Kyle Harrison Top-24 SP & Waiver Wire Elimination Chamber! (6/3 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Speaker 1 Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? E-mail. Speaker 2 Fantasy baseball at CBSI. Speaker 3 Dot com get. Speaker 1 Ready to win your league? We're. Speaker 3 Fantasy, because reality. Now here's Frank, Scott and Chris. Speaker 2 What's up and welcome in in tough fantasy baseball today on Wednesday, June 3rd, I am Frank Stanfill joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Look at us. We're all together for like the second time in two weeks. We're we're going to do it. Finally back today on the show, another stellar outing by Kyle Harrison. We'll do a temperature check on what I believe to be some polarizing hitters. Maybe you guys disagree. And a waiver wire elimination chamber. 6 men enter, one man wins. Who will it be? We'll discuss. Speaker 1 Oh no, Oh no, Get outta here. Back-to-back to back. Speaker 2 Great call by the Marlins TV broadcast there. back-to-back to back homers by Joe Mac, Heriberto Hernandez and Otto Lopez. Oh no. Oh no Chris, good job buddy hosting while I was gone. I appreciate it. You get the breadstick of the night as your reward. Speaker 1 Yeah, I'll take Kyle Harrison, who he he might be. You know, Scott, who are we talking about the other day as like the the biggest pitching breakout of the season or someone specific we. Speaker 3 Talked about Jacob Mesirowski and also Cam Schlidler and the third person was Braxton Ashcraft. Speaker 1 Braxton Yeah, Harrison needs to be on that list for the biggest breakouts at starting pitcher this season because he has just been spectacular and this was probably not his best start. But not far off, he struck out 12 and five and 2/3 innings. He got he gave up four hits, one run on a solo Homer, two walks. The control has for the most part, remained excellent this season. Only one start with more than or two starts with more than two walks. Strikeout rate has generally been tremendous. It's going to be over 30% for the season after this one. And I don't see a whole lot to be skeptical about here. I mean, the I, I guess the, the thing you could look at with Kyle Harrison is he's so fastball dependent for his whiffs. I something like 70% of his strikeouts have come via the four seam fastball this season, which is a lot. But that pitch has like a 32% whiff rate on the season. And it's a pretty great pitch. Comes in at 95 mph from the left side. He gets, he's up to like 15 inches of induced vertical break, but he also gets like 12 inches of horizontal movement. It's a really, really interesting pitch. It's a it's a profile that you don't see a lot and hitters are really struggling with it. And maybe they'll catch up at some point. Maybe the scatter reports will get out there and you know, they'll, they'll lock in the Trajek machines because it is a new shape on the fastball. But right now it's it's looking pretty legit for Kyle Harrison this breakout. Speaker 2 Yeah, and it's good to see the strikeouts bounce back after his last outing where he only only had two strikeouts. But that's now three different times this season where he has had 11 or more strikeouts. He's down to a 157 ERA. Actually. Did it go up in the start one and run over 5 and 2/3? It might have. But anyway, one O 3, whip 11 and stayed. Speaker 1 From the same. Speaker 2 Is that true? Speaker 1 Yeah. Speaker 2 Looking into the POV metric on pitcher list, both his slurve and the fastball are ranking the 95th percentile or better. So honestly, when you have two pitches that are that elite, you might not really need anything else. So I mean, that was the the, the conversation, the question that I had lined up is just do we just push Kyle Harrison, you know, inside our top 24 starting pitchers, you know, among the Braxton Ash crafts, the Chase Burns of the world, where those guys are ranked right now. Speaker 3 It's very close. It's very close. I suppose for me it would come down to Freddie Peralta and Michael King whether they deserve to be in, whether Dylan sees deserves to stay in while he's on the IL. It sounds like a short absence. He's got a rehab start coming up and so I would probably keep cease ahead of Harrison, but you know, he's if he's not in the 24 top 24, he's just outside of it and obviously you should be thrilled to have him. You know it, it looked like in his previous start the fastball had the same characteristics. It only got 2 whiffs in that start and it was like what does that mean? It was 6 shutout innings still, but 22 whiffs on the fastball, 2 strikeouts. But then he bounces back with this start where the fastballs get a ton whiz. He gets double digit strikeouts again and yeah, I don't see a lot to. You could always find things to worry about, but I don't think I don't think there's good reason to worry. Speaker 2 Like there will be regression just because he's not gonna keep a 157 ERA all season. Currently he has a 92% left on base percentage and for his career it's 77%. League average is like 75%. So there will be starts where some of those runners that reach base they score. But I mean everything else under the hood looks like he deserves a sub 3 ERA so even if he gave us that, that would be amazing. So. Speaker 1 Yeah, that'd be incredible. Yeah. Speaker 2 Kyle Harrison, one of the biggest breakouts this season. Scott, let's go over to you for your Player of the Night jump. Speaker 3 Jump. Gage Jump. Speaker 2 I I probably have to get like the, the Van Halen jump or, or a different kind of jump if he's actually good. Yeah, we can do that. Speaker 3 I I, I think of The Pointer Sisters song Jump for my love, you know. Speaker 2 I think you need to sing it. Speaker 1 For us to all though. Speaker 3 You know, the song Gage Jump, whose other joke I liked about is to make about his name, is that it sounds like the basic mechanic of every Super Mario game. You're you Gage the jump, that's what you do. Well, he had a good start here against the Cubs. Against the Cubs, 1 earned run in seven innings, three hits allowed, five strikeouts. Remember, his first start was a little shaky but some interesting things under the hood. Obviously he was a good prospect who performed well the Miners this year and and so he delivered a nice result here when there wasn't a lot of reason to expect it necessarily. Given the match up, it was a little strange how it came about. He only had five whiffs on 85 pitches and he did like he did give up weak contact, 87.8 mile per hour average. So that's good. It it one the one consistent thing between the two starts for Gage jump is he has thrown a ton of strikes. It just one walk in each of those starts and it was over 70% strikes in this one. So I think that itself is an encouraging sign. The control was kind of, it kind of came and went in the minors. It was pretty good last year, but it was 4.7 walks per nine to AAA this year. And so that seemed like it might be an obstacle. You know, two starts doesn't mean he's overcome it necessarily, but it's encouraging to see. I don't know what to make of the lack of missed bats in this one. It we're we're working with such a small sample here, it wasn't a problem in the minors. He was a good bat misser down there and so I suspect he will be in the majors too. I'm mostly encouraged by the start for gauge jump, but it's not like an all in situation for me the way it would be if a normally if a top pitching prospects gets called up and throw a seven grade innings his second time out. Normally it's like OK, here we go. I'm still a little hesitant with jump. I think you can, Adam, if you have a spot to play with, but it's not essential. Speaker 1 The the ballpark certainly hurts in that regard. It's just it's going to be a tough place to pitch in Sacramento. I will just say I think he passes the eye test and the stuff metrics all look really good. He, he's got a little bit of his build is very different than Parker Messick's, but he's got a, a kind of similar delivery. And so he's coming, he's getting very downhill in his delivery from the left side. He's got a low arm angle. So I, I and he's averaging like what 90? He averaged 97 with the four seamer in this start. It was weird that he didn't miss bats because I think the stuff looks really good. And so I'm, I'm pretty encouraged. I agree. You'd you'd prefer to see more tangible evidence that he can miss bats at the Major League level, but. Speaker 3 It it did look good in his first but. Speaker 1 He, but he got hit. So now, now we'd like to see a start where he misses bats and limits the hard contact. But this is one that, you know, we, we talked about, you know, on the football podcast, we used to talk about like beat the waiver wire guys, guys that you're trying to add a week before everybody's adding them. I, I think this might be the, the chance for gauge jumps. I I do think he's potentially about to take off. Speaker 2 And overall, I just think it's encouraging Whenever a pitcher throws 72% of his pitches for strikes and only allows 3 hard hits, that tells me that he's pretty hard to square up. Like he's got some pretty nasty stuff. So especially like you, you mentioned averaging 97 on the fastball in this one, it was up from his first start. And just that delivery we talk a lot about or Chris, you do mostly being different being a good thing, you know, and, and I feel like gauge jump, you just watch him pitch. It's definitely different. It's not like other pitchers that you watch pitch. With that said, gauge jump is part of the waiver wire elimination chamber. So let's just fire it up right now. Six men enter, only one can be victorious. What we'll do here quick thought on each one. We will eliminate the one that we like least and then we will figure out who our favorite is. So we'll just kind of rank them along the way. Let the battle begin. First up, Aaron Nola, solid against the Padres. 5 innings, two runs, 8 strikeouts to zero walks. Lot of wins over his last two starts. He's throwing that curveball a lot more. Chris Quick thought here on Aaron Nola. Speaker 1 Without having gotten to the rest of the names, Nola feels like he's going to be at or near the bottom just because he's an elderly fella. Within the context of Major League Baseball, he is clearly in the the back nine of his career might be on like the 14th or 15th hole at this point, although I know he's got like 6 years left on that contract. Maybe not, but I just don't know how much upside there is. His velocity was up here. The curveball remains an incredible swing and miss pitch, but it's just, you know, when the good starts or five innings, 2 earned runs. It's like, I don't know how how exciting I can how excited I can actually get about it. Speaker 2 All right, Next up we have Shane Baz, who is pitching better and actually did it not against his former team, the Rays. This time. He was at the Red Sox 7 innings of two run ball with six strikeouts. He had 12 whiffs on 94 pitches, nine of those coming on his curveball. It's got to feel like each of the past couple of starts that have looked pretty good for Shane Baz, we've just come on here and been like, I didn't really see enough. Did you see enough here? Speaker 3 See, a new Chris wanted to talk about Shane Baz. Speaker 1 I can't. Speaker 3 Get through it to me anyway. Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. Chris, I'm I'm interested in hearing what you were encouraged by. Speaker 1 I, I don't think we're seeing like a sea change for Shane Boz. I, I don't think this is suddenly the, the guy we were promised as a prospect. But what we have seen this season was early on, he started throwing a sinker. He abandoned it a couple starts in, then about 5 or 6 starts ago he started throwing it a little more. And then over the past three starts in particular, that has become his primary fastball against right-handed pitcher, right-handed hitters. And we have seen him learn more on the sinker and the knuckle curve against right. I think today he threw the knuckle curve like 45% of the time against righties and it's just we're seeing something different from shame boss. And then that's always been my thing is he has, but what he has been doing hasn't been working. And I I was hoping when he got traded away from the Rays, there'd be some kind of change in approach that just might unlock something here. I don't have a ton of confidence that this run is going to be, you know, propel Shane boss to the ranks of even the must roster pitchers, let alone must start. But it's interesting enough to see him doing something different that I'm I'm open minded about it. He is, yeah, I, I'm, I'm willing 'cause he's what, 70% roster or so 73? Yep, I'm you're saying to it. Speaker 3 Righties, he's changed his approach. Speaker 1 Yes, He's changed his approach against righties, throwing the sinker, primarily the sinker more throwing it more than his four seamer. And that's usually what you see, right? You usually see sinker versus righties, 4 seamer against lefties. Obviously some guys just throw all four seamers. But when you have both and you don't have a great fastball, that's usually the trend. You'll see the sinker versus same handed hitters and it's not going to miss bats and we're not really seeing him miss a ton of bats. He got 9 whiffs today. He has 25 strikeouts over 27 innings during his fourth quality start streak. But it all looks a little more effective. At least it all makes a little more sense for Shane Boz. Speaker 2 All right, we still have some other names here, so we'll keep it moving. Noah Cameron was awesome at the Reds. 7 innings, one hit, one run, 8 strikeouts to zero walks. He is starting to throw those secondary pitches a little bit more and over his last three starts, 150 ERA .67 WHIP. Scott, your thoughts here on Noah Cameron, who's pitching better as of late? Speaker 3 Oh, I think we have a new contender for the bottom here. I, I, I think Aaron Nola is saved for now from this elimination challenge. It has been a little better for, for Cameron lately. And obviously this was a really good start. And that he gave up one hit in seven innings, struck out eight. I, I, I, I'm, I'm not really seeing it. I don't know. Are you? Are you seeing it, Chris? Speaker 1 No, not really. And the biggest thing for me with Noah Cameron was this was not like a huge prospect. This was not a guy who was utterly dominant across his minor league career when he came up. It was not like we were, Oh my God, we have to add Noah Cameron. And then he had this really good rookie season where he out pitched his peripherals. His EX ERA was four O 7. His ERA was 299. Well, OK, but that's is that a skill? There are some guys who just outperformed the peripherals and maybe he's one of them. He's a lefty. Lefties are weird. Well, this season he's pitching right to his ex ERA, 477 to 461 entering the start. So even if you think he's better than a 470 ERA and then I would guess for the season he's down to four. He's down to 422 now. I don't see much reason to think Noah Cameron's a, a guy you can count on to be a difference maker. I, I think he's a streamer, but look, I, I think he, Aaron Nola is probably a streamer and I think Shane boss is probably not much better than a streamer. Speaker 3 I mean, he has to get volume with that profile to be of any value. And he did in the start, 7 innings. It was just the fourth time he's gone even 6 now. Three of the last four have been among the 46. But I don't know. I'm just, I'm just not seeing enough here to get me excited. Speaker 2 All right, well, I might have another name that needs to be thrown to the bottom of this list because it's Jameson Taillon who turned in a quality start against the Athletics. 6 1/3 innings, two runs, six strikeouts. But he had 18 whiffs on 99 pitches, 12 of those on the sweeper, 5 on the change up. He just threw his sweeper a bunch more and it was amazing. Do either of you guys have any interest in Jameson Taillon? Speaker 3 This is the bottom. This is this is the this is the name to eliminate. We know who Jameson Taillon is, and it's very underwhelming for fantasy. He'll he'll have his streamable moments. Oh yeah. Speaker 1 Definitely streamable. Speaker 3 But beyond that, there's there's, there's no upside here. Speaker 1 You are able to stream him, yes. Speaker 2 I didn't realize how bad it It had been. Eight home runs over his previous three starts. Twenty home runs allowed this season. It is by far the most in baseball. I guess the one redeeming quality here for Taione is he gets the Giants this weekend. He gets the Giants in San Francisco again next week. So some solid match ups coming up for him. The last name on this list is Dustin May who racked up the whiffs against the Rangers. 5 2/3 innings, three runs, 9 strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 90 pitches, 9 strikeouts in back-to-back starts, and over his last 10, A 319 ERA, 111 WHIP, 53 strikeouts over 59 and a third. So just under a strikeout per inning there. Any more enthusiasm for someone like Dustin May? Oh yeah. Speaker 1 I I, I think he is I, I don't think Dustin May is a a must start pitcher or anything of the sort. Again, it's a guy with a pretty long track record of pretty mediocre production and the ER as decent usually, but he doesn't get a lot of strikeouts. And then that's continued this season. He's under a strikeout per innings, right around what, 8K per nine? But he limits hard contact or limits damage on contact. I think it's the better way to say it. And he's got a great defense behind him. And so I do think there are going to be long stretches of the season and we are currently in one where Dustin May is going to be useful. Like this was his second worst start since April 4th. And he almost, he was a an out short of a quality start. I I think he's pretty good. I don't think he's great. I don't think Dustin May is a top 50 starting pitcher, but top 75, top 80. Yeah. And I, and that is, I think more than you can say for most of the rest of the guys in this list. Speaker 2 So. Speaker 3 First two starts were terrible dust of May 7 of 10 quality starts since and that's not including this one, which as you said, Chris came within and out of a quality start. Speaker 2 So it sounds like, if I am interpreting this correctly, three names have been eliminated. That is Aaron Nola, Noah Cameron, Jamison Taillon. Speaker 3 Oh, I thought we were just eliminating one. No. Speaker 2 No, no. We're eliminating them as we go along and then we're picking our favorite of the bunch, so. Speaker 1 Yeah, I I would say those three are the the easiest to to get out of here. Speaker 3 I I would rather eliminate May than NOLA. Speaker 1 Interestingly. Speaker 3 Yeah. Speaker 1 OK. Speaker 2 I think I would take, I would keep Dustin May over over Aron Nola, but. Speaker 3 Maybe we're just eliminate too. Then it's Ione Cameron. Speaker 2 So then we have a final four. Who's your? Speaker 1 Favorite we still got to eliminate. Speaker 2 Who's your favorite of the four? Speaker 3 So we're just I. I don't understand this Gage jump. Speaker 1 I think Gage jump is by far the most interesting. It's actually. Speaker 3 Gage jump part of this conversation. Speaker 2 Yeah, he's in there. Yeah. Speaker 1 Yeah, I think that's far the most interesting. That doesn't mean he'll be the best. You know, like if you're giving me the median outcome for Dustin May and Gauge jump, Dustin Mays is probably the better pitcher. But it's like Dustin May is probably a 375 ERA guy with less than AK per nine and honestly, probably a pretty bad WHIP. I'm not looking at the stats, but I would guess the WHIP for his career. Yeah, 1/22, 1:42 last year, but that's useful Gauge jump. The, the error bars are wide here. You know, he, he could just get rocked in Sacramento as the weather heats up or he could be a, a 340 ERA guy with a bunch of strikeouts if he, if he's as good as certainly the stuff indicates he could be. So I I, I think gauge jump is clearly the most interesting pitcher here, even if you know there are reasons to believe it won't work out in the end. Speaker 3 Right. Yeah, I think Jump is the only one of these pitchers, unless I'm forgetting somebody we talked about who was the second one we talked about. We talked about Shane. Speaker 2 Baz. Yep. So it's Baz, Nola, Taion, Cameron, Jump and Dustin May. Speaker 1 Yep. Speaker 2 Those are the six. Speaker 3 Engage Jump is the only one who I have hope for being more than a streamer at this point, and streamers are obviously interchangeable to its some degree, at least in shallower leagues. Speaker 2 All right, so gauge jump, Congrats buddy, you have won it. How would you guys rank the three behind those behind gauge jump? So basically between Baz Nola and Dustin May, how would you rank those 3? Speaker 1 I think I'd go May, Baz, Nola, but it sounds like Scott might have Nola second, yeah. Speaker 3 Baz Nola May. Speaker 2 All right, fair enough, but again, the winner gauge jump. Let's take our first break. Before we do, make sure to hit the like button, subscribe to the channel on YouTube if you haven't already. We'll take that break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Lots of news here on Tuesday. Well, not Wednesday, but Aaron Judge was out of the lineup due to a bone bruise in his ribs and is causing soreness in his right shoulder. He's expected to see a specialist on Wednesday. Would certainly explain the recent struggles. Last 16 games for Judge he was hitting 180 with one Homer and a 550 OPS. How worried are you guys that something like this could linger here for Aaron Judge? Speaker 3 I have some worry. Speaker 1 Yeah, you have to be worried. Speaker 3 Yeah, in a certain way, I kind of hope he winds up on the IL just so they nip it in the bud as opposed to it being something that lingers for weeks and months potentially. Now. I've said that before for hitters and then they don't go on the IL, they get an injection or something maybe and then they're fine. And, and so maybe, maybe he doesn't need an IL stent. It still turns out fine. But like the lingering outcome is the worst case outcome for fantasy. So that's why I'm like, yeah, maybe, maybe just give him a little breather. Speaker 1 And we've started to see it already, right? Like this is the the worst month that Aaron just has had since April of 2023 I believe or maybe 2024. I looked it up. I think it's April of 2024. So he had gone like 11 straight 12 straight months where he had at least a 900 OPS. Now it's neat that the bad Aaron judge month is an 8 O 5 OPS right? Like that's that's pretty cool, but you're seeing it in all the performance indicators, the expected wobble over the past 100 play appearances down to 358 again for most players. That's awesome. That's really good. That's probably like a top 30 mark in baseball. But Aaron Judge is supposed to be the best hitter in baseball and he hasn't been for the last month or so. There's been a lot of discussion on on Twitter about like, is this the end of Aaron Judge as the best hitter in baseball? And I don't know, maybe he's 34 years old. It's possible. But I, I do think it's actually kind of a relief that he's to learn he's been dealing with something that it's not just hey, he's regressing because his bat speed's been lower this season. His chase rate is, I believe, career high. His in zone contact rate is down. I think he's on pace for like over 200 strikeouts, which is, yeah, which hasn't been a thing for Aaron Judge in a while. He's been like a 23% strikeout rate guy and this season's been more like 2829%. So I'm, I'm almost relieved to hear that he's dealing with an injury. That's kind of selfish to say. I hope it doesn't hurt that bad, but I, I hope that it's just something minor that he has to take a couple weeks off and recover from And, and that's fine. Cuz they said it's a, a bone, they're describing it as a shoulder injury, but then they're saying it's a bone bruise in the rib near the shoulder. So I guess like in this area. And they said he's been dealing with it for a couple of weeks. So as long as it's not serious enough to require surgery, hopefully just a couple of weeks can get him right and then he goes back to being Aaron Judge again. I'd rather that than that he's just in decline. Speaker 3 Well, I mean, I don't want to overstate the case of the decline here either, because his his his stack cast page is still burning red. He's still on pace for more than 50 homers. Like it's any any talk of Judge being in decline seems incredibly premature to me, and kind of silly in fact. So he's been slumping recently. Maybe it's health related? I I, I don't think I have long term concerns about Judge though, no. Speaker 2 All righty, other Yankees items here. I guess some good news is that Jason Dominguez will likely begin a rehab assignment later this week, and they're also moving pitching prospect Carlos Legrande to the bullpen at AAA. And it sounds like they are prepping him to join the team as a reliever sooner rather than later. He hasn't been as effective this season, but still throwing incredibly hard and the Yankees bullpen could definitely use some help so. Speaker 1 I kind of think he's like the pitcher Spencer Jones, and that like there's obvious physical gifts and the limitations are gonna hold him back. And I think he ends up in the bullpen. Long term. I think he's gonna be amazing, yeah. Speaker 2 In the I mean, he's always drawn so many like easy comps to demo betances, you know? Speaker 1 Now, look, I, I think when you have a chance to develop a guy with that kind of arm at the starter, just do it and try. Yeah, yeah. But I think he ends up in the bullpen in the long term anyway. So I, I don't think that's a a bad idea. And there's a chance, I mean, there's been a lot of struggles in that bullpen. There's a chance this guy ends up as a closer in the second-half. I, I wouldn't say it's the most likely outcome, but you can see some, you can see a world where he comes up. It's just lights out for like 3 weeks and David Bednar continues to struggle and they they make that switch. I can see that. Speaker 2 Yep, Garrett Crochet has been officially diagnosed with a low grade latch strain. He'll resume throwing when he's asymptomatic. The Astros activated Josh Hader. He averaged just 93.9 mph on his fastball during the rehab outings. Last year, he was at 95.5. You know, we do see relievers in spring training with lower velocity and then they build up over time. Are you guys worried about this lower velocity, I guess for Josh Hader while he's rehabbing? Speaker 3 A little. He's still got a lot of strikeouts there, and I think there's a lot more to his effectiveness than just how hard he throws. So I wouldn't say I'm super worried. I think he's a clear upgrade over anyone else in that bullpen, even with diminished velocity. So I think his role's going to be pretty secure. But could he be less dominant than we've always known him to be? If if it stays here, yeah, that seems probable. Speaker 1 He he has lost remarkably little effectiveness despite losing two to three mph off his fastball over the past couple of years. And remember early in his career, he actually sat around 9495. It wasn't until 20/21 that his velocity really spiked. He was 2020. He averaged 94.52019. He averaged 95.5. If he's around 9495 I think it'll work. Speaker 2 All right, Josh Naylor was out of the lineup due to back spasms that forced him to leave on Monday night. Zach Netto has missed two straight due to whiplash following a collision at the plate on Saturday. Michael Garcia has missed three straight with that right hamstring strain. Hunter Brown will make his next rehab start at AAA on Thursday. Corey Seeger started his rehab assignment at AA on Tuesday. Cole Reagans resumed playing catch on Monday. He was shut down after not feeling well followed doing his latest rehab start on May 23rd. So trying to, you know, revamp him up here is Cole Reagan's. It's going to take some time. Dylan Cease is expected to make a rehab start at AAA on Thursday. If that goes well, he should be able to return after just one rehab outing. Jose Altuve will take live BP this week. There is a chance he could rejoin the Astros without a rehab assignment. Geraldo Perdomo was out of the lineup Tuesday. While he's been struggling, there is talk that he could drop down in the lineup once he's back on Wednesday. So far this season, hitting just 221, three homers, 8 steals, 673 OPS. Would you guys consider dropping Perdomo in a shallower leak? Speaker 3 I. Speaker 1 Yeah, in a 12 team points league, I think that's OK. It's a better format in theory because of the plate discipline. Speaker 3 Yeah. Speaker 1 But. Speaker 3 Yeah, I try to remember if I actually did that this week and I know I I at least put in moves that would have led to that. It looks like it didn't go through. So I so I still have Perdomo, but no, he's definitely he's definitely in the drop conversation in in leagues that don't offer a middle and field spot, don't please. They don't require a third middle infielder. Speaker 2 All right, Drake Baldwin could return from the aisle during the teams June 16th through 21st homestand. Francisco Alvarez started a rehab assignment at AAA on Tuesday. Alejandro Kirk will begin a rehab assignment at single A on Wednesday. He'll serve as the DH at first before they slowly get him up to speed. A catcher. Apparently Landon Roop pitched through back discomfort on Monday night, which would be a pretty good explanation for why he got destroyed. He is expected to make his next start Saturday against the Cubs. Jacob Wilson could begin a rehab assignment later this week. He's been on the IL since May 11th with a shoulder subluxation. Edward Cabrera will return Saturday against the Giants. He missed a few weeks with a blister on his right middle finger. I was going to ask, are you guys interested in adding Edward Cabrera? Still 80% roster. That kind of surprised me. Speaker 3 Yeah, that is surprising. Speaker 1 He's given back a lot of the gains from last year. Yeah, pretty bad. Pretty bad. Speaker 2 Ramon Luriano was placing the IL with right hip inflammation that's retroactive to May 31st and some of the oldies. Max Scherzer will make his next rehab start at AAA on Friday and Justin Verlander made his first rehab start here on Tuesday at AAA. He threw 5 shut out innings with three shrike outs. Pitchers who are human after all. Who would have thunk it? Cam Schlittler against the Guardians. Four and a third innings. Five runs for those earned. Only three strikeouts. Didn't walk anybody in this one. Just couldn't really generate many whiffs here. Gave up some hard contact. I mean it's his first start with more than three-year and runs all season, so I guess he's allowed to have a bad start. But anything that you guys saw that was concerning here with KM Schlutler? Speaker 1 There there was 1 minorly concerning thing and his his fastball velocity flagged as the game went on. It was down to I think his four seamer was averaging right around 95 in the final inning of the game. I think it was the 5th inning for him. Let me make sure that I have that correct. It was 95.8 mph in the 5th inning. He was averaging 97.2 before that. He's been what, 9798 for most of the season? So that's just the one thing to keep an eye on cuz 95.8 would be about two mph down from his season average. So it's not a huge deal, but something to keep an eye on because he does seem especially dependent on maintaining elite velocity given how fastball dependent he is. Speaker 2 All right, and the other one, Davis Martin got lit up here at the Twins. 4 2/3 innings, 10 hits, 6 earned runs, three walks to two strikeouts. Of the 10 hits allowed, nine of them were singles. It was also his first start with more than two walks all season. Scott, what'd you see here from Davis Martin? Same question. Anything that actually concerns you from this one? Speaker 3 I mean, he didn't pitch very well. He still gave up a lot of weak contact, 86.9 mile per hour average exit velocity. That's actually improvement over a season number. He had gotten that swinging strike rate up over 13% prior to this one, which is actually really good. So he had been an elite control pitcher. Had he become a good bat misser? And the BRA estimators all love them pretty much at this point. So he was due for some regression just because he had a 2O1ER AI believe it was coming in. Now it's 268. So I, I don't know, like he he's allowed to have a bad start when he's had so many good ones. That's, that's really my take. That's kind of my take away for Schlittler too. I mean. Speaker 1 It's. Speaker 3 Never going to be. It's not going to be perfect all season. Speaker 1 This is 2 starts to know where where Davis Martin hasn't had the slider. He only threw it like 4 times in his previous start, didn't get any whiffs. That's been such a big part of his breakout that pitches a 52% with rate entering today's start. It's probably down below 50% now, but that's the one thing that I would note. It's just I haven't understood why the sliders been so much more effective this season when the the physical characteristics of the pitch look very similar to what they did last year. And so are we starting to see the regression? What is the mean for a pitcher like Davis Martin? I don't know because he's a 29 year old who had what, a 450 ERA coming into this season. I I have no idea how much of his breakout so far has been real. Speaker 3 The the thing about the slider though, is that it's not like it's a major part of his arsenal. It's very effective, but he's he's one of those pitchers who has like 6 pitches that he throws 15% of the time and the slider's just another one of them. It's not like it's his bread and butter or anything. Speaker 1 But it's been, you know, 40% of the strikeouts that he's generated have come off the, the slider or something like that. So yeah, you know, it, it, it is disproportionate. It has been disproportionately effective as a put away pitch. Speaker 2 Yeah, I look again. He's allowed to have a bad start. I mean, he's still allowed one earned runner fewer in eight of 12 starts this season. And he went from somebody that, you know, we weren't talking about at all during preseason to, you know, someone we rank around a top 50 starting pitcher now. So obviously he has moved up a ton. And if he bounces back and continues to pitch well, he'll continue to move up. But, you know, we've received some emails about like, oh, why don't you rank Davis Martin higher? It's like, you know, lack of track record. But the more he does it, the more we'll gain confidence that we can move him up. So just just keep that in mind there with Davis Martin. Let's take our final break when we return. I do have ranking a bunch of waiver wire hitters here, a temperature check on some polarizing bats. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back fantasy baseball today and let's rank a bunch of waiver wire hitters and we will start with shallow league outfielders. Jake Bowers just continues to hit. He hit his 10th home run, added three RBI. He has started 14 of the past 15 games. 77% roster on CBS, 45% on Yahoo. Carson binge 2 for three with the double Dong, three RBI. He got up to a slow start, but last 37 games since April 23rd, he's hitting over 300. He's got 5 homers. He's got 3 steals. You know, wish that he was doing a little bit more with the power and speed, but obviously he's hitting very well over that time. And then Brandon Marsh went 4 for four with his fifth stolen base. All these guys are between like 65 and 80%. Rostered Scott. How did you rank those 3? Jake Bowers, Carson bench. Brandon Marsh. Speaker 3 They're all they're so close. I I my preference isn't strong. It's probably as good as the matchups are for this week. I guess I'm most worried about the playing time for Bowers in the long run, but I also like the profile the most there. So I'm going to put him in the middle. I'm going to go Carson binge because I think he has the best chance of just taking off at some point given his profile and obviously he's looked pretty good since April. So I'll go to Carson binge. 1 Jake Bowers, 2 Brandon Marsh. Speaker 2 3 Chris, do you have AI? Was going to say, do you have a stronger take on any of these guys or? Speaker 1 Look, Brandon Marsh, we have a pretty long track record of him being not very good. Speaker 2 And he was slowing down before this game to. Speaker 1 Be fair, his career high batting average before this season was 280. His expected batting average is 288. I know he is a BABB outlier. He he is one of the I think he has the second highest BABB in Major League history after Ty Cobb I believe is the the case. Speaker 3 For his career, you mean. Speaker 1 For his career, yes, he has like a 373 BABB, so like that is a real skill. But I think he's over 400 in Babbitt this season. So even acknowledging the things he does well, that's not going to sustain. And then once he goes back to being a, even if it's a 280 hitter, that's useful. He doesn't really do much else. You know, you're on, you're talking about a 1515 pace right now. That's fine, that's useful. He's useful. But I think Brandon Marsh is clearly the least interesting of this group. I also think in the long run, Jake Bowers probably comes back down to earth and and is just a again, a useful player, someone in a roto league Certainly that you can use outfield, corner infield eligibility helps. I think Carson Bench is the only one who has real, not guaranteed staying power, but a real chance to be someone that we're talking about as a a legitimate must start player in the long run for fantasy. Speaker 2 All right, two shallow league second baseman Brian Rochio continues to make things happen happen. He went one for two, added two more steals. He's now up to 11 steals on the season. He's hitting 295 again. We've talked about him a lot. It's really just the strikeout rate that's come down a lot this season for Brian Rochio. And in Glaber Torres, he returned with a bang, one for four with a walk in his third home run. He was pretty productive last year. He did fall off in the second-half. He dealt with a sports hernia, but it's been really good plate discipline. He's a good, good head Ted points league player Scott. Who do you like more between the two, Rochio and Glaber Torres? Speaker 3 I think, I think Glaber Torres is more predictable, but I think I'd probably use Rochio over him right now just because he brings that speed element. And you know, I don't entirely trust the profile, but he hasn't slowed down yet. And I don't think the upside for Glaber Torres is high enough that if you were to go with Rochio for now, you'd end up and he and he did fall off, you'd end up missing out on that much. Speaker 2 And then I have a couple of corner infield types here. TJ Rumfield, 2 for five with a Joe Adele aided. Speaker 1 Homer, I gotta share it. I gotta I gotta show this. Speaker 2 Oh my God, it is. It's incredible. It is Jose Canseco esque. Speaker 1 It's so good. Speaker 3 You clanked it, hit him in the head and Oh no, it'd be a home run. That's. Speaker 1 Definitely a home run. That is a home run. Almost Canseco style one. It's so funny that like Jose Canseco was the first player in Major League history to go 4040 in a season. And when you mention Jose Canseco, I would say the three things people think of. First are just what a weird dude. Just like genuinely one of the strangest dudes in Major League history. Two of the steroid stuff. And three, the time that a baseball bounced off his head for a home run. Like Jose Canseco was a great player and that is like a footnote in the life story of Jose Canseco. Jodel also still +3 or +2 net on home runs this season. Speaker 3 I think plus three. I think he's robbed 4. He had three in one game, but so you know, he's, he's, he's allowed to give one back. Speaker 1 That is so funny though, that the guy that robbed three home runs had maybe like the most impactful defensive performance I've ever seen in a game, also had a home run bonk off his head. That's just baseball's so funny. Speaker 2 That's baseball, Susan, but it was TJ Rumfield who got credited with the home run. And over his last 30 games, he is hitting 321 with five homers and a nine O 1 OPS. Spencer Torkelson, he has been hitting better as of late. He went 2 for three with a walk, two runs scored. Last 14 games, he's hitting three O 4 with two homers. Hitting the ball harder. A lot of the underlying stuff looks pretty similar to last year. I, I, I think it's gonna happen soon here for Spencer Torkelson and Kyle Manzardo. 2 for four with his sixth Homer to RBI over his last 25 games, 287, Four homers and OPS near 900. Oddly enough, has been sitting some games against righties, playing against lefties. All of a sudden he has like these awesome splits against lefties this year, which is just not the way any of us would have drawn it up here for Kyle Manzardo. Chris, how would you rank these three? Manzardo, Torque and TJ Rumfield. Speaker 1 I would guess I actually have it ranked Torkelson, Rumfield, Manzardo, but I'm inclined to go Torgus and last just because he's been so cold this season and he's run so hot and cold for his career that I don't know how much you're missing out on. Like even if he does go back to being the 30 Homer guy he has been a couple times in his career, it's it is an empty 30 homers, if that's a thing. Or you don't get a lot of RBI, you don't get a lot of runs, you don't get a lot of batting average from him. So I think if you're just playing the hot hand, he's been the least hot of these guys. So I kind of think I would go Rumfield, Manzardo, Torkelson. Speaker 3 I, I don't know what you're missing out on with Manzardo. I mean, he's been. Speaker 1 That's fair. Speaker 3 Sort of hot 287 with four home runs in his last 25. And that's not exactly hot. That's. Speaker 1 No, no, that's fair. Speaker 3 Not terrible, you know. Torkelson does have eight home runs this year. I I he hasn't gotten hot yet, but I think he will at some point. But probably Rumfield number one, yeah. Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm thinking Rumfield, Torque and Manzardo again, the playing time stuff for Manzardo sitting it's righties now. It's just it's kind of a kind of a weird look over there. Do any of these names matter in deeper leagues? Paul Goldschmidt, 3 for five with his 7th home run for RBI. He destroys lefties but is abysmal against righties. So it's kind of hard to make it work, but maybe he plays more now with Aaron Judge hurt Jock Peterson. Speaker 3 He's been playing more, yeah. It's was I think this 12th grit straight game that he started Ball Goldschmidt. Speaker 2 Yep, Yep. So he's been playing more. Jock Peterson. Over his last 14 games, he's hitting 356 with five homers. Wenzel Perez has four home runs in his past eight games. Andy Rodriguez of the Pirates, 2 for four with a sock and a shoe, Three RBI, his first home run, his second steal, and since getting called up on May 14th he has started 9 of 18 games. He also has a 28% walk rate, which is this pretty banana stuff, but very deep names here. Scott, do you have any interest at all Andy Rodriguez, Wensel Perez, Jock Peterson and Paulie GI? Speaker 3 Think the most interesting is Goldschmidt. I mean, given the lineup he's in, if he's gonna play every day, the slash line still looks great. I understand the splits aren't good against right handers, but he for the season, he's got a 276 batting average, He's slugging 534. The expected stats are even better. And and you know, a lot of the exit velocities and stuff that they don't look so different than they did in his great years. So I think Goldschmidt, you know, I don't know how long this playing time's going to be open to him. It doesn't sound like Stanton's that close to returning, for instance. But he's been getting regular playing time lately and and maybe deserves a look in fantasy. Probably at this point I take Goldschmidt over those three first baseman we were just talking about Rumfield, Torkelson and and Mazzardo. Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, if you're, if you're, if you're just viewing all of them as hot hand plays, the one thing I would say is just the Rockies still have not played a whole week at course field yet. Right, Right. That's going to happen at some point, right. And you'd rather have run field for that. I know he's been very good on the road as well, to to be fair. But I just, I think at some point course field is still course field. At some point you you just take the guy at course field. The one thing I want to point out about Jock Peterson is I think he's an OK hot hand play in a roto league. He has gotten 4 played appearances in a game 24 times in 60 games so far. He just like there's doesn't play against lefties and then there's literally does not play against lefties and Jacques Peterson. Like as soon maybe it's going to change with Andrew McCutchen cut. I don't know if they're if that's going to change, but like he has like 7 played appearances against lefties this season. This is a a. It's a level of platooning that you basically never see anymore. Speaker 3 It's like Dominic Canzon and Luke Raley, they've had the same problem. Speaker 1 He has nine played appearances against lefties there. There's just as soon as a lefty reliever comes in, Jock Peterson's coming out of the game. And so it really it's really hard to have much value when that's the case as a hot hand play in a rotor league, OK, whatever. In a point in a daily league, fine, you just start them against righties. But this is as limited as any platoon player in baseball can be. Speaker 2 And I'll just quickly mention with Andy Rodriguez deeper 2 catcher leagues, I know it's anybody with a pulse. So he's playing a little bit former prospect. He had pedigree, finally getting, you know, a shot here just because, you know, Joey Bart is hurt and no one else has really worked out for the Pirates. So we'll see. He's definitely athletic. And yeah, I think in some of those deeper Catch 2 catcher leagues, I would have some interest there in Andy Rodriguez. Speaker 1 He's got a 500 on base percentage. He's walking, just he's walked like 12 times in 11 games or something. It's wild. Speaker 2 Yeah, that, that is crazy. 28% walkway is just like what? I know it's a small sample, but still pretty crazy to see that. Let's do a quick temperature check on these hitters. Are you you're hot on these guys? You're cold somewhere in between Cosimo Okamoto, nice Game 2 for three of the walk and his 13th home run. He himself has just been very hot and cold this season. He got off to a really cold start. He had like a two week stretch where he was destroying the ball and then he's mostly been cold since that. Where you guys at Chris? Temp check on Okamoto? Speaker 1 Kind of taking him at face value at this point, which is kind of an all or nothing power hitter right now. Speaker 2 Which is so weird because that was not his profile coming in, you know? Speaker 1 Yeah, it's it's hard. It is like this was the guy who was supposed to be safer than Moon and Takamura Kami but have less volatility and that has not been the case. He is. He struck out 77 times so far this season. That is fourth in the American League. I think he's a a useful player, a fine corner infielder, but unlikely to be someone you feel great about as you're starting third baseman. Speaker 2 92% rostered, should he still be that high? Seems high. Speaker 1 Yeah, for points leagues, it's like, is he really useful in a points league at this point? Speaker 2 Yeah, good. All the strikeouts are. Speaker 3 I could tell you because I'm actually I think I am starting him in a points league. I have not found anyone better on the waiver wire yet, though I know there have been some emergent third baseman this year. Yeah, it's pretty bad. 2.37 points per game. Granted, that's better than Manny Machado and Austin Riley. Speaker 1 Sure, but those guys have. Speaker 3 And Beau Bouchette. Speaker 1 At least I have my concerns about Riley. I would still take Riley over Okamoto the rest of the way. It's worse. Speaker 3 Than Nolan Arenado. Speaker 1 Yeah, like I, I was gonna say, like I think in a points league I'd rather have Nolan Arenado. I I think when I might just Colt Emerson's been a little iffy, but I think I'd rather just roll the dice on Colt Emerson. Speaker 2 He's looked pretty good. Yeah. I think Colt Emerson, excuse me, has, has actually surprised me. You know, as young as he is, he's pretty much held his own so far. So I yeah, I think that would be. Speaker 3 He's had his own strikeout issues. I I, I think I'd take Okamoto. Speaker 1 Over Emerson, but like I Curtis Meade is probably out scoring him right now right just with the. Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's got a great strikeout to work ratio. Speaker 1 That's what I mean. Speaker 3 So he isn't totally an everyday player yet. He's almost all the way there and and maybe he will be soon enough. But yeah, I, I think I think that's fair. And it points league to to swap out Okamoto for for Mead. Understanding it, you know Mead may not be totally solidified yet, but it's a shallow league and you could probably pivot to something decent enough if if that changes. Speaker 1 I just think in a points league, you can afford to look for an upgrade on on Nakamoto, yeah. Speaker 3 That's fair. Speaker 2 All right, Next up, we have Willy Adamus, who is doing the thing where he, you know, just gets off to these terrible starts and he's starting to pick it up now. The last 24 games, he's hitting 320 with six home runs and OPS over 900. The overall line still doesn't look so great. We know he's very streaky. Scott, where you at? Temp check. Hot, cold. Can we drop Willy Adamas? Hold on to him. Speaker 3 I mean, obviously in a points league there's there are a ton of shortstops you should be starting over Willy Adamas and there's no reason to roster him in that format in the long run. You know, he's probably going to be Willy Adamus still. He got off to a miserable start last year to it's just who. Speaker 1 He is. Speaker 3 At this at this point, he's he's on like or about 1/3 of the way through the season. He's got nine home runs. That's, that's a pretty typical Willy Adamus home run pace. His batting average is now higher than last year. And he, he, he is he, he, he doesn't stand out as, as much as short stuff as he used to. Because there have been a lot of, there's been a lot of young talent out of that at that position and a lot of unexpected standouts like Colson Montgomery and Xavier Edwards and Otto Lopez. And I don't think Willie Adamus measures up to any of them. But he's still fine. He's still basically who he's always been. Speaker 1 I will say he's got the most aesthetically pleasing baseball savant page I've ever seen. You know, all the lollipops his just like they're bad and then they go up and then they meet in the middle and then they get bad again. It means nothing. I'm just looking at it. Yeah, it's just like a little. It's like a mountain. Speaker 3 Sideways, Yeah. Lollipops. Is that what we're calling those now? I thought they called those sliders. Speaker 2 Yeah, that's heard both. I think I've heard, I've heard lollipops for those before. All right, Scott, that's right. If you come out to First Pitch Arizona, you'll you'll hear everybody talking about lollipops. Speaker 1 You gotta catch up on the lingo. Speaker 3 Is that is that where it happens? Sometimes I feel like there are seminars happening that I miss out on because. Speaker 1 And there are literal seminars over there. Speaker 3 Yes, Yeah. OK. So there are seminars. Fair enough. I've got it exactly right. Speaker 2 We did have a big game from Christian Yelich, who went 2 for three with two walks, two runs, two RBI at his fourth stolen base. Everything under the hood, I know he's Christian Yelich, so it's like you give him the benefit of the doubt, but everything under the hood looks much worse than previous years. Chris, are you keeping the faith, the confidence in Christian Yelich? Speaker 1 As a general rule yes, but 30-4 years old history of back injuries like this is the kind of player where if he just lost it overnight I wouldn't be shocked. Like with the benefit of hindsight, but it's a small enough sample size. We're only talking about 125 plate appearances here with Christian Yelich, where I I am willing to continue to give him the benefit of the doubt given how good the quality of contact stuff was last season. But yeah, it's, it would, it would be. I think you'd be lying if you said you weren't worried right now about how he's looked so far this season. Speaker 2 All right, Next up, we have Riley Green back-to-back games with a Homer after not homering since late April. So it's nice to see that he's starting to pick some of those up once again. But entering Tuesday's action, he was on pace for 13 home runs after hitting 36 last season. He still does walk a lot, still hits the ball hard, stat cast stuff still looks pretty good. Scott, to you, what's your expectation as of now? Like, how many home runs do you think Riley Green gets to by the end of the season? Speaker 3 Well, the the pace is gonna improve. I'll give him 21 home runs. That's 16 from now, right? Speaker 2 Yeah, that would be that'd be pretty bad if people for people who just drafted him and held them all year, right as a top, you know, 75 pick or. Speaker 1 Whatever, it's weird 'cause the underlying stats are pretty much better across the board for Riley Green. I know I'm I'm not disagreeing, I just don't quite. I don't quite. Speaker 3 Curl your lip. When I said that number, I thought I thought I was being fair to Riley Green. Speaker 2 Oh, no, no, I, I it's a, it's a fair number. I just think that for people who drafted him, they're like pretty underwhelmed. Like, wow, man. Like this guy had 36 home runs. I'm gonna, I'm gonna get 20. Speaker 3 We're all on the same page, though. That 36 was not Oh yeah, Like he's he's, he's more of a 25 Homer guy than a 35 Homer guy. Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, I, I wrote him up as a bus. So that's why I like, I mean, he literally did not home run Homer for over a month, which was, you know, crazy. But as Chris pointed out, like the underlying stuff still looks really good for Riley Green, so. Speaker 1 And he's continued to hit for a really good batting average. Like he didn't Homer in May and he still hit 320. Now that was 30% strikeout rate. And it's like, yeah, I don't I don't trust the batting average. But it's he's having a weird year. I don't quite understand where. Speaker 3 That's. Speaker 1 Where Riley Green. Speaker 3 Always has a weird year, doesn't he? Speaker 2 Yeah, that's kind of the Detroit Tigers this year. Weird year, kind of. I guess you could use a different word besides weird. The last name on this list is Spencer Steer, who had a big Game 2 for four with a double Dong. He is up to 9 homers, 3 steals, 37 runs scored. I feel like I bring him up at least once every week. I just, I remain really intrigued. It's a guy that's never hit the ball hard. All of a sudden he's doing that. Expected stats. Love him 80th percentile Sprint speed. You know, in some of my deeper leagues, I've been thinking of going out and trying to like just send some trades to acquire Spencer Steer just because I, I think he could have like a really big summer once it heats up. Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't think anybody's really buying into it. Like I don't think anybody's I'm buying it going to ask for a a ransom for Spencer Steer. So I think it's an interesting theory, yeah. Speaker 3 If, if that's how you feel about Spencer Steer, I, I think you could, I think you could pull that off. I I tend to think that 28 year olds who have been have as much experience in the majors as Steer does will regress to the mean over time. Speaker 1 And he's finally healthy. Speaker 3 I mean, I I think he's obviously better than people were giving him credit for coming into the year. I thought he was being underrated in drafts. So I have a lot of them in the 15 team roto leagues. I'll. Speaker 2 Trade you, I'll trade you. Speaker 3 For him, I don't, I don't actually think he's going to end the year hitting 280. I don't actually think he's going to approach thirty home runs. I think he's going to be, his pace is going to have to slow from that because that's just not who Spencer Steer is. Speaker 2 That's what history would tell us. But I mean, if he does maintain these these quality of contract metrics and he's pulling the ball in the air more than ever before, yeah, it's not a guarantee. Speaker 3 I don't think he will because I I think history is it's not undefeated, but it has a very high winning percentage. Speaker 2 JJ Bluday, Spencer Steer, Same team there's. Speaker 3 A clear skill change for JJ Bluday, who doesn't have much of A track record. Speaker 2 I mean this is a clear change for Spencer Steer as well though. Speaker 3 It's a result change more than a skill change. Speaker 2 Everything under the hood is way better than it's ever been. Isn't that a skill change? Speaker 3 Average bat speed. Fast swing rate. Speaker 2 His average velocity is up 3 mph. Speaker 3 I understand, but at the end of the day, that's still a result. How quickly the ball comes off the bat is still a result. It is not. Speaker 2 Pulled, pulled air rate. I mean, that's like a conscious decision, right? Something you want to do is pull the ball in the air. You could. Speaker 3 Call that a skill change, I I could go with that. Speaker 1 Here's one thing I would point out. Steer was playing through shoulder injuries for the past two seasons. Yeah, I remember last year he was limited very early on to he was just like only play. He only played first base last year, right? He didn't play any position but first base. He was just first base in DH. And the year before his, his shoulder injury was bad the entire season. So it's possible that we're just seeing Spencer Steer healthy now, to Scott's point. I will get in the middle and play both sides here. To Scott's point, if you were going to buy that Spencer steer is healthy now, like if that's the mechanism by which you're, you're buying the improvement. You would think that would show up in the bat speed being up or the fast swing rate or any of those types of numbers where the, the physical stuff doesn't really look all that different. So I, I, I tend to come in between. I think if you are like Frank, if you are open to the, the possibility that Spencer Steer is bouncing back or breaking out, whatever way you want to put it, I, I think very few people. I think Scott's position is much more popular. And so there could be a lot of room to get a big win at a relatively low cost if you are a believer in steer. Speaker 2 All right, well, Scott, any leagues that you have them, I'm, I'm coming for them, man. I'm sending you offers later at night. Speaker 3 A low ball. Me though, Frank. Speaker 2 I mean, you know that you got to start low and you got to build up, Scott, you know, can't just give you the best offer right away. Some hitting leftovers here. Pete Alonzo hit his 12th home run, and since the start of May, he's looked a lot like Pete Alonzo. 284 batting average, 8 homers, 870 OPS. Fernando Tatis looking better as of late. Last eight games hitting 484. Did get his first home run. Also has two steals during that spin. Speaker 1 Rang went off the wall in left field today too. It was almost a home run off Harinola. Almost pulled another home run in a week. What? What a time to be alive. It's Fernando. Speaker 2 Mania. Let's go, Chris. Speaker 1 It's Fernando mania. Exactly. Speaker 2 Yeah, Bryce Harper snapped out of his little funk. He went one for three with his 14th home run. He's overall had a great season. Matt Olson continues his re breakout. I guess we could call it 17th home run. It was a skyscraper 49° launch angle for that home run. According to Sarah Langs, it was the highest launch angle on a home run this season. Nick Kurtz continued his massive year, hit another Homer. He has three home runs in his past four games. Jordan Alvarez will not stop. He has 6 homers in his past 8 and Hunter Goodman has four homers in his past seven. So lots of lots of bats getting hot here. Any thoughts? Anyone stand out here that you'd like a quick mention or we keep it moving? Speaker 3 I you can keep it moving as far as I'm concerned. Speaker 2 All righty, some pitching leftovers. Logan Gilbert was solid but fell short of a quality start. 5 and a third three runs, 8 strikeouts to one walk. He did have 21 whiffs on 8 on 99 pitches there against the Mets. Bryce Elder outdueled Kevin Gossman turn in a quality start. 6 2/3 three runs with six strikeouts to one walk. He had 12 whiffs on 103 pitches and Connolly Early took a little bit of a step back here against the Orioles. 5 and a third. Four runs allowed. Six strikeouts did allow two homers in that one. The whiffs are starting to pick back up though. 6 plus strikeouts in four of his last five for Connolly Early. Any thoughts on Early Elder or Logan Gilbert? Speaker 1 You know, Elder, it looked like in the first couple of innings it was finally catching up to him and Nope, he turned it right back on after I think he gave up two runs in the first 3 innings and then after that was very good. I still don't understand how it's happening. Every stuff metric says he has some of the worst stuff in baseball and yet he continues to be very, very good. So I, I don't understand it. I continue to be very, very skeptical, skeptical of what Bryce Elder is doing and he continues to make me look very dumb. Speaker 3 Elder, his previous start was his worst by lot, and he threw his slider the least in that start. It's his best pitch. And he got back to, yeah, actually he, he went from throwing it far less than usual in his previous start to far more than usual in this start. And so that was good. That was encouraging to see. I I think anybody who has as anybody who's as good of a ground ball pitcher as Bryce Elder is has a chance. And then when you become at least a pretty good bat messer as his slider has made him this year and you have those ground ball skills, that's that's a pretty good combination. I remain skeptical. Obviously, Elder was a huge fake out a couple years ago when he made the All Star team in in in the years since then, he had like a 6 ERA. So like, there's a lot of history working against him here, but there there is evidence of actual skill improvement from them this year. Speaker 2 All right, the call to the bullpen for the Orioles. Rico Garcia got the 9th with A2 run lead. He struck out two for his fourth save and it this was his first save since May 10th. Anthony Nunez had the previous two for the Orioles. They've mostly been mixing and matching with Ryan Helsley out for the Phillies. Yoan Duran shirk out the side for his 13th save. For the Braves, Rice Iglesias, he played with fire a bit. He got the 9th with a one run lead. He allowed two hits but did pick up his 11th save for the Royals. Lucas Ursay got the 9th with a one run lead. He allowed a solo Homer. He also walked to after that and he's been really bad. 645 ERA, 197 WHIP. Matt Strom pitched the 8th inning of this game. He also gave up a run. His numbers are OK, but like it's a 550 fib. It's a 480X fib for Matt Strom. John Schreiber pitched the 10th inning in this game. He actually took the loss. His underlying numbers are bad. Do I smell a Carlos Estevez comeback here in the Royals bullpen? Speaker 3 What's he doing? Speaker 2 I just, I, I have no idea. It's just, I don't really see anyone that's like, I guess it would be Matt Strom, but like again, Strom and Schreiber, the, you know, their metrics are pretty bad. Speaker 1 Estevez isn't even a ledge, all right? Speaker 2 Yeah, he, I think I saw he was playing catch. I was trying to read up on it earlier but yeah he's had a a set back with the shoulder for him. Speaker 3 It it could be Strom or Lynch. I I think Lynch has actually been their best reliever this year. Strom. Strom has some history as they fill in closer and and having closer caliber seasons with the Phillies. It just came back from the IL. They they did give Erseg a vote of confidence after that huge meltdown. But now we have another blown save here. I can't imagine the leash is that long for Erseg. So I would in leagues where saves are scarce. I would be picking up either of those lefties. Stromer Lynch in anticipation of a change happening here. Speaker 2 I. Speaker 3 Want to backtrack a little on Elder if you don't mind, because actually his ground ball rate is way down this year. I don't know if it's been that way from the beginning or if it's just kind of happened in a way that slipped by me. So it what I was saying about him being a great ground ball pitcher, it hasn't been true. So that makes it even more perplexing. So I just didn't want to come off too strong on Elder. There are some conflicting elements there in his profile. Speaker 2 For the Athletics, Scott Barlow started the 9th with a one run lead. He recorded 2 outs but also allowed a walk in a single. He was then relieved by Hogan Harris to face Ian Hap and Harris got him to fly out for his 5th save. I'm pretty sure the A's don't have a closer, and they never will ever again. Speaker 1 I mean, I think it they were trying to make it Scott Barlow, this would have been his third save in a row for them, I believe. But he's not good. Like that's like that's the problem with a lot of these teams is like, I'm sure the, the A's or the Royals or whatever would love to settle on one closer. They and the Royals have all season. It's just now that guy's terrible. And so I it's, it's hard to settle on a closer when you don't have a good one. This isn't like a, a Marlins from last year situation where they had viable options. I think the A's just don't have a lot of good relievers and that makes it hard to have a closer. Speaker 2 Speaking of which, the Twins yo entries. Gomez got the final four outs, 2 VA strikeout for his fourth save. He does have the last two saves for the Twins, but prior to those saves there were four different Twins who got a save in a row. So I'm pretty sure the Twins do not have a closer and they never will ever again. For the Brewers, Abner Rebe got the 8th with a runner on second three run lead. He gave up three hits. He allowed two runs in. Trevor McGill then got the 9th with a four run lead. Toss the clean inning. I just think this is further solidifying Trevor McGill over Abner rebate right now. Speaker 3 Yep, it seems pretty solid. Speaker 2 For the Cardinals, Riley O'Brien got the 9th with the game tied. He allowed three runs on a walk and three hits. Took his third, third loss. He's been a little bit shaky there as well, so little. Speaker 3 Bit so his his 1st 13 appearances. Riley O'Brien 0 ERA Nothing. And those first 13 appearances, his last 13831 ERA, that's. Speaker 1 Not very good. Speaker 3 Got to think, JoJo Romero, you got to think the Cardinals might have to might have to make some changes there or at least consider it. With the way things have been going, JoJo Romero obviously stands out as a possible alternative. The left handedness makes it harder. I mean, I guess working in Riley O'Brien's favor is that obviously Mat Svonson was a bust and he's been since since sent down to the miners. Ryan Stanek, who got a save earlier this year. He's got an ERA approaching 6 so I don't know other than Romero. Speaker 2 George Soriano. I think it's just a name to watch. I know he throws. Speaker 3 Hard. Yeah, he did get, he has gotten a couple saves. That's probably the one. Honestly, I'm looking at this guy. Ryan Fernandez has 17 strikeouts and 9:00 to 2/3 innings. The last strikeouts. Don't know much about him, so I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna endorse him too strongly. Let's see what George Soriano's role has been. Yeah, a lot of 7th and 8th innings. He's got 9 holds on the year. I, I could, I, I think he would. Him and JoJo Romero would be the candidates to replace Riley O'Brien, if that's something Ali Marmol wanted to do. Speaker 2 For the Pirates, Dennis Santana started the 9th inning with A6 run lead. He recorded one out. He was charged with two earned runs. Gregory Soto then came on. He struck out the last two. He picked up his eighth save. There is no doubt right now Gregory Soto is the guy for the Pirates and he's 72% rostered. So in some of those shallower leagues, even head to head points leagues where if you want to use a closer in that relief pitcher spot, Gregory Soto is the guy. And then for the Dodgers, Tanner Scott got the 9th with a one run lead. He'll had a hit, but he picked up his sixth save of the year. To stream or not to stream? On Wednesday, we have Grant Holmes against the Blue Jays, Andre Palante against the Rangers, Jeffrey Springs at the Cubs and Walbert Arania against the Rockies in Anaheim. Speaker 3 Like Arania, I don't like anyone else. I guess Holmes Impalante would be the next two choices. Probably Palante over Holmes, really. Speaker 1 I guess Iran is the best. I don't. I'm still on. I don't know if unimpressed is the right word, but I don't. I don't buy it yet. Speaker 2 On Thursday. Not great. Looks like we've got Kai Wei Tang against the Pirates, Ryan Nelson against the Dodgers, Brian Baio against the Orioles. Speaker 1 I think Baio's the best here. Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 He's been, he's been really good since they moved to to an opener. But I'm not, I'm not saying he's great, but I think he's I'd rather start him than Ryan Nelson versus the Dodgers. I know it could go well, but. Speaker 2 It's pretty scary. Speaker 1 Yeah, it's always scary when you gotta face the Dodgers. Yeah. Speaker 2 All right, so Thursday there's a lot of TBDS, so maybe tomorrow we'll have a couple more names to fill them in here for Thursday. We are gonna wrap their 4. 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