Speaker 1: This is the in This League Fantasy Podcast network, in
This League Fantasy Baseball podcast online at in this League
dot com. Now here's your host, Bogman and the Welsh.
Speaker 2: What's a Friend as are welcome into the in This
League Fantasy Baseball podcast with Bogman in the Welsh little
bit lighter of a Bogman. After multiple years, there's been
a big change here at ITL Bogman cut his hair.
You're a bald man. Now you've officially you look like Debro.
Speaker 3: I do that picture that I took and sent to you. Yeah,
like right after my haircut, I was like, God, I'm
like doing the full Debro here.
Speaker 2: How long had you had the hair? Four years?
Speaker 3: I was out for four years twenty twenty one when
we moved here. I think I got one haircut, so
I I think twenty twenty two was the last time
I cut my hair, So four years.
Speaker 2: That's crazy. I told I think he looks phenomenal bald,
and I think you should make a commitment to being
bald for a while. But I feel like you're not
gonna make that commitment. You're gonna do the crazy hair
thing again.
Speaker 3: Well listen, it's this sounds so insulting to people that
are balding. It is hard for me to keep this
this short right because it'll be grown out in three days.
You won't be able to see my scalp again. So
it's hard to keep that like really clean bald look
all the time.
Speaker 2: I just have to.
Speaker 3: It's as much maintenance as having long hair is, so
at that point I'd rather just have the hair. But
there's a funny scene in thirty Rock where this bald guy.
I don't know if you guys know what thirty Rock is,
but basically it's a behind the scenes of an SNL
type of show that Tina Fey directed for a while
on NBC. But Alec Baldwin plays this guy, Jack donneghe
who's like her boss and he's the CEO, and you know,
he's kind of he's kind of a prick. But there's
a guy working on the show that's bald and he
puts on, uh, you know, a two pay and Alc
Baldwin's like, Pete, I know you're wearing that as a joke,
but I really think you should consider it. Okay, you
are the opposite of Alec Baldwin in that, because every
single time I shave my head.
Speaker 2: Welch's like bugman.
Speaker 3: I know it's a joke, and I know you're bald
only for a couple of days, but I really think
you should consider keeping it. You're like, you're like the
the opposite of Jack Donnegey whenever I shave my head.
Speaker 2: I just I think you should consider keeping this forever.
Because I said, I told him he should keep it
for a year. Just try try a year. You've done.
I mean, you've cut your hair like four times in
the last fifteen years because you grow your hair out
every time. You should just like even at the end,
you know what, the rest of this year, five and
six and a half months, go, six and a half months,
roll the ball. I think you look good. I think
your people are gonna love you more. It's gonna you're
gonna be Anna like me more. I think you're gonna
be a fan favorite on Fantasy Pros. They love the
bald guys. You and Debro. You have a good beard.
Like I just think you should do a small commitment
and then if you don't like it, you don't like
the work, it goes in and people start, you know,
making bald comments. Then you go back to growing your
hair and shoving it in their face and you'll know
you can do another four years or whatever.
Speaker 3: I do think it's gonna grow back way more gray
than it was when I got it, So we'll see.
That might that might made me consider it. If it's
all gray coming back, maybe.
Speaker 2: Everyone just yell at bogs the key ball, but the
hair is gone. The baseball is back. And if you
guys want to support you boys, go to in this
League dot com. In this League dot Com actually working
on the baseball this week's sheet today because it was
Mother's Day. And can you imagine if I told my wife, Hey,
I have to not do Mother's Day right now because
I have to do this sheet and get yelled at.
So I'm going to be working on that today. Dynasty
and Prospect ranks this week updates. So go to in
this League dot com. Sign up today, get in the group,
me rooms, hang with your boys, show us love, and
just again know you're supporting us. You are supporting in
this league beyond anything. I know some people what you
offer is the most important thing, which is understandable, but
there are some people out there that just want to support.
That is the best way that you can do it
go to in this league dot com, sign up today
in this league dot com. Maybe, just maybe, we do
have to stop talking about the cell opportunity of Murakami.
I Munna Taka Murakami as fifteen homers on this season,
and he becomes the first MLB player in history to
hit a homer in the first game of a series
in eight straight games. I would first say that that
is a wildly stupid stat. This is all this series
it is. Oh yeah, sorry, I'm sorry serious, but I'm
just going to say this. You didn't watch leading off today,
but Joe did his dumb stat thing, and now it's
becoming a bit because like when I get these whole like,
you know, he did one the other day, it was like,
you know, only two pitchers in the first sixty three
games and blah blah blah, and it's just like, okay,
and then he did one today, you know about Waldschmidt whatever.
I think stats are getting stupid and when you start,
I mean filtering the stats into weird dumb little things. Sure,
I poke at it, so this one is kind of dumb.
Speaker 3: But it's definitely one of those. And I didn't go
looking for it. I just heard it. On Quick Pitch
last night, so I put it on the sheet as
I was watching Quick Pitch.
Speaker 2: But it's it's just an interesting stat.
Speaker 3: And it's always interesting when a rookie comes in and
does something.
Speaker 2: That no other ballplayer this time. He's been around for aoki.
I understand that. Okay, first exposure to the big leagues, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not how many thousands of players
have had an opportunity to do this and none of
them ever had, right, So sure, it's just it's an
it's an interesting stat. You would call it a dumb stat,
Yes it is. It is a dumb stat, but it
just shows Markami is doing things that just haven't been
really done before. I mean guys coming in and started hot,
but this is a this he has started so hot
with the homers that it's a rare feat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this one isn't like one that I would
really really pick across. It's just kind of funny that
they're like, all right, you know, he's homered in the
first game of eight straight series, and you're just like,
all right. The more important thing is is like Murakami
has fifteen homers and I kind of wish I had
just I don't know leaned more into like you would say,
I was probably one of the better defenders of Murakami
in the draft season. I wasn't happy you talk to
Anthony K.
Speaker 3: I feel like your your your opinion kind of switched
on him, and that was that was early in spring training.
Speaker 2: It's like the first week of spring training. No, you're
one hundred percent, And that's exactly where I'm getting at.
I was never like because I was the one that
definitely was buying into a lot of the off season
news of like you can't hit high vloh blah blah blah.
But yeah, Anthony K really kind of changed my mind.
It was the first week of camps when they were
going on, and then I kind of I held that
and that might have been stupid to people, because I
know people get really dumb about you know that I
would focus on that, but like, you know, my positivity,
I'm like, hey, listen, I Murakami might be a deal.
I kind of believe this. Blah blah blah. I wish
I had leaned into it more because I think it
would feel better at this point, but I kind of
ruined it too by being very like, you probably need
to trade Murakami. The problem is is like I kind
of still feel that way, but like maybe this is
just who he consistently will be, because I think the
argument is we see these fifteen homers and we're just like,
all right, well, what's going to happen when things get
really bad? And we might be needing to stare at
being like maybe this is the bad you know what
I'm saying, Like he's got a twenty one percent barrel rate, ridiculous,
almost sixty four percent hard hit rate, ridiculous average xvelocity,
some of the best in the league. He gets the
ball in the air, he pulls it, he walks seventeen
percent of the time. That stuff is sticky. That's crazy.
The negative though, is he has a sixty six percent
zone contact rate and a thirty five percent k percentage,
So like you stare at that. And by the way,
he's hitting two thirty three with an expected batting average
of two twenty five. So it's hard to come to
terms with, like what vert because we don't have enough
sample size, what version of Murakami is this? Clearly the
power is through the roof and not sustainable, but are
things going to get worse? And I think you look
at the zone contact rate and strikeout rate and you go, boy,
it might get worse or could the power just not
be as big? And all of a sudden he hits
for more contact because he is one of those guys
that doesn't chase outside the zone. And it's like he
just needs to improve his own contact. So I know
I'm saying a lot of things. I just don't know
who Murakami is going to be. But we have been saying, like,
you probably need to sell yet all he does is
hit homers. He's the Chris Carter of home runs here.
All Chris Carter did was catch touchdowns. All Murrakami does
is hit homers. So like, I'm at the point where
I don't even know what you do with Murakami. It
feels like the safest thing is to sell bogs. But
like this bad contact version has like the league leading.
Isn't he leading in the league in homers right now?
Speaker 3: He's second? Judge and Schwarber have sixteen, So ridiculous. Do
you know that he has the same amount of runs
as Kyle Schwarber. He has two fewer hits and he
has two more rbi and four more walks. Now, Schwarber
also has more doubles than him seven to one, so
way more extra bates.
Speaker 2: It's for Schwarber.
Speaker 3: He's also hitting five points below Murakami, Like, I feel
like those guys are similar in value right now. Obviously
we trust Schwarber more because we've seen do it over
a full season and all of that, but you might
have Schwarber in Morikami that might be just what he
ends up being.
Speaker 2: So it seems like that right now. I think I
still think you're right in that.
Speaker 3: My initial instinct is to sell from the hot start here.
And the reason you can nine hundred plate appearances, that's
what they always say. Nine hundred is what we know
we have, so Markami can still go way up and
way down.
Speaker 2: So but the reason you can, the only reason you
can have this conversation is because the homers are so elite.
That's it. Yeah, Like if he had nine homers and
he's hitting two thirty and he has these slumpy things
that he doesn't have a homer at the start of
every series, people are the interest is going to be
so much lower and we're not going to be out
there for it. But the reason you can do it
is he is hot as hell in the home run department,
and that you can play that. But you know, the
more I've thought about this, here's another thing I'm thinking about.
So I've mentioned he's seeing over fifty percent fastball percentage.
The clear thing. He's hitting one sixty three against breaking pitches,
and he's overperforming against off speed by almost one hundred
batting average points. So that would be two pitch types
that would be under two hundred. But so like, let
me reverse the butt here. What you would look at
is you would go, Okay, well, pitchers need to like
pitch him less fastballs and then he's really going to struggle.
Now's the butt. But he doesn't chase. He doesn't chase
outside of the zone. He's an in zone guy. So
it's like you're not getting like he is hitting poorly,
you know, overall against those breaking pitches, But what are
the most likely pitches that are gonna go outside the zone.
It's gonna be breaking pitches, and he doesn't chase those.
So it's like, well, then the reason the fastball percentage
just might not end up going down because you got
to throw him in the zone you gotta be, and
that's where he'll still sixty six percent zone contact rate
is wildly stupid in the worst way. When you know
you're getting stuff that's inside the zone, you should be
a lot better about that. But he is forcing players
into that that It's like, actually don't know if the
floor is that much lower than where we're at, So like,
does that mean there's more ceiling. So I'm starting to
make this case that, like you can't really buy Murakami
because I'll bet you Murrakami's cost I'll bet you well,
maybe not now, but like a week ago, Pete a
Lonzo when he was struggling, I'll bet you Murakami was
in that same vein right now. But like, I just
don't think he can go low enough that there's gonna
be like a buying opportunity. But you know, maybe maybe
he's just not a sell. You know, maybe he's going
to even out a little bit more. We just don't
know if it's a really cell high opportunity. It's out there,
But he continues to roll Man, just an interesting conversation
to have around Murakami. Maybe now that I'm kind of
like maybe getting away from advocating to sell, now he'll
really really struggle and suck but like that's that's in
his game that I mean, it's it is so volatile,
it is so weird. Maybe it's going to become closer
to looking like a Schwarber like, but you know, he
is also the way he attacks the game, he's forcing
pictures to approach him in a certain way that it's
like maybe you just really can't have the fastballs go down,
and that's going to create this floor where he's going
to just pull the living crap out of balls and
he you know, he's Adam done. He's like Adam Done
two point zero.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, Adam Done is probably a pretty accurate description.
He's gonna walk a lot, he's going to hit a
lot of homers, and he's going to strike out a ton.
So I think Adam Done is pretty is a pretty
good comparison.
Speaker 2: Kind of cool thing. The new I can't really ever
keep up with all the cards, but I think it's
like Top series because Tops has their flagship series. They
have Series one, the Series two, and then they have
the Update series and it goes at different points of
the season. And I guess in Series two there's a
Murr Commy card there that's just like an old Frank
Thomas card. It was like this horizontal where Frank Thomas
is like sitting and they mirrored the picture of like
Murakami doing the same thing. I kind of love that
posed for it or did they? Yeah, like murk Commy
like posed for it, like I like when they do
stuff like that, like they did with Jackson Holiday with
the Billy Ripken you know thing like I like that. Yeah,
they really didn't. One they don't. I think they didn't
do the you know, well that's what I wanted to see, Okay,
I get it. No, No, they changed I think to
fun face. I think, yeah, I think that's what it is.
Like I like when they do stuff like that. Murrcammi
uh has one of those so very very fun fact too, Murk.
I can only get my kid out to like one
spring training game and Murkammie was like the one kind
of I guess star now that he got to meet
and he got the photograph and stuff. Actual we went
to the White Sox and Murakammi came right over to him.
That was pretty cool. All right, So Mrkkammy talk in there.
I'm very curious what you guys think. But I'm just
starting to get to this space where it's like, you know,
we're so focused on he's overperforming that maybe this isn't overperformed.
Maybe the power is overperforming, but maybe like this is
some of the worst versions and maybe things are gonna,
you know, start altering in a better spot. I don't
know a lot of debuts, rookie debuts. You were joking,
it seemed like as soon as we stopped recording, then
all of a sudden, big important things happened where it
was like, hey, Spencer Jones is being called up to
the majors and our boy Ryan Waldschmidt. So just real
quick on Spencer Jones. I have said for a long time,
absolute freak of an athlete. He's six foot seven. He
can run, he can hit for huge power, but like Murkam,
that boy can strike out and he has a big
strikeout problem, but he has endless power in a small environment.
He's also changed his swing, very weird to people because
it's got a Otani niss to it.
Speaker 3: He looks like Otani in the box. Yes, exactly like Otani.
Speaker 2: I saw someone put out there. They're like this dude
actually just like looks like Otani his face. But that
was I say, yeah, I know that's very funny. I
saw it in a couple different places, so American twin,
you know, at the end of the day, like I,
I hope we've set people up with understanding, Like you
gotta know, Spencer Jones is all it's like Markami, but
with stolen base potential, but there might be a lot
less contact potential. Right now, he has a fifty percent
strikeout rate so far in his like two games or
whatever that he's played. His bat speed looks elite, his
hard hit looks elite. Like I do think he could
be a serviceable player, but he's not there in Points League.
But Ryan Waldschmid's a crazy one. I think I literally
said the problem with Walshmitt coming up Bogs was they'd
have to dfa Alec to Thomas, and it just didn't
feel like they would ever do that. And then they
finally did. They literally dfa'd Alec. I got hit up
by like four different people about it the minute it happened,
and I think Alex was a little salty. I don't
know if you saw that stuff Like Hazen Haysen ended
up saying like they didn't option him, they actually defaid
him because the words he said was like you won't
know your worth until we make you available to all
the teams type of thing, because Alec put on Twitter
on Instagram like take things personally. Remember that whole Randy
Rose Arena thing, pointed cal Rawley. He like Instagram that photo,
and I think he was pissed. And the Diamondbacks were
kind of alluding to, like, hey, listen, if you are
this valuable in a major leaguer, then other teams will
trade for you or claim you. If not, you know,
we gave you an opportunity, we're going to send you
down and just got to fix the stuff. Bottom line
though this is they're committed to Ryan weld Schmith. If
you dfa Alec Thomas, they're making the commitment to Ryan Waldschmidt.
You already saw some of the stuff on display. Guy
can run hit that. I think it was a double,
Like he's got some real good power potential. There's some
strikeout in his game as well. But like Ryan Waldschmidt,
I'm picking up over Spencer Jones. I think I'm picking
up over eman Travis Bizana, who you know is stealing
a lot of bases and stuff. But like Ryan Waldschman,
to me, has like a solid floor to be a
twenty twenty type guy in the majors. And I think
some of it is like you're just starting to see
some of it on display. He's gonna have an adjustment period,
but like, this is why you wanted to stash him, dude.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, Walschmitt looks like a real bad so
I'm really really excited to see what he has. I
don't think anybody that they're going to bring up has
the defense that Alec Thomas would have had in center.
But I mean, I think eventually you could stick Corbin
in center and make him one of the best.
Speaker 2: Yes, I've always kind of wondered, like, ya, why don't
you put Corbin in center? Go put Walshmant in right,
and then when Lawler comes back you could or Lawler
you could put in right if you want. He had
a third base arm or shortstop arm, you can put
him in right, and Walt Walshman can play all the positions.
But yeah, I don't know why it's always fine.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I think it's just for less plays so he
can't get hurt fielding and keep his bat in the lineup.
I honestly think that that's what it is.
Speaker 2: I think it's the best case they have put together
the most athletic version they can and all would be
fantasy relevant. Lawler was starting to lock in. That's a
former shortstop, Ryan Waldschmidt. He's solid across the board. He's
so likable too. You're gonna love Ryan Waldschmidt. I'm I'm
picking him up in twelve teams and picking him up
where I can. He's probably already picked up. But if
he gets dropped because you know there's a strikeout problem,
he might go through some like little adjustment periods. I
think once he figures things out, watch the hell out.
Ryan Waldschmid is going to be the dude. So that's
a you know, that's that was a really exciting development,
but also his kind of depleted the market of prospects
that seem to come up. Robbie Stelling came up, so
it's like after that, I really don't think there's like
a huge, huge name. There's the Twins have a couple
of dudes. Marlins also have a pitcher. But like we're
in a weird period where I think it's going to
start taking some double A guys going to triple A
to replenish, but Ryan Walschmant was the final cog that
I'm going to be picking up. Speaking of Robbie Snelling,
Robbie Snelling went five, walked for, gave up three earned runs,
struck out two, but all of those earned runs came
in the first inning, which was kind of interesting just
to monitor. But you know, he was a little bit
walky there. Do you have any thoughts on Robbie Snelling's debut.
Speaker 3: I mean not really. I was a This was a
weird start against Washington. I didn't get to see a
lot of it. I think he's gonna be fine, but yeah,
just kind of a weird, rocky start.
Speaker 2: Really. He went primary curveball, which was kind of interesting
over the four scene, but you know, forcing fastball. He
was throwing ninety five thirty percent fifth percentage on the curveball,
and his change up felt like he threw a slider
a little bit less. I'll be really interested to see
what the next few starts are. It's a solid curve ball,
but I just don't think he was maybe properly. I
mean also had like a I think Joe Mack might
have caught him. You've got a weird catching situation going
on over there too, so there's a lot of adjustments on,
you know, how he has to throw. I think his
stuff was on display. I wouldn't be massively discouraged. Probably
not a ten team guy, which I said before twelve team.
I'm holding on to Robbie Snelling to see if he
readjusts couple backs, A couple of pitchers are back, are
boy Blake Snell three innings, four and runs, had a
walk at five strikeouts versus the Atlanta Braves. Is there
any kind of apprehension after the first start? I say no,
because he always comes out the gates slow. But any
thoughts on Snell?
Speaker 3: No, I mean, I don't like the fact that he's
you know, injured to start the year and this is
you know, picking up more steam. But he was great
when he came back last year. I think he's gonna
be fine. So yeah, no issues with Snell as far
as I'm concerned. Oh man, I gotta get better. Man.
Speaker 2: I love that I have, just I think I've single
handedly ruined him. Maybe it's just you and Joe. I
can't get we can't do a Blake Snow conversation without
without Joe or you doing the voice. It's great, it's
so funny. Do other people do it at all? Do you?
Is it like Disa Rico or Frank or does anything.
Speaker 3: I don't know if they're doing like an impress of
him every single time, but uh, everybody knows if if
you bring up links now, there's like a sixty percent
likelihood someone's going to do a voice for him.
Speaker 2: The hydrated. I know, like Spore won't because spor is
like friendly with him in their little streamer world and stuff.
I said that just like it sounded dismissive, but like
in the streamer world, Paul's got like twenty five thousand
on like twitch or whatever, So I'm not discounting anything.
But like he won't, he won't do all of that.
But I wonder if anybody else does that, That's what
I would say. Yes, I guarantee you they do. Oh
my man, like Asa Onsider, we're up, which is good.
You know those were up a bit. But yeah, I'm
super encouraged by Slack. Blake SNeW looks very looks very
hydrated for sure. Carlos Reddon four and one third, three
hundred runs, five walks, four strikeouts against the Milwaukee Brew
so the same question. He is back after an extended
period of time, any apprehension or do you chuck this up?
Is the full return? But like no, I'm yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, look, if if you didn't want to start
any of these guys, any really any really pitcher in
their first start back, I'm okay with that. Like, but
I think for these guys I probably would have just
rolled them.
Speaker 2: So Carls, But is there any apprehension moving forward now?
Speaker 3: Like, not any more than you initially would have had
with Carlos Raddan, Like, I'm I'm never drafting Carlos Radon.
I can't stand that he is always on the injury list, right,
But if you drafted him, you know that about him.
So no, I think that him coming back is great.
I don't have any shares and I wouldn't trade for
any shares of calls are done, So maybe there's apprehension
in that case, But I feel like you know you're
getting with him.
Speaker 4: I think there's a positive, there's positive to be had
that if if you had picked him up, I think
that's a good win, just because his villa was way
up almost two miles prour on his fastball, essentially two
miles per hour in his sinker.
Speaker 2: This is way down too. He walked five Yeah, I
mean I get that, but it's slot. But all the
vilo was up, slider was up. Like if it was down,
that would have been a concern. If it was average,
you'd have been like, okay, fine, but it was like
you had aggressive velo up. But yeah, the walks in
the first start were bad. I'm just encouraged by it.
I'm encouraged because he's been a not in. I mean,
he's walked like nine percent before. But if he's like
eight to nine percent with that strikeout rate, like I
think things are going to roll very positively. So I'm
I feel good regardless of the first start, and I
agree with you. I probably wouldn't have been able to
help myself with Snell. I would not have started Redonna
his first But then maybe.
Speaker 3: I mean, who has more experience Welsh then coming off
the IL and starting a game than cols.
Speaker 2: Well, Blake Snell. It's the favorite thing, that's true, more
returned starts off the IL than streams. He had probably
in twenty twenty five. So I would argue that also
Nick Lodolo first start back five and one third five
and runs four. I'm sorry five, hits four and runs
one walk, two strikeouts again. Anything with Lodolo any extra.
Speaker 3: Yeah, always Lodolo is always hurt. So yes, I will
not roster Lodolo. I'm not trading for him. And if
he has three great starts in a row, I'm looking
to move him because the dude lives on the inter list,
so that one. Yes, if Lodolo comes back and looks great,
try to move him as soon as you can because
he's probably gonna.
Speaker 2: Get hurt again. Yeah, I actually think it's so sick
of dealing with Lodolo. I kind of think I'm with
you on that. Like I of his stuff was up
so in the same kind of Dawn camp, but like
he's a perpetual injury. You know, he's the new blister. God,
something happened. Yeah, there's always, there's always something. It feels
like I'm actually shocked that he pitched twenty eight games
last year. That actually like does not register to me
that he did that. But he's never pitched more than that.
But prior to that, it's been nineteen seven, twenty one,
twenty eight and he's got one so far this.
Speaker 3: Show, And I guarantee you if you go back and look, dude,
it's all like, you know, is he gonna make his
next start?
Speaker 2: Are we sure? There's a lot of that with him?
So I just I've had enough in a really positive market.
Here Spencer Strider six innings, one hit, eight strikeouts against
the Doyers. I will admit I was like, I have
no interest in even though I'm a big Strider guy,
I was a I'm not interested in doing this Strider
thing because the you know, the Velo had been down
and it looks inconsistent and bought a bottom. But he's
got a sub three ERA currently his fastball. It's the
narrative I was going with before it was after the
first start, is he had a declining fastball Velo every
single year of his career. Right now he is stabilized.
His slider is up over last year, which is a
big positive. His fastball is literally on target right now.
It's getting banged around, but the slider is not. And
that's a big key because he was a three pitch
pitcher or two pitch pitcher before. He's now a three
pitch pitcher. With the curveball and the slider both have
a zero batting average against. Both have absolutely bonkers with
rates right now, and he's setting it up with the fastball,
which has an under ninety mile prior exvelocity, so he's
inducing weaker contact with the fastball and the secondaries are
getting it done. I think it's a pretty great story.
Thirty five percent k percentage. His walks look stupid, but
that's from the very early start. It's like, I will
hat tip to like Spencer Streider or someone you want
to I don't know if I want to trade for
necessarily because of the name value, but like things are
trending in like a really good direction. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I would say I'm probably most on the fence about
Spencer Strider because after that first start in Colorado, like
the Villo was down and everything, and I was kind
of like, well, let's not worry about the Villa in
his first start back, and it's in Colorado, right, so
I was kind of unbothered by the Vilo dip, and
then the Villo came back here and you look good
against the Dodgers. I think I'm kind of on the
other end as well, like I'm not one hundred percent
completely sold that he's all the way back and he's
great now. So I think I'm kind of lukewarm on Strider.
I think for the most part, if you ask me
one way or the other, I'm trading him away instead
of acquiring him because of this recent injury history and
the Velo dips and all those things.
Speaker 2: Can I ask you who'd rather sure? Who would you
rather be invested in the rest of season, Spencer Strider
or Shane McClanahan. McClanahan has also turned things around. I'll
give you the numbers real quick, since I rolled that
at you. He's got a two six ERA, a one
point zero seven whip. His fastball, though, is still down
a year over year by about a mile and a
half and it but it's doing similar characteristics as Striders.
It's around ninety five. It's got the highest batting average against,
but it's weaker contact, and he's doing business with his changeup.
In his slider. He's got sub two hundred batting averages
against really solid whiff Numbers's kind of got wiff numbers
all across the board. He's kind of settled in a
little bit. Twenty four percent k percentage, nine point nine
percent walk rate. He does have a full expected ERA higher,
so two point six ERA three point five to five expected,
but that's still solid. You get to pick one McClanahan
or Strider rest of season.
Speaker 3: I would probably just say McClanahan right now because I
know he's healthier, so or I know he like he
looks healthier right now, I would say. I would say,
I'd say they're both in the same bucket, right they
both have crazy upside and a crazy low floor. I
just mcclann hand has how many starts this year? Four
or five?
Speaker 2: Seven? Okay?
Speaker 3: So yeah, I would go with the guy that has
more starts this year and looks like more consistent. I
still think there's ups and downs for Strider.
Speaker 2: Three straight starts of giving up nowhere and runs. McClanahan
has two, and I mean he's taking advantage of like
he's had the twins. The Giants and the Blue Jays
have been struggling, but still it's not nothing. Are you
still selling both of them over buying either one of them?
Speaker 1: Though?
Speaker 2: Because I think that's where I'm still at a good question.
I don't know, man, I feel like I feel like
McClanahan has negative juju still on him. I think I
might buy McClanahan right now, because there's still Velo dip,
there's still lack of trust even though he's out there.
To me, the problem with Strider is he's and I
could be wrong about this, I feel like he just
clicks back into his old value, you know what I'm saying,
Like as soon as it's like something really good and
it's just like, Okay, no, we're back to Spencer. Strider
top fifteen sp he was ranked really high preseason. I
feel like I'm still just some negative stuff with McClanahan
that maybe from.
Speaker 3: A costs is always going to be a better buy though,
right like unless it's like, you know, Strider has TJ
again or something. Right, So like I think that McClanahan
is always going to be cheaper, but I still think
I must sell on both of them.
Speaker 2: I'm open to selling them both, but I think I'm
open to buying it. Might be open to buying on both,
but maybe more particularly Shane McClanahan, but also like I
was a Shane McClanahan defender, so that's probably like a
little bit more prevalent here. Also in the world, Ryan
Walker experiment officially done and Eric Miller, I believe is
coming back because I think a lot of people were
got him just completely blanked on who was the person
that everybody jumped on when Eric Miller was look at
the Giants depth chart because I don't remember. Eric Miller
is looking to come back and he might be the guy.
But do you know what I'm talking about here? I'm
trying to are you win Keaton win? Was it Keaton
or Caleb Killian?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: It was Killian, That's it. So Caleb Killian is listed
as the current starter with Eric Miller out, but I
think Miller's about to come back and I kind of
feel like he might go back into that role. So
the bottom the most important thing is is like you
gotta be doing Ryan Walker if you weren't already. So
who would you go with? Are you going with Miller
or do you go with Killian? Because Killian is currently
active in going No, I think I'd go with Miller.
Speaker 3: Miller had a couple saves, you know, before going out,
and he kind of seemed like their guy.
Speaker 2: His era is still in the threes.
Speaker 3: But I do think it's going to be an ugly
mix until they go ahead and trade for somebody, right,
and that is if they do.
Speaker 2: They're not going to trade it. No, they're trading away.
They just traded Patrick Bailey away. The Giants are in
sellout mode. There's a reporter that so good best he's
the best best defensive player in baseball over the last
two years. He's the best defensive catcher by rating out there.
They get some good for him. They got they they
traded for the twenty ninth overall pick in the draft.
It's a compensatory pick, which was essentially three million dollars
in the pool. And the rumor if they can trade
for picks now, well only only compensatory, not actually right,
but the rumor is that they're going to try to
convince Rock Chelaski to have a bonus pool that no
one else will want to pay, so he falls to four.
I don't think that's going to happen. But they invested
in there. But the point of this is is they
are they're selling team. The report out there is they
want to get rid of Devers's contract, they want to
get rid of Lee. I think the Giants have made
the commitment that they fed up. They're going to go younger,
and they're going to try to start selling off pieces.
So they're not trading for anybody.
Speaker 3: Then it's going to be a big, ugly mix, and
if I have to pick one, it's going to be
miller for me.
Speaker 2: I agree, all right. Injured Cole Reagan's placed on the
io with left elbow impingement, So that gives the answer.
We were kind of speculating he's not going to two
start next week. Be sure not. He's going on the
il Logan Webb speaking of giants on the io with
a knee Brews so just big old giant elf me
on wanting to draft him everywhere that I did. Jacob
Wilson diagnosed with the left shoulder sprain. MRI is happening today.
It's gonna be great. He hasn't been awesome this season.
He got his average backup, but the counting stats are
still pretty like.
Speaker 3: It feels like this is happening right when he's starting
to click back, So that sucks. I don't know, and
I mean I know you aren't bigger on Will's leg.
I have a couple of shares of him. They clearly
have not worked.
Speaker 2: It's just like what he looks like. He's gonna be
like a fifteen to ten guy with a two ninety
average and maybe some like he's okay, he's fine. Wilskatres
was hit by a pitch on the hand, so extrays
were negative, so that's good. Taj Bradley was placed on
the aisle with right heck inflammation. That thinks because.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I don't know, like the corner, it seems
like it and how long is peck inflammation gonna keep
you out? I feel like we don't have a lot
of you know, good data on.
Speaker 2: That, so now I don't it's not gonna be good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, it seems like it's not good. So
hopefully he's back soon. And this is minor, but we
really have no idea.
Speaker 2: Adasa Barjara this weird like range of motion issue in
his elbow after he woke up on Sunday. Maybe slept
on it wrong, So I guess watch that. Kerry Carpenter
placed on the aisle with an acy joint spring in.
Jake Mangam, who I just saw the other day, was
placed on the IL, and Nick York was recalled guys
coming back. Mookie Betts could be back today, so that's
a good sign.
Speaker 3: I think he is going to be back today. I
don't know that we've heard any official announcement, but it
really seems like he's going to be back today. Like
e Resource was saying, yes.
Speaker 2: I think everyone's like, oh is it this? Is that?
Like Mookie's not been trending in like an elite direction anymore.
I think I'll be I'm not training for him. If
he gets hot, I probably am looking to trade him away,
to be honest with you. But if anything, the most
important thing is if you owned him, you're finally going
to get that production. Ronald Kunya did agility drills in
the outfield this weekend, so that's a positive. They're they're
kind of down playing if he's going to come back
when he's eligible on Wednesday, but for seople, he could
be back this week.
Speaker 3: Hopefully in a week yeah, I would say in seven
days probably the most if all that goes well. But
you know, no rehab assignment needed for a hamstring injury
from Ronald. Can't you just get him right back in
the lineup please?
Speaker 2: Hunter Brown, through a VP on Friday, is going to
begin a rehabit signment soon, so that's a big positive.
Garrett Cole was able to make his most recent rehab
start after it was pushed back. He had a really
good out and he went five. They said they wanted, like,
I think two more starts. Kind of wonder if they
might alter and just say after this last start they
feel really good. If not one more, so, worst case,
he's back next week. Jeremy Paine is expected to start
a rehab assignment on Tuesday or Wednesday. We've been without him,
so that's huge. I would expect that's going to be
three or four games. Tyler Glass now is placed on
the eye with back spasms. He's just a disaster all
the time. It's a good season, but disaster. Trevor Rodgers
throw a simulated bullpen on Saturday. He's been on the
aisle since April twenty ninth with a flu, with a
bad flu. Bog mean, I know you don't like. What
kind of flu is it? Aunt Hunt.
Speaker 3: Was he on any cruise ships's? Oh, he he's on
a cruise ship. Well, let's get him back in society.
Then let's get him off that cruise ship. Let's definitely
not blow it up. Get him around a bunch of
people and a big crowd of people. Let's do that.
Speaker 2: That's right. Shane Bieber is gonna face Live Hitters on Tuesday.
They say he's still pacing to come back some point
in June. I gotta be answer you that he's not
someone I'm looking to pick up and stash. If you've
got like a bunch of e L spots and you're
not using any of them and you wanted to do that,
I guess that's fine. But like he's not in active
where someone's like, hey, would you cut blah blah blah,
Like no, I wouldn't. I'm really not. So that's me. Yeah,
I do.
Speaker 3: I do like the fact that some of these guys
are starting to break you, Like Tyler Glass now, You're liked,
you're like me with Tyler Glass now at this point,
because it's just so he's just always on the injuryless
he lives there. So I do like the fact that
you are getting kind of uh, you know, primogeny and
and being an old man about these injuries like I
have been, so that is at least enjoyed.
Speaker 2: I'm trying. I am trying to a little bit where
guys are they are kind of starting to be like
off of my list where I'm because I've always there's
always like a point where it's like well, you know,
at this cost blah blah blah. There are guys that
are I'm starting to be done with. I'm definitely like
if you are currently injured, my interest level is like
very low, Like especially in the seas. I'm just not
messing around with any of those guys. Where we Brendan
Donovan's going to be activated on Friday, Kyle Teal is
going to beginning a rehab assignment this week. Bryce Miller
is activated, and apparently the manager as saying he's going
to be part of a six man rotation at first,
and then they're potentially looking at piggybacking Luis Castillo and him.
That's a really interesting development where like I kind of
don't know, like are they going to start it with Mill?
Like how are they going to work that is Miller.
Speaker 3: Steel, Miller will come back in that's what they want
to do the opposite. I find it's so weird that
they just told us all of this, like, yep, he's
going to be a six man rotation because we're not
off until like the fourteenth or something. They don't have
a day off for a long time, so they don't
have a day off a long time, so going to
six man when he initially gets back, and then they
told us just yep, and after that we're piggybacking him off.
Speaker 2: Luis Castillo starts. I think we're just going to see
what that looks like.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, I think it's also weird that they
laid all of that out because anything can change.
Speaker 2: But no, I think that's fine because I think that
gives a public per I think it's great. It's just rare.
It's just very dicey with Luis Castillo right now, Like
you do know, he is like he's been terrible. He
is like a bad next start and a bad piggyback
away from being dfa'ed, you know, or full on putting
the bullpen or being tree like there's something that's going
to happen. I'm just not sure he's a guy. And
I know you have the control of him and stuff.
I'm not sure he's a guy you can just throw
in the bullpen like I think he might be a guy.
You got to get off the roster if you're going
to do that and that, and that's really tough. So
things are looking down for Bryce Miller, good for or
down for Luis Castillo, up for Bryce Miller. That's so
Yami is rejoining the rotation on Tuesday. Box you want
to go see him on Tuesday. Note Washington stay home
and then Chris Martin threw VP on Saturday. Should be
having a rehab assignment soon. So a bunch of injury
stuff out there. Let's take a break when we come back.
Let's look at who's been hot the last seven days,
talking about some of the leaders. We've got a couple
of slump players in there, and then we'll do as
well with some pitchers and we will do it all
right here after this on itl But wait, let let
me explain something to you.
Speaker 1: I am not in this league. You're in this league.
Speaker 2: I'm the dude. You are one pathetic loser. The hotness
over the last seven days from a batting average perspective,
how about Brandon marsh five nineteen average, Riley Green is
number two, four seventy six, Josh Naylor's been up there
four point fifty eight, Harper's hitting over four hundred, and
Andy pa has hitting over four hundred as well. Bugs
Brandon Marsh are we are we in on Brandon Marsh
right now?
Speaker 3: I mean, I had no idea that Brandon Marsh was
having such a good year. I don't have him anywhere,
but he is hitting three fifty three right now with
twenty two runs and four homers, three sole bases, twenty
one RBI. I do, I do think this is a
nice surge. Like I said, I think he's sixtieth right now.
I'll just double check after we got updated.
Speaker 2: Numbers for Brandon Marsh.
Speaker 3: He's currently forty eighth, by the way, after that good
game last night too, So forty eighth right now. That's
a top four round player in a twelve man league. Obviously,
I don't think he's gonna perform like this for the
rest of the season. There is gonna be a slump
in here. But right right while he's hot, he's been great.
Speaker 2: I will say, though, he looks like maybe he's changing
as a batter because his barrel. So it's similar to
like what, let me see if the bat speed has
gone down too, because this will be interesting if that's
the case a little bit, so, you know, like the
Luisa Riise type of guys of the world where you
know they don't barrel a lot. Oh I didn't look,
did his swing get longer at all? Usually those guys
kind of starting that process where they like the swing
is gonna get a little bit longer. You're stopping the
process of trying to barrow and blah blah blah, and
you're just making contact. His barrel rate's gone down, and
the reason I'm saying this, the bear rate's gone down,
and his strike uts have gone down dramatically under twenty
percent k percentage, dramatically lower than he's ever done in
his career. He's making more contact in the zone. His
expected batting average is three h five, so it supports
where he's at. But he is still actually hitting the
ball hard. But he's not pulling it, he's not barreling it,
and he's not striking out, and he's actually underperforming against
off speed pitches. He's hitting two seventy three. He should
be better than three twenty seven. He's not gonna be
a three fifty hitter, but like, could he be if
two eighty fifteen fifteen, Maybe one of those goes in
the opposite direction. I kind of think his savant page
looks good. There's a lot of quality a hit. He's
not whiffing. He does chase a lot, so that'll be
interesting to see like if the chase turns into a
lot worse strikeouts. So I'm not going nuts, but he
shouldn't be out. I don't know what his percentage owned
or anything like that, looks like he just shouldn't be
available out there. I'm very intrigued by Brandon.
Speaker 3: Thirty seven percent still only he's a top fifty player
right now. I don't know, dude, he definitely needs to
be rostered more. But I question this for the long
term for a couple of reasons, Like I just he's
never he's never hit above what is his all time
out to eighty right in his career average is to
sixty seven. He is I mean, look, maybe he made
adjustments and this is just improving this year, but he's
also you know, his best year was sixteen homers, nineteen
stolen bases in twenty four. Last year was eleven and seven.
UH like projections would have him sitting somewhere in the
fifteen sixteen homers and around ten solemn bases and hitting
they got him for the rest of year, hitting like
two sixty five to sixty two. Two seventy seven is
the highest on UH these projection sites. So I think
he's gonna come back down to earth. But does that
mean he's not a good player. No, I mean he's
a obviously hitting very well right now. We can't say
that nothing has improved. He's swinging more, right, which I thought,
looking at his strikeout rate going down and his walk
rate going down, that he was swinging less. But he's
actually swinging way more and making more contact on outside
balls too.
Speaker 2: And the thing with that too, because I'm trying to
look and see this swing longer. Well that's what I
was getting up. Oh okay, not well, because I thought,
like if it got dramatically slower and longer and he's
keeping in the zone and making that type of contact.
But the weird thing is he's still he's hitting them
all harder than he's done before. He has lowered his
his bat speed versus twenty twenty three and twenty four
is almost down a full mile per hour. But like
there's not a lot of other significant stuff like his
ideal attack angle. The angle it's a little bit high.
Like it looks like he's he's just found like a
softer spot in where he's attacking and he's not chasing,
and he's making more.
Speaker 3: Com he's going after more balls is honestly what it
is because his swing percentage this year is fifty point
nine percent.
Speaker 2: His highest getting striking out less, which I know.
Speaker 3: It's weird, is forty seven point six percent, But his
zone swing percentage is exactly the same at sixty five
point eight percent. Now that has gone up about two
percent eighty nine point eight last year ninety one point seven,
but its outside contact. He's swinging more eight percent more
twenty eight point seven last year to thirty six point
nine this year. But his outside contact has also gone
up over ten percent. So that's why it's like from
fifty three point three, it's why he's not walking.
Speaker 2: He's chasing those pitches, but the quality of contact has
become better. He's actually seeing like almost seven percent less fastballs,
and he's seeing a lot more breaking pitches and he's
hurting those, but he's hitting four to forty nine against fastball,
So it's like he's doing such damage against fastballs, he's
pushing counts into like these breaking pitches that he's still
doing damage. It's just a really interesting profile that it's like,
maybe we could try to decipher all of it as
much as possible for the end of the day, Like
he's just making a a lot better decisions and the
quality of contact is showing in it, you know, like that,
Like he's twenty eight years old, it feels like Brandon
marsh is thirty four, feels like he's Jason Worth. He's
been in the league for twenty years.
Speaker 3: Think we've all just replaced Charlie Blackman in our mind
with Brandon Marshall.
Speaker 2: But it's like this is the prime twenty eight is
kind of like that. It's been a quintessential like twenty
eight to thirty or twenty seven to twenty nine, like
those are prime years, and like a lot of this
looks really good. He might fall off the planet, but
I'm picking him up. I think he is super interesting.
We can talk about another guy that was in the
batting average department, because he's kind of everywhere. Homer's last week,
Kyle Schwarber led with five with four, we had Harper,
and then we had Andy pa Andy Paias also had
a four hundred average. He was also near the tippy
top of leaders. When we talk about RBI, I've kind
of thought Andy pa Has is a guy that is
going to come back down to Earth. It's just not
happening though. Still he's hitting three thirty three, nine homer,
six dolen bases. Hard hit rate is top six percentile
of the league, fifty three point four. That's crazy. His
expected batting average is three zero two, so it's also supportive.
His strikeouts are down, his walks are up, kind of
like Marsh he's not quite barreling as much, but he's
getting the ball in the air. He's actually pulling the
ball less, which is finding like a lot of weird success.
This is another one of those guys where there's some
stuff that just seem seems like a little bit odd,
but it's a quality, like he's just a beast. What
is he ranked in Yahoo right now? He's got to
be like top fourth towards Oh jesus, I say top thirty,
but that's that is top thirty six today. Now, okay,
everything looks really good. He's still been really pull heavy.
That works. It looks really beneficial for like the Dodgers,
because you can really pull the ball at home for
right handed hitters. But he's got more homers on the
road right now than at home, and he's hitting three
hundred both on the road and home, like he is
he's the trippiest guy. He looks just so damn. Maybe
just the word is consistent. He is uber consistent right now.
There is no current falloff and there's really nothing that
supports any massive falloffs. So he just might be one
of the best honestly investment this year.
Speaker 3: It's recently it's been the opposite, because he's hit seven, eight,
six for most of the season, and then over the
last couple games, specifically this series against the Dodgers, he
hit fourth, than fifth, then third for the Dodgers on Friday,
Saturday Sunday, and before that he had had one where
he hit third against Miami on April twenty ninth, a
couple five's in there, one of the thirty against the
Rockies on the eighteenth of April. So they will put
him up at third occasionally, but fifth and fourth as well.
So not only is he getting better and not slumping,
but he's moving higher in this Dodgers lineup two, which
is exactly I mean, that's why I had Kyle Tucker
so high in my rankings. It's because he's going to
hit fourth for the Dodgers. Well, Poz is doing it
right now.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm intually when Mookie comes back though, what that does?
But like, also, you hit over three hundred, team's gonna
have to pay attention to us. Yeah, they have to.
Even in Dodgers, who'd you ray to have rest of season?
Andy pa has from Mookie Betts, pohz not close? Andy
pais or Freddy Freeman.
Speaker 3: Freeman did hit another homer yesterday finally, but I'm still
going pa haass.
Speaker 2: All right, here's the really good one. Pot has Kyle Tucker.
Speaker 3: I'm still saying Tucker there, but it's not by a lot.
I mean, pot Tucker hitting.
Speaker 2: Eight has less homers, less stolen bases, three forty three, Obie,
I mean, I don't know, man, Kyle Tucker's like a
superha take pass over Kyle Tucker. I legit might take
potus over Kyle Tucker.
Speaker 3: I mean, Kyle Tucker is just like a fastball only guy.
Speaker 2: Right, So.
Speaker 3: I understand that I don't think I'm there yet with
Piaz after you know, like, what is this h seven
good weeks or six good weeks? But uh, I'm it's
not far. I'll say that he has been incredible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just Tucker's profile has been I mean, we know
what Tucker can like explode into and stuff like that,
so that it is not sustainable either.
Speaker 3: For Piez at three seventy four, like there there are
signs that regression will come, but I mean how much
it doesn't knock him down in the lineup again, I
don't know if it will.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm not sure it looks too dramatically lower
than Kyle Tucker. But you could argue this version of
Kyle Tucker is kind of like the worst we've seen
in a bit where we're seeing the best of Andy
pay has and when it flips like it's it's a
good reminder of like, you know, Kyle Tucker is a
twenty five to twenty five guy. It's just we're in
a space now where I'm not sure that Andy Pius
is not a thirty fifteen guy or a thirty twenty guy.
He's got nine homer six stolen bases right now in
six weeks, Like, he doesn't hit twenty five homers, it's
going to be a surprise. He doesn't hit for a
high batting average, it's going to be a surprise. And
if he's stealing a little bit more like I don't know,
you know, if Kyle Tucker, if if any Pius is
too seventy with thirty homers and fifteen stolen bases. How
different is that going to be from a Kyle Tucker
that hits to sixty and his twenty five to twenty
and there might be more running RBIs from Andy pa Haus.
So like very interesting thing to follow like the rest
of them.
Speaker 3: And this has really been since the second half last
year for Tucker, right like the first half which Chicago
he hit to eighty, second half he at two thirty one.
Speaker 2: He went from.
Speaker 3: Seventeen homers in the first half to five in the
second half, and you know, in less than half the
games in the second half too. But it's been it's
been like six months for Kyle Tucker struggling.
Speaker 2: So it's not a nothing thing here over in the
RBIs no one had more RBI last week than Luke
Raley with ten, nine from C. J. Abrams and then Bellinger,
Jake McCarthy and Andy pal Has both had eight. Two
guys to talk about it in here one is Luke
Raley just want to continue this. This is I was
kind of in on him early in the year being
like a version of Kerry Carpenter where he's just like
all right, Well, if you haven't me be the strong
cyplatoon guy. If he continues at this pace, what else
are you gonna do? It looks like old vintage Jock Peterson.
He has fort bats versus lefties. Yeah, he is just
quintessential against rities right now. And he is hitting two
fifty three with eight homers. He's got a wall to
wall profile four percentile hard hit rate of fifty four
percent twenty two percent barrel, which is one of the
best in the league. His expected batting average says he
should be hitting twenty points higher expected. Wilba's top seven
percentile average ex velocity is in the top five percent
tile of the league. He's getting the ball in the air,
you know it. He's pulling the ever living crap out
of it. He has been a demon in that right
side platoon, and I think you can justify these guys now.
I will say he has one of the worst zone
contact percentage I've ever seen, sixty one percent on baseball spot.
That's insane. So you know something to monitor, like when
it goes awry, and they have all these options, you know,
being on the lookout for it. Plus he has a
babbitt of three forty, so things could fall off, but
they haven't for a month, and even as a platoon player,
he has been very fantasy relevant with those numbers. But
do you think, like, even all of this being said,
he's just still not a ten man guy. He's a
twelve man ye, race would you give him based on
his hitting profile versus like, you know, like how easy
it might be able to fall apart? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Not much, right, Like we've seen Luke Rayley before. He's
thirty one. It's not like he's a spring chicken or anything.
So I think when the slump happens, I'm willing to
jettison him pretty quick. But it hasn't happened yet, So
if he keeps this up, he's fine to be a
nice fellain bat whenever you need him on the bench
or whatever. But uh, yeah, I think you're right in
the fact that like ten man's, he's definitely not roster
for twelve man's he's very borderlined, So you're probably looking
at deeper leagues for Luke Brayley.
Speaker 2: Then who would you rather own him or Jake McCarthy
who has two homers seven stolen bases but is hitting
two eighty nine with the Rockies a three sixty OBP Diamondbacks.
It's laughable when you look at them. Definged Alec Thomas
and they traded him away for absolutely nothing. He does
not have the class of Colorado splits. He's actually hitting
better on the road. He's stealing aggressively on the road
as well. All of his stolen bases have come on
the road weirdly, But you know, McCarthy, he's just kind
of lowered the profile. He's not trying to hit big
homers anymore, though he is getting the ball in the air.
Colorado can crete really good things. He's got a super
low hard hit rate. Barrel kind of stinks, but his
expected batting average says he is supportive two eighty five.
His strikers have gotten super low. He's getting on base.
They've got a bunch of guys, but Mickey moniac seems
like a regression. Candidates, we've talked about Beck and Doyle
kind of like do you trust McCarthy and is it
McCarthy or Rayley.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I trust McCarthy, but I think
him and Raley go in the same bucket. So it
honestly depends on what I need. If I need swipes.
I'm gonna take McCarthy and if I need power, I'm
probably gonna stick with Luke Rayley, and I think that's.
Speaker 2: You both could make it interesting player if you Combo
really could.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you if you could platoon those guys on
a day to day basis in the better matchup, they
would make a pretty good But I think McCarthy fits
in that same boat right where I'm not picking him
up in ten, I'm not picking him up in twelve,
so he's probably for a deeper league still. But I
do like the little run that he's been on. It's
been nice, but we've seen McCarthy do this so many
times as diamondback man. So go on a nice run
for three weeks and then he'll do that for six weeks.
Speaker 2: So I kind of think in a five outfielder league
and twelve team, I think he could be relevant. Who
sold bases? He definitely is well. I guess this is
an easy answer, McCarthy or marsh rest of season, I'll
right that Marsh. Yeah, I would rather Marsh too, but
you're getting some stolen bases. That's going to become relevant
here in just a second runs Harper Ward wit a
bunch of players with six. Those were your leaders. I
don't think there's a ton to talk about here because
I want to kind of move it to the stolen bases,
your league leader over the last week as story Ruiz. Yes,
Stree Ruiz with the Marlins with six, Bizana we can
talk about in a second with five, and only Brew's
had four. But Astrue Ruiz up the seven stolen bases.
He's got a couple homers, he's getting playing time. He's
not hitting for average and it doesn't support it at all.
But he's weird. He is barreling, he is getting the
ball in the air, he's hitting the ball hard. The
problem is is he has no batting average support and
his strikeout rate is absolutely crazy. But dude's still second
and third. The other day when I was watching him,
like in this short amount of playing time, in twenty
two at bats, he has seven stolen bases. Like that's crazy.
Is there anything there with you with Estray Ruiz? For sure,
if you need stall bases, but that is it?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Like, like you said, you're not going to get a
lot left.
Speaker 3: But this guy has only been back since April twenty fourth,
and he's the forty first player over the last two
weeks according to Yahoo because of these swipes. So if
you're just if you're in a row and you're sitting
at dead last in stall bases, you need to add
Ruiz and just stick him in there and let him
help you get some saw bases. So they are running
him ragged, and I think they're just giving him every
opportunity to steal all the bases he wants, and he's
gonna just keep doing it. So I think him on
the Marlins is a good combo, right.
Speaker 2: The other one is Travis Bozana. Bazana has not gotten
the average up, you know, hitting only one ninety four,
but he's got one homer, seven stolen bases, and he
has a two hundred plus boost to his OBP. He
has a three ninety six OVP. His expected batting average
is telling us a different story that he should be
hitting around two seventy. He's only striking out twelve percent
of the time while walking over twenty percent of the time.
And I think it's interesting is he's just not tapped
into Like the expected batting average is telling us a
story he should be better, but he hasn't tapped into
the things that he does well, which is get the
ball in the air and pull it, and he does barrel,
and I think that's to come as he starts to
learn to be a bigger, better professional. He's not chasing.
He has an almost eighty eight percent in zone contact percentage.
I actually think this this is a very good buying
opportunity for Travis Bizana in whatever capacity, whether it's dynasty
that are kind of in redraft. He's a little fringy
to own, even in twelve team, But like I think,
I think I'm interested in it because I think Bazana
can start to unlock a little bit. So I'm still
very pro Travis Bizon. I think there's a lot in
his profile that is telling the same thing. I don't
know if you feel different.
Speaker 3: No, not at all. I mean I think everything you
just said is reasonable.
Speaker 2: Hit.
Speaker 3: The homer that he hit was pretty nice and clear
defense by a lot, So like, I think it's all
coming together for him.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm trying to roster Bizan or wherever I
can real quick. You put over the last two weeks
some slumping bats. I just want to throw this out
to you. Tell me a guy that you're not interested
in buying. Here are the batting averages over the last
two weeks. Ooh Show Hey one e four, Neto one seventy,
could Tell one six, Machado hitting one fifty six, Jazz
one eighty eight, cal Rawley point zero two eight, Sal
Stewart hitting one fifty before Secar won thirty three, Beshitt
one ninety six, and Matt Chapman one sixteen. Who of
this list does not interest in you in?
Speaker 3: I got three, okay, I got three that I don't
want to buy. Cal Rawley is too cold, I'm not
buying it. Oh two eight. That's ridiculously bad. I don't
know what's wrong with him. I don't need I don't
know if he needs to go get Lasik or if
something else is bothering in. But he looks miserable this season.
So number one, don't want to buy cal Raley, he's
too low. Salas start of one four, Suarez working his
way back to I think I would rather sell Sala
Stewart than buy him right now, So that's one as well.
And then I'm just never buying Secret. He's always hurt
and he's hitting one thirty three right now. I'm just
never gonna do that so, uh, those are those are
the three for me. I would say the biggest one
to pull away is that I'm just not buying Calro
unless he's like super duper cheap, and I just don't
think you're gonna get that. So because people spend a
second or third round pick on him, so interesting, I am.
I'm not trading for cal Raley.
Speaker 2: I agree with you on cal I do not agree
with you on sal Stewart. I'm opposite. I'm I think
I want to buy on him right now, even though
he's got big counting stats. The average is dipped, but
he's the kind of expected adding image of two to
seventy four, low strikeout rate, Like if anyone is selling
him on value, I'm doing it the other guy. I
don't want those Bobashett. I don't want Bobachett at one
ninety six. I don't feel great about Bishett. I don't
think he brings a ton to the table, even when
his average comes back up low no stolen bases, low power.
I'm not interested in him. Let's go over to the
pictures on the in the pitching market, A couple of
the big ownership, the guys that you have high percentages
that performed really well. Chris Sanchez seven innings, seven strikeouts
against Colorado Boom. Chris Sale continues to sign young run
seven innings, seven strikeouts against the Dodgers. Jacob de Grom
seven innings, ten strikeouts against the Cubs. Dylan Sees also
went seven struck out ten those from really big ones.
Logan Gilbert needed it bad six innings, ninth strikeouts, gave
up only one hit. That was huge. I don't know
if that's gonna be a misnom or like a like
a one off or something like that, but I think
you really needed that from Logan Gilbert, and I kind
of think it might be the start of like a
really good trend. I don't know if you feel the
same on that. I mean I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't have like a as strong an opinion on him,
but he absolutely needed that good start. So hopefully it,
you know, projects him to more, uh more starts like this.
But I don't have anything. I was just happy to
see Jose Soriano get back on the horse.
Speaker 2: Yeah he did too. Jose Sarning with seven to two
thirds seven strikeouts against Toronto. Joe Ryan after feeling like
he's gonna have elbow surgery, one hundred and seven pitches.
He went six innings five strikeouts against Cleveland, So I
guess that's good. The young dudes, Schlitzler, Miserowski, and Burns
continued to rock. Schlitzler struck out six Brewers, give up
only two hits. Jacob Miserowski struck out eleven Yankees, give
up two hits and six innings. Burns had a less
of an exciting game. He did go six, only struck
out two against Houston, but he continues to roll. Parker
Messik five and two third seven strikeouts against Minnesota. We
like to see that a little bit lower. These guys
are over fifty percent, but just want to throw these
guys back out. Bracks and Ashcraft seven innings, six strikeouts
against the Giants. Foster Griffin I talked about him A
ton has gone over fifty percent. But seven innings ninety
two in Miami. How many quality starts in a row
is Foster Griffin put together?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: I want to go.
Speaker 3: Look, he has been incredible. I feel like we've talked
about him every time he started.
Speaker 2: He's been I did Waiver Wire videos on him and stuff,
and people were weird about it. But it's like he
keeps rolling him and Jensen like those type of guys.
You just got to pick him up. You got to
roll him out there, all right.
Speaker 3: So yeah, seven innings, one earns, so one, two, three, four,
four in a row. And before that, before his four
in a row, he didn't clear over five and a
third innings and his first four starts, but his last
four have all been quality, all gone at least six
and three runs or fewer, and twice two times he's
had zero runs one one time and they are making
errors behind him because there's three runs that he allowed
to Milwaukee but none were earned. And in that last
start against Miami, he allowed two runs when only one
was earned with his nine strikeouts. So he's been really
good recently. So he has to be over fifty percent.
If he's not on your on a roster right now,
he should be. He's maybe incredible.
Speaker 2: And my boy Randy Vasquez five innings won and run,
six strikeouts against Saint Louis. There was like a little
blip earlier on. But those are guys that I think,
like Randy was a guy that I'm not like looking
to stream. I'll kind of want to hold on to
Braxton was the same thing. But you know, Griffin, he's
starting to move into the territory. Maybe you don't want to,
Maybe you don't want to do that. The under fifty
percent guys some guys that pay attention to quite a
few Diamondbacks. Ryan Nelson six and two thirds seven strikeouts
against the Mets, and Roder Rodriguez went eight and one
third four strikeouts against the Mets, and then Merril Kelly
seven innings, six strikeouts against the Mets. So all of
them had been poop excepted Wardo. Really the whole rotation.
They all got right against the Mets. Is there anybody
that you like are more aggressively buying on. I know
Meryl's gonna probably want to feel like that, but he's
been absolutely no. Which one are you, Petard?
Speaker 3: If it's one of them, it has to be Rodriguez,
because I think he has one bad start all year,
like the re and this is to his credit. I
got it eat Crow here because I thought after that
World Baseball Classic Star I was like, yeah, of course
he goes out there and dominates Team USA and he's
going to give up seven in his first start for
the Diamondbacks. He's been good all year. He has two
games where he's given up four earned runs. That was
against Baltimore on the fifteenth of April and then twenty
second of April against the White Sox back to back,
but he has come back and allowed two or fewer
in each of his next three starts. Only went four
and two thirds against Milwaukee, but seven innings against Pittsburgh
and then eight and a third almost through a complete
game against the Mets the other day. So yeah, I
think EDWARDO is the guy because Merril Kelly's been smashed,
shows Ryan Nelson and I'm afraid of those like blow
up starts for those guys. You Rod has not had
that yet. Two games of four earned runs. He has
not turned into a pumpkin yet.
Speaker 2: So out of the crier, I think you're all streamers,
but you know, I'm I'm keep an eye on all
of them. Edward has been probably the most consistent, which
is crazy Conley early forty four percent on Who's seven
innings eight strikeouts against Tampa Bay, get gets dustin May
six innings, seven strikeouts against the Padres Chris Bassett. He
was kind of after the opener, went six innings, six strikeouts,
Walker Bueller, six innings, two strikeouts, anybody. I mean, that
was kind of a wide range justin maybe with sixteen percent,
Bassett fifteen percent, Walker, Buler eight percent, anybody of interest.
So's I mean innings, nine strikeouts, thirty percent would probably
be the one in there, just because I mean, the
Cardinals are surging right now, they're playing really good baseball,
So McGreevy it would probably be the guy out of
that group. For me, I'm probably still stubborn in the
crap pitching department. Hazus Lozardo turned into a pumpkin again.
Three inning, six or and runs, three walks, six strikeouts.
That one really hurt because I've been a buyer on him.
He had these really bad starts, a couple of good ones,
but now as the ras up over five, but he
has a three point one to nine expected he Lray,
so I cannot quit him. I am buying him after
the bad start, maybe one last opportunity. You feel different
about it, like it's frustrating. You can't be this inconsistent
and hiss expected the Ray. It can be as good
as it wants to be, but it doesn't help if
he's gonna have a crap you know, crap numbers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, uh, I think I'm one s he
start away from just being done with Asarro, like I
think that's why I yet but yeah, one more just
really as he start and I think I've just had it.
Speaker 2: He's not having a good year in the closer department.
Two blown saves from or El's from closers David Bednar.
He ended up getting a loss against Milwaukee, and Riley
O'Brien versus Padre is a blown save. So I don't
I'm not really necessarily worried about either one of those guys,
especially not Bednar. So I think.
Speaker 3: O'Brien's been kind of hit or miss recently. Uh and
with that team playing so well, I don't know if
you could keep him in that role if he's gonna
keep blowing it. So h O'Brien is he's worrying me
a little bit, But yeah, I'm not. I'm not worried
about uh, I'm I'm not worried about Bednar quite yet.
Speaker 2: Yankees are winning a lot of games in the non
closer save department. Juan Mahia, John King, We had Oland Garcia,
Toby Meyers, Ecnes Gomez. Nothing I at least Garcia. I
don't think it's just gonna be honest with you. None
I'm gonna pull from, you know, I'm getting out like
none that are gonna do anything for me that I'm
going to go and like actively pick up. I don't
know if you feel different about anybody. Ecnes is kind
of interesting.
Speaker 3: But no, I mean not not out of this group,
just a couple of situations maybe, like I feel like
the Washington situations wherever they want to go with it.
Although Varlin has been great, but yeah, really I'm just
Riley O'Brien.
Speaker 2: Going back to him.
Speaker 3: He gave up two runs against the Podreys, he had
too clean one against Podres, won against the Brewers, but
also two runs against the Dodgers, then a clean one
against Pittsburgh and in two runs against Seattle. So it's
really been all since the twenty fifth, Like the last
fifteen days, sixteen.
Speaker 2: Days for Riley O'Brien has have been the struggle.
Speaker 3: So I yeah, who is behind Riley O'Brien for the
Cardinals right now?
Speaker 2: They're pretty rough it. I'm drawing a blank there because
there was that battle of like is it going to
be O'Brien or Bopa bop.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm looking Jojo Romero had a hole, Soriano Seorg Sorian,
Ryan Stanek. Remember he had to save initially, but his
ERA is still up over six. So uh yeah, I
mean that bullpen is rough right now. So yeah, blown
say anything. Grisefo, who is another guy that you could
probably put in there, got the loss on seven pitches
in that game, So tough in the Cardinals bullpen right now.
Speaker 2: Josh Ecknes should be a guy pay attention to if
he gets the next save, just f y, so look
out for that. If he gets another save opportunity coming up,
he might be someone I speculate on. That is it
from there. One last thing baseball. We did lose an
old baseball great, Bobby Cox. Bobby Cox died over the weekend,
an old Atlanta brave great. That's always you know, like
like I always had Bobby Cox in my mind, was
in the same like I don't know why, I know
this is like a long change, but like Lsorda, you
know what I mean, like those type of that world
of LaRussa, Yeah yeah maybe yeah, that old world, old managers,
old school managers, Jim Leland, you know, all those type
of old guys. No one has been thrown out of
more games of Bobby Cox like I have that. It
is a stat Yeah, it's no one, Yes, it is
I I actually sent it to my buddy the other
day because he's like, I'm trying to explain to my
wife how Bobby Cox was part of my childhood because
the Braves were always on TBS. Because Ted Turner, who
also passed. I have the numbers. By the way, I
have the top five.
Speaker 3: It's him by a lot, isn't It isn't like he
has like one hundred and sixty and the next guy
has like not a lot.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'll tell you the top five are
going from five up. Tony LaRussa had ninety three, the
fifth most ejected manager of all time, Earl Weaver ninety six,
Leo Dortier one hundred, John McGraw one hundred and twenty one,
and then Bobby Cox a full season one hundred and
sixty two. He's been throwing out one full Major League
baseball season. And did you see the last.
Speaker 3: Time he went and uh he threw out the first
pitch and handed the lineup card to the to the
umpire and then the umpire threw him out, you know,
as like a ceremonial thing.
Speaker 2: It was no, that's great.
Speaker 3: It was like after he retired, he just went out
to throw the first pitch in an old umpire that
he knew. It's like, you're out of here, you know,
that is kind of we're kind of I mean that
that was the Braves, like growing up, that was the
Braves run in the nineties.
Speaker 2: Man, that was that was their guy, their skipp And
we're kind of out. We're kind of out on like manager,
that's another record that'll probably never get broken. Like that's
kind of out in that world because it's like you
got a lot of automated balls and strikes, which is
like it there's a lot being less being put on umpires,
you know, for you know, for and turn less less
chances to argue for a manager. Yeah, and also like
I don't know, there's like a little bit less of that.
What's the I don't know, Like guys are nicer, you
know what I mean, Like it's a lot more media
stuff Like I don't I feel like you don't have
the scroungey like angry type of guys enough of them
that are you have some old school guys and whatever.
I just don't feel like there's enough of those guys
out there anymore that don't give an f and that
are gonna get thrown out. Everybody's like, I.
Speaker 3: Don't know, John Boys still does pretty good, you know,
uh doing all the layovers and interpreting all those guys
player crime than you.
Speaker 2: Have like with managers. I don't know, Bobby Cox will
forever be remembered for that. So that was that was
sad to see over the weekend, all right, But that
is it for the episode. We got another one coming
up later this week. We're gonna be breaking down more
so you guys know, you can send in anything you
got in this league at gmail dot com, follow us
on uh Instagram and Twitter of course at is it
the Wildschat Bogmins Sports Bogmin's Instagram in this League, and
of course go to our Patreon in this League dot
Com if you want to get anything on the Prospect Update,
the Dynasty Update baseball this week, and or you just
want to support you boys, We very much appreciate that
this league dot com and football in this League dot Com,
in this League dot Com. That'll do it. You guys,
have a fantastic week. We'll talk to you next time,
right here on in this league.