11th save.

For the Yankees, Clay Holmes, gave up two hits and an unearned run, but picked up his 13th save of the season. Enjoy it while you can, Clay Holmes. I'm just kidding, kind of. For the Red Sox, they were up five to four, entering the ninth inning. Tyler Danish started the inning. He gave up a hit and a walk. He was relieved by Hansel Robles, who then gave up a game-tying RBI single to Bobichette,

and then a walk-off single to Vlad Jr. If only, they had Tanner Halk in this game. For the Brewers, Josh Hader struck out the side for his 23rd save. For the Cardinals, they were up 5 to 3. Gallegos used in the 8th. Ryan Helsley then picked up his 6th 6th. of the season. For the Reds, Hunter Shrickland gave up a hit but picked up his fourth save and has the last two saves for the Reds. He's 5% rostered. Yeah, this one's a tough one, man, because

Shriclin has pitched better as of late. I think in deeper leagues, if you need saves, you can look at him, but Scott, as we've mentioned, Alexis Diaz could be activated on Friday, so I don't know whether to act on this or not. I'm not the closer whisperer, so I'm not, I don't know who is, But I've been, my guess is right now in the latest bullpen report that, that was up on the site Tuesday, is I'd rather roster Alexis Diaz than Hunter Strickland, despite David Bell's suggestion that he's going to turn to Strickland more in the ninth inning. I just think the gap in production is too much to overcome.

And I don't know how long it'll take, but I think Alexis Diaz will eventually be the one getting the majority of those chances. For the Giants, Camilo Duval recorded the final four outs for his 12th save, and for the Mariners Paul Seawald pitched a clean ninth for his seventh save of the season. 39% rostered. If you need save, some strikeouts, Paul Seawald widely available. To stream or not to stream, let's start with Wednesday, Mitch Culler at the Nationals, Paolo Espino versus the Pirates, Zach Rankie versus the Rangers,

Dane Dunning at the Royals, Chris Flexen versus the Orioles, Dylan Bundy at the Guardians, Andre Palante versus the Marlins, and Justin Steele versus the Reds. Keller, I think, is number one. And then Dunning is probably number two. Flexen and Steel are okay, but I don't love them.

It sounds about right. None of them are that exciting. I'd probably go Dunning one, but whatever. All right. On Thursday, we have Chris Archer at the Guardians, Adrian Houser at the Pirates, J.T. Brewbaker versus the Brewers, Graham Ashcraft at the Cubs,

Kyle Hendricks versus the Reds, and Mitch White versus the Padres. Ashcraft is definitely my choice here. I had him in the 10 sleeper pitchers for this week after really strong effort his last time out, that 100-mile-per-hour cutter. I also, I could see Kyle Hendricks having a very good start in this one. Yeah, he's been better since rejoining the rotation.

I think Adrian Hauser, you know, whatever. He's the ultimate streamer, and this is the ring matchup to do it in. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.