Memorial Day Mailbag! Biggest Risers, Holds Relievers & More! (5/25 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 how's it going welcome into fantasy baseball today on Memorial Day May 25th. I am Frank sample joy by Scott white hope everybody is enjoying the weekend down the show It's our Memorial Day mailbag will answer a bunch of your questions We're a little over two months since the season now at this point there have been a ton of surprises breakouts injuries under performers everything in between Scott Howard how are you feeling so far? What's the overarching thought here so far in 2026? The overarching thought is Well, everybody needs pitching help right now, which is kind of typical It's it's happened a little a typically though in that not just injuries which are bound to happen but a lot of the Trustworthy higher in types have underachieved and let us down The second year pitch or some of them technically rookies like Nolan McCleen and Cam Schlipler or Schlipler's not technically a rookie But McCleen is and yes averages But you know second year we've seen them and a lot of them have done great Mizrowski's taken a big step forward Schlipler who I mentioned otherwise I don't know it does feel like For being at this point almost a third of the way through through the season There are a number of bats were still waiting to come around and haven't lost faith in but It's getting it's getting late in the season for them to still be struggling to the extent that they are and At some point we may have to we may have to deal with that I I think we typically preach patience and we're right to do so But you know a third of the way through the season I can understand if patience is running out for a player who still hasn't delivered much Vinnie thing yet we're looking at you Fernando Tati's we are recording this a few days in advance. So I I hope dangerous thing to say I was avoiding specific names. I was thinking like Vinnie Pasquantino, but sure Tati's too We are recording this a few days in advance. So hopefully by the time you're listening to this Tati's has hit a home run I I would probably bet against it, but come on man We need something from Fernando Tati's even leagues where I have Ronald the Koon you like he's been okay I know he's been hurt, but you know I was I was like a forward like a big kind of monster season here It's still possible still relatively early, but you know, we've got to got to get things going. Let's do that and Let's get into the mailbag here and we will start things off with a question from Harry he says should I drop Colt Emerson for Jeremy Pena drop Jarrin to ran for Spencer's tier or Jacob Marcy what's going on with VNP? All right, so it's actually three questions here So the first one Scott would you drop Colt Emerson for Jeremy Pena? I Would drop Colt Emerson for Jeremy Pena my only issue with Pena's he's been hurt most of the year, but he's not hurt now and You know picking up where he left off last year would make him Pretty close to studly at short stuff could Colt Emerson be a stud? I he has that kind of upside I'm not convinced by his work at AAA that he's a fully formed player yet a finished product developmentally and I Initially rank up 22nd at shortstop Which is you know about eight ten spots lower than I have Jeremy Pena So I think that's a pretty easy call Go with the bird in the hand there. I Guess you could serve bird in the hand two different ways Emerson is the bird in the hand and that you already have him But I mean go with the bird in the hand as that you already know what you have in Pena Mm-hmm That's that's the bird you want to go with the one you know The next one here is drop Jaren Durand for Spencer steer or Jacob Marcy Jaren Durand very slow start to the season Started to pick things up a little bit Spencer steer. I really like what he's doing Jacob Marcy we haven't talked too much about the batting average has been abysmal He is still running a ton, but everything else looks pretty bad there for Jacob Marcy Would you make that swap at all to ran for steer or Marcy? No, I wouldn't Jaren Durand himself is heating up. He's playing against left-anders again I don't see enough to be concerned about london lying numbers to Side against the track record there for Durand. I think he's gonna be the best of these three and What's going on with Vinnie P again? I won't play the sound by until he starts hitting so not playing it now What I've noticed here Scott is the strikeout rate is up a little bit from 15 to 20% The average exit velocity is down to miles per hour the bat speed down three miles per hour His pop-up percentage up from 8% to 14% those are automatic out So that's not gonna help anybody and then on top of all that we kind of have this back injury where he missed a few days Earlier in the season that's lingering in the back your mind So I I think it's all the above is there anything else you could think of that worries you with Vinnie P Well, that is legitimately worrisome. I mean the drop in bats beat especially You know, I don't know how much that stat changes over the course of the year I haven't been following it long enough to stay to say but it feels like a fundamental skill That has been lost here as opposed to just Oh Vinnie Pascuantino is Is struggling in a more typical more conventional more conventional baseball sense so I'm worried and I've been holding back when I update my first base rankings moving him behind the Christian Walker Wilson Contreras, Alec Burlesen types that themselves Are supposed to be in fantasy lineups, but just because first base is So replete with those players they get pushed to around 20th of the position does Pascuantino need to fall that far? I've I've put a behind Michael Bush Jonathan Aronda at this point But I'm I have enough reason for doubt here Despite him coming off his best season the season we were long promise for Pascuantino It happened, but now he's following up with this and I'm losing faith. I am All right, this next one's from Joseph how much is too much for Mason Miller in a head-to-head category keeper league my current Closers are Daniel Polencia, Adner Arriba and Lucas Ursegg Thinking about sending some combination of Tatees Arriba and a sixth-rounder and maybe another draft pick for Mason Miller My league doesn't usually keep closers and neither will I at the end of the season the rest of my team is pretty loaded my Outfield is Tatees Akunia Carol AJ Ewing and JJ Blade in a 12-teamer Doesn't specify if it's three or five outfielders, but head-to-head category league I would assume this is a three outfielder league. So does have some excess at that position Even with that said I Don't hate the trio that he has already. I look obviously Mason Miller is a stud I totally get that but Daniel Polencia Adner Arriba and Lucas Ursegg it feels Cromulent it feels solid I didn't like to give up Tatees Arriba and a sixth-rounder Feels like a lot to me. What do you think? Yeah, I mean Tatees mainly is the hold up there and it probably feels like an okay thing to do because of the start Tatees is off to but my prediction today Is that we're still gonna draft Tatees in round two next year the enough is gonna happen. He's gonna Improve his circumstances enough. He's gonna retain second base eligibility We're still gonna want him in round two next year and if you're saying I'm trained for Mason Miller and I don't even plan on keeping them. Well, I would expect you'll want to keep Tatees I think the broader question without getting into the specifics of Joseph's deal is is an interesting one It's a really good one and that's because I've wondered it myself and I don't Have a good answer But Mason Miller right now Seems like as clear a number one relief pitcher in fantasy as there's ever been and It leaks where closers have outsized value which is true for head to head categories league I think that's the format where they're most valuable I I would be I would be tempted to spend for him unlike I normally do or or normally would or whatever recommend for a closer Now I say that as somebody who pretty much never recommend spending for a closer So I'm still gonna be pretty cautious about it. I'm still not gonna give up somebody like Tatees But I do think Miller commands a premium Unlike I would normally say a closer would a premium. Let's say Again the way closers are drafted varies depending on the depth of the format and the scoring but I don't know I might be willing to invest a fourth round pick in Mason Miller even in a 12 team league I think you have to start thinking about it then. I mean that was my next question is if we value for an anotat He's still as a second rounder next year if Mason Miller just somehow keeps this up all year like sub one eRA sub one whip just whatever 18 K per nine is he in the conversation for like a second round pick next year which he's certainly well in the 15 teamers Yeah, yeah, I totally get that but like in a in a 12 I don't I don't know 12 team categories. I don't think I get ever justified taking a closer that early It is a major concession for me to say round four even, but I'm sure you'll find some people arguing it. Some people who are more willing to invest in a player who, you know, you normally, you normally drafting relievers for saves and that is the downside to taking them. But basically Miller gets strikeouts in such high quality that he's going to be, he's going to perform like a below average strikeout starting pitcher and that from a guy who gets saves, that's going to help you a lot in that category. Not to mention obviously the ratios are going to be good. Just to add a little bit more context here. According to the fan graphs player rating in 12 team five by five category leagues this season, Mason Miller has been the 13th most valuable pitcher overall starting pitcher and relief pitcher combined. And he's returned $18 worth of value. So while he as amazing as he's been, there's still 12 starting pitchers that have been better than him in category leagues of season. So just to add a little bit more context there, I don't think I would give up as much as you are saying you want to give up here for Mason Miller. This next one is from Christopher. I was listening to your section about Treya Savage versus Cam Schletler on Wednesday night and it got me thinking I love the number side of baseball and I am deep into the underlying numbers even though I don't always understand them. I get that part of it. But when you and Scott mentioned this pitching tool, YouTube talked about the rankings and these two pitchers and I don't understand the huge gap between the two. I love it if you could respond via email or live YouTube and explain why Treya is mid 30s at starting pitcher and Cam is top 12. So I have accumulated the entire MLB careers for both of these guys so far and I will read them off to you now. Treya Savage, including regular season last year, post season last year and regular season this year, 255 ERA. Yeah, map. You did some math. All right. Sorry. Go ahead. 255 ERA 113 whip 85 strikeouts to 26 walks over 67 innings. That's 11.3 K. P9 three and a half walks per nine. Cam Schletler's entire career so far 227 ERA 105 whip 10.3 K. P9 2.9 walks per nine. So honestly, not really that far off. It is a little bit closer. I think my response to this would be is that we've seen Cam do it longer so far this season and I buy what the changes he's made like throwing that cutter more and the velocity being up and the fact that his control is so good and I'm not sure that we'll ever even get to like average control for Treya Savage. He's still young and he could develop. But I don't know that that's ever going to be a good part of his game. But with that being said, if you Savage does what he's doing now for like four or five more starts, I could see him rising rapidly, Scott. It's just I think we need to see more so far this season that that would be my only pushback. Yeah. I mean, that's that's a lot of it. That's a lot of the reason right there is just theoretically, yes, Average has similar upside to Schlytler, but we've seen we've actually seen Schlytler deliver on his best case scenario as completely like he's the top pitcher in fantasy this year. Yep. And Treya Savage has been injured most of this year. And by the way, Schlytler got a lot more starts than Yes Average last year too. So he's just much more proven. He's taking on an ace workload already. So it's easier to define him as an ace, consistently going six plus innings. Yes, Average just had the first two six innings starts of his career. And he has the biggest reward between these two with the control while that's a legitimate strength for Cam Schlytler, or at least it has an 11 starts this year enough starts that I think we can say definitively it is a strength for Schlytler. So I think this was a much fairer question to ask coming into this season, but like Schlytler this year has been a miraculous gift from God kind of fantasy asset while Yes Average is still. Yeah, interesting. I see the upside there, but it's like Schlytler's distance to himself. I don't. To me, it's kind of obvious that he has. So it's a little hard to address it beyond that. I'm happy you said it because if I did, they would have called me a homeers class. I'll leave it up to you to make the case for Cam Schlytler. Let's take a quick break just a reminder that we will be live again on YouTube Monday night to recap the long Memorial Day weekend. So we will see you live again then. Let's take that break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back fantasy baseball today Memorial Day mailbag. Let's continue on. This one is from Dylan. I don't know why we keep overthinking the Michael Walker thing. I emailed you guys about this like three years ago and the point still stands. He's a must-roster player since the start of 2022. He has a 339 ERA and a 116 whip. Also got up to 166 innings in 2024 and 172 in 2025. Yes, I know he doesn't get the strikeouts and I know he shouldn't be a top 20 pitcher, but let's stop acting like he should just be dropped anytime my prospect gets called up. We're on year five of this. I think he's earned the respect of being a must-roster player. With all of that said, we both rank Michael Walker as a top 70 starting pitcher. That is a must-roster player. And when we spoke about walk of the other day, we did say like regression is coming, but we never said that he should be dropped. No, we didn't. That said, Dylan, I don't know, the way Dylan frames this suggests to me that he doesn't play in particularly shallow leagues because you get in a shallow enough league, even like a 12-team head to head points leagues on CBS. All but the studs are expendable. And walk is not a stud. He's not a stud. He's really good in a head to head points league though because of the volume. He's good. Let's look at what he did last year. So last year, he averaged 10.84 points per game. All right. Not as good as I thought. That's not very good. I'm sure he was better the year before. Let's look that up. So 10.86 points per game to put that in perspective. That's what Chris about what Chris Bassett averaged last year. Jose Barrios averaged more than that. Jeffrey springs averaged more than that. That's pretty strange. That was one of the block as lesser seasons. Let's go back to 2024. And he averaged 13.78 points per game, which is a more respectable number. But even that, it's not, let me see if I can find a comp for that. So let's see. Let me find a comp for this year because some of these names are going to sound stale by comparison. So it was 3.78 points per game for Michael Walker in 2024. This year, a pitcher who's averaged roughly 3.78 points per game, foster Griffin, Randy Vazquez, Sandial Contra is about there, but he's also been a little disappointing. So yeah, that's, let me see if it matches around there. Some good pitchers are around there too. Don't get me wrong. It's still early enough that these point per game averages are a little skewed. But that's what, again, that's what Walker did in 2024, which was about as good as Walker gets. So I think it's totally fair to call him more on the bubble than not. Now, I think he's a higher end bubble pitcher. One who probably will maintain a roster rate in the 70 to 80% range, even if things take a turn for the worse here. But I don't know. From the 15-part team perspective, if that's where this emailer is coming from, yeah, it's hard to imagine Walker getting dropped. But on the shallower end of the fantasy baseball league pool, it's not. It's not. He's kind of a bubble guy. All right. These next two questions are from Leonardo. His first one is Yuri Perez-Dropable. So I checked in on the rankings and scowy-bolt moved Yuri Perez down. I have him at SP 46. You have him at SP 49. So I don't think that makes him dropable just yet. But what if it's for Bryce Miller? Would you make that swap? How far did I move? Did you say I moved Perez down? Because I moved Miller up to 57. You have Yuri at 49. 49. But it's close enough where it might be a legitimate question. It depends on if you play in the sort of league Dylan plays in and where Walker's must roster or you play in something very shallow. And I think if you play in something very shallow, which is the only circumstance where you're going to be asking this question, even this is the only situation where you'd even think of dropping Yuri Perez and it's the only situation where Bryce Miller's available to pick up. So in that very shallow league circumstance, you could probably hold your breath and do it. There's a chance. There's a chance Yuri Perez will remain on waivers because of how bad he's been and you'll get another shot at him. And meanwhile, this might be your only shot at Bryce Miller who is looking strong again and we know have a ton of upside from his 2024 season. So yes, rest of season. Go. I'm saying Yuri Perez even as bad as he's been so far. But sometimes, particularly in shallow league situations, you have to, you have to, you have to play the game, you have to exercise some game theory. It's not just all about predicting what the rest of the season looks like. And his second question, what tools or resources do you use to check a player status for a season or for a certain stretch of time? parentheses number of games or months. So I think you and I differ on this guy like my main go to where I just kind of start with everything is fangrass and I. If you make an account, you can set up the dashboard where you could see specific statistics that you want to see. So I have all the stat cast stuff just like right on that main fangrass dashboard. But fangrass.com you could search up a player page and you can look at what they've done the season and then you can go to game log and you can sort it by specific game amounts and look at all different kinds of like stat cast numbers within that stretch and all those types of things. But I feel like you've always been a baseball reference guy just like at the top. Scott is that still the case. Yeah, I use fangrass more for that now that you showed me how to incorporate the stat cast numbers because fangrass is the easiest place if you're looking for like exit velocity over a stretch of time. You're not going to find that on baseball reference and there may be a way to do it on base ball, but I don't know how I know you can do it on fangrass but you have to you have to program your account. It doesn't have to be paid account maybe fangrass doesn't want me saying that but it doesn't have to be if you have an account you can set up your own what do they call it dashboard. Yeah, that what they call it where that shows the stats you wanted to show and you can pull from. You can select stat cast stats to be included there. I do prefer just on a more casual level if I need to reference something quickly. I do prefer baseball reference for that. I think it's more it's it's just more user friendly because you go to the game log on a player's baseball reference plate page. All you have to do is click the starting date click the ending date and and that's it. You just click it and it calculates the stats during that span of time. Fangrass you need to be know what dates ahead of time that you're inputting for it to show you the span of time so it requires an extra stat that I'd rather not have to do when I'm moving quickly because I'm looking up 200 players a night. Yeah, this next one is from Remby. How do you rank the following upstart young hitters rest of season J.J. Weather holds Travis Bazzana and Dillon Lyle. Well, Remby, I think you just did. Let me see here. Weather hole Bazzana Lyle. Yeah, I would agree that that's the ranking. Yep. How do you rank the following upstart young pitchers rest of season Kyle Harrison, Noel McLean, Parker Messick and Peyton Toley? Well, McLean obviously is number one. Even though he's looked a little vulnerable lately. He's got that ERA in the mid threes. I think it's probably going to be the high point for him this season or close enough to the high point anyway. So he's a distant number one second. I have Kyle Harrison recently surpassed Parker Messick because they're both breakout pitchers, but when in doubt I go with the better bat misser. So Harrison with this second double digit strikeout effort just passed Messick and then fourth would be Peyton Toley who might have the second most upside of this group. He might be comparable to McLean in terms of upside, but he just hasn't shown that kind of consistency yet. So the way I rank it right now is McLean Messick Harrison Toley, but the the Messick Harrison one is very close. I think Messick probably has a higher floor. I think Harrison probably higher ceiling. So if you want to chase that ceiling, I have no problem ranking Harrison's second on that list. This next one is from Lou compared to ADP during draft season, which players have returned the most value so far this season. So I just picked out a bunch of names here on the hitting side Jordan Walker, according to the fan graphs player, Raider is the fifth overall hitter so far he had an ADP of 511 he was undrafted in a lot of leagues. Liam Hicks is the 10th overall hitter his ADP was 748 undrafted in most leagues. Andy Pahez is the 12th best hitter his ADP was 133 South Stewart 13th best hitter his ADP was 162. August the 22nd best hitter ADP of 303 and auto Lopez the 26th best hitter ADP of 229 is there anybody from this group Scott that you see a big fall off coming between Jordan Walker Hicks Pahez Stewart Vargas and auto Lopez. I think the ones that would concern me the most are the first three. Well Miguel Vargas also yeah let's say Jordan Walker Liam Hicks Andy Pahez and Miguel Vargas concern me the most I feel really solid with South Stewart and I feel surprisingly good about auto Lopez too. I'm not necessarily predicting it for Walker or Vargas at this point I see enough reason to buy into what they're doing that I'd be willing to bet on them sustaining it and hopefully my ranking for them reflects it now I mean Walker there is still the very high strikeout rate but this is kind of who he should have been along and it seems like he made the necessary changes to live up to who he should be all along and clearly the most upside of any player on this list I mean if George Walker sustains something close to this pace I mean third round pick next year I would guess so yeah I think the two that I'm most concerned are going to take a step back or Liam Hicks and Andy Pahez. And we've talked about Hicks a lot in this context I think he's a good hitter a very stable contact hitter Gabriel Marino like and that has value and fantasy I don't think in two catcher leagues you got to worry about oh Liam Hicks isn't worth starting anymore I don't see that happening. But he has had sporadic playing time at times somebody who the marlins prefer not to start against left handers and so that itself presents a big obstacle since he's dominating a part with counting stats it's hard for a platoon player to do that I'm not saying Hicks is a strict platoon player but he's enough of a platoon player that I could see it falling off just in that respect and I also the kind of power he's generated he doesn't really have the exit velocities to sustain that so I'm thinking there will be some amount of drop off for Hicks as for Pahez I don't know that I see much evidence of growth here under the hood the expected stats especially expected batting average they're better the exit velocities up a little the strikeout rate hasn't really changed the pole air rates actually gotten worse the exit velocity up almost two miles per hour I think that's more than a little 90.4 I mean that's that's like legitimately good well, but the max is actually down his hard hit rate is up 9 percentage points up to 48% I mean that number is really good that is probably the biggest increase is the hard hit rate but you would expect that from a player who's performing in his absolute hottest you know and it's hard to know exactly if that's what's happening or if it's growth but that's a very high hard hit rate that's hard for any but it to sustain yeah I I remain skeptical the plate discipline remains pretty bad for Vargas and again like his power is his selling Pahez right we're talking about Pahez right as I just say Vargas yeah Pahez I wanted to make sure you were talking about yeah right we are talking about Pahez like power is going to have to be his carrying tool and I still think it's an underwhelming exit velocity right now and it's more likely to get worse than better from here and also the pole air rate is down and the plate discipline remains bad and I just I just remain skeptical you got to a hot star last year to obviously ran into problems after that I think he could again I think it's reasonable that he takes a little bit of a step back but I think what I'm expecting right now is that he either replicates last season which was a very good season 272 27 homers 14 steals or even builds on that a little bit by seasons end like I could see 280 you know 28ish home runs maybe closer to 20 steals and that would you know obviously constitute a step forward in a further breakout season here for Andy Pahez on the pitching side the biggest standouts here compared to ADP preseason camp Schlippler he's the top pitcher in fantasy his ADP was 117 Jacob Mizierowski the Miz he's the fourth best pitcher ADP of 114 chase burns the sixth best picture ADP of 110 it's nice when a plan comes together right like three breakout candidates although yes we were skeptical of Mizierowski but you know he's not going to be able to do that but you know he was a breakout for a lot of people this year Davis Martin is the seventh best pitcher in fantasy he was undrafted and basically every league Jose Soriano is the ninth best pitcher ADP of 32 price elder is the tenth best pitcher Cal Harris in 11th and Parker, Messick 12th. Scott, there's one name that just stands out here like a sore thumb and it's Dave's Martin and it's, I moved them inside my top 50 starting pictures and for some people that probably will not sound high enough just based on what he's done so far this season. But my most recent update was the one where I was most aggressive and kind of, you know, making him a must roster close to like must start picture. Well, he's been must roster, but yeah, more like a must start picture with the way he's pitching. Yeah, I've been a little hesitant to do that, but digging into the numbers again, it's been outstanding control. This way he's direct rate actually looks pretty good now, 12.5%. Yeah. The ERA estimators, they're kind of all over the place of FIP is down to 240, but XERA is 366. Even if Dave is Martin had a 360-66ERA, if he sustains this control, that's gonna be a pretty valuable picture, probably not that different than what then Matthew Boyd was last year. A little worse than that. Maybe something between Matthew Boyd and Andrew Abbott. If again, if he regresses to his expected ERA breath and his actual ERA, he does give up hard contact, but it's, yeah, it's starting to look better. I think he's had good home run luck. I think I can say that pretty safely for Davis Martin. Just three home runs allowed for a guy who gives a hard contact and isn't like some extreme ground ball pitcher isn't much of a ground ball pitcher at all. But even so, 161 ERA builds in a lot of room for that home run luck to normalize and still be respectable. So I don't have Davis Martin as high as you do. I think he is for sure going to regress to some degree, but I do think he is, he is, I mean, it's obviously his must, roster, where do I have? I'm 64th. I could probably have him higher than that. - Mm-hmm. All right, let's move on to the next one. It's from Jersey Mike, a sub above. Rank the following short stops at their absolute peak, the rest of season. No injuries, just best case scenario for all three. So, bobshett, Corey Seeger and Jeremy Pena. We know Seeger is her right now, but I assume he means, you know, a little bit further down the line once everyone is presumably healthy. Scott, how would you rank the best case scenario for those three? - Best case scenario? That's not usually the only factor we're considering. So that's interesting. I think it's pretty easy to answer though. Corey Seeger, bobshett, Jeremy Pena. - Yeah. I think so too. I mean, Seeger, I don't know if we can get back to that best case scenario just 'cause he's looked a little bit older this year, the strikeouts are up, and obviously he's dealing with his back injury. So there are legitimate questions with him. But yeah, bobshett, I mean, we saw a great season last year before he got hurt. And then Jeremy Pena coming off a career year too, I think all three of their best could be top 12 shortstop options. - Well, for sure. - It's just whether or not they can get back to that. Let's see. - Weren't they last year, top 12? I think they were. - Maybe not Seeger because I don't think he played enough, but on a per game basis probably. - Yeah. - Okay. - Let's take our final break when we return. We'll get to the rest of your mailback questions right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. It's our Memorial Day mailbag. This one's from Mike in Napa Valley. Is it possible to have too many players from one MLB team on your fantasy team? I would have picked up Henry Bolte from my Ryan O'Hern injury, but with Che Langleyers, Nick Kurtz and some pitching, that would be too many A's. Tell me how I'm wrong about this losing strategy. - I don't really get why that would be a problem. I can almost understand in a head-to-head context. Like, yeah, let's put Roto aside completely. If you're just, if it's just an accumulation of stats over the course of a season, and that's all the beat, that's being scored. Of course it isn't a problem. I think everybody can recognize why that would be a problem. So that the only issue would be head-to-head. And if a lineup, days lineup in this case were to face a dominant pitcher one day, well, then your whole team would suffer. But I don't think there are many, or are there even any fantasy baseball leagues that treat each day as its own scoring period? - Maybe there probably are a few because there are just so many different variations of fantasy baseball out there. But the typical fantasy baseball league, even if it's daily lineup changes, it's gonna score the whole week. And like, that's a lot of time for things to normalize even within a lineup. Could a whole team rise and fall together? Yeah, they could, but it's just, first of all, you're not talking about a whole team, you're talking about three batters. And second of all, it's pretty rare for a whole team to go into that kind of funk or for that long. Like even when a team is on a losing streak, some of their hitters are performing well. - Yeah, and I don't know that I would be opposed to it. And he mentions pitching here. Like I don't really care about, you know, having pitchers and hitters on the same team. But even hitters here, if it's a good lineup, I mean, that could be a good thing for all three guys, right? Like if they're all hitting well, they're getting more at bats, they're scoring more runs, there's more counting stats. And especially in a hitting environment like Sacramento, where the weather's about to start heating up, the ball's gonna fly out there. So especially like in a situation like that, or Rockies players when they're at home or having a lot of reds, you know, whenever they play at home, like I don't, I don't think that's a problem. So the only way it would be is how you mentioned, I think for me and ahead to head line up league, having too many Rockies when they're on the road, I mean, that's just a recipe for disaster. But that's like a very specific. - Yeah, that is a little different. And I'm glad you brought it up. I think people, it's more common in fantasy football to raise this question. But that, it makes more sense in that scenario because A, it's all writing on that one game for the week. Like a football team in a scoring period only plays one game. So whatever happens to that team in that game is what happens to your fantasy team. And also there is an interactive quality between the players that doesn't exist in baseball, compounding quality. If you have the quarterback and the two receivers for the same team and they score 13 points, well, that's three players that for sure did basically nothing for you. And you don't have that same effect in baseball 'cause it's really more of an individual game that just happens to be a team sport because multiple individuals are taking turns. - All right, this next one's from Henry. Hello Joe Gandal, Eddie, Buck and Lefty. - Well, I mean, those, I don't know what those players have in common. I don't know who Gandal is. - If I research this correctly, it appears to be the scandalous black socks from way back when. Although we appreciate the closer carousel, can you rank the best middle relievers for the rest of the season for those using holds as a category? So I ran it through the rest of season auction calculator, another function on fan graphs if you wanna use that. And here are some names that I got. Ian Seymour, Dylan Lee, Garrett Whitlock, Adrian Morayhon, Jose Ferrer, Jeff Hoffman, Garrett Clevanger, Fernando Cruz, Jose Alvarado, Brian Abrayu, Will Vest, Trevor McGill, Robert Suarez, and Luke Weaver. Other holds leaders I have not mentioned so far, Eric Sabrowski, Jojo Romero, Taylor Clark, Keaton Winn, Kevin Kelly of the race. That's a lot of names got. I don't know if you have any other thoughts on hold standouts for rest of season. - Well, you didn't even, oh, you did mention the leader in holds. - The leader in holds right now as of this recording is Eric Sabrowski. A name on the tip of everyone's tongue. He's actually been awesome this year, beyond just the holds. Jojo Romero has 15. So Sabrowski has 17, Romero has 15. Nobody else has more than 10. - It's a weird stat man, hold stand. - It is. - It is. Did you mention Keaton Winn? - Yep. - Yeah, the ratios have been good for him. Strikeouts, I guess, are a little lacking, but he's among the leaders and might be a surprise to some. Yeah, I mean, a lot of them are gonna be rostered already. Robert Suarez, I think Dylan Lee is also a good source for the braves. He has seven so far, but that pace could increase. It's almost a question. It's like too broad to answer and also the answer's pretty easy to figure out just who's the setup guy on a team that gets a lot of saves. - Yeah, I mean, I typically always just looked at the best middle relievers on teams expected to win the most games. That's typically just what I wanna look for. And I mentioned Ian Seymour at the top of that list. I think it makes sense. I know his overall numbers are still lagging because he got off to a really, really bad start, but the race used him in a multitude of ways. and they're one of the best teams in baseball right now. So I do like that call there for E and C more. I would imagine he's probably rostered in most leagues where holds are a category right now, but yeah, he I think is a pretty clear standout in a league like that. This next one is from Scott White, me? For those of us in shallowish leagues, there's an outfield glut of high performing older dudes, like Jake Bowers, JJ Blade, Spencer Steer, and Mickey Moniac, along with the surge of rookies, Carson Benj, AJ Ewing, Henry Bolte, and Ryan Walshmit, Zach Gelloff, somewhere in between. Who would you promise out of those, including a daily league context? So I don't know exactly, but I guess I don't know, Scott, let's choose your top three here in a daily league context. Lots of names, Bowers, Blade, Steer, Moniac, Benj Ewing, Bolte, Walshmit, Gelloff. Daily lineup league. I kind of want to say Moniac. Right? How many, how many, did Bowers, Blade, Steer, Mickey Moniac? Who else? Benj Ewing, Bolte, Walshmit, Gelloff. Yeah. I think Moniac makes sense. It's hard to know where the place for rookies right now because we don't know yet if they're gonna sink or swim. I think the most startable of these players in a general sense is going to end up being Ewing, but that's me kind of going out on a limb for him because it's possible he falls into a skid and gets sent down a week from now. It's, so I think Moniac is probably the safest bet to continue to be useful. And obviously a lot of the downsides he has are the less important in a league with daily lineup changes because if he's out against the lefty, okay, you sit him in that league for that day, if they're away from Cours Field, you can weigh that possibility as well. You just have more flexibility in setting your lineup and Moniac, you can get the best of all worlds there. So I'm gonna put Moniac one, I'm gonna put Ewing to, again, for this specific situation. I think I wanna put Steer three. - Blade. - Although, not Blade. - I look like I probably ranked Blade the highest now, but he could, he could dry up next week too and be useless from that point forward. It's a more risky play. So I'll go Steer three, Walsh Mitt 4, Blade five and Bauer six, Bulti seven. - All right, the next one is from Conner. I have a conundrum with my pitching staff. It's a mixture of young guys and frustrating vets with Garakull coming back. I have a roster squeeze and need to drop one of Connolly early, Nicoladolo, Peyton Toley or Logan Henderson. Somebody also recently dropped Edward Cabrero, which seems interesting. I know he left his last start with a blister and he has been pretty mad so far this season. It is a head to head point leagues, Scott. So who would you drop out of early, Adolo Toley or Henderson to get Garakull back? - Yeah, I wouldn't drop any of them for Cabrero, I just to answer that question. - I think, I think early is who I drop. - Yeah, I think it's close between him and Henderson. I feel better about early remaining in the Red Sox rotation longer than I do Henderson. - Right, but I think for a head to head points league, where you could even consider dropping any of these guys, it's a shallow league. And so I want to take, even though I'm less confident, Henderson's gonna stick around, I feel like he's gonna be more impactful while he's there. Or I can trust him to be more impactful while he's there than I can early. If it was a deep league scenario and probably in my rest of season rankings, I'm gonna have early ahead, but strategically the way I'm more likely to play it is to drop early and trust and hope, more hope than trust that Henderson will stick around. - All right, this next one is from Robert, Deer, Marlowe, Avaan and Stringer, or Avaan. - Those sound like characters from the wire? - Mm-hmm. Have you watched the wire? - I have. - I started it and then it was really slow, but I've heard everyone say how good it is, so I feel like I should go back and watch it. I enjoyed it. It's not in the top tier dramas for me personally. I think you should stick with it. I wouldn't say the first season is my favorite season by any stretch. I think it gets better from there. And I think you'd like it. To me, if you like the sopranos and I know you do, you're probably gonna like the wire. The reason why I don't have either in my top tier is because I don't find myself caring about the characters as much. - So Pranos? - So Pranos not in the top tier? - Not my top tier, no. - Oh! - And that's fine. I understand. There are just shows that do different things. I like highly serialized shows that make me want, I gotta find out what happens next. You gotta prime away from the screen. And I don't feel like sopranos, or which is more episodic, and the wire necessarily like that. - I also think geography might play into it a little bit just 'cause like, being from New York, New Jersey, and seeing all these kinds of things, places that they go, I think that kind of factors in with the sopranos as well. But let's answer this question. I play in a daily 12 team league. I have a unique strategy I'd like to run past you all. I've been playing this way for almost 10 years now, but I still wanna hear your thoughts. My strategy is I lean heavily into using platoon bats, specifically left-handed hitters who struggle against lefties. With a couple bench hitters and a few guys with positional flexibility. I'm able to put together a lineup of guys facing right-handed pitchers, the ones facing lefties that day, I sit out, and I just adjust it every day. I usually have Kyle Schwarber on my team. This year I have guys like Ben Rice, CJ Abrams, and Addison Barger. My hitters are pretty much all guys who fit this profile have five hitters who are less than 10% rostered, but for me they are valuable because I only play them against right-handed pitchers. So the five that he uses, Edward Julian, Colt Keith, Hazus Sanchez, Trevor Lorneck, Aniston Barger. This strategy allows me to target elite starting pitching. I have three top 10 pitchers in Brian Wu, Jacob Grom and Gare Crochet. I also have Hunter Brown who I'm waiting to return from injury. I've played eight seasons and one one championship, so it's not overwhelming success. This season I'm in a new league and I'm six and one so far. So it's a daily lineup league, and it's just leaning into the puttunes and kind of playing the matchups, but it allows you to draft the lead starting pitchers early on. What do you think of that? It's fuzzier than it needs to be. I think it would annoy me to do this because like your biggest investments are more susceptible to injury, first of all, in the pitchers. And you have to maintain a deep bench of hitters to continue to take advantage of those puttunes. I mean, if you're happy and you feel like you're having enough success with it, if you enjoy doing it and you feel like you're having enough success with it, then I'm fine. Go ahead and do it. I'm not here to yuck your yum, but I would not enjoy doing it. And I think it's a more difficult path to success. It's one of those strategies that I think is rarely going to put you in the bottom of the league, but it's also rarely going to put you at the top of the league. I've picked up on a few things to see. I don't typically play in like head said categories, daily line up leagues, but the Towers Champions League this year is exactly that 12 team head said categories, daily lineup league. They wanted it to basically replicate the league that most people who play fantasy baseball play in. So I've noticed it is kind of fun. Like if you have the time to tinker, there's kind of this like DFS aspect to, if it's a getaway day on a Thursday, and I want to pick up a hitter, like who's the hitter with the best pitching matchup today? There is kind of some fun strategy behind it in that way. And like looking into platoon splits and stuff. So you're if you're on top of it and it's your only league, I get why I strategy like that is really fun. But if you play in multiple leagues, it does get a little bit difficult to keep up with, to keep up with all that. This next one is from Lindsay, dear Jimbo Dough and Kearney. Jimbo Dough and Kearney. Oh, those are, those are bullies from the Simpsons, right? That trio of bullies, not Nelson, but the other three. Yep, correct. First, love the show. It's the best way to start my day. And it's my go-to podcast for my morning workout. Keep up the great work. Thank you, Lindsay. Next, my question, why do you use the doctor's shoe sounding sock into shoe to describe a home run and stolen base when bag and bomb was right there? The word shoe has no meaning in baseball vernacular, but both bomb and bag do. I'm curious what was the reasoning to you sock and shoe instead of bag and bomb? Looking forward to hearing the deep philosophical reasoning. - Well, this is something we were shopped on the show together. I think it was just the two of us, right? And I actually came up with Sock and a shoe. I know you get all the credit for it 'cause you're the one who says it all the time. - No, I get all the people yelling at me about how much they hated it. - I think it's cute. - You know, I thought it was. - I like the eliteration. I think it's funny. - And it's something, it's a phrase that you, it's two words that you put together in that phrase all the time. Socks and shoes. Like they go together just like, I don't know, does a bag in a bomb? What is that referencing? Is that? - I think it's just those are two words that are used sometimes in baseball, right? - Like a bag or something. - But that's not two words that you combine together in your regular life. - Right. - You know, like peanut butter and jelly. Like two words that you're always saying together and to have that very common phrase means something unique to our podcast. I liked the idea of that. And it's a little, it's a little, so Tarek, is that the word in that? Like if you're just dropping into our podcast for the first time and you hear Frank said someone had a socket to show you have no idea what he's talking about. - Yeah. - And so it kind of, it's also kind of this inside joke effect where long time listeners, and you know, eventually if you're new to the podcast, you catch on to what it means. - Right. - As opposed to it being something that is self-explanatory. I think that adds a fun element to it too. So I like it. Obviously, sock is home run. You know, I think you can tell that that's the home run. Shoe, you know, it's a little more hard to make that work. But you know, you tell somebody to shoe that means you want them to run off. And so it kind of makes sense. Also you use your shoes when you're stealing bass. So it kind of makes sense in that way too. - I get it. - It works. - I think it works. - I like it. - I like it. - I look, some people yell at us for it and they don't like it. I think it's cool. I like it. I like the eliteration. I think it's clever. The way you put those two together. And a lot of people ask, well, why don't you just call it a combo meal, right? Like that's kind of the original coin phrase. But that was originally done on the ESPN fantasy baseball podcast. You know, I respect those guys. And I see other people like publications kind of just use combo meal like loosely. And we could have gone that route. But I don't know. I wanted us to kind of come up with our own thing. And so Scott did. So that's the origination there of Socken's shoe. This next one is from Max. I have more of a general fantasy baseball question. Do you think fantasy baseball is one of the most mentally challenging of the fantasy sports? Having players, having players slump for weeks and months at a time and holding strong can be really challenging. Players like my buddy, Cedric, can never get over that mental hurdle of not dropping players with good track records when they're struggling. Go Padres. Yeah. So yeah, that it is the most mentally challenging fantasy sport. It does require insane levels of patience. Like we give people a hard time for pulling the plug on a player too soon. But at the same time, I get it. Like it's-- if you're not immersed in baseball-- if you haven't been immersed in baseball for years and have a great sense for how a season typically plays out, then it probably sounds loony for you to have a guy hitting 180 in May and say, no, you have to hold on to him. You can't drop him. I mean, other sports aren't like that. And it just requires a much-- I mean, just the fact that it's every day, you have to-- You have to follow-- It's not your problem. It's not your problem. To compete unless you're in a lead full of casuals, to be competitive, you have to invest so much time into just following this sport. So that's the steepest barrier to entry. But beyond that, just the mental toll it takes on you, you have to be able to ignore what you're seeing. Regularly. And that is a difficult thing to ask people to do. The only thing that I have realized recently in fantasy that is close to baseball in terms of frustration and just like the mental challenge of it all is I play in a few fantasy basketball leagues every year. And I have a dynasty league as well. The tanking in fantasy basketball has just completely messed up fantasy. Like you have to end the season. Like an NBA, you mean? Yeah, an NBA. So you basically have to end your fantasy season three or four weeks early because like-- And even then, it's just guys aren't playing back to backs. And certain teams aren't playing their best players on purpose just because they're trying to tank. And towards the end of the season, no one's playing their best players. Fantasy basketball is really, really tough with that. So that's something that I've kind of noticed being really, really frustrating in fantasy sports as well. But man, baseball, if you miss a couple of days too, if I go on vacation and I'm just not following it, as closely, it just feels like you've missed like a whole season's worth of baseball. It is-- you really just have to be on top of it. So yeah, I don't have to say in that because we're on a baseball podcast. I play all the fantasy sports, but I do think it is the most mentally challenging. This last one is a fantasy cops question. On this show, it is fantasy justice for all. [MUSIC PLAYING] This one's from Matt Deere, Barney, Jock, and Frank. Man, there aren't many Barneys culturally, but-- Hi, Trent. I'm so-- I'm so-- I couldn't find a connection. Oh well. Yeah. Well-- If you already tried, I'm not sure what me Google any it's going to do. I can't think of it. Yeah, look, and if you don't know, then chances are, all right, I probably don't know. Chris might know. Yeah, yeah. Should we text him? Should we call him live on the show and ask him? Do what we did to you back at first pitch, Harrison. I managed you on. I don't think he would answer my phone call. I am the commissioner of a dynasty league, and I have an owner that has publicly stated he will be leaving the league after this season. This owner is a very active trader, and I have not yet vetoed any trades. But if he starts dumping his top prospects or injured players for 20, 26 pieces, I may have to consider it. I know the simple answer is to just have a conversation, but I'm not sure I would trust it if he said he was returning. How do I proceed? Do I require payment for 2027 for any trade deemed unreasonable for anything other than the 2026 benefit? Do I just allow him to trade without consequence? I hate vetoing trades have never had to do it. That's a tough one. That is a tough one. I will tell you that I played in a score sheet league. The one you're in now, Frank, though you weren't in it at the time, 2014, sim league, similar to a fantasy league, but the actual defense and everything is simulated. But scoring is done in real time based on player stats. So it's similar to fantasy in that way, basically a fantasy league. And in that league, a very well-known baseball writer, a very prominent well-known baseball writer, was in that league the first year I was in it. And he did exactly this. He made a bunch of trades for win-now pieces, and he won the league. And then he said, that's it. I'm done with this league now. And I got to tell you, didn't sit right with me. That is just-- It didn't sit right. Dispicable. I still think about it every time. I catch a glimpse of this guy whose name I will not say. I have heard of other leagues requiring payment for the following season. Now, if you play in a league that's unpaid, but it sounds like you guys do pay for this league. So yeah, I mean, I've heard of people doing that, where they have to pay for the following season a year ahead, just to kind of block against something like this, prevent something like this from happening. I mean, it could still happen, but whatever. You're repaid for the next year anyway, so. Yeah, I don't-- I guess that might be enough of a deterrent. I mean, if I was him, I just would be like, OK, I guess I'll stop playing now. I don't want to-- it depends what the payment is, of course. But I want to want to pay for a year I don't intend to participate in. That's what you're suggesting, right? Yeah, if you're going to leave the league-- Oh. So I might just call the bluff and say, OK, I guess I'm done playing now then. And then as a commissioner, I'm putting you in a tough spot as a commissioner, because you got to fill this spot mid-season for the good of the league. So I'm not even sure that would work. You could try it. Off the top of my head, I don't have a better answer. Because you can't ask him not to participate. And he is doing what's in his interest. There are teams that could trade away prospects and young pieces to go for it, even if they are playing the next year. Yeah. So you can't really tell him not to do that just because he's leaving the league. because I guess the problem is he could make this advantage disadvantageous trades. The sort of trades giving up future pieces that anybody with a future stake in the league would never give up, but he doesn't care. He's getting a good piece that'll help him win now. Exactly. So that's tough. I suppose Yeah, that's tough. I do think there's some value. I mean, for the most part, when we talk about trades and what should be allowed and what shouldn't be allowed, I'd say it should just be a free for all. And you should trust these people to manage themselves and only collusion should be overturned. But I do think there is, I do think there's a justification for having a safety net. So I imagine like a panel of three of the most trusted individuals in your league to be unbiased. The ones you trust, the commissioner and two others. And if two people, you know, I'm throwing out specific numbers, you can make it, but whatever you want. But if like two people challenge a trade that was made that did not involve them, they say it's unfair, that it goes to that panel of unbiased judges and majority vote between the three of them decides if the trade goes through or not. So that's technically what's set up in the Scott White dynasty league and nothing has ever gone to the panel of judges. You know, like, go ahead, get some. So hopefully that's the way to go for you too. It's just the safety net that never gets activated. But it's kind of late to put it in place now. So yeah, I don't I don't have a great answer for you. Bringing up that panel reminded me of Dodgeball when they go to like the, the panel of judges and they just get the Chuck Norris thumbs up. It made me think of that. But yeah, I didn't. All right, Pete Chuck. Yes, yes, indeed. I think requiring payment for the following year is one way to do it. I think what Scott said is another possibility. It is definitely a tough tough spot to be in and I understand why why you wrote it. I'm not sure that we fully brought you justice, but we tried. We are going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a high star rating on Apple or Spotify and we'll be back again tomorrow. Bye bye. Paramount podcasts.