Buy or Sell & Outfield Replacements! (6/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Sääd on maistav, on mitata asus Nätasupita, nätasud hordari, meel on na põnse Mänäse on burgerig, jokaren niist on varmasi bangerig Otatestin vasan 3.4 odoret, brioos ja topbroks sambelad Nääd on vihinfistet, jasad aiherta ulfailu Vasan 3.4 goti uskata vakaturuaka Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports Fandasi kõsja, e-mail fantasy baseballs CBSi.com Get ready to win your league Fandasi kõsja, fandasi kõsja realik Nau, hirs Franks, Scott and Chris How's it going? Welcome to fantasy baseball today on Thursday June 11th I am Franks Dampel, join by Chris Towers to dance the show by Orsel to fight the drop home meter two more big outfield injuries Ronald Akunja and Oenea Cruz playst in the aisle will get into replacements and much more Let's jump in Yeah, baby Alright, lots of big pitching performances just a big day overall there is a lot going on in baseball lot going on in basketball Yeah, I mean like that's I Are you okay? I'm not okay dude I am not okay That was one of the craziest basketball games I've ever seen that ending of the Nick Spurs game was up there with the Ray Allen shot also against the Spurs sorry to anyone who's listening to who's a Spurs fan you've had a and they've had a lot of they had the Derek Fisher 0.4 seconds three they had the Robert Ori they've had a lot of a lot of heartbreak A lot of success too I mean sure A lot of success but yeah, a lot of specifically heart-breaking game-winning moments that was 20 point comeback in the fourth quarter for our New York Knicks you know oh my gosh I can't even talk about it man I was like a motion ill childhood scarring it's crazy from growing up as a heat fan you know those heat Nick series in the 90s like the first basketball game I ever went to in my life was 99 NBA playoffs the heater the number one seed I think they lost by like 30 in the Miami arena to the New York Knicks who are the eighth seed so I've got a lot of residual scarring from that but the vibes are very good in New York City right now it's been fun so I hope they finish it off for you not going to say for us because that would be stolen valor but I'm happy for you buddy I do appreciate it man I know everyone's here for baseball you don't want to hear about basketball but at our core right the reason why we do this why we watch sports and play fantasy we're fans right and ever since I was a kid like basketball was my first love my first favorite sport and the Knicks you know I've just been diehard Knicks my entire life so this this is a crazy time in life and I'm trying to soak it all in while also hosting a fantasy baseball podcast so let's talk about some you build yourself off the ceiling long enough to get ready for the show yeah I had to build myself off the floor I was literally just laying on the floor for 10 minutes staring at the ceiling I just couldn't do anything I was just like I could not believe that that oh gee let's talk about baseball Chris alright let's talk about baseball re-deppers man I mean he just looks like he needs to be 100% rostered absolutely I don't like I was looking up there are 82 pitchers in CBS fantasy leagues who are more widely rostered than re-deppers right now and it includes a lot of guys who I really like but it also includes like Eduardo Rodriguez and Foster Griffin and Nick Martinez and just guys who are getting good results but right now but aren't very good and don't have very much upside and I know what you're thinking oh re-deppers has a pretty long track record of not being very good and I agree and I think skepticism is reasonable but just had another brilliant start on Wednesday night nine strikeouts over seven innings gave up one hit it was a solo home run zero walks he is down to like a 170 ERA over his past four starts the season long ERA is only 4.0 but the peripherals are all just phenomenal 287-FIP 344-X-FIP it was a 2.92-X-ERA and I think that's only going to go down even if you think re-deppers is not that good and I think that's reasonable I said it over the weekend if you add 0.7 runs to his ERA which is about where he's been for his career relative to his peripherals we're talking about a 360 ERA and what 120 Whip and 11K per 9 almost that's a must-roster picture you know even if you're skeptical I'm just going to say he's 75% rostered he needs to be must-rostered just because that only means he would be like a top 60 picture and I think that's totally reasonable and that's not the ceiling because if the peripherals are real and he's figured something out you're talking about a top 25 starting picture at the ceiling so I look if he turns back into a pumpkin I wouldn't be surprised there's a lot of McKenzie Gore in re-deppers these guys are never quite as good as they seem to be at their best but I think he has better control than those guys but only right now the biggest change for him is he's been like a 9% to 10% walk rate for his career and this season is down to like 7% if that's real that's a huge improvement and it's been really good to see this as a sign that re-deppers should be rostered everywhere and let's see yeah I agree completely he's 74% rostered tough matchups next week he gets the it is a two-star week at the debacks at the athletics both on the road one of those in Sacramento tough park to pitching but both of those offenses are top five and woebuggins left handed pitching so you will have a tough decision on your hands but re-deppers pitching out of his mind right now all four of his main pitches have looked really good this season in terms of ex-woebo, wiff rates normally guys will have one or two pitches that really stand out the really good pitchers might have like three but all four of his pitches look really good on the hood so far this season so we'll see if debtmer's can keep it up and not turn back into a pumpkin like he's done many times before but I do think he needs to be closer to 100% rostered at this point so it's a good game to play and I think that's why he's going to be a little bit more a little bit more than that so I think that's why he's going to be a little bit more than a little bit more than that so I think that's why he's going to be a little bit more than a little bit more than that so I think that's why he's going to be a little bit more than that so I think that's why he's going to be a little bit more than that so I think that's why he's going to be a little bit more than that versus Jack Lider is close-ish I think him versus Shane Boss is close but I think I would be willing to go with Deppmer's there because I think there's just a little more ceiling Yeah, I would take Deppmer's over all those names we talked about and one more Ryan Nelson I also have on the drop-o meter later on I think that's a pretty easy swap Alright, let's talk about Drew Rasmussen, a monster start here against the Red Sox He's got seven shutout innings three base runners allowed in this one 13 strikeouts, 13 strikeouts for Drew Rasmussen 20 whiffs on 97 pitches he had nine on the cutter, eight on the four seam, two on the sinker didn't change much in this start he just had everything working obviously you know you get two different pitches with eight plus whiffs again the cutter and the four seam but his last two starts it is 14 shutout innings with 22 strikeouts to just one walk he has gone seven innings in three of his last four he's down to a 271 ERA, a 0.88 whip he's always been a reliable pitcher whenever he's healthy and on the mound it's good ratios their strikeouts could fluctuate but I think being back in tropicana field this year has helped get that strikeout rate back up I'm not sure I expect it to be up over a strikeout per inning but maybe somewhere in that like eight to nine k per nine range but it's always good control it's lots of ground balls Chris buy or sell Drew Rasmussen top 24 starting pitcher rest of season I think that's pretty close to being right I'm not sure if I have him I don't think I have him exactly that high I moved them right up to 24 earlier today I you know and the biggest thing is Last year, he only threw 90 plus pitches twice in 31 starts, I think. Yeah, 31 starts. He's done it seven times now, six times now. So the rays are clearly giving him more rope and you know, two of the shorter outings, the two outings where he hasn't gone at least five in an hour and a half, he's been doing it for a long time. And he's been doing it for a long time. But you know, there's certainly improvement there. And I think pitching half his games at Tropicana Field has certainly helped as well. I'm not sure if the the splits exactly back it up. But I know he was at Tropicana today. So I yeah, I think top 30. I'm not sure top 25. But I think top 30 is pretty interesting. Yeah. Yeah. It was a pretty aggressive move up. I've had him in my mid 30s and starting pitcher rankings for most of the season. But other names that I have in that range, Treyis Savage has been a little up and down. I still think there's a lot of upside. Parker Messick. He's been solid but had a rough outing here. And it's been a little it's been a little shakeier lately. A little bit. A little bit. Garic Cole. I still think we just need more data. I feel like it's kind of like an incomplete right now. So I have met SP 31 Michael. He's also faced. I think every team he's faced so far has been bottom 10 and strikeout rate and like lowest strike out rate. And the three where he's gotten no whiffs were against top bottom five teams in strikeout rate. So it's also just been potentially just a weird quirk of the schedule. Yeah. Michael King has turned inequality start here on Wednesday. But he's looked a little bit shaky as of late. Freddy Peralta certainly has not been great so far this season. And then I have a bunch of injured guys. And then George Kirby who had a really miss bats today. A weird start here. He did walk three. He's he's been a little bit shaky. It's kind of been a weird season for Kirby too. So I just think the floor is much higher than Drew Rasperson right now. He obviously flashed a bunch of ceiling in this start as well. So I think he's somewhere in that range. I kind of 24 to 36 range. But I'm going to put him at the top end of that tier for now. The the way that he's pitching right now. Let's take our first break before we do just a reminder to sign up for the FBT newsletter. If you haven't already if you're watching on YouTube, scan that QR code that will bring you right to the website CBS Sports.com/newsletters where you can sign up for free. And you will get all of Chris's work delivered right to your email inbox. Let's take a quick break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back fantasy baseball today. Let's get into the news lots of injuries to talk about here. And as expected, Ronald the Cun you was placed in the aisle with a strained left hamstring the same one that he hurt earlier this season. Chris, it's just so frustrating. I only have one share of Ronald the Cun you and it's in Towers. Obviously a league that look, I want to win all my leagues. But of course, I want to win the expert industry leagues as well. He's an immense talent. It's just it's been one leg injury after another man. It's like really the last handful of years. We did get that one monster MVP season. But mostly it's just been a lot of frustration. Yeah, it's been really roughly lately. He hasn't played 100 games since 2023. He hasn't played 122 games in four of the previous five seasons. It looks like five of the last six. So yeah, it's really only gotten two full seasons out of Ronald Cun. Even the 60 game season, he only played 46 games. So yeah, it's he is one of the most talented players in baseball. And I think he's a top five player on healthy infanity. But you know, now two recurring hamstring injuries. I know they, you know, they said they think it's less severe than the last one. But these things don't tend to get better the more you play on them. And he's a very aggressive base runner for a guy who weirdly is not as fast as you think. He's been like 50th percentile sprint speed this season. It's been like 60th percentile the previous couple of years. You do have to wonder if he's overexerting himself there. If maybe a move to DH might not help at some point. It's, you know, these are questions. I think you have to start asking about Ronald Cun. Which is a bummer because he's such an incredible player and still seemingly has so much of his prime left. But it's it's been a real struggle to stay healthy lately. And it's obviously affected his his production too. Because we've seen a couple of times in the past few years, you know, through the last five seasons. He has no PS below 800. You have to worry too about just overcompensation to ease dealt with multiple ACL injuries. You know, I, I, I, I'm not a doctor. But you know, based on things that I've read and heard, it's, you know, you might not even realize that you're doing it. But you're trying to compensate for all I don't have as much knee strength as I once did in boom. It pops up in your hamstring and things like that. So it's just it's really unfortunate. Wish the guy could say healthy. This next one is even more surprising. Only a cruise place on the aisle with non displaced fractures in his left hand. He's expected to miss four to six weeks at least. He first sustained the injury on a hard slide on Saturday. And we had heard that it was a cut or a contusion. And you know, he just scratched from the lineup. But we didn't think it was this obviously a pretty massive injury for a breakout star in O'Neill cruise. So it's just been a rough last week in the outfield. Chris Aaron judge going down. Ralph, it wasn't in great shape before that either. Yeah. We did get, I guess, a little bit of help with the prospects getting called up. But still, I mean, losing out on three of the 12, 15 best outfielders in fantasy right now. It's it's pretty rough. So if we're looking at replacements, I have some names in in shallower three outfielder leagues. I think more so headed points. Trent Grisham has really started to heat up here. Jack Caglione had a huge game on Tuesday night. Had another strong game here on Wednesday. Jung Hulu. Those are three shallow league names. How would you rank those three? Grisham, Cag's, Jung Hulu. I go Cag's probably Lee and then Grisham. I think Lee more so as a hot hand play because he's hitting, I mean, he's batting average for the seasons up to like 320, right? Now it's mostly the last 17 games or whatever since he came off the IL where he's just been averaging almost two hits per game and hitting like 500. But I'm fine with that as a hot hand play just because I think Grisham, Grisham, we know more or less who he is. I think last year was a career year. We're starting to see him. You know, the underlying stats have been pretty good. And we're starting to see him produce a little more. But I think the the ceiling because it's a low batting average is a little capped. Caglione though, I think we might be seeing him start to figure it out here because his launch angle started out really, really low early on this season. It was, let me make sure I have it. It was three three degree launch angle in April. And then it got up to 11 in May. And now it's up to 14 degrees in June. And he's hitting the ball hard all season long, right? With 92.6 miles per hour average, I have a chance velocity was his worst. For a month, that was May. Um, strikeouts have been high. I think he's probably going to be a 20 to 30 percent strikeout right guy moving forward. But you can live with that when you crushed the ball and you hit it in the air. And that's what he's starting to do. 18 percent pulled air rate is very good. I think we are starting to see what it looks like when Jack Haglione is figuring it out. And that's been very impressive lately. So I'm pretty optimistic about him. I think he's someone who it's hard to say 100 percent roster just because the strikeout rate is always going to put a damper on his points league production. But any categories league, any five outfielder league, I think Jack Haglione should be rostered. And I think he's about 60 percent right now. Last eight games for Cags, 14 hits, three homers, eight RBI two steals. So really athletic too, he can run a little bit. I think as the weather starts to heat up, we're going to start to see some of those. He's made really good contact all season like optimal contact. Obviously the strikeout rate a little bit high, but hits the ball really, really hard. And I think we're starting to see some of the results now for Cags. So I would put them at the top of that list as well. Then I think just a slight tear below that maybe in the same tear depends on who you ask. But we have all the kids right now. We have AJ Ewing, Ryan Walchmit, Sam Antonacci, Brayden Montgomery, Cole Carreg. How would you rank those five names? Brayden Montgomery by the way, another two hit performance here on Wednesday, two doubles in a run scored. He's actually got some like Oppo power too. Like ball travels off the the bat pretty well to the opposite field for him. How would you rank those five? I'm inclined to just go Montgomery at the top just because you're talking pretty similar prospect pedigree between him and the highest end guys here, particularly Walchmit and Ewing. Montgomery was a very controversial prospect. Like I know baseball prospectus, I think only had him 99th in their top 100, but mleb.com and baseball America had him in the top 30 entering the season, I'm pretty sure. So it depends. I trust the big spot perfectis prospect team a lot in their analysis. So that's something to keep in mind. But there's a lot to like here. Like he hits the ball really hard. He swings hard. He's a switchhater who does have some platoon issues. I think his minor league career. It's like an 870 OPS against Rides and 820 against lefties. Strike out right much higher against lefties than Rides. So, but it's not a total waste. It's not an Aussie all-be situation where he's just trying to keep his head above water against one side or the other. So I think there's a lot to like here with Montgomery. Obviously he's the newest one. So there's just a little bit of a mystery box element. I would after Montgomery, I think I would go. I really like Sam Antonacci. I think there's a limited ceiling because he just doesn't have much power. Like I think we're talking about like a 10-homer guy. But he's kind of what I thought Luke Keishel was going to be. I think Sam Antonacci's going to be a standout in batting average. His XBA is like 3-10 on the season. And he's starting to run. He's starting to play at the top of the lineup. And I just think there's a lot to like about Antonacci. He gets on base. So I might go him second. Then Walsh Mitt. I might go Karrag over Ewing just because Ewing. It's been a little shaky. I'm not sure how strong the playing time is. Honestly with Karrag, I mean the playing time should be strong, but it's the Rockies. You never know whether they're going to do the right thing. So I think these guys are all fairly exciting, but I would go Montgomery Antonacci and Walsh Mitt at the top. I didn't realize how high I moved Antonacci in the rankings here. On Wednesday, I moved them inside my top 40 outfielders, but I'm with you, man. I am very excited about what he's doing, the underlying numbers as well. So I think I would put Antonacci at the top of the list. Some of these other names might have a higher upside, but I like what he's doing so far. Then I think I would go, I'm sure I ranked it differently yesterday, but I'm looking to good games for a break in Montgomery. I think we have to kind of react in real time. So I would put him second on this list. Then AJ Ewing, then Cole Karrag and then Ryan Walsh Mitt. Walsh Mitt, not a lot of power. So far, lots of Shrek has as well. Shrek or it has been very high. Yeah. If you miss out on those kids, you do have kind of another group to fall back on here with Noel V. Marta, Dylan Cruz, Spencer Jones, Henry Bolte, those feel more like five outfield or leagues. Then in the deepest of leagues, some outfield replacements, Cody Clemens, not that we particularly buy what he's doing, but he's playing and he's hitting for power right now. He has multiple position eligibility, including outfield, Lars Newbar, Colton Calzer, Wade Meckler and Blazalexander. Again, those are for like those 15 team road leagues out there. Continuing all with the news, Ellie DeLa Cruz took part in infield drills for the second day in a row and will undergo a follow up MRI on Friday. Will Smith is going on the aisle with next so turns out we need catcher replacements as well. I think the first and most obvious answer here is Dalton rushing. He's 53% rostered should play nearly every day with Will Smith out of the lineup. Other names in one catcher leagues, Francisco Alvarez who homerred here on Wednesday, Carter Jensen, Cabeut Ruiz. I assume you would put Alvarez at the top of that list, right Chris? Alvarez Jensen and Ruiz. I think Alvarez. Yeah, if you want to put Dalton rushing ahead of him, you know, I obviously think if you just need a Will Smith replacement, okay, rushing is going to play a lot over the next couple of weeks. However, Long Will Smith's out. I still think Francis Grover has probably has more long term potential to be a top 12 catcher regardless. Whereas rushing, I mean, we saw he was really bad in May. It was hard for him to find playing time. He hasn't had more than 50 played appearances in a month yet with Will Smith healthy. So I do think rushing is unfortunately still pretty fringy when Smith comes back. So depends what you're looking for in two catcher leagues. Some names you can look for Tyler Stevenson, Joe Mac has been hitting better as of late, Andy Rodriguez with the pirates and Kyle Hagashioca, Danny Jensen went on the aisle. So Hagashioca should get near every day playing time. The majority there for the Rangers. And one name just to keep an eye on if Cooper Engle gets called up by the Guardians. I think that's another two catcher league name that that you could look at. They just got swept by the Yankees. Obviously, they're in need of offense. So I could see them not a desperation play, but you know, sometimes try to find like a spark calling up a prospect. We'll see if they actually call up Cooper Engle. We did have a very scary moment here on Wednesday. As Seth Lugo took a 106.6 mile per hour come backer off of his head. He did leave the game under his own power. Thankfully, and it was from his former teammate, Brandon Nimmo. They played on the meds together back in the day. And it was it was cool sportsmanship to see like Nimmo like ran over them and make sure he was immediately as soon as he called time immediately. Yeah. Yeah. But just thankfully he's he's all right. It looks like hopefully we'll see if there's any like concussion testing anything like that with Seth Lugo turns out Garakrochet's Lat injury is quote a lot worse than we thought. And he has no idea when he'll be clear to throw again. So I moved crochet way down the rankings. Chris, I had him inside my top 30 just, you know, holding on to the hope we know what his upside is. I thought maybe he could be backed by early July, something like that. But after reading a quote like this, I haven't closer like, you know, 50 in the SP rankings. Yeah. No, I'm going to have to make that update for sure because it we've gotten some bad updates over the past week on on crochet. I did want to know that I wanted to make sure. There was a moment where it looked like Lugo told Brandon Nemo as he was coming off the field. Man, I wish you had hit a home run instead. That was that was a that was a you know, it looks like Lugo. I mean, dude, the not on his forehead was crazy. I mean, I was just I was just happy he was able to like stand on his own power, you know, seemed like he was okay, which is really good because that was yeah, that was really scary. Yeah. Matthew Boyd will no longer return this weekend after reporting shoulder soreness. So hits keep on coming for the cups. Max Fried will have new imaging on his elbow later this week. It's notable because Fried was supposed to have imaging on Tuesday. So something to pay attention there with Max Fried. As the last three news that items remind us, you should assume the worst with pictures. I know that's blown up in my face on tarry scubo who I was very loudly confident would not be back in six weeks and it looks like he's going to beat that. But you usually don't go wrong. You usually don't go broke betting against pitcher timelines. Unfortunately, especially any time it's an elbow, right? And that's what Max Fried is dealing with. Connor Griffin did some flat ground throwing from out to 90 feet on Wednesday and said he felt fine. Hunter Brown made another rehab start at AAA on Wednesday. Five innings to run seven strikeouts. He averaged 96.4 miles per hour on his fastball, which is actually up a little bit from his season average. He had 11 whiffs on 74 pitches. And assuming he bounces back all right, I think Hunter Brown's next start will probably be with the Ashows. Is that the round rock express? Is that what's the sugarland? Sugarland, I think. The skaters. No, the space cowboy is not the skaters anymore. I wanted to check. Yeah, his IVB was still down a little bit, not as extreme as the last start because he was down like four inches of IVB in his first, his previous start. It was only two inches in this one. So assume that's going to be okay. But something to watch when you're talking about shoulder injuries because that you could affect the the arm angle, right? And so, you know, that that's one will place you would, you would expect that to show up. Brent Rooker has missed two straight doo doo knee soreness. And maybe he's just battled oblique and knee stuff all year. And that's the explanation for why Brent Rooker has been so bad this season. Brandon Woodruff allowed three runs on five hits over three and two thirds innings in his first rehab start at the Arizona complex league. He got up to 68 pitches. He averaged just under 91 miles per hour on his fastball, which is down from his season average of 92.2 miles per hour. And Chris, I believe you had another note on this Brandon Woodruff outing. Yes, he talked to reporters. About a week ago when he started to pitch off a mound and had this to say, um, yeah, he had a system, his shoulder joint that that was addressed after he went on the aisle the first time with dead arm. He said, ever since surgery, my release point has been getting higher and I've been pinching my shoulder off. I think it's just a byproduct of having the surgery and finding your comfortable it throw kind of what we talked about with Hunter Brown potentially. I got stuck in those patterns. I had an adjustment to just two days ago and Wednesday last week was the first time throwing with it. I'm trying to get my release where I was pre surgery in that low three quarter slot. I can get real nerdy here if you want to break down the biomechanics. But if you get more comfortable in a spot lower, it gives you more freedom for the shoulders to do its thing. That's the quote from Brandon Woodruff, not the part about Hunter Brown. He didn't say that. That was me. But I did see that the arm slot was lower. His extension was higher. What that means for Brandon Woodruff? I don't know, but that was just something I noted that he's we're going to see a slightly different version of Brandon Woodruff when he comes back again. All right. Chris Boobitz got roughed up in his first rehab. Started triple A. He allowed six runs on eight hits over an inning and a third. His Velo was fine. He got up to 49 pitches. Ryan Helsley will begin a rehab assignment at triple A on Thursday. Both Samuel, Bassayo, and Adley Ruchman were both. out of the lineup again on Wednesday, Basayo with the wrist, Ruchman with the hamstring. I believe I saw an update on, on Adley, they said he was fine though. So hopefully he's in the lineup. I don't know if they play on Thursday, but whenever the Orioles play next, William Domes was out of the lineup due to lower half pain from his knee to his hip. Doesn't sound great. Colt Emerson has missed three straight with backspathems, but is expected to avoid the IL. The braze were called JR Richie on the surface. There is not a spot in the braze rotation, but Beatrider Grant McCauley suggested this could mean at Grant Holmes moving back to the bullpen. And Richie's last start at AAA, six innings, two runs, four strikeouts, the zero walks. He did get rocked to start before that. So 20% rostered, Christie Havany interest in JR Richie, assuming he gets inserted into the rotation. - Nah, he's got to show it first. And even then, I mean, his first majorly start was actually really good if you remember. It was seven strikeouts and six innings. You have up two home runs for the first two batters you face and then nothing after that from remembering correctly. And then he was pretty awful after that. Hasn't really shown the ability to generate chases or miss bats at the major league level. So he's got to show a lot. I think before we get excited about him. - Last couple of news items. Jack Peterson left early with left hip discomfort. Adolis Garcia exited early with a pulled muscle in his right shoulder. Colson Montgomery has missed two straight with a tight back. Dalton Varsho has missed five straight with a left wrist injury. And Miguel Andujar has missed three straight with a hamstring tweak. Buy or sell. I will throw a statement out there, Chris, you tell me if you are buying or selling it. We got a big game from Mike Trout. He went one for three with a sock in the shoe. His 15th home run, his sixth stolen base. But we haven't really talked about it. Over his last 30 games, he's hitting just 179 with a sub 700 OPS. Still hitting the ball hard during that time. Still barreling it up. Expect his sense. Don't look as good. Buy or sell. We need to recalibrate our expectations here for Mike Trout. - Sell. I still think he's doing a lot right. We're still seeing the strikeout rate look better than it has in years past. That was the biggest concern over the past couple of years. He's still hitting the ball really hard. The athletic numbers still look really good. His sprint speed is down a little bit from the start of the season. But all in all, I still think Mike Trout looks like a very, very good hitter. And there's not even in the worst May where he wasn't very good. It was still a 352 Woba. It was still a 355 X Woba. His X Woba in June in a smaller sample size is still 350. Average X of a loss. He's still very good. Strikeout rate hasn't been unreasonable. Been higher so far in June, but it's only 37 played appearances. I mean, it depends what, you know, you're saying recalibrate. Well, what does, where were we at on Mike Trout? Where we at Mike Trout is a top 10 outfielder? I never quite got there. - So the first month basically, we moved them inside of our top 15, top 12 outfielder's right. Somewhere in that range. Maybe he's more like a top 24 outfielder, like a low end outfielder too, instead of having-- - I mean, outfielder won, he looked like earlier on. - I'm calling it the guys I have below him. I'm looking at my rankings in Roto specifically, and I think there's a clear drop off from 10 to 11. Uh, you know, Jackson Churrio would be my number 10. Jordan Walker's 11. I, you know, I think there's a couple rounds difference between where I draft those two guys still. I think Mike Trout's writing that next group though. Like you've got Cody Belinger and Byron Bucksdon and Michael Harris and Andy Pahas and, I mean, it occurs before the injury, Pee Krung Armstrong, let's say. Well, those guys are all, I still think very good. But I'm not sure any of them are that much better than Mike Trout who is on pace for, what, 35 homers and 15 steals. - Let's still an awesome season overall. - Well, yeah, the pace numbers are before this one, but it was 33 homeruns 11 steals. So yeah, it's probably up to like 35, 15 somewhere around. Yeah, that's really good. I'm still very much in on Mike Trout. - I didn't realize that I pushed them all the way up to my ninth ranked outfielder. Maybe I just need to talk some sentences into myself for an end of Tati's or I have them ahead of Tati's. I have them ahead of, so 910, I have Trout Belinger. Belinger may be a little bit high, but he's just been a rock sound. - He's having a really nice season. - Yeah, but like Jordan Walker probably should be ahead of both of those guys. - Bucks and versus Trout is like an interesting conversation 'cause it's very similar skill sets, very similar injury risk for profiles. - Yeah, but Bucks and his younger, so perhaps that is he's been more beat up this season though. - Yeah, that's true. - He's had a couple of, he hasn't, Bucks and has not. I don't wanna say it, I don't wanna, but he hasn't gone on the aisle, yeah, right? - Shhh, shhh, shhh, he hasn't got on the aisle yet. - Okay, yeah, but he had the shoulder thing, he had like a couple days where he missed with a hip. - Sounds right. So I think, but that's the right range. I think like that 11 to 15, 11 to 17, that feels like a good tier where Walker, Trout, Bela and her Bucks and Harris, Pahez, PCA, - Yeah. - Kind of, none of those guys are as good as the top 10, I think. I think they're all better than like Riley Green and Rainier, Rizor Reina and those guys though. - Let's talk about Fred Bravaldez, man. What is going on with Valdez? Five innings, four runs, two walks, two strikeouts, two homers loud, only three whiffs on 75 pitches and he just did not have his curveball working at all. He actually threw his four seam fastball 12% in this one, a pitch that he never uses. So clearly, he is searching right now. Buy or sell, Bravaldez is a bench for the time being. - Okay, so let's say you're in one of the 25% of these for redembers is available. And you go pick up redembers. I don't know what redembers next matchup is. I don't know what Fremervaldez is next matchup is. - Dehrmer's two starts next week, both top five in Woebug and lefties. - Yee. - Yeah. That's risky. I think I'd be okay starting redembers I had a Fremervaldez next week. - Yeah, Valdez also two starts white socks and astros. Revenge game astros. - Yeah. - I think I'd be okay with that. But just as a general rule, I don't think Valdez is a bench across the board. He has a, was a 440 ERA over his past 14 start. 12, he's had stretches like that pretty regularly over the past few years. I'm looking at his Roland game logs July through August of 2023. He had a 440-7 ERA. The first couple of months of 2024, 445 ERA. - It just, it seems like there are no signs. I know that guys can like, they could flip it on a diet. But it's like, man, he does not have that. - He's a special one. - He's a special one of those guys. That's the thing is you have a stretch from, like the beginning of 2023 where he has a 222 ERA and his first 14 starts. And that season, typically around where he usually ends up, 282 ERA. Or no, 345. So it's like, this is just kind of the thing with Framber Hall des. He just goes through these stretches and there's not really a lot of rhyme or reason to it. Well, there is actually. It's, does he throw the curveball while he's not? But there's not usually a good, there's not a lot pointing one way or the other to let you know when it's coming and when it's going if that makes sense. - Do you think he's a confident by-low right now? - I would, yeah. - Like if you could turn Emerson Hancock into Valdez, you would do that. - I would do that. And basically all the other names we spoke about the other day as potential cell highs. - I think so, yeah. - All right, let's talk about Matt Chapman, who is coming alive here, four for five with a double-dong, three runs, three RBI, his second multi-homer performance in his last six games, and over his last 21 games, he's hitting 370, five homers, 21 RBI and OPS over 1,000 more walks and strikeouts. Still 81% rostered, people started dropping him and I understand why they did. By or sell, Matt Chapman is a hold, do not drop him. - I mean, if you didn't buy now, why would you now? I've been shocked because I write our waiver wire content and all this stuff. And I've been shocked at every time Matt Chapman has a good game lately, I'm like, oh, I can write about Matt Chapman for waiver. I know he's like 85% rostered still. Things 81 now are 79, something like that. So it's like, I'm kind of shocked at how much patience everybody's showing with Matt Chapman. So yeah, if you didn't drop him by now, well, you're certainly not dropping him when he has five homers in 18, 18 RBI in what, 12 games, 11 games in the month of May or June? - Yeah. - Yeah, you gotta hang on to him now if you haven't dropped him yet. - Yeah, yeah, for sure. Even though the underlying numbers are really bad, like worst of his career, we've never seen, that's what I always wanna look at is have we ever seen this from a player before and that's why with Valdez, we clearly have. This is nothing new for a frame of Valdez. Matt Chapman, this genuinely, one of the worst stretches of his career, maybe the worst when you look at the underlying numbers. That makes it harder to buy in, but if you didn't drop him by now, you probably shouldn't. Yeah. - All right, and the last thing I have here is Davis Martin, a great outing against the Braves, six shout out innings with six strikeouts, zero walks, you have 13. 15 whiffs on 100 pitches. He did allow 11 hard hits in this game. Kind of just feels like that's part of his profile. He does give up hard contact. He also has been getting a good amount of whiffs this season. If you look up and down his pitch mix, he, uh, his slide, a slider and curve. Both had a whiff rates of over 43% entering this one. His fastball, 28% whiff rate. That is a really, really strong number for a fastball. By or so, Davis Martin is legit. Let's just give in. He's legit. He's good. I, we have to stop making these declarative statements after every single Davis Martin start. He's the last, he's good. He's bad. Yeah. The last five and then look, he was phenomenal before this stretch. So if you just want to say he's had two bad starts, that's reasonable. But the last five starts, I feel like we've talked about it every time. We've been like after the seven strikeouts. And that was when you were out and it was Mr. me and Scott, uh, on May 16th, I think. He had the one run over seven strikeouts over six innings. And it's like, we're just, we got to stop being skeptical of Davis Martin. Then his next start, he gives up four rounds and five and two thirds innings. Then the next one is one run and six innings. Then the next one six runs and four and two thirds. And then it's six shut out today. So it's like, I look, you're, he's 100% rostered. There's no, there's no dropping him. There's no adding him. I'm kind of just, let's just see where this goes with Davis Martin because he's been phenomenal this season through 14 starts, 13 starts, 241 ERA, 92 record. That's a fluke, but he's been really good. Uh, a lot of strikeouts, strikeout per inning, missing a lot of bats. But it's not clear how he's getting away with missing so many bats, right? Like, why does Davis Martin suddenly have a 28% with rate on his forcing? Why does he suddenly have a 48% with rate on his slider? That slider has been up until a couple of starts ago. It was, I think, the second best slider with rate and baseball after Mason Miller. It's gone down since then, but I don't have a good sense for why Davis Martin is so much better. So I'm still just kind of, I'm buying it. I'm starting him. I'm not saying sell high necessarily, but I'm also not saying this is a guy you need to go trade four either. All right. Yeah. I think he's all inside of all of our top 50 starting pictures. It's like, you know, a lot of times I'll see his name there and I'm like, do I buy it? And I don't know. It's just like, yeah, I want to move him up or down. Just kind of leave it like neither of those feels comfortable to me. Leave him in your lineup to start him. Yeah. I think that's just starting. All right. Let's take our final break. I'm going to return. I've got waiver names, the drop oh meter much more right after this. Let's talk waiver wire hitters from Wednesday's action. And we already spoke about trend Christian, but I will just mention again, last 16 games using 369 with two homers 13 runs, three steals more walks in strikeouts and his expected stats have been a big player. He's much better in points league 75% rostered is trying Christian couple names here at first base with the giants down three runs in the ninth inning Bryce eldritch hit a walk off cranslam. Are you kidding me? That is amazing. You hit off of a lefty as well. That's back to back games with the Homer. He has started 15 of the past 16 last 11 games for 29 three homers 13 runs scored Scott talked about it. That's great. Does now have that first base eligibility on CBS 58% rostered. And number needs to be higher Chris. The way he's playing right now. He's first base eligible now. So the last reason to be skeptical of him is gone. You can get him in your line up in CBS fantasy leagues. I think it needs to be 100%. We're talking about one of the premier hitting prospects in baseball who. Not only hasn't looked overmatched, he's looked incredibly good. The OPS is over 900 now. He's hitting 298 308 XBA 93 mile per hour average exit velocity. He hits the ball in the air. He's not striking out a lot. He has held his own against lefties more than held his own 11 55 OPS, but 22 played appearances. That's a very small sample size. And hit this whole run. Hit this whole run off a lefty too. It was his first one, but he has three doubles seven strikeouts and 22 played appearances. I think that's going to be, you know, if he can keep the strike out right against lefties to like 30 33%. I think you're going to be able to live with it. So I don't really see much reason to be skeptical about Bryce Eldridge at all. He's playing every day now. I did want to point out just because it's very funny. Obviously he plays in the worst ballpark in baseball for lefties. The home run he hit today would have only been a home run in two ball parks. Thank you, stage. You like to guess? Yep. That's the other one. It's like the one spot where Oracle Park, if you hit a really high home run to right field right down the line, you can hit a lot of home runs because it's 309 down the line with a high wall. You don't see a lot of home runs hit there either. It's a weird spot in the stadium. It's a weird spot. Yeah. But I just thought that was funny that it would only have been out in two ball parks, Oracle and Ankey Stadium. Two names that are rostered in more leagues than Eldridge that also have first base eligibility. Well, tomorrow, Vargas and Ezekiel Doran, I would take Eldridge over both. I think it's pretty. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. More power starting to come here for Spencer Horowitz, two for five with his ninth home run. Last 32 games. Pretty big sample here. 325 batting average, six homers, 19 RBI, the OPS over 950, 51% rostered. I don't think he's in the same conversation as Bryce Eltridge. I think Eldridge needs to be much more rostered. But what do you think about Horowitz, Chris? Do you think he needs to be more than 51% rostered? Not really. Not really. Mate, like as a hot hand play, okay, sure. I think that's okay. But I don't think like Spencer Horowitz has been around for long enough that I think we know what he is and what he is is a pretty decent hitter, but not someone who hits for a ton of power. Doesn't really hit left. He's all that well. So I kind of like feeling liable with no steals. Yeah, except I don't buy the batting average with Spencer Horowitz. He's hitting 289 this season. I think he's more like a 270 hitter. With middling power, I'm not super enthused about it. Names at third base, Royce Lewis is on the board, hit his fourth home run. It was a bomb, 444 feet here, his first home run since returning from the minors. Alec Bohm has hit much better since the start of May. He hit his eighth home run in his last 30. He's hitting 297 with seven homers and an 886 OPS. Noelvi Marte, he is running. He is hitting in the small sample so far. He just needs consistent playing time. Perhaps seeing a multi hit game here, his fourth stolen base, he has a steal in three straight games. I kind of feel like, come on, Tito. Just get Noelvi Marte in the lineup. I think there is a lot of upside there still. Chris, how would you rank these three? Lewis, Alec Bohm and Noelvi Marte. Lewis, Marte Bohm, that's how I would go. Now I will point out with Bohm, he's not a superstar. I think you're hoping that Noelvi Marte and Royce Lewis can give you a little more upside. I think he only needs two more appearances at first base to get eligibility there. He needs a few more to get eligibility. We could be looking at Royce Lewis being triple eligible relatively soon. That's pretty interesting. I don't know if he's going to be able to do anything for nothing else. I'd give him that edge. If you're not aware of it, he's been dealing with a really weird tough off field situation. He's been suing his parents over financial issues and that stuff's really tough. Philly's fans have been cheering for Alec Bohm. That's how tough it's been. If you know anything about Philly's fans, it's like, Bohm. Yeah, I think the really slow start, we have a pretty reasonable explanation for it. Maybe he's just handling it a little better and he's starting to figure this out. He's always been a very strong source of RBI and batting average. You're not going to get a ton of else from Alec Bohm, but he's a solid corner in field option. I don't want to just overlook that just because I think Lewis and Marte might have more upside because I think Bohm's the more projectible guy there. Roy Flus, by the way, if I am reading this correctly, we'll have first base eligibility by Thursday. He played his fifth game at first base here on Wednesday. He needs four more at second base. Okay, that's only been one second. Yeah, so he'll be first and third base eligible by the time people wake up here on Thursday. One day, my second base, Glebert Torres has hit well since returning. He went three for four with a walk in an RBI. Game since coming back hitting 379, one homer, six runs, six RBI, 53% rostered. I think he's a really good point, sleek player, especially with the OBP hitting near the top of that lineup. I'm looking at names that are more roster than him on CBS right now. Mauricio DuBon on Helm Martinez, El DiMarro Vargas, Marcus Semian. I think I would take Glebert Torres over all those. That's reasonable. Yeah, the problem with Glebert is and then there's a handful players. Like this where he's a better pointfully player than a road elite player. I'm not sure he's quite good enough to be a top 12 guy in a point in a point league. If you're in like, like I play in a, uh, in my towers league, it's points scoring, but wrote only. I love that. That's my home league. That's my favorite way to play. Glaber's great there. Yeah. Glaber, like that's a rock solid mill and JP Crawford great player. Yeah. I disappointed. I added him and then he got hurt, right? Um, but yeah, like that, those types of players are weird fits for fantasy. But if you play in that kind of league or an OBP league, uh, Glaber's a very good pick. It's just hard to make it a top 12 guy. I do have some deeper names here as well. Caleb Durbin, three for four with a double dong. He has started 12 straight and is sitting much better during that span. Cedric Mullins hit his sixth home run over his last 21 games. He is hitting 261 four homers, two steals Ryan Ward of the Dodgers hit a grand slam. It was his third home run. He has started four straight and likely to play against right handed pitching. Who is Tyler Callahan? I have no idea. Maybe no Chris two for two. At the same question with two walks, a double dong four RBI plays for the pirates, by the way. Uh, but yeah, hit two home runs. One of them off of Otani and a game where the pirates came back to beat the Dodgers. It was an incredible wild. Yeah. Uh, any interest in these deeper names, Durbin Mullins, Ryan Ward and Tyler Callahan. Yeah. Mullins is playing more lately. I do wonder how much of that was, um, Chandler Simpson's injury and whether he was just playing a little more because of that. Callahan, I mean, I looked just because, you know, two walks and two homers. That's a, that's a big game, but my early tracker record does not suggest there's much to get excited about. He was pretty bad at triple A before his promotion. The underlying data is not all that good. So I don't think there's much there. Then Ryan Ward, I mean, for as long as he's there, I think he's a decent hitter. It's just, you know, how much longer's tasker and is going to be out. He doesn't really play every day anyway. I don't think any of these guys need to be priority ads anywhere. All right. Let's talk waiver wire pitchers and got some shallow league names up top here. Jared Jones, not that this was a performance that Warren's being added. He's 79% rostered. I just wanted to talk about his usage because it's pretty frustrating for innings, two runs, four strikeouts. He did have 11 whips on 75 pitches. But he is gets it to a more than five innings or 77 pitches in a start. And they seem keen on doing this piggyback thing with him and carbon maginski for whatever reason. So he's 79% rostered. He's 41% started. I think Jared Jones is a hold, but you probably should not be starting him right now as long as he's being limited like this. 100%. This is a guy who threw 121 and 2/3 innings in 2024. 0 in 2025. Obviously, and now he has thrown, oh, let's call it 31 innings, 32 innings so far this season. Pirates are going to have to monitor that and probably limit him to, I would guess, 90 to 100 this season. I want to say that's probably around what you're repressed through last season. You know, you miss a whole season at that young age. You're probably going to get limited to about that. So I think we're going to continue to see him limited. I don't think the piggybacking thing is going to last like we saw in Seattle. It's just there were multiple situations where Luis Castillo was pulled from the game and was clearly unhappy about it. It's hard to like guys starting pitchers don't like coming into the game mid game and starting coming. And Kamen Mijinski didn't come in Mijinski like not report to the team after they said when they go into the bullpen because I my guess is they told him you're moving to the bullpen and the compromise with when him saying no I'm not the compromise was what will still use us a starter. Yes, work. And okay, that's fine, but it's only 90 innings in game. If Jared Jones isn't going to throw more than five of them, he's not going to be that useful. And that means Mijinski's only going to throw four at most. And so it's a frustrating situation. He's been 77, 74 and 75 pitches for Jared Jones in his three starts so far. I agree. Hold. They've got to I don't think this is going to last. I don't think it's workable in the long term, but right now it's clearly very frustrating. One of their shallow lead name foster Griffin a strong start at the giant six innings one run five strike outs to zero walks. He had 11 whips on 100 pitches. And he's quietly been very solid three 46 year a 109 whip. He had two very bad starts in the middle of May, but in four starts since he has a 205 year a point eight six whip. He's 80% roster. I kind of feel like he's in that Noah Cameron and Drew Abbott, like a little bit better than a streamer, but still mostly a streamer territory. And he gets the royals next week. So I think foster Griffin is usual usable in that matchup. Yeah, I think that's fine. As long as Redemper system available in your league. True. 100% agree with that. Would much rather add redemers than have foster Griffin, but there's probably not that many leagues where that's the case. I have three more names here. Peter Lambert, a strong start at the angels six in a third innings two runs six strike outs for him. He's 48% rostered. He's a spark. He gets the Tigers next week. Andre Palante, another quality start at the Met six innings two runs five strike outs. Last five starts two 96 ERA 110 whip. He gets the Padres next week. Sounds like a pretty good matchup for me. And Brady Singer turned in a quality start at the Padres six innings two runs five strike outs. He is 25% rostered. He gets the Met's this week. He's mostly been terrible this year, but I just wanted to mention that. What do you think, Chris? Do you have any interest in streaming maybe Peter Lambert or Andre Palante next week with those matchups? Palante against the Padres seems okay. They're still, I think they're the worst off in some baseball this season. Fernando Tateez is at least showing signs finally. Headed another home run today. Just barely got over the wall. Yeah. Yeah, but we'll take it. What are you saying? Four doubles since that first home run. There's clearly signs that Fernando Tateez is starting to figure it out. But that Padres lineup is still pretty bad outside of him. So I think Palante is a fine streamer. Lambert, there's some interesting things about him. Like when you look into the individual pitch characteristics, but I just don't think he has good enough control or command to make it all work. So I think Lambert, kind of just a guy I'm interested in as a spark and two star weeks more than more than anything. Yeah. In a point, league, look, we've had kind of sparks come and go this season, but for example, Joey Cantillo. He's been really badly lately. I, if you're an appointee, I would use Lambert over Cantillo right now. I think that's fine. Yep. A couple of deeper names here. Brandon's broke. He survived. Cores Vegas. Six innings. One run at three strikeouts there. Just his second quality start of the season. Ryan Gusto from your Miami-Marlins, Chris. Actually, pitch pretty well. Four shutout innings with four strikeouts against the D-backs and Brandon Young of the Orioles, a strong start here against the Mariners. Seven shutout with five strikeouts. He has turned in four straight quality starts. Just like he's in line for two stars next week at the Mariners at the Dodgers. So don't love that Dodgers start. Very deeply names. Any interest at all on Sprote, Gusto or Brandon Young? I don't really trust Brandon Sprote. Cool. You survived a really poor pitching environment. I'm not going to buy in after that. And then Young, I initially read that as @Siattle@Sandy. He was like, oh, OK, that's decent stream. No, at the Dodgers for the second start, I think we're going to pass on that. I don't think he's particularly good. All right, let's fire up the drop-o-meter real quick. I've got three names on it. And Robbie Ray got hit hard by the Nationals. Five and two-thirds, five runs. Only three strikeouts didn't walk anybody. But the problem was he lived in the zone and he got hit really hard, obviously. Last six starts. Seven 16 ERA 189 Whip. 79% rostered, where is Robbie Ray on the drop-o-meter? He's pretty high. I think it's like an eight or nine. I think so too. I'd rather have redetmerous. 100%. I'd rather have the individual on Dustin May, JTGIN. Sure. Gage jump. Yeah. The individual pitches for Robbie Ray are still missing bats. But the slider and curveball are just getting crushed right now. 375, actual oboe on the slider. Four ten on the curveball. Those are big outliers. That suggests to me that it's an execution thing. He's just not spotting the pitches where he needs to. You look at the charts, the heat maps of where the pitches are going in the zone. It's like the slider. You got a big blob right in the lower left quadrant of the zone, not out of the zone where you want it. Curveball, it's mostly out of the zone. But there's one blob where he's just hanging a lot of pitches at the top of the zone. And so I think he probably just needs to command better and there will be better days for Robbie Ray. But he's not so good that you need to hold him when he's not commanding well. All right. Next up we have Ryan Nelson who got bombed by the Marlins. Four innings, eight hits, seven runs, two homers allowed. And this one didn't use his fastball 60% of the time. I feel like we always have to get that out of the way. He only threw it 45% of the time. It actually was probably his best pitch in the start. I'm not sure why he didn't throw it more. But he has a 519 ERA, a 123 whip. I think you hold him in pointfully, he's curious because he's a spark. But I'm not so sure the good starts are worth. the blow up potential that you get with Roy Nelson. Where is he on the drop-oh meter? Yeah, there was a stretch where I thought adding that cutter and sinker into the arsenal, or at least using them a little more, was an interesting wrinkle for Ryan Nelson, but like you said, those pitches have been really bad. They're going to hit really, really hard. It's hard to trust him right now outside of a Spark situation, so I think it's okay to move on. Yeah, I would put it right at a five, right? It's like, if you assume 50% of leagues are head to points leagues, if 50% are categories, that's probably not the actual breakdown, but I put it at a five. Like, hold them in points leagues. Any type of head to head categories or roto league, I think Ryan Nelson is expendable. Yeah. And then A.U. Henny Oswar is an interesting one. He hit his fifth home run here, but in 16 games since returning from injury, he's hitting just 179. He has a 33% strike out rate on the season, 211, 636, OPS, the quality of contact is way down. I know he homeworked in this one, but it kind of feels like A.U. Henny Oswar is getting old really fast. 87% roster, where is he on the drop-o meter? I mean, this is kind of what we talked about with Frank Ravaldes, where isn't this kind of just what happens with A.U. Henny Oswar? Like, there's always a stretch every season where he's really, really bad, and then he eventually figures it out and gets really hot. And it was 2024 when he was almost useless for the first couple of months of the season, and then he was ended up being a top 25 or top 30 hitter in fantasy by the end of the season. So I would have a lot of trouble giving up on A.U. Henny Oswar as just given that track record, where yeah, there are, you're right, there are a ton of red flags here. There are reasons to be concerned. I just, I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt that he will figure it out even when there are those red flags. I would probably put it at like a three or a four. I think in Shalor Headhead Point Sleegs, just with some of the third base games that have emerged, he could, and he strikes out so much, but I think in all category leagues that I would hold onto Swaras, just with that off chance that he does figure it out. And look, it's still a great ballpark. Ellie will be back at some point, and you know, if Ellie's back, I think it's a line up that can actually be pretty good between Bladay continues to hit, and Spencer Steeer has looked pretty good, and Sass Stewart obviously. - I'm realizing all this and answering the drop of meter questions, but I think a three sounds right for him. - All right, some leftovers here on the pitching side. The first group, Shohe O'Tani. What do you know? Another quality start. Not as good as he has been. He did give up four runs, three of those earned at the pirates. Pirates are really good against right hand to pitching this season, but he has allowed three on runs or fewer in all 11 starts. He has a quality start in 10 of 11. He also hit a two run homer in the ninth any of this game, and got robbed of a second home run earlier in the game. So Shohe O'Tani, he's amazing. - Carl Sourdon, a quality start at the Guardian, six innings, three runs, seven strikeouts. He has looked better as of late. Three straight quality starts for him. - Jesus, I need the walks to go down though. - Yeah. - Walks are still a little too high. - Jesus, Lazardo just missed on a quality start at the Blue Jays, five and two thirds, one run, eight strikeouts, four walks, has looked a little bit better as of late. Chris Sale just missed out on a quality start as well. Five and two thirds, two runs, six strikeouts to one walk. He hasn't looked as sharp lately, but we're not getting these blow-up starts for anything. - Yeah. - I think we've kind of been spoiled by Chris Sale. Anything to add on Sale, Lazardo, Rodon, and O'Tani, the pitcher. - Four of the heads. - Lazardo, I mean, continues to just be weird and this one, the control wasn't there. That's usually not an issue for him. I still think he just ride the ride with Jesus Lazardo and don't try to guess when the good and bad starts are coming just, he's gonna be good in the end, I think. Yeah. - Yeah. What is good in the end? What do you think that looks like? A three, six, six, six, six. - Oh, yeah. - Six, six, six, six, six. - Yeah. - One, two, one, he whip. - I, he R.A. He's gonna be a little higher. Yeah, I think three, three, seven, five, three, six, six, six, seven, like that, but a ton of strikeouts. Whip should be better than the R.A. I would guess. So, yeah, I think you just have to live with an inflated V.R.A. from it. Pitching leftovers, part two. Show to Imanaga was always going to have a bounce back start in Horsefield. We said this last week, five showed out innings, seven strikeouts, 18 whips on 90 pitches in that one. It is his first start with lessons five earned run since May 13th. Michael King, a quality start against the red, six and two thirds, three runs, three walks, three strikeouts, two homers allowed. Last four starts, six, 45, V.R.A. 139 whip, hasn't been as sharp. George Kirby, weird start, six innings, three runs, three walks that tied a career high, but also had 10 strikeouts in this one. And Parker Messick, not so good against Yankees, five and two thirds, five runs for those earned, three walks to four strikeouts. Just his second start with more than three earned runs all season, also has not completed six innings since May 13th. So, yeah, that's the one thing I noticed with Parker Messick, is he just has not been going deeply. That's a little frustrating. Now, a lot of them he has gone into the six inning, like this one. And I think he ran into trouble in the six inning and then that was why he got pulled. So, it's just a little, maybe running out of steam or just not quite getting there, but I don't think that's too concerning. Kirby, I mean, three walks tying a career high as hilarious. That is just, yeah, so weird. I still don't quite know what to make of it. It was good to see the sweeper generating whiffs, but I'm still not sure what to make of anything we've seen from George Kirby here, but at least we were getting some miss bats here, which had been an issue for him. The problem for George Kirby really is that the walks have been higher this season. It's still excellent control, but it's like a 5.5% walk rate. Most guys would kill for that, but with Kirby, when he's been at his best, he's been like 3% walk rate. And so, you can live with that 21, 22% strikeout rate. I think his career has like 23, 24%. It's very low for a very good pitcher. You can live with that when it's coming with still a 18% K-Walk ratio. Now it's more like a 15% K-Walk ratio. And so, he either needs to find a way to consistently generate more whiffs or get back to being truly like a one-of-one walk rate guy. And he hasn't really done either. At least in this star, he got the whiffs. Michael King, the strikeouts have been absent lately. He has 13 strikeouts over his past four starts. That has coincided obviously with his worst stretch of the season. Like you mentioned, 6.73 or whatever it is. So, it's a little concerning. The walks have also been a little higher in that stretch. Obviously, I think given how much time he missed with injuries last season and given his lack of track record, it's easy to be a little concerned about what we're seeing for Michael King. I'm not saying I'm panicking yet, but it looked for the first 10 starts of the season like, okay, Michael King is just Michael King. And it was just as long as he's healthy, he's awesome. And now it's like, okay, maybe this guy's not quite a top 25 starting pitcher. Maybe he's more like 35. Yeah, that's not a huge difference, but it's a difference. Yeah, I did drop him down a little bit. I think he's more in that like SP3 conversation. I think George Kirby is now in that range too. It's just, he hasn't been as sharp. And I noticed the fastball. The fastball has regressed so far this season. That's always been the main weapon for George Kirby. The whiff rate is down. The hard contact is up against that fastball. So until he can improve on that pitch and the walks, I think he's more in that like SP3 conversation. Again, that's George Kirby we were just talking about. So I'm hitting a left over. Say Don Rafael, hit his sixth home run. Over his last 30 games, he's hitting 298 with five homers, five steals and 850 OPS. So bit of a slow start but has looked much better over the past month. James Wood, another one, his 18th home run of the season. He is on pace for 145 runs scored. Dude's living on basis. CJ, everyone's driving him in, man. It is insane. Dylan Lyle had a huge game, four for five with two RBI and two steals. He's on pace for 18 homeers 16 steals. He just wished there was a little bit more juice there with Dylan Lyle, but he's solid. Fernando Tati's hit another home run, his second of the season. It was a walkoff homer. Would have been a home run in just five of 30 ball parks, but he has looked much better as of late. Byron Buckson will not stop hitting home runs. He went two for four with a sock and a shoe, his 20th home run, his sixth stolen base. Jordan Walker, dude is just a monster. Two for five with his 17th home run for RBI. And just the latest example of post-hype sleeper. It's just when everyone pretty much gave up on Jordan Walker. Boom, that's when he has the breakout season. And then Jackson Turyo, he sure likes hitting in Las Vegas. Two for five with a sixth home run, back to back games with the home run. And he is off to a monster start in June so far. Lots of names here Chris, anything you'd like to touch on with the hitter? Yeah, I think we have to talk about Jackson Turyo who was some one thing we talked a lot about the first two seasons of his career was how kind of mediocre the quality of contact metrics were for Jackson Turyo. Like it was above average quality of contact. Average ex of velocity was right around average at 99.3 miles per hour last season. The quality of contact, you know, ex slug was a little bit above average. But it wasn't like the Holy Overt Regas. He crushes the ball. He just has a iffy approach at the point. play kind of situation. Well, now we're starting to see that from him. And this is what we always, I think, expected from Jackson Churri. 'Cause you have to remember, he was, I think he had turned 20, like three days before opening day of his rookie season. He was a baby. - He went 20 as a 20-year-old. - He's 22 years old now, and we're three years into his career. And so, you know, he clearly wasn't fully physically developed and maybe we're starting to see that this is what it looks like when he is. Because the average ex of velocity has jumped up to 92.3 miles per hour. That is a top 10% mark in the league. The expected WoW on contact. Up from 360 his rookie, our last season to 435 entering today. It's come with a strikeout rate jump. We'll take that. - Yeah. - If you're gonna do the kind of damage that Jackson Churri was doing now, we'll take a 26% strikeout rate. Because that still allows him to hit a ton of home runs and potentially still be a pretty good source of batting average. So I think we might be seeing what it looks like when Jackson Churri puts it all together. And it might be 30-30. - Call to the bullpen for the raise. Brian Baker was unavailable. Garrett Clevanger got the ninth with a three-run lead. He allowed a run, but picked up his second save. For the nationals, Gus Varlin started the ninth with a four-run lead. He was charged with three runs on a walk in two hits. He did not record an out. He was relieved by lefty Mitchell Parker who gave up that walkoff grand slam to Bryce Eldridge. My guess is like Varlin or Beatyr gets the next save for the nationals, but maybe it's Richard Lovelier. I don't know. They don't have a closer and they never will ever again. For the pirates, Gregory Soto got the ninth with a three-run lead. He did allow a two-run homer to O'Tani, but he picked up his ninth save. - He's been a little shaky lately. - I just don't really, they do have another guy in their bullpen who's been really good. I think his name's Evan Sisk. I picked him up in my end only league. I still realize why I know about him, but he has a-- - Yeah, that sounds right. - He has a 127-ERA and a 106-Whip 35 strikeouts over 28 and a third. - Yeah. - Oh, just a name to watch, I guess. For the Phillies, Yawan Duran got the ninth with a three-run lead. He allowed two hits, but picked up his seventh save. For the White Sox, with a one-run lead, Sir Anthony Dominguez pitched in the eighth inning. He picked up the hold. It was left the Brian Hudson who got the ninth. He walked one, but picked up his third save. Grant Taylor the night before through two innings and 21 pitches. I kind of feel like he should have been available, but I guess you know the up and down, the two-inning nature of that. I guess he was unavailable. But even with him unavailable, they didn't go to Dominguez in the ninth. - Yeah. - So I-- - Could be meaningful. - I kind of just think Grant Taylor is taking over that bullpen. - He might be, yeah. I'm not 100% there yet, but I'm open to it for sure. - For the twins, Yawan Duran's Gomez got the ninth with a three-run lead. He allowed a run on a walk into hits, but picked up his fifth save. I still lean towards the twins never having a closer ever again, but he started to pick up more of the saves recently. So in deep relief, I picked him up and touted was this like 15 team roto. It's like, all right. Like as a third reliever, just whatever, take a shot. For the Royals, Alex Lang got the top of the tenth with the game tied. He allowed two runs on two walks and two hits. He took his third loss of the season. He's been a little bit shaky. I mean, he's closed out some games, but he has done it with usually runners on base. For the Rangers, Jacob Latz got the bottom of the tenth with a two-run lead. He picked up his tenth save. And for the athletics, Elvis Alvarado got the ninth with a one-run lead. He struck out two for his first save. Pretty fitting. And that Elvis would get a save in Las Vegas, Chris. - Thank you very much. - Yes, yes. Actually, he's got nasty stuff. He just has no idea where it's going. - Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think the A's, they do not have a closer and they never will ever. - Well, so I think you have teams like the A's and then you have teams like the Nationals, where I think the Nationals don't have any good relievers, but also I think they just don't have a closer. I think the A's would like to have a closer. From the way they've used their guys this year, it does seem like they would love if someone would step up. - They kind of wanted Jack Perkins to be that guy. - Yeah, I mean, they've given Jack Perkins a chance. Their Joe Koonle had the chance. So, he and Harris has had a chance. It's just nobody's been good enough in that open. And I don't really have a lot of faith in anyone, but they're still an opportunity here. So let's see, let's keep an eye on Elvis Alvarado and see if he can avoid enough blowups to get more chances. - To stream or not to stream on Thursday, we have Christian Scott against the Cardinals, Hunter Dobbins at the Metz, Zebby Matthews at the Tigers, K-Dare Monterey against the twins, Merrill Kelly at the Marlins, Kuma Rocker at the Royals. - Yeah, I know it's been really rough for Merrill Kelly. I still think he's okay against the Marlins. I think Zebby Matthews is okay against the Tigers. I don't love it. Kuma Rocker, the results have been really good lately, but I don't trust that at all. The peripheral is still really bad for him, but it's a good match or bad KC. So I think those three are okay, but I can't recommend any of them with Gusto. I think the closest I could get to would be Merrill Kelly, not Ryan Gusto. - Yeah, I was gonna say Gusto Piston on Wednesday. - Different guy. - Yeah, different guy. - I would go Kelly, Zebby, and then Christian Scott, I actually think is okay on Thursday. - Just does not go deep into his games. - No, it's like five in dive at best. Then on Friday, lots of TBDs right now, so don't have too many options, but Zach Lutel against the Mariners, Griffin Canning at the Orioles, Andrew Painter at the Brewers, Tatsuya Imi at the Royals, Gage Jump gets the Rockies in Vegas. - I wouldn't be totally shocked if Gage Jump had a decent start there. I mean, at least there weren't a ton of runs scored there. Today, it was only seven, I think. - That's right. - I wanna say I saw Statth of the Brewers, pitchers, allowed more homers in the first two games of this series than they did in the entire month of May. That may be an exaggeration, but I did see that. And I want it to be true. I didn't tell you I'm I as the closest I could come to recommending anyone from this Friday group, but I'm - It's gross. - I don't like any of them. Like Imi, the results have been pretty good lately, but it's still really bad control. Not a lot of strikeouts outside of it, I think it's late to start, so I can't recommend him highly. I would throw Jump and Imi out there, if you really needed to stream, but I do not have a lot of confidence in either. I like Jump the Pitcher, I just don't like the environment there. We are gonna wrap there for Chris. I am Frank, thanks as always for tuning into Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five star rating on Outflowers. Spotify and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. (upbeat music) - Paramount Podcasts.