Opening Weekend Recap! Rookies Dominating & Bullpen Madness! (3/30 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Oh, no.

“And we're going to reach the world, yeah.”

♪ Deep love found ♪ ♪ This is wonderful ♪ ♪ We're the world ♪ Got a fantasy question, email fantasybaseball is cbsi.com.

Get ready to win your league. ♪ We're fantasy, we're crazy ♪ ♪ We're crazy ♪ Now, here's Frank Scott and Chris. Hey there, opening weekend was awesome.

Let's talk about it. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday. March 30th. I am Frank Sample Join by Scott White and Chris Tellers. Today on the show, we'll recap everything that went down this weekend.

The rookies are mashing, destroying baseballs. Dylan Sees looked awesome in his Blue Jays debut. Lots of bullpen happenings and things there. So we will jump all around and let's get right into it with our players of the weekend.

♪ Oh my goodness ♪ ♪ Oh believe a ball ♪

“And for those new to the in-season podcast,”

if you hear an awesome soundtrack or see it while you're watching a game or something like that, try to send me a highlight of it and I'll kind of work it into our rotation for player of the night.

Scott, why don't we start with you? Player or players of the weekend. I'm right. I am going to talk about Moona Takamura coming. Let's do that guy.

And I don't know whether to take credit or take blame here because I was talking him down all preseason. Had no interest in drafting him. And yeah, when the week one sleeper hitters came out, he was the cover photo for it.

'Cause obviously that's a different calculation you're making, you're addressing his prospects in the immediate term as opposed to full season. And hey, had a great weekend. Homer'd in all three games.

And in fact, it was historic

because he is now tied for second all time

in most consecutive regular season home runs. Most consecutive regular season games with a home run to begin his career. And we have to specify regular season because he's tied with Chase Delauder,

who I'm sure we'll talk about later. Also has also Homer'd in three consecutive regular season games to begin his career. Obviously played in the playoff some Delauder did. But anyway, by our common,

he, those were his only three hits of the weekend. He did strike out four times in a total of 13 plate appearances. So, you know, it wasn't an absurd strike out, Ray. I still think it probably will be just looking at a history of Japan and understanding

that the level of pitching overall is much higher here. But it was an encouraging start. I think, and this was part of my reason for recommending a week one, partly I like the matchups.

But part of the reason was, I don't know that there's much of a book out on him yet. And this isn't something we talk about a lot, but a book does get out on hitters. They're vulnerabilities are exposed.

And obviously it becomes incumbent on the hitter at that point to adjust back. And I think that's mainly what we saw from Matt McLean last year and what we saw

from James Wood in the second half,

Matt McLean struggling with spiders away. I believe it was James Wood. He was having trouble on inside pitches. Let's sure on that. But I know there was something on him

that the pitchers were exploiting. And so I think for now, Murakami has an advantage over the rest of the league, even as vulnerable as he's going to be two strikeouts. So for now, I think it's fine.

Obviously he's on a heater. He has a lot of power, start him, enjoy it, particularly if the matchups are right. But I do think there will be a point when the pendulum swings back the other way.

And he will have times when he struggles as a rookie. This season. - On that topic, I believe, I believe I did the math right on this, 77% of the pitchers

have been to talk for Murakami faced in his first three games.

We're fastballs of some sort. Four Seamer, Sinker, and Cutter, which you can argue a lot of pitchers use. Cutters kind of into tween, right? Some guy came, Schlittler kind of uses his

as a breaking ball more than a fastball.

“But that's how baseball's a font tracks them,”

is those are all fastballs. That's usually around 50%, maybe 55% for most hitters. So I think the book on Murakami was he struggles with, and that was the velocity was the one that we saw, right? There was that stat that he had a 098 batting average

against fastballs more than 94 miles per hour, whatever it was. It was like a sample size of 20 at bats or something. It was a pretty small, but that makes sense, right?

in Japan don't throw his heart as in the majors. So it makes sense that they'd want to test him. And for the most part, he's looked great so far. But it's a tiny sample size, when he saw the one thing

“that I think was underrated is, this is a guy”

who's going to walk a lot. I think he's going to be a patient hitter. And so the concerns that he would be unplayably bad.

I think it was always likely a stat comes Joe Gallo

or something like that, where low batting average, you really need to hit for that skill set. But I think he's going to walk a lot. That there was, I think the big takeaway for me is just there were some voices who were very,

very convinced that this guy just had no chance to hit. And I think a lot of those voices scared people off. And I think the way Scott, you talked about it, and I think the way I talked about it, I think all of us, there are real concerns here.

And I think they still are. But he wouldn't have gotten a much bigger deal if there weren't concern, and they were contract. And there were also defensive concerns. And the reason he got $17 million or $70 million per for two

years, it wasn't nothing. The MLB did not value this guy as if he was just a AAA type hitter.

“And that, I think is what I want to say,”

is that there were people who were talking about him

as if he was just not a major league caliber talent. And there are going to be rougher times ahead for sure. There are going to be stresses where he looks lost and struggles and gets buried under mountains of strikeouts. And I think that I would still take, you know,

you set that over under at 29 and a half percent for the strikeout rate. Not sure which way I'd go. And so he's really going to have to hit for power. But the power here is special.

And it might be enough to overcome the head tool concerns here. Again, that was more a comedy that we were talking about. I want to see how he fairs against left-handed pitching as well, none of the starters he faces weekend were lefty.

So another thing we have to watch out with him. But obviously, off to a great start there, more a comedy up to 84% rostered on CBS, 88% on Yahoo. Want to tie this back into chaste a lot or as well, who we spoke about on opening night when he hit two home runs.

But he added a home run in each game since not on Sunday. But in the two following games.

So Homer in his first three had four home runs total

in those games, Homer off of Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, and Andres Munoz. That is a pretty good trio of pitchers. The Homer off in your seat. - See the Homer off Munoz?

- Yeah, it was the opposite field. - He was like opposite field out of the strike zone. It looked like a defensive swing. And he poked it out over the left field fences. It was pretty impressive.

“- Yeah, so I think the point that I want to make”

with both of these guys is like, I don't want to get over my skis on either of them. But it feels like they just need to be rostered and all leagues just in case this breakout is actually happening for each of them.

Do you disagree? - 100%. - Yeah, I think like I haven't written the newsletter for Monday, but my intro is planning to be about them. And I'm planning to throw a little cold water.

Maybe look at some other recent hot starts that proved unsustainable. I mean, look, Joey Weamer right now is batting 1,000 with two home runs. I don't think any of us think two home runs in the trailer.

I don't think any of us think Joey Weamer needs to be rostered outside of NL-only leagues. I don't want to speak for you guys, but that feels pretty safe. So yeah, there will be hot starts that proved to be nothing.

There will be guys who are hitless right now who go on to be MVP candidates. It's three games. We cannot draw any strong conclusions about three games. But delateramer, comics, specifically are young

and talented enough that any signs of life should make them 100% rostered just in case. I will, you don't think they're superstars. - I will create a distinction between the two. Recognizing that we know nothing at this point.

I mean, that really is the theme of the show. We saw a lot of cool stuff this weekend, but we didn't learn much of anything. Maybe some bullpen roles and that Carlos S. DeVez really is broken. But other than that, we didn't learn much of anything.

But I think between Merakami and delater, I personally have a lot more confidence in delater, because I think contact is not going to be an issue with him, the way it is from Merakami. - From the right side, might be that much different.

- I think if five outfielder leagues, there's a greater need for another outfielder like that. And even at points leagues, because the strike out will be low for delater much lower anyway. I think there's a better chance, so matter there.

But he has an extensive injury history.

when Merakami is still more long-term viability. - Yeah, let's just run through the rookies right now, like we did on opening day. I mean, they all had, not all of them, but most of them had great weekends continuing on

from opening day, South Stewart, off to a great start, had the three hits on Thursday, two for four with the Homer on Saturday, two for two with two walks on Sunday. He started all three games, hit clean up in all three games.

JJ, whether he'll first play or ever,

two hit his first career home run in his major league debut, and then a walk off hit in his second game ever. He went two for five with the steel and two RBI on Saturday. Cosima, Okamoto, two hits on Friday, and then hit a home run here on Sunday.

It's a right center field. You know, we heard a lot about the pull side power, but 110.4 exit velocity, 420 feet to right center field. I mean, that's really, really encouraging stuff there from Okamoto. And Chris, from your marlins.

- Yeah, baby. - Owen Casey, man, impressive debut weekend. He was thrown into the lineup on Friday against the leftee because Chris from Merle got hurt with the oblique in placing the I.L. at a nowhere.

He had an RBI single in that game, three for four with the steel on Saturday, and then on Sunday, a walk off two run homeer in the ninth inning off of Victor Vodnik. Owen Casey up to 58% rostered.

Do you think he's a, he's probably not like a three out of the other head to head league, right? I feel like it's only five out of the leagues for now. - I mean, if you have a roster spot to play with and delotters not there,

“I think Casey's a perfectly fine player to throw a target at”

because you're just, I think you're still at this point in the season trying to stack up side. And Owen Casey clearly has a lot of it. So yes, there will be strikeouts and there could be some concerns about how he handles lefties,

but he's a seriously talented young player who's going to play pretty much every day. So I think in any league, any of these guys, if they're available, should have been rostered just on the chance that they figure out.

And I think Casey, you know, I think this was something, you said you wanted to talk about, but like, I think people just forgot about this dude. I'm not, I'm not exactly sure, like this is, we talk a lot about prospect fatigue,

and I think Owen Casey is like one of the better examples right now if prospect fatigue where he just had been around, he got over a thousand played appearances at AAA,

that never happens with top prospects these days.

And so I think people just kind of sourd on him, forgot about him, assumed he wasn't really all that talented, but I've always been a big fan, I think the power is legit.

“I think it was just kind of oversaturation”

with prospects in general, this training, we've talked about how it looks like a banner year for prospects, and there were so many to target at all phases of the draft. And then Owen Casey, he was away with team Canada for a big part of the spring, he hit 133 during his time

with the Marlins. So it was just kind of easy to push him to the back of the line. I have a ton of Casey, because I kept drafting him as a bench guy and those five album healters leagues. And so I would say, obviously,

Maracami and Delauder were putting themselves in the record books, but it was actually Casey, I think, who impressed me the most this weekend of the rookies, because he did hit the ground running. Like he did, he was out of the lineup for one game. And so we'll have to watch that with him left hand to batter,

but he came off the bench, obviously, had a very clutch hit. And apart from that, home run, that three for four performance on Saturday, two of his bad balls were over one eleven. I mean, that's legit power for Owen Casey. And I think if he is a platoon player, if that continues,

it'll be a stretch that he'll matter in three outfields or leagues, but certainly five outfields or leagues is available. You gotta pick up an old house. Also, Chris, those jerseys, just top notch, man. 80 grade, awesome Marlins jerseys here on Sunday.

Just wear the world of time. They're the gap between that hideous black city connect with like the horizontal gradient lines and their Sunday.

“I think that's gonna be their Sunday home jersey now.”

The teal opening season is, it is a chasm, the difference between them. And that should just be their full-time low.

Yeah, they should have never gotten rid of, yeah.

They're original color scheme and logo. I mean, the Rockies is stuck with theirs from the beginning. I think it might be looking a little dated at this point. Though I don't mind the purple and black. But the Marlins, the Marlins,

like we're an instant classic with that teal. Yeah, and I do want to point out the other big rookie. We didn't talk about Kevin McGonagall. He didn't have quite as big of a weekend as some of these other guys. He did get robbed of a home run to apply Jackson Merrill on Friday.

I believe would have been his first career homeer. So very nearly had a nice weekend for himself as well.

We're going to do Chris and my players of the night, or do that right after this. Yeah, it's cost those hours for being welcome back in fantasy baseball today,

recapping the first weekend of the baseball season and Chris,

who was your player of the weekend? Uh, yeah, I think I'm a shantkock. Uh, late emergence as arguably one of our first oligrarn breadsticks of the season because he came out Sunday night baseball on peacock.

I don't know if you guys watched it. I thought it was pretty good broadcast. I think they did it pretty well. Um, I like Adam out of Reno the way they use him. Yeah, I liked Jasonman.

Eddie's great and bringing in the two local color commentators. How that was a nice ring. Emerson Hancock though. That's the guy we're talking about. He had six no hit innings with nine strikeouts and one walk.

And Emerson Hancock's a guy who's been around for a while. He was at one point a top prospect.

“But entering this start, I believe he had a 481 career ERA across”

parts of three seasons last year, he saw 90 innings of 490 ERA. Little to get excited about which is why. No, I don't think anybody has mentioned Emerson Hancock on this podcast in like two years probably, including when he made the Mariners rotation this spring, when Bryce Miller got hurt.

But this was a different version of Emerson Hancock than the one we have seen before. He threw his four seamer and sweeper, a combined 79% of the time in this start, last season he combined to use those pitches 30% of the time. He threw 25 sweepers in this one last season.

He threw 46 total in 90 innings that basically is a brand new pitch for him.

His velocity was down, but he got a little more induced vertical break on the four seamer. The sweeper got generated some really ugly swings. I don't know, I'm kind of viewing this as a... Yeah, let's add him just in case kind of situation, because I don't think there were a ton of pitching performances this weekend that I thought were like,

"We got to run out and add this guy right now." And partially that's because for the most part, everybody threw their 13 starters.

“The Mariners got to their number four, because they were one of I think four teams that played”

four games this weekend. So like, we did see Mick Abel, he looked okay, we saw Diddy your front is, he pitched great, but we don't know about the role. We saw, I don't know, touch Bradley, but I'm just kind of tired of touch Bradley at this time. Yeah, I ton of whiffs.

Ton of whiffs, but only got through four to third innings.

Yeah. Right now the Lopez, I thought, you know, looked better than I expected certainly, but not. His velocity was a lot better on them when we were seeing this spring. But not to the point where I'm like, "Yes, we have to add right now the Lopez, Randy Vasquez, I thought was impressive, but I don't know if there's a ton of upsides."

So I just, it wasn't the best weekend for, oh my god, we have to run out and add this guy right now. I think Emerson Hancock is not quite at that level, but I'm adding him, or at least I'm putting him bids, and a few leagues, just to see. And I saw some discussion that like, yeah, but even if he's good, Bryce Miller will be back, and the Mariners don't have room for him, as we're, like, he finds a way.

Like, if you like, I get that down. I saw, I watched Jurassic Park. Oh my god, you finally get finally understand. I've got anywhere on me. I've got to talk to you about this right now. Well, it looks like one of the favorite movies. Well, it's not going to later on, but yes, get to go on to Hancock.

A perfect movie. Um, but, look, if you're argument against a picture, as well, I just don't know if there's going to be a spot for him, there will be a spot for him. Like, it's just that that is not my concern. My concern is that Emerson Hancock might not be that good, and that's a fair concern.

But what he showed on Sunday was a new look, he was pretty impressive against a bad lineup. But I'm willing to, you know, throw up six or seven dollar bid out on him just to see if it was real. You know, we'll get a couple more turns and see if this new look version of Emerson Hancock can be useful. I'm open to it if not expecting it, not expecting it. And he is widely available.

He's only seven percent rostered on CBS. Definitely in the deeper leagues. I was looking to add him this weekend Emerson Hancock and to see where this goes.

“It's also, I think, a good match of this week.”

He's at the angels. The angels had a good offensive weekend this weekend. But they also led the majors in strikeouts last year. So it's like, all right, how much do we trust from the angels in the small sample size?

So I, in a deeper league, I would be interested in, like, even streaming Hancock. This upcoming week, not a 12 teamer, but anything deeper than that. I'm interested to see what he can do there. My player, the weekend is Dylan C's who looked awesome in his BlueJs debut against the athletics. Speaking of strikeouts, they have a 47% strikeout rate as a team so far.

Five and a third innings, one run allowed, 12 strikeouts, so one walk, 24 swinging strikes.

On 90 pitches here, four Dylan C's, 15 of those came on his slider, which was ridiculous. His fastball velocity was up 1.6 miles per hour. He averaged 98.7. And he mixed in other pitches too. He wasn't as fastball slider reliant as we have seen in years past.

He mixed in a few more curves, sinkers, change up sweepers, and a real change up. Yeah, and that change up was different this spring too.

“I think I mentioned how I think the velocity was up a lot for it and had a lot more movement.”

I only allowed one heart hit in this one through 68% of his pitches for strikes. So it's one star, I feel like we're going to say that for everything this weekend and especially the first month of the season, but we know Dylan C's is talented, man.

And maybe the blue jays are about to help him, you know, kind of unlock what we've always seen

is there and make him a consistent ace. That would be very welcome for Dylan C's. I think they gave him a ton of money this off season and he comes out with a revamped arsenal here that seems to make his pitches that were already his best even better. And so I mean, time will tell how much of this was on the athletics and how much of it was on

C's, but it was a very good first indicator in his new environment that this might be the best version of C's yet. Again, we know nothing. There's a good first indicator though. In fairness, the A's did get better at making contact as the weekend went on. They sure got 12 hours and C's. They only struck out 11 times against Kevin Gosman and then it was only nine against Eric Lauer. Yeah, that's true.

That's, although, you know, you do, you start to do the conversion rate on Lauer to season

that kind of like a 17th strike out game for Dylan C's probably. So yeah, so good great first game

there for Dylan C's and and we'll see where he goes from there. One of them just get to the news and notes real quick because there was a lot that happened this weekend and cue the Grand Theft Auto San Andreas meme. Here we go again, Jacob DeGrom. He was scratch from his start on Saturday with next stiffness. He said Sunday that it was feeling much better and he remains optimistic that he'll start Tuesday or Wednesday in Baltimore. Look, it's not

formulated. So that's the good news. Obviously here. Do you guys start or sit DeGrom this week? Again, said he thinks he's going to start on Tuesday or Wednesday, but we just don't know for sure. Yeah, I think I'd have to start him if if if he's if he's putting specific days out there when he thinks he's going to start either one of those two days. I probably true. I mean, it doesn't sound like a serious injury. Even with, and I'm the biggest

DeGrom skeptic because of his injury history, but I think you got to start this week. There was one league where I was considering benching him, but I think it was for a two-star

“option. So, you know, I don't actually think you should bench Jacob DeGrom absent. Really good options.”

Carlos Estevez, the experience. He was seen wearing a boot on Sunday after taking a line drive off of his left ankle on Saturday. Let's talk about that outing on Saturday. He blew his first safe, allowing six earned runs on a walkoff grand slam to Dominic Smith. He average just 91.2 miles per hour on his fastball on Saturday, leading up to Estevez. It was Matt Straum in the seventh inning. It was Lucas Ursig in the eighth. Then on Sunday, of course, there would be a save opportunity

with with Carlos Estevez in a boot, and so Straum got two hours in the seventh. Lucas Ursig eventually came on in the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He allowed to hit but picked up his first safe. So, it's not looking good for Carlos Estevez and Matt Quattraero, the Royale's manager said, even apart from the walking boot stuff, he's not averse to putting Estevez in a lower leverage situation. So he's already talking that way. And frankly, I think it's overdue. I

guess they were just hoping he'd magically lock back in once the season started. And hey, his velocity was up a little from spring training. It was only down 5 miles per hour. He was

“matched here. He has still down 5 from last year. And I think that that thought process is fine.”

Right? Like, oh, he wasn't there in the spring, but give him a chance. Let's see if the adrenaline

totally fine to give him one chance. I don't think he's getting another chance. I think Lucas Estevez is going to have to flop to get to and as soon as he's going to have to look like himself

“for a while before I think he gets another chance. But it is notable that it does seem like it's”

estimate. Erse, excuse me, who, you know, wasn't great last season. I know the ERA was sub three, but the strikeout rate collapse from the year before. Stuff still looks really good. Still looks

closer calibre. So we'll see if he can, you know, run away with this role. But he did get the first

chance and was used as the primary setup guy before Estevez. So and I hate that I was prophetic in this way because I think at the end of last week, I talked about how I was thinking about just straight up sitting Estevez and Tauers and decided to run him out there just because I had no other picture to fill that spot. But I actually said like it seems like a situation where he could just have a six run inning and that's exactly what happened. Six run in one third of an inning with

a walkoff grand slam for Dominic Smith, which was a very nice moment for him. He said after the

“game that he had lost his mom to cancer, just less than two weeks ago, which I think was not”

something anyone knew about until then. So it was it was nice that he got to have that moment.

It was his first walkoff home run of his career too. Interesting. How would you rank the three

relievers that I think were most added or are going to be most added this weekend being Jordan Romano, Lucas Ersig and Cole Sands who picked up a save for the twins this weekend. I think I would go Ersig, Romano and Sands. I think so too. The one hesitation is with those last two because it doesn't sound like Yates is going to be out for long. Not that he would immediately overtake Romano. It's not clear that he had the job in the first place. But that does seem like

the clearest interference from the three. I actually think Cole Sands is pretty clearly the twins best reliever. I wasn't targeting in this spring because they didn't care to use them

“and save situations at all last year. Maybe that's changing and if it does, I think he could be decent.”

Twins are very good. Yeah. So that's part of the issue. But yeah, I guess I lean Romano over stands also. But Sands is and these were saves or scares. He's worth thinking of. Sands ahead of Peter, right? Peter got to say Cole and Peter for the nation. He's got to save on Sunday, I believe. But yeah, I would put him behind the rest of those guys. Yeah, I mean, the nationals are probably going to be the probably worse than the twins I would imagine. Hey, hey, I don't know. They want

a series against the Cubs. They did that they did. Would you guys just go ahead and drop Carlos S. Defes already like for any of these relievers we're talking about. Maybe I got in a 15 team league. Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. And a 15 team leagues like the saves market is so thin that I think you hold on for just a little longer to see if maybe he figures something out mechanically recaptures the velocity. But otherwise, you can let S. Defes go.

All right, continuing all with the news. Zach Wheeler made his first rehab start Saturday,

at Triple A three shot out innings two hits, one walk three strikeouts, had seven whips on 38 pitches, but all of his pitches were down two to three miles per hour. Granted, this is his first start, first time pitching in a game in a long time. So obviously, that number could build up. But it was 93.3 miles per hour on the fastball compared to 96.1 miles per hour last year. What were your guys take away from Zach Wheeler's first rehab outing? Yeah, I know the fillies have been unconcerned

about it. You know, there's a quote from Rob Thompson where he said something like he's right where he is usually at at this point in spring training. I looked last year. His first spring training start. He averaged 95.9 miles per hour with his foreseamer. The year before it was around 94. So there was a little more true in 2024. But I just, um, I don't know. If we had seen this before, we were drafting. He's probably not a top 120 pick. Like he was an ADP right. I think people probably

start to panic at least a little bit. We saw, you know, striters price drop from around 120 to around 160 actually in the final week of drafts at NFBC. I think we might have seen something similar for Wheeler. So I don't feel more optimistic about him now that I've seen it. But look, it was cold in Lehigh Valley where they were pitching and, you know, it's possible. He wasn't focusing

this ends up being nothing or that he's just like brainwildger if and he loses three miles per

“hour on his fastball and doesn't lose anything in terms of production. But I don't think you should”

bet on that. That is not usually how we think about pitchers. So I moved Wheeler down to about 150

in my rankings over the final two weeks of spring training just because we never saw him pitch. 150

overall. Obviously 150 overall. Now that we have seen him, if we were drafting again, I wouldn't move him up based on what we saw. That's not to say. I think it'll be a disaster. But it's just, he was not himself in this start. Maybe he will get there. But this is not a surgery where we assume guys come back to be themselves. And now we have seen some evidence that he is not himself. So I do think you have to lower your expectations a bit. Chris, when you said that he was

distracted and maybe working on other things and working on his command and things, I thought you're going to say he was distracted by the fact that they had an all you can eat ribs promotion at Lehigh Valley that day because they removed one of his ribs. Yeah. Yeah. I think they, they also

“for one night called themselves the rehab pigs. I think that's too much. That is too much. The”

him a bone strikes again this time. It's Andrew Vaughn. He's expected to miss four to six weeks

and Jake Bowers and Gary Sanchez look like they will form a platoon at first base. The brewer's

also promoted catcher prospect Jefferson Carrow, who made his debut on Sunday. Carrow has dealt with a lot of injuries the past couple of years, last season in 69 games and the miners hit to 71 with 11 home runs in 839 OPS. Scott, once upon a time Jefferson Carrow was a highly regarded prospect. Do you have any interest in him in deeper two catcher leagues? That would be deeper two catcher leagues. That's a good one. What about 12 team two catcher leagues? No. No. I think there

are 24 that you could feel like it's not even clear how much Carrow is going to play. Right. So that's on top of his performance, which I think is very much a question. There's talent there. There's some pop. But it used to be partly a defensive minded profile. I think all the injuries of septum of some of that though. So yeah, this is far from a campus kind of guy. And we don't even know how much he's playing. So it would be just in least two catcher leagues. So deep that

you're having to dip into like the Freddie for mean class of catchers. That would be the only interest I'd have in Jefferson Carrow. Okay. I'm going to try and zoom through the rest of this news. If there's anything that stands out, just stop me and we'll talk Josh Hader through a bullpen on Friday is still expected to face hitters in mid-April. Tanner Bibi who left his first start with shoulder inflammation said he felt good after completing a 26-pitch bullpen on Saturday. The Guardians

have yet to decide if Bieber Bieber. Bibi will start on Tuesday against the Dodgers. I mean,

“either way, if you can get him out of your lineup against the Dodgers, I think you probably should”

do that. Nicola dollo through a bullpen on Sunday. He got up to 20 pitches. He mixed in a few sliders. He'll throw again on Wednesday. And then the hope is that he will have a rehab start on Friday. La Dolo believes that he will only need one rehab outing before returning. Joe Musgrove has resume playing catch, but doesn't have a definitive timeline to rejoin the Padre's. The Orioles

signed Shane Baz to a five year '68 million dollar extension on Friday. He made his debut on Sunday.

It was not great. It was a mixed outing there against the twins. Quinn prestered through a pain-free bullpen session on Saturday. He's expected to miss the first month due to symptoms related to thoracic outlets syndrome. The way that they have kind of worded and talked about this injury has been very weird. The Marlons placed Christopher Morell on the aisle with a left oblique strain and promoted prospect at Davison De La Santos. He started Sunday against lefty Hosecantana.

Two years ago in the miners, he had 40 home runs. Then last year hit just 240 with 12 home runs and a 672 OPS. Chris, do you have any deep leg interest in Davison De La Santos? Worth a look. I think there's some like Jake Burger potential there and like a empty 25 home or upside kind of way. Just a heads up that make able pitch out of the bullpen on Sunday. I saw a lot of people freaking out on Twitter. It's because the twins early season schedule.

They don't need an SP5 right away, but the plan is still for him to be in the rotation. I hope because he was terrible in this relief outing. So hopefully they keep him as a starter. It was three and a third innings, eight hits, five runs, four walks, four strikeouts. There was some bad luck here. If you look into it, I think of the, let me see if I can find. I think he had like eight bad balls and six of them were hit 85 miles an hour below.

It was only a couple of hard hit balls. So there was some, I'm not to say, that's not to say he was great, but the stuff looked still really good. Seven with just on his

Six were hit 83.5 miles per hour or softer. So yeah, I, I don't think the the box score necessarily, but look, the command was not good and that was a problem for him throughout his minor league career. So yeah, make able not a can't miss pitcher. As he turns out, which I don't think anybody was saying he was. So it's fine. We had some small trades this week in the National's acquired Curtis Meat from the White Sox and as a result, they optioned

Andres Chaparo to AAA on Sunday. The Marlins acquired Leo Hemenis from the Blue Jays in exchange for infielder Dubb Gleead. What a name. Dubb Gleead. All right. Most Star Wars coded name. I've seen and based on a long time. Dubb Gleead. And $250,000 in international bonus pool money going to the Blue Jays in that one. The Oriles acquired Alphiola Jonathan Rodriguez from the Guardians for right hand and pitcher Carter Rustad. And also to the Isle this weekend,

Mickey Moniac with a sprained right ring finger. So I wanted to quickly point out some lineup stuff that I noticed on Friday, Ben Rice, Tranquisham, Ryan McMahon all out of the lineup for the Yankees against the lefty. I hope this Ben Rice out against lefties is not a consistent thing. Gotcha. I'd mostly be willing to dismiss it. I said gold Schmidt hit lead off against the lefty.

“Well, it was lefty last year. Yeah. If you'll remember what because when Paul Goldschmidt signed,”

there was a couple days of freak out from fantasy based ballers. I moved rice down. I figured, okay, that's it for him playing against left handers. But then Aaron Boone actually came out and said, not that they weren't going to play gold Schmidt against left handers. But that when they did that, they'd probably play Ben Rice a catcher because they want him playing every day.

Didn't happen the first left hander they faced. That doesn't mean it won't happen against most

of the left handers they faced. But it's it's back to being a question because Boone didn't do think he said didn't play it the way he said he was going to. Yeah. Someone pointed out to me that this is the only lefty the Yankees facing till like April 6th. So maybe they just wanted to get Goldschmidt a game early in the season. It's possible most teams give a lot of their guys a day off. The first weekend of this year. Yeah. Yeah. So they don't want anybody to get to stay along

the bench. They want to kind of work them in. Yep. Jack Kegleon was out of the line of Friday against the lefty Carter Jensen was in. It was Lane Thomas and Center Field Starling Martane right field and Carter Jensen at DH. Lawrence Butler played on opening day, but then sat out Saturday

“against Dylan Sees and Sunday against Eric Lauer. I think they might just be easing him in”

since he didn't play much the spring. There's also a chance that he just sits against lefty. So we'll have to watch that with Lawrence Butler. O'Neill crews did not start against the lefty on Saturday. I don't know if that was just okay. You're really bad against lefty's or end or man. You were so bad defensively on Thursday. We're just going to give you a day off. So maybe a combination of those things. Uh, E. sock parade has started all four games for the Astros

and hit threats to them. He got one started second base Chris. I believe you said he got a

start at first base too. Is that true? I believe right. No. No. It was two and third one at DH wanted second. Yeah. Yeah. But the second was the more notable. Yeah. I mean, if we get four more week, we've got a second base eligibility for for parade this. You're not an Alvarist by the way. Already two games in the Alfield. So I'd love to see that. Colgate, Col Young started against a lefty on Saturday. So might just be an everyday player for the Mariners. Kevin McGonagall got a

start at shortstop on Saturday. It's been two at third base. One at shortstop so far. And then Colson Montgomery got a start at third base on Saturday. So parade is did come in to play first base. So you just won a pair and so first base. They appeared there. You didn't start there. Yeah. So that's all that counts for CBS when in terms of gaining eligibility is this appearance. It's not starts. All right. Let's take our final break. When are your return? We'll talk about a bunch of

waiver wires standouts from the first weekend right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball.

Today. Let's take a look at some waiver wire pitchers from opening weekend. This first group

“here mostly boring guys. I think they're mostly just guys that you would use in the right matchup”

but they are between 50 and 70% on CBS and each of them pitch well. Seth Lugo, Michael Waka, Ronaldo Lopez, Mitch Keller. If you're looking at the matchups for this week, it's Keller against the Orioles. Ronaldo Lopez at the D-backs, Waka against the Brewers and Lugo is also against the Brewers. Scott, how would you rank those four? Lugo, Waka, Lopez, Keller. I think they're going to be streamers. They're all low ceiling pitchers.

I guess I put Lopez first. Now his velocity was a lot better than we were seeing this spring.

out of the woods there. But you know, the last time we saw him, he was better than any of these guys.

“I'll put Lopez number one and then I'll go walk up to, I think he's the most stable for ERA and”

whip. And then I'll probably give the edge to Lugo over Keller but it's a close call between those two. Waka, by the way, 17 whiffs on 80 pitches. It's not something we're used to seeing and it's not like his pitch makes a velocity was drastically different. So it's not something I would

expect from Waka, but it wasn't encouraging to see a really good first start from him. Who pitch today?

For the royals was that Lugo? It was. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and say he got super lucky in this one because I don't know what was Scott, did you watch that game? Was it just like the windiest day in Atlanta history? Yes, because there were there were a lot of deep fly balls that that appeared to be home runs off the bat and then weren't. A cool idea of Harris, I believe it almost had home runs in. Yeah, because it also had 106 Harris hit 109 that were both hit at the

proper angles that they should have been home runs and just kind of died on the warning track. Matt also also had one. It was that could have been red, but it would have been out in some

“parks. They all three of them definitely look out off the bat. I think Lugo got pretty lucky.”

Not to have a crooked line in this one. Weaver wire pitchers part two. I think some of these are more interesting than the names we just talked about. Rett louder was solid against the red socks, five innings, two runs, five strikeouts. He had 14 whiffs on 86 pitches. At the rangers this week, it's a good place to pitch. Eric, louder look good against the athletics, but as we talked about,

they strike out a lot. Five and a third innings, two runs, nine strikeouts had 17 whiffs on 87 pitches.

Joe Boyle looked good at the Cardinals, six innings, two runs, four strikeouts, big key for him, zero walks through 69% of his pitches for strikes. And he is at the twins this week, so good match up for him. And Michael McGreevy had a great outing against Tampa Bay, six no hit innings with five strikeouts. When you dig in, I didn't really see too much under the hood. He only had six whiffs on 96 pitches. He throws a bunch of different pitches and his velocity was

actually down like two miles per hour on his fastball and sinker at the Tigers this week. Chris, how would you rank those four? Rett louder, Eric, louder, Eric, louder, Eric, louder, that's very similar. Joe Boyle and Michael McGreevy. I'm going to probably go louder, Boyle, louder, McGreevy, but I don't find any of these guys too interesting. I don't know. I like a lot of the matchups here. Like if you're just a deeper league and you need a match

up play this week, louder at the Rangers, louder at the White Sox, Boyle at the twins. I like all three of those quite a bit. Boyle's the one I want to take advantage of this week. He got through

his first start with no walks. Boyle was just one start and we saw instances of him doing

similar things. Control lies last year and then the control still became an issue. But if he if he's a guy who is limiting the walks, he's going to be really good and he's going against really bad twins line up next week and what may be his final term before Ryan Pepeo returns. So that's my main hesitation with picking up Boyle. It's a short-term play, but it's a very good

“short-term play I think. Yeah. Eric Lauer, by the way, also just want to point out that he is”

RP eligible on CBS. So if you play in a points league, good matchup like that, obviously pitches for a good team would be very interested in Eric Lauer this upcoming week. Deeper starting pitchers Randy Vasquez was great against the Tigers six shot out innings with H strikeouts 13 whiffs on 91 pitches. We talked about this during spring training. His velocity was up and it was up here in this first start. His fastball looked really good. Velocity was up 1.5 miles per hour.

He got six of his 13 swinging strikes on that fastball. We spoke about Emerson Hancock earlier. The other Deeper league name I had here was Carmen Maginski who looked solid at the Met's four and a third innings two runs. I had H strikeouts two zero walks. Scott any deeply interested in Randy Vasquez. He gets the red socks this week to love that and Maginski home against the orials. Not from me. I understand they got good results this

time out, but I did not see enough under the hood to convince me given their extensive track records of mediocrity that there was much to sing my teeth into here. Unlike for instance Emerson Hancock who showed up with this entirely new arsenal. I think I think Vasquez and Maginski are going to be

percent beds for Vasquez across my league. So not zero interest, but not someone like I said earlier.

“There weren't really anyone who I saw this weekend and said, man, I have to have that guy on my”

team. Let's talk waiver wire hitters from the weekend and might be looking for an Andrew Vaughn

replacement, whether it's at first base or as a corner in field there in fantasy. No in

Samuel is off to a nice start with the angels. He had five hits, two homers, five RBI hit third in all four games for the angels. Jake Burger so far so good. Maybe just finally healthy again coming back from that wrist injury last year. He has homered in two of three games and he has hit clean up in each game regardless of facing a righty or a lefty. And Ryan O'Hurn off to when I start with the pirates two for four with the homer on opening day three for five with two RBI on Sunday. Chris,

how would you rank those three as Andrew Vaughn replacements or even if you just need a corner in field or Samuel, Jake Burger and Ryan O'Hurn. Burger, Samuel, and O'Hurn and I but I do want to point out with. So Burger, he played through a wrist injury for most of last season. He had surgery at the end of

“the season to repair it. Might just be healthy. He was a 30 homer guy. I think one of the seasons he”

might end in 29 but he was basically a 30 homer guy in 2020, 2020, 2024. Samuel, I do want to

highlight because he was someone who talked about bat speed training this off season. And small sample size but bat speed is something that tends to stabilize pretty early. We saw it last year, Bryce Terang, you could notice it the first week of the season. His bat speed was up significantly. Nolan Shenuels bat speed is up from 67.5 miles per hour last year on average to 71. So with three and a half mile per hour jump, that's about the same as Bryce Terang's jump. Last season it takes him from

well below average to about average. And like we know Nolan Shenuels got great play to respond. We know he's got a phenomenal eye at the plate. He's very patient. He could stand to trade contact for damage. And we'll see if it works. You know, I'm not necessarily saying Nolan Shenuels suddenly a power header but I'm open to the possibility. You know what we saw with Bryce Terang.

“What do you go from like five homers to 18? I think it was something like that. Yep. You know,”

if if Shenuels goes from 12 to 20, he's probably a pretty useful player. If it's also, you know, 265 batting average and he's heading third and he still has a good plate discipline. So I'm intrigued by Nolan Shenuels. It's too early to say anything definitively. But I think this is a this is a good sign for him. Not a first baseman, but man, just stay healthy. Please, voice Lewis off to a nice start. One for three with a sock in the shoe on Saturday. He

Homer again on Sunday. He is 71% rostered on CBS. Some deeper names. Max Muncie with the athletics one for five with a steel on Saturday. Then he hit a home run on Sunday. He's 27% rostered has second and third base eligibility. Luke Rayleigh Homer'd three games in a row to start the season for the Mariners Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Probably not going to play against the lefty any lefties, but he was actually pretty productive in 2023 and 2024. So maybe he can get

back to those levels. And David Hamilton already has three steals and only two games played. Looks like he'll start against right handed pitching at third base, but not going to play against lefties, but he is really fast and could provide some speed. Scott, were you looking to add any of these names in any of your leagues this weekend? Max Muncie with the A's, Luke Rayleigh or David Hamilton? I took a look at Luke Rayleigh and some of the deeper road elixir the 15 teamers with

the five outfield spots. I never pulled the trigger on making that move because, you know, he's

been around for a while. He was productive in 2023, 2024, but because he sits so often still pretty borderline even in those deeper road elixir. So yeah, I just didn't think I wasn't convinced there was enough upside at this point in the season. The caliber of players I'd have to drop form to pull the trigger. I had been picking up Max Muncie already, even prior to this week. I was actually a little discouraged by the way the first week. I know he had the home run in the

stolen base, but six strikeouts and 12 plate appearances was not what we were seeing from the spring and there's reminiscing of what we saw from his rookie last year. I came close to dropping him in one road elixir Max Muncie, who was I going to drop him for? Like Max Scherzer or somebody like

think I ended up just dropping somebody else instead, but that's more where I'm at with Max Muncie.

“And, you know, obviously I'd love to hold on to him if I could, but I think he's, I think he's on the”

fringes of roster ability and standard size, right Olegs. And a name for those in NL only leagues. We mentioned it earlier, but Joey Weamer off to a blistering start with the nationals three

for three with a triple and his second home run on Sunday. He went three for three with a home run

on an opening day. Looks like he's only going to play against lefties, but if he keeps mashing, you know, maybe earns himself some more playing time. He's only two percent rostered. Once upon a time was a prospect of note there, Joey Weamer, but his numbers in the minors last year were pretty bad. So the jury remains very skeptical of her on, on Joey Weamer. We are learning about bullpen's kind of, for the angels on Friday, Jordan Romano did close out the ninth inning with a

four run lead. He struck out two. We know that he got a save on opening day. Just wanted to ask how much did you guys see Romano going for in in your leagues where Fab already ran, right? So, Taut Wars or any NFBC leagues. He went for 132 in my Taut Wars league. This is out of a $1,000 budget. That's 15 team Roto. And then 189 in our BFT 12 team Roto League on NFBC. So some big bids on Jordan Romano. Yeah, and the beat FFT, it's only a 12 team league. Yeah, there's not nearly

as much scarcity for saves. There's the 15 teamers. It only ran for me and 15 teamers. And he didn't

“go for a hundred there. And mine, I think it was more like 80 to 90. And that's, you know,”

no telling how good he is, no telling how long he has the job. So to me, that's a little aggressive and maybe it maybe it just depends how you did with closers coming out of your draft, maybe you're the guy who drafted Carlos Estovaz. You're like, I need to replace these saves suddenly. And maybe it'll work out. I know Emilio Pagan was an early season pick up with a lot of skepticism. Last year, obviously it worked out. But that was a bit too aggressive for me. I was I was bidding

more like half that. Yeah, I did end up going 117 in my TGFP I league, which is a 15 team rodeo. That is also a league where I had drafted curvy eights. My only other closer was Ken Lee,

Chanson. So did you get him? Yeah, I did get him for 117. The second bid was 78. So I could have gone

cheaper. I was thinking more like 70. And then talking to you guys about what you saw in your other leagues. That's like, I'll bump it up a little bit and turns out I wouldn't have gotten him if I had bumped it up. So I guess it's, yeah, it's probably fine. It's probably worth it. It is wild how much it can vary from league to league. I mean, even in your league, Chris 80 would have gotten him except if somebody was bidding 80 and they were going against you.

“You know, it all it takes is one burst into blow up the bid. And in a 15 team league, you have to”

be a little more aggressive because there are only at most 30 closers and usually less than that.

So it's hard to have a second closer unless you really invest. And I did not. Yes, as we're

about to find out, there are not 30 closers in major league baseball right now. For the athletics on Friday, Justin Sterner came on in the ninth inning with the game tied. He allowed a run on three hits. He took the loss. Then on Saturday, Michael Kelly came on to get the final out of the eighth inning with the bases loaded. He did get flat junior to line out. He stayed out there for the ninth inning, Michael Kelly came up a game tie home run to Alejandro Kirk took the blow and save.

Then in the tenth inning, the ace took the lead. Scott Barlow came on for the save. He blew the save and eventually the ace lost in the 11th inning. So A, I don't know who it is here. B, it might not matter. I don't think I don't know if anyone has good enough run yet. Maybe they're going to back end to giving him a chance. But it was. Who is that who's name did you say? Hogan Harris. Okay. But I was fine dropping Harris and tell wars for Scherzer. Yeah, it just, I don't know if

any of these guys are good enough. It is the big problem. That's that's a situation. I will let sort it self out. For the Cardinals on Saturday, Riley O'Brien came on in the seventh inning with a two-run lead facing the heart of the raise lineup. He allowed two hits, but got out of it. Jojo Romero pitch a clean eighth inning. Matt's Vonson came on in the ninth with a four-run lead. He recorded two outs. He was charged with three runs. Ryan Stanit came on. He allowed back to

back hits to tie the game. Stanit came out for the tenth inning. He allowed an RBI single, but wound up with the win because the Cardinals walked it off. I do not think Ryan Stanit is good. Matt's Vonson has a bad and two appearances so far. I think Riley O'Brien and Jojo Romero are probably their most reliable relievers and that was the case last year, but that's not

if I had him already because I think his time is coming. I had no interest in Stanit.

“Even though he got the first two save chances, I think he's not even one of their best three relievers”

and he looked bad. So I just had no interest in investing in Stanit whatsoever. Vonson's velocity was down and maybe he'll come around still, but I don't know that he's getting the next chance. Yep. For the race on Saturday, Griffin Jackson got the tenth inning with a one-run lead. He allowed a walk. Then a sack blunt. Then a two-run single. He took the loss and is off to a disastrous start so far. Then on Sunday, Brian Baker came on in the ninth inning with a four-run lead.

He pitched a clean inning to close that game out, but the race tacked on two in the ninth. So it looked like he was going to get the save. If it was a save opportunity. And in some of those deeper category leagues, I actually won Brian Baker in a few spots. I don't know that it's going to work out, but if they're going to use Griffin Jackson's kind of all over the place, I could see Brian Baker maybe getting a few saves there. Yeah. I mean, that was the expectation.

It wasn't necessarily, you know, would it be Baker, would it be Garc Cleminger, would it be,

“you say it if he was healthy? I think all of the above is likely to be the answer.”

Jack's likely to get most of the saves, because that's, you know, what I was going to say about the Cardinals bullpen, you know, it seems messy right now. When you have one picture who seems to be the best picture and is like the fireman or highest leverage guy, that guy usually ends up closing more often than not. It's not 100% of the time, but that's usually the way it shakes out in the end. All right, continuing on for the twins on Saturday. They had a three-run lead just in

Topo pitched a clean eighth inning. Cole Sans was using the ninth. He walked one struck out two

for his first save. Taylor Rogers pitched on Thursday, but he was not using that game at all on Saturday.

So kind of just feels like Cole Sans will start in that role. We think and we'll see where it goes from there. For the Rangers on Saturday, Robert Garcia started the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He got two quick outs and then gave up a single and a walk. He was relieved by Chris Martin, who gave up back to back hits. The game was tied and then lefty Tyler Alexander picked up the save in the tenth inning. Do you guys have a feel for the Rangers right now? It kind of

“feels mix and match, I guess? Yeah, I think Robert Garcia followed by Chris Martin just as we said”

going in. Those are still my top two choices. Yep, I don't think we learned much, but they remain my top two choices. For the Rockies on Sunday, Victor Vodnik entered with two outs in the eighth

inning, a one-run lead runners on first and second. He hit a batter with a pitch and then

had a couple strikeouts there. Victor Vodnik came back out for the ninth. He gave up a single double play. Then a double then a walk off two run Homer. He took the blown save in the loss. I don't think Vodnik is very good. I don't think the Rockies are very good. For the nationals on Sunday, C.O.N.L. Perez got the eighth inning with a four-run lead. He gave up a solo Homer, Clayton Beater got the ninth inning with a three-run lead, pitch a clean inning for the save. On opening

day, they used Beater in the eighth inning and then I believe it was a four-run lead in the ninth and C.O.N.L. Perez pitch the ninth. So they might mix and match, but I'm still leaning towards Clayton Beater being the main option there for the nationals. For the Astros on Sunday, Brian Abrae, you got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. Walk, hit by pitch fly out, walk, and he was

replaced by Lefty Brian King who did get the final two outs for his first save. Where you guys

dropped this King. Yeah, it was. We guys looking to add Brian Abrae in King at all, anywhere. So Brian Abrae's velocity was down quite a bit. He's down three miles per hour in this one. It's not good. He averaged 96 last year. He was down to 93 in this one. I don't think it was down quite as much in the previous outing. So maybe it's just probably his first time pitching on back to back days since last season. Maybe he just wasn't quite up to it yet. Yeah,

his velocity was fine in the first outing. So I don't know. Oh, it was actually down four miles per hour from last year. Excuse me. Oh, geez. Yeah, that's the first outing or in the second outing. In the second outing, the first outing was down about a mile per hour. So I'm inclined to just chalk that. I'll keep Brian Abrae as a guy who's got a pretty long track record of being an elite reliever. So I'm willing to give him the benefit of that out and chalk

that up to just not having it that day, but it's it's worth noting. Mm-hmm. And then for the brewers on Sunday Trevor McGill got the first save opportunity here, a two-run lead. He allowed a hit, but struck out two for his first save. Abner Arriba pitched on Saturday and I mean, this brewers game was a little bit weird because they took the lead late, but I guess my lean is that

Sunday was in the eighth, right? No, he didn't. He didn't pitch on Sunday. He pitched Saturday.

“Saturday. Saturday. I think in the eighth or ninth inning, you know. Be double-check that.”

Yeah, that was my feel for it coming in just because McGill never lost the job. You know,

yeah, he just got. Yeah. So Abner Arriba in on Saturday pitched the eighth with a five-run lead, and he was followed by D.L. Hall, who closed out the game in a non-save situation. But if they were obviously if they were planning on reserving Abner Arriba for saves, I don't think we would have seen that usage on Saturday. So I think early signs strongly point to McGill being just the closer. Doesn't mean Arriba couldn't overtake him at some point, but for now, it's same McGill.

All right. I've got a whole bunch of other leftover stuff from the weekend. So let's do a little rapid fire. Get through the rest of this. Old faces in new places. Mackenzie Gore took a no-hitter into the sixth inning in his Rangers debut at the Phillies. He likes pitching against the Phillies

“early on in the season. Remember that crazy game he had on opening day last year. Five and a third”

innings, two runs, seven strikeouts here, 15 whiffs on 90 pitches, Fremre Valdez, solid in his Tigers debut at the Padre's, six innings, two runs, one of those earned with five strikeouts to one walk. Chris, anything stand out here for you Mackenzie Gore, Fremre Valdez on their new

new teams or debuts. Some mild changes, some Mackenzie Gore's approach. She's basically swapped

out some four seemers for some thinkers. I think that was pretty much the the biggest difference. I think it's too early to say, but I think it was on the whole someone encouraging. It wasn't like, oh my god, it's a brand new Mackenzie Gore, but it was fine. Again. Welcome to the Rangers, Brandon Nemo, two for five with a steel on Saturday. Then he hit a home run on Sunday. Welcome to Chicago, Alex Braggman, two for four with a double-dong on Sunday. And then

Luis Robert, he continues to look like a different player so far. Small sample, I get it. He had that great game on opening day. Had that 10 pitch walk against Paul schemes. Had a walk off three run home run Saturday. Then two for three with a run score on Sunday. It's been a very nice encouraging start here for Luis Robert. Early science, looking good for a breakout here,

Cam Schlittler, awesome at the Giants. Five and a third shot out innings. One hit,

eight strikeouts to zero walks. That cutter velocity 95 miles per hour. That was just like we saw in the spring. It was pretty crazy. And then Kate Horton, solid outing here against the nationals, six and a third to run the loud four strikeouts to one walk. Only one start, Scott, but the early returns looking pretty good here on Cam Schlittler and Kate Horton. Yeah, Schlittler especially, I feel great about him. Horton, this was a start. A lot like

what we saw down the stretch from him last year when he had that absurdly low ERA. That was hard to understand. He actually had just, he threw his change up a good amount of supposed to be his best pitch. Only got one with on it, which was a little surprising. I don't know. It was a good start. I wish we saw a little more from the change up, but I'm not going to harp on that after one start. I do want to just point out with Schlittler. He's

basically going like, I don't know, 90% for Seamer Sinker and Cutter. And it's all 95 to 99 miles an hour. And it all, like, the Sinker or the Cutter gets about 11 inches of glove-side movement relative to the four Seamer, and then the Sinker gets about five inches relative to the four Seamer, and then the four Seamer gets the rise. And it's like, that just sounds like a nightmare to try to hit. Just three different pitches, all upper 90s, all with different movement profiles.

It's, you don't really, it's like a, it's like a souped up version of Lance Lynn. And you don't really see anybody pitch like that anymore. But yeah, he, he might just be a superstar. It's very impressive what he's doing. Some of those Sinker's man that he throws like 99 miles per hour in on a righty. They were just brutal. I don't know how you can do anything with those pitches. Yeah, he looked,

“he looked great in that first one. Could these three hitters be taking another step forward?”

Jay Bangaliers, double-dong on Friday, another Homer on Saturday. He has gotten better each, basically each year. He's been in the majors. Drake Baldwin, two Homer's this weekend, one against Cole Reagan's. The only area that he really could have improved as a hitter is the launch angle. And if he does that, I mean, we could get a pretty impressive power season here from Drake Baldwin. And William or Brave just picking up right where he left off in the world-based

ball classic, Homer on both Friday and Saturday started all three games, wanting its lefty, two against a righty. Chris, what do you think about these three potentially taking another step forward?

we saw in the world-based ball classic. We saw a little bit of end spring training. They're giving

him that chance against lefty, at least early on. So it's interesting. This is the one of these three because I drafted Languilliers in Baldwin and a few leagues. I don't have any willier, Brave. Feeling us a mild tinge of Fummo, so far about willier, Brave. More so than like sit on Raphael, another Red Sox outfit or I didn't draft at all. I feel more Fummo about willier, Brave. He wasn't Cincinnati. And normally he's going to be embossed in,

which is a tough place for a left-hander who's power placed to his bullseye mostly. So I remains, I mean, obviously he's a fine fourth-out future in fantasy. We'll hear Brave. But beyond that,

the idea of him taking a big step forward. I remain skeptical of that. It's hard to see

Languilliers getting much better than he was last year because he was already so good.

“You mean the number one catcher? I think Baldwin's the one I'm looking at here”

the playing time we think is going to be close to every day. Now that they have pretty much an open DH spot, he DH begins to lefty on opening big coal riggins. Really good lefty. Did his home run come off riggins? Yeah, can't remember. Yeah, he offered off a lefty. So yeah, there's I think Baldwin is such a good hitter apart from just the fact he plays catcher. What happened with these starting pitchers that had some rough outings this weekend? We just mentioned

coal riggins. He was just bad at the braves. Four ratings, four runs allowed, four walks, three homers allowed in this one. Scott, would you see here from coal riggins? Any concern at all? No, not really. The velocity was down a little bit. He just didn't seem as sharp as he usually is. I was seeing no reason for panic here. Our next up Kyle Braddish, not at his best against the twins, four and two thirds, three runs, two earned three walks to four strikeouts. Velocity down a

little bit. It was colder here in the northeast, Chris, anything that you saw here from Kyle Braddish.

“I want to say was he scoreless through four and then kind of ran into some trouble. I think that was”

how that game went. So you're not going to get me to say much of anything negative about any of these guys, I think. Sorry. He I'll have one run through four and then give up two more in the fifth. Is that what the people want? They want you to say something negative. I mean, judging by the chat, the chat's just been crap and on everyone to do. I think they want us to really overreact. They're not going to do. There's a lot of that happening. I was talking to you guys beforehand where it's like, why can't we just be happy

for baseball to be back? It's like anything that I tweet is just met with like skepticism or snark and it's like, we're only has to do this all the time. Come on, man. But this is half fun and be happy that baseball's back. Come on, guys. Haysers Lazardo had a rough one against the Rangers, six inning, six runs, seven strikeouts, two homers allowed in this one. Scott, anything here for Lazardo. I mean, unless the homers become chronic, it's going to be hard to succeed with you give up two

homers in the game. So he gave up two homers in this game, but unless that becomes like something

“he's doing every game, I think he's going to be fine. 15 with on 99 pitches, seven base runners”

and six settings. It was, it was a good start except to give up two homerats. The plus the bad starts don't count for Haysers. Well, when he's tipping his pitches. Yep. You're you're in a agreement with that. Don't, don't try and make this the scots and dummy thing. Oh, it wasn't a specifically you thing. Okay. I'm making fun of everyone. Oh, MSC in. I'm saying, okay. Okay. I do want to there is one picture on this list. I'm actually a little bit concerned about. Is it? Okay.

Okay. Continue. All right. MSC in his velocity remained down against the D-backs. Three and a third

innings. Four runs, six strikeouts, two walks here. The velocity was down in spring. His velocity dropped down in his final inning of work. I actually had a buddy texting me today. Michael Waterloo, we've had him on the podcast before. And he was talking to me about how worried he is about she and how he has him in a dinosaur league and how he's he's looking to trade him because he's pretty worried about what's happening here with she and so what do you guys think? I mean, there have

been like several 91 mile an hour fastballs for MSC and late in his starts, both in spring and now in the regular season. And you know, for me it's just there there's been this weird disconnect. And I've commented on a few times between the way the fantasy baseball community looks at MSCN, which is this is one of the most talented young pitchers in baseball. And this is a burgeoning ace and the way the Dodgers look at him, which is

MSCN in any way over the past, you know, eight months specifically in the way that we have all been expecting them to, right? Like last year down the stretch when it came time to skip a start,

it was always sheen and when it came time to move somewhere to the bullpen, it was sheen who got moved to

the bullpen. And the way we talk about sheen is this is like a top 30 starting pitcher in baseball.

“That's what he's been drafted as for fantasy and talent wise, it feels like he should be”

if the velocities are cool. Yeah, but I'm just wondering if like maybe this is what the Dodgers are seeing that we're not, that there's just some limitations or something in his skill set that's not quite what it appears in, you know, a lot of shorter outings last season, and I didn't have this as anything outings too, that were really, yeah, there were, but was he like throwing a hundred pitches? I would guess not, I would guess he was, you know, just unusually efficient in those outings.

But it's worth noting that this was not what we were seeing last year, right? We're we're seeing three mile per hour drops over the course of the game so far in spring and then in this first start, that was unusual for him last year. So this is just me spitting ideas of like what could possibly explain that disconnect? Because that's been the only thing for sheen, whereas when I look at the skill set and I look at what he, you know, the pitchmakes and everything, it's like

man, this guy is awesome. Why don't the Dodgers seem to view him that way? You know, even this spring

when they talked about, we have our guys. She was never like one of the core rotation guys.

It was always like, Sasaki's in the rotation and then it's open after that and it's like, well, she and got in, he was the number two starting pitcher at the end of the day, but it was like, it just never quite seems like they are as on board as we think they should be. And that's just the one thing is the Dodgers are smarter than me. I don't know about you guys, but I feel confident that the power and the Dodgers, the people running the Dodgers are definitely smarter than me.

“And so that has been my disconnect. That that's what I've been trying to figure out. Maybe there's”

just something that they've been seeing that we haven't seen. I'm not panicking about sheen, I'm not, you know, dropping him certainly, I'm probably not trading him, but it's, this is concerning for sure. Would you start him this week if you have him at the Nationals? I would. Yeah. Nationals. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think this Joey Weamer thing's going to last for it. Tatsuya Emi had a rough debut against the Angels 2 and 2 thirds innings, 4 runs, 4 walks,

4 strikeouts, 49% of his pitches for strikes. Obviously, look, the strike throwing stands out here. Do you use him this week at the athletics, which is a very tough environment's pitch in? Yeah, but it's also a very striking strikeout, prone line up as we were just talking about with the three blue jays pitchers who face him. I'm not unconcerned starting in my, but I think it's too early to pull the plug. I mean, 49% strike rate is beyond awful, but it was also his

first time. I get a major league start and, you know, I know he had all spring to get used to the

“new ball and everything, but this was obviously on a different level from that and I think”

we can give them a little grace for this. If it continues much longer, then we have a problem, but I think against the athletics with the matchup that day from all I would I would run in my out there again. Mike Burrows, rough astros debut here against the Angels 5 and 2 thirds innings, 5 runs, 2 homers allowed in this one. Did change up the pitch makes quite a bit. He gets the red socks this week. Chris, are you holding Mike Burrows? Are you benching him against the red socks?

I probably wouldn't start him against the red socks, but I wouldn't drop him either. I wasn't quite as excited about Burrows as you guys were, but I still think you need more than one or two one start certainly. Yep, and oh my gosh, Brandon Sprote, I am, I'm sorry if you're strained them and you listen to me, I apologize. He got destroyed by the white socks. The three innings seven runs allowed four walks. Three homeruns allowed in this one. I mean, did some interesting things under the

hood, but I mean, it didn't matter. He got crushed, obviously. The last day was way up from when you saw him in the majors. He had this new cutter that the brewers introduced to be at it. It's not even worth bringing that up when it starts so bad for Guy who was barely rosterable in the first place. So I think most people are going to drop Brandon Sprote. I think that's fine. It wouldn't surprise me if he has value again at some point this season, but obviously you can go ahead and drop Brandon Sprote.

So I'm hitting left overs from the weekend. Big G, John Carlos Stanton, off to a nice start, started in all three games, multiple hits in all three. He homerunned Friday,

My trout, especially with how many points these are. Yeah, as then it surprised you how high it is.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. I John Carlos to me feels like five outfielder,”

Roto League, nothing more than like, no league. It's shallower than that. I would roster him in 55 to 65% roster, rather than 80. Something like that. Mike trout. Chris so far. So good. Followed up his opening day, sock into shoe with another homerun on Friday. 109.7x velocity, 403 feet on that one. Zack Netto. Hand looks okay. He's off to when I start homerun on both Friday and Sunday. He had a stolen base on Saturday.

Chris and Yelich off to when I start as well. Two for four with two runs on opening day. He had a steal on Saturday. Came off the bench with a go ahead three run homer here on Sunday. And Yandy Diaz racking up the hits early on. He had three hits on opening day that a five hit

game with four RBI on Sunday. He is betting a cool, five 63 through his first three games.

Pitching leftovers, aces being aces. I'll just read off the names here. If you guys have anything go for it. Chris sale, Brian. Woo. Kevin Gosman and George Kirby. Anything on those four that you guys saw Kirby, Gosman, Brian Wu, Chris sale. I still don't have to seem up see our mangled data on

“George Kirby. I didn't see either. Yeah. That's annoying because that's what I'm waiting to see.”

If he recaptured at the 2024 angle. Yeah. That's not out there. That's weird. Yeah. Yeah. They're hiding it. They don't want us to know and all want us to know. Anything on those four or just kind of status quo. Yeah. I mean, I think the fact that he's still not throwing the change up slash splitter seems would seem to indicate that he's not the guy he was in 2024. Again, as I've said all spring, that doesn't necessarily mean he's worse or bad.

He's just different. Yeah. That's George Kirby we're talking about. George Kirby. But I think George Kirby will be good. It's just a question of how good he will be. For other starting picture leftovers here, Sandy, I'll consider I look great against the Rocky seven innings one under and run with five strikeouts. Yuri Perez mixed start against the Rockies two homers allow. Don't love that. But seven innings eight strikeouts. Obviously, that's great.

Connolly early look pretty good at the reds five and a third one run six strikeouts

and no little McLean racked up the whiffs against the pirates. Five innings two runs eight strikeouts. Chris anything that's stood out here. No little McLean. Connolly early. Yuri Perez and Sandy.

“Sandy. I think McLean was pretty iffy early on in this one. I think he had two walks in the”

first inning from remembering correctly and then settled down. So look, the stuff is clearly awesome. And it's just a question of how good the command can be. And I think it's just a question of can he be a top 25 starting picture or can he be a top 15 starting picture? I think he has that kind of upside. Just has to consistently throw strikes. But I think he's going to miss a lot of bats. So very excited about Nolan McLean. Yuri Perez. It's just two bad pitches. That's all it was.

He's going to be awesome. And it's just kind of similar to Nolan McLean. Can he be a top 25 starting picture if he if it's like one point two home runs per nine. He's a top 25 picture. If it's a point eight, a home runs per nine. He's probably a top 15 starting place. I'm wondering if Frank has any Falmo see in Yuri Perez go seven innings and it's very first start of the year. Well, Rocky's here. In fact, it was quite the opposite. 10 hard hits allowed 94.3 average EV. I was seven

in I was valid. I thought your contention was that all they won't give them enough innings to let him be nice. Yeah. I mean, I was worried about the home runs, too. He gave up two home runs to the Rockies. I know. So we'll see. We'll see. Well, Yuri still out. Call it to the bullpen here. Some other what's what? What's up? The years. Oh, yes. That was right there for me. After years of not having a closer, the marlins finally have a closer. And his name is Pete Fairbanks. He had saves on both

Friday and Saturday for the Yankees David Bednar saves on both Friday and Saturday for the Dodgers. Edwin Diaz sound the trumpets picked up saves on both Friday and Saturday as well for the podries on Saturday, Mason Miller. Night thinning with a three-run lead. He walked one, struck out two.

Did you guys see Mason Miller's entrance? I did the it was amazing. There's a Twitter account

called great moments in new metal history that tweeted out the highlight package. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it will matter as much to use got because it's he walks out to the the song called Blind by the band corn, but it was it was pretty epic too. Yeah, it was pretty cool. It was I mean, I love the Dodgers. They've got a they've got a live trumpeteer for the to be trumpets song.

I don't know what the the verb word version of the exercise or I don't know what whatever that word is We need more theater for closers. I would absolutely love that. Yes, let's do it.

For the Orioles on Sunday, Ryan Hellsley picked up his second save for the Tigers on Friday,

Kenlee Jansson struck out the sigh for for his first save for the blue jays on Friday. Jeff Hoffman just picking up right where he left off. Game time home run, but then he did get the save on Sunday. Look much better in that second outing for the reds on Saturday. Pagan gave up a solo home run in the ninth inning took the blown save then on Sunday. He wiggled out of it for his first save for the white socks. Sir Anthony Dominguez not a great first outing here.

Came on in the eighth inning bases juice three run lead. He got William Katrera's to pop out. Then he gave up a two run single to Luis Renjifo followed by a three run Homer to Christian Yellowch and the final line here point one inning two hits two runs one walk blown save and loss for Sir Anthony Dominguez not great. It'll get better. It'll get better. The only place we could go is up Scott for for Dominguez to stream or not to stream on Monday.

Names that stood out to me here. We have Chris Bassett against the Rangers Cody Ponce against the Rockies is like number one with a bullet. Jacob Lopez at the Braves Kyle Harrison against the Raise Braxon Ashcraft at the Reds. Simeon Woods Richardson at the Royals.

“What do you guess in my top three would probably be Cody Ponce. I think Jacob Lopez”

Jason the strikeouts there. Number three. I think Bassett. I got to think Ashcraft. I like Ashcraft too but in Cincinnati scares me a little bit. He does get a lot of ball. Yeah I probably like that. I probably go Ponce Ashcraft Bassett as my three there.

On Tuesday I like Jacob Lopez but at the Braves kind of scary first start. On Tuesday we have

F-lin against the Rangers. Brandon Williams sitting at the Pirates. Max Scherzer against the Rockies in Toronto. Jose Soriano. Good first start but at the Cubs. Don't want the matchup. Yeah I'm actually streaming Scherzer and some leagues as a guy who doesn't enjoy streaming. Getting the the road Rockies. That's that's the cushiest matchup of all. Don't Scherzer. Don't love any of these others on Tuesday.

I'm very interested to see him. I'm not ready to stream him. If you're forcing me to pick

“two more I probably go Jansen Junk and Brandon Williams then honestly. That's not a ringing endorsement.”

F-lin had a good spring. I don't think the Rangers lineup is very good. It's okay.

So F-lin could work but I kind of want to see what he does and his first start before I go out there

and use him. The biggest news of all this weekend. We'll just wrap up. I mentioned earlier. Guys I finally did it. I watched Jurassic Park tweeted out. I had people responding like what does this mean for baseball because they just didn't know. What's the context? Why do you care about Jurassic Park? Well you're supposed to do as watch baseball. I mean, I did watch a lot of baseball. It's a perfect movie. It was it was good. It was enjoyable. I can understand why

for the time period that it came out like being the pre-eminent dinosaur movie. Like I totally get it. Oh there's been. It's been out out shown by all these dinosaur movies since then. Is that what

“you're saying? Honestly, I haven't seen many dinosaur movies at all. So it's exactly. Jurassic Park”

just kind of I guess stands at the top. It's the best one. My favorite part is honestly and I tweeted this guy. He's got like seeing Jeff Goldblum's character and he's just like their shirtless like a provocative way coming off a scene where like a lot of very serious things were happening. Was just mind-blowing and hilarious to me. I don't know why, but it's just it was so fun. The choices Jeff Goldblum makes in this movie are baffling. And that's usually true. Jeff Goldblum's

kind of a baffling actor. That's part of what we love about Jeff Goldblum. But like just the line readings and the the way he speaks. It just nothing really makes sense about it. Like he thinks the movie where I fell in love with Jeff Goldblum. I'm sure it's lounging in the back of the Jeep. It was so funny. It's real weird. A phenomenal movie. Yes. And I mentioned this to you over Twitter, Frank.

sequence of all time. When the dinosaur looks into the window and they shine the flash.

“Oh, there's so many great the guy runs to the back. Yeah, I mean there's so many like it's”

there's so much to Ahmedaw like I can write a book just on that scene. Everything from like you know grant waving the flare and trying to get the T-Rex as attention. And then it looks

“at him and just the way his whole body buckles. And that moment I love that. I love that”

attention cutting of the Jeff Goldblum wiping the the windshield clean. You know like it just attention of it is amazing. Yeah, that's Spielberg guy. Good at making movies. Yeah, this was this

“best one, I think. Honestly, it's the one I enjoyed the most. That was good. It was a Lincoln head”

personally. You guys crushed me last year for never seeing Jurassic Park. I don't know. I

don't know what I was doing in my childhood. It was a lot of like Pokemon and Yugio and like Dragon Ball Z and like anime stuff. And what just watching the same Adam Sandler movies over and over again

and just never getting to Jurassic Park. But I finally did and it was fun. So we watch Jurassic

Park over and over. It might be the movie I've seen them those don't it? We are going to wrap

there for Sky 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's Spotify and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye bye.