Vintage Zack Wheeler? Mariners Promote Colt Emerson! (5/18 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports Got a fantasy question email fantasy baseball at CBSi dot com get ready to win your lead Now here's Frank Scott and Chris Hello there and welcome in top fantasy baseball today on Monday May 18th I am Frank's ample joint by Chris Towers today on the show it was a big weekend The Mariners promoted top prospect Colt Emerson blanks Nell needs surgery We'll talk we ever wear ads and much more But let's get things started with the players of the night brought to you by stitchfix If you're like me and clothes shopping isn't your thing stitchfix has you covered get $20 off your first order at stitchfix.com slash baseball What an unbelievable call by the way the white socks radio broadcast for Edgar caros walk off home brought on Sunday We will not be talking about Edgar caro, but that was just a fantastic call So big thanks to the gent who sent that to me on X I do appreciate that if anyone else hears some crazy calls just send them my way and I'll work them into the rotation Let's get into the players from the weekend and Chris you are up first. Yeah, and this is My has some agon my face on this one because Zach Wheeler we all do I mean, but I feel like I deserve to wear it more than you or Scott I think I was much more vocal in my skepticism around Zach Wheeler and for the first what four starts He looked good, but like a diminished version of himself in a way that was like, okay, I can see him being useful but not an ace and then on Sunday He just looked like Zach Wheeler. I mean He averaged 96.3 miles per hour with the four seamer that was up 1.7 miles per hour for the season And he was down 1.5 miles per hour for the season from last season So you knew the math on that one. He was up over his average from 2025 before he had the shoulder surgery And he mostly sustained it throughout the start I mean, it was like 97 98 the first inning maybe more like 96 the last inning, but It was clearly up across the board and that pitch was incredible 9 whiffs 41% with rate The sinker I think got a lot of weak contact even though it didn't miss many bats 13 whiffs overall 8 strikeouts over seven shutout ending against a Pittsburgh lineup that's been pretty good this season Yeah, I think I was wrong to doubt Zach Wheeler I'm not ready to say he is the third best pitcher in fantasy or whatever like he was before the injury, but I am Ready to say that I was probably wrong that he would not be a mustar pitcher and I've moved him up into my top 15 at starting pitcher in both head to head points and roto I look you have to account for some elevated injury risk here So if we were redrafting today, I don't know if I could take him as the 15th starting pitcher off the board but Max freeds on the aisle right now and George Kirby had another bad start on Sunday and Gosh Freddie Prolt to walk six. I'm just going through the guys who I have ranked right behind him now Cal Bratish has had an interesting season and framer fall does has had an interesting season and Kevin Gosman just doesn't have the upside and Yeah, I think we've got to be back here with With Zach Wheeler as a as an ace. Yeah, I think that's all fair and it wasn't just a fastball I mean the velocity was up on everything his sinker up 1.3 the splitter up nearly two miles per hour the cutter was up to the sweeper up 1.4 the curve up 1.1 he was Pretty much just back to Zach Wheeler form from last year, which is crazy again I agree with you. I don't just think he's back to being a top five starting pitcher But I'm eyeballing that range of the rankings. You know, I have C set 13 Emanaga at 14 George Kirby at 15. I think Wheeler probably should be ahead of Kirby, but then like Joe Ryan at 16 Yeah, like that is probably good the right range. I think for Zach Wheeler So I am sorry that we ever doubted you man. It's just like We don't have a great track record Granted this was a different thoracic outlet than other pitchers. I've had before but even Typically has not worked very well 35 year old starting pitcher. Yeah coming back from a serious one health scare and then serious surgery that he had to have a rib removed he was he's down 10 to 15 pounds from his playing weight from last year like there were lots of reasons to be skeptical of Zach Wheeler and As it turns out they were the wrong reasons I guess because yeah, he He looks really really good in a way that At least for this start, you know, look he might go back to his next start in average 94.5 and get hit a little harder Not miss as many bats, which that had been the case the previous couple starts and then maybe this will look like an over reaction but Based on what we saw today I I have to I have to give Zach Wheeler a ton of credit for what he just did Yeah, and we were talking beforehand. It wasn't the greatest week for me to Go on a different podcast the fantasy pros podcast with our buddy the Welsh and Joe Rico and we did a like a rankings debate And he was much higher on Zach Wheeler. Yeah, I had a Wheeler like sp27 So I wasn't completely out, but I was like, you know, let's proceed with caution the strikeouts are down and all that But yeah, I mean this was just the best version of Zach we are that we've seen all season By the way, we did kind of a collaboration with those guys on YouTube and you could find that episode On our YouTube channel as well So if you want to check that out we went through a bunch of different rankings debates and it was a lot of fun And Zach Wheeler was a topic of conversation before this start of course Let's keep things moving here my player of the weekend Rocky Sasaki with the Best start of his career at the angel seven innings of one run ball H strikeouts Zero walks is the key there for Rocky Sasaki 18 whiffs on 91 pitches his slider looked really good seven of those 18 whiffs came on a slider Six on the fastball four on the splitter one on the fork ball and stat cast is now Differentiating his two different types of splitter so we've talked about this recently where Rocky Sasaki has a splitter that he's throwing harder that is classified just as his splitter And now the softer one is classified as a fork ball for him But really it was the the slider that really stood out to me and the slider had like pretty good numbers coming into this start It hasn't been this good all season But we spoke about this last week where the splitter the slider Have been very good for Rocky Sasaki his fastball gets hit hard his fastball still got hit really hard in this one So he's not perfect, but the fact that he threw 76% of his pitches for strikes did not walk anybody And seems like he's trending up. He's 50% rostered. He's at the Brewers this week. Honestly, I don't want to use him in that start But Chris I did have a bunch of bids on him and a lot of those are still pending So we'll see if I wind up on him wind up getting him But just to pick him up and see where this goes because obviously he is someone who had a bunch of prospect pedigree and talent and Maybe starting to put it together Yeah, I think the fastball is still a bad pitch for him and and so it's mostly about One can he Command the fastball at least consistently enough that it's not a disaster form and he can steal a couple of strikes and then too Can he throw the other pitches consistently enough that he only has to throw the fastball 35 to 40% of the time and When it was just the slow fork ball that we're calling it now and The slider it didn't work because he couldn't throw the fork ball for strikes Well now he's got this I almost view it as kind of like a splinker for him where it it's a Harder splitter that he can get whiffs with for sure, but it's also a pitch he can actually command at least a little more consistently the slider has been A pretty good pitch for him early in counts as well. It's actually his most second most used pitch in first pitch situations and so It the whole thing is starting to make sense in a way it really hasn't So far in his career. I think this is the you know, I've said it a couple times over the last you know two weeks or so that this is the closest Rocky Sasaki has looked like to a major league hit pitcher and I think this is the closest he's looked like to having real reasons for optimism now because It now looks like the whole arsenal starts to make a little more sense and I don't think he's ever going to live up to the hype he came with You know prior to joining the Dodgers You know there was talk about him being one of the most talented pitchers in the world. I do not think he's that But he looks useful right now. Um, I think over the past four starts now. It's 23 strikeouts No 21 strikeouts and 22 innings with only four walks The ERA is not great in that stretch a little better after this one, but He's looking better right now and I think that's the best you can ask you you got to look at him as a A high variance fire, but at least now there is some reason for optimism for Rocky Sasaki. Let's compare him to some of the waiver wire pitchers. We talked a lot about over the past week. Would you take Rocky Sasaki or Logan Henderson, who had another solid star? I wish the brewers would push him a little bit more and let him go third time to the order and give us six innings, but it was five innings one run, six strikeouts. Just a standard Logan Henderson, he's been good whenever he's pitched. Who would you rather have between those two? It's Henderson fairly clearly for me. Yeah, I think so too. I don't think Sasaki's anywhere near. Like Henderson should be rostered in all leagues. He's only 72% rostered for Henderson. No, I get that. I guess you could see some shallower points leagues with how rarely he has been allowed to go deep in games. I guess you could see, but I would rather have Henderson for sure. Would you rather have Rocky Sasaki or Bailey Ober? That's the one where I think it's okay to say Sasaki. I think so too. What about Sasaki or Bryce Miller? I think I would go with Bryce Miller, but I think they're pretty similar. And Sasaki or Ryan Nelson? I would also go Nelson here, but again, I think it's similar risk reward there for both of them. Yeah, I think the upside, I guess I want to say the upside for Sasaki's higher, but it's just kind of like a mystery bag thing because we just, we don't really know what his upside is. We haven't really seen it. I mean, this was the best start we've ever got from him. I feel like the floor is higher for someone like Ryan Nelson though. I know he's had some blow up starts this year, but like one of them was in Mexico City and you know, he's made changes and he's looked a lot better. So the floor for Sasaki is this guy should not be in a major league rotation, which is most of what his career has exactly exactly where I was going next with that. So great start here from Rocky Sasaki. I do have a bonus player the weekend. I just, I have to mention on how Martinez, man, the week that this guy just had only played five games this week. He had four homers eight runs seven RBI three steals in just five games and with digging in just to see, you know, what he's doing differently so far this season, the barrel rate is up. I mean, he has almost tripled it so far. It's up from three and a half percent to 10 percent, which you get like 10 percent isn't a great number, but it's a really good number for him when again, last year it was three and a half percent. And last year, this year as well, he's been really good at pulling the ball in the air. So 26% pulled air rate for someone who doesn't have huge raw power. That's a way that he can make it work. The next step for him to, I guess, reach his ultimate like fantasy potential is just playing every day because there still have been some games against Rides that on Hill Martinez hasn't been playing, but I think if you missed out on AJ Ewing or JJ Blade, I think on Hill Martinez is probably the next outfielder up. Yeah, I think there's still a fairly limited ceiling here, but the one thing that I think Scott has pointed out a few times, I've noticed it as well. He has already had seven bad at balls this season that were hit harder than his hardest bad at ball last season. You know what it reminds me a little bit of, or although perdomo from last year, a little bit. Yeah. So it's worth noting that none of those have come in the past 13 days now and only two of them have come in the last month. So it was during that very early hot streak. I still think he's a fairly limited pop guy and it's going to have to be, you know, really pulling the ball in the air, but he doesn't quite have the East side parades back control. You know, we're talking about a 20% strikeout rate guy, even though he sits against a lot of tougher righties. So I don't really buy on Hill Martinez as someone who needs to be roster in all fantasy formats, but I said it with Jordan Walker on Friday's podcast, I think. I like to see when the breakout struggles and then bounces back. And that is what we're seeing from on Hill Martinez. He went ice cold for, I don't know, two or three weeks. He was on the most dropped list on Monday. And when we talked about it, so for good reason. And so I'm skeptical that this is going to matter long term, but if you haven't dropped him, don't drop him now. And, you know, yeah, if you missed out on you, Wing and Carson Benz and JJ Blitte, and I would say even Ryan Waldschmidt, I would rather have, I know, you know, maybe you'd rather use on home Martinez right now, although Waldschmidt's hitting like 280, I think he just hasn't. It's been kind of empty. Yeah, it's been empty so far. But I think on how Martinez is, it matters, even though I don't, I don't think he's great. All right. Thank you to StitchFix for sponsoring today's players of the night. StitchFix takes the hassle out of clothes shopping. Just take a quick style quiz, share your size, your vibe and your budget. And you'll be matched with a real human stylist who will send you a fixed box with closed that fit and makes sense for your life. Get started at stitchfix.com/baseball for $20 off your first order. StitchFix.com/baseball. Before we hit our first break, God, I know you've been waiting for this, Chris, the Yankees stink. They absolutely stink. The June swoon came early. It's Mayday. It's Mayday. Oh my gosh. Look, Congrats the Metz, the two of the Metz and their fans like, winning two out of three in city field, like in a grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter. But in the ways that they won, it was a very embarrassing showing for my Yankees. Oh man, David Bednar and Austin Wells just shoot those guys to the moon, man. They, wow, just brutal, brutal game here on Sunday. With that, big thanks to everyone watching live. We appreciate you being here. Make sure to hit that like button if you haven't already subscribed to the channel. If you haven't done that as well, let's take a quick break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in, fantasy baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes and Brendan Donovan went on the aisle as a result. The Mariners called up their top prospect, Colt Emerson. Someone we touted coming into the season. We've talked a lot about him as a prospect 38 games at AAA. He was hitting 255 with seven homers, 10 steals and 816 OPS. I'm not so sure that he completely earned this promotion. Chris, I think it's just more out of like injury necessity right now. Don't get me wrong. He's a great prospect. In terms of going to be a really good player, it's just some stuff under the hood, 27% strike out rate. Like the whiffs were up. The zone contact wasn't great. I'm still excited for him. I picked him up in Towers for $88 out of $1,000 budget. What are your thoughts here on Colt Emerson? Is he a must add player in fantasy? More or less, I would say. It's hard because breaking into the top 12 when your only short step eligible is really, really hard. He started at third base. I think he's going to play third base. Yes. I think he's going to be the full time third baseman moving forward, at least until Brendan Donovan's back. They'll figure out what to do at that point, although it sounds like Donovan might be dealing with some chronic things right now. He's going to get some runaway and he had been better lately. Striking out a lot, but hitting 288, hitting three homers in 14 games in the month of May, the thing that is interesting about Colt Emerson is the striker rate is up. It's not really because he whiffs a ton. His contact rates are actually quite good. I think it was 86% in zone contact rate, which is plenty above average. He just, his swing decisions haven't been great so far. The season is very aggressive swing. That does remind me a little bit of like a Jackson Merrill type, where I think you have to make a lot of contact and do a lot of damage on the contact you make. Right now we're seeing Jackson Merrill little up and down. Colt Emerson's very young, getting the call as a 20 year old. He won't turn 21 for a couple more months. I think he's super talented. I think the upside is very, very high in the long run. I think it could look a lot like what we've seen from JJ Weatherhole. It'll be shaped a little differently. He'll strike out more, walk less than JJ Weatherhole, but that's similar kind of not great batting average, but could be pretty solid runs or steels and, and homers, you know, potentially. So I think there's plenty of upside here with Colt Emerson. He's a top 15 top 20 type prospect. You should add him anywhere you get the chance. I know they played different positions, but where would you rank Emerson just among the AJ Ewing, Ryan Walch mid, Lothro Henry Bolte in there as well? So just those four. Okay. So it was Ewing, Ewing, Walch mid Bolte and Colt Emerson. Okay. I think I would go Ewing, Walch mid, Emerson Bolte. I know Bolte is pretty interesting, but he's not the same caliber of prospect as these guys. And then I think it ultimately just comes down to with Ewing and, you know, especially Ewing, but a little bit Walch mid. We've seen those guys at the Major League level a little bit and they haven't looked overwhelmed. We don't know what it's going to look like for Colt Emerson so far. So Emerson's the better prospect of this group. So if you wanted to go that way, I think that's reasonable, but, you know, he's so young. He's relatively unpolished. I do think it's okay to have him a little bit at arm's length, but I kind of think someone in your league is going to add him. You probably have someone boring on your bench. We do have yet another pitching injury Blake Snell was placed in the aisle with loose bodies in his left elbow. He'll have surgery on Tuesday, which is, I mean, this has really popped up a lot this year with like the loose bodies. stuff. I mean, this is what maybe like the fifth picture that this has happened to. I know elbow things happen, but it's like this specific injury has been popping up a lot. Oh, well, uh, Shrellenbach, Waldrip, Hunter Green all before the season, Scooble, D.S. I feel like it's been, it's been more prominent this year for whatever reason. Uh, that means we likely won't see Blake's now until the second half of the season. There's just always something going on with Blake's now. And there was, there were reasons to proceed to caution just because like the way they were treating him all off season and like him just being delayed over and over again. So I mean, I had him as a boss. I didn't draft him anywhere. And uh, this is just kind of part of the frustration, I guess, with, uh, with someone like Blake's now. We finally got the max freed update and it could have been worse. He went on the aisle with a bone bruise in his left elbow. He'll be shut down from throwing for a few weeks and we'll undergo further imaging once he is asymptomatic. So it's not for now. It's not like a, he needs surgery. He's out for the rest of the season type thing. But the Yankees will obviously play that very cautiously. Elmer Rodriguez was recalled. He pitched okay against the meds here. But my guess is he only gets one more start and then Garekold jumps back into the rotation. I would think that is the likelyest outcome here. Yes. Yeah. Garekold, by the way, did make another start this weekend and it was the best that he's looked yet. It was five and a third innings, one run, six strikeouts. He averaged 97 miles per hour in his fastball. He topped out at 99. So did we actually see him in front of the stack ass cameras this time? Yeah. It was that triple A. Okay. Nice. Nice. What day was that Saturday? Okay. Yeah. And I have to add that to the newsletter for tomorrow. Oh, yeah. Uh, Clay Holmes suffered a fractured right fibula and I did not write how much time he's going to miss. I don't know that there was an exact timeline anyway, but I think I saw like 48 weeks. Okay. Uh, so it sounds like initially one of Jonah Tongue or Jack Weninger. Weninger. I should have looked up how to say his name. That's my bad. Um, but Weninger, uh, he got hurt on Sunday when he was pitching. So I don't think he will be there. Jonah Tongue has struggled a lot at triple A this season as well. They could just choose to go with a Tobias Myers type who has experience and is much less exciting obviously. Uh, but any speculative bids on Jonah Tongue with this injury to Clay Holmes. I didn't get out ahead of it because he hasn't shown it at the major league level yet. Has not been created triple A either. So I think he's flat out in bad this season. Yeah. I think it's okay to at least wait until he gets the call and even then maybe wait until he actually shows something that's majorly hitting at this point because we actually there are pitching as always ebbs and flows on the waiver wire. But I think we've got some interesting names out there. Logan Henderson's pretty widely available. Bryce Miller. I like Connor prelip a lot. Um, yeah, and a good start this weekend. I don't know. Do you have any Jared Jones notes in here? Uh, I do not. Did he make another start this weekend? I, that actually wasn't what I noticed. I noticed that Ben Charrington was asked about how they view him. And he was like, well, in the long run, he's a starting pitcher, but and I was like, okay. Well, did you see they interviewed him down in the minors and they asked, are you a starter when you return to the pirates? And he said, yes, emphatically, he's like next question. Okay. So I don't, I don't know what's going on there. Okay. Yeah. That's, that's, that was probably in response to that. But that was just something that kind of poked my antenna up and I was like, um, Gregory Soto blew a save on Friday. Dennis antenna. I believe lost that game and then gave up runs on Sunday. Yeah. I see where your heads go in here. I got maybe. Yeah. Well, like Ben Brown's interesting. I think there are like, yeah, enough interesting, widely available pitchers that you don't have to speculate on a, on a Jonah Tongue or a Jack Wenninger yet. Mm-hmm. Jared Jones, by the way, did make another start on Sunday. It was at double a four and a third innings to run seven strikeouts at two walks. He has, he has looked dominant. So far dominant. Yeah. Yeah. Jose Al Tuvé will go on the aisle with a grade two left oblique train. So grade two, I mean, he's, he's probably out at, at least a month, maybe longer. That's, you know, obliques are pretty tricky. Your obvious second base replacement on Helm Martinez. Uh, if you're in a shallower league. So, so check to see if he's out there. Hunter Brown will throw live BP Tuesday before potentially beginning a rehab assignment with the Astros targeting mid June to activate Hunter Brown. Christian Yellitz returned to the lineup Sunday and he homer. So I guess the back is all right. Although it could always flare up, but it looked all right for one day, at least. Cory Seeger did not play this weekend due to back spasms. He was sent for an MRI. He also went back to Arlington to see the Rangers back specialist. So, and he's just been so terrible. I mean, perhaps this is part of why he's played so poorly, but I would plan on having a replacement for Seeger this week. Absolutely. Yeah. Josh Hayter needs at least five more rehab appearances before joining the Astros. So perhaps the Monday of May 20 probably not probably maybe halfway through that week. Um, yeah. I was thinking like another 10 days or so. Yeah. Chase Dolandter was placing the aisle with a right elbow sprain, which is unfortunate. He was off to a great start. And again, just his two were starts of the year. The ones that I used him for. That's baseball season. Ronald Coonio will not be activated until he can play the outfield. And it sounds like he might need another week to recover. So another one not planning on using a coonio this week. Hopefully he's ready to go for next Monday, heading into the week of May 25th. Cole Reagan felt good after throwing a 30-pitch bullpen on Sunday. Cal Raleigh will be shut down for a week before the manor's reevaluate him. Jose Altubey. I already did not update that one. That was I wrote that earlier in the weekend. Jeremy Paine could return on Monday. Are you looking to throw Paine back in lineups this week? It was such a rough rehab stint, you know, setbacks and then had the collision on the basis. I think I hit by a couple of pitches to rough. I lean towards you. I just start him. He's back. Depends on what your options are, obviously. Yeah. Brandon Woodruff tossed 25 pitches during a bullpen on Thursday. He's scheduled to throw again on Monday. Trevor Story was placed in the aisle with a groin injury and apparently is seeking additional opinions about whether he needs surgery for a sports hernia. So another one where that could explain why he's been so bad this year. If he's just playing through a sports hernia, Ryan O'Hurne went on the aisle with a right quad train. This one stinks. He has been so good this season for the pirates. Robbie Snelling will have his left elbow evaluated further by the medical staff this week. He's on the aisle with a UCL spray in his left elbow. Byron Bucksson has missed four straight with that hip issue. He did not play it all this weekend. Do you start or sit byron Bucksson? And now you can worry. Yeah. There you go, Chris. I'd lean sit. It's always so tough with these situations because you can only backdate three days. So if he was going on the aisle, they've already lost a day that they could backdate him for. So I would guess that means they think he's going to be there. But you often see teams wait until Monday, no matter what to put guys on the aisle. So yeah. I am the twins to play on Monday. So we should find out. Yeah, we should find out. I would lean sit at this point. Jordan Westberg underwent Tommy John surgery on Wednesday and will miss the rest of the season. Taj Bradley started a rehab assignment at AAA on Sunday. He is on the aisle with a peck strain. If he was dropped in any leagues, I would look to read. Taj Bradley, the Rockies place Tyler Freeman on the paternity list. And they called a prospect sterling Thompson. He's 24 years old. The 31st overall pick in 2022. Was doing some interesting things in the miners hit 344, four homers, eight steals, nine E.C. 7 OPS more walks than Shrikeouts. I'm just not sure that sterling Thompson sticks around here. Chris once Freeman is ready to return. Even if he does, nobody's playing every day for the Rockies right now. So it's like, I don't know how excited you can be about anyone on that roster. Yeah. Jose Buryos will undergo surgery to repair his right elbow. I assume that he's out of the season. I mean, that just, yeah, I didn't see any details. Yeah. Could be a career ender, honestly, for Jose Buryos. Others who went to the aisle this weekend, Elliott Ramos with a right quad strain tie Madden with a bruised right forearm, Matt Waldran with a forearm injury and Jake Frilly with a hernia. Let's log waiver wire hitters and AJ Ewing, who we've talked a lot about. I mean, he had another good game on Sunday. He went one for one with three walks, got on base four times, another stolen base. He actually had a steal on Saturday, too, where his foot kind of got like jammed with, I think, Volpe's foot at second base and it like got lifted off the bag, but he beat the throw by a mile and it was just kind of like a weird complication that they called him out after review. But yeah, I mean, the guy is like light and fast. 61% rostered. I think he is a must roster in all formats. Three outfielder leagues, category leagues. It doesn't matter because I mean, what he does walks gets on base steals a bunch of bags. I mean, that is a skill set that plays up regardless of format. Chris, how much did you see AJ Ewing go for in leagues where Fab already ran for you? A pretty wide range. 200 in my TGFBI league. I got him in my Tattwurst league. Let me make sure. 12 team head to head points. 12 team head to head points, but with Roto rosters, which, that helps for a player like AJ Ewing because I'm not sure you can count on him to be a top 36 outfielder, but, you know, top 50 top 50. Yeah, I think you can, you can get him there. So, uh, no, I did not get him. Who got him? Uh, yeah. Sorry. I think you told me he went for around 200 or something like that. That's how it might tell. He went for a $333 set of a thousand. So that is just a, that is a massive price tag. It is a 15 team road, oh, league with OBP instead of batting average. So, I mean, that might actually be AJ Ewing's best format. Uh, he went for 174 in my TGFBI league. That's a 15 team road. Oh, uh, we won him in the beat FBT league for 173. That is a 12 team road league. The backup bid was $37. Yeah, he was 111 in my, uh, in my towel or so wide, wide range of outcomes there. Um, I mean, where people got to be running out of fab now, right? I think we're, I think that's one thing you're seeing is that there might be one or two people with a big map. Like in one of my leagues, I was putting in waiver peds and I had like $800 left out of a thousand. So I need to be a lot more aggressive in that one. Um, but there are somewhere like, I've got 180 bucks left. I can't, I can't blow it all. I have been, and I need to realize this all my leagues. I have been really aggressive and fabric on and I do not have a lot of money left. So, uh, any other prospects that are coming our way, I'm not so sure that I'll be, uh, I'll be bidding on those. Let's talk about Casey Schmidt who just continues to hit man. Four for five with a double dong on Saturday. He had two more hits on Sunday. The problem is that he's still sitting here and there. He's sat out two of the past five games. But with, with the way that he hit this weekend, I feel like man, they got to get him close to every day playing time. Bryce Elders and Bryce Elders down. Yeah. Bryce Elders has not worked out so far. But hitting 297 eight homers, three steals 875 OPS. He's eligible at first, second and third base is Casey Schmidt, just a must roster player. The way he's hitting. I don't believe he will be a must roster player the rest of the season. But I think someone in your league probably could use him at first, second or third base. Like it's so nice to have a guy like that around because, you know, you just lost Jose Al Tueve. Well, you know, you got a second base when you can slot in or your first baseman's struggling. You can slot him in there. So I do think Casey Schmidt is generally worth rostering even though I think on his merits as a player, he will not be, you know, a top 150 or 175 player the rest of the way. Yeah. The expected stats are good for him. The barrel rate is up to 15% this year, which is by far career high, pulled air rate 31%, which is a career high for him as well. So he gets the assignment. He knows what he needs to do. And he's doing it pretty well right now. Chris, I would you rank these middle infielders. Some names that have heated up here. Bryce and Stott is hitting much better so far in May, only 250 batting average, but four homers, 16 RBI four steals so far in the month. Brian Roqueo continues to hit well, two for three with a steal on Saturday. Hit his fourth home run on Sunday and Marcus Semi and has looked better so far in May as well, hitting 250 in the month, two homers, 10 runs, two steals, OPS just over 700 there. Not names that blow you away. I mean, you're not like overly excited about these three, but how would you rank those three Stott, Roqueo and Marcus Semi. Yeah. I'm trying to look into Brian Roqueo and seeing if there's something to explain his success so far and strike out his way down. His strike out rates way down. But even then like his swing rates haven't really changed. He's still chasing an above average rate. He's making a little more contact in the zone, but it's only like three and a half percentage points. He's gone from a bad average to above average, but also swinging less often in the strike zone. So he has some of the worst quality of contact in baseball. This very much feels like just a hot hand play and it's at least now he's running a lot, six steals in the month of May. That helps a lot because otherwise it's just the emptiest batting average you could possibly have with Brian Roqueo. But if he's going to be a big source of steals, then it does at least make it a little more interesting. But I would go stott. I would guess I go Roqueo ahead of Semi and even though I have Semi and ranked higher, Semi and so marginal at this point that I don't think you're going to miss not having him. Yeah. And those are all options to replace Jose Altové again. If you need a second basement, the problem with stott is you do kind of have to like play it week to week. If you play in a daily lineup league, it's different. But the Phillies have six games a week, three lefties on the schedule. And so I think stott's only going to play three games a week. It's like how valuable is that for for Bryce and stott. So it's frustrating, but I get it to like Ed Mundo Sosa crushes lefties. So it makes sense from a Phillies perspective there. Some deeply hitters anything here with Yo Hendrick Pinyango of the blue jays. He went two for four hit his first career home run on Saturday. He has started four straight looks like he's getting running against right handed pitching. Interesting minor league numbers as well. Caput Ruiz has been hitting well three for five with a sock in the shoe on Saturday. The problem for him. He has only started four of the past eight games for the nationals. Jake McCarthy has been hitting well two for three with a steal on Saturday two more hits on Sunday. Last 15 games he's hitting three 75 two homeers and three steals Harrison Bader has three home runs in his past four games and Gavin Sheets had a huge weekend three for three two homeers on Sunday had another home run Saturday two two hits with the steal on Friday. Kiley has like three steals nine home runs now so far this season. So a deep league names Chris, but any interest in sheets, Bader McCarthy, favorite Ruiz and Yo Hendrick Pinyango. I think Bader is just just had a nice four game stretch out where they think there's much of their McCarthy. You know, I'd rather start them when they have games start him when they have games at home. They have three at home this week at a seven. The problem is I just how much of his recent playing time is real. Like if he goes 0 for four tomorrow, does he have bench for three of the next four? That's just been the way the Rockies outfield has been really kind of the whole lineup. Like I want to say even Zigiel Tovar has been getting days off for them, which is shocking. Yeah, he's only got 163 played appearances this season. It's like T.J. Rumpfield and Hunter Goodman and then I guess Tovar, but even Kyle caros Mickey Moniac, they're only playing about 75% of the time. They're just really they just ride the hot hand pretty much. Yeah, I mean Jordan Beck's not playing it all. I can't really trust anyone on the Rockies, but you know, he I think he's going to be a good source of batting average when they're at home, certainly and probably still some bases. Sheets, he does this at stretches every season. He can hit right. He's pretty well, but he's not a great hitter. We know who he is. Pinyango, I don't know because he's been productive and he's gotten a lot of like there's been a lot of talk about him around the blue jays. Like he's just been a very, you know, I don't know if it's like he I haven't been watching, but I don't know if it's like he's a fun character, but I've just seen a lot of talk about him. And then I look at the mind we track Eric and it's it's not unimpressive, but there's nothing that really stands out. Like his overall production looks very like lores guerrillaal esque and he's doing it against triple A guys, so I don't really see a ton there, but I don't know possibly. Yeah, he's a an organizational top 12 guy, so he could matter for fantasy, but I don't see much to get excited about with you. And Rick Pinyango. All right, let's take our final break. When your return will jump into waiver wire pictures from the weekend. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's talk we were wire pictures from the weekend and we already mentioned Logan Henderson, but again, it was another solid start. He's got a 350 ERA so far, 106 whip 28% K minus walk rate. He's 74% rostered. The problem is that he faces the Dodgers this week. So yeah, I mean, I want to roster Henderson, but I don't want to use him there. I mean, this guy, I believe whatever the minimum, whatever number of innings he has pitched, I believe he has the highest K minus walk ratio in baseball since his debut for whatever that number of innings is because that was true before this start when he had seven strikeouts to one walk. So I can only assume it will continue to be true. I don't know, it's so weird because it's just like a 93 mile an hour fastball and a change up that he throws like what 85% of the time, then occasionally a couple other pitches. The cutter was good in this start three whiffs, but I think even then he only threw it nine times eight times. I think he's really good. I think Logan Henderson is really good. I don't see a lot to be skeptical of he has been really good anytime. He's been like literally anytime except the one spot star he made like April. So I think Logan Henderson just needs to be rostered everywhere and I wouldn't be saying sit him without any possibility of starting him this week. I wouldn't be shocked if he had a good start against the Dodgers. It was a big weekend for Merrill Kelly. Where did this come from? A four hitter complete game against the Rockies in course field. He only had three strikeouts, only seven whiffs on 100 pitches. His velocity was down. His movement profiles were all over the place that feels like a course field thing, but the biggest thing for Merrill Kelly is I think Part of it was him working back from that. back injury, his control early on was terrible. And this start, he walked none over nine innings, and he threw 73% of his pitches for strikes. So he's getting up there in age, but I still think from, you know, whatever, to this point forward or from before this star forward, he's probably just going to look like Merrill Kelly, which is a mid three ZRA and like a one 15-ish whip. It is a bummer that you probably nobody got anything out of him in this one. Well, I guess maybe you started him. It was a two-star week, right? Was it? Was this on Friday? It was on Saturday, I believe. Okay. Yeah. It might have been. But you probably didn't start him at course field. Why would you? I mean, people are dropping. He's only 61% roster. But no, he should be rostered. We have a very long track record of this guy being very, very solid, and I wasn't too concerned about the slow start. So yeah, I didn't realize he was that low roster. That that seems like an overreaction. I think go out and add him. I'm going to probably have to add him to the waiver or column and realize he was that low. Where would you take Merrill Kelly or Rocky Sasaki? Kelly. I think so too. I think he'll be more usable, more consistent. But again, I am intrigued by the mystery bag that is mystery bag mystery box. I think box is probably the right thing. Mystery box of Rocky Sasaki bag of mysteries. Yeah. Why not? Names only available in shallow leagues. Do any of them matter? Jack Leiter took a tough loss at the Astros. Seven innings. One runs six strikeouts. Only had seven whiffs on 98 pitches. This was his first quality start since March 30th. His first start of the season. He also is in Colorado this week. So that's not great. Randy Vazquez pitched well at the Mariner's six shutout innings with three strikeouts for him. He also allowed 11 hard hits. It was a 95.8 average exit velocity against. And he gets the Dodgers this week. And Jeffrey Springs. They solid outing against the Giants. Six innings, two runs, one earned three strikeouts. He is at the Padre this week. So I mean, if we're just saying these guys are streamer types, to me, Jeffrey Springs is the most usable of the three. Yeah. And I in any league where these guys are available, I think is shallow enough where you're not exactly killing for upside anyway. So dying for upside. So I would probably just prioritize whoever has the best matchup. I look, I wouldn't be shocked. Jack Leiter had a good start at course field. It's still the Rockies lineup. But there's no way I'm going to roll that dice with how up and down he's been. And the Vazquez, I'm not starting against the Dodgers. I think he's, I think he's useful. I think he's, you know, a viable streamer. But I don't think he's much more than a viable streamer. Three names, young, kind of interesting, Kate Cavali against the Orioles. Six in a third innings, three runs, eight strikeouts, zero walks, big key for him through 72% of his pitches for strikes. And I put him in here because he faces the Metz this week. I know their lineup has technically started to heat up, but still overall, not a great offense there. Trevor McDonald has pitched well for the giants here. He was at the athletic six and two thirds, one run, five strikeouts for him. He a lot of 11 hard hits, but he gets a lot of ground balls. So a lot of those hard hits just go straight into the ground. He gets the white socks this week. We also kind of have to like reframe our brains. Yeah. The white socks offense is actually good now. So it's not just like a couple of guys who can get on base, a couple of guys who can have for power. Yeah. The white socks are not a great matchup. I don't think they're like, oh no, the white socks, but it's just for years, we would always say, oh, the white socks, yeah, start him. But yeah, that's that's not really the case anymore. And then kind of pre-lip, who you mentioned earlier, he pitched well against the brewers, six innings, two runs, one of those earned. He had eight strikeouts to two walks. He has a lot of two earn runs or fewer in all five of his starts. And he's at the red socks this week. They are better against lefties, but I don't really mind that matchup. How would you rank these three Chris pre-lip Trevor McDonald and Kate Cavalli? I think I would go Cavalli pre-lip McDonald. But let's put pre-lip at the top of L.S. Come on. Yeah. That's kind of where I'm leaning is just I think Kate Cavalli is just a guy. Like, there's pretty good strikeout upside, but he just gets hit really hard when he doesn't get strikeouts. And he really only has the one great pitch. So I don't mean kind of pre-lip, I'm not sure he has any great pitches outside of his slide or either, but I think he's interesting. There's a little mystery box element there. So if you want to put him ahead of Kate Cavalli, yeah, that's fine. I was certainly prioritizing pre-lip in my leagues over Cavalli anyway when I was making my additions. Do you have any interest in Trevor McDonald the way he's pitched so far? His minor league numbers were terrible. Yeah. And is he likely to stick in the rotation for long? Yeah, I guess Logan Webb could return this. Yeah, that's my concern. I think because I actually was reading I think Nick Pollock's Saturday recap. He likes Trevor McDonald, it seems. But yeah, I think Logan Webb might be making his next start. That would that would be my concern. Yeah, I'm not really, look, McDonald has pitched much better than Tyler Malley and Adrian Hauser. Yeah, they could take Hauser or Malley out. Malley had another bad start this weekend. Yeah. That wouldn't shock me either. Yeah, it's possible. I would probably rank them pre-lip McDonald and Kate Cavalli. I just sure the Kate Cavalli thing. It's like he didn't walk anybody this weekend, but typically walks to many gives a lot of contact. He's a really volatile picture. Any interest in these streamer types, Grant Holmes shut down the Red Sox six shut out innings with four strikeouts. He gets the nationals this week. They are, they have hit very well this year, but they're much better against lefties and righties. Steven Colock had a quality start. He gets the Mariners this week. Andre Palante had seven strikeouts in this starting against the Royals had 13 whiffs on 99 pitches. His velocity was up as well. He's at the Reds though, bad matchup. And then G. Lito looked solid in his Padres debut until I looked at his velocity and it was down three miles per hour on everything. Wolf. He gets the athletics this week. It's in San Diego. I look, I think we know what these guys are. Do you have any interest in them in any of these matchups? No, not really. I think Holmes and Colock can be useful streamers against the right matchups, but I don't think like Washington Seattle aren't horrible, but I don't think they're good enough that I'd be running out to add them. Palante, I think it's just a guy. So at Cincinnati, I'm not going to roll the dice on that. I don't know. G. Lito was pretty bad last season and now he's three miles per hour down. I know his ERA was like 360 or something, but it was like a 135 whip. No strikeouts, very inconsistent. So I need to see a lot more before I'm willing to roll the dice on the G. Lito. Deep league names to watch. Let's see what happens here. Robert Gasser, Kiway Tang of the Astros. He actually pitched well here. Five shout out of things with seven strikeouts. And he's a spar for those playing points leagues. Coleman Crow pitched well for the brewers on Friday as well. He was already options to the minor. So again, it's they feel like scout team guys are just like, let's see where this goes. But any intrigue with any of these three Chris, Gasser, Kiway Tang and Coleman Crow. Yeah, I know. Gasser is a guy that some people liked entering the season. The brewers obviously have a very good track record for ringing the most out of their somewhat marginal pitching talent. So I think that's a name to watch. And then Tang, yeah, Tang does some interesting stuff. The sweeper was really good in this one. I think these are both names to watch. But outside of even 15 team leagues, I'm not sure I'd be looking to add either of them yet. We wanted to see how Grayson Rodriguez would do in his first start in, like, two years, three years. I think it's yeah, almost twofold, like 22 months. And we said it was a bad landing spot here against the Dodgers. And it was ugly. Three and two thirds innings seven hit seven runs, four walks, four strikeouts. Some positives, like the fastball velocity was spot on where it has been in the past. He averaged 96 miles per hour. Maybe eventually this can turn into something, but I don't think there's anything we need to do with Grayson Rodriguez right now. Start or sit these pitchers for this upcoming week. Spencer, Arrogetti took a no hitter into the eighth inning against the Rangers. Seven and a third shut out. He had five strikeouts to four walks. And he's got a 150 ERA, a 119 whip over five walks per nine. So that is a problem. What are your thoughts here on Arrogetti so far? And would you use him at the Cubs this week? I think he's a pretty fringe guy right now. I would prefer not to use him at the Cubs. That is not a great matchup. I guess that one might depend just like what the weather is that day, because if the wind's blowing in, maybe you can go with it, but he just he walks too many guys to keep getting away with the results he has. I think he's talented. The curveball's been excellent. And just not sure the rest of the arsenals there. I like Arrogetti. I think you could probably make like a sell high case for him, but he's talented. I would not want to use him at the Cubs this week. Casey Meisle could in his return from the IL against the Blue J six shut out innings with four strikeouts. His velocity was up a little bit in the start as well. He's quietly been really good this season. Two earned runs are fewer in six of seven starts. He's 85% roster. He's only 29% started, which I get like, you know, first start coming back off the IL gets the guardians this week again. They're swinging a hot bad with on hell Martinez and J-RAM in those boys. Would you use Casey Meisle? I think he's fine. I think he's a perfectly fine starter. He's never someone. I think you have to rank inside of the top 50 SPs, but he's always someone who's worth rostering. And I think, you know, even with Cleveland hitting a little better lately, it's still a pretty bad lineup. So I would, I would be okay using Casey Meiss. Sandy. Sandy. Tell me about it. Step. He pitched well. How about that against the raise six innings one uner and run with six right outs to zero walks. His, his, I noticed his slider was different in this one. It was up 2.4 miles per hour and it had four less inches of drop. It was solid. His changeup was very good in this one. He's just been so inconsistent this season. 70% started is Sandy. Do you use him against the braves this week? Tough, tough matchup. I think I would. But. It's not a must start. Yeah, I did notice the same thing with the slider looking maybe a little more cuttery. And this one, I know there have been. There have been some times when he's been throwing a cutter this season. So I wonder if there's just a classification thing there. But yeah, I did notice that. He's been. The overall numbers are actually closer to what I was expecting. Then I expected. If that makes sense, he's down to a 353 R.A. 126 whips a little high, but we need more strikeouts, man. That's definitely any more strikeouts. But yeah, I lean towards starting him, but I don't think it's a must start for sure. Carl Sardin has been pretty bad through his first two starts. He was at the meds this weekend, three and two thirds innings, two runs, six strikeouts, the three walks, the whips were okay. And he actually threw 63% of his pitches for strikes, but three walks. I mean, the play that he made, did you watch? That was bad. Yeah, that was bad. Sometimes the things that go through Carl Sardin's head, he's such a talented pitcher. But he has like these mental gaff sometimes. It's just, man, what is he doing? 58% started to use Rodon against the blue jays this week. Given how bad the controls been so far, I would lean against it. I think the stuff's looked good. Yeah. Like the velocity is there. It's actually been up a little bit. The whips have been there. I think he's going to figure it out, but this is one of those things where you can look at it in both directions. Right. Well, I'm sure we'll talk about Jose Soriano and Yuri Perez very soon. But I look at both of them and it's like, what's gone wrong with Yuri Perez? Well, he can't throw strikes. What's gone right with Jose Soriano? Well, he had cut the strike, the walk rate significantly before this most recent start. And that is such a tough thing for me as an analyst because there's nothing, there's very little tangible to it that you can say. Like that's just they're pitching better and maybe they will continue to pitch as good as they have, whereas poorly as they have. But it's the kind of thing that can turn on a dime and completely change your pitcher's fortunes. So Rodon, I'm definitely not giving up on, but I think it makes sense to sit him. I know people will yell at me for talking about the Yankees so much today, but they after this weekend, right? And just like the way things kind of melted down, they have to face the blue jays and the raises week. I mean, this could just be an absolutely this, this could be a brutal week. Okay, but they were also playing well before this recent stretch. I know it's just they always start so well. And then once you get to like this is sooner than usual. Usually it's like June and July where they start to fall apart. But here we are. It's May and the Yankees are doing Yankees things. Jose Soriano fell apart in the sixth inning against the Dodgers here. Obviously tough matchup, but five and a third innings only one hit allowed six runs, six walks, six strikeouts. He had 16 whiffs on 92 pitches. And his last four starts to 614 ERA, a 150 whip. So he's he's he's given back a little bit. I mean, his overall numbers are still really good, but do you use Jose Soriano this week against the athletics? Yes, out away from Sacramento. Yeah, I would definitely use him. But yeah, the last three or four starts, the walks have gone back up. The walk rate is actually now basically what it was last season if I'm remembering correctly. And so the biggest change for Jose Soriano now is his strikeout rate has gone way up. And so he's still at like 29 30% from remembering correctly. Let me make sure 28% up from 21%. His walk rate identical to what it was last season. So that's the biggest change. And it's like. He's not the same exact picture as he was last year. He's during that four seamer a lot more. He's starting to split or more. He's done the sink or less. The sinker now has a 29% with rate. It all feels a little precarious still, especially if he's back to being an 11% walk rate. He has been lately. So I'm just, I'm not giving up on Jose Soriano, but I'm not sure, you know, the top 20 starting picture stuff is where I want to be. I never got him there in my rankings, but I think you were pretty close. I got, I think the highest I got him was up to 30. I think I still have him around there in the 30 to 35 range. He's not far from me. Yeah, maybe he drops down a little bit, but yeah, it's just, he's walking way too many right now. That's Jose Soriano. Chris, one of the questions or I guess two questions here that we're getting most often right now is what do we do with Yuri Perez and Baba Chandler Yuri Perez? Five innings, five runs, four walks, five strikeouts, two homers allowed at the raise this weekend. He has just three quality starts in 10 outings and 4.8 walks per nine. Baba Chandler, three innings, five runs, four walks to two strikeouts, only had three whiffs against the Phillies. He couldn't throw strikes and then when he did, it just got hit really hard. And yeah, I mean, he's been even worse. This was the first weekend in some leagues where like I actually thought about dropping Baba Chandler. I didn't get there yet, but I can't really blame people for asking. So what are we doing with Yuri Perez and Baba Chandler? I think it's a lot easier to hold Yuri Perez. I think he's not nearly as far away as Baba Chandler is. Now obviously look, 4.8 walks per nine. That's way too much, especially for a guy who gives up the kind of homeruns that Yuri Perez does and likely always with. And if you look at, you know, his baseball, Savant Paves, they do a little graphics showing you their heat zones. How often they pitch and what part of the strike zone. And with Yuri, it's like outside of the strike zone with his four seamer or right down the middle. And his slider is kind of the same thing. And then his change up is awesome. It is like just outside like just a hair outside of the strike zone. And then his curve ball is also right in the middle of strike zone or outside. And so it's like, I think that kind of sums it up. He's just not like there's just so many uncompetitive pitches. I don't know if there's a single pitcher I've watched this season where it looks like he misses his spot by three feet as often as Yuri Perez. But the stuff is so good. And I'm going to keep betting on it when he's not that far away. Like we've at least gotten a couple of good starts out of him. We've gotten a couple of starts where he's gotten it together. Baba Chandler's given us nothing this season. Like for a guy with his stuff and I think the quality of the stuff is not far from Yuri Perez. But he just he can't put guys away. I think his sequencing is all messed up. I wonder, you know, I mentioned the the Jared Jones to the bullpen thing earlier. I do wonder if like, there's a pirate's team that's trying to make the playoffs. Do they send Baba Chandler down to work on things when Jared Jones is healthy or ready? Frankly, I'm surprised they haven't yet. I think they have to have that conversation at least. So I would say Perez sit but hold Chandler. I would love to hold but he just hasn't given us any reason to believe that he's anywhere close. And I think with both of them, the light could go on in one bullpen session. I just I don't know what the problem is. Like I can't diagnose it. So hopefully someone smart on the team can notice something mechanically and get them adjusted and get them going. Baba Chandler already did it once last season, you know, going from great early on really struggled in the middle part of the season. Barely walked anybody when he got to the majors. He had like four walks and 30 innings or something. So I still think he can get there. But Perez isn't easier hold than Chandler right now. Pitching leftovers. Part one Christopher Sanchez destroyed the pirate six hit shut out 13 strikeouts to zero walks 17 whiffs on a hundred a pitches. His last three starts Christopher Sanchez 24 shut out innings 30 strikeouts to one walk. He has been ridiculous. Cam Schletler continues to dominate. He was at the meds six and two thirds innings one run. Nice strikeouts 19 whiffs on a hundred six pitches. Nathan of Aldi shut down the a**ros after his injury scare earlier in the week. Seven shut out innings with eight strikeouts for him. Last three starts for all the 22 innings one run 23 strikeouts to just three walks and tray a savage turned in a quality start at tigers six innings two runs six strikeouts 19 whiffs on a D. Pitches and I felt like watching highlights of this game. This was the best that you savages splitter has looked all season any thoughts on your savage of all the campsula and Christopher Sanchez. All right, continue on to the next group. We have Joe Ryan against the Brewers, six innings of one run ball with seven strikeouts there. Back to back quality starts just one earned run total. Excuse me, one earned run in each start since he left that outing on May 3rd with Elbow Sornis. So good to see that he's pitched well after that. Spencer Shredder solid against the Red Sox, five in a third innings, one run, four strikeouts, but had 16 whiffs on 84 pitches. Emerson Hancock took a tough loss against the Padres, six innings, one run, six strikeouts for him. And Nick Martinez continued his strong season at the Marlins, six shutout innings, four strikeouts. He has a lot of two earn runs or fewer in all nine starts. He does not get any strikeouts. I'm not exactly sure how he's doing this, but he's been awesome so far. Anything to add on Martinez, Emerson Hancock, Spencer Shredder and Joe Ryan. Shredder, it's a little bit of up and down right now. You know, the whiff numbers are really good. There's the fastball movement looked a little better this time around, but it's still not an elite pitch. Still goes with a lot of hard contact with it. Change up and curveball, whiff rates are very good so far. I don't know how much I buy that. I need this bigger sample size, but I think this is a case where the worst case scenarios have not come to pass. For Spencer Shredder. I don't see him as like an impact arm moving forward, but I think he's someone you're probably more happy to have around the knot the rest of the way. Nick Martinez, are you any closer to buying what he's doing? Or is it just? Of course not. No. Okay. I mean, it's Nick Martinez. We have a very long track record. The underlying stats are very mediocre right now. He's getting away with it and I'm fine continuing to rely on it, but I don't see any reason to buy in in a big way. Yeah. The one thing I have noticed is the rays have had him favor the sinker and the change up more of the season and those are typically his best pitches. So I mean, it's, you know, they didn't reinvent the wheel. They're like, hey, just throw your two best pitches more and that's what Martinez has done. So pretty clear, so high. If you can, I don't know how many people are actually buying Nick Martinez on the other end of that pitching left over his part three. Davis Martin did it again this time against the Cubs. Six innings one run, seven strikeouts zero walks. He had 15 whiffs on 91 pitches. This dude has been lights out. 23% K minus walk rate so far. His swinging strike rate is way up. He has a quality start and three straight. One run run or fewer in six straight for Davis Martin. Peyton Tully, the longest outing of his career at the braves. Eight innings two runs, only three strikeouts. Bryce Elder took a tough loss on the other side. Eight innings three runs, three strikeouts for him. And Kevin Gossman bounced back at the Tigers six shutout innings with five strikeouts. Chris, anything on Gossman, elder Tully and Davis Martin. Yeah, I don't quite understand how Davis Martin suddenly evolved into this version of himself where the splider is one of the best pitches in baseball, 53% whiff rate. He's heading into this start. I don't get it, but I will say there were some changes in this start. His extension was up almost a half foot in this start, which is a fairly big deal. He's getting an extra half inch closer to the plate. That'll make everything play up better. I don't know. I look at the individual pitches and the four seamer wif rates up from 21.5 to 29.5, slider from 30 to 52.9. That all screams regression. But the underlying numbers suggest he's been very good. And he's getting a ton of strikeouts right now and missing bats. And I don't know. I don't buy Davis Martin as an ace all of a sudden, but I also don't think you should drop him. If somebody gave me an offer where they viewed him as like, what I rather have Yuri Perez or Davis Martin rest of the season. I think it's Yuri Perez. Who would I rather start for the next two weeks? Definitely Davis Martin, the way he's pitching. I just think at some point it's going to regress for him. I don't think he's going to be able to keep missing bats this way. I mean, look, 53% wif rate is like on a slider. I don't know if Spencer Strider was ever a 53% wif rate on a slider. That's a bonkers number. That's the kind of thing you see from like relievers. So I just have to believe that that will regress and that he can't sustain it. But right now the way Davis Martin's pitching, you got to start him. Spencer Strider Slider in 2023, Chris 55% wif. There you go. We've all said Davis Martin spent right of the two best sliders in baseball. Yep. Last name I have on this list here is Logan Gilbert, man. He has just been so frustrating this season. He got bombed by the Padres six and two thirds innings seven runs three homers allowed in this one. He still had 14 whiffs on 97 pitches. I dug in. I didn't really see anything that was like too wrong with the underlying stuff in this star for Logan Gilbert. His fastball did get hit a little hard, but like his overall average EV in this star was 84.7 miles per hour. It's just, do you just keep rolling Logan Gilbert out there as long as he's healthy? Yeah, I think you have to keep rolling him out there. I know it's been frustrating. There have been some bad starts. One start ago, he struck out nine over six shutout out ofnings too. So I'm not giving up on him. He's still missing a ton of bats. Slider and splitter still look like excellent swing and miss pitches. Fastballs just been a little off this season. And I do wonder if I always wonder when a pitcher who doesn't need a cutter starts introducing a cutter. Like Logan Gilbert has this year. And that was one that I saw. He had basically Cowralli told him not to throw his sinker or his cutter anymore. And then the very first start when Cowralli went to the World Baseball Classic during spring training. Logan Gilbert started throwing his cutter in sinker more. And the cutter has stayed. The sinker has not. But it's one of those things where I just, like the cutter doesn't look like a terrible pitch. But I just look at the whole arsenal. It's like, what's the point? What is added by the cutter? Like I get it, you're a self-made pitcher and you've tinkered your way every year to adding new pitches. And you've made yourself a great pitcher. But it's like, at some point, you run the risk of tinkering your way out of success. And that anytime you have the cutter, foreseam, or slider combo guys, unless you really need a pitch to neutralize the platoon and he doesn't, I always think there's some risk that you mess up your feel for your foreseam or you start cutting your foreseam or you lose a little effectiveness there. Maybe that's what we're seeing here. It's just feel for the foreseamers, not great. I don't know. All right, some hitting left overs. Kyle Schwarber, two more bombs on Friday. He is the first to 20 home runs this season. Brandon Lau had two home runs Friday as well. He's had a strong season, 12 homeers, 31 RBI, 895 OPS for him. Dale and Lyle continues to rake. He had a big game on Friday, three for four with his seventh home run, last seven games for Dale and Lyle. 400 batting average, four homeers, 10 RBI, one steal. And he's up to 84% or off. So not out there in any leagues and really shouldn't be. The Miguel Vargas breakout, starting to look more legit. He home or two more times this weekend. He's got a 374 on base percentage, 11 homeers, six steals, 880 OPS, more Kami had two more home runs on Saturday as well. He's up to 17 for the season, Juan Soto with a big revenge weekend against Yankees. I will have my vengeance in this life for the next. He home or not Friday, two for two with two steals on Saturday. And then he had another steal on Sunday. So big weekend for Soto. Brent Rooker looks like he's coming around so far in May, 276, four homeers, 13 RBI and 871 OPS that looks a lot more like Brent Rooker. Bryce Harper has quietly been really good. He had four hits on Friday. He home or not on both Saturday and Sunday. One might even say that he's been a elite hitter so far in the season. I wrote that in tomorrow's newsletter. There you go. And Corby Carroll enjoyed his weekend in Cores Field. He had a double dong on Sunday. He had two hits with a steal on Friday. So lots of names here, Chris. Anything that stands out to you that you'd like to touch on. Yeah, Harper. It's interesting because the average ex of velocities, the lowest it's been since 2016, 88.9 miles per hour. But he is like 43% on average ex of velocity. If you sort just by fly balls and line drives, he jumps up to like 65% time. So I don't really care if Bryce Harper is not hitting the ball on the ground hard. A hair care if he's hitting the ball on the air hard. He has cut a few points off his strikeout rate. He is pulling the ball in the air a little more often. I don't know if we can say that this is going to last forever. That he's a 900 OPS or 930 OPS bat again. But I think you're feeling really good. If you have Bryce Harper on your team. And now that there was that kind of second tier of first baseman coming into the season where that top tier was Kurtz Alonzo and Vlad. I think Kurtz is clear number one. I don't know if you think that's too hot. But I still have Vlad first, but it's not with much conviction. I mean, I can switch. It's, it's, curts underlying numbers are actually better than last year. He's running. He's hitting lead off. I think he's the clear number one. After him, it feels like Vlad, Matt Olsen, Bryce Harper, Pete Alonzo, I mean, Ben Rice, honestly, if you're including him in the first base conversation, I think you could go really any, anyway, with that five. And I wouldn't really argue with it. If you want to put Pete Alonzo at the bottom, because he's been cold, I think there's a case for that. If you want to stick with your preseason, expectation, having closer to the top, I think that's okay too. But I think those guys are all very, very bunched up now. And I think touch or curts is the top guy now. I think first base is the best position in fantasy this season. It is just absolutely loaded with all the names that you just talked about. We didn't even mention Freeman. Devers has been better in May, but obviously overall, not, not great, but South Stewart, huge breakout season, more economy, what he's doing. Nice to have any past Guantino showed up. Yeah. I mean, you know who we haven't talked about at all. God, yes, having another huge season. Yeah. He's in there. There's Alec Burtleson. There's Jonathan Aronda, Miguel Vargas with the breakout year. There's a Christian Walker who's been a revelation. It's show some respect for Liam Hicks MLB RBI leader. Is he still a leader? Liam Hicks has 40 RBI. The next two guys in the Marlins have 20 and 19. He has more RBI than the next two guys on his team combined. Just bonkers. He has a 690 OPS with the bases empty. He has a 1090 OPS with runners on base. That's crazy. The call to the bullpen for the pirates on Friday. Gregory Soto got the ninth inning with a three run lead. He allowed three runs to those earned on two walks and two hits. He took his second blown save. Then Dennis antenna got the 10th and he allowed three runs on four hits. He did not record an out. My guess is Gregory Soto gets the next save opportunity here for the pirates. Have things up for the Reds on Friday. Pierce Johnson pitched the sixth inning. It was Tony Santi and in the seventh. Graham Ashcraft got the eighth. He allowed four runs. It was eventually TJ Anton who got the ninth with a two run lead. He allowed a run but picked up his first save. It is a messy bullpen right now in the deepest of leagues where saves our scarce. I threw a couple dollars on TJ Anton just in case he gets the next save opportunity for the Reds. But I really don't know. Yeah, I don't. Yeah, maybe I don't. I don't have any interest in any of that. Yeah. For the Brewers on Friday. Abner Arebe got the eighth inning with a one run lead. He was facing the top of the twins lineup. He allowed a hit in a walk but he got out of it. And then Trevor McGillow got the ninth. He struck out one for his fifth save. Then on Saturday, Chad Patrick threw four shutout innings to pick up his first save. Just kind of seems like he's out of the rotation. I guess more like a kind of bulk reliever for Chad Patrick. Do you think the Brewers are switching back over to Trevor McGill after getting it saved on Friday? It's possible. I mean, it's really the first time that this has happened, but I know Arebe hasn't exactly run away with it. So we always said unless Arebe just made himself unimpeachable, it always kind of felt like they wanted to go back to McGill. You know, there were there are some quotes from from Chad Tracy space, basically saying that. So Patrick wouldn't shock me. Patrick. Yeah. Yeah. For the Ashros on Friday, Chad Tracy, that's the Red Sox manager now. Right. Yep. Yep. Yeah. For the Ashros on Friday, Brian King got the final five outs for his fourth save. Then on Saturday, King pitched in the seventh inning and it was Brian to break you got the final four outs for his second save. As we mentioned earlier, Josh Hader seems like he should be back with the next two weeks. So all these other guys in the Ashros bullpen probably don't matter too much. For the athletics on Friday, it was the lefty Hogan Harris, who picked up his third save. Jack Perkins worked both Wednesday and Thursday, but you know, Perkins has been a little bit shaky here. So we'll see if he gets the next save opportunity for the Rockies on Saturday. Antonio Senzitela picked up his third save. He is looking kind of like the closer ish. I guess does it matter Chris Rockies bullpen? I mean, it matters in as much as anyone who gets saved matters in a true road O league, but I would not be excited about Antonio Senzitela on my team. Like what's the upside to get like 14 saves and probably bad? I know he's been good this season, but I can't count on getting good peripherals from him for ratios. For the Giants on Saturday, Caleb Killian came on in the eighth inning with a five run lead, two runners on he allowed a three run homer. It was lefty Matt Gage who picked up the save in the ninth inning. I have no idea. I think it's Caleb Killian, but it's it's also just like Tony Vatelo has become who was the manager for the Giants. Yeah, oh yeah, he's Gabe Kaplan re-incarnated. It's so it's so frustrating for the Yankees on Sunday. We spoke about this earlier. David Bednar gave up a three run homer to tie the game. His overall number is 495 year a 155 whip. I don't see a clear person that would be next up. I wonder if they would give Fernando Cruz a look. I don't think we're close to this because I think that there is a leash here with Bednar and typically Aaron Boone is loyal to a false with his closers. But at some point, if he continues to struggle, Fernando Cruz pitched the eighth inning in this game. He gets a bunch of strikeouts. He also walks everybody. So I don't even know who would be next up, but I guess Cruz would be my deep, deep respect. And he wasn't great. He was pretty bad after the trade last year too. Yeah, he was. He was. Yeah, I would guess Bednar has some leash, but yeah, that's, I wouldn't have a ton of faith in Fernando Cruz. He's a pretty good pitcher, but not a lights out one for sure. So I would, I think if you're the Yankees, you're hoping David Bednar just, we've been on this ride before and he tends to write himself eventually so you would hope he can do that. But yeah, unfortunately, I think the answer is their closer is not on their roster right now. So I would think their closer in the playoffs. There's a decent chance around the roster right now. Yes. To stream or not to stream on Monday, we have Andrew Painter against the Reds, JR Richie at the Marlins, Christian Scott at the Nationals, Brandon's Brode at Cubs, JTG at the Angels, Walbert, Urania against the Athletics, Zach Allen against the Giants, Noah Schultz at the Mariters. Like, some intriguing names, but yeah, they're intriguing combos of name and matchup. I think JTG is okay. I think Urania against the Athletics could be all right. Urania is okay. Painter against the Reds and Phillies, not terrible. JR Richie against the Marlins is not terrible. Christian Scott at the Nationals is not terrible, but I don't have any faith in the pitchers themselves. Noah Schultz at Seattle could be good, but it's a lot of pitchers. I really do not trust and I did note on JR Richie. It doesn't, it's not actually JR Richie, but I saw Renel Delopes toss a couple innings today and velocity was close-ish. She was like 94.5. So I do wonder if we're getting close to JR Richie running out of some rope and Renel Delopes getting another chance because Richie's been pretty terrible. Yeah. I think I've got for Diddy A Fuentes too. He's looking pretty good out of the bullpen there. If I'm right in Monday, I would probably go Ginn, Urania and Christian Scott. I think that's okay. On Tuesday, we have Griffin Jacks against the Orioles. There's any Matthews, but it's against the Astros, Ben Brown against the Brewers, Matthew Libertor against the Pirates, Reed Dehramers against the Athletics. Ryan Nelson against the Giants. That one's pretty good. Yeah, Ryan Nelson against the Giants. Reed Dehramers against the A's and I think I've got Ben Brown third. I think Ben Brown. I'm not opposed to Jackson. The Orioles lineup has been pretty bad for this season. He just hasn't, he went five innings his most recent start, I think, but- It was four walks to one strikeout. One strikeout. It was still only like 60-something pitches. So I think there's a lot of like four innings risk there. I would rank them Nelson Dehrers and Ben Brown on Tuesday. We are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. [MUSIC] >> Paramount podcasts.