Opening Day Overreactions! The Rookies Are Awesome! (3/27 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Happy!

- Come on Friday and welcome in.

“- Top fantasy baseball today on March 27th,”

the happiest of Coca-Cola Fridays. Opening day is in the books. I am Frank's handful joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. What a fun day. Now it's time to overreact.

Rookiees were awesome. Paul's keen stinks. We have bullpen to talk about everything in between. And I will start with an overreaction of my own. This will be a legendary rookie class.

- The year of the rookie. Yeah. - I mean, what a day. What a day. - The thing is, yeah, all these guys who had

their major league debut three different guys homework and their major league debut. I think we can say it's four. I know Chaste a lot are played in some postseason games. We usually don't count postseason stuff

for record keeping purposes. So four players, homework and their major league debut today. And Kevin McGonagall didn't, but he went four for five. That's really, which I think that was the, that's even rare getting four hits in your debut.

But the other thing I want to point out is, no one McLean's still a rookie. - Yeah. - Like the... - Conor Griffin is not here yet. Conor Griffin's not here yet.

South Stewart is still a rookie. Even though he had a big game to season. - Yeah, man. - Very good game as well, like, yeah. - Yeah, this is a banner rookie year. - Yeah, might be. - Say in it, I've been writing it.

It is a loaded rookie class.

“And that's why, you know, I've gotten in trouble”

before particularly in some of the 15 team industry leagues loading up on too many rookies. No, as long as I wasn't reaching for them and I didn't feel compelled to reach for them because it's like that's too many guys to reach for.

But I didn't mind if I ended up with four or five of them because I think things had kind of bottled next in the minors and now, and now it's broken free and we're getting the deluge, the deluge of talent that is over ripe, ready to make a big impact.

- Pretty cool, Kevin McLean will start at third base.

- Mm. - 20% of the way. - And we getting eligibility at the end. - And we can use-- - We can use third base hopes. - So let's not overlook Nathan Church. - You know, another big day for rookie.

- Sure. - He's on the run down, I've got him on here. Let's start up top with some of the big name outfuelers here and specifically because earlier today, we learned Jackson Cheerio has a fractured hand.

Chris and I did an emergency podcast for that, so go back and listen. But Carson Benge and Chase Delauder are two names and shallower leagues that could still be out there. So if you are looking for a Jackson Cheerio replacement,

they make a ton of sense. Carson Benge, one for three with a sock and a shoe.

The first sock and a shoe of the season goes to a rookie

and it was an awesome game for him. Also had two walks, he's 76% rostered on CBS. Chase Delauder still playing, but so far, two for four with a home run for him as well. And he hit the home run off Logan Gilbert,

one of the best pitchers in baseball. So, pretty impressive for him, especially coming off the spring train that he just had, Scott, who do you prefer between the two, Carson Benge and Chase Delauder?

- I prefer Benge because of three reasons. Reason one, he does not have a extensive injury history. - The way Chase Delauder had. - Just a lot of injury history is like a CBS receipt.

“Reason two, I think he's gonna be on base more in general.”

I think Delauder will be on base a good amount, too, but it'll be more batting average driven. Benge is gonna walk more, I would think. And reason three probably even bigger than reason two. So now I'm in a speed there, we saw what the sock and the shoe

that doesn't exist for Delauder. So I would say Benge over to Delauder, but I'm excited about both, I have a lot of shares of both. I would be willing to look into both, even in three outfielder leagues.

- Do you think both will play against both lefties and righties right away, or how do you think playing time works out for either? - Uh, that is my suspicion, I guess.

Then for Benge, so I guess that's enough,

that's a point more in Delauder's favor. But the meds do have Tyrone Taylor. - Yeah, they might be on use. - Right, now he's on the aisle. - Yeah, Mike and he's left in a better himself anyway.

- Yeah, the one thing I will say about Delauder though, I have to imagine the guardians are gonna give him a lot of time off. - That would be the way they just concern it. It might not be a strict platoon,

“but I think we're gonna see a lot of days off,”

at least until and unless you've approved himself, just too good that he needs to be in the lineup every single day, no matter what. But I would guess they're gonna be careful with him early on, at least.

- Mm-hmm. The short stops, we mentioned what they did here, as well Kevin McGregodgle, four for five with two doubles, two runs, two RBI, one of the doubles, 105.9, exit velocity.

JJ weatherhole to the home run in his second at bat,

101.7 exit velocity, 425 feet straight away, center field, 4 JJ weatherhole, Chris, you mentioned, McGregodgle, one game a third, weatherhole, one game a second,

so it's good news all around for us because two positions that we needed help at coming into the season. - Yeah, and I think it's possible, weatherhole and McGregodgle might be top 12 guys

at those positions as soon as they're eligible. So that matters quite a bit. The weatherhole home run, I don't know if you guys saw it, it was a freaking bomb, it didn't even look like he got all of it, right?

It just kind of feel like you flicked it out there and he just, it just got going. - You know, watching spring training, watching the WBC, it's too early, the ball feels a little bouncy right now. - 425 feet on a ball hit less than 102 miles per hour.

- Yeah, we're eating this right for weatherhole. - Yeah, I don't know. - Put our thick conspiracy theory out there. - You're right, let's do it. - That ball was also like four inches outside

and he crushed it to center, 425 to dead center. That was very impressive. This is a really impressive group of young players. There are more to talk about. I will say the, maybe the most impressive thing

about Kevin McGregodgle's day was he had an infield single

that he beat out and he hit 30.2 feet per second

on that run, that is elite, sprint speed. So that, you know, I obviously knew he was fast but it's one of those things where is he fast or is he blazing fast?

“I think he only stole 10 bases last season,”

but that kind of sprint speed is a sign that there's, there's real speed here, too. - Mm-hmm, next that we have Moona Takamura Kami who went one for two with two walks and his first career home run.

One, oh, three eggs of lossity, 384 feet. I thought it was encouraging that in a game against Jacob Missierowski, we heard all this talk all off season about how Moona Kami struggles with velocity. No strikeouts against Missierowski today.

So I thought that was at least a little encouraging there for Moona Takamura Kami. The other outfield prospect, just in Crawford, he went two for four with a run scored just a measly two for four, no holders, no steals

but batting night and his did it together. 75% rostered for Crawford. Scott, would you rank Crawford behind the other two Carson Benge and taste the water? - I think at a Roto, I'd have to put him ahead of Delauder

because he's gonna be a standout in stolen bases. You would expect points that give Delauder the edge over Crawford here at that. - And then my guy, South Stewart three for four with two doubles, two of his hits came off,

Garrett Crochet, the double off Garrett Crochet. - It's the thing there. - So that is, he looks exactly like Super Mario. - Oh, okay. - Yeah, he's got the red cap, he's got the mustache.

- Okay. - All we gotta do is get him some overalls and he just looks excited. - No, I was looking for an explanation.

“- I think I brought it up on, I don't know,”

one of Episodes where we were talking about him, but yeah, I'm gonna work it in a little bit more because obviously we need a sound bite for South Stewart, my guy. The double off Crochet 109 exit velocity, something to watch here.

He also took a line drive off of his wrist while playing defense. I think it was 110 miles per hour, exit velocity off of Roman Anthony's bat, and it looked really bad in slow motion,

and he came out, trainer looked at him, said, you know, nothing feels broken, and then after the game, he said he's all right. You know, we'll see how he responds in a couple days, but hopefully we avoided anything there

because, you know, South Stewart only won game, but to go three for four, two of those hits off Crochet,

- That was good to see.

“I think across the board with these guys,”

it was all very, very positive first games, they were all, certainly be some growing pains at times, but can't ask for much more than what we got at these rookies. - It was a little too, a little too perfect, you know, like we were supposed to be angry at one of these guys

for buying into the hype, you know, that's supposed to happen. And like they gave us no reason to be. So I'm a little disappointed that I can't get angry yet. - He's discouraged that he can't be discouraged.

- No matter what, Scott's never happy.

- No, 20, 26. - He's never happy that's gone. - Oh, everyone's always looking for reasons to be mad, you know? - The reason to be mad is I don't have a reason to be mad. I'm interested to see if Sal Stewart bats clean up

against right-handed pitching as well. Obviously going up against Crochet here, lefty, righty against the lefty. So we'll see where he bats in the lineup against the right-handed pitcher.

Very interested to see that from Sal Stewart. But awesome, awesome historic day here on opening day for the rookie bats. Let's take our first break. When will you return?

Oh my goodness gracious. The players of the night, we'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. All right, now it's time. Let's jump in.

Oh my goodness gracious, player of the night. Oh my goodness gracious. - Welcome back, Susan. - That's right. Okay, let's start with Scott, player of the night.

- Oh, right, well, he actually did not play at night. He played in the afternoon, he played in one of the first games of the day, Jacob Mizurowski. He pitched five innings, one on run, just two hits aloud. 11 strikeouts, that's the number everybody.

I appreciate 11 strikeouts. 25 swinging strikes, which is a ton, 19 on the fastball. He's got a great fastball, like it was a great start. We've seen starts like this from Jacob Mizurowski before. So it's not that surprising.

Now here, here's something you have to get used to if you're new to the podcast this year. Here's where I flip it all around and say, "Yes, it was great, but." And this will be a theme, you know, if something happened, if the thing that just happens,

I'm going to tell you the antithesis of what just happened.

“Because that's what makes it worth talking about, right?”

If what happened is exactly what's always supposed to happen,

then why talk about it? Okay, you with me, you fall-- Okay, this will happen sometimes for Mizurowski, but there will be another side of the coin. And I think that other side of the coin

will leave him with an ERA in with that you don't like very much. That's why Adam is a bust coming into the year, not because I didn't think he could ever get double digit strikeouts. And you saw it in this start, the downside risk. In those five innings, he walked three.

He didn't even throw 61% of his pitches for strikes. So we don't see growth in the areas he needs to grow in, which doesn't mean it couldn't happen as with one star. But as one star that continued the trend from last year and really his entire career going back to the miners,

where he walked more than five per night. So there's no indication from this start that there aren't still major control issues for Mizurowski, but he's got a great bath. Fastball is going to miss--

he's going to have starts where he gets a ton of strikeouts sometimes. I'm just saying it. Don't get too comfortable. I still think there's real ERA in with brisk here. Can I serve as the audience stand in?

Show my response. Boo, boo, hiss, hiss, boo, boo. Yeah. Boo. That wasn't me.

That was the audience. Well, we need to say, and over react to obviously after opening day is that we were way too low on Jacob Mizurowski. Scott, that is the answer that everybody is left with.

“That's what they're looking for, but I, you know,”

I don't want to lie just to make him feel better. Remains the truth. Remains to be seen, but obviously look, 25 swinging strikes is 25 swinging strikes against whoever you do it against. The white socks are going to strike out a lot this year,

but it was very impressive the whiff that Mizurowski was able to gain in this start. I do agree. I think he needs to be on the foreshamer. Yeah, it's just banana stuff.

He needs to be more efficient. I was actually surprised that with 82 pitches, the brewers let him come back out for the fifth inning, but they wanted to get him that win. They had the big run support there.

And he got up to 94 pitches.

That was the second most ever in a major league game

So it's one star, but they're kind of treating him like,

not an ace, but kind of an ace workload. Let him go those 94 pitches early on. So overall, great start. Let's see if he could build on the control there for Mizurowski. Chris, would you like to know how many pitchers had a start

“with more than 19 whiffs on their foreshamer last season?”

Two. Zero. One. If you like to know the last time a pitcher had 19 whiffs on their foreshamer and a single start,

Jacob DeGrom seven years ago. Jacob DeGrom did it in 2021, but that is not the most recent one. Most recent one was Luis Castillo in 2023. It has happened six times in the last five seasons, prior to today

with Jacob Mizurowski. That's pretty impressive. I will say, Col Irvin will somehow one of them.

Not sure how that happened.

Eric Lauer actually has the most whiffs with a foreshamer in one start over the past five years. So this is not a guarantee that this player will be a great pitcher, but I don't know. That's a great fast ball that he missed.

Mizurowski's. Yeah, he's awesome. It's just a question of whether he can be consistent enough, but the upside is huge here. Chris, let's go over to you, your player of the night.

It's victory lap, city, population, me and my friend, Michael Trout, who went one for two with three walks, a home run and a stolen base around these parts. We call that a sock and a shoe. And I said, on yesterday's podcast,

and we're going to get a bounce back season for Mike Trout, that was kind of one of my fake bold predictions, but still, I'm counting it. We're putting it on the scoreboard. And yeah, I don't know, he's feeling good.

He's playing center field again. He says his knees feel better. Then they did the last couple of seasons.

“I think there is a chance that we get a,”

not a vintage Mike Trout season, because I don't think he's going to be the best player in baseball, but a very, very good season out of Mike Trout. I think that possibility was being slept on a little too much this spring.

So good first day of the Mike Trout bounce back campaign. And did you see what he said after the game? I actually have it loaded up here. I did not. I'm thinking I'm back.

That's it.

From his words, down line, I've never known him to be.

So a motive. Only when he's talking about weather. See how the time he gets that excited. What he actually said after the game is, quote, I felt like myself out there again being in center

and stealing bags. And the one thing that did catch my eye and you brought this up yesterday, Chris, throughout spring training was his sprint speed being up. And the fact that he's one year further removed

from all those knee injuries that he's dealt with.

“And I mean, just the ability to be healthy”

and run at full speed again. I mean, obviously that could be a pretty, pretty massive thing here for Mike Trout. So it's like it's great first game. He looked like himself.

He was just completely dominating, going up against one of the best pictures and baseball and Hunter Brown. I don't believe that too. He Homer off of, but he did draw like three walks

against Hunter Brown. So overall, impressive day, we need him to stay healthy. That's the other part of it too, but it looks healthy for now. That's Mike Trout. - The thing about Mike Trout this year

is he was so cheap that it doesn't really matter if he stays healthier or not. Like if you get 80 good games out of Mike Trout, that's a great pick. So obviously, I hope he stays healthy.

I'm certainly rooting for it. But the obvious rejoinder that people would usually throughout here of, oh, it's gonna get hurt. It's like, yeah, I'm care. He was like 190 if pick and a lot of dress.

I just, I really don't care. If Mike Trout gets hurt in not this year, it's, it's fireboxed in last year. It's all upside this year. - The, let's see.

The last week of drafts, Mike Trout's NFB-C80P was 182. So that was, that was pretty late. Let's talk about his teammate who was my player the night. Jose Soriano.

He looked really good at the assures here. Six shot out innings, two hits, four walks, seven strikeouts, 19 whiffs on 91 pitches. That is a 21% swinging strike rate. Eight of those came on the curve, seven on the sinker,

two on the fastball, two on the splitter. Velocity up across the board. He averaged 98 on the sinker, 99.1 on his fastball. The curve was up mile and a half. Slider was up 2.4 miles per hour.

And he tweaked the pitch mix as well. He wasn't as sinker reliant. He mixed in more forcing fastball. So it was, usually it's like a two-pitch pitcher. It's sinker curveball.

Today he was three pitch. It was sinker curveball and forcing fastball mostly.

can maybe be this missing piece. I feel like we've been saying it for years with Soriano. He has talent. I mean, you could see it. He throws hard and he's got a wicked curveball.

It's just, he does struggle with control at times. And he's kind of reliant on just two pitches. But I'm wondering if, you know, if this forcing fastball or maybe even a different pitch, we've seen like the splitter every now and then kind of working in,

if that could kind of help get him to the next level, he's 44% roster. It looks like the next two starts are at the cubs and at the brave. So I'm not rushing out there to add him for those two specific starts, but those are tough matchups.

“And if he performs there, then I think we're talking”

about Jose Soriano as like a must add starting pitcher.

Certainly if we see him do this again because he's always been,

he's always been like a elite groundball pitcher in the running for top groundball rate. I think you may have had it last year, actually. So yeah. And that's fine, but we first, hard as he throws,

even harder today, but as hard as he's always thrown, not a big bat messer, so seeing the 19 whiffs against an astros line up that, look at how to now to see if it's different than ours. It doesn't have a lot of high strike out guys in it, normally. So 19 swinging strikes and eight on the sinker,

which I mean, sinker as a general rule is not a bat mess in pitch for anyone hasn't been for Soriano, particularly either. So I do have some hope that by really emphasizing that foreseem or kind of pairing up those two different versions of the fastball, it helped create more deception with the sinker

and could make him more of a bat messer to go along with those groundball skills. Don't love seeing the forewalks.

That's always been an issue for Soriano as well.

More, you know, this needs to play out a little more before I'm ready to say that, you know, he's any different than he's ever been before, but it is very encouraging, especially given the way that sinker played with the emphasis on the foreseamer.

I will say if this game had been played outdoors, he would have given up at least one earned run. I don't know if you guys saw Jordan Alver as hit a ball. Oh, yeah, about a mile. What's the rule with that?

It should have been a pretty cool rule.

“I think the ground rule is if it hits a part of the roof,”

wherever it lands is where it plays. So if it had landed on the field, it would have been probably a double, but since it landed out of the field, it was a foul ball. I believe that's the rule.

That was a ball. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that one. Yeah, it was like a hundred nine miles an hour off the bat. And yeah, that would have been a, it would have been at least oneer.

I can't remember if there were runners on base for it, but yeah. The one other thing I wanted to mention with Soriano's, got that I thought was encouraging. You mentioned the forewalks. I agree, don't like seeing that.

But there are 66% of his pitches for strikes. That's a pretty healthy number there. So I don't know that that completely correlates with the forewalks that he provided that he gave out rather, but I was encouraged by the strike throwing

at least here for Soriano. I mentioned 44% rostered. We're not taking him ahead of any of the hype pictures that we've been talking about lately, right? The, like, Connolly Earlees, Mick Abels,

and-- And you have Mike Soros. Yeah, I'm just asking some people get crazy. Yeah, that would be drafted. And he gave over reaction.

Yeah, I would say if you drafted like Bailey Ober, I should be fine dropping him for--

“All right, I think Bailey Ober is like 60% apart.”

A low end guy who, instead of us hyping him up, we were talking him down. He drafted Sean Maniah, same thing. If you drafted somebody who's-- I don't know how many leases would be true.

And but if you drafted like a Michael Waka, who has the title on his ceiling, could be useful, that has a limit on his ceiling. And then maybe you could swap him out for Jose Soriano just to see where this goes.

But nobody that you have real hope for as far as upside, I think. Yep, yep. I think we're all on agreement there. Let's get into some other opening day over reactions. Paul schemes.

What a waste of a first round pick.

My goodness. Couldn't get out of the first inning and chased a lot or just hit a second home run to the king. Go big.

Yeah, oh my gosh. He's the best ever. Paul schemes is not the best ever. Couldn't get out of the first inning at the meds. Four hits.

Five runs aloud. Two walks. Only one strike out. But context is needed. Let's put the-- let's put the blame where it belongs.

I mean, O'Neal Cruz. What in the name of Little League happened in that game? My gosh.

Completely butchered both of them. And I'm watching the game. The broadcast is talking about Paul schemes. Like, what is wrong with Paul schemes? Oh, he pitched in the WBC.

Those are going to be the headlines around the league. I'm like, are we watching the same game? He just got four outs. It's not his fault, dude. Like, what?

Well, broadcast didn't go easy on Cruz. What happened, ether? Yeah, no, it was-- It was, look, Paul schemes was-- schemes was not as at his best, but it wasn't great.

This-- I mean, him not getting out of the first inning

was not his fault. No, I mean, he-- the-- his average eggs of velocity-- the average eggs of velocity against it was less than 80 miles per hour.

There's one hard hit ball on the desk. The triple, right?

“I think the triple that O'Neal Cruz probably should have caught.”

So yeah, so the first play to describe them for those who didn't see it was a hard hit ball-- I don't know if it was officially a hard hit ball the hard hit ball, Chris, you're saying it was. It was hit pretty well to set her.

He broke in on it at first. And so, then he had to race backward after it. And there was one of those-- It was close enough that he probably would have catched it if he just broke the right way initially.

I mean, it was that that's not-- that was apparent to everybody watching it. It's not like me with my fast-paced ball knowledge was able to detect that. And then the other one was it looked like he just

lost it in the sun, which can happen to anyone but considering it was on consecutive batters. Yeah, obviously, that is the story of the Paul scheme start, why he had such an ugly line. I'm not saying he was as sharp as--

he deserved a lot better than he got. Yeah, obviously, would have stayed in longer if those two plays hadn't happened. And nothing to worry about with them.

“I think, next start, he's going to be all the more”

invitmotivated to dominate-- I do wonder what it means for only a cruise. He stayed in the rest of the game. So it's not like his manager yanked him right after that happened, which would have been, I think, excusable if he did. But I was actually--

because obviously, this isn't his first time in center field. I played there all year last year. And he was terrible defensively. He was-- I think he was really bad early last season. If you remember, the storylines are early on.

And he was a disaster like this. And then I think he settled in at, like, OK, overall.

But yeah, he was never good out there, I don't think.

And apparently, defense was a big focus for him this spring. And they were feeling like he was in a good place. Paul schemes had him as a center field or last year and still had a sub to ERA. So it's probably-- the sky probably isn't falling here.

But I know you both, in particular, were of the mind that, maybe if this year goes poorly enough for O'Neill cruise, he could find himself in a park time role. I still think that's unlikely.

But if he plays center field like this, it becomes much more likely. Did you guys see Joelle and Beads tweet at all? I saw it just a little bit. I will say, like, I should probably tell people what it was.

He said, O'Neill cruise, get ready to learn DH buddy. Oh, wow. That's a great-- it's a great bit. And I love that Joelle and Beads watching Beads ball in the middle of a day on a Thursday.

That delights me. It is one of those things where it's like, like, get through one season, you know? I don't want to be that guy, but it is like, you know, don't throw stones.

“Like I can't stay on the floor is taking shots, you know?”

I don't know, I don't know. Let's go to the other side of this game. The New York Metz, over a day, opening day, over reaction number two. The Metz will be the best lineup in baseball this season.

The show Metz. That's right. We talked about Carson Benz. Francisco Alvarez had a big game two for four with his first homer 109 eggs of loss, the 429 feet,

Luis Robert, two for four with two RBI, a walk,

an incredible abad against Paul schemes.

I'll be honest, I have not watched a lot of Luis Robert over the past couple of years. But what we know about him in terms of his plate discipline and how aggressive he typically is, he does not walk much.

At least he has an in previous years. 10 pitch walk against schemes, fouled off some close pitches, took some other really tough breaking balls out of the zone as well. It's like, who is this Luis Robert? That was an amazing abad by him.

And then obviously you have all the studs that are up top, right like Lendor and Soto and Besheat. So I look at it from their number three hitter in this one,

And I don't actually think the Metz will be the best lineup

“in baseball, but I think they could be like one of the three best”

in the game. - They have that kind of upside, absolutely. I mean, who's their weakest hitter, Marcus Simeon? Brett Baiti? - Brett Baiti, yeah. I mean, I mean, I like them both the sleepers. Carson Benj obviously is unproven, but he has ton of upside due.

Their nine hitter, Francisco Alvarez could be a 30-year-old. If he stays healthy. So it's, look, there's a lot that could go wrong here too. I mean, Louise Robert, injury risk, Jorge Palanco has an extensive injury history.

- You know, no, you might be a Louise Robert, might be the worst hitter in this lineup. Simeon obviously showed some signs of decline. I think he's gonna bounce back in a stadium more better suited for a swing, but obviously no guarantee of that.

So it could go wrong, but I don't think opening day was necessarily a total fake out here. Like, there's definitely a ton of upside for this lineup. - Yeah, if the overreaction was, the mats are going to have a great lineup.

My reaction would be the, you know, the meme where the astronauts are out in space, and they're looking at the earth and it's Ohio,

and it's like it was Ohio, and it always was,

I think the mats were always gonna have a good lineup. - Yeah, they were always Ohio. - That's why they're all Ohio.

“- That's why my overreaction was that they will be the best.”

I mean, I guess they could have that upside, but you know, the Dodgers lineup is pretty, but I think the one with Showhail, Tony Friday Freyman, Mookie Best, and Cal Tucker, probably gonna be the best.

- That wasn't the highest going line up last year. - I didn't have Cal Tucker. - They didn't have Trent Grisham, baby, that's what they didn't have. Opening day, overreaction number three. Trevor Rogers is legit, and his ADP was way too low.

He's picking up right where he left off. Seven shutout, and he's three hits, four walks, five strikeouts in this one, and a completely new pitch mix. He ditched his sweeper and slider. He used a new cutter and curveball.

I believe he was working in some of those in spring training as well, but they look pretty good. They're 64% of his pitches for strikes. Granted, good match up against the Minnesota Twins, but I think all of us collectively,

even more so you guys earlier in the off season. You guys were all in on Trevor Rogers, and it's only one start, but he's doing what he did last season. - I mean, the second half of your statement, I wanted to say it's an overreaction, 'cause I was saying

it all off season, he's going too late. Is he legit? Legit isn't he's gonna repeat it to a sub two ERA from last year? - Yeah, I'd still bet against that. - And if you--

- I'll go as far as to say no. - Yeah, okay. - How could he-- - He's not gonna have a sub two ERA. - So what does Legit mean?

Is he must start pitcher? - He's a top 30 starting team, he's the legit. - The top 30 starting pitcher, yeah.

- For where I was always was?

- Yeah, I mean, his ADP was around SP50, so-- - Right. - Yeah, I think he was definitely out of out. And we ranked it that way, I mean, I'm not sure if you were quite as aggressive,

but I think I got him up to like 31 by the end of draft season, so. - Yeah. - Yeah. - He walked four in this one.

- Yeah. - You'd like to see him tighten that up a little bit, but for sure, I mean, 70 things on opening day is hard to complain about no matter what. - Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, and it's less, I don't mean to probably sounds inconsistent to harp on Miserowski's Walks, harp on Jose, Sorionos Walks, and then dismiss Trevor Rogers, won't. Doesn't have the same history there, you know?

- Pictures are different. - Yeah. - You have different, you have different, they have different strengths and weaknesses. If something, somebody does something out of character

in his start is probably just not something

“you need to worry about, but if it's very much in character,”

then, okay, I gotta worry about it. - Next, opening day over reaction, this one's for Chris. James Wood is in big trouble. Over five with four strikeouts.

Let me remind you, that in the second half of last season,

a 39% strikeout rate for James Wood. - And he had a 34% strikeout rate this spring, I believe. And hit like 103, he had one, two, three, four, five, six swinging strikes on, geez, like, not that many swings. - Yeah, 35% K-8 and 16 spring games for James Wood.

- Yeah, it's two early to say anything definitive. It is literally too early to say anything definitive, except that Chase Delater is going to be the rookie of the year. (both laugh) But, look, we wanted to see something from James Wood

and we saw nothing from the spring and outside of, I think the last six games of the year

where he hit five home runs to sort of salvage his second half.

We saw nothing from him, like, July 1st on. So, or July 20th on.

“So, yeah, I think it's perfectly reasonable to be worried,”

especially on a day when basically everyone else in the Nationals lineup did well. They scored 10 runs on, they scored six runs off Matthew Boyd and then two more off Ben Brown, like that was to see James Wood do nothing

and actually have four strikeouts, actively have a very bad game. It's too early to say anything definitive, but it's worrisome for sure. - Yeah, and yeah, we all added them.

James Wood to bust two point out, didn't we? - Yeah, he was on my one point out. - I don't have him in bust one point out or two point out,

but he was always a player that it was just,

like, hard for me to press draft on him. - Yeah, I didn't draft any of him. - Yeah. - And I drafted a lot of Pete Crow Armstrong who I always paired those two

because they looked like first rounders in the first half and then collapsed in the second half.

“But I think the inflated runaway strikeout rate”

for James Wood was the clearest red flag for the two of them. - So here's a question. Is there some demotion risk here? - Of course. - We just saw the highly touted former top prospect

playing centerfield for them, guess, sent down. Do we think like how safe do you think James Wood is? - Oh, I mean, look, the nationals can't afford to mess on that investment. - Yeah.

- And they're obviously not playing for anything this year. So they have to make sure James Wood gets right. If his swing is messed up or if the book's out on him and he just needs to see more pitches in a lower pressure environment to kind of learn to close that hole in his swing.

- Yeah, I think that's very possible. It's, I know people are highly invested in him so I don't want to send them into a panic. - No, I don't. - Like I'm not saying, yeah, it's one game likely.

- But it's definitely in the realm of possibility. - Last one that I have here Andrew Abbott Spring was nothing to worry about. Let me remind you, he had a 11.72 ERA, a 204 whip, 23 earned runs over seven and two thirds innings

with six home runs allowed this spring and then goes out on opening day against the red socks, a formidable lineup, six shut out innings, seven hits, one walk, four strikeouts, didn't get many whiffs in this one but through a ton of strikes, 71% strike rate in this one

and it was a really encouraging start. So, yeah, to quote our guy Preservius in the chat, nobody's spring has ever been something to worry about. I don't think that's entirely true. Like Carlos Estabas, Velocity being down five miles an hour,

that's fine to worry about. But Abbott, you know, Cincinnati's a really tough place to pitch, right? We know that, it's a small ballpark. The dimensions are very hitter friendly and he has survived there

as a extreme flyball pitch. One of the most extreme flyball pitchers in baseball, I believe, because he induces a lot of weak flyballs and a lot of like 370 foot flyballs, right? And so most of the time, those are not going to go out.

Arizona is a much tougher place to pitch when we're talking about, especially outside of Chase Field, when we're talking about those spring training ball parks that are an elevation in warm, dry air, like the ball just flies and we saw,

well, as nine reds players had an OPS over a thousand, this spring, I think, was the, was the stat? I'm not shocked that Andrew Abbott struggled in Cactus League play, but it doesn't change how I view him. And now nobody thinks Andrew Abbott is a superstar

or an ace or anything, but he has been a very productive pitcher for three straight years now, despite, you know, at least the more traditional peripherals not really buying it, but this is a case where if you look at the XERA, he wasn't as good as his 287 era last year,

but he's been below four, each of his first three seasons in the major. So last year was 356, so, he's a funky pitcher. He's weird, Andrew Abbott, he doesn't get a lot of strikeouts. Last year was right around average. The control was much better last season,

but he generates a lot of weak contact. And so, it's not a pitcher you ever get excited about

during draft season, because Andrew Abbott's never going to win you your league.

“And that's what we're looking for when we're talking about those”

pitchers in like the 60 to 70 to 80 range of the position is, who might be able

Andrew Abbott's never going to strike out 200.

“But, I think he was just undervalued all spring.”

Yeah, he's a good, he's a good guy to have on your team. He's a good deep league pitchers, one that can give you an easy profit, or what I think could be an easy profit. Maybe he doesn't turn out to be like a top 24 starting pitcher, but if he's the SP 60 drafted and he performs like a top 40 starting pitcher,

that's still a pretty big win for him. So, and that might happen again. I mean, he's kind of just like a blind spot for me. I feel like he's a blind spot for a lot of people.

You're right, I just, I never got excited.

I never drafted Andrew Abbott, but he has, he was really serviceable last season. My last over reaction here, the ABS was really cool. I don't know if everyone agrees, but it was really interesting to see when and how it was used. There were, like, every team was very different, specific,

particular about when they were going to use ABS and who was allowed to use it. Roman Anthony had a full count strikeout that was reversed to a walk on a challenge, which was just really cool to see from a, you know, a hitter as young as Roman Anthony, but obviously, he has a really good control of the strike zone. But I don't know if you guys have any quick thoughts on the ABS, but it was pretty cool.

I will say my wife did roast me when we were watching the, uh, the first game between the

Yankees and Giants because there was one where I was like, tapping the top of my head, like, "Come on, challenge it!" Were you rubbing your belly joint or doing that?

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, um, I think I yelled at the TV, like, "Tap your helmet!"”

My wife was like, "No, that's gonna be me if you sum it." I think I'm going to Yankees Marl, Yankees home open her next week. When the Marlons are in town, I'm just going to be tapping my head the whole game. After every pitch, angry, red-faced, overly emotional baseball watcher is going to give himself a concussion, doing that, doing that gesture.

That is an unintended consequence I hadn't considered, but yeah, yes, I'm starting to feel a little sore. Yes. Don't go to sleep for any of the challenge system. I mean, to me, it doesn't seem like a new thing because we've seen it. It's so many iterations of it already. Obviously, in more and more trial runs or in the minor leagues, but I was sold on it already.

And it will be, now that it's more widespread, I don't think I watched as much baseball as you today, Frank, that I could compare how one team used it versus another, but that will be interesting to see. Because now, one thing I'm a little fuzzy about, they're successful on a challenge. They just keep that challenge, right? So they could challenge indefinitely as long as they're right. Yep, correct. Yeah, okay. And if you lose both your challenges in regulation,

you'd still gain one in extra innings. So you would get one back if you lost both of them. Okay. Within the nine innings. What I like about it is it, because I know some people are like, why not just go full ABS, if you have the technology, get them all right? Well, I mean, obviously baseball is a game of tradition and umpires are a very fun part of it. And I like that, they make the challenge system makes kind of a game of it.

It creates an added tension that one in exist, if every pitch was just called that way, and you'd be using losing the umpire element, which is a very fun and just something, through all baseball history, umpires are a bit of a big part of the game, obviously. So I like that the tension of seeing it on the big train. I like that it's very quick and breezy

“and that it doesn't overtake or slow down the game. I think it's, I think it's the perfect way to do it.”

And I hope it's embraced widely so that we keep it and we keep the umpires. All right, let's take our final break when we return. Oh, I don't know, the news and notes, 45 minutes in. We'll talk about that right after this. I don't know, I don't know, but I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Save.

Medviso Stoia.

Uh, probably we'll play against right hand at pitching in the meantime. I would imagine four powers there. Tanner body. This is when we have to watch out about he left with a trainer as he was

“warming up for the sixth inning. I think I saw it was cramping. Turns out it is right shoulder inflammation.”

Oh, okay. No, I was given some false information on social media then. Okay. That is not good. For Tanner. One of the last things you want to hear. Yeah. Before he, he left the game five innings three runs seven strikeouts. Three homers allowed. But was doing some interesting things, uh, changed up the pitch mix from last year. It was mostly fastball, change up cutter and he had 15 swinging strikes on 78 pitches. So some good, some bad. The home runs obviously bad, but the

whiffs look pretty good there. Uh, but now this injury on top of everything, something to watch, uh, you know, look, shoulders, not good for any pitcher, obviously. Nico Horner and the cubs are in agreement on a six year extension. I haven't seen any figures on this. Have you guys seen anything?

Nico Horner. Nothing ever. What would you think? 100 million? Yeah. I think he's got like two

years of club control left probably. Yeah. I mean, he's a better real-life player than fantasy player when players four years in a row. Fake offender. Yeah. So it might even be more than

“100 million, honestly, but we'll see. Zach Wheeler scheduled to throw three innings and or 50”

pitches in Saturdays rehab start at AAA. Josh Hader will be in facing hitters by mid April. He's working his way back from, uh, bicep inflammation. Paul C. Walt is likely to get the first save chance for the D backs. So if you're playing a deeper league with saves, he's a name to look at there. Updates on Blue Jay's pitcher is tray establishes velocity was up during a very effect of appearance in a minor league game on Wednesday. Very effective was the, uh, I believe the

quote from the GM there, not mine. I wasn't there to watch it. Shane Bieber and Jose Bereos will both throw off a mound this week. Jackson holiday set to begin a rehab assignment Friday at AAA. Twins manager Derek Shelton is still undecided on a closer. He said quote, it's going to be a little bit of a meritocracy. Guys are going to pitch themselves in or out of certain roles. We have to monitor that as the season starts. But I believe the three that we've been speculating

on were the three that were mentioned. It was Cole Sands, Taylor Rogers and Justin Topa, although Topa had a terrible spring. Paven Smith was scratched from the lineup. There's they due to a left elbow soreness. He also dealt with left elbow left forearm soreness earlier in spring training. So, uh, something to watch there with Paven Smith. I did have some lineup stuff that I wanted

to quickly mention here as well. David Hamilton started at third base for the brewers against a

right-handed pitcher Shane Smith. It was not Luis Ranjifo in the lineup. Thought that was notable. The nationals against a lot of big game too. Yep. Yep. I have him as a deeply waiver target. We'll talk about a little bit later on. Nats versus a lefty. James Wood let off even against the lefty. Andres Chaparo was that first base batting second. Dylan Wild despite a lefty was the DH batting fourth. Joey Weamer in right field batting fifth. He had a big home run,

uh, CJ Abrams dropped down to sixth in the lineup against a left-handed pitcher. For the cubs, they were facing a righty today. Matt Shaw was in right field filling in for Sayazizuki. Uh, Moisés by Astero's did get to start at DH against a right-handed pitcher. For the Astros,

against a righty, Esauk Parades was in the lineup at third base batting third. Karaya at shortstop

batting fourth. No Jeremy Payne in this one. Sounds like they are bringing him along slow. Yeah,

“he was uh, playing in a minor league game. I think it was what I saw. He was actually at their”

spring training facility or no, in in Sugarland. Mm. Thank you. He was he was with skaters. So they just played a man down today. Yeah, they just go on the IL, right? They played 25. So I maybe he's not going to play this weekend. I don't know what the plan is, but he was not with the team on opening day from what I saw or how many early on in the day. I know he hasn't played much since coming back from that injury. He only played that one exhibition game, but

he homeworked in that game. So I just, yeah, kind of thought he would be ready to go, but maybe not. Uh, the pod raise against a lefty today. They had Miguel Andrew Harra at DH batting fifth. Gavin Sheet's still in the lineup. Lefty on lefty batting sixth. No Nick Castellanos. We'll see if that remains to be the case. Not the lefty. Yeah, I don't know. If he doesn't play against a lefty, when is he going to play? I don't know. Neither Boger had four bad balls over a hundred

mouthpower in that game, I believe. Oh, pretty good. Uh, tip, Tampa Bay against a lefty Jonathan Aronda and Cedric Mullins with the only lefties in there. Aronda actually homerde off of lefty Matthew Libbertore in this one. Yeah, he did. He had four hard hits in this game. The home run was over 400 feet. So good for Jonathan Aronda. Uh, and the Rangers against the lefty. And

a lefty. Andrew McCutcheon was at DH batting fifth. Sam Haggardy wasn't left field batting ninth.

So no Evan Carter in the lineup. Uh, and then for the Dodgers and Miguel Rojas started at second

base batting ninth. That was against the righty. Uh, no Alex Freeland in the lineup for the Dodgers. We are learning about bullpen's do any of these matter. The Angels Drew Palmer and pitching the eighth inning. And Jordan Romano got the ninth. He allowed to walk, but he picked up the save. Just a reminder, is ERA last year was 823. His whip was 145, but they need someone to close out games. And he's only 8% rostered. So at his velocity was down even more from last year.

Not that it was a huge drop last year, but dropped a little and dropped a little more just like this spring. That being said, he's probably the Angels Gloser until this is not among the situations we're going to talk about today. This is the one that comes closest to matter. If you all are, if you have been desperate for saves, I do think Jordan Romano should be someone you're looking to pick up. Not a high degree of confidence that he deserves to be a closer and can remain a

closer, but a high degree of confidence, a fairly high degree of confidence that he is the closer right now. So 12 team Rotal leagues are deeper. Probably should be added. Yeah. Yeah. I mean anywhere Kirby Hates was rostered, then Romano should be rostered. Yeah. And let's remember, it doesn't sound like a long-term thing for Yates. I don't know that Romano necessarily even has to blow it to

“be out of a job eventually, but I think right now he is the guy. But if he picks up three to five”

saves and just looks fine while Yates is not he'll probably just blow it to it. The more solid he looks, the more likely is to keep it. Sure. For the Cardinals, Matt Sponson came on for the sixth inning in this game with the game tied. He was charged with three runs on three hits. Jojo Romero started the seventh with a two run lead. That was a crazy game, by the way. It was tied one one going into the sixth. The race scored six runs. Then the Cardinals in the bottom of

that inning scored eight. That was just like a wild game back and forth. Jojo Romero started the seventh inning with a two run lead. He recorded two outs. It was Riley O'Brien who came on, got the next four outs. And then that left Ryan Stannick for the ninth inning. He walked three

did wiggle out of it for his first save. But Matt, his previous two years combined before this,

Ryan Stannick, 509 ERA, 145 whip. I kind of think Riley O'Brien is just like their highest leverage relief. Yeah, that's the impression I got. The biggest takeaway from this is just a mess. That's the biggest takeaway. The secondary takeaway isn't even a Ryan Stannick. It's, oh, Matt Sponson. I don't know. I don't know that you're going to be as prominent part of the closer mix as people were presuming by the end. By the end, he was the highest drafted Cardinals

reliever. And he may still be the best. He may still factor. But based on what we saw here,

“I think the one I'd want to roster most is Riley O'Brien. Yeah, I mean, you're coming the”

sixth inning and give up three runs. You're probably not getting the next save. I feel pretty confident that at least. Yeah. That's not a guarantee. But I agree Riley O'Brien would be the one if there was one. Yeah. Anything to make of this for the Nationals Clayton Beater was using the eighth inning with a four run lead at the time. He was facing six, seven eight in the Cubs lineup. He walked to struck out one. The Nationals tacked on two more runs. So it's now a six run lead going into the ninth

and lefty Cional Perez got the ninth inning. He faced the heart of the Cubs lineup. He struck out to closed out the game. But it was, you know, nearly a safe situation and Beater was using the eighth and then Perez in the ninth. And he thoughts there with the Nationals. Beater was a long shot. I still think he's probably the best shot even though he came in in the eighth and stood at the ninth. But that could change quickly. I mean, it's if you're in a league where

“every safe source is rostered and there are defined on the way of where I think you just hold”

on Beater right now. But it remains a long shot. And then the last situation for the Tampa Bay race. The race are going to raise Garrett Clevvenger on in the sixth inning with a two run lead

runner on first. He gave up back to back singles, then a sacrifice fly. He was relieved by Griffin

Jackson again in the sixth inning. We thought he might be the closer or I mean, he still could lead the team and saves. But it's this kind of weird usage. And then that was a one run lead runners on first and third. He allowed a sack fly and then a two run homeer again in the sixth inning.

use Griffin Jackson there. But it was still kind of weird to see him using the sixth inning.

“I don't think he's the closer. I don't think they have a one the closer. So I think it's going to”

be a lot of this. It's going to be a lot of mixing and matching and playing matchups and using Griffin Jackson. He's probably their highest leverage reliever. And so that should make him the primary closer. But I don't think it's ever going to be a situation where Griffin Jackson's getting 80 percent of the save opportunities here. That's probably fair. I wouldn't drop Griffin Jackson. I know like some people were freaking out telling me that they're going to, I'm just going to drop

Griffin Jackson. I would not do that. I would still hold on to him. Would have been interesting to see how it turned out if they held on to the lead. Would it have been like Brian Baker in the ninth inning or something like that? So we'll see next save opportunity for the race. Let's talk about a few waiver wire hitters here. Two names if you need specific categories. And you know, what a waiver wire hitter this early in the season. It's if you're chasing power. If you need

speed. But two for power. Jake Burger. Three hits Homer. 438 feet. He was limited by injuries last year. But had it combined 63 home runs over 2023 and 2024. And then dominant canzone sky. You gave

out Canzone as a sleeper double don here on an opening day 24 percent rostered. I think if you

specifically need power, both are totally fine to target Jake Burger and dominant canzone. Yeah. I mean, Burger. It's worth noting the injury he played through specifically or at least the one he ended up having surgery on it after the season was a, honestly, it was a wrist tendon or something. The wrist tendon sheath or something like that. wrist tendon sheath. Yeah, I was trying to think that was the right phrase.

“But yeah, I think that's what it was. And so obviously wrists are pretty important for hitting the ball hard. So”

it is possible that Jake Burger goes back to being and all or nothing power hitter as opposed to what he was last season, which was like nothing hitter. So you know, he was a very useful player for from 2024 to 2024 to 2024. That gives a little overrated, but 30 bombs, 30 bombs and he's capable of that. So it's worth keeping an eye on for sure. If you're, if you need a corner in fielder. Canzone, I think, is better than Burger. But since I have, I don't know how much is going to play.

I mean, I think he's going to play against all the righties. How many of the left DC plays against will determine how useful he is in fantasy? I don't see much need to add him outside of five out fielder leagues. If he's available in yours, but he is very good. And just look at the numbers. He put up and turn the majors last year. Look at the eggs of velocity. And in this game, for about a ball's over 100 miles per hour, the two home runs were 108 and 109. He killed them.

And he does that often. So if we had assurances from the Mariners, he was an everyday player.

“I think, canzone would have been on everybody's sleep or list. But that, that remains the concern.”

Even though he had a big game against a righty starter. If you need speed in a five outfield or league or even a three outfield or head Ted category's league, Victor Scott, he is incredibly fast. I don't know if he's a good hitter. He's probably not. But he had three hits here on opening day. And he had two steals 34 steals last year. Back in 2023 and the miners hit 94 steals while batting 303. Any chance, Chris, that maybe this could be the year that Victor Scott breaks out.

I think we were hoping for it like two years ago. Yeah, I don't think there's enough bat here. He's a 20 to 22% strikeout rate guy without any power whatsoever. It's really hard to make that profile work. He's, you know, 25, I think. So it's not impossible that there's room for growth.

But I, I think you basically only look at him for stolen bases. But if you need stolen bases,

you know, these, he'll, he'll give you that for sure. Yeah. I think Dylan Dingler still does the name for two catcher leagues. But he had a great game here two for five with his first home run. He had four hard hit balls. The Homer 106 eggs of velocity 403 feet. And last year, while the numbers didn't really like jump off the page, his expected stats were really good. 290 xba for 75 x slug there for for Dylan Dingler. Who wants a pot of time? Had some prospects

status and he's 27% roster. So he's probably not out there in two catcher leagues. I think that's probably those are the leagues where he needs to be rostered for now. Some deep league names here. Chase Mydrop blasts at a home run off of Jacob Miserowski 107.7x of velocity is his new Max EV in the majors. Brady House 2 for five with a Homer 1 10.8x of velocity. And that's coming

including a double 1 12.3x of velocity of Logan Gilbert. So maybe he's not dead yet. Rhese Hoskins. I mean, he was on like a 25 home or pace last season. Yeah, it was just injuries. Yeah, so I wrote my way for our column for week one. He was on there as a, you know,

deeply target for first base. It was good to see him and count comments are in the lineup together.

“Because I think there was, you know, I think when they first sign him, I think the concern was”

that's going to be a platoon. But I think they just need both comments are in re-toskins in the lineup as often as possible. Because I don't see those might be their third and fourth best hitters. Yeah, Scott, I think it's mostly just like 15 teamers for now. But I'm chase my drop in Brady House. They were two prospects of note as well. And they have full time opportunities ahead of them here. Yeah, I had Brady House when we did our deep sleepers episode. He was somebody I pointed out

for the big spring he was having. And he definitely has power. You know, he didn't show much of it.

Just seemed a bit overmatched in his first taste of the majors last year. He had a very up-and-down

minor league career, too. It was first drafted. It was a big year for short stops. Hiked up as power potential. Rough start in the minors then came back, had a great year, moved back up in the prospect rankings, then followed up with a bad year. It was a lot of that

“for House. So I think he may just be one of those players that needs some adjustment periods,”

sort of like Michael Bush, Michael Bush, not as extreme as House. But his his minor league career followed a similar trajectory. And it took him a while to find his footing in the majors clearly. He's very good now. Good afternoon with House, too. There is, I think, more down side risk than Bush because the plate disciplines on opposite planets. But he's going to play a lot of House at a weak position and then the power is legit. Three names in even deeper league. So we're talking

NL-only or just scouting these names in like 15 team mix for now. David Hamilton, one for two with two walks, two runs and a stolen base here. Again, started at third base for the brewers against the right-handed pitcher. And he will gain third base eligibility. Nathan Church, Scott mentioned the name earlier. Three for four with two RBI, big season in the minors last year. And Joey Weamer once upon a time, a prospect as well. Three for three with a walk to runs

and a hard hit home or 110.5 exit velocity. Scott, do you have any thoughts? I know you mentioned Nathan Church earlier. Yeah, I mean, I was kind of joking because he is rookie and yet a big game. And he did have a good year in the minors last year. It was mostly built about around batting

“average and you have to be pretty skeptical if that. He's only part of the Cardinals lineup”

because Lars Newbar is out. I don't know that they view him as they never did play a long term.

So we'll safe Nathan Church for the deeper leagues. And who is the first one you mentioned? I had David Hamilton and Joey Weamer all of a sudden. Yeah, I mean, these are obviously just deep league choices. Church might be the most interesting at the three. So I did like David Hamilton going into last year. You may recall when I thought he was going to be the red stock starter at second base. A lot of steel's potential there. And he showed it here

on opening day. I don't it's encouraging that he was in the lineup against a writing because more writings pitched in lefties. But I still don't know that the playing time is going to be enough for him to matter and even like 12 team rodo leagues. Old faces in new places, brand and loud and Ryan O'Hurne. Welcome to the Pirates, brand and loud two for four with a double-dong, two homers, three RBI, Ryan O'Hurne, two for four with his first homer, Brendan Donovan,

lead off homer with the Mariners. He had two hits in that game, Freddie Prolta's debut with the Metz here. Not great. Five innings, four runs aloud, seven home seven strikeouts, zero walks. Two homers allowed both to brain and loud. Yeah, he was awesome. Eight out of nine times. Yeah, to everybody except for Brandon Loud. And against 92% of the pictures he faced, he was great. Four team whiffs on 80 pitches. He gave up two homers, but I thought everything on the hood

look good there for Freddie Prolta. Chris, any other thoughts on the old faces in new places? No, I just I think we're going to have another year where Brandon out loud was just wildly underrated in drafts and I don't really get what people don't like about him. It's just injuries, but he had a huge year last year and he basically didn't move up in 80p. It was wild. Yeah, pitching clunkers, but I didn't see anything wrong under the hood for for this group.

Matthew Boyd, Nick Poveta, Nathan Evaldi, Shane Smith, all pretty rough starts here on opening day.

that actually concerned you with any of these or it's just bad start? Sweep it under the rug.

“Well, I'm a little concerned about Shane Smith because he basically showed nothing to spring.”

I liked it going in. I liked what he did in the second half, but it was rough spring and then he

follows it up with a rough debut here. Less than like like Paul schemes, average eggs of velocity against was less than 80 miles per hour. So it wasn't getting any hard out there. But the characteristics on some of the pitches was different like the change up was up in velocity, which you don't necessarily want to change up to go up in velocity. There are reasons why you might. But it seemed like he got to a good place. That was part of and thriving in the second

half was what he was doing with the change up. So he's obviously not a well-vetted proven asset, Shane Smith. I'm not saying I'm dropping him after this starter or anything, but he might be, I would say he's definitely on the thinnest ice of these pitchers. I mean, he's 87% rostered. There's got to be some pitchers who are lower rostered who are more

“interesting than Shane Smith. Like Burroughs is 57% I think, or yeah, that I will say given the next”

start at Miami. I do think Shane Smith is really interesting. Don't give me wrong. So I don't know that I go as far as to say there's got to be pitchers who are more interesting. But Mike Burroughs is more interesting. I have more faith than him delivering on his upside than I do Smith. I do think I want to mention Nick Peveta just because he had the arm thing during spring training. He was a bust for me anyway coming into the season long before that. His ERA was the lowest

of his career, but Perroughs were actually worse than previous years last year. So it's not great

to see him struggle in his first start. I'm not saying that I'm giving up on Nick Peveta or

that anybody should, but it's certainly not what I want to see for him. Yeah, got a lot of whiffs, low eggs of velocity against. It was mostly just one bad anywhere he couldn't find strikes on. Yeah, three walks in the first inning is not really like him, but yeah. So unless it's connected to some health issue that one he had in spring training, I want to make much of it, but obviously there is bus potential here for Peveta. We had a bunch of aces just

being aces. Terrac Scooble, Garacrochet, Christopher Sanchez, Yoshi Noble, Yamamoto, and Joe Ryan. They all had great starts here on opening day. Chris, anything that stood out to you for for these aces that you feel is no worthy. No, these are all dog bites man. Stories, I don't think there's anything really to say. Just we'll point out Garacrochet's velocity was weird in spring training. He had just like an uncomfortable weird spring. He was very frustrated by it, but he looked like himself.

So zero concerns whatsoever about Garacrochet moving forward. And then we didn't see a lot of Joe

“Ryan this spring. I think he only made two starts because of that back injury. So it was good to see him”

just looking like himself. He threw his curveball a little more. He barely threw that pitch last year. He threw it at 16% of the time. He got four whiffs on it. That was good to see. But no, this is what you expected from all of these guys. So you know, just with Ryan and Crochet, it was just good to see. I have pitching somewhere in betweeners. They weren't great. They weren't bad. They were just kind of, man, Hunter Brown had nine strikeouts, but also four walks. Only lasted four and

two thirds innings in that game. Logan Gilbert, five and a third innings, three runs, seven strikeouts. Use the new cutter, 18 times. That's kind of interesting. Matthew Libertore, coming off a pretty big spring. He was, okay, five innings, one run, two strikeouts there. Drew Rasmussen, five innings, one run, two strikeouts for him. And in class, classic Kevin Cash fashion, Kevin Cashin. He pulled

Rasmussen after 73 pitches and the raise instantly blew the game. So this is never not going to be the case.

Yeah, I know. It's a Rasmussen thing. Like if you drafted Drew Rasmussen in your mad, he got pulled out for five innings. You don't know who you were drafting, because that's you don't know ball. That is always how they are going to use Drew Rasmussen. It's just, it's never going to change. Kate Cavali's final line was not great, but he had a new curveball and some of the aspects of his game look kind of good. Zach Galen, not great against the Dodgers. I mean, it's the Dodgers,

but his velocity was up. So we've got anything to add on the Inbit tweeners, Galen Cavali, Rasmussen, Liberator Gilbert, and Hunter Brown. I already get the sense that Liberator, all the

it's, it's, it's a bias, opinion, but it did not continue here in this one start. And I didn't see,

I didn't see much explanation for it. There's fastball has a slightly different shape. He's getting more cut on the, forseemer. That, I don't think that was a good enough explanation for why he was pitching better though. And I don't think he's particularly good. And this was a revenge game against the raise. Let's not forget. I would be, you know, if I, if I, if I through a late pick at Liberator, because of the big spring and Jose Soriano was out there, that might be one.

That's my next question. I might be one, I think about. Yeah, I think I'm not automatic,

“but I think I think that's what I, the shallower, the league, the more likely I'd be to do.”

I think Liberator is exactly the kind of player you can drop for anyone moderately interesting. Yeah, sure. Some hitting left doors here, Roman Anthony, let off against the lefty and he performed well three for four with the walk and a run scored. One of the singles was 112.3 miles per hour. The, another was 110.2. So man, already flashing those high end ex velocities for Roman Anthony. Andy Pahez, we were all wrong. Two for four with a Homer. Three RBI, 400 foot

Homer for him. Harado Pradomo, I was wrong. How could I? Homer'd off of Yamamoto, two for four with a, a home run there, 398 feet on that one for Pradomo. South Relic had a big game one for three with a Homer on and two walks. And that was wrong. That was not really a South South Relic guy, so big hell for me. I got my face. I like South Relic as kind of a weight 30 picks after Stephen Quangos and just draft Stephen Quang, type of guy. And, you know, getting batting

average that late in the draft is, you know, it felt like I always kind of needed that at that point.

We're already talked about Jordan Alvarez. Call it to the bullpen. We talked about a lot of these already, but just the closers getting saves that we expected. The first save of 2026, by the way, went to Ryan Hellsley, so congrats to him. He actually looked really good for the Red Sox, a oldest Chapman picked up a save. Velocity was down, so let's watch that for him. You know, on to Ron, came on and got the final two outs for his first save and then Kate Smith

closed out this night game picked up his first save of the season. And with that, we have to wrap up with Scott's favorite to stream or not to stream. It's never too early, Scott. The people want

“their streamers. You better not be streaming yet. Under 75% rostered on CBS, honestly, Scott,”

you get to choose a lot of the names you brought up as like sleepers for week one. Yeah, we could go that route. On Friday, there's actually not many games on Friday, but I think my burrows against the Angels is the most interesting by far. By far. Yeah, he should not be as available as he is on CBS leagues. Yep. On Saturday, I circled four names here. We'll warn at the Giants, David Peterson against the Pirates, Christian Havier against the Angels, and Chad Patrick against the White Sox.

I think they're all solid. Yeah, I have this sinking feeling that Raylon, Ronaldo Lopez is going to like throw 89 miles per hour and be effective for a couple of starts. It's going to be really headache inducing, but I would not actually want to stream him. Yeah, who is that? Ronaldo Lopez. He, he faces the Royals on Saturday. Yeah, I would rank these Will Warren Chad Patrick. David Peterson in Christian Havier. It's a right order.

“If you want, if you want to, if you want a real wild card for Saturday, Joe Boyle against the”

Cardinals and this is un-wild. Yeah, it's big time. And then on Sunday, we have great homes going up against the Royals, Max Meyer against the Rockies in Miami, Brandon Sprodingens the White Sox, Steven Matts and Dustin May are facing each other, Slates Acony at the Mariners. Did some

interesting things to spring, and I know I know Nick Pollock likes him. So always following Nick's

advice for pitching. And then Eric Lauer against the athletics, who are your three favorites for Sunday. I go, Meyer versus the Rockies, Holmes versus the Royals, and probably may versus the raise, although I did start Steven Matts in one league as a spark. I like Spro. I like my your homes and yeah, that's yeah, I don't look like them. Spro. Yeah, Holmes I think is my favorite of the three, but Meyer and Spro. Hard. Makes sense, given the matchups. All right, opening

day is in the books. We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank thanks as always

on Apple or Spotify. And we will do back again next week. Bye.