Aaron Judge to the IL & Defend Your Rankings! (6/5 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

[Music] Happy CuckooBow Friday and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on June 5th. I am Frank Stanfield, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, Aaron Judge is going to be out a while. We will defend our rankings and what do we do with show to Imanaga? Another clunker, partially PCA-aided and inside the park home run there against Imanaga, but we will talk about all of it and we've got to start with bad news. Breaking news on Aaron Judge. It certainly is not good, but it could have been a lot worse. He has been diagnosed with a stress fracture of the first rib on his right side. It requires rest and limited activity. He will undergo imaging in four to six weeks to determine the next steps. The Yankees say they expect him to return this season, but he will undergo imaging in four to six weeks. That doesn't mean he will be back in four to six weeks. We'll find out more than if it's good. He'll go out on a rehab assignment. I think the best case scenario is probably late July, early August. What do you guys think? Yeah, I think you could see, given what they've said, if it's four weeks for the follow-up imaging and then he's cleared to start swinging a bat again, you could see that he's all star break. That would be a really quick return. That would basically be, he's cleared to swing a bat like the first week of July, July second, let's say. He's basically back in games within what, two weeks, 18 days, something like that. It's possible, I suppose, but I would guess it's longer than that. I would guess we don't see him until August, but I've. There have been a couple of injuries this season that guys have returned from a little quicker than I expected already, or at least in Terrick Schubert's case, is on pace too. Never say never, but yes, I think you should probably plan on him missing about two months. Yeah, I think so too, at the minimum. I would expect he's back at some point in August, whether it's early August or late August or mid-August. I think it's going to depend on just how the recovery goes. It's the sort of injury. Usually, fractures are pretty straightforward as far as timeline goes, but anything in the trunk area because of the twisting motion. This is true whether you're a pitcher or a hitter. You need to be extra, extra, extra careful with it because if you come back too quickly, you risk a much more severe injury. That would be true in this case too. The one that came to mind immediately with a stress fracture in the rib cage was Chris Sale a few years ago when he was still at the red socks. He missed three months with that injury. That's one example, obviously. They're expecting him to return this season. If it took three months in Judges' case, that would be the beginning of September. That is in the range of possibilities. Again, they need to be careful. I don't think it's kind of a doomer take to say that he might not be back till September. I think that's totally possible in Judges' case. It's disappointing, obviously. This is the consensus top player in fantasy and has been one of the all-time great fantasy options for the past few years. Given where the conversation was earlier in the day where he was seeing a doctor about possibly thoracic outlet syndrome, we all know the history of that injury on the pitching side. We don't really have a ton of history on the hitting side. Little we have, doesn't seem promising. That's why it kind of felt like a relief even knowing Judges is going to miss months here with this injury. Well, it's not the worst case in the year. It sounds like he's going to be back this year, and it odds are he'll be airing Judge when he comes back. The Yankees, the release that the Yankees sent out, did say, explicitly, Judges expected to return at some point this year. So whether that's in August or September, hopefully, it's August, there isn't a lot of track record for hitters with stress fractures in their ribs. I'm looking at David Dahl missed 108 days back in 2017. That would obviously be sort of aggressive. I mean, the one that concerned me was Jared Walsh, who was emerging as a middle of the order bat for the angels and then suddenly fell off. It's like, oh, it got to coincided with the RASIC outlet. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I thought you were talking about, yeah, the threat. I mean, if it was the RASIC outlet, you're assuming it's the rest of the season. So the fact that he avoided that seems like something closer to a best case scenario, or at least avoiding the worst case. But yeah, it could still be most of the regular season remaining. So what does this mean for the Yankees in the short term? It's probably some combo of Jose Caballero and Max Schumann in the outfield with Anthony Volpi at shortstop. They do have the option to recall Spencer Jones if they wanted to have him on the roster for this weekend. Jason Amingas is expected to start a rehab assignment on Friday. So he should be back soon. I would imagine within the next week or so, 37% rostered. What's your interest level in that? I get a lot of run. I mean, Jason Amingas has a wide open lane now. And I still think a lot of potential. So if I think particularly in 5L field or leagues, if there's a possibility to stash him still, you should do that. Yeah. I think he's one of the top waiver wire targets to look for as a judge replacement because he's about 40% rostered. There's a couple other guys. But yeah, I think Jason Amingas should be up there. I would like to see them recall Spencer Jones just because if you're going to miss Aaron Judge, you kind of need to swing for some upside here to try to replace him. Otherwise that line up, it's not going to be terrible, but it's not going to be good. You know, it's Ben Rice, maybe a couple of other pretty good hitters. And then Rice is basically Aaron Judge these days. Right. But you're losing Aaron. Ben Rice is not going to remain a whatever 1080 OBS guy moving forward. I don't think. It was it was a tongue in cheek comment. I would like. Yeah, they got they got him. They got Belinger. They got jazz chism and they have probably the best rotation at baseball. But I think I think it would make sense to just see if Spencer Jones can unlock some upside here. He struck out 44% of the time. I think it's very unlikely it works out for him at the major league level, but I do think they should give him a chance. But with Dominguez probably back some time next week, you know, maybe the incentives aren't there for Jones to get that chance. So as we know, there is no replacing Aaron Judge on the Yankees, obviously not in fantasy, not even close, but we will try and take a look at the waiver wire in shallower league. So names between like 70 to 80% rostered Carson Bench, Sam Antonacci. Antonacci is actually even a little bit more available. Ryan Walchmit and Trent Grisham. How would you guys rank those four? Bench, Antonacci, Walchmit, Christian. I mean, there's not a lot of distance between them for me, but I guess I would go Walchmit, Bench, Antonacci. And I don't know, Bench could go ahead of Walch, Walchmit who hasn't really shown much power. Yeah, let's say Bench, Walchmit, Antonacci and then Grisham. But you know, Grisham, the underlying numbers look great. I think there's a good chance he takes off over the final four months. So he could end up being the most valuable of them. Yeah. I mean, I would solve a group all around. I think part of the problem with Antonacci, who I really like, Frank, you and I talked about that on yesterday's podcast. Sounds like we maybe like him a little more than Scott does. I, it's just, he doesn't really do the things Aaron Judge does, right? No, no, no, this is more like a point's league, I think, but yeah, not even close. But I think, you know, he's, I think 55% roster, that feels way too low for Samhats, not you. I think he needs to be a lot more widely rostered than that. In medium sized leagues, looking at names like Noel V. Marte, who recently got called back up by the Reds. Don't know if he's going to play every day, but hoping that does happen. Jung Hool-E is going to give you no power, but he is racking up a bunch of hits right now. Dylan Cruz, Jake McCarthy is hit well over the past month, and then the aforementioned Jason Dominguez. So, do you guys have a favorite of that group? Marte, Jung Hool-E, Dylan Cruz, Jake McCarthy, Dominguez? I mean, if, if, if the actual goal here is replacing Judge. then you shoot for as much upside as possible. - As much power as possible, I guess. - Yeah, sure. I mean, those are usually the same thing, upside of power, which is Marta or Dominguez among this group, right? - Yeah, yeah. And yeah, they're the most questionable in terms of playing time, but I mean, it's, you gotta, losing that caliber about from your fantasy lineup, you have to give yourself a chance, even if it's a lower percentage chance. That's how I feel about it anyway. - And I think it's probably a lot of-- - Rough and that trades. - Yeah, for sure. It's rough in the outfield right now, though. Like I think it's probably the weakest position. - Relatives and numbers, spots you have to fill for sure. - Unexpectedly, it's become the weakest, I mean, even in three outfields or leagues, it's hard to get a, letting every team have a satisfactory starter. There aren't enough satisfactory starters to go around, particularly if you're eliminating guys who haven't performed well yet, we may still have some hope for them, but they haven't done much yet. There aren't 36 of those guys out there at that position. And so that's why it's going to be especially difficult to make a trade to replace judges, just who has outfield access? I'm not saying nobody does in your particular league, it's possible somebody's loaded there, but I'm sure other, if it's an active league with where a lot of trading goes on, I'm sure other people have come knocking for that excess because a lot of people are having trouble filling their outfields, spots. - Yeah, and then a couple deep league replacements off the waiver wire, Cody Clemens, who just had a two-homer game, Jacob Young with the Nationals, and Wade Mechler of the Angels. I heard you guys talk about him on the weekend recap podcast. It's like, man, what a name, Wade Mechler. I do have some bio-low trade options here. Feel free to add anyone else to this, but Fernando Tati's Jr. say a Suzuki, Tyler Sotershrum, George Springer, Brendan Nimmo. - Brent Rucker. - Wyatt Langford. - Yeah. - Yeah, Brent Rucker. - I think Tati's and Rucker would be the top two for me, just relative to what they've done and what the discussion around them seems to be versus what I expect them to do moving forward. Because I still think, I mean, we've talked a lot about Fernando Tati's, I still think he's gonna be a very, very good hitter. The rest the way. And we're starting to see a little bit of it. He only has nine extra race hits on the season. I think he has two in the last five games, both of them were hit to the pole side. He had a double off the wall, I think, on Monday. And he had the home run over the weekend. So I do think we're starting to see Tati's make the adjustments that we want him to see. He's opened up his batting stance. As I pointed out, I think on the weekend show. So I remain cautiously optimistic about Tati's Rucker. I think it makes the most sense to be optimistic about Tati's. I think Tati's is someone you're not gonna get for free. - No, no, no. - He's going to retain some value just because of his consistency at the top of draft boards over the years. But guys, you could potentially give for free, quote, unquote, like probably the person who has them, particularly if it's a shallow relief, has given some thought to dropping them, would include Brent Rucker and George Springer, both of whom I have some concerns about. But ones I have less concerns about would be like, say a Suzuki and I thought I had another one. - Soda strum? - Yeah, soda strum. Soda strum might still command a certain amount in return. - Brent and Nemo's like old and boring, but his stat cast stuff still looks really good this season. - Maybe like Joe Adele. - If you want to shoot for some power upside. - Yeah, I mean, there's definitely power upside there. - And then that might be what you need most of all. - I mentioned why a Lankford's name too, just because before he got hurt, people were just completely done with why Lankford. They're like, "Why did I use a fourth round pick on this guy?" Now people waited this long, they might not want to give them up. I would totally get that. But if you want to shoot for upside, I still think if he's healthy, I think why Lankford still has a lot of upside. So a couple of trade options there. - I don't know why Taylor Ward has only two home runs after hitting 36 last year. I had him on my bus list to begin the year. So I'm feeling kind of good about that. But I've seen him dropped in some leagues. - And he has been playing through a hand injury. We discussed this yesterday and we didn't mention that, but that's something that I missed. He had a bone bruise in mid-April that he's been playing through. So that could be the explanation for why the power has been so bad. He kind of, I mean, you look at the profile now and he kind of doesn't look like a power head or any more either. So it's, - No, I said the extra day. His profile looks like Chase MyDrawd now. It's like, what happened? - The exit velocity readings are pretty close to normal. They're down average on average one mile per hour from last year. The average swing speed's a little slower. Mainly it's just the barrel rates way down, which is, I think going to have the closest correlation to how somebody's power output looks. But I also think it's a number that can fluctuate a lot over the course of the season. So I think Taylor Ward's another good by-low option. - All right, again, the big news, Aaron Judge, is out with a stress fracture on the first rib of his right side. He will be re-imaged in four to six weeks and we'll find out more than, but it, yeah, I think the best case scenario is he's back like late July, early August. We'll just have to wait and see what happens here with Aaron Judge. Let's take our first break before we do so, just say a reminder for all your week 12 needs. Make sure to listen to our FBT Express episode. That will be out Saturday morning plus head on over to the website, CBSPorts.com/Fanase/Baseball to get all of Scott's week 12 sleeper hitters and two-star pitchers. Let's take that break. We'll be back right after this. Let's start with the first song of the year. The first song of the year is called "Hertzista". It's called "Hertzista". Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. I think anyone who has show to Emanaga right now is freaking out trying to figure out what do I do with show to Emanaga. Another clunker here against the athletics six innings six runs allowed four homers allowed one being an inside the park home run where PCA just lost it in the night sky. And it would have been like a routine flyout for PCA as fast as you like close to the warning track, but still would have been an easy play for him. But there were still three other homeruns that went over the fence here against show team in aga. He still had 17 whiffs on 84 pitches, but last four starts 10 80 ERA 152 whip 12 homers allowed over 21 and two thirds innings and next week. He's in Colorado. So how about that? What do we do with show to Emanaga? I think you probably lean shit next week. He's going to throw a jet. He's going to add that's how I feel. It's like I've said after each of Emanaga's last two starts. This is probably the high point for a ZRA this season and you know it's gotten higher each time. So I've been wrong twice about that. So I don't want to say at this time. I especially with the next start in Colorado. I think you should say it. I mean, you got to lean into it. I mean, it is I was thinking of hedging my bet by saying I I'm not saying this is his high point for the ERA this season. But it wouldn't surprise of course because I'm saying that he's probably going to throw a seven shut out innings next time. And that way I'm never I'm not going to be right necessary. I'm never wrong either. It's like kind of the cowards way out, but I'm feeling pretty cowardly at this point. So I think it's a good time to behave like a coward and say that. So that's that's what I'm thinking here as far as predicting the direction Emanaga's ERA takes. I mean, it's. It's pretty simple. What's wrong with him? He's given up a ton of home runs in his last four starts. And it's, for some pictures, that would be a huge surprise. And we'd be digging into, oh, what's wrong with him? What is he doing wrong? But with the Monogads, it's kind of been the story with him his whole career. And I had hoped certainly that with velocity returning to 2024 levels, his ERA would return to that level too. And at the start of the year, it looked like it, because he was only giving up-- he'd only given up five home runs until four starts ago when he's given up 12. But that's just how home runs work. They're not evenly distributed across all the starts. And so I do think in the long run, Emonogazirre is going to finish under four. I agree with that. But there are going to be times when you absolutely hate having him because of how home run bronias. I think part of it is the venue, too. I read earlier that the win was blowing out 12 miles per hour to center field in this game, Enrigley Field. Three of the past four starts where Emonogazirre has really struggled have been at home Enrigley Field. The weather's starting to heat up. Things like this are going to happen. But I mean, look, famous last words. I don't think it's going to last forever. So I actually think this creates a buying opportunity. If someone is as close to the engineer like Lookpan, I don't want anything to do with Emonog anymore. Because those are some of the mentions I'm getting on Twitter right now. I would just send out some really low offers and see if I can pick up Emonogazirre cheat. Absolutely. I think what we're seeing right now is just the low end of the variance for Shoday Emonogazre. And for seven or eight starts, we saw the absolute high end. He had a sub one ERA or 150 ERA before this stretch. He was incredible. We were people were talking about him as a top 15 starting pitcher and on May 13th, he had a 232 ERA. There you go. I moved him into my top 15. And that's the same. And I am a stupid person. You're not stupid. It's a space ball baby. I'm saying that. But I am a coward. Look, pictures are random number generators within themselves. Like there are stretches where without much explanation, guys do really well. There are other stretches where guys do really poorly. And it's just kind of-- it's oversimplifying to say it happens because they have to execute and pitch well. And that's absolutely a part of it. But from our perspective, the thing Shoday Emonogazre has to do is not start throwing new pitches. Or he just has to pitch better than he has. We know this can work for him. And even last year when it was very frustrating, he ended up with this 373 ERA and a 1.05 win out, 0.99 win. He was still mostly very good even if it was kind of frustrating. I think that's still who Shoday Emonogazre is. I do want to say a couple of things about the P. Korarmsthrank thing though. One, just some of the worst form I've ever seen on an outfielder losing a fly ball. Because I didn't-- you see it? He didn't defend himself at all. He lost the ball and just kind of kept staring up. Yeah. Eventually at some point, he kind of braced and then it landed like 25 feet above it. Yeah, but dude, if it's coming for you, you've got to cover your head. You have no idea where it is now. You're in danger. And also, I have seen this-- I know part of being a sports fan is being a hater. And hey, I get it. Right? Hey, da Yankee lose. Like, I get it. It's fun. Hey, hey. I have seen a lot of people on Twitter seemingly negatively polarize themselves into believing that P. Korarmsthrank is a bad defensive player. Like, he had a weird play in the outfield a couple last week where he misplade one off the wall. And like, that's dumb. There are so many other things to criticize P. Korarmsthrank about besides his defense. Like, everything about his game except for his defense. He has 12-- 12 out-of-a-bomb averages, he's-- Yeah, why would you-- Why would you like-- oh, this guy's not that good. It's a media hype. No, he's actually that good. He just messed up like twice. It's fun. I think it's far-- He's actually like the best defensive player in baseball. I think he's kind of a divisive player, too, just like all that stuff that happened when he's yelling at someone. He's a little bit personal. So of course-- When you start arguing with a fan on camera, that's really going to play well for you. Well, that was bad. That I won't defend. Yeah, yeah, that was bad. But like, yeah, the like, oh, actually, he's not that good defensively. Just-- you don't know ball. No, he's actually-- Sorry, I just had to-- I had to rant a little bit. That can happen to anybody, too. So-- and I had people telling me like, oh, did you see what happened in the game? I'm like, yeah, I was watching the game. What about the other three home runs show that Imanaga gave up that went over the fence? Yes. You know, it's not-- that's not the only home run he gave up. So anyway, yeah, if you have Imanaga, I probably would not use him next week, and then he's going to go off. If you don't have him, I would be sending out by low offers right now. Let's hit some other news and notes. Max Muncie and Ildemarro Vargas both left Thursday night after a nasty collision at first base. Did you guys see this? Yes. It was like a linebacker taking on a running back. They were both racing for first base, and then just boom, like two meatheads just collapsed. It was like a game of chicken. It was like, seems so avoidable to me. Yeah, it was so-- How did that happen? Sometimes collisions, you know, the two people aren't looking at each other, and it makes sense how they collide. They were just full-bocked on the base, right? And just to see the other one. One of you has to like, you know, slip your foot in, but kind of veered at the side, and neither one seemed willing to do that. So they both wound up on the ground. It sounds-- I saw an update on Muncie. He has a sore nose, but no concussion. And he's going to be out of the line up tomorrow. But it sounds like he avoided anything serious, which, you know, it was-- when was it? How many years ago when Muncie had a gruesome injury at first base when he was fielding at first base, right? I remember that. And that the runner ran into his arm and kind of-- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know how long ago it was, but-- I will say that one's kind of on Ryan Nelson, right? How do you, as the pitcher, not beat Max Muncie to first? It's not like-- not the fastest dude in the world. Come on, give your first basement a little help. Yep. Katel Marte was back in the lineup after missing Wednesday with back and hamstring issues. And he hit a walkoff bomb off of Tanner Scott in that game. Corey Seeger is expected to return Friday. He missed a few weeks with lower back inflammation. In leagues where you set your lineups for the weekend, Friday through Sunday, are you guys good getting Seeger back in your lineups? He was pretty bad before the end. Yeah, I think it kind of depends who I've been using in his plays, because there's excess in shortstop. So it's very likely you have somebody else you're comfortable with there, not that I'm saying you should drop Seeger in any situation. But you may want to-- depending on your alternative, you may want to see how it plays out first and stick with your sub. Now, if your sub was-- I don't know, Hassong Kim or somebody higher in than that slightly, different story. But if it's somebody decent, probably stick with that decent player for now. Apparently, JJ Weatherhold is playing through lower half-sourness, but is expected to be in the lineup on Friday. Royals manager, Matt Quattro, said he will play the matchups in the ninth inning for the short term, but he still views Lucas Ersegg as the long-term closer option. So my guess was any of Daniel Lynch, Matt Trom, Alex Lang, even Ersegg. Well, we had a save opportunity here on Thursday. And it was Alex Lang, who actually picked up the save. And he has closer experience. Some of those other guys were used to set up for him. I take him at his word. I think they're going to mix in match. But are you guys in deeper leagues looking to add Alex Lang anywhere? This was two straight days for Lang, right? Yeah. Yeah. I will note in this one, it was tied heading into the ninth inning and then the Royal scored two. Matt Strom pitched the tied eighth. Wasn't that true for both of them? I believe so. So yeah, yeah, yeah. Might have been. Might have been going into the ninth. And then I think both times the Royal scored three runs. Yeah. Yeah, two tonight. But yeah, so that does make it a little less obvious what the plan was because, you know, was Lang going to pitch-- if they had a lead, no matter what, was he going to pitch no matter what if they had a tie. I would lean Lang right now, I guess. But I don't think that means he is the closer. Oh, I agree. Yeah. I actually do think that they will play matchups. Like, if there's lefties coming up, they'll just keep one of Strom or Lynch ready for that ninth inning. So-- Yeah, I think I'll go a little stronger and say this is red herring because of how it played out each of the last two nights. And like, you know, they were expecting to go to extra innings heading into the ninth inning. But they rallied to take a lead that created a save situation. And it's like Lang, I presume, was the pitcher who they had warming up. And OK, we're just going to go with him. Particularly tonight, they had already used Strom and Lynch here on Thursday. So Lang had one hold prior to getting these two saves. [BLANK_AUDIO] It's not like they were using him in the highest leverage spots. He's been pretty good since May, but in terms of run prevention, but the strikeout rate isn't anything to write home about and as many control issues as he's known for having. I don't know that that's, I think the problem is these guys are all bad or at least not very good. I think that's strong is probably the best. The day when he hasn't been great, Lynch has legitimately been good this year. He has been, but it's a very small sample size. The strikeout rate is not like elite, right? I think it's over a strikeout training. Okay, it's 10 point. Okay, it's been a very bad strikeout rate before this is what I was thinking. 10.3 Kp9, that's very good so far this season. It's 25 innings. Maybe there's some kind of underlying change that has unlocked something for him, but I tend to think the longer track record here is worth pointing out that he had six Kp9 last season in 67 innings. So I think Matt Strom is the best pitcher in this bullpen, but he's been a little shaky too. Bright Rooker was out of the lineup Thursday due to a knee soreness manager Mark Cotsay said it was precautionary. Michael Garcia has missed five straight with that right hamstring injury has yet to go on the aisle. Horoldo Pradomo was dropped down to seventh in the D-backs lineup. He responded by going two for four with an RBI. Playing to Rook through a bullpen on Thursday in his on track to make his next start Saturday against the Cubs. He pitched through back discomfort earlier in the week. Brian Bale was option a AAA after an abysmal start on Thursday. Why didn't they just use an opener? I don't know. Maybe he would have got rocked anyway, but it's just so weird. As a starter of the season, Brian Bale, 10.35 ERA, 222 Whip, when he follows an opener, 0.71 ERA, 0.91 Whip. It's just, I don't know. I'm kind of weird mental thing or just randomness and baseball, but I did you mention that six of A runs he gave up in this one. We're in the first inning. I did not. Yeah. That is true. That drives the point home even harder. I saw a clip. I think he was taking exception to the idea that he should come out of the bullpen. I don't know. Even though he's going, even even in those times, he follows the opener. He's going, you know, six, seven innings, like you'd expect a starter to. He seems to bristle at the idea of coming out of the bullpen. That's what matters the weird. Yeah. They have a lot of pride. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm saying like it because you're getting the innings anyway, but it's not the starter. Yeah. That's that's that. It's semantics. Oh, 100%. But that's when you're when you're that prideful. That stuff matters. Casey Meyers, Toss Day bullpen on Tuesday and is tracking towards a short stint on the aisle. Yiner Diaz, who's on the aisle with a left oblique strain is close to going out on a rehab assignment. And Jason Dominguez, who I mentioned earlier, will start a rehab assignment on Friday. 37% rostered. I should get a lot of playing time here with Aaron Judge on the aisle. Let's take our final break. After your return, I've got waiver wire options, defend your rankings and much more will do that right after this. Welcome back, fantasy baseball today. Let's take a look at waiver wire pictures from Thursday's action and this name only available in the shallowest of leagues. But I feel like it should be closer to 100%. That is Jared Jones with a strong outing at the Astros first start. Not so good. This one five shut out innings four strikeouts 12 whiffs on 74 pitches. Velocity remains up. He's mixing in other pitches. I you know, results aside. I think he's looked really good so far. He gets the Dodgers next week. You don't necessarily want to use him in that matchup. But I think he has a ton of upside. I think he should be closer to 100% rostered. Yeah, I agree. He averaged 94.5 on his change up. Did I see that right? Yeah, 94.5. That's a lot. That's a lot of MPH's. I mean, is that even really a change up at that point? I guess it's slower than the fastball. Yeah. That's Edward Cabrera path. And the slider, he averaged 91. Yeah, the slider actually felt a little more cuttery today because he had three fewer inches of drop. Still same amount of arm movement or glove side movement. But that was an interesting one. Obviously, throwing it two miles an hour or harder. That's really impressive. I don't know. Like, it's there are easy. It's easy to see ways in which Jared Jones doesn't become a must-star pitcher. He's never really been a must-start pitcher outside of what the first month of his rookie season in 2024. But there's just such obvious arm talent here that you got to give him the chance to prove it. So, yeah, I think he's worth adding. Anywhere he's available. All right. Two other names here. Ryan Nelson or JT Ginn? Who do you guys like more? Ryan Nelson. He did the thing. He used the fastball 60% on the nose. Seven innings, two runs, three strikeouts against the Dodgers. JT Ginn, another strong start. This one at the Cubs. Six innings, one run, eight strikeouts. 19 whiffs on 88 pitches. Feels like he kind of simplified the pitch mix here. Change up slider, sinker. All three of those were really, really good for JT Ginn. He is on a nice roll. Last six starts 149 ERA. Point 9 for whip. Scott, who do you like more? JT Ginn or your boy, Ryan Nelson? I wish Ryan Nelson would tell us ahead of time if he planned to throw the fastball 60% at the time because we know it was wanted to start him against the Dodgers, but if he's just told us, oh, I'm going to throw the fastball 60% at the time. Chris is trying to say awesome. He's a beauty, sir. I'm going to be honest. I still wouldn't have started against the Dodgers. Come on, man. It works every time. He got three strikeouts. Let's not, none of the time. Let's not, let's not act like this was like some old, romically dominant start from, like I think Ryan Nelson is good. He's probably, he's still like 60% rostered, right? I feel like that's still, that would be fitting. 69. But I don't, yeah, I don't think like, if you told me he was going to throw 100% fastballs, I don't care what the number of fastballs are. I still want to trust in him against the Dodgers. It might be too many. He's at the Marlins next week. Yeah, like he's a pretty good pitcher. I think he's good, but I'm not going to throw 60% fastballs against the Marlins. There's no, there's no world in which I'm saying I'm definitely starting Ryan Nelson against the Dodgers. Come on, come on, Chris. I think the biggest takeaway here is I would take JTG in over Ryan Nelson. I don't know if that's like a hot JTG. So JTG in his last six starts has a 140, 90, R.A. 0.94 whip and 9.2, Kper 9. Six starts and they've all been on the longer set. I do. I don't know why he got so many more whips than this one. I didn't really see like the velocity and the movement on the pitch. It wasn't any different. So I think he's still, you know, you don't think of him as a batman. So you think of him as a weak ground ball guy who's decent at missing bats. But you know, last six starts, 9.2 Kper 9. That's a little more than decent, I'd say. So I think JTG has certainly put himself in the must ad. What do you go as far as must ad for him? Aside from Jared Jones who's already pretty widely rostered, I'd say JTG is the clear waiver wire pickup of the day. Yeah, I mean, even you take him ahead and Ryan Nelson as well, Scott? I think so. If only because like you probably have you beforehand, if he's going to thrift it. Yeah, exactly. No, I think you have. I don't think there's as much attention on Ryan Nelson right now. And like Ryan Nelson has had home run problems this year. He gave up four just in his previous start. He's always gotten a lot of fly balls. It's even higher this year. He's allowed home runs kind of like Emanog as just distributed differently across the start. Only two of them came in that Mexico City start. So there have been plenty of home runs. And even when he's been good, he's not a strikeout pitcher, which we're starting to see a little bit of that from Gens. So, you know, if you get that extra strikeout every start, you know, if the ratios are probably going to be pretty similar for Gens and Nelson, I think that's enough to give Gens the edge. Yeah, necessarily by that JT Gens, you know, a 23% strikeout rate or 24% strikeout rate guy would have he's been. But he has been that lately. And he's got a couple of pretty good swing and mispitches. So, yeah, I think I think Gens is among widely available players, probably the best pickup today. Yeah, like you said, Scott. I give you three other names. Would you guys take Gens over Gens jump over Roki Sasaki and over Walbert Araniel? Yes. I might stick with jump just because I think there's more upside, but if you're going to get a higher score, you're going to get a higher score. If you wanted to prioritize gain over jump, that's fine too. All right. We need to see more, but a nice first step here from Trevor Rogers, okay, star at the Red Sox five and two thirds, one run, three strikeouts. Chris, would you see here from Trevor Rogers? Do you agree we need to see more? I will just point out his matchups next week, the Mariners and Padres, they have the two lowest woebus against left handed pitching in all of baseball. So literally cannot have a better matchup or left handed starter, but it's Trevor Rogers. So, so the thing that's really tough with Trevor Rogers is I never had a good feel for why he was so good last season. Like he, he added a little bit of velocity, but it mostly seemed to come down to he was just executing exceptionally well. And I think that's what happened today. He was keeping the four seam, you look at the pitch charts, he was keeping the four seam or elevated, he was keeping the sinker down. The, the change was down like the command was there in a way that it has been this season. And we have seen him do that for two thirds of a season where he was dominant. So it's possible that he just goes out and does that moving forward. But if you're looking for like some tangible sign that Trevor Rogers is a completely different pitcher than he was in the first two months of the season, there wasn't. So I, I, I think you remain skeptical, but if you had held Trevor Rogers, okay, you can continue to hold Trevor Rogers. That seems fine. A very deep name, but notice that he did some things differently here. Slade, Sikoni, strong outing at the Yankees, six innings, one run, four strikeouts. He had 11 whips on 82 pitches. He used his cutter and curve a lot more. And the curve was very different. It was up to Miles per hour, had five less inches of drop. Scott, I don't think we need to do anything yet. But I think it's, let's see where this goes with Slade, Sikoni. Sure. I mean, the curve ball had already been his best pitch. So just him throwing it more, I think was a good choice. But then the characteristics on it were quite a bit different too. And he had a good start. You had no interest in picking him up yet, like you said, but we'll, we'll, we'll keep an eye on how this goes with the curve ball. Is it okay to drop Seth Lugo? He was at the twins five innings, five runs, three homers allowed in this one. He's got a 391 year A 136 whip. He entered the star with a 497 XERA. Still 76% rostered. He's pretty fringe, but I do have a miss sleeper pitcher for next week. He's facing the Rangers. But a Rangers lineup that could have Seeger and Langford back in it does, does that change your mind at all? I mean, not really. Yeah. They weren't doing much with them either. Eventually they could, they could be a decent lineup. But right now I'd, yeah, I still think they're a good matchup. And Lugo has been a quality star machine. He, he kind of feels like obviously Michael Waka for the time being is, is much roster. And, and Lugo seems like, it seems like we should handle Lugo like we handled Michael Waka in years past, where if, if he's good, he's almost certainly quality star level good. And so it, it makes them pretty easy to stream against weak opponents. There's just a bunch of pitchers like this. I think Justin Robleski is kind of similar when, where I think the margin for error for this type of pitcher just because they don't miss many bats is always going to be slim because they're going to have to rely on their defense and not issuing walks and that's always tough to do consistently. But when they're on, it's fine to trust them. It's just, I don't think they are guys who you do have to hold when they're not doing well either. Yeah. Like if you wanted to shoot for more upside with a JT Gain or a gauge jump or a Roki Sasaki, I wouldn't have an issue. If Seth Lugo is the worst pitcher on your team, I wouldn't have an issue doing that. Some waiver wire hitters. Esauk Paratus looks like he might be coming around back to back games with a Homer. He has three in his past seven, 75% rostered. So only out there in some shallower leagues, but those could be points leagues where that's typically his best format. So just check to see if paratus was dropped in your league. We said it yesterday. As long as he plays in Houston, I'm still going to have faith that paratus is going to come around. So just check to see that he is not available on your waiver wire. Bryce Eldridge. He stayed hot three for four with a walk, RBI to run scored over his last seven games. He's saying 522 with one Homer in nine runs. Scott, I know you wanted to talk about Bryce Eldridge earlier on in the show. Yeah. If we had, if we had chosen our player the night, he would have been mine for the second time this week. His expected stats have only improved since the last time we talked about him Monday, coming into this game before the three for four performance, expected batting average of 290, you know how hard it is to get an expected batting average of 300. It's that the math doesn't support that. I'm not saying you never see it, but you rarely see it. And Bryce Eldridge of all people has that mark. His strikeout rate still 25% ex of velocities are great. Pull air rate is great. Giant seem committed to playing him every day now. I think Bryce Eldridge is about to take off. And one game, one appearance now away from gaining first base eligibility, which will make it a lot easier to use them to. I'll tell you how hard it is. Got to have a 298 expected batting average. 94th percentile in baseball. So there you go. It's pretty, there you go. Pretty darn hard to deeper names. Both feel like sluggery types, but Cody Clemens. He's getting a chance to play. He's doing some stuff two for four with a double dong. He has started 20 of the past 21 games has four homers in his past eight. 26% rostered with first second and outfield eligibility. And Kobe Mayo. He is hitting the ball really hard lately. He went one for four with three RBI last 16 games hitting 288 four homers. During that span 95.3 average ex of velocity for Kobe Mayo. Christie, have any deep league power interest in Cody Clemens or Kobe Mayo? Not really in Cody Clemens. We saw some stretches of utility last season, but nothing that lasted long enough to make me think that he's, he's a 30 year old, you know, like that. I don't think we're seeing a breakout here. It's just sometimes major league hitters get hot and even, you know, kind of mediocre ones can be good for a couple of weeks. Kobe Mayo. He is young enough and has some pedigree to wear. Yeah, I'm open to the possibility that he's figuring it out. But it's not like we have a long track record of him doing this. So I'm still, I think skepticism should absolutely still be the, the approach with Kobe Mayo, but 17% rostered. You know, if you want to take a flyer on him in a 15 team league, I think that's okay. Yeah. All right. Let's do defend the ranking. So I tried to find outliers among the three of us. And in case you're wondering, where do I find these rankings? You can find them on the website, cbsports.com/fanaceyslatch baseball. Or on the CBS fantasy app, we have rankings for both roto slash category leagues and head to had points leagues. So let me be clear, roto. And if you play a head to head categories league, those are going to be in the roto side of things. If you play head to had points, those will very clearly be in the head to head points side of the ranking. So we don't have too much time left. This will have to be just defend your ranking. So we can't like retort back and forth. But the first name up here, it was the headliner. The photo in Scott's article, Miguel Vargas, who again, unknowingly Scott, we moved them up to the same exact spot. I didn't even look at your rankings. We both have him ninth ranked first baseman, fifth ranked third baseman, Chris. You have him as your 18th ranked first baseman, your 14th ranked third baseman. Why do you hate Miguel Vargas? Yeah, that might be too low. But I think the answer for me is kind of just be the same for a lot of these ones that are for me. And it's, I'm more skeptical of small sample size breakouts than you guys are. And that's not to say you guys are wrong to rank him there. I think a lot of people would say, would agree with you guys. That's just my process. I try, I try, I fail often, but I try to keep myself steady. And so I don't have to, okay, this guy's been good for two months. I'm going to move him way up, take it at face value. And then I'm going to move him down if you, like, I'd rather not do that, but it's, it's impossible not to do that. We all do that from time to time. So when do you actually move him up though? I mean, does this for two more months? Is that what happens? Oh, yeah. I mean, he'll, he'll continue to move up and he has already. And if you really want, like, I'm not going to argue with you if you say he should be ahead of Jonathan Oranda and Tyler Soderstrom and Christian Walker. The Christian Walker is having a really good year. Yeah. Part of it comes loaded, like, yeah, like part of it comes down to, I just don't think there's very much separating those 10 spots at the rankings, but it's also like, we have seen two really good months from Tyler Soderstrom too. We have seen two really good months from Christian Walker so far. I think Vargas has been better, but part of that is I have no idea how real the steals are for Vargas. That's the biggest thing because if, if Vargas is a 25 Homer guy the rest of the way, but he's also a 15 steel guy, well, that's really value. We have no track record. I'm going to go Vargas running like this. That's what I find really tough with him. Yeah. He already has nine steals in 267 played appearances this year. He had only six steals and 569 played appearances last year. He is 72nd percentile in sprint speed, so he's pretty fast. Good athlete. Again, that was Miguel Vargas. Chris, I'm coming. I'm gonna write back to you. Scott has O'Neill Cruz as his outfielder seven. I have him as my number nine outfielder. You're playing hard to get here. You still have him down to 22 in your outfield, right? - Yeah, I mean, again, in this one, I think part of it is just, we actually haven't, we have seen two very good months, but the two months we have seen were not equally good. April was way better than May. May for O'Neill Cruz, he's still a bunch of bases. That was really nice. I think he still had nine steals in May, but only four homers, strikeout rate has been as high as ever. The strikeout rate against lefties, I think is up to like 37% or something. I am just less convinced of the improvements that O'Neill Cruz has, or the improvements that O'Neill Cruz seemingly made very early on in the season. But yeah, 22, okay, that's maybe a little low, as we've been going through this. Come on, Chris. - I got him 17. I would still rather have, oh, I don't know, some of these guys are in similar spots. Like Jordan Walker versus O'Neill Cruz. I have a little more faith in Jordan Walker's bat than O'Neill Cruz is, but if you wanna argue that O'Neill Cruz should be ahead of those guys too, I won't argue too much with you. - Boxed in PCA, like it's, you know, it's that range, I get it. - Yeah, yeah, I, I, I think I would take PCA ahead of O'Neill Cruz now, but I mean, kind of the very similar players. I think O'Neill Cruz more physically gifted as a hitter, but I think they're both gonna run super hot or cold, and it's just kind of, we've seen the hot for O'Neill Cruz, and we've seen the cold for PCA. - All right, I didn't wanna just point out with O'Neill Cruz. He has kept up the, the good numbers against lefties this year, hitting 311, 868 OPS. - Does come when they 41% strikeout rate. - Okay, 41%. That's, I thought it was around 40%. - That's pretty high. All right, Scott, you're a little too quiet. Let's get you in here, and I hate to do this one because it's an Atlanta brave, but. - Oh, come on. - I had to do it, man. Spencer Strider, you have an SP 25, I have him 38, Chris has him 44th, and you have him ahead of some like really good names. - I just moved George Kirby behind him, which I think is saying. - I, I, I, these are all, mostly guys, we talked about how hard they were to rank last week. - Yeah. - I, I move Freddie Peralta behind him because I don't think there's, I'm not convinced there's much of a ceiling for Freddie Peralta right now. Framber belt does seem like a pretty easy choice to move behind Strider, Logan Webb. It both been pretty underwhelming this year. I don't know, I, I meant to less as a statement about Strider than just, I'm not excited about these guys I moved behind him. - Yeah. - Those I, I just listed off. So, I don't know that I have a satisfying explanation for you, just, I, I see a little more reason to be excited about Strider than some of these, these others that I just list. I mean, is there another name behind him that you're like, ah, you really should have him ahead, like, I don't know, do Rasmussen or? - I'm not as convicted about that one. I'm pulling up to rankings now to see, like I get Striders upside as much higher than someone like Parker Messick, for example, but Messick has been really consistent all season, you know? - Yeah, it's a lot of five and a third inning starts. It's not as, not as impactful as the percentages would suggest. - Do you have Cole ahead of him? - I have Cole three spots behind Strider. - That's a, I mean, that's a really tough one. - I think that's a tough one with both. - I think Gar Cole's better, just because I think the, the Homer issues are probably gonna be lesser for him, but obviously that's, that was easier to say, you know, 28 hours ago or whatever before he gave up what for Homer's yesterday? - Three. - Three, yeah. - Yeah. - To a school bull will move ahead of him, Hunter Brown will move ahead of him. There are a handful of guys. - Well, I actually already have school bull and Brown ahead of him. - Okay. - I move, yeah, they're both still in my top 12 or back in my top 12. - Mm-hmm. - Yeah, I'm looking, anyone else like, tray a savage, I mean. - Yes, I actually want to struggle with, because I have them down 40 and there's not as much separation between Strider and Yesavage's those 15 spots would suggest. - Yeah. - I think that's the big thing is that it's just kind of globby and it would be very easy to move up or down 15 to 20 spots at starting pitcher without anything really changing about the pitcher themselves. All right, let's keep it with the home team's Chris. You have Kyle Stowers as your 30th ranked outfielder. I have him 48th. Scott has an 50th. - Honestly, in some ways, this is a commentary on how black I feel about the outfield position, where at least I've seen an elite two thirds of a season from Kyle Stowers, and there are just so many guys that I just do not feel good about at outfield right now. And we're still dealing with a relatively small sample size for him, only 40 games. It hasn't been good, no doubt about it, but I still have a little bit of hope for Kyle Stowers, but we also look, we don't have the long track record of success with him. - Yeah. - So this is mostly just that they're just have not been a lot, like Roman Anthony's still around 30 for me, just 'cause like, I don't even know when he's gonna be back, but there aren't a lot of guys who I want to move ahead up these guys. - Mm-hmm. - Yeah, I have Anthony 29 myself. - Yeah, so. - Yeah, I think I saw him like 25th. - And I kind of wanna be optimistic about Stowers, actually, despite my ranking there. I don't know about you guys, but I feel this tension when I'm putting together the rankings, where unless I really trying to make a firm statement about a player, if I'm kind of waffling on how valuable he is really knowing that people often use our rankings to gauge trades. - Well, Stowers has no trade value, right? - Yeah, I mean, that's always, that's a classic philosophical question, right? 'Cause I put together the trade chart and it's like, should you do it? Like I know when Dave Ritchard doesn't, I've talked to him about it. He tries to do it more based on perception of what the market would bear. - Right. - And I do mind based on what I expect them to do moving forward. And those are overlapping, but separate questions. And I'm saying I kind of marry the two, because for example, at War to Rodriguez, Grady R.A. this year, I probably have an 80 fifth in my starting pitch rankings. I'm making a statement there that like, get out of this guy while you still can because I don't think there's anything here, but moving Miguel Vargas in top five at their base, I'm not so sure that in the long run, he's gonna be better than Austin Riley, or Michael Garcia, or one of those other struggling, Mani Machado, one of those struggling third baseman I move ahead of. But I think it's likely enough that just to give a better reflection of how these people are going to be valued in your league, I'm gonna go ahead and move Miguel Vargas ahead. - And I think this probably frustrates some people, but rankings are difficult for me. It's just not really how I think about things. This guy is one player better than the next guy. That's just not actually how it works. And so my rankings on the site are what they are. They're an ordinal ranking, but I am not strongly held to any of my specific rankings. - Do you think of it more in clusters or tiers? - Absolutely. - If I could, my preference would be like blobs, right? Like a, this guy's got, he's 37th, but it could be 23rd or it could be 65th. Like that's actually how I think about it, because we're talking about ranges of outcomes and probabilities rather than the one thing you see. I think rankings are an important part of how people consume fantasy sports. And I understand that. I think rankings are not the best way to think about it though. And so I always struggle with that tension in my head. Especially in category leagues too, because this is like, what does your team need most? It's, oh, let me just take this top ranked player or a trade for this top ranked player. Like if you're in first place in steals, just because Chandler Simpson as our 35th ranked outfielder, doesn't mean you have to go and get him because it just wouldn't make sense for your team. So no, I totally get it from that perspective as well. I didn't get to defend myself. I guess I will quickly do that now. I am much higher than you too on Alec Burleson and Xavier Edwards. Burleson, I will admit, it's kind of confirmation bias. I did like him a lot coming into the season. So far, 51st overall hitter in Roto, three fantasy points per game, tons of RBI, 42 RBI so far this year, hitting 287, only seven home runs. So he's on pace for 19 homers, 115 RBI five steals. I always said that it felt a lot like Josh Nailer, like the upside outcome. And I kind of feel like we're getting like a good Josh Nailer season out of Alec Burleson right now. So he isn't while you, but I think he's rock solid. - Minus the steals Frank, come on. - Huge part of Nailer's profile. - The old Josh Nailer, you know, pre-mariner Josh Nailer. And then Xavier Edwards, I have him like five spots ahead of you guys in the shortstop rankings, but it's like, it's so hard to pick and choose between short stops that are all really talented. But it's just, you know, me giving credit where it's due, man. What he's done this year, 311, six home runs, 41 runs, 10 steals. He has more walks than strikeouts. He is on pace for 15 homers, 105 runs, 25 steals. I don't know that he'll keep up that home run pace. Maybe he'll get somewhere in the 10 to 12 range, but I think he's gonna score a lot of runs. I think he's gonna have a good batting average. And I think the steal pace could actually go up a little bit. Like maybe he's closer to 30 steals, so. - The one thing I would say on that is the five guys directly ahead of Zaver Edwards for me are three injured guys, plus her alter Pradomo and Cory C and Boba Shatt, excuse me. - Get Pradomo out of there. - It would be really easy to move Zaver Edwards ahead of them. If you wanted to have him ahead of those guys, I think that's perfectly reasonable as well. The gap between them in the overall is very small. I think it's like 15 to 20 spots total. So there is not much differentiating but those guys for me. - All right, let's wrap up with some leftovers here. And we had some pretty huge offensive nights with Monster Game from Jackson Churio. We told you the power was coming. He's just hitting a snot out of the ball this season. Three for four with a double-dong four runs, four RBI for him, Shay Bangaliers with a double bang, two for four with two home runs. One of them being the inside of the park homer that PCA aided him on. But he was struggling before this. So nice to see a big game out of Shay Langaleers. And Pete Crow Armstrong, he did make up for the defensive blunder. He had a big offensive night, two for four, Sackin' to shoe, his ninth homer, his 13th steal. And he also had a walkoff single in that game. Any thoughts on Churio, Shay Langaleers and PCA? - PCA has, we talked about him a little bit earlier but he's been better for, I think long, I mean, you only put the last five games but I think the last like 30 or 40 games. You know, he kind of bottomed out towards the end of April and has been better. You know, I don't know if it's like an 800 OPS or what it is specifically but he's been better. It hasn't been as bad as it was early on. So I'm still pretty optimistic. - He's actually hitting the ball a lot harder than last year too. - Oh, that's been the case all season. Like he was one of the early bat speed gainers early on. It just didn't lead to results. And I think just, you're just gonna have to ride the ride with PCA Armstrong. But, you know, he's back to the top of the line up against Rides, so I think for the most part, you'll be happy you have him around. - I was afraid I didn't have the right days notes open 'cause I was trying to find my spot in your notes here Frank and I was looking for Shay Langaleers. Control left search for Shay Langaleers. It wasn't coming up. - No, that's a different guy. - So you put him in here as Shay Langaleers. - Bangaleers. - I don't think we can say Bangaleers. And inside the park home run, you know. - He had one over the fence too. - Yeah, he did, but that's just one. - Right, like I don't think you get to do Bangaleers for one home run. - That's just a normal day. - I always call them Bangaleers. I just didn't know it was so official. That's how I put it in the notes. - That's how you gotta do it. Did you guys realize, Will Siky Trarris hit his 12th home run? He has the Among Qualified hitters, the 14th best X-Wolba in baseball this season. - Awesome stuff, Frick Trarris. Ian Hath is now on pace for 36 home runs. His previous high was 25. And Ernie Clement, I did not realize this myself. Over his last 25 games, hitting 363 with four homers, 15 runs, an OPS over 900. He's all the way up to 83% roster. So there's not really anything you could do with it. But he is, he is racking up the hits. - But also, only on pace for like 65 runs and 60 RBI. - The blue jade lineup has not been in very good overall. - I mean, he's kind of become Luis Arise, like. - Yeah, like a boring Luis Arise. - Wait, wait, wait, you could get more boring than Luis Arise. - I mean, if he finishes with 125 combined runs in RBI, yeah. - You could tell we're hitting the end of the week. Scott is trying to. - Is that how he's basically trying to find the mute button? I'm like, keep that sneeze in. - Oh, man. - Can you get there in time? I'm sorry. - Some pitching leftovers, another strong outing for Zach Wheeler against the Padres. Seven innings, two runs, H-Srike out. He had 16 whiffs on 104 pitches in that one. Carlos Rodón, he's starting around into form. This time against Guardian, six innings of one run ball, seven strikeouts. 18 whiffs on 96 pitches. Chris Sale, not so great here against the blue jays, five and two thirds, 10 hits, three runs, six strikeouts to two walks. And Justin Robleski, strong outing at the D-back, six shutout innings, four strikeouts to zero walks. He allowed a ton of hard contact in this one, but I did notice the strikeouts have looked better. Last five starts for Robleski, 8.1 K per nine. Like, that's doable. I don't know if he can maintain it, but it's looked better. - I mean, I've noticed the changes of the last two starts with the velocity being about a mile per hour. It's not a huge increase, but it. - Four roblas comes. Sometimes a mile per hour can make all the difference. - It was up even more in this one. It was like a mile and a half to two miles per hour on everything. - Oh, okay, there you go. - Yeah, there you go. - There was like one, there was one start that's really carrying a lot of weight on the strike. He had like a nine strikeout start, I think. - Yeah, but then he had a few others that were like, one was six, one was five. It's been better than it was, you know? - It's been better, but today seven whiffs, I still tend to think Justin Robleski is a pretty obvious, so I can't admit it. - Yeah. - I'm not. - He is. - I'm not sure their rotation wouldn't be better with River Ryan right now. I mean, I think. - River Ryan's good. - Justin Robleski, obviously the results have been awesome. I'm talking about moving forward. - They could replace Eric Lauer with River Ryan pretty easily. Yeah, Robleski is a tough one because I think he's probably good in a non-conventional way. And obviously he's gonna regress because his ERA is ridiculously good right now. - 25, yeah. - But I'm not really, he's one is difficult to rank because there are a lot of reason for skepticism, but there's a lot of pluses there if he can just be 75 to 80% of what he's been so far. - It feels very Noah Cameron, circa 2025 to me. I also before we move on, I just wanna point out, Sekweeler, it's just incredible. - Yeah. - He's a legit top 15 starting pit. - Watching this start, there were some ugly swings against him. Like guys were just not comfortable against Sekweeler in a way that like just on fastball. See, he was just like pumping fastballs up early in the game by guys and just a way that I did not think he was gonna get back to. - Yep. - Meanwhile on the other side of the game, Lucas Gileedo looks like he's reaching back for everything he has to get to like 91 miles an hour. - Geez. - Yeah, it was 95.9. For Wheeler, average fastball, 95.9. That's a bit of a 96.1 last year. So he's like, he's going to sit back now. - Last three or four starts, he's basically just been back to where he was. It's remarkable. - Do you have a couple of their hitting leftovers here? Chris, I feel like this happened so often. We did a segment last night about struggling hitters and then boom, Machado Homer today, Jackson Merrill Homer today. Taylor Ward, three for five with a double run, RB Hyde, it just feels like it happened so often. Casey Schmidt, two for five with his 13th homerun. He is someone that has moved way up our rankings. He's first, second, third, and outfield eligible. Ryan O'Hern, he is back like he never left. Two for four with his ninth homer and four games since returning. He's got five hits, two homers, three runs and four RBI. Byron Bucksdon, another one. His 18th homerun of the season and Corbyn Carroll, big game, three for four with his ninth homerun of the season. Anything stand out here, anything to add on Carroll Bucksdon, Ryan O'Hern, Schmidt and the trio of Machado Merrill Ward? - I mean, we talked about Ward already. I think Ryan O'Hern's really good. I mean, 83% rostered, so he's not out there in many leagues. But he's been an underrated part of the Pirates Offensive Explosion this year. And he's come back from the aisle just hitting just as well as he was before. - Yep. Call it to the bullpen for the Yankees, David Bednar, got the ninth with a one run lead. He pitched a clean inning for his 13th save. Nice to see an easy one. He has not had many of those recently. For the Giants, Caleb Killian got the ninth with a three run lead. He allowed a hit, but picked up his fourth save. Yesterday, I made the case, oh, maybe they're turning over to Keaton win. He did record five outs yesterday, so he threw some pitches. Do you guys have a feel? Is it Killian? Is it win? Is it both? Is it none? I don't know. - Killian win both. - Not, they're our-- - It's Killian. - There are some bullpen's where there's just no closer 'cause they don't have anyone good, like I think the athletics. We'll talk about that. - Yep, and just a second. - But I think the Giants are one that just, they don't really have a closer. Like the nationals don't really have a closer. - Yeah. - And they never will ever again. - I think Killian's a little firmer than that. And athletics and twins, absolutely not. No closer there. Beaters, there are some signs that beaters kind of the favorite again for the nationals, because I mean, especially since Gus Varland has fallen off performance-wise. There's a lot of evidence that Keaton, the killing is the front runner for the giants. Now they don't get saves very often. So. - Yeah, but also his two appearances before this one was seven to six thenning. - Yeah, I get that, but like there's not really anyone else they turn to, for weeks there hasn't been anyone else they've tried out in that role. So it's a little frustrating the way Tony Vittello's handled his bullpen all season, but I think killing's the only giants really worth roster. - Sure. Speaking of the athletics, Joe Kunl, started the ninth inning with a three run lead. He recorded two outs, he allowed five hits. Luis Medina came on, he allowed two more hits, four earned runs charged to Kunl and the A's lose in walkoff fashion. That bullpen, very bad. For the Blue Jays, Louis Varlin came on with two outs in the eighth, a one run lead. He got Ozzy Albees to fly out. Then the Blue Jays tacked on four more runs. Varlin came back out for the ninth and he closed it out for his ninth save. For the Dodgers, Tanner Scott got the ninth with the game tied and he gave up a walkoff homer to Catelle Marte. To stream or not to stream on Friday, we have Kumar Rocker against the Guardian, Zebimath used against the Royals, Christian Scott at the Padres, Rokie Sasaki against the Angels. - Yeah, that looks like that's it for Friday. - Padres are now the worst offence in base, so the Dave dropped behind the Giants. So I mean, I think the ones you highlighted here are the right ones in terms of the order I'd use them. Probably Zebimath used first, Roki Sasaki second, Christian Scott third, Kumar Rocker fourth. - I would probably just swap Sasaki ahead of Zebim, but yeah, I think I'd have Zebim, or Roki at the top, but yeah, I agree with everything else. - I like those top three for sure, Rokie, I'm a little bit more shakeier on against the Guardians. They just don't swing and miss very much. On Saturday, Matthew Libertore against the Reds, Sean Burke at the Phillies, Andrew Painter against the White Sox, Zach Latella at the D-Backs, Tatooie Imai against the Athletics, Griffin Canning home against the Metz. - Yeah, Libertore could be okay. - I feel like Burke could be okay. - Yeah, I mean, the way Burke's last two starts were good, and the Phillies actually have also dropped behind the Giants. Even though they've been playing better overall, offense remains bad. So I think Burke's probably my top choice to this group. - Yeah, I'm pretty underwhelmed by this group. - I'd probably say Burke and Libertore, don't really wanna choose a third. I'm intrigued by Imai, I wouldn't use him, but I'm interested to see what he does in that start. - Yeah, third choice. You lose me with the third choice. It just seems like disaster for everyone else here, too much risk of disaster. - There are more options on Sunday. - Yeah, Sunday looks pretty good. We have Aaron Nola against the White Sox, Shane Bos at the Blue Jays, Luis Castillo at the Tigers, Griffin Jacks at the Marlins, Gage Jump at the Astros, Connor Prelyp against the Royals, McGreevy against the Reds, Joey Cantillo at the Rangers, Trevor McDonald at the Cubs and Jameson Tyone home against the Giants. - Yeah, like Griffin Jacks at Miami. Luis Castillo, I mean, you're almost certainly only getting five innings out of him. And, well, they're going six man right now. - Oh, they're not doing it. Okay, I guess that they broke up the Biggie back for the time being. - Castillo has looked better, so I'm okay with him at Detroit. Gage Jump at Houston, I don't hate Bos, he's mixing in the sinker Morgan's Rides, I don't hate that one. There's some options on Sunday for sure. - Nola against the White Sox. - No more, no more, no more, Kami. - Yeah, no more, Kami. I don't really buy the good start that Nola had at his most recent time out, but yeah, that's a good matchup. - I would probably say my top three would be, I think Bos Castillo Jacks. - I like Jump more than Jacks. - Okay, yeah, I'm interested by Jump, but at the Astros, not that they're lined up, it's great, but yeah, we are gonna wrap there. For Scott Chris, I am Frank, thanks as always for tuning into Fantasy Vs Ball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again next week. Bye bye. - Jumping Jacks, but Jump more than Jacks. (laughs) I knew that sounded funny. (upbeat music) - Paramount Podcasts. - On a new season of SkyMed. - I need fluids and an ambulance standing by. - The crew balances new responsibilities, new rescues and new recruits. - We take care of our own, clear? - Clear. (upbeat music) - SkyMed, new season now streaming on Paramount Plus.