Dbacks Promote Ryan Waldschmidt & Big Pitcher Returns! (5/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports Got a fantasy question email fantasy baseball at CBSi.com Get ready to win your league Now here's Frank Scott and Chris what's up and welcome in to fantasy baseball today on Monday May 11th I am Frank sample joint by Scott white and Chris towers a heavy mother's day to all the great moms out there Including mine. Hope you all had a great day today on the show. We had some big picture returns this weekend Rodon snow ladola. We'll talk about that. Weaver wire ads starter sit decisions But there's only one place to start more prospects. That's right fab a get in this weekend as we learned on Friday that Ryan Walsh mitt promoted by the debacks. We also got that in conjunction with Spencer Jones coming up to the Yankees Robbie snelling made his major league debut as well So let's start with Ryan Walsh mitt who got called up this weekend and in the minors was hitting 289 three homeers Six deals and 87 OPS and They deffade Alex Thomas my guess is Ryan Walsh mitt should play a bunch here So lots of big fat bids already Scott. What are your expectations here for Ryan Walsh mitt? Well, I'm excited about Ryan Walsh mitt I have a hard time developing expectations for any prospect call up these days because it does feel like it's a bit more hitter Miss but Ryan Walsh mitt is an exciting prospect who Had a very big spring and hit a ton of balls Really hard that spring actually I think he had several balls hit harder this spring than he had during his time at triple A It's hardest a triple A was 11.5, but my point is just we've seen him hit the ball harder than that So the exit velocities are solid the on base skills are incredible great Walker and Somebody who doesn't chase like at all Which sometimes can lead to more strikeouts, but Prior to triple A that hadn't really been an issue. So I'm not expecting him to be a big source of strikeouts At least once he gets acclimated. There's power their speed. It's kind of the whole package And I was a lot more excited about picking up Ryan Walsh mitt and Spencer Jones both because I like the profile more and also because They just ditched their center field or to get this guy on the roster So you got to think there's a lot of job security there that Spencer Jones doesn't have I think that might be the most appealing part of Ryan Walsh mitt to me. Yeah, I think Even if Spencer Jones is pretty good, he might not stick right like it's just there just might be a roster crunch when Stan and You know potentially Jason Dominguez are healthy Walsh mitt I think he's gonna get a lot of run and if he's if he's good He's definitely gonna stick around so if nothing else even if these were very similar prospects and to be clear They are not right and Walsh mitt is like a pretty much a consensus top 50 guy Spencer Jones for all the hype Has not been a top 100 prospect basically since before the 2024 season So or yeah since before I did you were you guys seeing the same thing in the 15 teamers like the it's there I saw the bids were way bigger for Walsh mitt everywhere. Okay, maybe I just had a fluke league Where it's Spencer Jones went for a ton and I was like really It wasn't it was our 50s I was entering. I mean I was entering bids for For Walsh mitt like Four to six times as big as I was putting in for Jones and I got a couple of Walsh mitt I didn't get any of Jones. Yeah, so when I saw a lot of this weekend with the where fat has already run is Walsh mitt was like 16 to 20% of fat budgets and then I saw Spencer Jones was like five to seven percent usually in that range and we actually got him in the beat FBT league for $24 which 12 team 2.4% yeah, yeah, so 12 team Rotto five outfielders, so you know just Basically any outfielder that has any upside you're you're adding in a league like that so Yeah, what was seeing much higher bids here on Ryan Walsh mitt speaking of Spencer Jones by the way he did But let me just add I did not enter a bid for even Walsh mitt in the three outfielder leagues Maybe if I was really hurting an outfield I would have but I I'm not so confident in how he's gonna perform that I wanted him taking up a bench bot was basically what I reasoned I'd rather use that on a two-star pitcher like a Peter Lambert or Jeffrey Springs somebody like that so Didn't go quite that aggressively for Walsh mitt, but it's certainly in the five outfields leagues I did But theoretically if he does what we expect his profile should play out pretty well in a point league right With the OBP and power and like if he if he is as good as he could be Then yeah, absolutely if he's as good as he could be and Or It's probably a top 30 top 25 outfielder next year. Mm-hmm. So Spencer Jones He did start all three games for the Yankees even Saturday against the lefty which I was pretty surprised by but I mean the poor kid first came on Friday. He has the face. Misia Rasky was throwing 104 miles per hour It was just insane stuff Spencer Jones did pick up his first hit on Sunday He went one for four with the RBI single Ryan's a Walsh mitt by the way two for four with three RBI on Sunday So nice game for him right away there We already said we would take Walsh mitt over Spencer Jones. We did take Walsh mitt ahead of All the other Most added outfielders right now so guys like JJ Bladey Brandon Marsh That kill off Ezekiel DeRon Sam Antonacci would you take Walsh mitt over all those yes, I think maybe Bladey I think is pretty interesting, but I don't think he's an everyday guy Sam Antonacci he's starting to run a little more But I think Walsh mitt's a better player than all of them so I would take him ahead of them like Brandon Marsh, I mean, I know he's hitting 330 hit 280 last year, but it was like I think he had like a hundred combined runs in RBI Um He's playing more he's playing more, but I also think that's going to eventually hurt his batting average He has like a 420 what a babbib right now So I think I'd rather take the fire on Walsh mitt if I miss I don't think any of those guys are really guys I'm gonna miss in the long run Walsh mitt might be Mm-hmm, and then Robbie Snelling made his debut on Friday against the nationals five innings three runs four walks to two strikeouts First inning was not good for him. You could tell nerves were there um But he had 12 whips on 86 pitches. He used five different pitches. So like diverse pitch mix Chris, would you see here from Robbie Snelling Was he available in any of your leagues where you know you saw fat bids run already? Yes, um he was available in Was he available in my tower section? I don't think he was I think it was already stashed I think you told me he went I think you told me he went for like 250 Okay, yeah, that was the one then okay. He had a thing it was like 256 um I thought he looked Good results aside which I know will make people roll their eyes, but When you're trying to predict moving forward I don't think you look at the results of any individual start and draw conclusions from them You look at the process and I saw a Fastball that he could get up to 97 miles per hour with up to 21 inches of induced vertical break It looks like a good pitch and he got strikeouts on the slider the curveball and the changeup and I think he's good. I think this is gonna work You know, it's not a guarantee talented pitchers fail all the time, but I think Robbie Snelling definitely is a talented pitcher and someone who Does need to be rostered in 100% of leagues now If both Logan Henderson and Robbie Snelling were available I would have a genuinely hard time figuring out who I think is better, but I think I would still give Jones the Ed or sorry Snelling the edge Just because I feel better about the playing time I feel better about the role the brewers just Hopefully they just embrace him and let him go you know 130 innings the rest of the way, but I don't have a lot of faith that they're gonna do that so that that's my only concern if you told me Logan Henderson was gonna be in the lineup or the rotation the rest of the season He might be a top 50 starting pitcher for me. I was encouraged by Snelling's performance to I Was worried about the control coming in he had 4.7 walks per nine and those six triple A starts and control is a problem here But that seemed like the only problem which you know, he got a good number swinging strikes had a good percentage there Even though he had only the two strikeouts He had the five pitches that he threw at least eight percent of the time I thought it was gonna be mostly fastball curveball and considering he was having trouble Getting whiffs from triple A players with just those two pitches. I worried That he was gonna be kind of exposed in the majors in that regard so a fuller arsenal that I was expecting More whists than I was expecting the controls. Maybe you could attribute to nerves Maybe it's gonna be a recurring issue like it's been for Baba Chandler But I think at least showed enough for I'll be smelling that if I picked him up. I'm I'm sticking with it for now And smelling up to 67% rostered in CBS so still out there and you know A third of CBS league so some shallower formats while this start wasn't great still does have a ton of upside and I would agree Chris. I think I would take step over Logan Henderson to for the exact reasons that you mentioned just I don't know if the brewers like Logan Henderson as much as we do and that's that might be the the biggest issue for him before we get to our first break let's do one collective player of the weekend is this happening it is is Spencer strider back is it happening he was great at the Dodgers six shout out innings with eight strikeouts 15 whiffs on 91 pitches seven on the slide or five on the fastball fastball up around one mile per hour from his first start average 96.4 the induced vertical break up an extra inch to 17 inches here so I thought it was a pretty encouraging outing against a really really good Dodgers lineup Scott would you see here from Spencer strider how encouraged are you actually I did not expect the start to go well and it went really well so I am encouraged let's see how sticky it is you know he had starts like this last year to and obviously the final line wasn't one we were happy with he did all the things we would like to see him do he did all the things he needs to do I think to have a bounce back season getting the velocity in the induced vertical break up on that fastball the slider which he didn't show much in his previous start at Colorado maybe just because it was at Colorado but a slider was great the curve ball remember that was a surprise in Colorado he threw it 31% of the time back down to 11% and this won't start still still up still up but much more of like a show me pitch than then I'm integrating this as a new weapon into my arsenal but it could help so I think I think it was as encouraging as you could hope for for his first non-cours field start obviously the weirdness of course made it hard to assess this was great and he did it against a great lineup and I think if you stashed him this time you have real hope at this point but I'm not ready to draw any firm conclusions yeah I think the way I would put it is if this is the best we get from Spencer Strider then it's probably a lot like last year where it's going to be frustrating and he's not going to be great right like if this is the best his stuff looks I guess because performance fluctuates but you know if the best his stuff looks is 96.4 miles per hour and a 17 inch induced vertical break that's good but probably not enough to make Spencer Strider and Ace again if this is typical of what we can expect moving forward where there will be even better where the stuff looks even better then I think you can start to get excited right now I think the the best and most actionable thing we can say about Spencer Strider is it doesn't look like the worst case scenario he doesn't look unusable what the next few starts will tell us is what the ranges start to look like I think of course field I said at a time it just tells you from an analytical perspective it just tells you nothing and so we kind of have to throw that one out and it's just a question of it or did we see a baseline for Spencer Strider did we see a median outcome did we see a high end outcome I tend to think it's probably more like a high end outcome and it's going to be frustrating like it was last year but we saw a couple of his starts on his rehab assignment where the movement and the velocity were up on the fastball in a way that hadn't really happened since really since before the injury so I'm very moderately encouraged and the overall stuff plus metric for this second star for Spencer Strider was at 104 last year it was 95 for this season so I think it's only one start very small sample but I think that's encouraging before he had surgery he was 107 117 117 109 so usually among the top of the league in terms of stuff plus but you know only one star but I thought it was a good sign there the the stuff being up there for Spencer Strider big thanks everyone watching live we appreciate to be in here make sure to hit that like button subscribe to the channel if you haven't already we have over 500 people here watching live only like 30 or 40 likes so hit that like button help us out 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 we have a lot of injury updates some decisions to make on lineups cold Reagan's was officially placed on the aisle Friday with with a left elbow impingement retroactive to May 7th Chris did you at all look into the timelines here for right elbow impingement yes I looked at the baseball prospectus recovery dashboard tool and look this is one of those injuries where do they always say this specific diagnosis or do they just say all both stories you know I don't know but they have 21 pictures who dealt with an elbow impingement eight returned within four weeks and another four were back within six weeks so most pictures who have an elbow impingement returning about a month and a half or less the ones who don't it's more like two or three months and it's a wide range because it's it's I think it's one of those issues where it more depends on what the underlying problem is and we what that's what we don't know right now there was some talk that he wasn't going to go on the aisle there you know maybe they're hopeful he can miss the minimum I would be pretty skeptical of that but yeah there were a handful of guys who came back after 20 or so days well they were calling it something else of the last time we recorded right they were calling it or they calling Val Valgus overload extension pitchers elbow yeah pitch but pitchers elbow is a is kind of just like a catch all term for a bunch of different things that come about from pitching but not necessarily having like an acute injury is my understanding so this gives us a little more detail I guess so they classified it's more specifically yeah but even then I think impingement is still a fairly I'm trying to think of the word in like biology when you go through you go through okay kingdom the hierarchy of yeah but what is that process called of like identifying an animal phylum no it's like a process I had to do a bug collection in so a ninth grade I had to do a bug collection insect collection for my biology class and I saw one I needed in my house it was the night I it was the tax on I had the TV on when I saw it I saw it crawling on the chair I was like oh I need to go get a jar and catch this because it's exactly what I need and when I came back I missed what I was waiting to see on the TV which was Mark McGuire's 60 second home oh no yeah I ran around my house when I saw that when that happened not when you found the bug um that taxonomy would be the the word okay right yeah Logan Webb was placed on the aisle with right knee bursitis it sounds like giants expect him back when first eligible hopefully Trevor McDonald was recalled to fill Logan Webb's void I guess the two names that jump into the rotations here Trevor McDonald and Stephen Colock do we have any deeply interested in those guys um reason to to be excited about either now McDonald was pretty good in his last start and he's yeah I he was good right it was like eight strikeouts over five innings or something I think it was seven innings of one run ball okay yeah they're both ground ball guys and so I I could see them being useful in like a streamer sort of way but I even in my deeper leagues that wasn't putting in any bids on McDonald's or Colock it's yeah two two start type of type of guys Colock has two starts oh they both have two starts right away still wasn't ready to pull the trigger yeah the the matchups for Trevor McDonald at the Dodgers and in Sacramento against the athletic so no thank not great uh the Dodgers plays Tyler glass down on the aisle Friday with lower back spasms they don't sound overly concerned about that one either Garrett crochet has resume playing catch from 60 feet and is making progress in his strengthening program but he won't return when first eligible here on Tuesday Ronald the Cunia went through pregame agility drills on Friday Walt White said Acunia still has some boxes to check before he's potentially activated when first eligible on Wednesday so still some moving parts here in a weekly lineup league would you guys just play it safe and not use Ronald the Cunia just yet I'd lean that way yeah me too all right Moody bets traveled back to LA on Sunday and could be activated on Monday do we start or sit Moody bets this week I think it's easier to start home yeah I agree uh in in a non-rotolig you probably have a really good backup that you've been playing there and so I might just stick with it in that case but and wrote a leagues where you stretch deeper middle and field probably start bets Jeremy Paine is expected to start a rehab assignment Tuesday or Wednesday Taj Bradley was placing the aisle with right pectoral inflammation he was off to a great start so uh some rough news there for Taj Bradley good news as Ben Rice returned on Friday and he started all three games this weekend. We had a trade. Don't think it really matters at all. The Guardians acquired Patrick Bailey from the Giants in exchange for tugboat Matt Wilkinson and the 29th pick in the 2026 first year player draft. Bo Naylor was the option to the minors. So basically the Guardians pick up Bailey. He should be there close to everyday catcher. And this just opens up more playing time for Jesus Rodriguez for the Giants. That's probably the biggest way. Yeah. So in two catcher leagues, I did have some bids in on Jesus Rodriguez, who I think I started every game, but one so far. And he's played a game in a right field too, which is like, he was playing the outfield in triple A too. So I would guess that's not going to happen very often now that they got rid of Patrick Bailey, but they clearly like him. They clearly want his bat in the lineup. And Buster Posey does not seem to have a lot of patience in waiting for things to get right on his team. So you think a catcher would appreciate the defensive standout a catcher more than a catcher who can hit, but apparently not. They got a nice return for Patrick Bailey, a guy they were giving up on. That was a lot. Yeah. I picked up tugboat in the Sky White Dynasty leagues off to a good start at double A could be a thing. I will say this is kind of a trade. I just don't like for either team. Patrick Bailey is so marginal. But you're getting they're getting tugboat and they're getting a first round pick. Yeah. There we go. I thought it was going to return for them too. That was fine. What I saw the breaking pop up from Jeff pass and I'm like, oh, what's happening? But I guess my thing is mostly just like I think it's the impatience on Buster Posey's part. Like this could end up being a pretty short-sighted move. Patrick Bailey's been like a four-win player the last three years. It's just, you know, if he's a 500 OPS bat, then yeah, you can't play him anyway no matter how he goes defensive. But you think both neighbors in trouble? Yeah. He was already sent down, right? Oh, was he? Yes, that. I'm as that. Okay. They already had three catchers on their roster too. That's weird for Cleveland. Yeah. Yeah. Garry Cole made another rehab start at AA on Sunday. Five innings, three runs, two of those earned, eight strikeouts to one walk from the highlights I saw from this start. It seemed like a lot of his fastballs were like 96 97. I think he touched 98. So it's been slowly trending up. I think that's a good sign there for Garry Cole. Probably needs one or two more rehab starts before he joins the Yankees. Hunter Green is up to 150 feet of long toss as part of his rehab program. The reds are targeting late May for green to throw a bullpen. And I think it's still pretty realistic for him to be back in the second half. That's my expectation there for Hunter Green. Bryce Miller will return Wednesday against the Astros. I don't think there's any way you should start him in that matchup because it's really tough lineup. But I think he should be rostered. I'm pretty interested based on what he's done in the in the minors on rehab. He 61% rostered. The Mariners will go with the six man rotation this week. But it sounds like the plan after this is for Luis Castillo to piggyback Bryce Miller as a reliever the following week. So Luis Castillo. I think Luis Castillo could be dropped, which yeah, I think we know that this week. Yeah. Even the one who is not clear who's piggybacking who who's making the actual start. But I doubt in that scenario either one is going six innings and give you quality starts. You probably rather have the second guy. It is from a fantasy perspective. I don't think it's impossible though. If Bryce Miller is pitching well as the starter, he could go six and then Luis Castillo comes in for like the final three. And I just don't think that's likely to last very long either way. So it's just yeah. If Bryce Miller pitches like 2024, I think he's going to be great either way. You know, I think that solves itself. And his velocity has been up. His velocity was down last year when he suffered the elbow injury. He puts very poorly. But I'm not much less excited about Bryce Miller than I am Logan Henderson or Robbie Snelling. I think those guys should go for a lot more in fab. But I had multiple leagues where I put in bids for Bryce Miller. If he was available just to just to see if he can bounce back and get back to 2024. I think it's unlikely. I think that was probably a career year for him. But I'm intrigued. By Bryce Miller. I do think he should be rostered pretty much in all leagues right now. Well, rank him Chris Snelling Henderson. Bryce Miller. I think that's the order I'd go in. Certainly that's the order in which I would bid on them on fab. So I guess that's the way I would rank him. Yeah. Will Sikitreras left Sunday after getting hit by a pitch on his right hand. Initial scans came back negative. He'll get more tests some Monday. So in deeper leagues with corner infield spots, just be careful with Will Sikitreras. Pete Fairbanks is expected to return on Wednesday. Would you guys start Pete Fairbanks this week? I mean, if I needed saves, yeah, if I had an alternative, probably not because he is coming off injury. B wasn't pitching that well before the injury. See the Marlins are kind of funny about their bullpen usage. And I still don't have a great read on how things are going to go with Fairbanks healthy. The Giants option Ryan Walker to triple A on Sunday. So he's not the closer Caleb Killing got the ninth with a four run lead on Friday. He'll add a run on a hit and two walks. But he does have their most recent save. Killing a 150 ERA 117 Whip. My guess is he gets the next save opportunity. But Keaton win has pitched well. They just had you well, Paguero. I think that's his name. Come off I L and get a draw. He throws really hard. So maybe. Yeah. And I feel like the three times Yoel Paguero has appeared. It would be it was non-safe chance, but it was the ninth inning. You know. So I feel like they probably are thinking of him as another high leverage arm. And it's interesting that the timing of the Ryan Walker emotion came with Paguero being activated from the I L. I agree that Caleb Killian probably gets the next chance. But I think it's going to remain kind of messy. Maybe even messier without Walker since he was the one who had the the history and the role. And that kind of made him the obvious favorite in fantasy as long as he was in the mix. Trevor Rogers threw a simulated bullpen on Saturday and his optimistic hill. Make a start during the Orioles upcoming series against the Yankees. I don't think I would want to use Trevor Rogers who struggled before going on the I L coming back from an illness against the Yankees. Agreed. I don't love the matchup. Yeah, but it's possible this could be a two-star week for him. I don't know when they're you know that the series I think is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So if it's Monday or Tuesday. Yeah, that could that could work out. But yeah, I would lean towards not starting him against the Yankees. It looks like it'll probably be Tuesday. So I think to the Orioles have let's see they do not play out Thursday. So yeah, I think it would only be a one-start week because they don't play Thursday. It's six games this week. And he starts on Tuesday. So yeah, it sounds right. Tatsu Yemi will return Tuesday against the Mariners. That makes him a two-star pitcher against the Mariners and Rangers this week. There's no way you can use Tatsu Yemi. No, not with the control we've been seeing, which the issues they're continued on the rehab assignment. I would like to continue to stash him, I because I just think it's too early. He hasn't gotten enough chances for us to really know what he's going to turn into on this side of the Pacific. But yeah, you can't start him yet, even with the two-start status. Just too much downside risk. All right, Jackson, how did he play that third base in a rehab game at AA on Sunday? So trying to, I guess, earn some more flexibility there and move them around the diamond if they need that to happen. Shane Bieber will face live hitters on Tuesday his first time doing so since the World Series. Kyle Teal could play in rehab games this week. He's 36% rostered and I think someone you should be stashing in two catcher leagues. Jacob Wilson left Sunday with a left shoulder injury. So pay attention to him. Kerry Carpenter went on the aisle with an AC joint spray in his left shoulder. Right louder is going on the aisle with a shoulder strain. Addison Barger was scratched on the line of Sunday due to right elbow soreness. Jorge Polanco's bruise right wrist has recovered nicely, but he's still dealing with left Achilles soreness. And Owen Casey was scratched Sunday with left tricep discomfort. We got some big picture returns this weekend. Nick Ladolo was up first on Friday against the Ashros. Pretty tough landing spot here against this Ashros lineup, but five and a third innings four runs. Two strikeouts to one walk. Two homers allowed had seven whiffs on 78 pitches. And he is 34% started. He's home against the Nationals this week and they crushed lefty. So Chris, would you see here from Nick Ladolo? Would you throw him right back into the lineup against the Nationals this week? Nationals have also been tough against lefties. That was who Robbie Snellings struggled against in his first start. I think they're better or they're not as good as the Astros certainly. And on the whole, I don't see much reason to be too concerned about Nick Ladolo. The curveball wasn't very effective. of only one whiff, but that can just happen sometimes without it necessarily meaning anything moving forward. So I'm inclined to just view Nicolodolo like I did before the season when he was certainly a top 50 starting pitcher and probably closer to 40. So I think I'm comfortable getting him back in the starting lineup. Yeah. Let's talk about Blake's now. I feel like this one was kind of surprising that they just call them up and they're like, hey, you're back in the rotation because Tyler Glass now's hurt. He was not great in his debut here from a surface level perspective. Three innings, six hits, five runs for those earned two walks, five strikeouts, but 16 whiffs on 77 pitches. That is massive. The velocity all good here. Pitch makes look pretty normal for Blake's Nelly through 65% of his pitches for strikes. So while the overall line here scout was not good, I think if I have Blake's Nelly, I am absolutely throwing him out there against the angels this week. Hmm. I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure because of the way 2025 played out and 2024 played out and 2023 played out and 2022 also does go that far back. Yeah, it looks like 2022 also. So there's been a four year stretch here where it was nothing but bad starts. And then a switch flips and it's nothing but good starts. And so my approach with Blake's Nelly and I admit this sounds kind of stupid, but it's just relying on history. It's worked in the past is, OK, he had a bad start. Yeah, he's a talented pitcher. So some of the underlying stuff looks good, but it was a bad start. Until he has that good start, I'm going to try to set him. Now I have men in it all only. I'm obviously going to start him there because what's the alternative, but in leagues where there are reasonable alternatives, I think I think I'm content to wait until I see the first good start and then know, OK, the good the good stretches coming here from Blake's Nell. That's how I think I'm going to do it. I know Chris. Does that does that sound crazy to you Chris? You got to you got to break the tie Chris. I said he start snow Chris says no. There's I don't think there's much rhyme or reason to Blake snail. Like when he's good, when he's bad, it kind of defies analysis. It's sort of like I'm sure we'll talk about with Jesus Lozardo and Gavin Williams where it's just we go through stretches where they have it. They go through stretches where they don't have it in the matchup and everything else doesn't matter. But I think you drafted Blake's Nell because you think he's good at baseball. And I didn't see any reason in this start to think he's not good. The angels aren't a scary matchup. So yeah, I'm going to start him. All right, let's go. I thought Chris was going to go with me on the team. So you did say it was stupid. You didn't want to put yourself in the stupid go Scott can call me stupid too. No, you can call yourself stupid. I'm not taking that stray. Fair enough. Let's talk about Carlos Ardon who struggled to throw strikes here at the Brewers for an a third innings three runs five walks to four strikeouts. The velocity way up he was you know, amped up for this one. He threw just 54% of his pitches for strikes. He looked great first time through the order. But then once he got to the fourth inning, everything kind of collapsed there for him. Chris, would you see here from Carlos Ardon? Do you start him at the Metz this week? Yeah, if the Metz have been bad enough and I thought his stuff looked very good. You know, the one thing that I did notice during his rehab assignment and it was one of the Yankees, um, he's a Yankees blogger who commented on it that I follow who said something like the Yankees approach during these rehab assignments is not really about results. They want these guys just kind of getting their pitches in throwing strikes, not, not laboring. And so, you know, the fact that he came out and walked five and four and a third innings is a little frustrating, but velocity was up across the board. Stuff looked good. I'm not really all that concerned about Carlos Rdon moving forward. The Metz have not been a scary lineup. So yeah, I'm going to go ahead and start him this week. And frankly, I have Carlos Rdon in a bunch of leagues a lot more than, I don't think I have Blake's telling me so I actually, that is a theoretical exercise. But Carlos Rdon, I'm going to have to actually go through and make these decisions and we'll see what it comes out to. It's possible. I just end up sitting him, but I lean towards starting Carlos Rdon. Yeah, I would go the same way with that, lean toward it, but maybe if I have good alternatives, sit them until I'm confident. He's totally back to himself. I think it's going to be interesting watching the trade-off between velocity and strike throwing for Rodon since the velocity was up across the board in this star. Obviously, he was great last year with the velocity. Yeah, it was the best year we'd seen from Rodon in a while. And he talked about, he basically said the same thing after this start is like, I don't care how hard I'm throwing if I'm not throwing strikes. So, so yeah, I'm interested to see how that goes with Rodon. I don't know that he necessarily needs to be up one and a half mile per hour across the board. But, you know, he was pitching through that elbow issue all of last year. So that to drop in velocity last year may have been more health related than, than about command. All right, let's take our final break. When we return, we'll talk waiver wire options from the weekend. We'll talk starter sit decisions as well. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball. Today, let's talk waiver wire hitters and Travis Bazzona had a huge game on Friday, one for four with a sock and two shoes, a homer, two steals. It was his first career home run. He had seven steals in his first 11 games. He is only hitting 194, but entering Sunday that came with a 296 expected batting average and a 92.7 average exit velocity. So 73% rostered. Scott, I'm pretty, I'm pretty excited about what we, what we are seeing from Travis Bazzona so far. I mean, if he's going to run this much, it makes for such a high floor. If he's going to run this much and he's going to strike out less than 20% of the time, I'd say if he was going to strike out, strike it out less than 25% at the time and he's running this much. It's probably going to go pretty well. Pull air rates in the blue. So that's not ideal. But he wasn't, he wasn't going to do it in the minor either. Right. And it seemed like he had kind of gotten away from doing that to, to, for as hard as he's hitting the ball, it might be okay. Like there might still be a decent power production, even if he's not pulling the ball in the air. Ton, but really it's, it's about the steals, it's about the plate discipline. I think we now we have an obvious number 13 or is it number 14? Now that Tate says eligible second base. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll pick it up. So yeah, I think we have another, I think we have an obvious number 14 in the second base rankings, which means that in leagues without a middle and field spot, everybody should be pretty good there. Bryce Eldridge is on the board with his first home run, E Homer on Saturday off of a breakfast and ash craft. He's already made two appearances at first base. So, you know, three more and he'll gain first base eligibility on CBS. Chris, how would you just rank the prospect hitters that have been called up in recent weeks? So just like in a vacuum, Bazonah Eldridge, Walshmit Spencer Jones. Walter, OK, Bazonah, Walshmit Eldridge Jones. I think is how I would put them. Yeah. Yep. I think that's a dynamic sense. Couple of multi position bats here. Ernie Clement had a huge game on Saturday, five for five with his second home run. He's second third and shortstop eligible. Brooks Lee continues to just do some interesting things, make things happen here. He went two for three with a run, a RBI and a steal on Sunday. He has multiple hits in four of his last six games. The batting average is up to 276. He's got five homers, 24 RBI, three steals, also second third and shortstop eligible. Scott, who do you like more between those multi position guys? Ernie Clement or Brooks Lee? I think Brooks Lee might be a little more usable in fantasy. There's just such clear limits to Clement's power ceiling. And Lee, I mean, that's just the one category guy. Right. And Lee, look, Lee's data that this diet cast data looks pretty bad. But it always has, even in the minor leagues, when he was a pretty highly regarded prospect, he might just be one of those middle end fielders who produces above that. I don't think the ceiling is especially high, but he's homered at a decent rate so far. He's stolen some bases while Clement hasn't really. So I think I think I'm a little more interested in Lee, but they're both, they're both deeply options as far as I'm concerned. Couple of games in five alphular leagues. J.J. Blade continues to impress one for two with two RBI and a steal here on Sunday. He has started 12 straight games for the Reds and Luke Rayleigh monster game on Friday, two for five with a double dong seven RBI in that one. Scott, who's higher on your sleeper hitter list? I know they're both on the list as a J. Blade or Luke Rayleigh for this week. It's Blade. It's Blade. I have Rayleigh and I have Dominic Canzone, both low on the sleeper hitters list. It's hard to leave them off because because the Mariners have the best titter matchups. They're one of four teams playing seven games, and it's all righties. But what I've noticed with Rayleigh and especially Canzone is, okay, great. They start against the righties. Soon as the lefty comes in there, they're getting pinch hit for. So it's, it makes it hard to, it seems like the circumstances couldn't favor them possibly anymore, anymore this week, but it's still like, I'm still, I remain skeptical that they're gonna be that impactful for fantasy just 'cause they're removed so often. - The question I have with Bladay, he started 12 games straight. Only one has been against the lefty. - Yep. - So that's still like, is this guy an everyday player? I think he might be, and I think there are reasons to be excited about what JD Bladay is doing. - Yep. - His bat speed is up, - Significant half-mile per hour. - Yeah. - And his exit velocities are way up, quality of contact is way up. It's one of those things where you can't just look at his bat speed is up, air go he's going to be better because that impacts your swing decisions and your ability to adjust to pitches, but that hasn't been an issue for him. He's only stringed training. - He was awesome. - So, Bale, he was awesome. - I'm pretty, I'm pretty excited about JD Bladay right now. - And there are only two lefties on the schedule for the Reds. So I, I think it's fine to gamble on him. - Even if you were in a pension of three outfitter league, like I would rather start, yeah, I added Walsh Mitt to the sleeper hitters for this week because the Diamondbacks have the second best-interimation chips, they have series of course field, but I still haven't below Bladay amongst sleeper hitters. - Mm-hmm. One name, one very deep name for still in bases. S theory Ruiz had four steals this weekend, but he only started one of three games. I just don't really see how he's going to play enough, but he'll get in there as a pinch runner. And again, like NL only leagues where you're just chasing speed. I think S theory Ruiz is a name there for you. - If Nassim Nunez isn't available. - Yeah, it's kind of outfield version of Nassim Nunez, I guess you could say. WamerWire Pitcher is the first group Logan Henderson solid against the Yankees five innings, two runs, five strikeouts here on Sunday. He is at the twins this week. Andrew Abbott, a very good outing against the Ashrows, six shutout innings with five strikeouts for him. Over his last three starts, 17 and two thirds, two runs, 14 strikeouts to seven walks. He is at the Guardians this week. Foster Griffin, maybe he's just good, seven innings, two runs, nine strikeouts. He had 17 whiffs on 103 pitches. He's at the Reds this week. And Merrill Kelly bounced back against the Metz, seven innings, one run, six strikeouts here, 13 whiffs on 96 pitches. Still allowed a lot of hard contact and walk three. And he's at the Rock, he's this week. So it's probably a no this week for Merrill Kelly, but I still think he can get back to the pitcher that he's been in previous years. Scott, how would you rank this group? Logan Henderson, Andrew Abbott, Foster Griffin, and Merrill Kelly. I would rank them, definitely Logan Henderson, one, Merrill Kelly, two, I think. Is it a gap? I mean, I was a little surprised people dropped Abbott. Yeah, Abbott, that's fine. I mean, I find Abbott annoying as an analyst, but he'd put together three straight years where he was like too bad, I'm just gonna be good. So I was just looking him. People gave up on him quickly. Now, Foster Griffin is doing a pretty good Andrew Abbott impression so far. He got a season high Friday. He got a season high 17 whiffs. That came on the heels of a season low one whiff in his previous start, but both of them were good. And he just gives up some of the weakest contact in baseball, 87.4 mile per hour average. And like he just keeps putting together a good start after good start. The strikeout rate is pretty good despite a really low swinging strike rate. I don't have a lot of faith in him because he hasn't done it for three years like Andrew Abbott has, but he's kind of doing the same thing. And I think it wouldn't be so wrong to pick him up at this point. So there are going to be a handful of other pitchers that we talk about today who we can say the same things about basically. Justin Robleski had a weird start, but that's been his thing, Davis Martin. Bryce Elder, all of those guys. And the thing about all of those guys, and there's a bunch of them. Toma Yuki Segano was one of those guys until this week. And Foster Griffin is one of those guys right now. And I'm sure there's several others we can mention. The thing is one, a couple of them are going to be good for like two months. That's just, that happens every year. There are a couple of guys who are just inexplicably good for a couple of months. And it's hard to say which one of them will be, some of them have already done it. Probably one will just be good inexplicably for most of the season. You know, 2024 Seth Lugo, where it's just like, he just pitched way over his head for a while. Figuring out which one of them is going to be is basically impossible. You're betting on an outlier with any of them. And you always run the risk of what happened with Justin Robleski today. Where-- Oh, Robleski entered with 3.8 K per nine. Right, right. But he's an extreme example. But Tomuuki Sagano was pitching really well. That's a goner. Right. But we did this last year with Tomuuki Sagano last year. And there-- Well, because we didn't know what we were getting. But I definitely remember. He's a non-strike out pitcher in Colorado. Right. No, no, no. I understand. But my point is when we say like, yeah, I don't really believe in it. But you can play the hot hand. It's like, you can. You're inviting a lot of risk. If you don't believe a pitcher is good, but you're like, well, they're getting good results right now, it's like you are effectively saying, at some point, they're going to hurt my team. And I'm just hoping I can pull the ejection cord before they hurt. I mean, the thing is-- And a lot of these leagues starting nothing but pitchers you believe in is an option. Sure. It's not thrown every league. I mean, probably the shallow leagues that most people are listening play in. Yeah, maybe. I have to trust they know if it's not worth picking up Foster Griffin. But it's like, do I choose between Foster Griffin or Brandon Sprout? I would go Griffin at this point. Yeah. I-- I think that's fair. Moving on to the next group. And Warner Rodriguez, he was great against the meds. He finished two outs short of a complete game here, 8 and a third innings one run, four strikeouts to three walks. I can't really explain it, which means I probably would not bet on this lasting very long for Warner Rodriguez. And he is at the Rock. He's this week. So we don't like that. Ryan Nelson, I can't play the drop because he did not throw his fastball 60% of the time. It was 59%. But it was a good start for him. 6 and 2/3, one run, seven strikeouts to one walk. And he is 49% rostered at the Rangers this week. So we do like that matchup. Michael McGreevy, a great outing at the Padre, six shutout innings with nine strikeouts. That was a career high. I'm not really sure how we got to that point for Michael McGreevy. He is at the athletics this week. And Mike Burrows, a great outing at the Reds, seven shutout innings, six strikeouts. Perhaps starting to turn the corner a little bit here. Back to back quality starts here for Burrows. And he gets the mariners this week. So Chris, any of these names stand out to you. Mike Burrows, Michael McGreevy, Ryan Nelson, and Eduardo Rodriguez. Yeah, I think Ryan Nelson is pretty good. I got to say-- I'm not. I got to say it for Ryan Nelson. I was stunned that he had such a good outing because you know how many fastballs he threw. Yeah, he threw a bunch of other pitchers today. 59%. He did not get to 60. It should not have worked. It was only 59. I can't play the drops, Chris. And you can't. I'd all reason. I would say of this group, I could take either Ryan Nelson or Mike Burrows as the best pitcher here. If you could give either Mike Burrows, Ryan Nelson's fastball or give Ryan Nelson Mike Burrows everything but a fastball? Dude, that got to be an ace. That got to be really good because Mike Burrows' fastballs are bad. And it's just he's trying to survive to get to two strikes so he can put guys away with the other pitches. I think they're both pretty good, though. I like both. I think they're both-- Burrows had an awful start to the season, but he does a lot of things well. I think 30% roster is too low. Does he need to be 100% rostered probably not either? But I do think 30% roster is too low. I kind of feel like 50% roster for Ryan Nelson, probably also too low. Yeah, I think Ryan Nelson's better. I've been banging the drum for Ryan Nelson all season. I got a bang in again after a good start, even though I threw only 59% fastballs. I think you're going to want him active more times than not. I like the matchup this week, too. At Texas, no white Langford, although Langford pretty terrible this year. And in points, he's a spark. The one thing that has scared me about Nelson's profile. He is giving up a ton of hard contact. 91.2 average EV with a near 14% barrel rate. That is really, really bad. So at some point we're gonna need that to be better for Ryan Nelson. I assume you guys are not buying Eduardo Rodriguez who had a great two-star week, but now gets the Rockies in Corsfield this week. - I mean, even if he wasn't facing the Rockies, this feels like one of the more glaringly obvious this guy's gonna hurt your team at some point. - Yeah. - Situations and baseball. And then at the Rockies, I think he's just straight up dropable. - Yeah. Anything on Michael McGreeby? Well, the career-high nine strikeouts, he had 17 whiffs on 94 pitches. He has three straight quality starts and a quality start in five of eight outings this year. - It's got a 10-year-round. - I was watching this start and I really couldn't even figure out how he was getting all the strikeouts. - It could just be that the podgers are bad. - Yeah, 'cause I think wasn't the night before this one also a weirdly high strikeout start from some mediocre cardinals pitcher. - I think Liberator. - Liberator had like eight Ks or something against them. It's like, yeah. Padre is kinda just starting very good right now. I don't really, I don't know. He's got a pretty good change up, but I don't really see anything else for Michael McGreeby. I think we pretty much know what he is and it's not a bad mess or it's a contact ground ball guy. And then some deeper names here. Kadehr Montero continues to pitch well this time at the Royal Sixenings, one run for strikeouts for him. He has allowed three iron runs or fewer in six of seven starts. He's also giving up a lot of hard contacts. Kadehr Montero at the Metz this week. Ben Brown pitched great in his spot start at the Rangers for no hit innings with three strikeouts. He had nine whiffs on 46 pitches. Carmen Maginski, a tough loss at the Giants Sixenings, two runs, only one strikeout. He gets the Rockies in Pittsburgh this week as a spark. I think that's kind of interesting in point sleeves. And Ty Madden looked solid in bulk relief at the Royal's. Sixenings, three runs, five strikeouts, 10 whiffs on 87 pitches. He's RP only, he's at the Metz this week. Scott some deeper names here. Ty Madden, Carmen Maginski, Ben Brown, Kadehr Montero, anything stand out to you. - I think Ben Brown's good. I like the addition of the sinker this year to help round out his arsenal. He's got a good breaking ball. He no hit the Rangers of Crosse four innings. So, you know, probably straight, probably prepared to go five innings next time and it won't be long before he's able to give us normal starters of length. And his relief pitch are eligible, which helps in points leaks. I noticed he was already rostered in most of the Roto leagues. I think people were just enjoying the multi-inning relief appearances from him. But I'm excited about his move into the rotation, enough that I think he needs to be picked up in all leagues. - All right, let's take a look at some starter sit decisions at starting pitcher, Hey, Zeus Lazaro, are you kidding me against the Rockies in Philadelphia? I understand, you know, insanity, doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. Like Lazaro's gonna have these starts where he gets beat up and it's just like inevitable. He's inherently a volatile pitcher, but really against the Rockies in Philadelphia, he also had 16 whiffs on 95 pitches, like 79.8 average exit velocity. How did this start happen? Do we use them at the Red Sox this week? - I'm starting him. - Yeah. - I think Sit Lazaro at your own peril is. - It's just so annoying. - It is. - I mean, like you said, like he missed a ton of bats, he allowed some of the weakest contact I've seen from any pitcher this season. So it's like, man, you know, if you're gonna play fantasy baseball, you just gotta learn to shrug off starts like this. It's just. - And it's hard. Like four of his eight, he starts so far this season, have just been terrible. There's just no way around that. The good's been really bad, but I don't know, I was thinking about this with Gavin Williams, who I think is sort of similar to Lazaro. We've gotten, you know, we had this great start to the season to the last three starts have been bad. And I was just trying to think of like how I conceive of them in the mental model. And obviously I'm not a Gavin Williams fan. Anyone listening should know that. And so I think Hazel Lazaro is a good pitcher who is just prone to unusually bad starts a few times a year. Gavin Williams, I think, is more just a high variance pitcher. And I do think there's a difference between that where Lazaro, I think, will just be good the rest of the way. Let's not to say he'll never have a bad start, but I feel very confident that Hazel Lazaro is going to be good moving forward. Well, more often than not. Williams, it's just kind of random number generator. Like does he have it that day or doesn't he? In a way that I think is distinct from Lazaro even though they're somewhat similar. - Let's talk quickly about Gavin Williams. He's 91% started on CBS. So I don't think it's really like a starter sick question, but he has allowed five plus earn runs and back to back starts and three of his last four. He also had 24 swinging strikes in the start. - So did he have it or did he have it? - You tell me. (laughing) - Yeah. - All right. Scott, are you losing confidence at all in Gavin Williams? - No. I mean, yeah. Yes. No, hang on, let me start over. No, I am not losing confidence. Yes, it was his third start in four with five earn runs or more taking ZRA to two from two 12 to three 74. He still has just a 117 whip. He still has a career high swinging strike rate and strike out rate. He still has a career best strike percentage and walk rate. So career high strike out rate, career low walk rate. I don't know that I need to dig into it much more than that. Like, okay, three of his last four starts weren't the best. He wasn't gonna sustain a two 12, the RAA all year. He still had 24 whips in this one. He's a good pitcher. - I mean, all of his peripherals are like four RAA worse. I guess the fifth did, funny enough, the fifth actually went down below four for the first time this season today. - Career high strike out rate and career low walk rate. So he should have better ERA estimators than he's ever had before just by virtue of that. I mean, maybe not XERA because he allows hard contact but the others should love him. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Get too hard, right? - No, no, I mean X-Fip does because it's assuming that his eye on run rate is a fluke. But if you go by XERA, he's getting hit really, really hard. And that's the weird thing because stuff is as much correlated with limiting hard contact as it is with strikeouts, like the stuff plus metrics. And so he's a weird guy who gets hit really hard despite having good stuff. So I don't quite know what to make of it, but I just, I don't know, got him just a headache. I'm not a fan. - Don't think about it so much, man. - I just, this is a lot of bats. He's not walking anybody. - I think he's not, he's not walking as many people. - He's one of the 10% of opposing hitters. It's still a lot. - I think if you have Gavin Williams, you can't try to play the like, do I start or sit him? I think you just gotta play him all the time and take the good with that. - And I think you're gonna be happy in the end. I think this 3.74ERA that he has right now is gonna be one of the highest points that reaches all season. And I'm not gonna say it never goes higher than this, but I think in the ups and downs looking back, we'll say, oh, when we're charting, putting the dots on the chart, it'll be one of the high points that ERA reached. - Let's get back to starter-set pitchers and Kyle Bradish took a tough loss against the athletic 7 innings, three runs, 10 strikeouts there. He had 15 whiffs on 96 pitches. And keeping the walks down, I think is key for him. This was just his second start this year, under three walks in eight outings. He gets the Yankees this week, so not a great matchup. Chris starter-set Kyle Bradish. - I'm probably starting him. It's very much a better version of what I said with Mike Burrows earlier though, where it's fastballs have been pretty bad this season, and he's missing a lot of bats with the secondaries. And it's just, can he command the fastballs better? I mean, he kind of needs to command everything better more consistently, but specifically, he needs to get himself in situations where he's not pitching from behind on everything, and he did a better job of that in this one. So I'm, you know, generally feeling a little better about him, but we need to see more than one good start, because I think this is the first good start from Kyle Bradish this season, or first unequivocally good start, let's say. And even that was three on runs in seven innings. - Yeah, this was probably the start he was set most widely. - Oh yeah, yeah. So he made a point to throw his curveball more in this one. He said, he's like, curveball's been my best pitch, and he didn't emphasize it. He did it, he got the results. Hopefully he sticks with it, but I like that he is going about it that way, you know. He also said he was doing some stuff with his lower half to try and keep more weight on his back leg, be more linear down the mound. So like he's working on stuff, but if nothing else, I like it. like that he realizes Kerbal's best pitch. It worked for him throwing it more in this one. - Connolly early had his best start of the season. Seven shutout innings with a season high H. Strikeouts in this one. Did notice the walk rate is up. The swinging strike rate is way down so far this year. I still like the pitcher Connolly early long term. He's 83% roster. He's 45% started at the braves this week. They're third and well bugging lefties. I think you can get away from using Connolly early this week like if you have a better option. - Yeah, I don't think he's a must start guy in a one start week now. - This swinging strike rate is like half of what it was last year. It's, I had dropped him in one of my shallow release prior to this start. Now I kind of wish I'd end it, but still. I mean, it's been kind of discouraging. - Yep. - Yeah, and has not been a great season for him. - Tanner Bibley, a great outing against the twin. Six innings, one hit, one run, nine strikeouts, 20 whips on 98 pitches. So one of the best starts we've seen from Bibley this year. He gets the reds this week. He's 79% roster. I mean, he's, you know, might have been dropped in some shallow reformats. What do you guys think about using Bibley against the reds at home? - I think he's fine. It's not great, but I think he's fine. Reds on the road aren't a terrible matchup. So that's fine. - Yeah. Weird start for Justin Robleski against the braves here on Sunday. He finished one out short of a complete game. Seven runs allowed over eight and two-thirds innings. Two homers allowed. And even the weirder part is that he actually got whips in this one. He had 14 whips on 100 pitches. But it was a lot of hard contact. He's at the angels this week. He's 70% started. So most people who have picked up Robleski or just kind of throw them out there. What do you make of this start? Do you use him at the angels this week? - I mean, a lot of regression happened here in this start and they just wanted to save the bullpen. It seemed like so they just let him keep going. No, I would not use Robleski except under duress. - He gave up four run runs in the second inning. And then I think the next five innings were scoreless. He struck out seven. Then I think he gave up a homer in the eighth and two more runs in the ninth. Before finally getting pulled, I think the last pitch he threw was his 100th pitch. He hit a guy in the head. That's just a weird, weird, weird, weird start in just about every way for Justin Robleski. But look, I think everything we were talking about earlier where you start these guys with the terrible peripherals and not getting any strikeouts. And you just hope they don't burn you before you drop them. Well, Justin Robleski just did. I think that can be a sign to pull the eject cord and get out there. - Are that, what's his roster rate at this point? - 86%. - Is it really? - Yep. - Okay. - Well. - And look, the thing is, I would guess most people didn't start him as like first three starts of the season. He was super low roster. If you just started him for his last four, you got a 260 ERA out of him. Even with this start. So like, take your win. And don't let it get any worse because the way he's pitching this season, the lack of strikeouts, how much did the ERA go up with this start? - Like three quarters of a run I think, for the season? - Right, but I'm saying over that shorter stage, I don't know like rostered it. - Like they may have already lost the gains. - I think the last four starts, it's like 260. If you take this one out, I think he'd only given up two runs in the previous three starts. So he's given you no strikeouts. Part of it, he's five and I guess he's now five and one. He was five and oh, and so it's like, oh, wins points. Yeah, it's not, it's not gonna end well. - Yep. Some pitching leftovers. Part one, Jacob Mizierowski was ridiculous against the Yankees. - Because I'm the Miz! And I'm awesome! - He was awesome. Six shoutout innings, 11 strikeouts, 16 whiffs on 95 pitches, 11 on that fastball. You think he was excited to face the Yankees? His velocity was up 1.6 miles per hour. He averaged 101 and had 10 fastballs, 103 miles per hour or more. He has been awesome. He also leads baseball with 70 strikeouts. Dylan sees amazing against the Angels, seven shutout with 10 strikeouts for him. He has gone seven innings and back to back starts. He has double digit strikeouts in three of eight. Chris sale a tough loss at the Dodgers, seven innings, three runs, two of those earned with seven strikeouts, zero walks. His velocity was up in this one as well. Joe Ryan pitched well after leaving his previous start with an elbow injury. He was at the Guardian, six innings, one hit, two hits. Excuse me, one run, five strikeouts. And the velocity was actually up slightly. So I think that is a good sign there for Joe Ryan. Chris, any thoughts here on Ryan sale Dylan sees and the Miz. I'm starting to think the Miz just needs to be ranked with Nolan McLean and Cam Schletler as a top 15 starting pitcher. I know I still have my concerns about his ability to stay healthy, a little bit of concern about his ability to throw strikes consistently, although that's been improved this season. I'm gonna have that conversation with my pal Chris when I do rankings this week and see how high I can get him. Just Chris in the mirror, like you will rank the Miz. I'm looking at myself in the mirror, yeah. I also saw one of those graphics that was like a little screenshot, like a mug of the 60 fastest pitches thrown by a starting pitcher this season. They did the players mug shot for every one of them and it was just 60 pictures of Jacob Mizierowski. Oh, it's just pretty bonkers. It's hunter greens hurt. That would probably be the guy who could, but he is operating on a different level. He averaged 101 with his fastball in this start. It's ridiculous. Yeah, pitching left overs part two, Michael Waka, a great outing against the Tigers seven shutout innings with six strikeouts, more strikeouts than swinging strikes. It seems kind of fluky there for a walk away. Cam Schletler was great again this time at the Brewers six shutout innings with six strikeouts for him. Braxton Ashcraft at the giant seven innings one run, six strikeouts zero walks. Christopher Sanchez was great against the Rockies. Wish Luzardo did that seven shutout innings seven strikeouts. Last two starts for Sanchez 14 and two thirds, two runs, 17 strikeouts to four walks. He is back, maybe. Scott anything here on Sanchez, Ashcraft Schletler and Waka. So I thought this Ashcraft start was an extra layer, of added an extra layer of encouragement in that he really didn't have his best pitch, the curve ball, that had two less inches of drop. It was 59 degrees, which may have had something to do with the temperature of 59 degrees, but the curve ball didn't throw it as much because it had two less inches of drop. And that's a pitch with a 46% width, where it usually it's best swing in this pitch. And yet in spite of that, he still had six strikeouts at seven innings, he's tall 12 whiffs on 80 pitches. I think he's really good. I think he's, is he the biggest pitching breakout this year? Cause I, I think he's bigger than Soriana though. - Messick? - Yeah. Yeah. Messick. I mean, it's close between those two. I feel like Messick's given a little back ashcraft is more consistently pitching deep into games. And the thing about like Ashcraft was hardly drafted. - Yeah. - And that's like I, I've been raising that ashcraft all year. I don't have any ashcraft, cause like I didn't notice this until the season started. - Mm-hmm. - So that's disappointing, but yeah, I really like him. - Pitching left overs, part three, Jose Soriano, back on track against the Blue J7 and 2/3, one run, seven strikeouts to one walk. It's his first quality start since April 12th. Logan Gilbert, much better here at the White Sox, six shutout innings with a season high, nine strikeouts. Davis Martin continues to impress this time against the Mariners on the other side. Six innings, one run, nine strikeouts, 19 whiffs on 105 pitches here. And doing it with more than just the slider. So pretty encouraging start here from Davis Martin. And Jacob DeGrom, a great starting insta-cub, seven shutout innings, 10 strikeouts, 23 whiffs on 94 pitches. Chris, anything to add on DeGrom, Martin Gilbert and Jose Soriano. - I don't understand what's happening with Davis Martin. It confuses me, scares me. - Look, he is, this is one of those situations where you have a pitcher who is breaking out, who is mostly earning what they're doing. This is not a, you know, four-fip to ERA guy. This is a 160 ERA 235-fip guy. So he's overperforming a little bit, the XERA, similar, but it's directionally correct. I just don't really believe in it. You know, like before this start, it was a 60% whiff rate and a 47% putaway pitch on his slider, which is, which is just like you might see that for like one reliever per year, but that is an outlier number for any pitcher. Let alone a guy that I don't think we think has the best slider in baseball. So there was going to be regression. We saw it today. He didn't have the slider working as well. And all of a sudden he gets eight whiffs on his foreseemer out of nowhere. That's not a particularly good pitch. I had like a, I want to say I had like an 18 20% strike or whiff rate coming into the start. So like he just keeps finding ways to do it. This is one of those ones where there's a difference between is his success fluky so far? No, I think he's earning his success. Is it sustainable? I think probably not. If you gave me and you know a point, a 4.0 ERA, the rest of the way and told me to take over under. I think I'd lean over for Davis Martin. That's what he's been his whole career. He's 29 years old. But we are seeing like he's pitching really well. I just don't really buy it. I need a longer track record than eight starts before I start to buy it. That's not to say like he's 100% roster and he should be. But I do think you should view Davis Martin as a sell high candidate if anyone's buying yet. Someone who's never done this before. Look, he has added the cutter this year and I think that's kind of like helped to other things play up. But he's kind of doing it in different ways every start. So it'd be nice to see like, oh, we can just pinpoint this one thing that is helping Davis Martin achieve this, which it's kind of like Bryce elder where the peripherals actually largely back up. Bryce elders performance so far this season. I just don't buy that the peripherals are going to stay that good forever. And I don't know if you guys watch Bryce elders start today, but like he I think walked the bases loaded at one point, Max Muncie hit a ball 108 feet to the warning track that the God, who's playing right field for the break? So it was Robert Suarez who gave up that. Yeah. But whoever was playing Eli White smashed face first into the outfield wall. There was another one. I think runners on first and second again, Max Muncie hit one one, seven. I think in the first or second inning right at the first basement. Max Muncie did finally. He had to hit one 110 miles an hour to actually get a hit today, but he had a late home run in that game. But elder. I felt got pretty lucky in this one, even though. Well, it's stuck out there prior to walking the bases loaded. Yeah, he had allowed two base runners. It was a strikeouts to one walk. Yeah. Some hitting left over his Kyle Schwarber is on one of those runs right now. He has five home runs in his past four games, including two on Sunday. He has tied for the league lead with 16 home runs. Another big weekend for Byron Bucks and he had six hits, two homers and a steal. He's up to 13 homeers, 30 runs and three steals this year. Brent Rucker. He's coming around a little bit. He homered on Saturday. He has two home runs in his past four games. Kyle Stowers is on the board three for four with his first home run of the season on Saturday. He's still 93% rostered on CBS. But 75% on Yahoo. So if you play on Yahoo, just maybe check to see if Kyle Stowers is available. The Gal Vargas continued his breakout, two for three with a double dong on Saturday and only a cruise one for five with a sock and a shoe on Sunday. His 10th home run, his 15th stolen base of the season. The call to the bullpen for the athletics on Friday. Joel Kunl got the eighth inning with a two run lead. He was facing nine one and two in the Orioles lineup. Jack Perkins did get the ninth in a save opportunity. He allowed a run on a walk and a hit and then it was lefty Hogan Harris who came on to get the final out for his second save. So don't love the fact that Jack Perkins had a chance here to kind of like, I guess solidify or further solidify himself as the closer and they pulled him. So not great for the Dodgers on Friday. Tanner Scott picked up his third save. He pretty much looks like the guy while Edwin Diaz is out. Another reds on Saturday, a two run lead pierced Johnson got the ninth inning with a two run lead. I just said that picked up his first save. Graham Ashcraft pitched the eighth inning. Tony Santian got rocked on Friday. He gave up four earned runs, two homers allowed without recording and out. Do you guys have any deep league interest in pierced Johnson as maybe the reds save source while Emilio Paganas hurt? I would still prioritize Santian over him. I mean, it stood to reason they weren't going to let pitch Santian pitch the day after he allowed four on runs. So I think like he's a much better pitcher than Pierce Johnson. Pierce Johnson. So I like it actually worked out in some of those deeper leagues where saves are scarce. I was able to pick up Santian for modest number of dollars because this outing happened to line up the way it did. The one hesitation would be if you remember last spring, Terry Francoina had a quote where I'm not going to quote it exactly right, but he said Santian would be the obvious choice to close. But it sounded like he liked him in more of like a more flexible role than that. And that's how he ended up with Emilio Pagan closing. So like he at that point in time a year ago, Francoina basically said, "Santian, I know Santian's our best reliever, but I don't want to lock him into the ninth inning." So maybe he'll take that approach again and Johnson will end up being the guy. It seemed like Ashcraft is because Ashcraft proceeded Johnson on Saturday and he was also used on Sunday prior to the ninth, I believe. But yeah, I'm still betting on San T&O for Johnson. Santian does have a pretty good track record of just being a solid reliever in his career, but like there are some bad things this year. His walk percentage is 13%. It's up over five walks per nine. He's allowing a lot of hard contact and a swinging strike rate down from 12% to 7.6%. So he's got to figure something out. He's got to pitch better, especially after that blow up outing on Friday. I think the next save will go to Pierce Johnson, but yeah, I mean, it could also just be like a mix and match situation there. For the Nationals on Sunday, Gus Varlin got the eighth inning with the game tied. He allowed three runs on two hits and two walks. He took his first loss. He also got the second half of the season. He's got to be able to score a lot of goals and other bullpen where they mix and match a lot. I still would probably bet on Varlin getting the next save opportunity for them. For the Orioles on Sunday, Rico Garcia picked up his third save. He looks like the guy while Ryan Hellsley is out for the raise on Sunday. Brian Baker allowed a hit and a walk, but he picked up his tenth save. He mostly is the race closer for the Angels on Sunday. Ryan Zepherjohn got the ninth inning with a five run lead. And I think he's the guy for the Angels right now. Ryan Zepherjohn. Yeah, it does seem that way. I mean, they don't get many save chances, but. They've been using him in the ninth a lot, even in non-save chances. Yeah, he's, I think the biggest velocity gainer in baseball this season. This velocity's way up. So yeah, I think Zepherjohn's okay. For the Rangers on Sunday, Jacob Latch, tossed two perfect innings for his fourth save. 56% roster. He looks like the Rangers closer for now. Two stream or not to stream on Monday, just a six game slate. So I'm gonna see what I, what I cook up for Monday night. Joey Cantillo against the Angels, Peter Lambert against the Mariners. Trevor McDonald at the Dodgers, Rokie Sasaki against the Giants. Brandon Younger against the Yankees. I could see Rokie Sasaki having good start, but I'm not gonna bet on it. I could see like Pete Lambert's done some moderately interesting things, same with Joey Cantillo, but I don't think any of these guys are worth trusting. I guess Cantillo's probably the best of them, but. I want to see he had more walks and strikeouts as most recent start. It was actually a decent start from remembering correctly, but. Yeah. I don't have very much faith in him now. I would probably put Cantillo and Lambert at the top for Monday. And then on Tuesday, we have Walbert, Arania at the Guardians. We have Brady Singer against the Nationals, Patrick Corbin against the Rays, Jack Flourty at the Mets, Colin Ray at the Braves, Grant Holmes against the Cubs, Stephen Colock at the White Sox, Eric Fady against the Royals, Billy Ober against the Marlins, Zach Gowen at the Rangers, Jeffrey Springs against the Cardinals. I like Springs against the Cardinals. I don't hate Flourty, but I don't love it. Yeah, it feels very boomer bust. I don't know. Yeah, I don't really want to recommend any of these others. Zach Gowen, Texas, my second choice. He did get a bunch of whips in his last start and just Texas could bowl Park to Pichin. So yeah, yeah, probably would say Springs, Galen and if I had to choose a third, Bailey Ober against the Marlins, I guess. Yeah, yeah, I think I agree. All right, we're going to wrap that for Scott Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a comment. We will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.