Rates & Barrels - Taj Bradley Debut and Shortstop Replacements

Episode Date: April 14, 2023

DVR and Al assess the short- and long-term fantasy value of Taj Bradley and Edouard Julien, both of whom debuted this week, and they look at at the pool of free agent shortstops who could replace Corey Seager or other injured shortstops. They also look at other free agent hitters and pitchers to target in FAB. Rundown 1:22 Shortstop injury replacements 9:05 Edouard Julien and Taj Bradley debut 17:17 Rotations in flux: Diamondbacks, Guardians, Brewers 23:39 DVR makes a case for Brad Keller 29:54 Streamable pitchers to pursue 37:30 Hitters to target 44:06 Have these fantasy zombies come alive? 52:54 Who are we targeting for saves? Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper Follow Al on Twitter: @almelchiorBB e-mail: [e-mail] Subscribe to The Athletic at $1/month for the first year: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Subscribe to the Rates & Barrels YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RatesBarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It is Friday, April 14th. Derek Van Ryper here at Al Melchior. On this episode, we dig into a rash of injuries around the league and the fallout that will lead us to be on the waiver wire in a very active way this weekend. We're always looking for value, always looking for upgrades, but this seems more like just finding replacements in many cases. If you avoided the injury bug this week, maybe play the lottery this weekend because it seems like everybody is dealing with it in some form. And there's actually some pretty interesting players to consider picking up

as a result of all of this fallout. So Al, I don't know, how did you weather the storm overall? Your team's still kind of in one piece for the most part? I think I've gotten pretty lucky. So maybe I do need to go and buy some scratchers or something this evening. So the one thing I did was I was a little worried about Carlos Correa. Of course, he was back with the Twins on Thursday night. But I went out in the league where I have Correa and got Orlando Arcia as insurance. So I got hit a little bit there, but yeah, I think if you've got a shortstop that's

healthy, you might be in the minority. Yeah. Maybe we'll start there because we talked about this a little bit earlier in the week. It is a thin position on the waiver wire, and it got even thinner because Orlando Arcia was the kind of player that people would have been looking at this weekend, potentially, in some 12-team leagues just to fill in, just to keep things afloat. Corey Seager got hurt this week, so there's a major injury there, so tons of people out there looking for some help, at least in the middle infield, because you may have a middle infielder that can play shortstop in Seager's place if Seager's on your team, but then going to that middle infield pool and trying to find some value, it's not looking great. Now for Atlanta, there may be a built-in replacement, at least if you don't need someone who's

shortstop eligible right away. Vaughn Grissom is back up. So he was an easy early season cut for me going into the year, just because I didn't know how long we were going to have to wait for him. And I figured if it was more than a week or two, the payoff probably wasn't going to be there. I needed to go ahead and turn that roster spot. If you look at what he did at AAA, 10 games at that level, was having a really nice start to the season. A 366, 458, 585 line, a homer, a couple of steals, six walks against four strikeouts so all good things as much as von grissom could do to force the issue at least with his bat he was doing that at triple

a guinette the problem was orlando arcia was also playing well now with arcia hurt the window is open it seems for grissom to carve out a role and maybe prove that he just deserves to stick on this roster. I think it's something we expected over the course of the winter when we first started hearing that he was going to make the move to shortstop, that he would just win the job. I think the question now is, can he actually do enough to push Arcea to a super sub role? I think he could. In fact, I was surprised, and I think other people were, when Arcia won the role outright coming out of spring training. But it's a hard situation to read, and so I had to sort of parse least in the near term, maybe an MI slot, or if you can hang on and wait for him to get a shortstop eligibility, you'll be able to use him there pretty quickly, I think. But I don't know

how this plays out long-term, given that the organization saw fit to give the job to Arcea in the first place. I don't know. I don't know how these two players wind up surviving on the roster together and getting playing time. So maybe you're right. Maybe it's Arcea getting a super utility role and maintaining a lot of the playing time that he had over the first two weeks. Like you said, he was hitting very well.

So he certainly didn't do anything other than get hurt to lose the job. So yeah, in the short run, I do like Grissom as a fantasy replacement. Again, MI slot being your best hope there. I think if you want to look at Atlanta's depth chart and find the soft spots where playing time could still be available several weeks from now as more players get healthy, as eventually RC is going to come back.

They're calling this injury a micro fracture in his left wrist. They didn't provide a timetable with the initial press release. So I don't know if it's going to be a lot more than the minimum or just a little more than the minimum. But if you bring RC back even in two weeks, you could say that maybe left field is still a revolving door, right? Eddie Rosario, to this point, 11 games. It's a 229, 270, 371 line for him. Just one homer so far, 7Ks and 37 plate appearances. That's not really cutting it. So maybe the pressure is on him to start hitting a little bit more to keep his role. And then of course, Marcel Lozuna, who I

think we were looking at throughout the winter and saying, this might be the end of his time in Atlanta. He's got a couple of home runs, Al, but 13 Ks and 41 plate appearances, a 445 OPS. So you have two guys who are getting pretty significant playing time, not in the middle infield, but if you're willing to move Grissom around a little bit or willing to move Arcee around a little bit, you do have a significant share of playing time that's up for grabs. So I think you have to be a little creative to see how it works, but I think it can happen. So we don't talk a lot about bids specifically on the podcast because every situation is different, but I do think you can be a little aggressive with Vaughn Grissom if you have the need. I think he does make sense as a bit of a priority add in the middle infield.

If you said 8% to 10% of a fab budget on Grissom, I don't think I'd push back on that. I can understand that. Like I said, I had to parse the situation carefully. I didn't make a bid recommendation for him. Not strategically, but put him in the. I probably won't get Grissom anywhere this weekend because I do worry a little bit about how playing time will work out for him in the longer run. And there are other options available. I mean, if you like Grissom for batting average or maybe for steals potential, John Birdie can certainly handle the steals part of that.

Gio Urshela could handle the batting average part of that. So there are some other hitters out there. Brandon Crawford's off to a kind of a nice start in terms of his peripherals. So that's somebody else that I included in the column as a potential shortstop replacement. So I think with a number of players out there who can fulfill certain categorical needs, I probably wouldn't be going more than 5% on Grissom. But he has the combination that other players don't necessarily have. So if you want to take the risk

of the longer-term playing time issue, then I think 8% is appropriate. Yeah, I think you mentioned a few good contingency options. If Grissom is available and those older veterans are available, I would go ahead and throw those backup bids in accordingly. The other player with shortstop eligibility who is seeing more time recently that I think is a little bit interesting is Jose Barrero. I don't think I would spend more than about a min bid to get him. If you look at what he's done through the first 10 games, it's

nothing off the charts. He's got a home run. He's driven in five. Only 6Ks in 30 plate appearances though, which is a really good sign for him because Jose Barrero last year with the Reds struck out 76 times in 174 plate appearances. So a pretty big improvement for him. He's always been toolsy. He's got power. He's got some speed. The Reds have some opportunities. For now, he's kind of stuck in the bottom of that lineup, but he's played nearly every day for the past week. So there's one more name for you if you're just desperate in a deeper league trying to find some help to take over at the shortstop position specifically. Now, the other question here is, do you see anyone in Texas? With Seager sort of being the prompt here, along with Arcia, Seager missing four weeks puts the Rangers in a pretty difficult spot. Is it Josh Smith's job to lose in the interim? I know he's eligible, I believe, at third base and outfield in a lot of leagues right now,

so he'll add shortstop here in the near future. But what do you make of Josh Smith getting this opportunity? Is he a cheap speed option for deep mixed leagues, or is he more of a mono-league play for the time being? I think he could go cheap speed in deeper mixed leagues, but I don't view that as a huge endorsement. That still puts him at the back of the list that I was starting before. So yeah, I think he's pretty much a one-dimensional player for fantasy purposes. And I just worry about him even hitting and getting on base enough to consistently deliver with steals. So he's sort of a last resort, but the steals potential does give him some deep mixed league appeal. Let's talk about an option in the middle infield in Minnesota. So if you don't need a shortstop specifically, Edward Julien is up for the Twins. Now, I think this is another situation that you look at and you wonder, where does he fit as you look at the longer-term picture? Is he up for good? Is he at least a big-side platoon sort of volume play?

Really good numbers in the minors from Julien. Left-handed bat. Jorge Polanco currently on the IL with that knee injury. And is it more of a temporary solution or is it similar to the Grissom where it's, there's enough moving parts on this depth chart where you could actually see Julian maybe carving out a role even beyond the eventual return of Jorge Polanco. I think it's,

it's sort of analogous to the, the brave situation in that, not that I necessarily see a clear path for Julian to stay up and play a lot, but that the talent is there, already off to a good start, homered in his first game. But I think that there could be a way for him to play, but it would involve, again, a lot of the players kind of moving around. I think Nick Gordon is kind of the key here because when you have Joey Gallo and Max Kepler coming back, possibly as soon as next week, then that would ostensibly push him into second

base more as a full-time thing and less as a utility player. But if the Twins want to keep Julian up, then I think that pushes Gordon out of the picture. So that to me is kind of the one-on-one matchup there is Gordon versus Julian. Who are they going to go with? Gordon's not off to a good start in terms of surface level stats, but a stat that I dug up yesterday while researching the column, Gordon's only struck out one time so far in something I think close to 40 plate appearances. I don't know if he struck out yesterday, but prior to the game, he had just one strikeout on the season, but he had something like a 118 average. So I don't know how much front offices take that sort of thing into account and say, you know, they look at the surface stats but say, oh, you know, there's good things going on underneath.

Let's give them a little bit more run. But with Julian in the picture now, I think that definitely speeds up the timetable for Gordon to put something together. Yeah, and I think the other thing I want to see with Julian, I know he played pretty much entirely at second base last year, including his time in the fall leagues. Between AA and the fall league, everything was at second base. time in the fall leagues between double a and the fall league everything was at second base but in 2021 at a lower level we actually saw julien play some first base we saw him play kind of second and third we saw him play some left field at high a back in that season so maybe a little more flexibility even if he's not necessarily a great defender at many of those spots we'll see if the twins actually trust him to move around because that would make him an even bigger threat to Nick Gordon's playing time. If they believe in

the glove, or they're willing to absorb any shortcomings of that glove to get that offense in their lineup, then Julian, I think, could be the higher ceiling play than Nick Gordon. So it's possible. I think comparing it to the Atlanta situation makes a lot of sense, just given that the role could be carved out in the weeks ahead. As far as the other Twins news that I saw that I thought was worth mentioning on this episode, Alex Kirilov has started a rehab assignment. That's another complicating factor just because Kirilov will be in that first base and outfield mix, and my expectation for him is that he'll be a regular part of the Twins' plans once he's healthy enough to have a role. So in addition to Gallo coming back, Polanco eventually coming back, Kirilov is on his

way back. Kyle Farmer's on the aisle right now after getting hit in the face with a pitch, so he might be out for a couple of weeks. But this is a Twins team that's really banged up right now. Max Kepler, who you mentioned, also down right now. So as players come back, that's always going to lead to a decision for someone to maybe get pushed off the roster. And that's the one thing that could also work against Edward Julian is having minor league options left. A lot of the older players in this roster don't have those

options. Julian does. So keep that in mind too, if you're using him as at least a stop gap in the middle infield, there's a whole variety of ways this can actually play out for him with Kirilov. I think they're waiting for him to play him back-to-back games on his rehab assignment before they activate him. But he could be back before the end of the month based on some of the timetables that we have been seeing. Let's get to some other matters here. I think the most intriguing player of the week is actually on the pitching side. It's Taj Bradley, Al. We talked about him a little bit on the Thursday episode.

Really did well in Eno's pitching model. Good results in that first start earlier this week against the Red Sox. And now, thanks to a Jeffrey Springs injury on top of a Zach Eflin injury, it seems much more likely that Taj Bradley is going to get a handful of starts in the near future instead of just the spot start. He was optioned down after that debut, but the Springs injury happened after Taj Bradley was sent down. So that probably changes the Rays' plans quite a bit. I think maybe this could be like a George Kirby pickup from a year ago. I think this is a very polished young pitcher that I didn't want

to stash him necessarily in pre-draft leagues because I didn't know how long it was going to take for him to get the call from the Rays but because of these injuries piling up really quickly he might be able to take that last spot in the rotation once everyone's healthy and just stay up all season well if we look at it long term I still it'll be really interesting to see what the Rays do and you'll I mean they're they're just loaded with pitching which is partly why they they don't lose games but I have to wonder that when you've got the full compliment back, you've got glass now back that maybe Zach Eflin goes to the bullpen. Cause otherwise I don't, I don't know where there's room for Bradley.

And now I'm maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Cause this is several weeks down the line, but it's just, you know, to me an interesting question. And I think it does, does impact maybe how aggressively you go on fab because you certainly don't want to go 10%, 11%, 12% on somebody that maybe is getting yo-yoed back and forth. But I think Bradley's better than deserving that fate. So I actually do think it'd be more likely that if everybody somehow does remain healthy, which is a great problem to have, that maybe Eflin is the odd guy out, whichley over efflin but they could just go to six if they wanted to and just keep everybody's innings down because they've got so many injuries on their key rotation members over time and drew rasmussen's a two-time tommy john surgery recipient uh springs having the elbow injury now glass now coming off the oblique, McClanahan

having some concerns about his arm late last season, it might make sense to give these guys extra rest and then shorten the rotation in September or in the playoffs. I think as long as they're relying on someone like Josh Fleming every fifth day, you can look at Taj Bradley and see an upgrade right there. So the current state of things makes me sort of say, let's play for the next three to four weeks. I think you'd be pretty aggressive with those Bradley bids as well, even with some downside, because someone else could get hurt, even if the other guys call come back healthy. And we might get an actual timetable on Springs. He was scheduled for an MRI today. So once the results of that MRI are known, then we may have a better sense for how long his absence is going to be. For now, it just seems like an IL stint is looming and it's a matter of time before the Rays actually have to make that decision. But Yanni Chirinos up right now. They're shuffling bullpen arms around. We saw someone get a save on this Rays team. Braden Bristow had a save in his big league debut,

but it was a three-inning save. He threw like 42 pitches. And I think with Springs being hurt especially, they're just trying to have as many fresh arms available as possible in that pen. So Yanni Chirino sort of taking on the bulk role for the time being for Tampa Bay. So no need to be excited about him just yet. But a lot could change with this team here in the next 48 hours or so. So be sure to keep an eye on the news before Fab actually runs on Sunday night. Treat yourself to Tim's new Fudge Brownie Lattes,

made with freshly ground espresso beans, frothy steamed or ice chilled milk, and topped with marble chocolate curls. Now that's music to our ears. Available hot or iced only at Tim's. Whoa, what are you listening to this for? Wait, who's talking? You know you're driving a 2024 Ford Escape with available Alexa built in, so you can change the music.

Oh yeah, Alexa, change station to 99.2. See? Purchase a 2024 Escape ST-Line all-wheel drive with Tech Pack at 3.49% APR for 72 months with down payment. That's just $267 bi-weekly. Cash value of $40,294. Plus, eligible Ford owners get a $1,000 bonus. For details, visit your local Ford store or Ford.ca. Let's talk about Dre Jamison, though, because I think Dre Jamison is also in a pretty good situation right now. He has shifted into the rotation thanks to Zach Davey's injury.

And if you want to try and forecast a longer opportunity for him, Madison Bumgarner just looks finished. Every time he comes up, it looks like more of the same. Jameson, I think, wanted to actually pitch even more than he did in that first start. And I'm sure the Diamondbacks are going to be careful about stretching him out against. He was working in the bullpen to begin the season. But how much more interested are you in Bradley than Jameson? Or is it actually pretty close just given that Jamison may have a longer, a clearer path to the longer opportunity? I'm more interested in Bradley. I just like the potential more. I think more of a strikeout,

you know, he has more of a strikeout history. And I think that, I think certainly the quality of the raised depth is not only better than the Diamondbacks. I mean, it's probably unparalleled right now in the major leagues, but the Diamondbacks, once you get Brandon Fott up there, they're going to have some decisions to make too, and while it might seem like the obvious thing to take Boehm-Garner out of the rotation,

to not bring Zach Davies back into the rotation whenever he's ready to return. You know that things aren't always that simple. So I think it could be a crowded situation. I'm not completely confident that Jamison doesn't get moved back to the bullpen at some point, but at least in the short term, I would certainly like to add him 15-teamers

with a low bid, maybe in 12-teamers. But yeah, they're both pretty exciting pitchers. I think when we mentioned Jamison last week, he was interesting because he had a chance to vulture some saves. He was working in a multi-inning relief role. Also a chance to pick up some wins in that usage. I don't think that goes away. I don't think that goes away. If he gets bumped from the rotation later on,

he may still be very rosterable and usable as a multi-inning reliever just based on how well he was pitching to begin the year. If you're thinking about him for the upcoming week, the D-backs let him throw 54 pitches against the Brewers in his last start, so he went four innings. Usually teams are willing to bump a guy about 15 pitches from his previous outing, so you're probably looking at something in the range of 70 or maybe 75 pitches that they want to be a little more aggressive. He threw 66 pitches back on March 31st, his first appearance of the season, went four innings against the Dodgers.

So you're just trying to make plans for the short term. It may be another starter too before Jamison could actually go six innings and be worked like a regular starter. But I think he's pretty intriguing from a skills perspective. I'm definitely in. Like you, I've got Bradley ahead of him, even though Jamison's spot, at least on the big league roster, looks a bit more stable right now.

I wanted to ask you if you were going to speculate, though, on any of the Guardians' young starting pitchers, because Aaron Savali is down with an oblique injury. Tristan McKenzie is already hurt. Peyton Battenfield got the first opportunity and we talked about him on Tuesday. Not really a guy that has the ceiling that a lot of the other guardians starting pitching prospects have. So is this the time if you're into Tanner Bybee or you're into Gavin Williams or if you're into Logan Allen, are you trying to stash them this weekend?

Even if we don't have any sort of confirmation that one of those guys is going to join the rotation next week? It's not a bad idea. The one that I would really focus on is Bybee. I think he'd be the next one up and it certainly would require less fab to do it this weekend, barring an announcement between now and then, than it would be when there is an announcement if that comes down the line. So yeah, if you've got the room to stash Spivey, I think he's one of those pitchers, you know, sort of like Taj Bradley. Like he could have been drafted as a late rounder.

He's somebody that's worth stashing if you're in the sort of league that gives you enough spots to not make that a drag on your roster. gives you enough spots to not make that a drag on your roster. So yeah, I probably wouldn't go more than maybe 3% because I just, again, barring any kind of announcement between now and Sunday, I'm thinking it's probably not going to take more than that. Yeah, I think you can save a lot of fab if you've got the roster spot to play with.

It takes a certain type of league, of course, for players in the minor leagues to be available for pickup at this time, but Bybee has a shallow mixed league impact ceiling. He would be on the same level for me as Taj Bradley if we knew he was joining the rotation next week, so keep that in mind as well when you're trying to evaluate

Bybee against some of the options currently on your bench. Another injury that shook things up this week, Brandon Woodruff on the 15-day IL right now due to some shoulder soreness. We saw Jansen Junk make a spot start. I believe that was actually in Woodruff's place, but then we actually saw Colin Ray start for the Brewers on Thursday in San Diego. Colin Ray pitched pretty well, went to Japan for all of 2022, started pitching there in 2021. Wasn't overpowering, but just seemed like he commanded his arsenal pretty well.

I think William Contreras was kind of helping him steal some strikes behind the plate. So maybe there's a little bit of good luck cooked into that line for Colin Ray. But he seems like the preferred option over Jansen Junk to continue in the rotation until Woodruff comes back. So any interest in Colin Ray as a bit of a journeyman getting a brief look here from the Brewers? At this point, I would say just NL only. I was just really surprised.

I'll be honest, I didn't know he was in the Brewers system. I didn't know he was back in Major League Baseball. So when I saw his name there in the probables, I was like, he's still pitching? I think of him as the guy that the Marlins wound up trading back to the Padres right after they got him. Because he got, I think he had Tommy John, if I recall. But he got hurt in the first start that he had when the Marlins tried to trade Luis Castillo the first time. And look that trade up if you have a chance.

That's another head-scratching trade that was made even weirder by the fact that the Marlins had to send Ray back. But yeah, so it was a long way of saying I would definitely pick Ray up in NL only and watch the next start at least and maybe think about him for 15-teamers. Yeah, I think the extent of my interest

is probably mono-leagues at this point. But if you have Woodruff, you're scrambling for innings, looking for some different options. And I didn't see a ton out there. I think one of the more interesting pitchers that's been mentioned on the show a few times already this season

who's still out there at least in some 12-team leagues is Brad Keller. I think he's maybe one of your best shots at getting a three or four start stretch that somehow comes close to typical Woodruff numbers thanks to some of the adjustments that he's made. We're seeing Brad Keller just closer to a strikeout per inning again. 16 Ks in 17 innings, sitting with a 2-12 ERA and a 1-12 whip.

New pitch mix going a very long way for him. He's gone 5-2 six and two thirds now in his last couple of outings too. So you're not worried about depth. A lot of the starting pitchers you're looking at from week to week on the waiver wire have a lot of questions about how much they can pitch into games. Brad Keller's never really had that. And now Brad Keller's got a few more weapons that he can work with in his arsenal that I think has made him a much more interesting pitcher. So credit to him for making those changes because I just looked at Brad Keller going into the season as an afterthought.

I didn't really want him anywhere, even in draft and hold leagues. I just thought he was the kind of starter that you could do better speculating on someone who didn't have a job. And it turns out the adjustments he's made have sort of maybe saved his career here at age 27. Yeah. And you know, it's interesting you said age 27, it sure seems like he's been around a long time, but you know, he, he has, and yet he's, he's still just 27. And do you think there's a

good reason for me to be skeptical of Brad Keller, but less skeptical of Chris Bubich? Cause I, I made what I thought were some pretty aggressive bids on Bubich in a lot of leagues and wound up empty in all of them. So the bidding on Bubich is really crazy. I totally understand it. I didn't have winning bids, but I didn't lose by much. But I think it's just the longer track record for Keller that it's making me a lot more reluctant to put that kind of fab behind it.

So maybe I'll put in a couple couple dollars this weekend. But I don't know that. So the longer track record is not something that's a concern for you. So I guess the way you're here, the way you're framing this is we've seen enough bad. We've seen more Brad, bad Brad Keller than we've seen bad Chris Bubich. Therefore, he has more to prove. He has a longer distance to cover to show us that this is, in fact, a real sustainable change. That's more or less the argument?

That is more or less the argument? That is more or less the argument. And as you very nicely restated that, I'm thinking, okay, who can I think of who has been around as long as Keller has and has made that kind of improvement at that stage of his career? And just because I can't think of somebody in 30 seconds doesn't mean that that person isn't out there. But nobody comes right to mind that's made that kind of transition. Whereas I think of like a Lucas Giolito who had a couple of rough years, but put it together very nicely. And okay, I could see Chris Bubich following that kind of trajectory, but who is the analog for Brad Keller? And maybe he is a unicorn. Doesn't mean somebody had to model it before him, but it would make me feel a little better if I could think of somebody who did. Well, okay. I was just thinking about Charlie Morton yesterday, the beginning of

his career versus the first half of Charlie Morton's career, which had a lot of injuries, but he was a low strikeout rate, kind of power sinker guy. And then he ended up becoming more of a sorts of strikeouts, stuff ticked up in the back half of his career, and he completely rewrote everything we thought we knew about him. That's a great analogy. It happens. It's hard to, in the moment, as it's beginning, it's always hard to bet on it. And something Eno brought up with the pitching model

that I think is really kind of important with Keller, and maybe the thing that would separate him from Bubic or would give you a reason to be more optimistic or just as optimistic about Keller as you are about Bubich is that Brad Keller has two above average breaking balls. Now the slider came in at a one 37, the stuff plus model that's way above average. The curve ball is at one 14 and the fastball is not bad. And when you have two above average breaking pitches, a fastball that doesn't hurt you, and you can locate pitches, that makes you pretty dangerous. So I think there's enough here with

both of these guys to continue pushing after them in even more shallow formats. I think Bubic was the bigger ad last week. Keller, where still available, is going to probably sneak in a few pretty big bids. I think if you were excited about Tyler McGill at the beginning of last season, or even the beginning of this season, Brad Keller is at least on that sort of level, right? I mean, you're going to use him in many of his starts, most of his own starts. Yeah, but that to me is sort of the thing that supports my skepticism because there was a lot of excitement around Tyler McGill, and yet he hasn't really delivered on it yet. Yeah.

Part of that thing is he got hurt, though. Yeah. So I'm in. I'm in on Brad Keller. I never thought I would be, but I actually think looking at a lot of my shallow mixed leagues, and I've got plenty of Brandon Woodruff on my teams, Keller is going to have to be kind of a port in the storm for a little while for me, at least. Even if it's just a couple of weeks where I'm using him for all of his starts, that might be good enough to get by.

Next turn, I believe, comes against the Rangers again. You just saw the Rangers. What's with this schedule? Nevertheless, I am in. And the following week, it's a two-star week for Keller. So even if you're a little more skeptical, if you trust him at home against the Rangers, and you trust him enough to use him in a two- following week, it's a two-star week for Kettler. So even if you're a little more skeptical, if you trust them at home against the Rangers and you trust them enough to use them in a two-star week,

it could be sort of a pitch-and-ditch thing, kind of throwing a tip of the cap to the old fantasy 4-1-1 show where you use them for these next two lineup periods in weekly leagues and then you reevaluate things two weeks from now when more of your roster will likely be hurt or some of your injured players will be back. The picture will look completely different by then. Well, yeah, that's a good approach.

And I'll be interested to see what the bids are on Keller and see if other people are thinking the same way that I am. And I'm kind of hoping they are because, yeah, I wouldn't mind taking that kind of approach with Keller this weekend. But, yeah, i don't see going in as aggressively as i did with uh with boobage so i'm finding that the streamers this week are a little bit light i don't know if it's because of the way the schedule is working out where you just don't have a lot of layups from from guys who are available or what exactly the cause of

this is but there is one more name that I think is pretty interesting. Even if you don't like him from a skills perspective that much, I actually think he's okay from a skills perspective. It's Tyler Wells. He has a matchup against the Tigers, 11 innings pitched in his first two starts. I believe he goes again tonight, so you'll get a third start from him before Fab actually runs this weekend.

And I think what's catching my eye with Tyler Wells, aside from the fact that the Orioles just look better in general, so the team around him is more likely to provide run support, and he was getting them with kid gloves where it was a lot of four inning starts because he was often coming in somewhere in that 50 to 65 pitch range. It doesn't seem like they're worried about that anymore. So if you're going to let Tyler Wells work like a regular starter, I'm going to sign up for that. At least in matchups like this home one against the Tigers. Yeah.

Well, I was disappointed DVR and your league and not only uh underbid on boobage but also on tyler wells uh i did wind up with drew smiley of the uh weekly two uh two start week yeah drew smiley the patron saint of perpetual two start weeks but i was yeah i was sad to miss that on wells and it was very encouraging that he's going a little bit deeper it's understandable because last year he was coming off of having been a reliever, I think, all of 2021. So last year he was in the rotation, missed some time with injury, started out very, very briefly in the bullpen this year. But, you know, good to see that that's not holding him back from throwing more pitches than his starts.

I like the skill set. Not somebody who's going to necessarily give you a lot of strikeouts, but I think he's a good ERA and whip source. A lot of high infield flies. So I think he's likely to have a very low whip like he did last year. And yeah, I think he's definitely worth, say, 3% or 4% in 15 team leagues right now. Yeah, I'm with you on that. I just think very playable at this point. And seeing just how cavernous the adjustments at Camden Yards were a season ago.

Those home starts scare me so much less now for Orioles pitchers than they did pre-adjustments, pre-2022. I think that was a part that I was really avoiding guys in for the most part. Two start pitchers that I saw that were available at least in shallow leagues. Corey Kluber was one who's off to a pretty bad start, a 692 ERA. He gets the Twins and then he gets the Brewers on the road. At least that Minnesota start comes at home. With this bad start, Al, what are you doing in leagues where Corey Kluber is available? Are you looking at him as a possible early season rebound candidate, or are you looking at him as someone that you're trying to avoid

because you're worried about picking up some extra weight in those ratios? I'm out. You're out on Kluber. I'm not going to be bidding anywhere on Corey Kluber. Really? Zero? Okay. Yeah? Zero. Okay. Yeah. Fair.

And that's not even because I can say there's better options. I mean, the options are bleak. So, yeah, you're looking at a one-start Tyler Wells, a one-start Matt Strom. Yeah, I mean, I'm actually quite interested in picking up Matt Strom. But I know we talked about Dre Jameson before. He's got pretty dicey matchups. I'll roll with him with the dicey matchups, at least skill-wise. He's shown us a lot more this year than Corey Kluber has. If they were both available, who would you rather pick up than Nick Pavetta or Corey Kluber? Oh, you're going to make me do that. Yeah, I'll go Corey

Kluber. Oh, that was not what I was expecting. I thought you were going to go to go to Pavetta. It's yeah. I probably answered that faster than I probably should have. But yeah, my level of distrust of Pavetta, just because of the consistency of year to year of not – I like to think of the term that you used so nicely just a minute ago, being a drag or not giving you very much fantasy value. I'll just – year to year, that has been the case with Nick Pavetta. Corey Kluber even last year had some good moments.

I think when you look at both of those guys, the rest of season projections, the initial projections are really similar. High fours, even low fives, ERAs, bad whip. The difference for me is at least Nick Pavetta is going to give you strikeouts. You know you're getting that. That's just there. So if I had to take a chance on one, I think I'd be more optimistic about Nick Pavetta at this point,

which is, you know, it's a bummer that Corey Kluber has reached this point, but now I think he's got to be used very carefully. It's really in the deepest of leagues. I don't know if we're seeing enough from Kluber to trust that we're going to get a bounce back in more shallow formats. I mentioned Peyton Battenfield earlier. If he stays in the Guardians rotation, he's at the Tigers. That might be pushing it just a little bit too far, though, Al. I think bad teams do score runs sometimes, and I think bad teams can score runs against starters like Peyton Battenfield. So I know you can throw just about anybody against that Detroit lineup right now, but I don't think I'm in a position in April where I feel like I'm desperate enough to do it.

That's like the thing you do in August when your ratios are already hurt and you're just trying to rally back with some volume. I don't think it's something you have to do right now in the third week of the season. I agree. I had him in the initial draft of the waiver column and then thought better of it. So he was kind of on the borderline for me because of that matchup, but ultimately it does feel too risky. I've gotten burned too many times getting cute with good matchups and maybe I've learned my lesson by this year. One more pitcher I think that I wanted to talk about is Ross Stripling is moving to the bullpen for the foreseeable future for the Giants. So they're going to go down to a five-man rotation after starting with a six-man rotation. That seemingly

makes Anthony Discofani more safe. I still see Discofani as a spot starter, something that you're going to use almost entirely at home and then occasionally for an easy road start. But in terms of job security, this is something that I think Disco kind of needed for me to trust him enough to pick him up in some places. Yeah, absolutely. I didn't draft him anywhere, haven't picked him up anywhere, mostly because of what I perceived as the rotation crunch. And I do wonder if Stripling will come back. I mean, like you said, he's in the bullpen for the foreseeable future. But I came into this year thinking he was the better pitcher of the two. But now we're into the season and we're looking at streaming our last one or two starter spots.

So Descalfani, if you've got room to stash him, then you're not having to stream him off of waivers. I think he's good enough for that. But yeah, I wouldn't be counting on starting him more than every other week. Yeah, I think that's an appropriate expectation at this point. I did see Kenta Maeda's Saturday start against the Yankees being skipped for now.

No, Louis Varlin is going to come up for the Twins. They're moving Tyler Malley back a day. I did see Kenta Maeda's Saturday start against the Yankees being skipped for now. No IL. Louis Varlin is going to come up for the Twins. They're moving Tyler Malley back a day. So Malley is going to start on Saturday. Varlin will start Friday by the time many people get to hear this podcast. That start will already be in progress. Keep an eye on possible injury news in case they decide to give Maeda a brief stint on the IL. Doesn't sound like he'd be gone for long if they had to go that route.

Best Western made booking our family beach vacation a breeze. And it felt a little like... Good night, kid. Good night, Mama. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. I did want to go back to some bats, though, because I felt like there were some deep league hitters that sort of jumped off the page for me over the last couple of days.

One with the Yankees, I think I got a mention on last week's show, Franchi Cordero continues to see regular time for them. And we've seen the Yankees have some success in the late 20s, bouncing around the league, waiver claim, minor league deal type players before. So it's not shocking. And of course, he's a left-handed bat with some power going into Yankee Stadium for half of his games. That doesn't hurt Franchi Cordero's cause either. So in what types of leagues do you think Cordero is viable with the weekend approaching? I've already picked him up in a 12-teamer. Really? Yeah. The playing time for me is key. I just, I was really suspicious that he would ever get a string of, of starts and you know, he has in the past week. So yeah, that, that stadium, that lineup, I mean, it's, it's an ideal spot for him. So and he's, he's, he's on a heater right now, so I don't know how long it will last, but I definitely want to take advantage of this in any league that I can.

So with Franchi planning and bidding then, are you looking at it more as a temporary solution for this next week or two until Harrison Bader gets back from his oblique injury? Because once Bader's back, my expectation is that Bader plays almost every day because of his defense and then judges back in a corner. Is that how you see things sort of unfolding for Franchi where once Bader comes back, Franchi goes back more into a part-time role?

I think he'll lose some playing time, but I think Oswaldo Cabrera loses more. And that's the thing. I mean, right now with the timing of it, I mean, Cabrera, unless he really goes ice cold very very quickly I think he's earned the chance to

start more often so yeah I think at that point maybe he's no longer 12 team viable but I will be glad to have him still in 15 teamers let's talk about Brent Rooker, because I think if you're looking at Franchi, you're probably looking at Rooker. I think the

way they're using him, he's been hitting in the cleanup spot the last few days, seeing an increase in playing time. That's pretty appealing. I think whereas Franchi could get squeezed a little bit, Rooker is kind of on his own. If he plays well, he keeps playing. If he struggles, he could be off the roster in four weeks or less. That's 100% in his range of outcomes. But the thing that really kind of stands out to me is Brent Rooker has enough power to hit home runs in Oakland. He has that kind of power. He's got a really high barrel rate in limited action as an up and down guy to this point in his young big league career. And he's not a plotter

on the base paths either. He might actually steal a handful of bases. It actually kind of reminds me of the Hunter Renfro skill set. A little more swing and miss, and that's going to ultimately dictate I think whether or not this works for Brent Rooker. But are you throwing any bids in on him in 15 team leagues,

just hoping to get enough playing time for him to fill a final outfield spot? Yeah, and I think that's exactly the right niche for him. So yeah, I'd probably be going maybe up to 20% to try to get Rooker this weekend. Yeah, there's not a lot of obstacles there. So that's the upside of being in the A's picture instead of the Yankees' picture. You don't get the park or the lineup around you, but you definitely have a better chance of getting a long run of playing time. So, yeah, I think 15 teams, and again, I'm not going to be breaking the bank, but I think he's not just a monolingue guy with his opportunity and with that power that he has. As long as he doesn't have another multi-home run game this weekend,

I think the bids will be limited. You could probably get 2%, 3%, 4%, something in that range in many leagues and come away with a guy that, to this point in his career, has a 50.6% hard hit rate. So Brent Rooker, in parts of the four seasons in the big leagues, has hit 172 batted balls, more than half above 95 miles per hour. It's a 14% barrel rate. It's not bad.

That's impressive. And I also just want to go back to something that you said, which was not really an important part of your analysis, but just something that I observed. You were saying maybe pick up some steals. And that was kind of my thinking with a lot of the hitters in the A's lineup. This is a conversation I think I had with Eno, that Eno said they could be the go-go A's just trying to manufacture runs.

They haven't been running that much. That was really disappointing to me because I thought Langeleers, maybe he's actually pretty speedy for a catcher. I thought maybe he could pick up some steals. Yeah, somebody like Rooker. But it's only been a couple of weeks, but so far that's not been the case. Yeah, so far 10 steals as a team. They're tied for ninth.

There's five teams that have stolen 10 bases so far. I think the issue with the A's, the thing that's going to keep them from being the go-go A's is not getting on base enough. They got a 300 OBP so far. Only the Royals and Tigers have been worse, but the Royals and Tigers have been a lot worse. The Royals have a 269 OBP as a team, the Tigers at 267. Absolutely brutal. So make sure you're streaming against the Tigers and the Royals until they show some signs of life, which they may never do.

They may be streamable all year. I actually would expect them to be streamable all year. One other outfielder to think about in deeper leagues, I think of these three, he's the most likely to get bumped from the roster the quickest. It's Corey Jelks in Houston. I like this guy's swing. I was looking at the skills we saw on display last year. Old for the level at AAA, 31 homers, 22 steals.

He was 22 for 27 as a base stealer last year. I don't know. If playing time stays open, if Michael Brantley has a setback, at least in super deep leagues, I think there's a lot of ways Corey Jelks can help us. Potentially, yeah. I mean, it's a little discouraging that he still does not have a stolen base this year. I mean, I say still, he's played in nine games, but you'd think maybe he would have at least one at this point. But yeah, no, it's an intriguing skill set. It's a good lineup to be in. And yeah, I think that's enough for him to be 15-team relevant. I think because of the potential short-term nature, and you alluded to this right off the bat, DVR, but, you know, because of that relative lack of job security, he's a 1% guy

for me in 15 team leagues, but definitely belongs there for somebody. Let's talk about a few fantasy zombies as they've been called. I think that might be a Matthew Barry original. Guys that have just come back from the fantasy graveyard to have roles again. We'll dig deep. We started with middle infielders at the beginning of the show. I want to throw someone out there that could have some eligibility there again at some point. Kevin Smith up on the A's, the A's team that I watch more than most people because their replays run when no other games are on. And I just happen to have the TV on all the time now. That's just my life. So could things be different for Kevin Smith this time around in Oakland

after that fast start in Vegas? I mean, sure, it could. And I'm sure there's a tendency that I'm not alone in, but when I saw that he was back up, I just thought, I had such high hopes last year. I'm not going to get burned again. I just thought, ah, I had such high hopes last year. I'm not going to get burned again.

So when you have all the players that are potential 15-team and mono waiver options, like we've been talking about for the last several minutes, Smith definitely comes up short for me. I could see him as being a guy to fill a spot in an AL only right now. But I'm also kind of counting on other people having the same sort of response that I'm having and not having to bid on him with great urgency. I'm very nervous about him already because just in four games with the A's, he's already struck out seven times in 16 plate appearances. He's gone right back to the problem we had in that brief time with the A's a year ago. So need to see some good decisions over this weekend series if I'm going to pick him up anywhere outside of AL only leagues.

But interesting that he's back up because he was tearing the cover off the ball to start the year with the Aviators. How about Nick Senzel? He's back. And I saw that they shifted him into play second base for a little bit on Thursday night, which I just replied, damn it, on Twitter. Mostly because if Nick Senzel is finding playing time for the Reds, he will find his way onto at least

one of my rosters. The number of injuries he's dealt with and the position changes and just everything that's happened to him over the course of his career, he's not like a typical 27-year-old in terms of the number of chances he's been able to have.

We're still talking about 1,000 plate appearances for his career, 1025 to be exact. We've seen flashes of power and speed. This is a guy who was athletic enough to play up the middle in the infield and in the outfield. So I could see this actually working. He just came off the IL from a toe injury, so Will Benson got sent down in the corresponding move. Could we see Nick Senzel actually emerge to become useful in some leagues? Maybe. The thing that I usually think right off the top of my head when I see any kind of development with the Reds hitter is, well, it doesn't take a lot of power to hit enough home runs to matter in fantasy.

I mean, we saw that with Kyle Farmer when he was with the Reds. You know, we're kind of seeing it now with TJ Friedel. And so it's like, well, if they can do it, you know, so can Senzel. The thing is that the one season where, you know, he did show that power was 2019. And so I've just learned to kind of write that off when it's the outlier. Probably not fair with Senzel because of the injury history. 2019. And so I've just learned to kind of write that off when it's the outlier, probably not fair with Senzel because of the injury history. So you can see I'm kind of going back and forth in my argument with him. Like, I do think there's still some potential there. I don't think it takes

a lot for him to be, you know, maybe a 10, 10, 15, 15 guy hitting in that park for his home games. But there's a lot of negative to go with the positive. So I could see bidding on him this weekend in 15-teamers, but again, it would be like a contingency 1% bid. Yeah, so I think the problem I'm having with Nick Senzel is in 2019, when he put together the best big league numbers we've seen from him so far, that was the 12-homer, 14, 14 steal season, 414 plate appearances. So it was like two thirds of a season. You could almost see a 2020 guy if you look at those numbers.

That was the worst strikeout rate he posted as a big league hitter, but that was the best barrel rate that he had. And it seemed like maybe with a more aggressive approach, if that's what it was, he was doing a better job of hitting the ball hard, hitting the ball in the right angles in the three seasons since, which again have been just marred by injuries and the pandemic shortened here, all sorts of things, the barrel rate has been 4.2% or less. That is really low. Around that, he's still hitting the ball pretty hard.

He's just still hitting it on the ground too much. So it's there, but for some reason he hasn't been able to unlock it. I think if I'm choosing between Sinzel and Kevin Smith, just throwing a dart in a really deep league, I'd rather take the chance on Senzel. I think there's still something there. There's a few ways it can go right, I guess is the way I'm looking at that. And if I'm looking at him compared to Victor Robles, who usually is not named in this podcast, I think I'd still prefer Nick Senzel to Victor Robles. Robles, I said this about Luis Patino yesterday, the best thing going for Victor Robles, well, he's 25, so I guess anything's still possible. But I'm not buying this, Al.

It was a good spring. It's a good start to the season. It's a 359, 444, 410 line so far. A couple of steals. Yeah, if you need cheap steals in a really deep league, maybe you could do worse. But one barrel so far and 35 batted balls. That is right in line with his career norm. That's exactly what Victor Robles has done his entire career. Max exit velocity. Nope, hasn't hit a ball harder than he has in the last five years.

That hasn't happened yet. Average exit velocity. Still garbage. Not highlighted in blue, but still bad. 85.8. The K rate's low. That's nice, but if anything, he's like the... What's the best case scenario now for Victor Robles? That he's just like

this slasher that hits 280 or 290 with no power and steals 20 bases and plays enough because of his defense like that's that's about it what other path is there that's yeah that's not bad though i would take that and it's funny because those were exactly the numbers i had in my head and but you know we're hardest on the ones that we love dvr he's not hitting 280 or 290 for a whole season though. That's the part that I think

is just absolutely ridiculous. Yeah, no, I'm in kind of half of a state of shock here to hear the harsh assessment of Victor Robles. But yeah, I'm with you that I would rather, there we go.

Thank you again to listener Daniel. But every time I see Robles sort of filling up the box score, I'm thinking of you and wondering what your reaction is. And yeah, no, the power's not there. But the fact that he's in the early going here, I mean, the CSW is way down to like 20%. He's not striking out. It's a little interesting.

I have more hope for him than you do, I think. I think It's a little interesting. I have more hope for him than you do, I think. I think there's a lot of people that have more hope for him right now than I do. I'm not letting my heart get broken again. I've committed myself to letting other people enjoy any sort of mini post-hype breakout. I'm looking at the prospects report on his fan graphs page and I'm just I'm in disbelief this is a guy that 3, 4 years ago back in 2019

had a 60 grade on his hit tool 45 on his game power which is fine for a speedy center fielder 70 speed 70 defense, 70 arm and the arm is true he's got 100th percentile arm strength on StatCast he's a

very good defender. I think what it is, it's a similar profile to a guy that used to play in Washington, Michael A. Taylor, who we thought for years maybe would find one more level and didn't. And the worst part is Victor Robles flashed that level one time and sucked a bunch of us in. is Victor Robles flashed that level one time and sucked a bunch of us in. I mean, 17 homers in 2019 and 11 homers in the four years since? It's not going to happen. Yeah, I hold out a little hope.

It's not a lot. But you know what? You brought up Michael A. Taylor and I wrote a thing earlier this week about players who are hitting for a lot more power this year in the very very early part of the season than they did uh a year ago and michael a taylor he uh his max uh exit velo is um i'm sorry not the max the max is actually not that high 107.9 but his average exit velocity is 91.5 right now, which is more than five miles an hour up from last year. 14.3% barrel rate.

If we knew he was going to play enough, I might actually be interested in that. At least in AL only leagues, I think there's a useful pickup there for Michael Taylor where available. Let's get to some bullpens real quick before we go. I think the most intriguing arm that I saw available in a decent number of leagues going into this weekend was Jose Quijada, who now has two saves for the Angels this season. And I think Carlos Estevez, because of recent usage, was actually

unavailable the day that Quijada last closed out a game. Estevez had pitched three out of four days, so teams will often stay away from relievers in that scenario, much like they would with three in a row. It's kind of the same thing, the way teams evaluate it. So is it a committee or is it still one of those situational things that just looks a little askew because of how the early weeks of the season have played out?

I mean, what's your interest level in Jose Quijada right now, given how things have played out so far in Anaheim? It's not very high right now. I think it seems like it should be a committee, the way that just that bullpen is assembled, but I'm not sure that it is. So I'm kind of assuming it's not. So yeah, I would need to maybe see how this plays out for at least another week before making a move.

And I'm okay if I miss out on Quijada because of it. Because I just, a lot of walks in past seasons. I just don't know that he's got the kind of skill set. Where he could take the job. And run with it. I know that this is somebody who's not as widely available. But for a couple weeks running here. I've been sort of like.

I'm willing to wait on saves. But I do want to try to get Andrew Chafin. Where I can this week because I think he does have that job in spite of being a lefty, and I think he'll be pretty good at it. Yeah, maybe good enough to keep it. 20, 25 saves wouldn't be out of the question,

even if they mix and match a little bit because it does seem like Tori Lovolo is not committing to one closer, at least verbally, even if the usage kind of points to Chafin being the head of a committee. Joel Pajamps had to close out a game for the Brewers because it went to extras, but the way they set up their bullpen in that game is pretty indicative of how I think they view the closer chair.

It was Peter Strzelecki, Matt Bush, and then Devin Williams covering the 7th, 8th, and 9th. It was Bush that served up a game-tying home run on the 8th that took a save chance away from Williams. Williams did his job in the 7th, 8th, and 9th. It was Bush that served up a game-tying home run on the 8th that took a save chance away from Williams. Williams did his job on the 9th, and then Pajams was just the best available reliever to close it out. So no need to pick him up. I think if something were to happen to Williams,

I'd actually be more interested in Strezlecki. I think Strezlecki's better than Matt Bush. I don't think it's even particularly close. So something to keep in mind if you can file someone away in a really deep league that doesn't really get saves. Saves and holds leagues, even maybe Peter Strzelecki could be helpful there. I was wondering if you're taking any shots in the Yankees' bullpen, just more from a if-something-happens-to-Clay-Holmes perspective.

Holmes has been good so far, four saves in the season, because Ron Marinaccio is out there in a handful of leagues, and he's struck out 47.8% of the batters he's faced so far this season. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. And as somebody who has Holmes in a few leagues, that would be a really good idea for me in particular to do. I wonder if Michael King maybe would be part of a committee if, if, uh, the Yankees had to replace Holmes for one reason or another. So, but, uh,

yeah, I, I, I have to admit that, uh, uh, Maricino is not on my, was not on my, uh, radar for guys to pursue right now, but I think that's a great call. Yeah. Just a really deep league stash. Nobody that I feel like you have to go get, but just more of the who really gets saves. If Clay Holmes has to go on the IL, who's the guy for the Yankees? And maybe it's someone else entirely, but I was just kind of surprised looking at those early season numbers that we were seeing a K rate that high, even in a small sample.

That was impressive. Arsenal looks okay on paper. It's not an overpowering fastball, 93.9. It's really a fastball change combo with the occasional slider. So a little bit of a different Arsenal too, but just a name to throw out there for those in very, very deep leagues trying to find a future sources of saves. Anybody else on your radar this weekend, be that in a bullpen or otherwise, Al?

I mentioned Matt Strom. So I think I'll be as aggressive on him as probably anybody. And no, I mean, in terms of the bullpen, Chafin is going to be my target in 12-teamers. And we've covered a lot of players. So I think we've covered just about everybody else. Yeah, I think the other guy that I did pick up in our keeper league that ran overnight last night, Johan Oviedo. I think there's a chance he's fine in the pirates rotation for most of the season coming off of a really nice outing against the white socks,

six and two thirds scores with five Ks, no walks control is going to be the thing that makes or breaks. And if he keeps that walk rate down, I think there's going to be a lot of spots later on this year where Oviedo is at least streamable. We'll see how the next couple of starts go, but I saw enough there. I think the arsenal is interesting enough to take the chance

and see if he can bump that K rate up just a little bit. We did see almost a strikeout per inning a year ago from him. Big fastball, averaging 96.4 on that fastball right now and getting a decent number of swinging strikes as well. So we'll see what is next for him. That is going to do it for this episode of Rates and Barrels. As we go, a few reminders. You can get a subscription to The Athletic for $1 a month at theathletic.com slash ratesandbarrels.

You can read Al's weekly waiver column. You can read all of Eno's stuff. You can read everything we've got on the site, Fantasy baseball, real baseball, NFL drafts coming up. They've got a Premier League season that's winding down. So tons of great stuff. And it's playoff time in the NBA and the NHL as well. So be sure to check that out. If you're not already a subscriber, you can find Al on Twitter at AlMilkierBB.

You can find me at DerekVanRiper. That's going to do it for this episode of Rates and Barrels. We are back with you on Monday.