Is J.T. Ginn Legit? Pitchers Trending Up & Down! (5/19 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 tough fantasy baseball today are on Tuesday May 19th. I am Frank sample Jones. I Scott White and Chris Towers today on the show 14 games on a Monday Whose idea was that we have pictures trending up and down some very brutal pitching outings Emanaga Trevor Rogers Robby Ray on my tower champions league team. I had Trevor Rogers and Robby Ray in the lineup today Not great. Why don't you have Trevor Rogers head to head at least right? Yeah, it's a weekly head to head I don't like. All right, whatever Robby Ray, I get it like he his eRA was a little over three He'd been pretty steady Even if there were the eRA estimators didn't like it so much but Trevor Rogers I feel like he's been He's been barely hanging onto a bench spot for a solid month now Yeah, I tried to keep the faith that did not go very well. We'll talk about those guys a little bit later on Let's jump in yeah baby Let's get into the players of the night and Just what a weird game between the athletics and the angels Scott. I'll let you take it away JT-Gin took a no hitter into the ninth inning where he quickly lost it Yeah, that's unfortunate the way it ended for JT-Gin and Lost it meaning he ended up Taking the loss so yeah, unfortunate, but but let's not uh don't don't cry because it's over Don't cry because it's smile because it happened or whatever they say I don't they're like that's like all hard right yeah I'd be a weird thing to put on a hallmark card actually the point is he was great The point is he was great and JT-Gin we're not used to him being great But he threw eight innings is how it ended up just the two hits allowed two runs 10 strikeouts 14 whiffs on 105 pitches and uh I say we're not used to him being great, but Maybe we need to start this was his third strike quality start two of those three I believe he had a very healthy strikeout total Yeah, it was two of the two of the last three were eight innings eight strikeouts and one ten in this one He's a very good ground ball pitcher He is pretty good at missing bats for being a ground ball pitcher. I I know He's come up a few times in recent years is somebody Who I've said maybe Frank has said to that It's kind of interesting here. I maybe he could turn into something eventually a part of the Reason he was dismissible is because well he wasn't He would be on the shuttle between triple A in the majors and his starts would tend to be short and not particularly usable Even when he was showing signs and so it's like yeah, that's probably this probably isn't anything But there are some interesting signs there with Ginn And now like I said to the last three eight innings so Uh, it's hardly definitive for a 26 year old who's spent most of his time in the minors, but I think I think if you're hurting for pitching help This is reason to pick them up, you know, only 87.4 average exit velocity Coming into this start 87.4 miles per hour and it obviously went down 83.2 miles per hour a lot of ground balls like I said And uh, yeah, I think I think interesting in the The same way Walbert Arrania is interesting and I'm not saying you have to pick JT Ginn up everywhere, but I'm saying If you're like man, there is The waiver wire is so depleted in pitching and I could really use another one Well, I think now Ginn has given you an excuse to to Think of them up see what happens. I think a lot of the names we've talked about recently have been scooped up in shallower formats The Ryan Nelson's Bryce Miller's Logan Henderson's of the world and then this is the next group where if you play in a slightly deeper league Like Scott said and there's not really much else out there There's some hope here with JT Ginn the last three starts 22 innings three runs allowed 21 strikeouts to just three walks He is the most added pitcher on CBS this week because he was making two starts But still only 40% rostered so widely available Scott you brought up the the pitcher who opposed him in this one So let's just compare the two Walbert Arrania On the other side six shutout innings with four strikeouts only two walks which is a key for him because walks have been a problem at times this year 15 whiffs on 92 pitches 12 on that change up, which was just absolutely filthy in this one He has just three total walks over his last two outings and he has pitched really well so far in the month of May Who do you like more between the two JT Ginn or Walbert Arrania? I think Arrania's talent is a little more evident He throws harder for you. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's a simpler way to put it And now I'm pulling it up he did throw 141 innings in the miners last year So he could work deeper into starts and the angels have generally been letting him work He did go six innings in this one. It was the second time he's gone six innings And if that becomes on the season Was that third time on the season one in his first start back in rotation back in April 19 or okay 19. Yeah, okay, so three times Um, and if that becomes A little more regular than I think I think Walbert would take the cake there I mean, I've been talking up Gens Groundball rate Walbert's is even higher Walbert's was 52% coming into this one um They have a similar swinging strike rate, but I think Walbert's change up is the better singular pitch the best singular pitch between the two of them Yeah, so I guess I'm gonna lean Arrania here But you know when we see a guy go eight innings twice in three starts It does at least in the immediate term Make me feel like there may be some more usability there if if Ginn is able to sustain something But I think he's less likely to sustain something than Arrania. So I'm gonna say Arrania I would I might just oversimplify it to Ginn when he's at home Arrania otherwise or sorry again when he's not at home because yeah his two eight inning starts At Philadelphia at Los Angeles Angels Not actually great ball parks, but now better ball parks than Sacramento Sacramento's Probably the second worst pitchers park and baseball. So especially now the the weather starting to heat up too So yes, it gets real hot out there and the dimensions are very picture for our hitter friendly. So I um That that might be what it comes down to you know I'm looking at um some of the other guys like Ben Brown's probably a little more roster than those guys. Yeah, I don't know how much you want 50% 50% yeah And then Connor Pre-Lip is right around that same. I think that's the right range for all of these like There are interesting things about all of these guys It's a lot in in wobbler duranius case. It's kind of he throws hard and he's got a good change up in pre-lips case It's kind of just the slider but I think he's talented and I think they're all interesting dice rolls. I don't think any of them are likely to be Rotation mainstays. I think you know Arrania gives me real pre-2026 Jose or a Jose Soriano vibe. So I almost went Jose orania You don't want to be Jose or any. No, although I mean, that's a guy who threw really hard and was very good. So you know um So yeah, I think those guys are interesting now to further contextualize this because You know, I I think a lot of times people listening they just hear almost like a Like we're given past fail grades here and we just gave a passing grade to again in Arrania. I am not saying either of these two are like Break the fat budget for the type of pickups. They're more like I'll drop I'll tell the waters. Yeah, I'll tell the water on this guy because There are some signs that maybe there could be something here But but probably not but I got to give myself a chance at some kind of pitching help And so they seem like the best options right now. Look if you're gonna Ben Shuri Perez if you're gonna drop Trevor Rogers you do need someone to put in your starting lineup I Chris over to you for your player of the night Sunny Gray who um had a very very good start For I believe the second time in a row and actually Overall, he's been quite effective three sub three year a two ninety three year right now Um the peripherals were very very bad up until the last two starts because he was striking out absolutely nobody. I believe two starts ago entering his start against Philadelphia last week when he had six strikeouts and six innings. He had like a 10% walk rate, which is just disastrously low. And then he struck out six and six innings last time around, nine in six innings this time around. And now it's like, well, what was up with that early on? I think part of it is he's been throwing a sinker more this season and he's throwing a cutter more this season. And I don't think either the cutter has a 12% wif rate. He didn't get a single wif with it in this start. But he did get 12 whiffs on 80 pitches on Monday against Kansas City who it's a pretty good matchup this season so far. I don't really know what to do with Sonny Gray. I still lean strongly towards selling high on him because I think we've seen some. What's that? Is that even possible to sell out Sonny Gray? 2.93 R.A. His name is Sonny Gray. I've got five wins. I think it is it is kind of surprising. Sonny Gray. I mean, it's not kind of surprising. It's shocking that his ERA is that low for the way he's looked for the majority of this season. You know, I'm hopeful bringing back the sweeper the last two starts. That was clearly his best pitch. I don't think just last year but past couple years. And it hasn't it hasn't played well, which is part of the reason why he hasn't thrown in as much. I'm not really sure why it hasn't played well. It seems like it has the same movement profile. But it has played well as last two starts. He's thrown it more. If he brings the sweeper back, then I don't know. Like maybe there's hope. But sure, I guess if it's just an ERA with they look low for Sonny Gray and somebody hurting for pitching is like, yeah, like that guy. Sonny Gray, I remember when I had him back in 2022. He's been a very good pitcher at Times in his career. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, Hall of Very Good kind of pitcher. He's been a very, very frustrating pitcher. I think he remains a very, very frustrating pitcher as we've discussed. But yeah, I think it's I think it's a good thing that he's looked better the past couple of starts because it looked super unsustainable early on. And now that we're seeing the strikeouts with return, maybe there's something here, but I think on the whole, I would bet on Sonny Gray being certainly a plus, a three plus ERA pitcher, I would guess something closer to four moving forward. I also wonder like, I know there was something with his contract where he added an extra year when he got traded to the Red Sox. They've got to be having some discussions about trading some of these veterans, right? Given how poorly their season's gone. I think that's going to be a conversation for the Red Sox at some point. I mean, honestly, like some of their pitchers have been okay, but like their offense has just been terrible so far this season. Sonny Gray, I almost, almost wondered early on this season, like if he was just consciously trying to pitch to contact, maybe it was a cold weather thing. And now that he's starting to break out these breaking pitches more, it's just like that's when Sonny Gray is at his best when the sweeper and the curve ball are working. And both of those pitches were really good in this start here. So, I mean, as many times as he's reinvented himself over the cores of his career, which is more like he's been so frustrated to analyze that one. It surprised me. It's just why has the sweeper played so poorly? That's what it comes back to for me. Like, if he's just like holding back on that sweeper and it's with rate has been halved, I don't know. That's like I said, weird. Yeah. It's been weird so far this season. Yeah. The thing that made me actually say, oh my goodness gracious, there was quite a bit here on Monday night, but the Metz, they put up 10 runs in one inning against the Nationals and the 12th inning of that game. And lots of names went off in this one. Boba, shit, three for six with this third home run. Very welcome, site because obviously he has had a brutal season where he's hitting 219 with a 570 OPS. Are you guys just holding firm just keeping on with Boba shed and betting on the bounce back at some point? I have never spent a moment of worry on Boba shed this year. It has not happened yet. So hopefully this three hit game is the start of the turnaround. I looked at the recent game log. There hasn't been much of a turnaround yet. Hopefully this is the start of it. The home where he hit today, I think was his first extra base hit in like 12 games or something. It's been a pretty brutal pretty, no, I think it was longer than that. He hadn't had an extra base hit since April 28th. It looks like that is. That's like three weeks ago. Yeah, so look, I get it. I get it. I have Boba shed in a few spots. So I understand why people are frustrating. And we've got a lot of questions like, do we drop Boba shed? I wouldn't go that far. I benched him in a few shallower formats, but I yeah, I'm pretty much just holding on to Boba shed. Yeah, and one of those where I'm dropping at all. I'm just going to go down with the ship on that one and look, the Metz offense is turning around. And this was part of why we like the shed is like, hey, the counting stats should be good. They aren't right now, but there's still time to turn that around. And Carson Bench has looked really good and Lindor will be back at some point. So yeah, I do think those big counting stats, the homeruns. I'm not so sure about with the shed, but batting average in counting stats, I do think we'd better for him. Brett Bady had a Max B.A. is 81st percent dial for him 278. Yeah, a big problem for him is just like, Crown balls are up and his pull right is way down. So it's like those two things combined. It's yeah, that's why you're not going to hit for power basically. Brett Bady had a big game two for six with his third homerun, three RBI. Last seven games for him. He's hit 346 two homers, seven RBI there. I don't think you need to act on this yet, but just a name to keep an eye on because he did finish this season really strong last year. And then Carson Bench who we mentioned a lot lately, three for six with a double three runs, three RBI. He has let off the past four games for the meds here. Last 14. He's hit 381, one homer, 14 runs, 11 RBI, two steals hitting the ball hard during that time. Expected stats a good during that span as well. Carson Bench is 71 percent rostered. Where does he fit in among the group of young outfielers that we've just talked so much about, AJ Ewing, Henry Bolte, Ryan Walshman, where would Carson Bench fit in there? Okay, so when you've asked this question in the past couple of days, maybe the last five, six days or so, I feel like it's often been phrased. Who would you prioritize adding? And that is a very different question than how would you rank them rest of season because to a certain extent, there is just the opportunity cost. When AJ Ewing gets called up and he's a prospect name of note and then he gets off to a really good start, there's just going to inherently be more hype and excitement and competition for him on the way for wire than there will be for Carson Bench who even with his good play lately is hitting 253 with a 673 OPS. You know, I think that's so, you know, on Sunday, if you were asking me, who should I prioritize on waivers, you basically had no chance, I think, of having a chance at AJ Ewing if you didn't add him this week. And Carson Bench might have slipped through another day. So that's where I think Carson Bench is probably the better player. I think it'll hit for more power. I think he's going to get on base. The lineup spot is much more valuable right now. Ewing will steal more bases for sure and probably be a better source of batting. But I rank Bench ahead of AJ Ewing rest of season. Ed Ryan Waldzmit? Yeah, I think so. I mean, it was really impressive to see Ryan Waldzmit have three for three with a couple of steals today. He's hitting for a good batting average. He hasn't done a ton else. So it's nice to see the steals. I think I like Carson Bench more than Ryan Waldzmit the rest of the way as well. It's just so funny that we were so excited about Bench coming into the season. And then obviously he got up to that really bad start. And it's like, oh, we just kind of we throw them to the side and we get the new toys to play with. We got AJ Ewing and Ryan Waldzmit. So I hear you're saying in terms of having to act on those players. But there still might be some shallow reformats where people have that decision to make. So I do prefer Ewing rest of season. I think Bench is going to be a better player in the long run. I'm not confident it's going to be in his rookie year even during this hot streak of seeing I'm not seeing much evidence of functional power and Ewing I think is going to be a standout on base guy amp base dealer. So I just think he's more usable in fantasy right now that Bench not that not that binge isn't usable like he's he's getting to a point of usability here. But I think Bench I still think of as a five out fielder only player when Ewing I think he could pick him up even in three outfield release. I want to give a shout out to Colt Emerson whose first career hit was a three run Homer here on Monday night. He is 64% rostered. Another name that could be out there in some shallow reformats. I moved them up to shortstop 22. I'll have a more extensive rankings update later in the week. I just I wanted to move them up just because I saw that he got called up. But it's a tough position man. It's just you know Well, there's Colson Montgomery. I have just ahead of him. William Domus, I know he's been terrible, but he has a track record, Jeremy Payneas, Andrew Bogart, Swanson, the Marlins guys. It's just, it is a loaded position at shortstop. So I think where Emerson can have more value is if he gains that third base eligibility. So. - Which should happen. - Pretty soon. - Bye. Thursday, Friday. - Yeah, yep. All right, before we hit our first break, if you enjoy the audio podcast, if you listen on Apple or Spotify, feel free to leave, say five star rating in review, it helps a lot. Let's take our first 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 few surprises here on Monday. The Braves activated Ronald Acunia when originally sounded like that was gonna happen on Friday, but he had a workout at the stadium. Said he looked good, feel good, felt good. He was not in the lineup on Monday, but the expectation is that he will be in the lineup on Tuesday. So hopefully anybody out there who has Acunia in a weekly lineup league, you saw that news item and you got Acunia back in your lineup. - Not me. - Yeah, it happened, I was texting Chris. It was like 30 minutes before game time. So it was-- - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, I knew I had him in a couple leagues. I had to sort through all 11 leagues just to make sure I could get him in my life. - Towers is the one league where I have Acunia and I didn't get him in at time. - Mm-hmm. - So hopefully he's a little slow. - No, no I have. - I will get him back to form. - No, that's fine, I'd rather him. That's him texting me right now. He's like, how could you mess this up, Scott? Come on. The Yankees option, Elmer Rodriguez, back to the minors, opening up the possibility for Gerrick Cole to make his season debut this weekend against the raise. Obviously, very important series there in the division. And why not? I mean, he got up to 86 pitches in his latest rehab start. He averaged 97 miles per hour on his fastball in that game. He topped out at 99 miles per hour. It was the most that Gerrick Cole has looked like Gerrick Cole this past weekend at AAA. So they're leaving open that possibility of using him later this week. - I'd say probably likely at this point. I do want to point out, look, we've had Shayma Clientahan and Zach Wheeler, I think very notably, bucking expectations on how they've returned from their injuries so far this season. We should remember that maybe the biggest storyline of last season was how poorly most of the pitchers who returned from Tommy John surgery specifically fared, at least relative to their expectations at their best Sandial Contra, Spencer Strider, Yuri Perez. And Shayna Tani was probably an outlier, but even then it took him a while to round into form. I'm excited to see Gerrick Cole, especially after his performance at AAA this week where he, again, averaged 97 miles per hour, higher than he averaged in 2024 or 2023 for the season. Let's not put all our hopes on Gerrick Cole. That's just the one thing I wanted to say there. - Yeah, I'm pretty much approaching it with caution the way the same way we did with those other guys coming into the season is, I rank Gerrick Cole around SP 40 right now and obviously he has the ability to move up if he looks like himself, but you know, they're a 35 year old coming back from Tommy John and an internal brace procedure like there should be a level of skepticism there. And his other minor league starts, we're not great for whatever that's worth, but a lot of what I've read is like, oh, he was just, you know, getting his work in and just throwing pitches down the middle kind of thing. I don't know how true that is, but that's what they were saying. - Well, I also saw people saying a lot of Carlos were done and he's been pretty bad. - That's true. - No, look, I will say if it's like Zach Wheeler and we get what four or five starts in and he just looks like himself again, like Zach Wheeler did this weekend, I was very aggressive moving Zach Wheeler back up after this start. It wouldn't take much for Gerrick Cole to move back into the top 20, but I don't want to put those expectations on him right away. - Tarrick's Google 3 bullpen on Monday, already his second time throwing off amounts having surgery on May 6th. And I just hope that they don't push him too hard too quickly, but I mean, the Tigers are kind of dropping out of things pretty quickly here. So they do need to be a little aggressive, but at the same time it's like, all right, you know, he's still coming back from an elbow procedure. So it sounds like he could be back at some point in June, which would blow away our expectations, but, you know, they're talking up this new procedure that's, you know, they just tried it out on Scoobal and so far so good. So I will see how it works. - It was quote where he's not throwing anywhere near full strength yet. And he basically said, I would love to be throwing a full strength and the team is holding me back. So I still think four weeks is unlikely, but this procedure does potentially dramatically change the timetables for Tarrick's Scoobal N, potentially Blake's now. - Blake's now who will have the same procedure that Scoobal did, which uses a smaller incision than a typical arthroscopic surgery. So the umpti that I read was they're hoping it's four to six weeks. Again, I think that's pretty aggressive. And especially for a team like the Dodgers that, you know, typically they, they're just letting these guys kind of rest up and let's get them healthy at the right time. So I would still kind of bet on like a, you know, maybe post ulcer break coming right out of that for Blake's now, but maybe we'll be proven wrong. Perhaps this is why Chris Boobach has not been able to throw strikes placed in the I.L. with a left elbow soreness. He's optimistic that it'll be a short stint, but he will undergo imaging later this week. McKenzie Gore left after just one inning of work here on a Monday with left lat tightness. He allowed two runs in that first inning in Cores field, which was a doc rate, but he was supposed to be a two-star pitcher this week and I don't know, dealing with a lat. My guess is he probably will not make that second start, but happy to be wrong about that. Logan Webb will throw a bullpen on Tuesday and then start a rehab assignment later this week. Jeremy Pena was reinstated and in the lineup leading off here for the Astros. The Orioles activated Jackson holiday, but he was not in the lineup. The hope is that he will be in the lineup here on Tuesday. He hit very poorly on his rehab assignment, which was paused multiple times. He just has had a few setbacks coming back from that hand surgery. 78% roster in the shallowest of leagues. Do you have any interest in holiday? Or let me see what he does first. I mean, I wasn't, I'll preface this by saying I wasn't that excited about it even before the hand injury. So take that for what it's worth, but I don't see, like even more recently, yes, he had a home run and he had a triple and that's about it just looking at the last few games of what he's done. His exit velocity readings were very poor at AAA, where he spent most of his rehab time, 86.4 mile per hour average, just a 105 max. And that might be, it hasn't seemed to be the case so much with Corbin Carroll and maybe not with Lendor either, the effect sometimes coming back from a broken hand-made bone where the power is suppressed early on and takes a couple months really to get back to where it was. And maybe in the longer on holiday will be fine, but it's hard to be optimistic, fresh off the IEL, given what he was doing on his rehab assignment. Corey Seeger was placed on the IEL with lower back inflammation. Seems like things were trending that way. And perhaps this is part of the blame for why Seeger has been so bad so far this season as well. The Mets have hoped that Francisco Lendor will return in about a month, so mid to late June-ish. Byron Bucksen was out again on Monday, making that five games in a row. He's dealing with that sore right hip flexor. Roman Anthony was still sore when taking swings on Monday and will not swing about again until Friday. He is on the IEL with that wrist issue. Brandon Woodruff threw a 30-pitch bullpen on Monday, hill face hitters on Friday. The nationals are expected to call up Dylan Cruz on Tuesday. He was hitting well his last 17 games at AAA, 308 batting average, three homers, 15 runs, two steals, 951 OPS. He's 29% rostered. Chris, this feels like a, if you're playing a deeper five-out-filler league where he was dropped early on in the season and rightfully so, I would look to read him there, but I think he would be behind all those other young outfielders we spoke about earlier. Yeah, yeah, I think so. How much, I wonder how much older Dylan Cruz is than those guys? He's only 24. He only turned 24 less than three months ago. I know he's been around seemingly forever. I will point out 94.7 mile per hour average. Philosophy at Triple High. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That underlying numbers look even better than the surface. The surface level ones just look okay. Yeah. That 95 mile per hour average, exit velocity. Pulled air rate is still very poor. Shrek out rates still too high. But we have not really seen any signs of Dylan Cruz being a power hitter. Kind of since college, if we're being honest, he's been pretty unimpressive throughout his professional career. Very young, move very quickly, all that, but I would not say I'm optimistic that Dylan Cruz will be a good player this time around. But I'm open to it. I'm certainly willing to take a chance on him if Walshman, Ben, and Youing are all off the table. I'll roll the dice on him, sure. I think in five outfielders, leagues. Yeah, take a chance on the 24 year old who very nearly was drafted ahead of Paul Schienz two and a half years ago. Now, it's a long two and a half years. But I don't want to give up on him entirely. I agree with that. Yeah, I'm excited to see what he could do on in a nationals lineup that surprisingly has been very good so far this season. So, and I hope that he plays every day too. That's part of this equation as well. But it's got a lot of right. If they're calling him up, I think that's my expectation. I think Jacob Young getting benched. Oh, yes. I think he got he got hit by a pitch today too and he left the game and then Joey Weemer replaced him. But I think this announcement was out there even before he got hit by the things. So, the pirates are expected to call up the password. You know, Sting Singh Garcia. They got him in a trade from the Red Sox this off season. His overall numbers and the minors are not great. But since we're turning from an injury in May in 11 game stretch, he had 368 with six home runs 1327 OPS. Scott, I would have to imagine the password isn't even deeper name than Dylan Cruz. Yeah, I don't think he's going to have a dedicated lineup spot for starters. So that's one reason we should at least get some run with Rhino Huranoff out of the lineup, right? I think so. That was Maya. Yes, option. Has he been playing much first base? I. Oh, her husband's playing right field, hasn't he? Yeah, I think it was a mix, but I think it was more right field and you don't think Jake, Jake Mangum's going to play quite a bit. He feels like a fourth alphular, like defensive replacement type, pinch runner type, but maybe it's possible. I kind of think you know, Sting Singh Garcia feels like. Yeah, I mean, that's like I kind of like maybe this is unfair. I think if his name was Jonathan Garcia and he didn't have the fun nickname and it wasn't like a novelty, I think your average baseball fan would probably not have any idea who this guy is. He's a pretty fringy. Like did he sneak into the top 100 on one of the lists this year? If he did, he did not. I've always been kind of a lower on Garcia than the consensus. And I, you know, I'm pulling a man comes numbers. They don't look as good as I thought they did. So yeah, they looked better in the middle of April, which probably last time I looked at him. So yeah, maybe Garcia will play a little more than I thought, but I don't think he'll be every day and I'm not sure he'll be deserving of it even if he is. So that's a deeper league pickup. We met so calling a pitching prospect Zach Thornton, who is 24 years old, they fifth round pick in 2022. Did I have some interesting numbers in the minors this year, 316 ERA 119 whip 14% swinging Shrek rate, 4% rostered. I think this is very speculative. It's like an NL only type thing, but I think he's anything on Zach Thornton. He's moderately interesting. Like, it's a command and control profile, but he's a, okay, all right, stay with me. He's like the wallowigi to Parker, Messick's Wario. You know, like Parker, Messick's Parker, Messick's kind of got a Wario build. And Zach Thornton is from what I understand, pretty like he's like 6'4". So you're just saying he's a skinnier Parker, he's a skinnier, but I don't really know how wallowigi came about. So when a man is highly different, no, I don't know the etymology of I mean, Wario himself is competitive, of course, but wallowigi seems like next layer of animation. You know, wallowigi, maybe the best character in the Wario universe. But yeah, I do, I do choose him. Him or him or King Boo are usually my go-to's. Can we get my Lanky King in a Smash Brothers game at some point? Anyway, Zach Thornton, Toss, Lanky, dude, but it's a similar profile to Parker, Messick. It's not like overwhelming stuff. He averages like 91 with his fastball, but it's got good movement. He gets a lot of ride on it. He commands everything very well to 6-pitch mix. So my expectations aren't super high, but I'm very, very mildly intrigued to see what he can do. All right. A. Nioswara's will begin a rehab assignment on Wednesday. Brendan Donovan will miss more than the minimum time with his left groin strain. He's hoping to resume baseball activities in two to three weeks. So that gives a pretty long runway here for Colt Emerson. If he performs, he's probably just going to stick around. Some way somehow. Bryce Miller and Luis Castillo will piggyback each other on Tuesday. That just created an interesting visual in my mind. The expectation is that Miller will be used as the starter and Castillo in relief here. So I hope it, I hope they don't pull Bryce Miller after just like five innings because they have Luis Castillo behind him. But I guess it's a possibility. Poor Kyle Teal just won injury after another this year. He's been diagnosed with a sprain LCL and will miss three to six weeks. Robbie Snelling will be examined by Dr. Keith Meister on Thursday to examine his left UCL sprain and say down Rafael was out of the line up Monday with a little bit of tightness in his hamstring. Let's get into some waiver wire hitters here. Got some shallow lead names up top. We've mentioned what Nolan Aronado is doing. We have been kind of skeptical of it all along, but he just keeps doing the thing one for four with a grand slam. It was his seventh home run. And a lot of his underlying metrics are similar to 2023, which was the last time he was fantasy relevant. And he hit 26 home runs. So like maybe there's a path for him to get to like 25 home runs this year and okay, counting stats. 76% rostered against God, it would have to be a pretty shallow league. I know at Chris fields because we talked about it last week, but are you buying Nolan Aronado? I mean, not exactly. I did have him as a sleeper hitter for this week because obviously the short term calculation is different from the rest of season calculation. And he's a high hand right now with good matchups. So at a position where a lot of people have a need. And I think that's probably as far as I can go and endorsing Aronado is just a lot of people need help with third base. And he's contributing something right now. So like as long as you don't as long as you don't like, take your season to that thought that yeah, I'm I'm set at third base because I have Aronado. Then it's fine to use him. So it's a it's it's not exactly an endorsement. It's it's more of a I understand. I understand what you're going through. And I might be starting Aronado in that situation myself. There's one name that is more rostered than Aronado at third base right now who has just been terrible this year. And that is Matt Chapman. So if you play in a shallower format and you just wanted to make that swap, I think that's totally defensible. I continue to believe in Spencer steer man. He has been hitting very well. One for three of the walk. RBI his third steel last 18 games. He's hitting 333 two homers 13 runs two steals hitting them all really hard during that stretch 91.2 average EV 14% barrel rate. So we knew he's had the barrels all season long. But now the average exit velocity is starting to climb. The expected stats look really good. I think if steer is out there in a three outfielder league, I would make a play on Spencer steer. I really like what he's doing right now. I did make a play in a three out fielder league where I lost Oh, her actually. And I'm not sure where that ended. I think that was a league where I won you. So I didn't end up getting steer. But yeah, I think he's in the mix and it's it's kind of funny because even during his glory years for fantasy, the expected stats looked awful. And now I mean 292 XBA 551 X lug. I can't understand it at all. What is going on? It just doesn't because he has by far the worst average exit velocity of his career. It's down to 84.6 miles per hour. No, no, that's aeronaut. Oh, aeronautos. Yeah, Spencer steer 90.7 steer steer steer looks much better. Yes, steer steer into it. Yep. And he's got a career high pull their rate. It's a good ballpark. Right? I have more fear into it. It's what we know an aeronaut. All right, so now we're going Mario Kart. Or is that what you were talking before earlier? Scott? Yeah, well, all the Mario games, I mean, we place, we're not in Smash Brothers famously, which is a crime. The yeah, Smash Brothers. He's not in it. Mario Kart. It's great. Mario. Super. He's really good at Mario tennis. Very good. Mario super sluggers is probably the one of my kids and I play the most. And the thing about Waluigi and Mario super sluggers is like all of his stats are inverted. So like, for instance, he has a really high pitching score. But what makes him interesting is a pitcher, Waluigi, a little scouting report for you. His fastball is the speed of a change up and his change up is the speed of a fastball. He's so tricky. He's so tricky. If you do a power up swing with Waluigi, it'll be like his context wing. I'm not totally sure of that second point, but I am sure the fastball change up. You know, if you ever if you ever dust off the week, check it out. They added Mario strikers to the switch online platform. That game's backing rules. I've heard really good things about it. I've never played it. I'm really surprised I haven't made a Mario Pickleball yet. It just feels like, what are they waiting for? It's just like Mario tennis is an awesome game and like Pickleball has blown up. So come on. - Waluigi would cover the entire court. - Yeah, pretty much. Jake Bowers has quietly been awesome. And I feel like we haven't talked enough about him. Two for four hit his seventh home run for RBI. The home run came off a lefty and show to Emanaga. He has started against every right handed pitcher except one this year. He has started against only five of 14 left handed pitchers but he has performed well against lefties this year. He's hitting the ball really hard. His strikeout rate is down. His expected stats look good. I still lean towards him being more of a peloton player but earning some more opportunities. Guys, Jake Bowers, just good. - He was good last year. It was just in a fairly limited role. I said, especially in the second half, he was really good last year from a member incorrectly. So yeah, he had an 889 OPS in the second half last season. It's been a much bigger sample size this season already. I think he might have more played appearances than he had last season already or not very close. The problem is it just, you start to look at the roster and it's like, well, I think Andrew Vaughn deserves to play every day or pretty close. And obviously Jackson Chariot is gonna play every day and Christian Newologist the every day at the age. So it's just, it's hard to make the math work on both Bowers and Vaughn being everyday guys. - Vaughn is a little chartered. - Yeah, it's kind of messed up that part. - So for Alex being really bad, maybe they just throw defense away and stick Jake Bowers in a corner. But it's just tough to see how they make it all work. - Yeah. I have noticed that Andrew Vaughn, he's been sitting out like every third game against some righties and stuff too. So I haven't loved that for the leagues that I have. - Yeah, not at all. But-- - But-- - He's been very good. - Man, Jake Bowers with first base in Outfield eligibility, the leaves where he's available, he, I don't know how useful he would be in like a shower format, but if he's out there in any like 12 team road league, I think that probably should be changed for Jake Bowers. I have four of their names here, quickly mentioned. Alex Bohm has been picking things up. Bryce and Stott continues to have a big May. I told people yesterday, hey, three lefties on the schedule, you probably don't want to use them. He was in line up against the lefty. He homeworked off a right hand of reliever. So there goes that. Zikil Daron continues to hit well. He went three for four, two runs to our BI. He's eligible everywhere except for catcher. And some of his underlying stuff looks pretty good as well. And Anthony Volpi is like doing things. I don't know that I buy it, but he had two steals here on Monday and over his last four games, he has four hits, two doubles, seven walks, and two stolen bases. So I know Jose Caballero is getting close to returning. I think that there's a non-zero chance that Volpi could just stand shortstop and they use Jose Caballero at third because Ryan McMahon has just been terrible. So I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, but it's a possibility. Any quick thoughts here on Bohm, Stott, Daron, and Anthony Volpi? Take a little fancy, any of these guys? - I'm interested in Volpi a little bit just because of the recent pedigree, but it seems like he's trying to go back to hitting for contact instead of trying to prioritize power, trying to hit more line drives, be all fields. He did that in 2024 and it didn't really make him a better hitter. Maybe something clicked this time. He's walked seven times in 20 plate appearances, which is wild. I think he's just a cheap source of speed at best right now. - Yeah, I thought he might be doing something different at Triple A because he was hitting the ball harder on average, much harder on average and he was chasing a lot more. Which normally wouldn't be a good thing, but when your track record is underwhelming as Volpi, it's like, yeah, try something different. You know, maybe it speaks to a larger emphasis on being aggressive that it'd been holding a back in the past, but then you point out Chris, he's been walking so much and strolling the major league team. I don't know that there's anything there, but he's got speed. So if he plays, he might be useful in that way. - All right, let's take our final break. When we return, we'll get to three pitchers who got smoked. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in at fantasy baseball today. Three pitchers that got destroyed here on Monday night. Trevor Rogers, seven runs. Actually eight runs allowed seven of those earned over three and two-thirds innings against the raise here. His velocity was up. It did not matter. He is still 84% roster. I'm not sure that he needs to be. Showed to Emanaga just hit with all the regression against the brewers. Eight earned runs allowed over four and a third innings. He does kind of have a few of these starts every year. It's kind of unfortunate, but it's just like part of the show to Emanaga experience. And Robbie Ray got crushed at the D-backs. Four and a third, 11 hits, nine runs, eight of those earned two homers allowed. Just tons of hard contact. 14 hard hits allowed in this game. I guess we can start at the top here. Scott Trevor Rogers, is it time to say goodbye? I think it's totally fine in most cases. I'm not saying you absolutely have to do it in deep leagues where there's nothing of interest out there at starting pitcher. You could just kind of stash Rogers away and hope he figures it out because a lot of what improved for him last year under the surface still looks better. Like it still looks pretty good. Better than it did in his really bad years. But I mean, obviously he's unusable at this moment. And I imagine in most leagues of standard size, 12 teamers even, if you dropped him, you would probably just stay out there on waivers. I was looking to see if quotes were added from this latest start to see what-- because he had been sounding really confident in the direction he was headed even though the results were poor, not that then necessarily means anything. But we don't know what's going on behind the scenes, obviously. And then after this one, he just seems angry. He's just like he doesn't. He thinks it's there and he just doesn't know why he's struggling so much. So whatever that means. But yeah, I think you already should have been benching Rogers. I know I had him as do not start to start picture for this week. But-- Wish I listened to you. Yeah, I started him in one point, Sleeg. I started JR Richie in a couple of leagues where I'd been trying to drop him. But I'm like, well, I didn't drop him, so I guess I'll start him. Yeah, that didn't go much better. Yeah, last five starts for Trevor Rogers, by the way. 1184 ERA and a 226 whip. I did see some speculation on Twitter that he might be tipping his pitches. And I feel like maybe that would be a pretty fair explanation and reason for my-- That would explain-- That would explain his self-assessment. That would line up with it. But you would think somebody in the Orioles organization would have noticed that by now. Well, and I just also look at like over the past five seasons, we've had three good months from him. Yeah, last year was the outlier. Yeah. This looks more like what he's looked like basically every time he's pitched since, what was it, 21? 2021 when he was-- or was it 2019? It was a long time ago. It was a long time ago that first good year with the Mars. I think it was 2021. I'm not saying he's finished forever, but I'm inclined to believe that last year is the outlier. And this year is the regression to the mean. I mean, just mathematically, that makes sense, not knowing any details other than here's the layout of his career, where's the outline? He gets flat. Well, I never found the explanations for why he pitched so much better last year. But better control and better-- Super compelling. Yeah, right. But better control is one of those things that's just like-- Yeah, he pitched better, but how sustainable is that? And he's carried over the better velocity. His swinging strike rate, 12.5% coming into the start, exactly the same as last year. So pretty good, yeah. Which is why I say, under the surface, it still looks like he's keeping those gains. But yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, you just-- You can't. Again, we were past the point where you should have considered starting him, but it's totally reasonable to drop him. I will say of that, like, in Aranya group, we were talking about at the start of the podcast. I'm not so moved by any of those guys that I want to drop even Trevor Rogers for them, just because I think if Trevor Rogers gets back to who he was last season, he's a much better picture than any of those guys. So unless I absolutely need a starter right now, I would prefer to hang on to him over any of those guys. But I understand everybody's situation is different. And at some point, you just get tired of having a useless guy in your roster. And I think Trevor Rogers is pretty useless right now. Yeah. And it always goes back to one of the-- I mean, I make-- sometimes I say so many things that maybe the main point gets lost. The main point is, if you drop him most, he's not getting picked up. So even if he does start to turn it around, you'll probably have another shot of them. Chris, anything actionable here with show team in Aga and Robbie Ray? Blow-ups? I think Shota just didn't pitch well. And that happens sometimes. Like, he left up ton of pitches in the middle own major league pitchers can make you pay for that. I want to say he's had really bad numbers against the brewers overall in his career as well. I don't know if it's worth checking on that, but he wasn't going to sustain a sub to ERA the entire season. His fit is up to $3.39. I think that's probably more like what I expect from Shoddy Minaga. So elite whip, but we know that homers have been an issue for him. I did see the you put put in the notes, the win was blowing out 15 miles per hour. I can't remember who it was. Somebody posted, I guess they have a model of atmospheric conditions at each ballpark. And there was something like if Aaron Judge had played every game of his career with the atmospheric conditions at Rigglyfield today, he would have had a hundred more home runs or something like it was one of those days. That Riggly and that happens at Rigglyfield. And he wasn't thrown his best pitches as much. So it was yeah, sometimes just don't have it. I just think he did not have his splitter at all. And Chris, that's a good call on his career against the brewers. Four starts entering this one. 573 ERA. That's like 750 now. Yeah, it's going to be a little bit higher. Let's see, look at three pitchers trending up three pitchers trending down. We already spoke about sunny gray who was awesome at the royals. Brian was great against the white socks six shutout innings with eight strikeouts 19 whiffs on 90 pitches. And last three starts 18 innings two runs allowed 26 right out to six walk. So for the people who were worried about Brian, we know there was a lot out there. He looks just fine. And then Andrew Painter, I put him in here. He is technically trending up. I think we need to see a lot more before we think about re-adding him. But his last two starts have looked better. Again, I think we need to see more. But Brian Wu is really the kind of the big takeaway here that he he pretty much looks like himself again. Yeah, I mean, I have more to say about Painter actually. Yeah, that's just yeah. Wu's the bigger story, but it's like the bigger story is he's Brian Wu again. Yeah, he's right. Painter, what encouragement I took from his previous start, which was also good is that oh, like maybe he's realizing his fastball is junk and he's leaning on his breaking balls more, secondary arsenal more, which is still good. And he got a good result. Maybe that's the path for or maybe he gets it and he goes right back to 35% fastball use, which is in line with his season average. So the result was fine in this start, but I'm not seeing the trend I want to see from Painter. And so I think that makes him still waver fodder. Okay, I started him in one league as a two-start. It was a point league. Don't still don't have any confidence in for Roto where the ramifications of the bad starts linger a lot longer. Three pitchers trending down. And I guess Nick Ladillo has just been down all season so far. He's only made three starts, but none of them have really been usable. It was one out sort of a quality start, but he walked five in this outing. He only had seven pitches. I think you always have to at least wonder a little bit like is he fully over that blister. This is technically a spring training too. So he's getting built up, but he just he's been really bad so far. Framber Valdez struggled with his control against the Guardians five innings, four runs, four walks, three strikeouts. He had just four whiffs on 89 pitches. And JR Richie, he allowed six runs over four innings, 65% roster. That feels way too high. I think you can go ahead and drop JR Richie. Frankly, still a little surprise that the Braves keep throwing them out there. I feel like he kind of just needs to go back to the minors and work on some things. But the the other two here have your expectations changed at all moving forward for Nick Ladillo and Framber Valdez? For Framber, no. I think this is just one of those stretches that he goes through every so often. Last year, I think it was the second half that he struggled the year before was the first half. He just goes through these stretches where he doesn't have the feel for the curveball and there's not really a good explanation for why except that it's a 76 mile an hour big loopy curveball. They throw 35 to 40 percent of the time. And I think there's just always going to be some inherent volatility. Ladillo, the fastball or the curveball looks like it should for the most part. And that was the big thing in 2024 when things got really bad for him after his finger injury. He just couldn't throw that pitch. The movement profile seems there. So I don't really have too much concern. He just has to pitch better. And I think he will moving forward. So that feels like a pretty good by-love right now. I mean, I think Ladillo and Framber are both by-love. Yes. The people that waited on Ladillo, they might not want to just, you know, cut bait because they waited so long to get him back. But if there's any opportunity, I would look into it. Yeah. I mean, it kind of depends on the depth of the league because I think there might be some, there may be some leagues where people, I'm over this Ladillo guy. He's had three awful starts. The walks are way up. I'll take whatever you can give me for him if I think it's a value. And that's obviously the ideal by-low scenario. I'm at my expectations for Valdez and Ladillo have both, it's gone down both for both a little, but only a little. I think they'll pitch better than they have so far. All right. We had ourselves a pitcher's duel out in San Diego. It's time to do do do do do do do do do do do. Yamamoto made just one mistake and that cost him this game. Seven innings, one run, eight strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 107 pitches. But his splitter was blutton. It looked really good. His cutter was very good in the start as well. And Michael King on the other side shut down the Dodgers. Seven shut out innings with nine strikeouts. 12 whiffs on 100 pitches for him. He's down to a 231 ERA 106 whip. His last three starts 18 and two thirds. Two runs allowed 20 strikeouts to six walks. I think Yamamoto is just a top five pitcher. There's not much more to say there. But Michael King, if he's healthy, kind of, he looks like he's back to that form from two years ago when he was like a top 15 pitcher for fantasy. You dropped this king. Is that that's something the kids still say? That is that is the Mario again. Mario. Yeah. Exactly. He's holding out of crown. Anyway, yeah, I come to the same conclusion on Michael King. I've been kind of one foot in one foot out on him basically from draft season and even with this good star. But it just keeps getting better and better. His whiff rate 11.3%. That's not super impressive on its own. It's better than last year and closer to two years ago when he was of course awesome for fantasy 86.9 mile per hour average ex of velocity coming in. Groundball rate is better than ever at 50%. The only down, the only negative I can really see for King is that the walks are kind of high. But these asings, so many other subjects. You know, it's like you get a you get a bad grade in a grammar. We can overlook it when you're doing great in math and science and social studies. You know. Want to give some hitter appreciation. Just three names we haven't really talked about, but they have just been really good. Yandee Diaz, four for five with two more doubles, four runs, four RBI. He is hitting three 10 on the season. Wilson, Gaturas hit his 10th home run. He has 27 RBI 841 OPS. He is pulling the ball in the air more than ever before, which is a great idea playing your home games in Fenway Park. And Xavier Edwards hit his fifth home run of the season. He has five homeers in 48 games. He had four home runs in 239 career games entering the season. And he's doing some things differently. Like the barrel rate has gone up from one percent to six percent, which doesn't sound great, but it's it's a big jump for him. His ground ball rate is down a little bit and he's he's walking more than ever before. So it feels really good. But what's going on with Xavier Edwards right now? I would expect the home run rate to slow. But you know, he's doing I know. He's doing everything else to he's hitting three 22. He's got 60 right. And those I expected from Edwards. I still so weirdly low. Yeah, that is where the only has six steals compared to the five home runs. But the batting average, I was kind of expecting a bit of a bounce back there. I think like he's I don't as a rookie at 328. I don't think he's going to do that very often. But I do see him as more of a 290 300 guy than the 283 he hit last year. And steals. I expected those to bounce back war. He's kind of making up for it with this power surge. And there are you know, just the fact he's elevating a more the exit velocity doesn't look it's in the lower half of the league. But it's not like bottom of the barrel. Like we're used to seeing for Xavier Edwards. So I I guess there's a chance he could you know hit seven to 10 more possibly. I want to bet on it. Yeah. But it's possible. Yeah. I would probably put his over under for like 10 just like to get to 10 by like, can he hit five more the rest of the way? So I mean, that that seems like the peak outcome to me. 15 home or Xavier Edwards. I understand pacing out his current five. You come to a higher number. But like I think you got a built in some regression there. I mean, entering the season if you had set his over under for his career. 15 I might have taken the under. Yeah, it's very weird. It's kind of a Brian Roberts development. Remember Brian? Yeah. I guess very similar skill set to start out mostly just steals and on base skills and then suddenly he developed like 15 to 20 homer pop later on. It is interesting just because Edwards is much more patient this season. His chase rates down to 21%. His in zone swing rate is much lower as well. And that would usually be a really bad sign for a hitter like this because you would think pitchers would just, you're not going to hurt me. So I'm just going to throw fat. I'm just going to pump bass balls. I'm going to fill the zone and that's how he's hitting bombs. Yeah, it's working for him now. I suspect there will be major regression on the power moving forward, but he's been very impressive so far. So that could as to save your Edwards. Brian Roberts listed height and weight almost identical to Edwards, both switch hitters. There you go. There you go. I like it. Some hitting leftovers. Junior Caminaro. Caminaro. Ah. Ah. Caminaro. He hit his 13th homer on. He is homer than back to back games. He has four homers in his past 10. Looks like he is heating up. Christian Yelich. Back looks pretty good to me to for forward this third homer. Sal Stewart hit his 11th homer. Yeah. Had to get that in with all the Mario talk today. Cody Ballinger broke a four. Mario. Mario. You did say I did notice you said Mario earlier and I was like, is Frank feeling okay? I know that's not how you say his name. I know. That's the biggest carryover between the Adam Azer era and the Frank Stample era. Adam says Mario too. Yeah. Is that a Northeast thing? Yeah, that's an New York thing. I guess. Yelich, a 14 game homer with his sixth home run of the season. Jazz looks like he is coming around to for four with his fifth home run and in May he's hitting 300 two homers, three steals 844 OPS and Josh Neller two more steals. He has 12 steals in 46 games. He is on pace for 39 steals. I kid you not. This stuff is crazy. He hit like none in the first 20 games. He stole third base today. It's part of a double steal. It's like crazy stuff there. Some pitching leftovers. Max Meyer was great against the brave six shout out innings with six strikeouts for him. 13 whiffs on 97 pitches. Seth Lugo turned in a quality starting in the red socks. Six innings, two runs, five strikeouts and Zach Galen a quality starting in the giants. Six innings, two runs, five strikeouts. He's technically a waiver wire pitcher. He's out there in some leagues, but I just think we need to see a lot more from Zach Galen. Chris, any thoughts here on a Galen Lugo and Max Meyer? Max Meyer has been really impressive. I did not expect this to happen. It seems the kind of addition slash integration of the sweeper into the arsenal has really made everything else play up. Just for a long time, it was just a slider and kind of nothing else. I thought he was bound for the bullpen, but maybe the sweeper is more of just a dead put away pitch and the slider. Sliders always been great. It's more of a gyro slider. He can kind of use it the way some pitchers use their cutter. He can throw it against left easing, throw it at early accounts. I've been very, very impressed. I'm wary of Max Meyer in the bottom falling out, but there's no signs of it right now. He's been really good. Too pitching left overs who were not so great. Shane, Max, Shane McLean, a hand. He took a little bit of a step back against the Orioles five innings, four runs, but still had six strikeouts, had 14 whiffs on 90 pitches. Ryan weather is doomed by the long ball against the blue chase. Five and a third, five runs allowed, two homers allowed in this one. The home run that he allowed to Ernie Clement was like four inches below the zone. I have no idea how he hit it out, but it was like 80 degrees in New York. So I think the ball was just traveling pretty well there. Scott, anything on Shane O'Mac and Ryan weather? Is it just feels like two talented pitchers, but they just had a rough day? Yeah, I didn't have any great takeaways there for us trading with the two star week that they kick it off this way, but they got a second chance to make it right. Two bites at the apple, as we like to say. Before we move on, I did was, when we were talking about Michael King, it just brought up Brandon's sproat to me. And like, man, I think Brandon's sproat needs to watch a lot of Michael King. Because they're similar. They both got kind of that crossfire right hand delivery where they step over with their left foot so they're kind of firing across their body. They get wicked movement on their pitches. That might be the path. Because Brandon's sproat, he's interesting. Ended up running into trouble. He was pitching really well for the first four runnings and then gave up three in the fifth and got pulled. I think there's talent there, but the approach needs to get fixed. And that's just what, just listening to you guys talk about Michael King. That was what I thought. It's like, man, Brandon's sproat, there could be some Michael King there if he figures it out. There are some long way on Brandon's sproat. I mean, I think part of the problem is he still needs to adjust the, he needs to make the change. I don't think he's actually good yet. I think he's talented, but it's like maybe he doesn't need to throw a four seamer. Maybe it needs to be more, you know, trying to throw that sinker the way Michael King does. A lot more, you know, just sneaking it over the plate that requires really good command of that pitch, though, and then leaning on the other pitches. So I still think sproat is interesting, but a long way from good, I would say. Before we move on, Frank, did you mean to skip over Robbie Ray earlier? I mentioned him. I think I asked if there was anything actionable, but if you have anything on Robbie Ray. I guess just that yes, he entered the day with a ERA just above three. And so this was a disappointing outcome. The ERA estimators all kind of hate him. They all put his expected ERA, whether it's XERA, literally expected ERA, FIP or XFIP, they're mid to high force is where they all have it. I'm of two minds on this because on the one hand, okay, K-Rate, Walk Rate, Swinging Strike Rate, all look about the same as last year. He's giving up much weaker contact than last year, 88 miles per hour. That's pretty good for Robbie Ray. He's giving up a ton of home runs, and so I'm sure that's part of the reason why the estimators don't like him. But a lot of it still looks okay. So I guess I'm, you know, it might seem like it all came home to roost in this start. I'm not sure I'm ready to say that for Robbie Ray. And I would be not making any big actions based on this start. Be call to the bullpen for the Yankees. I cannot believe that they went back to David Bednar, but they did it. He got the ninth inning with a two run lead. He allowed a run on a hit and two walks. He tried his darness. I cannot believe that he escaped for the save, but he did it. He picked up his 11th save. I really don't know who else they would go to. Like we said yesterday, I think they probably trade for another reliever at some point this season. He really continues to struggle. Fernando Cruz gets an opportunity, but Camilo DeVal has been really bad this season. So I just don't really see a great option outside of Bednar. But Cruz gets a lot of strikeouts. He also walks everybody. So. Yeah. And he's got like an ERA close to four for his career, right? Maybe. Well, I think for his career, he has pitched really well so far this season. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for his career is 412 last year's 356. That was a little better. Yeah. 12.6 K for nine, but 5.9 walks per night. Yeah. I don't think you would be happy with Fernando Cruz as your closer either. It is my point. He gives up home runs. He gives up a ton of walks. I think this is going to be another trade deadline with Yankees. I mean, that seemed obvious all off season when they didn't really add anybody to their bullpen. They let Luke Weaver and Devon Williams walk across town. Maybe they took a train. But I think this is going to be another trade deadline where they go get Pete Fairbanks and I don't know who's another closer that could get traded. They probably trade for two or three high leverage pitchers. Imagine they brought back a roll this Chapman. I don't think that would happen, but I think there's a good chance that Chapman could get traded. For the Phillies, Yoan DeRon struck out two for his eighth save for the Red Sox. Chapman picked up his 11th save for the Rockies. Juan Mahia got the ninth inning with a one run lead. He picked up his third save. Antonio Sanzitella has pitched really well for them. And he last pitched on Saturday. So I would have thought he was available for this one, but maybe the Rockies don't have a closer and honestly, it probably doesn't matter. Yeah, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter for a few years now. Yeah, I think it's best to approach as if they don't have a closer. By the way, Robbie Raist said he thinks he's tipping his pitches. I just saw that. I also saw that he hit by a line drive on his leg, but they said he expects to make his next star, but there was like a little bit of concern when it first happened. The twins, hey Taylor Rogers got a save that was, you know, some people thought he would be the closer the twins do not have a closer either. And then the Padres Mason Miller picked up his 15th save of the year to stream or not to stream on Tuesday. We have Griffin jacks up against the Orioles, Debbie Matthews against the Astros, Ben Brown against the Brewers, Matthew Libertor against the Pirates, Reed Deppmers against the athletics. Ryan Nelson. Ryan Nelson doesn't count any more. He's over 80% roster. So I'm going to take him out. Sorry. And then Bryce Miller against the White Sox. You take out all the good ones, Frank. Well, that's kind of the point. Robbie Raygrave gave up a grand slam on his sixth pitch of the game. That is like, impressive. That's impressive. That's impressive. That's weird. I don't understand. I looked at it. I looked at the pitch log. I still don't understand how it happened. That's weird. Sorry. Continue. I like that. Yeah. Bryce Miller. I mean, I know the White Sox are not a terrible matchup, but I think he's talented. Reed Deppmers. I like OK. Away from Sacramento versus the athletics. And Ben Brown and Griffin jacks, I just wish I could have confidence that they were going to go even five innings. I hope they're building up to it. And Griffin jacks did go five in his last one. But I would feel better about it if I felt like there was a better chance of both of them going five innings. I'd go Deppmers, Brown, Bryce Miller, and that order. And those are the only three I'd consider. And then on Wednesday, we have Andrew Abbott at the Phillies, Shane Bos, Revenge Game, at the raise, Merrill Kelly against the Giants, Carmen Maginski at the Cardinals and Michael McGreevy against the Pirates. Merrill Kelly looked better as last two starts, Giants, or as good of a matchup as you can get. I did have Andrew Abbott on the sleeper pitchers for this week, even though Phillies trending to being not as good of a pitching matchup anymore. But Abbott's looked better. I don't know. McGreevy, if you keep wanting to roll the dice on that. I'd probably hate off so far. It's going to come crashing down at some point. I think I want to be holding the bag. Kelly Magreevy and Abbott is probably the three I would rank for Wednesday. Those are the same three I named. Yeah. Here we go. I would try to avoid everybody but Merrill Kelly if I can. Oh, right. We are out of time. So we'll read your team name Tuesdays next week. If you have one, send it in. Fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. We are good to wrap there. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. [MUSIC PLAYING] Paramount podcasts.