Buy or Sell! Vintage Gerrit Cole IS BACK! (5/28 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports Got a fantasy question email fantasy baseball at CBSi dot com get ready to win your lead Now here's Frank Scott and Chris What's up, and welcome in tough fantasy baseball today on Thursday, May 28th I am Frank sample joy and by Chris towers today on the show by or sell we got vintage garic hole Christopher Sanchez is on a historic run Dustin May has really turned things around and much more. Let's jump in take a little whiff of that big boy All right the players of the night Chris I will yeah, I'll I'll be the garic hole one because I don't want you to be accused of being a Homer. I appreciate it and because as a Say a larger bellied American I I have some affinity for garic holes whole look right now I mean he's in better shape than I am, but he's been in better shape in his career And it doesn't seem to matter because he went out there against an admittedly pretty bad Kansas City Royals lineup He struck out 10 over six and two-thirds shutout innings. What's a six and two-thirds of that he got to seven He should have feel like through 79 pitches struck out 10 walked none four hits Very little hard contact allowed a ton of strikes. He has opened his season with 12 and two-thirds shutout innings There weren't a lot of strikeouts in the first start, but there were a bunch of them today and I want to be careful because What we have seen from pitchers returning from big injuries over the past couple years is It's not a question of whether they are still capable of the dominant nights It's a question of whether they can string those together long enough to be Must-start pitchers right like Sandi Alcantara had a complete game shutout in like the second or third start of the season And Spencer Strider has had some really good starts over the past year and I'm sure there's other names that I'm think that I'm forgetting right now But those are the two that really jumped to mind and as we have seen with both Strider and Alcantara the issue has been doing it often enough for it to really matter and We can't say whether Garry Cole will get there, but I kind of think he is But I take a lot of flack about my unwillingness to react to small sample sizes and I'm gonna do it here. I did it with Zach Wheeler a Couple of weeks ago. I'm doing it with Garry Cole. I'm basically I think I'm moving him back into my top 20 Starting pitcher and then when I updated my rankings earlier today he was around 40 So this is a big change based on one star and I may come to regret that. I'm certainly open to that possibility But we are talking about Garry Cole You know, and if he's not the best pitcher of his generation. He's not far off and You know when we've talked about guys like Alcantara and Strider struggling coming back from injuries the one thing that's always stuck in my mind though is Yeah, but Justin Verlander want to say young in his first season coming back from Tommy John surgery and things just might be different for guys who won Our Hall of Famers right like that's just Hall of Famers tend to do things differently They tend to be outliers and in every regard and two it might just be different for guys in their late 30s You know that they might be more in tune with their bodies more able to maybe that's what we're seeing was that Wheeler Maybe that's what we saw with Brandon Woodruff last year it is maybe these guys are just a little more capable of Figuring out where they are quickly and finding a way to make it all work in a way that you know guys in their early 20s Guys in their mid 20s may not be capable of and so that's an unprovable theory and it might be an overreaction with Garry Cole but he kind of just looks like Garry Cole right now and The control hasn't been an issue and the stuff looks very good and This was a guy before he had surgery in 2024 or 2025 was when he had surgery You know, he was what the number two pitcher in fantasy So I kind of and he was the number one pitcher in drafts in 2024 before he heard his elbow He had been no worse than like the top three since what 2019 when he got to the the Astros Kind of just think It's worth taking him at face value in a way that like Maybe you might think I'm there there's some Hypocrisy here because I was so slow to buy into Jose Soriano, but the key distinction there is Jose Soriano had six great starts To open the season in a career that has been most yogurt With Garry Cole there's never been a time even that 2024 season Where he wasn't himself, but he was still good. There's never really been a time since Garry Cole figured out where he wasn't at least good Let alone dominant so I kind of think it makes sense to just throw caution to the wind and Rank him as if he's going to be one of the better pitchers in fantasy moving forward because I don't think there's gonna be a lot of limitations He's in a situation that's going to maximize his values Yankees are gonna win a lot of games Kind of all the way back in on Garry Cole. I mean not all the way back and he's 20 But that's a pretty aggressive move and it's not one I feel super comfortable with but I'm willing to do it and even in 2024 He wasn't as good as he was in the past if you remember the first two months He was shelved because he was coming back from that forearm elbow thing that he was dealing with that season So nerve injury, I think so was he pitching through an injury the last time we saw him that is a possibility because as soon as not as soon as But once we got to the next spring training oops, it turns out that Garry Cole needs Tommy John surgery. He also had the internal brace procedure I love what you said about mentioning the Hall of Fame pitchers that have come back from injuries later on in their career Justin Verlinder even Jacob DeGrom just last year right at an advanced age We didn't seem a little bit towards the end of 2024 But a full season 2025 where he performed like a top 12 starting pitcher It's almost like he didn't miss a beat He wasn't you know the Jacob DeGrom of old but he was pretty much an ace for fantasy So I'm happy you brought that up. I was obviously was locked into this start and David Cohen on the broadcast was talking about how And I don't necessarily agree with this But he said you know in some ways this could be a better version of Garry Cole than we've seen before Just because he's had so much time to tinker and figure out what he wants to do He's throwing this change up more. He used it more in this start And it looked like a real weapon for him Granted again going up against the royals. They're not a very you know, they're not a very good lineup Obviously, especially right now But that change up looked awesome. He used his fastball and sinker less the slider the curveball He pretty much had everything working So through two starts the first one more fastballs this one more of the secondaries And obviously got a lot of whiffs on those as well. So we were talking beforehand I hate when I update my rankings and then later that day Someone either has a an awesome start or just a terrible start. You're like well, well now what do I do? Because when I updated them earlier I had Garry Cole at 39 as my 39th rank starting pitcher I think I'll get him inside my top 30 I'm gonna be a little bit more cautious in moving him up But it's one of those where it can move really quickly kind of like the way that Zach Wheeler did so Totally get why you moving that high Real mad They're 27th and run scored. They they're this is a bad offense. Yeah This is only the third double digit strikeout game against them and 56 tries Yeah, they're middle of a pack and strikeouts against right here. Yeah, so It's not like it's not like everybody striking the royals out 10 times per game And neither the two guys who did it before him It was Emerson Hancock and well-warrant who are I think good, but probably not great pitchers Neither those guys were taught taught toss and shutouts while striking out 10. So I don't know I get like yet is a bad lineup and he took advantage of it, but Not everybody who faces the royals does this either All right, my player the night is going to be Dustin May who took a very tough loss here at the brewers He actually had a no-hitter going to the eighth inning of this game He wound up going seven plus two hits two runs one of those was earned He had nine strikeouts to zero walks 13 whiffs on 87 pitches Six of those on the sweeper five on the cutter two on the fastball He used his cutter and sweeper more in this star and both of those pitches were great for him I think that's a good idea for him to He's always been so like fastball sinker reliant and he does get a lot of movement on his sweeper And the cutter has been solid as well. So I I like this move for Dustin May and overall we really haven't talked about it his first two starts were atrocious But in nine starts since then he has a 302 ERA 110 whip 44 strikeouts to 14 walks over 53 and two thirds inning. So I still think he's More in that kind of streamer conversation, but he's pitching really well right now the Cardinals have been a Pretty good team a surprising team so far this year their offense has been better than expected And he lines up for a start against the Rangers next week a lineup that has been pretty bad They don't have Cory Seeger. They don't have why it lengthers They allowed 14 strikeouts against Reed Deppmers. They had a no hitter thrown against them. So if we're talking to streamers, I really like Dustin May next week against the Rangers. Chris, what have you seen here from Dustin May? Any chance that he's more than just a streamer? Uh, there's a chance, certainly. I mean, the stuff's always been good and he does a really good job of limiting contact. It's always nice to see Dustin May actually missing bats because that's the one thing for all the stuff looks like. He's never actually been a good strikeout pitcher and he now has I think 16 strikeouts over the past two starts, which is great. I love to see that. The track record is long enough of him not missing bats that it's hard to buy into. Maybe there's something there with leaning into the cutter and sweeper more often and he can find more strikeouts that way. But I tend to think he's going to continue to be a mediocre strikeout pitcher moving forward. However, the control's been pretty good. The Cardinals have a very good defense behind him all around. So maybe that's enough. You know, maybe he doesn't have to be an elite strikeout pitcher or even a particularly good strikeout pitcher to be worth using for fantasy. I'm inclined to view him as more of a streamer type and, you know, he gets taxes next time. I would be fine starting him pretty much anywhere against Texas. I don't think Dustin may have someone I expect a three year away from. I definitely don't expect a strikeout per inning from him. So I view it more as streamer for now. Maybe the schedule helps him out moving forward. But I think he'll be useful moving forward. So the starting pitchers that we keep bringing up as the top added the most, you know, exciting I think on the waiver wire right now. Three debtmers, Ben Brown and Kate Cavalli after another good start yesterday. And you know, he's been pitching much better as of late as well. Would you take Dustin May over any of those three Ben Brown, read debtmers and Kate Cavalli? I feel better about all those guys being able to miss bats consistently. So, you know, look, the thing with with read debtmers is we have gotten tricked by read debt mers many, many time after time. So if you don't want to buy into it, I think that's perfectly reasonable too. I would argue we've also been tricked by Dustin May several times before. So I just kind of buy the bat missing for read debtmers a bit more when I don't buy anything else from either of these guys moving forward, you know. Yeah, another name at the most added starting pitcher on CBS right now is actually Zeb Matthews. Would you rather have Zeb Matthews or Dustin May? I think I would prioritize Dustin May over at Matthews. It's close. Zeb Matthews has pitched pretty well. I just looked up his matchup next week. He gets the royals in Minnesota. I think I would probably lean with Zeb just because there's more of like a mystery bag there. And we, you know, again, we've kind of done the Dustin May thing. But again, it's, you know, it's a new place and he's doing some things differently. So I like what we've seen from Dustin May. I would rank him behind all those four. But I mean, after those four, there's, you know, you kind of get into like Stephen Colac and you know, gauge jump. Yes, a big name prospect. But you know, he kind of has some war to throw more strikes and things like that. So I think once you get into like that next year after those four, I just mentioned, I would be all right going to to add Dustin May there. Do a few bonus names here. I just want to mention up top quickly. Christopher Sanchez, man. He is on a historic run this time at the Padres. Seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts zero walks. He had 18 whiffs on 100 pitches. He ends May with 39 shutout innings, 45 strikeouts to three walks. It is insane what he's doing right now. Currently has a 44 and two thirds scoreless inning streak. The 11th longest single season streak in MLB history. And I believe it's now the longest in Philly's history. So he's been awesome. I don't really know what else we could say about Christopher Sanchez outside of. He's a he's a top two pitcher in fantasy right now behind Paul. He's not moving up to number one. So there's not really much you can do about it. But there's nothing wrong with being the number two pitcher in fantasy. Just incredible consistency to two earn runs or fewer in 11 of 12 starts and six straight quality starts there for Christopher Sanchez. I want to highlight a big offensive night here at the White Sox. The turn around has been really fun to watch here. Man, they definitely have some names. Obviously at the top of everything is Mune Taka, Morakami, who had a huge game two for four with a sock into shoe. How about the wheels on that guy? His 20th home run, his first stolen base of the season. I did check that in to the underlying numbers, just to see if anything has changed with Morakami. He's still hitting the ball really hard. He's barreling it up. The XBA has dropped a little bit. The K-Rate has jumped up a tad. The underlying plate discipline stuff is still really scary man. 68% zone contact. League average is 83%. And he has a 42% with rate. League average is 25%. I don't know that those things will ever get much better, but I also think that they can't really get much worse Chris or else that that's when I think we can see the batting average start to create a little bit here. Yeah and I think you should expect the batting average. I mean 240 is pretty bad. I would expect worse moving forward. Yeah. You know more like 220. But 220 is still doable if he's going to be a 40 plus homer guy. It's where, and I think at this point I don't see much reason to think he's not going to be a 40 homer guy. He already has 20 and we're only like a third away into the season. Yeah. 50 homer guy then he's, yeah. Kyle Schwarber. Pretty much. I mean, yeah, like it's, I don't think you can value him like Kyle Schwarber certainly because we don't have the sample size there. But a lot of the skills look very similar to Kyle Schwarber. There's more swing and miss in his game for sure. And there probably always will be. But it's also worth keeping in mind that he might still be adjusting. You know, like this is still two months into his MLB career exactly two months. You know, there might be like I'm not saying he's going to improve on a 936 OPS and a near 60 homer pace. But I do think it's possible that the, you know, even if the homer pace slows down a little bit and you know, maybe he just hits, maybe it's like a two true talent to 35 moving forward rather than 220. I think that's possible. Either way, I, I think there was probably enough skepticism around Murakami coming in that I don't think he's really a sell high candidate still. Just because I don't think you're going to get fair value for him. If you can, like if someone's willing to give you a top 50 player for a minute, I'm going to talk about Murakami, then you should do that. You know, if you could turn him into a trade turner, I would do that. But I doubt it. So I'm kind of content to just keep riding it. He's already returned value based on where he was drafted in a third of a season, right? Like 20 homers, 40 runs and 40 RBI. It's like you got him outside the top 200 pigs. He's pretty much already returned value on investment. We still have two, you know, two thirds of the season left to play out. Couple of there are white socks here at big games to chase my draw two for five with a grand slam. It was his fifth home run of the season. I just don't think there's enough juice there. He's hitting 273. He's got five homers, 33 runs scored. He's only one stolen base. I think the hope was that he can be a 10 homer, 20 steel guy, but he's not really running as much as season 24% rostered. Second base and shortstop eligible. I don't know that he needs to be more than 24% rostered. No, this is, there are always a few guys who would be a lot more interesting if they stole more bases. And I think my draw is like the perfect example of that where it's a pretty interesting skill set if he's a 20 steel guy, but he's a single digit steel guy. So it's just kind of, yeah, very good. Yeah. There's just a few of these players who that are just very niche players where if you play in a deeper head dead point league or a kind of deeper OBP road O league that they have more value, we, I think Scott and I spoke about like Spencer Horowitz yesterday. It's pretty much similar thing here with Chase Mydrauth. It's just a very kind of niche skill set for him. And Sam Antonacci, three for four with a walk, two runs and three RBI. He's sitting 287 early on. He does have seven steel. So he actually is running a lot more than Chase Mydrauth is. The underlying number still really, really like Sam Antonacci. So 45% rostered. I don't know that there's ever going to be a huge ceiling here for Antonacci, but I think the floor is pretty good. And he's underperforming a lot of his expected stats so far. So 45% rostered. I actually think that's a little bit low for Sam Antonacci. I think I agree with that. Yeah. Yeah. I think Sam Antonacci, this is one where he has started to run. And I think that just makes the whole profile look a ton better because he's got, it's like six deals in, in May, I think he's been much more aggressive. And that's going to have to be a part of his, his skill set to really make an impact for fantasy. I think he's pretty good. So I'm kind of by Sam Antonacci as at least being underranked or under rostered at 45%. Yeah. I think he's a useful player. I struggled with this. in the rankings because I like all four of them, but it's Carson Benj, it's AJ Ewing, it's Ryan Walshmit, it's Sam Antonacci, right? And I just kind of almost lazily kind of keep them in a tier like right next to each other in the rankings, but would you take Antonacci over any of those Ewing, Benj and Ryan Walshmit? - Probably not, but it's not a big distinction. - Yeah, I do, I feel like we haven't heard AJ Ewing's name in a while since that first couple of games that he got called up. So he really hasn't done much since then, but his underlying skill sets still looks pretty good too. So I do rank Antonacci fourth of that group, but I am intrigued by all four of them for sure. Before we hit our first break, just a reminder, 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 where you can sign up for free, cbsports.com/newsletters. You will get Chris's work delivered right to your email inbox every day for free. And just the heads up that I'll be out for the next two pods. So Chris and Scott will be here to hold it down. I am headed to Montreal for a bachelor party. Any recommendations? - Yeah, I will say, I got profiled at the airport when I went to Montreal last August. I'm getting off the plane. Also there for a bachelor party. I'm wearing one of my fun floral shirts. I got a little chest showing. And I'm going through customs and the customs girls like you're here for a bachelor party, aren't you? - Yeah, how'd you know? Apparently it's like Nashville for boys. - Oh man, I actually have the Vlad senior exposures. He already pulled out and ready to go for tomorrow. - Ah, that's tough. - No, Montreal's a fun town. El Pequenio. I already gave you that one, but I'm going to drop it in the real fun tiny little Cuban bar in the middle of Montreal. Really recommend it. - All right, let's take that break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in, fantasy baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes. And we had a decent amount of injuries today. People leaving games with various injuries. Yuri Perez left his start with a hamstring spasm. He will undergo further imaging. And it's unfortunate because he looked great before leaving this start at the Blue Jays four shutout innings, nine strikeouts to zero walks, 18 whiffs on 73 pitches. And over his last two starts, hmm, I wrote down six and a third innings, but I don't think that's correct. I think he-- - Oh, that's not right. - I think he threw six innings in his last time out. Or five, so it's either nine or 10 innings of one run ball with 14 strikeouts to zero walks. So Scott mentioned this the other day, the kind of target practice thing that the Marlins were doing with him. And look like he was getting on track. I just hope he doesn't land on the I.L. here. - Yeah, I mean, a spasm, who knows, right? It could just be cramping. It could be a more significant underlying injury. Hamstrings are always tricky. So wouldn't that be surprised if an I.L. spot extent it's frustrating because pitching is so much about rhythm. And it looks like he's finally getting into a rhythm. So it would be really, really disappointing if this derailed that for him. But if you've been like me optimistic about Yuri despite the struggles, you still love to see the performance, even if hopefully it doesn't lead to an absence. - Next up, Casey Meis left his star early with groin tightness. And he actually went on the I.L. earlier this season with a groin injury. They said it was a precaution. Groins could be tricky. He did pitch very well before leaving this start as well. Four shut out innings, six strikeouts to one walk, 11 whist on 58 pitches. His velocity was up across the board in this one. And he's another pitcher on the day that I move him way up my rankings. I moved him inside my top 60 starting pitchers. Just because Casey Meis has pitched really well this season. It's a 227 year A. 97 whip over a strikeout per inning. Like I know that we've kind of been faked out by Casey Meis before, but he's doing it in a better way this season. I don't think it's a fake out. I think he's just pitching really well. So if he has to go on the I.L. I think Drew Anderson is just a name to watch. He came in. He threw three perfect innings with three strikeouts. And he's pitched really well so far this season. So just a name to watch there. But another unfortunate one, Chris, because Casey Meis having a really good season. Yeah, that's that's frustrating. He's looked really good. The slider's been a lot better. So it's I don't know. Well, we'll see. But the fact that it's a recurrence of the injury that he already went on the I.L. 4 is pretty concerning. Man, the Tigers just-- It is a free fall right now. Yeah, everybody's hurt. I mean, this has been-- I don't know if I've ever seen a team over the past three years that's just more jekyll and hide than this Tigers team. They just have these like 60 game spurts where they're the best team in baseball and then 60 game spurts where they're just completely lost. And they're completely lost right now. And everybody in their rotation pretty much has gotten hurt this season. And who fits right into that jekyll and hide? Kind of mantra is Frabor Valdez. Who they signed this season. So he's been mostly-- I don't know who's the bad one. Is it Jekyll or is it hide? I believe Mr. Hide was the bad guy. Dr. Jekyll. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's the Frabor Valdez that we have so far. I mean, if this continues, and Terrick's Google does return, the trade deadline is going to be very, very interesting to see all these teams lining up for Terrick's Google at the deadline. So we'll see what happens there. Another injury for the Tigers. Kenley Jansen left his outing early with a right-growing injury. If he has to go on the IEL, Chris, do you have a preference or lean with one of Kyle Finnegan or Will Vest? In looking at it, I think-- let me make sure I was looking at it earlier. I think Finnegan has been pitching in more high-leveraged situations lately. Actually, no, it's been Vest. That was what it was. Vest has-- because Finnegan weirdly has been pitching in the sixth, fifth, and seventh innings in a lot of his recent outings, whereas Vest has pretty consistently been in the seventh or particularly the eighth. So I don't have a good read on it. My guess is it'll just be what it's been in the past, which is neither both. In which case, it's probably not worth chasing unless you're super desperate for saves. Yeah. And Will Vest has been just flat out bad the season. Kyle Finnegan has a 182, but also a 182 ERA, but a 162 whip, and more walks than strikeouts this season. So it's not a great situation. To ask her, Hernandez left early with hamstring tightness. Why a Lankford took on field batting practice Wednesday his first time doing so since landing on the IL with that right forearm strain. The Ashrows could have Jose Altuve simulate at bats rather than embark on a rehab assignment. He's swinging at 75% to 80% effort as he recovers from a grade to left oblique strain. Josh Hader will pitch for AAA on Wednesday and Thursday. I guess one of those outings already happened. So I didn't see what happened there, which should represent his final steps before being activated from the IL. Emilio Pagano's scheduled to undergo an MRI on his hamstring on Friday will find out how that hamstring is healing so far. We do have another prospect promotion. The Blue Jays are calling up Charles McAdoo. He is a lower level prospect. He's 24 years old. 49 games at AAA this season. He was sitting 250 with eight homers, six deals. He's 1% roster. He could play all over the diamond. I just don't really see anywhere that he just fits in as a regular from the jump. Yeah, I also don't think he's all that talented. He was ranked the 37th prospect in the Blue Jays system coming into the season on Fangrafts. So this is one of those ones where Jeff Passon reported he was getting promoted and I was like, oh, I'm gonna be honest. I don't know much about Charles McAdoo. Do I need to? And then it was like, oh no, I don't know why Jeff Passon reported this. I have notifications set up. You gotta make sure it's noteworthy stuff, Jeff. I have so many people as notifications on X. It's, I gotta take some off because it's, I have Jeff Passon. I have all like the football insider guys. I have all the basketball insider guys. I have, you know, underdog MLB lineups and like home run. Like anytime anyone hits a home run, I get a notification sent to my. Yeah, that's a lot. It's, I only have like three baseball report. It's way too much stuff. Like my phone is just blowing up constantly. Kerry Carpenter hitting a simulator game on Wednesday. He's on the aisle with an AC joint spray in his left shoulder. Alejandro Kirk is aiming to start hitting off a pitching machine this weekend. He's hoping to start a rehab assignment in early June. Jordan Lawler started a minor league rehab assignment in the Arizona Complex League on Wednesday. He's working his way back from a fractured right wrist. Nolan Chanuel was placed on the aisle with left ankle inflammation. That should be mean more playing time for Vaughn Grissom. Just a very deep league name to know. Scott and I spoke about Vaughn Grissom yesterday. Some of the underlying stuff is kind of interesting for him. Did he a fountains will likely remain a long relief in a long relief role this season, unless the braves indoor further injuries, which is always a possibility. They said that they still do view him as a starting pitcher long term. However, the Rangers, DFA to Andrew McCutchen and this last news item here, the MLB players association proposed their first economic proposal proposed a proposal. That's not great English. to the owners on Wednesday, the owners will counter on Thursday. Chris, I'm sure that they are a long way off and there's a lot to go. But I, I find it encouraging that they're actually talking in May rather than just waiting until the season is over and, oh my God, there's no time left. Now we need to figure this out. Yeah. I mean, they, from what I understand, MLB PA made their first offer around the same time, the last time they did this, which was 2020, I think 2021. And the MLB side didn't respond with the counter offer until like August. And by all accounts, MLB is going to make an offer in the coming days. So I will take that as a good sign, I guess. I still do not think we will lose games next year. There will be a lockout. I think they will play 162 games next season. And I'm not just saying that because I'm dreading the idea of having to come up with content next March when they're not playing spring training games. Oh, let's just figure this out in like January. Let's figure it out in January. I don't have much to do anyway. It's fine. Yeah. I remember the last lockout that we were dealing with back in, I guess it was 2021. That was probably last year. Yeah. That was not fun. It was, it was very scary. It's like right up to the wire, whether or not we were going to lose games. So that was very scary. Let's avoid that. Please. Bye. We can go back to drafting fictional baseball players like we were doing during the COVID year. That could be fun. Honestly, if people go back and listen, it was such an interesting time because a, I just joined the podcast. You're brand new. Joining a podcast and trying to find a rhythm of flow when there's nothing to talk about is a little bit difficult. And so yeah, we were coming out with low stakes podcasting to get your feet wet. Gosh, there was, we were talking about some, I remember doing word association where I would name like a team or a player. And I think it was a team and then you guys would have to just come up with a player and we're just talking about it was my goodness. Great. Any who buy yourself, I will throw out a statement. And Chris, you tell me if you are buying or selling it. Jacob DeGrom bounce back here against the Astros six innings, two runs, six strikeouts to one walk. It 20 whiffs on 97 pitches 14 on the slider. He really lean into that slider. He threw it 52% of the time in this star. And obviously it was really good. But his fastball is getting crushed this year. He has been giving up a lot of home runs. He gave up a lot of home runs down the stretch of last season as well. Buy yourself. Jacob DeGrom's fastball and the home runs are a real problem for him. It sure seems like it. But I don't really know why. Like the pitch is getting hit really hard. It's got like a 400 expected Woba allowed, which is significantly worse than what it was last season when it was like 340 ish I think. You really have 95 miles. Oh no, it's 299 this year. Yeah. The whiff rate is actually a little higher this season. The velocity right there, the movement profile, everything, the stuff metrics all look just as good as last season for the most part. I tend to think it's just something weird that's happening and he'll get over it. I also, you know, the ERA, the XERA, it's a little higher for the most part, everything else looks fine. And it's just been the home runs and home runs are not home runs are very bad to give up. They're also relatively rare. And so I tend to think he'll be fine. And it'll be more like a low 3's ERA moving forward. But it's weird. I don't have a good explanation for why it's been so bad. Yeah, I just looked into some metrics on the pitch list website as well, some of the stuff metrics on the fastball. I mean, the PLV on his fastball this season is in the 99th percent. It is very weird what's going on. But I actually would buy this because the home runs again, they were a problem down the stretch last year as well. I mean, there was a 14 start stretch from July 1st on where he allowed two home runs per nine. He's had two home runs per nine so far this season as well. So what it was he's giving up a ton of flyballs like that. That is a lot. His ground ball rate is only 27% this season. That is crazy low. So it's not nothing. I just don't have a good explanation for why it's happening. And I tend to think it's just an execution thing. And when that's the the problem or when that's the good thing a pitcher is doing, I tend to expect them to regress to the mean. And in this case, that would be improvement. My expectation for Jacob DeGrom is I think he might run a higher ERA. I think the whip is still going to be awesome. I think he's going to give you a lot of strikeouts. He doesn't really walk anybody. So think of it like a souped up Joe Ryan, a souped up show to Imanaga, someone like that. So maybe it's like a three 50 to three 70 ERA, which you know, hearing that some people are not going to be happy about that. And look again, this is just my expectation. But probably comes with like a one whip and, you know, 10 or 11 K per nine. So still a 10 pitcher for me. Yeah, I think I'm moving down to like nine or 10. But yeah, I still think he's an SP one just the ERA, I think will be a slightly elevated there for Jacob DeGrom Logan Gilbert. He pitched well at the athletic six shout out innings five hits, two walks six strikeouts here. Still only nine whiffs on 91 pitches. The velocity was up across the board here. I still think that he's just trying to do too much. It's frustrating. By or sell Logan Gilbert is now definitively an SP two. He's not in the SP one conversation anymore. I believe I rank him as an SP two. I think he's in like the 13-ish range. But I don't know if that's to know he's 10. I could move chase burns ahead of him. I could move show how Tony had of him. When Garcresche is healthy, he'll be ahead of him. It wouldn't take much. It's more of just the optics, right? Like if you have a Logan Gilbert on your team, he doesn't feel like an SP one, you know. No, that's totally fair. It's frustrating because I thought he had such a good pitch mix the last couple of seasons. I just don't really understand why he's changing it all of a sudden. This new cutter, the new change up, they're not bad pitches necessarily. But I just look at both of those pitches and it's like, what are we trying to fix here? You know, and it does feel a little bit like he like throwing six or seven pitches a lot is really hard. It's hard to have the feel for all those pitches. And Logan Gilbert's always been a tinkerer. The whole Mariners pitching staff really tinkerers a lot. And I think that's a good thing. But occasionally you can tinker your way into problems. I still think he's very good. I still expect the ton of strikeouts more than he's had lately. I think the the ERA 369 will be better moving forward. But yeah, it's been certainly frustrating. Yeah, I moved them down to SP 15, which it's not a huge drop, but it's again, it's just like the way I view him. I don't view Logan Gilbert as an ace for fantasy purposes. And part of it too has just been the inefficiency. He only has four quality starts in 12 outings this year. And dating back to last year, maybe this was part of the forearm thing that he dealt with. But he just really didn't go six innings that frequently. He was just kind of inefficient. It felt like he was just chasing strikeouts too much last year. But even the strikeout rate is down so far this season. So I think pretty clearly an SP 2 there for Logan Gilbert. Next up, we have Jose Soriano at the Tigers five innings seven hits three runs four walks four strikeouts did have 15 whiffs on 105 pitches here. The splitter the curve. They were awesome. The problem his fastballs both got hit really hard. And obviously he walked four in this one. So over his last six starts, he has a 535 ERA 152 whip 18 walks over 33 and two thirds innings by yourself. We got duped by Jose Soriano. Like I know, I know some of y'all get annoyed and frustrated with me. By how much I stick to my preseason expectations for pitchers and how unwilling I am to react to what we see early in the season, especially. And I know that frustrates people. I see the comments. I see the things that people send me on on social media. I get it. I know that if frustrates people to see that. Sometimes it's okay not to overreact. It is hard to know in the moment when you're reacting and when you're overreacting. And I don't think I ever move Soriano inside my top 30. I think I kept him right around 36 in my rankings. I think he's better because I think the four seamer is a good addition and it changes the whole look of his arsenal and all that. And like the first six starts of the season were the best of his career. But he had had good six start stretches before. You know, he had had stretches where he was getting a lot of strikeouts. His walk rate in the first six starts was like 9%, which is better, but it wasn't like a huge improvement. And now the last seven starts, he's looked more like Jose Soriano. And I still think he's better than he was last season. The strike are a tie or I don't think he's a sub three ERA pitcher though. And I don't think he's a 10k. per nine picture. So I think it's probably, you know, the ERA is 265. Maybe it's 365 is the expectation moving forward. Maybe instead of a 115 width, it's a 120 125 width. I think that's good. But yeah, I buy it. I think if you thought Soriano was a top 20 starting picture, I think that was an overreaction. Yes. Yeah. So I agree with mostly all that. And I was thinking just what do we expect moving forward? I'm mid three, ZRA. I think again, 120 125 width. That's probably like a top 40 starting picture. He gets the he looks like he's in line for two starts next week. Gets the Rockies on the road in Anaheim also at the Dodgers. Do you do you use Jose Soriano in the Jekyll and Hyde Madships next week? I think I would. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's close. I think it a point sleek for sure in categories. I think you really have to weigh your options there. Next up, we have Connolly Early who threw a gem against the brave seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts 12 whips on 97 pitches. And he has turned things around. Last four starts of 178 ERA. 0.95 width 26 strikeouts to just five walks. The control was a big problem for him early on in the season. He's done that over 25 and a third inning. So by yourself, Connolly Early is about to go off. Sell ish. I don't think he's an ace, but I think Connolly Early is good. I have him ranked around 50th at starting pitcher. That's a good pitcher, but I don't think he's an ace. So no, I don't know. I don't know what go off means. You know, is it a two ERA for the next two months? No. Is it a three 70 ERA and a pretty good strikeout rate? Yeah. I think that's a reasonable expectation for him. Yeah. All right. Next up, we have Jaren Durand who is red hot four for five with his eighth home run over his last seven games. He's hitting 387 with four homers and a steel. He has performed much better under Chad Tracy. I think that's their manager now. I don't know if that has anything to do with Alex Coro. What was going on behind the scenes? But by or sell, Jaren Durand is back We've had a couple of stretches like this this season haven't we? I feel like there was a stretch about a month ago that we were having the similar conversation. I still rank him, I think, as a top 25 outfielder, top 30 outfielder. So I guess in that context, yeah, I think he's still good, but I don't think you're going to get a top 10 outfielder season rest of way for Jaren Durand. So it all depends on what the what the context is. I I tend to sell this one, I guess. I don't know. Yeah. I don't think he will get back to the player he was two years ago when he was just obviously amazing. But you know, can he get back to what he was last year, 15 homers, 25 to 30 steals? It's really the batting average. He's just striking out too much so far this season. And even in May when he's hit better, it's a 28% strikeout rate. So I think I would I don't know, I would like buy ish. Obviously he was so bad earlier on. So I still think he can get back to the outfielder that he was last year, which is close to where you said you rank him to. It's a thing I struggle with with Durand is it doesn't feel like it and look 29 is not old. But he is 29. You know, I think a lot of our mental models, I always have to remind myself that Durand ran is not like a 25 year, even though it feels like he should be because he's only been around for what four years really. Yeah, this is like his fourth full season. But he is 29 and it is possible that he's just already declined. You know, he's kind of the opposite of Michael Harris where I was talking to someone the other day. And I was like, remind her Michael Harris is 25 and they're like, I would have bet any amount of money. He was like 28 and Durand ran kind of the opposite where he was a late bloomer. He didn't break in until he was like 25. So it's possible that we're already in the decline phase of Durand ran's career and a lot of the underlying numbers suggest that right. His quality of contact hasn't gotten better over the past couple of years. It's worse this season and then the underlying playt discipline stuff he's chasing more than ever. He's making more swing and missing more. I do think Durand might just not be as good as he used to be for sure. I do think he'll be better from this point forward than he has been this season. Sure. Yes. Overall, he has a two 13 betting average and a sub 700 OPS. I think he'll be better than that obviously. I do wonder. He might get traded and that'll be interesting to see where he goes to because Fenway's not a great park park for lefties. Yep. Last one up here. A reliever. We don't talk about bullpen as much on this segment, but Trevor McGill got the ninth inning with a one run lead here on Wednesday. He'll out of hit, but he picked up his six save. This comes one day after Agner Rebay taunted the Cardinals dug out and Pat Murphy was not happy about that after the game. Buy or sell Trevor McGill will lead the brewers and saves the rest of the way. I'm pretty, pretty open to player celebrating and just kind of having fun and doing what they want. That was. That was a so deliberate. That was a little over the top. That was about as over the top as it gets. I'm not saying he should be punished for it or anything, but I do. I think I buy it. I think Trevor McGill might just be the better pitcher. And it always felt like they wanted him to get back to that role anyway. He never lost the role until this season when he had a couple of bad week or so. So it always felt like, and they even said as much, that they wanted to get him back to that role. So whether it has anything to do with Rebay the antics or whether it's just maybe they just have a little more trust in McGill. That wouldn't be surprising. Yep. Let's take our final break. When we return, I've got some waiver wire options. Second base just wanted to give it a shout out. Second base looks like it's in a really good spot right now. We'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's take a look at some waiver wire pictures from Wednesday's action. I have two shallow league names Andrew Abbott turned in a quality start at the mets. Six innings, three runs to those earned four strikeouts to one walk. He did have 11 whiffs on 101 pitches. And over his last six starts, 159 ERA 112 whip. And he gets the royals at home next week. Instant Netty Noah Cameron was solid against Yankees five innings, two runs, four strikeouts, nine whiffs on 94 pitches. He did the thing that we want him to do. He uses curveball a lot more. He used his fastball a lot less. If you look at last season, the way Noah Cameron had success is that his secondary pitches are actually really good. His curveball has changed up his slider. His fastballs are not. So I think that's it's like a pretty clear recipe to me. Looks like he lines up for two starts next week at the reds at the twins. I consider both of these guys. Tremor types. Chris, do you have a preference between the two Andrew Abbott and Noah Cameron? Yes, I have more faith in Abbott because they are both pretty average-ish strikeout guys. Abbott, I think has better walk rates for his career. The walks are going to be a lot this season though. A little bit. Yeah, it's pretty similar. Abbott just has a more proven track record of limiting damage on contact. Cameron had a lot of success last season, but the underlying numbers didn't really buy it, 407 XERA. So I think Cameron is pretty fringy and Abbott is a, I would say a little better than a streaming type, but it's not an unfair thing to say about him. Any interest in these two? Trevor McDonnell had a quality start against the D-back. Six and a third innings, three runs, two of those earned with six strikeouts, had 10 whiffs on 86 pitches. Kind of showed off a different wrinkle in this one where he used his change up a little bit more and it actually looked really good. He is at the Brewers next week for one start and Mike Burrows pitched well at the Rangers. Seven innings of two run ball had six strikeouts to one walk. He actually used his fastball more in this start, which is pretty much the opposite of what we want from Mike Burrows, but it obviously was a good match against the Rangers and he came through here. Looks like he lines up for two next week against the pirates in a revenge game and home against the athletics. Do you have any interest in Burrows or McDonald's? I think Burrows is an okay to start streamer, but certainly not a high priority one, given how bad he's been this season. I was surprised to see he's down to 24% roster if I felt low, but then you look at what he's done this season and it makes perfect sense. He's been brutal. I like Burrows more than McDonald. I just think there's more raw talent there. McDonald's feels like a streamer at home, but I don't have a ton of confidence against him with him versus Milwaukee in Milwaukee next week. I think I would lean in Burrows just because I'm not sure either of these guys is someone you need to think about for more than a week at a time. I am a little intrigued by Trevor McDonald because I really thought he would just say, think her slider guy and now that this change up has popped up a little bit. If he has three legitimate pitches and he gets a ton of ground balls, it's over 60% ground ball rate. I'm not saying he's like a priority ad or anything, but he's kind of a, let's see where it goes. I'm a little intrigued here by Trevor McDonald and that change up that he threw here on Wednesday. And then I have a very deep name David Sandlin of the white socks came up and pitch very well in his major league debut against the twins. Six innings, one hit, one run, four strikeouts, the zero walks, he had seven whips on 61 pitches. He's not completely stretched out. He hasn't thrown more than four innings in a minor league start this season, but he was getting a lot of whips. He was also walking a ton, a very deep name here, but do you have any interest in a David Sandlin? Yeah. I think Sandlin is moderately interesting. He was moderately interesting when the white socks traded for him this off season. I thought that was a pretty, pretty good decision to take him on for basically nothing. They just, I think they just took on Jordan Hicks contract to get him if I'm remembering correctly. And the white socks have quietly done really good work with their pitchers. Yeah, they've done a good job of developing guys and kind of putting the finishing touches on them. Sandlin has always had, you know, big strikeout potential. He struggled to stay healthy, struggled to throw strikes this season as well, but I think he's interesting. Not necessarily someone you have to add in a 12 team league, but a 15 team league, I think he's an interesting player to watch. Yeah, I think ale only for sure. And then once you get into those 15 teamers, there's almost nobody on the way for wires. So anytime someone pops up that has even a little intrigue, I totally get having some interest there. Jonah Tongue, I think we need to see more. He was not great in bulk relief against the Reds three and two thirds innings one, unearned run four walks to one strikeout. He's two appearances so far. It's six and two thirds innings, just one, unearned run, but more walks and strikeouts. And I mean, he's can, he continues to try and tinker his way through stuff, but I just think we need to see a lot more from Jonah Tongue. Jonah Tongue is very much a work in progress right now. I think he saw it at AAA where he was walking a ton of batters. He's changing up his mechanics, changed his arm slot to try to, I think, generate a little more lateral movement on his pitches because he was so vertical last season that it was, it was hard to get anything that moves side to side. His curveball has added a couple of inches of break. He's throwing this new cutter. There's some interesting stuff going on, but the results have been pretty bad. So I don't think Jonah Tongue is anything more than interesting right now. And you need to, you need to get a lot more than interesting to be worth adding. Yeah, I think in a deep relief. I'd rather take a shot on David Sandlin over Jonah Tongue, just to see. Yeah. Yeah. Some waiver wire hitters. Colt Emerson with a solid game, two for four with a triple and two RBI. Just wanted to check in. We haven't really talked about him too much since he got called up, but he's hitting 258. He has one homer and 877 OPS. The plate discipline has been okay. The expected stats are terrible so far, but he is hitting a lot of line drives and he's pulling the ball in the air. 67% rostered. Anything higher than that is like a pretty much a must roster player. Do you think Colt Emerson is that a must roster player? No, I don't think he's a must roster player. Third base is in better shape than we thought it was. He's obviously not going to be someone you rely on at shortstop. I've got him at 24 at shortstop and we'll see if it loads. It's not loading very quickly, so probably lower or higher than that at third base. It is nice to have someone you can slot in at both middle and field and corner and field. He's 18 at that third base. If you wanted to drop Matt Chapman for him, if that's an option, maybe that's okay. I think he'll probably end up better than Nolan Aeronado in the long run, although I think you'd rather use Nolan Aeronado right now. I'm mostly pleased with Colt Emerson right now. Spencer Torkelson, a big game here, but it's been a rough season overall. Three for four with two doubles and his eighth homer. He's hitting just 210. He has a 727 OPS. Biggest thing that stands out is the strikeouts up to 32%. So far, this season, it's 26% in his career. I dug in under the hood and I don't know. Everything looks pretty normal for Spencer Torkelson. Even his own contact rate, it's down a little bit. His whiff rate is up a touch, but it doesn't really show me anything that explains why he's a 32% strikeout rate. I wouldn't be surprised if, as the weather starts to heat up again, AL Central Detroit, like it takes a little bit longer there for power to come around and balls to fly out there. I wouldn't be surprised one bit if Torkelson gets back on track. He's 57% rostered. Would you rather have him or Jake Burger? They're pretty much like power-only type bats. I think Torkelson has a better skill set overall. At least he walks. On those days when the power is not there, you might at least get something out of him. Burger is just literally all or nothing power. If he doesn't hit for home runs, you're going to get very little out of him. I think I would still prioritize Torkelson, but we've seen a lot of bad stretches from Torkelson to the point where I think it is fair to just say, "Yeah, he's kind of a streaky dude." I think that's just kind of who Spencer Torkelson is. We're talking about a 26-year-old with probably over 1,000-2,000 play appearances in his career. He's probably what he is, which is a super streaky hitter. I don't know. I think that's kind of just where we're at with him. Then I have one deeper name here, Jack Peterson, three for four with a double-dong and so far in May, he's hitting 281 with four homers, 11 RBI, 947 OPS. Obviously this one game is doing a lot of the heavy lifting for his main numbers. He has been leading off against right-handed pitchers. We know that he won't play against lefties. He's U-Till only and he's 2% rostered. Another like 15 team type play because you have any interest in Jack Peterson. Probably only going to start four games next week. You say he won't play against lefties. There are a lot of platoon bats who at least occasionally will stay in the game once a lefty comes in or we'll start one game out of seven against like he has six play appearances. This season against lefties. He genuinely does not play against lefties at all. I don't think I think this is strictly a when there are six righties on the schedule type of play. All right. Did you want to highlight again? Obviously we have the names up top, but that mid tier Xavier Edwards. Big game. All these names had big games here. Xavier Edwards, Otto Lopez, Travis Bazzana, Luis Arise. He's got that batting average back up to 325 so far this season. Even say Don Rafael. It's been a slow start, but last 20 games for him. He's hitting 329 with four homers, 13 RBI, three steals and an OPS near a thousand. I know we think about Rafael as an outfielder because that's the main positioning plays, but he still does have second base eligibility in fantasy. I feel really good about the spot that second base is in right now. A lot of these guys have just taken in some cases of this guy that have bounced back, but a lot of these guys have just taken a big step forward this year. Yeah. The Marlins moving Xavier Edwards, the second base last season was so clutch for that position because I don't know if him or Otto Lopez would really be worth starting at shortstop. I don't think either of them would be in my top or are in my top 12 or anything close to that. But they're both pretty much must start guys at second base. I mean, you just look at the guys who we've added to the position this season. Fernando Tatis. Okay. I know he hasn't been good. Fernando Tatis is good. I'm not worried about it. South Stewart was not second base eligible to begin the season. JJ Weatherhold was not second base eligible to begin the season. Buzana got called up recently. Sam Antonacci has been really good. Casey Schmidt. Casey Schmidt. Yeah. It's been awesome. You know, maybe we'll get Brendan Donovan back at some point, maybe, and Jackson Holiday might figure it out. And I think we've mostly given up on Matt McLean, but Il tomorrow Vargas is out there and doing stuff. So yeah, I feel okay about the state of second base. It's, you know, like Luis Ryes is, he is what he is. Right. And it's just he does the one thing. And you'll get a great batting average from him. And if it's 325, he'll be a really good fantasy player. And it's 2.95. He's pretty bad. So that's, that's the one that stands out as just like a, he doesn't, I'm never going to rank him all that high. I guess a little higher and point league, but like Buzana, I think that does a top 12 shorts. They're a second baseman. Yeah. I moved them up to 11. I mean, you know, do I, do I expect him to hit 300 all season? Probably not. He's now pretty much, he ain't leading up pretty much every day, lead off every day for them. I don't know if I've seen him against the left. He's making it. Yeah. Yeah. Um, making it sound of contact, the quality of contact. in fact, it's pretty good. He's running like crazy. I think Travis, was on a is a really good option. And if we're talking about him at the end of the season as better than Nico Horner, I wouldn't really be surprised. Travis, it's kind of doing what we expected Luke Keishel to do this here. Absolutely. Yeah. He's on pace for 18 homers and 42 steals over a full season. He won't get there because he didn't, he obviously started in the minors, but those pace numbers are awesome right now from Travis, speaking of Keishel, I just wanted to point this out. I was scrolling through the rankings earlier. You buried him Chris. You're out. You're done. Yeah. It's just been a, there's just really nothing to point to for him. Like at least I was hopeful that he could overcome the the midling quality of contact by getting back to pulling the ball in the air, like he was in the minors. And instead he's actually hitting the ball to the pull side in the air less often than he did last season. And the quality of contact has gotten worse on top of that. Still makes great swing decisions. Still has good play discipline. Still looks like a 30 steel guy, but maybe not the 40 steel guy. I thought he might be. And yet it all just kind of, I genuinely wonder how long the twins are going to stick with him. He's been sitting occasionally. They sent Royce Lewis down recently. I don't know if Luke Keishel's far behind him. So I have Luke Keishel in just one league. It's the Tauwars Champions League. It's a 12 team headed categories. Really shallow roster. So the free agency pool is loaded. Like would you drop Luke Keishel for someone like Jackson holiday or Spencer Torkelson or Colt Emerson? Like all those guys I'm looking at right now, they're available. I could just drop Luke Keishel and pick one up. I think Emerson, yeah, at least. I actually, I think I have holiday ranked ahead of him. So if you wanted to make that move, I think that makes sense too. Yeah, I, it's rough out there for Luke Keishel. Look, it's, it's still relatively early. He could get hot and lock in, but he just hasn't shown us any of the skills that I was hoping he would. All right, we do have some leftovers here on the pitching side. Shohei O'Connor, another strong start. This time against the Rockies was Rocky Road, but six no hit innings, one run allowed, four walks, seven strikeouts. How did he allow her on? He didn't allow a hit. Well, he did have a hit by pitch. He had four walks. I think it was a sack fly that brought one of them in. Oh no, it was a ground out. 14 whiffs on 99 pitches. Oh, and he let off the game with a homer. For the second straight pitching start, he is back in there as a hitter as well. And he let off both games, his last two starts as a hitter with a home run. So literally just giving himself run support for the games. Is that the, it's insane. It's a second time in major league history that that's happened tonight. Pitcher, let off a game of the home run. Who else was, I don't know. Shohei O'Connor in his previous start. Oh, yeah, I mean, I can't imagine when else it's ever been done, right? Unless he, because he hadn't been hit. Yeah, I don't know. He might have done that in the past, but I'm not. Maybe last season, because he was hitting when he was, yeah. He wasn't always, he was, he's been leading off with the Dodgers, but I don't, I don't, was he lead off hitter with the angels back in the day? I don't think he was. Could be wrong about that. Either way, it's impressive. Yeah. He has allowed a total of five earned runs this season. He has a 0.82 ERA, a 0.82 whip. He has a quality start in eight of nine starts. Shohei O'Connor, I'm not going to belabor the issue once again, but I think there is a real conversation in a weekly lineup league, whether or not to use him as a pitcher or as a hitter. Gavin Williams, a strong start against the national side. All right. The first time he did it was Game 4 of the 2025 NLCS. That's a pretty good time to do it. He has done it three times. It has been done three times in Major League history. Insane. Gavin Williams strong started against the national seven innings of one run ball four strikeouts had 12 whiffs on 94 pitches. Michael Soroka, a quality start at the giant six innings to runs three strikeouts to zero walks. And Bryce Elder, we had ourselves a bit of a regression start here at the Red Sox, three and a third, nine hits, six runs, five of those earned. Even with this start, it's a 250 ERA, a 108 whip. There will still be more regression, but he's pitched really well this year. And then Bubba Chandler, we got another bad one here, Instacubs, five innings, four runs, five strikeouts to two walks. I don't think there's any way you can use him next week. I know that you've been preaching to everyone to hold on to him. I think that's fine on the bench, but he gets the asterisans and at the braves next week. So I don't think there's any way you can use Bubba Chandler there. Any other thoughts on him, Bryce Elder, Soroka, and Gavin Williams? Would it be insane to say that I almost think this was a promising start for Bubba Chandler? Because at least it was only two walks. Yeah, he threw 66% of his pitch for strikes. At least it wasn't the same problem this time. I don't actually believe that. This is a bad start and he's still just a stash, but I still believe he is worth stashing, yes. They want to ask quickly on Mike Soroka. It's a 325 ERA, a 120 whip so far this year. We know the expected ERA has been running much higher, but he's been pretty consistent. He only threw 89 and 2/3 innings last year. He's already up to 61. I'm not really sure how much he's-- like how much the debacks are going to push him this year? Like does he get to 140, 150? And also I just don't completely buy the skill set. So basically the point I wanted to make is that I think Soroka's a pretty good sell high right now. I don't buy the skill set either, but what would the debacks have to gain by limiting him? Yeah, I think it's a one-year deal, right? It's a one-year deal. Yeah, I get it. Like I have a lot of concerns about how he's going to fare down the stretch especially. And I would certainly-- you said the ERA is down to 285? 325. 325. If he was a run higher the rest of the way, I would not be surprised at all. But I just don't think anybody's really buying. If they are, then yeah, I think you can try to trade him because I don't think he's the top-- I don't think I rank him even as a top 75 starting pitcher the rest of the way. Yeah. We made this case yesterday too. Same thing with ERAW, right? Like I don't know if you can get anything for those guys, but I would try. I would be out there trying to flip ERAW or Soroka for-- Same with Bryce Elder, honestly. Maybe you don't feel the same way, but I don't think Bryce Elder is a top 80 starting pitcher the rest of the way. I think I have him as a top 60 starting pitcher. I do not buy it. You know what? The K-Mine of Swalk is OK. It's like 14%. But his expected ERA is like right around three. Been pretty hard this year. I get that. He's made changes. I don't completely trust the three XERA. But if he's like a mid to high 3ZERA and like a 120-inch whip, kind of like what we said about Soriano earlier, he just won't get as many strikeouts. Yeah, I just-- I think it's probably like a 380 ERA and 7.5 K. 9.5 K.M. That sounds a lot like Jose Boreos. And it's been like seven years since anybody was excited about Jose Boreos, you know? Yeah. I guess the one thing in his favor is like the braze are awesome. And he's going to get really good run support. And obviously the wins will be there. He usually goes deep into his starts, too. So that's something else I guess in the favor there of Bryce Elder. Some hitting leftovers. Julio Rodriguez, I wrote down that he's off to a much better start than usual because I thought he was. He hit his 10th home run here. He's hitting 258. He's got five seals. I looked up last year to see one hit his 10th home run of the season. It was exactly May 27 last year, too. That's kind of surprising. It's kind of weird, right? I thought he got up to such a slower start. Yeah. Was it just like a worse overall line at that point? Because it definitely felt like-- I didn't even look-- I just looked to see one hit his 10th home run, but it was the same day. Yeah, and I was a 7.55, a 750 OPS, 244 batting average. That's-- All right. I thought he was playing much better than he was. No, I agree. He was-- yeah, he was like a sub 700 OPS for a lot of April and most of May. So I think he has generally been better this season, but I think he'll be great moving forward. I think most of these guys will be very, very good moving forward. Trey Turner is picking things up one for four with a sock in the shoe that's back to back games with a home run and a steal. He's up to seven home runs, 11 steals, last 17 games. He has three homers and eight steals during that span, but still hitting just 224. So look, if there's the one thing that you felt best about is Trey Turner's batting average. So I still think that number will correct over time. Absolutely. Gunner Henderson, a big game, and he needed it two for four with a double-dong, three RBI. Spoke about Gunner with Scott last week. It seems like he's trying too hard to lift the ball this year, and maybe has got his swing just out of whack a little bit. Ian Hatt broke out of his slump. He went two for six with his 11th home run, five RBI, previous 20 games before this, 155 batting average, a 41% strike out rate, and Yordon Alvarez is just putting the asterisk on his back right now. Three for four with a double-dong. He has five homers in his past three games. He is up to 20 home runs on the season. He has a near 1100 OPS. His career high in games is 147. If you just take what he's done so far this year and you kind of paste that out. out over 147 games, 52 homers, 94 runs, 102 RBI. Can the Astros give this guy a little bit more help? That'd be nice. I'll do you one better. Let's say Jordan Avers doesn't play another game this season. And you have to add Spencer Steer, who is the 82nd best projected outfield arrest of season by Zips. That's just the player I named. I grabbed. You just put what Steers projected for the rest of the season and what Yorons done so far. You know, 270 average 85 runs, 33 RBI, 33, 33 homers, 89 RBI, eight steals. Take that from your third round pick every day. Yeah. And that's if Yoron Avers doesn't play another game. Yeah. Don't put that evil out there. It's the world's biggest. I look Jordan. I'm hoping Yoron Avers plays every game more than just about anybody. Yeah. Maybe less than him, but it's just to say that the reason you buy these injury risk players is because you don't just get nothing when they get hurt. And if they play like themselves for a big portion of the season, it's going to be worth it. You know, the call to the bullpen for the blue jays. Louis Varlin got the eighth inning with a one run lead. He was facing the heart of the Marlins lineup. He allowed two singles, but he got out of it. And then it was Tyler Rogers who got the ninth. And he retired all three for his second save. We've seen this a few times. Louis Varlin is not just the Senate and forget it. Closer, ninth inning every time out. If there's a bigger spot earlier, they will use him in that spot for the pitch like the fifth or sixth inning in a game recently. That sounds right. There was something where he pitched really early. For the Guardians, Kate Smith got the ninth inning with a two run lead. He did allow one run on two hits, but he picked up his league leading 19th save of the year. For the debax, Paul Seawald pitch a clean ninth for his 14th save. For the Phillies, Yohan DeRan was unavailable. Jose Alvarado picked up his first save for the Astros and Yelda Los Santos got the final five outs. Three via strikeout for his fourth save. It feels like they're just trying to piece things together until Josh Haydor is back. And I did just see the Dodgers game when final. Tanner Scott. It was not Tanner Scott. Tanner Scott pitched the eighth inning. He struck out two. He's been amazing. He has a one 19 year A. It was Kyle Hurt who got the ninth inning. He picked up his first save of the season. I don't remember the last time Tanner Scott actually got a save Chris. Yeah. Yeah. That's. have there been many save opportunities for the Dodgers lately? I'm pulling up their schedule to see who's been picking up saves for them. Because he has not gotten one since May 14th. That has been exactly two weeks. Blake Trinon picked up the save before tonight. Okay. Was Will Klein who got one on May 19th. And then yeah, it was Tanner Scott before that. So there have been three relievers to get a save since Tanner Scott got his last save. Also, uh, extremely Johnny Cash voice. Kyle Hurt just got a save. That's all. I actually, I actually understand that one. Yeah. There you go. I don't know. Like I still want to hold on to Tanner Scott. I think he'll get some saves here and there. They just use him. Whatever. It's the heart of the lineup. So it's it's clearly not the dedicated guy. But even when he even without the saves, the numbers have been really, really good for Tanner Scott. So yeah, I think you're still happy to have him around. Is there anyone else that you would chase in this bullpen? Is it like Kyle Hurt or Trinon or Vesia or. Like I guess, Trinon if you had to, but I don't have a lot of confidence in it. Right. To stream or not to stream on Thursday. Imagine this yesterday might be one of the worst slates of the year, man. It's a it's a six game slate. Grayson Rodriguez at the Tigers. Jack Flarey against the Angels. Eric Fettie against the twins. Colin Ray at the Pirates. Patrick Corbin at the Orioles. Chris Bass against the Blue Jays. You absolutely should not stream anybody on Thursday. If I had to choose one, I think I would say Colin Ray, but it's. Yeah, yeah, I don't I don't like that. On Friday, we have Severino up against Yankees for a Venge game. Lucas Gileedo at the Nationals. Steven Colac at the Rangers. Zach Allen at the Mariners. Grant Holmes at the Reds. Walbert Arania at the Rays. And Kai Wei Tang against the Brewers. Oh, I don't love this one either. I guess I'll go Severino. Severino in Sacramento against Yankees lineup. I don't like I didn't say I liked it. I'm not excited about anybody here. I think Arania. Gallon at Seattle. I think Arania. I think Colac, I don't think he's very good, but at the Rangers, good park to pitch in. They're lined up as terrible right now. Like, yeah, it could be okay. I would probably say Arania Colac, Gallon in that order from him. Yeah, probably, but I'm not. I'm not optimistic about anyone here. Yeah, yeah. All right, we're going to wrap there again. Reminder I'm out for the next two podcasts, but Chris and Scott are here to hold it down. 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 Apple. Spotify and we'll be back again tomorrow. Bye bye. [Music] Paramount podcasts.