Speaker 1Bryce Eldridge: The Weekend's Biggest Waiver Wire Standout Let's talk about the top waiver wire names from this weekend on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome into FBT Express on Monday, June 1st. I am Chris Towers, joined by Scott White. Let's talk some waiver wire targets. And Scott, I know you are getting excited about Bryce Eldridge, who didn't give us a ton of reasons to get excited when he first got called up, although it wasn't really his fault. The Giants just weren't playing him every day. Well, he started the past six games. He started against a couple of lefties. They seem to be doing the smart thing here. And over the weekend he went 6 for 11 with four double SA Homer and two walks went I think four hits on Sunday. He had a huge weekend. Reince Eldridge is 37% rostered. How much higher does that need to be? Speaker 2 Probably double that at least.
Speaker 2So you mentioned started six straight games. You start at 9 of 10 couple lefties. Like you said, like the playing time issue, he's put that to rest and obviously that monster performance on Sunday, I think it's gonna stay at rest for a while. But, you know, beyond that, he's striking out less than 25% of the time For a player with his kind of power, that's that's about as good as you could ask for. Expect a batting average coming into that huge game. Sunday was 282, expected slug 477. Those are very high marks. So I, I think, I think Sunday's game was the first time we saw the payoff. But things had been under the surface. Things had been improving for Eldridge who again huge prospect. DH only in fantasy, at least CBS leagues so. Speaker 1 3 appearances. Speaker 2 A first, so maybe he'll pick it up within the next couple weeks or so. But right now DH only, which is part of the hesitation, you know, small lineup, head to head leagues. Maybe you don't need to pick them up at anything else. I think I think Eldridge is interesting enough to pick up.
Speaker 1Curtis Mead and Sam Antonacci: Must-Add Hitters All right, you want a first baseman or a third baseman. We got Curtis Mead of the Nationals who was starting every day against lefties and barely playing his righties early in the season once they sent Brady House down. He has started five of the past seven games against right-handed pitchers. He hit 261 with an OPS over 900 in the month of May with the underlying numbers to back it up. He is the most added added hitter this week, but he's still only 34% roster. Where do you think Curtis Mean needs to be?
Speaker 2Speaker 2 I don't rank him as high as Eldridge, but I do think he is a player of interest, a former prospect to you know. The Rays gave up on him, the White Sox gave up on him, but the Nationals are leaning into him sending down Brady House to open up more bats for meat and he's making good on it. Like he was supposed to be a guy who walked a lot. It never really happened until this year. His walk rate is about triple what it was a year ago. The strikeout rate is much improved too. The quality of contact is kind of meh, but with a good pull error rate, which is how you you get the most out of meh contact quality. And I think I think if you need third base help or that's not even the only plate where else is first base. Yeah, I, I think, I think he's definitely in the discussion all.
Speaker 1Speaker 1 Right. A guy I think is just under rostered right now, Sam Antonacci for the White Sox. He's only 50% rostered. He's a really good roto player. He has, I think it's 7-8 stolen bases in the month of May is what he finished with. He hit 296. The expected batting average is three O 9. You don't really see that very often, but I think even in a points league, this guy might matter. He only strikes out 15% of the time right now. The batting average is going to be high. He's playing every day. I think Sam Antonacci at 50% rostered is too low roster. That is the second base and outfield eligible guy. What do you think?
Speaker 2Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, I would agree. It took a while to get him going as a for him to get going as a base dealer. But he's he's definitely leaned to that more for for points leagues. You know, he's supposed to be a player who gets on base a ton in the minors. Last year it was a 433 clip and this year the short time he was there was 500 clip. The walks have not been that impressive so far. That probably just growing pains.
Speaker 1Speaker 1 No, my dude loves to take an HBP and I love that about Sam Antonacci. He has 11 hit by pitches. He has a 370 OPP through
Speaker 2his first 42 games. There you. Speaker 2 Go. There you go, I guess. And standard CBS leagues, I think yeah, you get. Speaker 1 Points. Speaker 2 For those he still should walk more too, but you know he he is getting on base at at a good rate still because of the HPPS. Fair enough. Jacob Gonzalez and Top Pitcher Waiver Wire Targets
Speaker 1All right, let's talk about another White Sox infielder. That is infield prospect Jacob Gonzalez, who was called up to replace Munitaka Murakami, who's on the IL four to six weeks, unfortunately with a hamstring strain. Former first rounder Jacob Gonzalez has been having a huge breakout season. 19 homers, 8 steals in 52 games. Triple AI Think he could be useful for roto leaves with what he's shown this season. What do you think about Jacob Gonzalez?
Speaker 2Speaker 2 Yeah, really impressed by what he's done at AAA. The exit velocities, particularly on the high end are great. The, you know, walk out, strike out rate, walk out the walk and strike out rates. There's a walk out rate. Walk and strike out rates are good for Jacob Gonzalez. But also, you know, zone contact rate is great. So even even the under the hood kind of plate display measures look good. I, I think the profile looks really solid. He is a 24 year old late bloomer, which I think is some longer odds for breaking in. And his first start was Sunday, even though this IL you know, Murakami went on the IL earlier in the weekend. So I'm I'm it's not clear how much the White Sox are going to play Gonzalez. He's got to come through the little bit they do to start out. But I'm definitely keeping an eye on Jacob Gonzalez at the very least. All. Speaker 1
Speaker 1Right, let's take a quick break and we'll be right back after this. We're back on FBT Express. We're talking pictures to add now and you just tell me who you prefer here. Ben Brown coming off A7 inning, 1 earned run, 6 strikeout start. He is 75% rostered. Or Jared Jones, also 75% rostered. He made his return from the IL 5 earned runs, four and a third innings. Didn't go as great but fastball velocity was up 15 whiffs on like 75 pitches. Yep. I I think both of these guys look pretty promising. I think 75% roster it's too low for both.
Speaker 2Speaker 2 Yeah, I think they're both most roster at this point. If you're asking me to choose well, you got to go with Ben Brown cause the results have been there for a while now. He keeps going deeper. 5 innings start, followed by 6 innings start, followed by 7 innings start. The pitch count's been like 82 almost exactly each time. But you know, seeing him get that third time through the line of seven innings, it's it, it's it, it shows they're really gaining faith in Ben Brown as a true starter. But Jared Jones looked impressive in his return average 99 on the fastball, so higher than his rookie. And yeah, that 19.5% swinging strike rate is definitely something to be encouraged by, even though the final line was not the greatest. So pick up both, but Ben Brown first.
Speaker 1Ranking Pitcher Prospects: Cavalli, Leiter, Sasaki, Matthews How would you rank those two relative to Cade Cavalli? Is he last? Speaker 2 He's definitely last. Speaker 1 He's the most added Patreon CBSSports.com leagues. That's why I ask.
Speaker 2Speaker 2 Sure, and and that's fair. I mean he's in line for 2 starts this week. He is right behind Ben Brown on my streamer pitchers list. Jared Jones is a couple spots behind them. I think he's 4th on that list. They're all on that list. But for Cavalli, it's more of a short term calculation there, which doesn't mean like you have to drop him after streaming this week. Like there have been positive signs for Kate Cavalli, but I think he's more vulnerable to bad matchups than those other two. The the skill set isn't quite as robust, so he would be a distant third even if he would just just talking for the upcoming week, he would be second and.
Speaker 1Speaker 1 Who would be your favorite out of Jack Leiter, Roki Sasaki and Zebby Matthews? All at least 70% rostered.
Speaker 2Speaker 2 I think Jack Leiter has the most to, I think I think you can. You have the best idea what he's going to be going for it and it's useful enough. He is startable with good matchups. He can sometimes come away with a big strikeout total like he did over the weekend. You know, the ERA, the whip, They're going to be a little messy, but you pick your spots with Jack Leiter and he's going to be useful. The other two I think are are still, we're still getting to the bottom of who they are and there's not a lot of reason to trust in them yet. Good, some good signs for Zebby Matthews. This was actually his worst start Sunday, but it was weak contact. He got a good number of whiffs. Like I, I'm not writing off Zebby Matthews by any stretch. And Roki Sasaki's last three starts are probably in the best three of his career. And velocity was way up across the board or up one and a 1 to 1 1/2 mph. But it's that's critical, especially for the fastball 'cause it only plays when the velocity on it is elite. But he's been keeping the walks down trending the right direction. I I don't know that there's been a star from Roki Sasaki yet that makes me feel like this is it. He's the chosen 1 after all. But it's trending the right direction. Speaker 1 All right.
Speaker 1And just to make the point on Jack Leiter, you know guy you trust against the right matchups, upcoming matchups versus Cleveland, at Boston, versus Minnesota at Miami, pretty good four-star stretch coming up there, Jack live. You might get a lot out of it and that's going to do it before after Key Express. We will be back tomorrow. Goodbye.
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