4 STRUGGLING PITCHERS! Week 12 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers! | Fantasy Baseball Advice

Frank Stampfl and Scott White recap Thursday’s action and get you ready for Week 12 of the Fantasy Baseball season!

0:00- Intro
1:12- Juan Soto injury scare
5:18- Nick Gonzales
10:47- Pablo Lopez
17:33- Hurston Waldrep spotlight
21:00- News: Joe Musgrove update
28:00- Struggling pitchers
34:10- Big offensive outbursts
38:38- Cade Povich’s debut
40:33- Waiver wire pitchers
43:57- Week 12 Preview
52:24- Leftovers, bullpens, streamers

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ABOUT THE SHOW: It’s the most comprehensive Fantasy Baseball Podcast you’ll find. Frank Stampfl, Scott White and Chris Towers are dedicated to helping you win your league while keeping you entertained at the same time. Find out who to add, drop, start and sit while getting the best advice every day..
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we have a wano injury scare pitchers who are struggling plus we’ll preview week 12 up next on a c [Music] Friday you look so good [Music] inaa Val so 80P solo FR Club TI some kind of now let’s [Music] get happy cooko Friday and welcome in fantasy baseball today on June 7th I am Frank stanfold joined by Scott White today on the show we have pitchers who are struggling looking at you Pablo Lopez our week 12 preview plus another Prospect Spotlight but before we get into the players of the night it turns out it might not be such a happy cooko Friday at least for me Scott because we have a potentially colossal injury scare going on right now and I am trying not to overreact but I’m kind of freaking out deep down uh Juan stto exited Thursday’s game due to left forearm discomfort the Yankees had a long rain delay and Soo did not return once the game resumed and after the game the they interviewed Juan stto and he said he’s been feeling this for the past week and a half two weeks or so he’s going for an MRI on Friday clearly it has not affected his performance recently because wotto has been amazing and we just yesterday about how we both moved him up to our number one outfielder in fantasy uh it’s still kind of fresh it’s up in the air we don’t really have any news yet but we wait and we see yeah I mean that’s pretty much it uh you kind of covered all of it he’s he’s been so hot lately during this week and a half when he’s supposedly been dealing with this had a two Homer game just the other day and he even said uh you know I saw a clip of him being asked questions about this and he even said he doesn’t so much feel it when he’s hitting or throwing it’s it’s not like it’s it’s it’s clearly not hindering his game and so I I find that encouraging in fact even if the MRI shows something I don’t if it’s not affecting his play I don’t know why he’d have to stop playing that seems um a little hard for me to understand but of course I am not a doctor and regardless of my feelings about it the Yankees are going to decide what they decide and we’ll just have to wait and see what that is hopefully it’s no big deal hopefully and uh yeah this is purely driven by my Yankee fan I don’t have wano on any of my fantasy teams this year but this has been the best version of him to watch it’s been really fun um and obviously I think it’s really good for the game obviously having Juan stto and Aaron judge back to back and and the way that they’re playing right now uh but we wait until Friday to learn more if you are a conspiracy theorist Jason Dominguez left his triaa game shortly after this injury was announced it could be absolutely nothing or the Yankees might need to promote Jason Dominguez who knows uh I saw a tweet that he had only played Seven innings in the field once before this and they took him out after the eighth inning so it might just be part of his rehab assignment and whatever or it could be something more so again well things could be related I just thought I would throw it out there I don’t think the Yankees know any anything about s until he has the Imaging done but but yeah I they if if he does have to miss some time then they have already made the replacement there and Jason Dominguez who’s been crushing it on his rehab assignment has been back to playing the Outfield and is nearing the end of the maximum allotted time for that rehab assignment now the expectation is he’ll just be option to the miners after that uh because they don’t have an opening for him um all three Outfield spots in DH are full but that’s if woto is healthy in playing so doming would very obviously be the replacement if if if soda were to miss some time Dominguez in 17 games in the miners this season batting 339 with four homers one steel a 978 Ops he seemingly has picked up right where he left off with the Yankees last year and if you do have Wan sto on your fantasy team and you just have a bench nobody to that you could spare I might want to get Dominguez on my team just to make sure as like a bit of a handcuff situation there with Wan sto all right so that’s the latest we’ll see what happens on Friday but let’s get into the rest of Thursday’s action oh my goodness unbelievable you know who’s been unbelievable lately Nick Gonzalez oh yeah yeah that was that c huh Nick Gonzalez is my player of the night and he had a good night he hit a home run his fourth went two for five it was a good game he’s had a lot of good games recently has Nick Gonzalez he’s been a much improved player this year and and the improvements were obvious even during his time in the miners before he got called up former high draft pick former top prospect he he reached the he reached the upper levels of the miners and just was not the player he was advertised to be which is a bat first second basem or too many strikeouts uh certainly we saw that during his previous stint in the majors as well struck at 28% of the time last year it’s down to 22% this year just a big difference 28 versus 22 also elevating the ball much better this year 48% Fly ball rate that’s compared to same percentage 28% in the majors last year even bigger difference than we’re talking about with the strikeout rate there so um he kind of improves his floor Nick Gonzalez does with the first stat the strikeout stat and then improves his ceiling with the second stat the Fly ball stat and it’s leading to a lot of production here in fact coming into this game where Nick andas went two for five with a home run he was averaging 3.22 points per game 3.22 well Marcus simeon’s averaging 3.24 virtually the same and Marcus Simeon is one stud who we can say has actually lived up to expectations so far uh so Nick gonzale is is producing like a stud second basem doesn’t mean that’s who he is now but it’s not outside the realm of possibility and um spoiler alert when we get to the sleeper hitters for week 12 later in this program Nick Gonzalez will be at the top of the list oh you like that I called it a program that felt very oldfashioned of me yeah that’s your uh that’s the dad coming out SK we’re we’re recording a program right now for everybody um I am happy to see another spoiler for later on that I brought up the Pirates matchups on yesterday’s podcast they are one of your top five uh hitter matchups for next week we will talk about that a little bit later on seemingly I was thinking of you when I did that Frank yes yes thank you there are lots of interesting young middle infielders that have emerged over the past month really between Nick Gonzalez Davis Schneider Mason win sidon Rafaela and Joey Ortiz lots of names there Scott and lots of excitement how do you rank the five all right rest of season we’re talking about right yeah that’s kind of tough so I would say oh thank you for typing them in now so you don’t have to there’s lots of names there okay so I would say that there are three that I love of these five and the three that I love are Joey Ortiz David Schneider and Nick Gonzalez and that’s how I’m going to rank them for now but I think I think they’re all clustered together in my second base ranking so if you if you had a strong preference for some other one I I wouldn’t blame you I I feel like uh I feel like David Schneider is the safest choice of the three because he’s batting lead off and we know he’s gonna walk a lot and I think his swing is optimized for power batting average could be a liability so he probably doesn’t have the highest ceiling of the three but I think David Schneider has the highest floor of the three um I like Ortiz the most because I think he he’s got the best blend of safety and upside uh Gonzalez Nick Gonzalez feels more like more like an upside play though you know if he sustains a 22% strikeout rate I have a hard time thinking it’s it’s gonna be bad his production so yeah those are my three favorites after them I’ll say Mason win and then seon rafhaela who I’m not convinced is actually usable yet we talked I forget if it was earlier this week or last week about how he had been uh making some changes and how he holds his hands to catch up the fast balls better had been working on it in the cage for like a month and recently began to implement it in games and sidon rth aella did have a four hit game here Thursday all singles four for six but he was one for 14 to begin June so it’s still not exactly uh not exactly usable production yeah he had a two Homer game what like a week ago so there there have been some signs here for S down rafhaela but it’s not like he’s he’s performing well enough that I’m ready to put him in a fantasy lineup all right oh my goodness gracious for me is the other side of the spectrum that’s going to be Pablo Lopez who struggled once again at the Yankees arguably the toughest matchup in baseball right now four Innings seven runs allowed six walks which was a career-high had four strikeouts still had 13 whiffs on 96 pitches only threw 56% of his pitches for strikes in this one and Pablo Lopez has now allowed six plus earned runs in three of his last four outings he’s up to a 545 er a 123 whip his left on base percentage is just 64% so when guys are getting on uh they’re scoring at a rate that has been um they’re scoring more frequently and they have much you know much more than last year and for his career overall and home runs home runs have been a problem for Pablo Lopez as well I will mention that uh Chris Towers added this to the rundown and I think it’s a pretty good note did you know that Pablo Lopez had a 548 ra over an 11 start stretch last season judging by how people are reacting to his 545 ER in 13 starts this season I’m going to guess literally nobody knew that so I just thought I’d threw that throw that one in there the problem is got like at some point we can keep saying he’s a by low he’s been unlucky he’s got to perform and right now well he is not well he just did in his last start his last three of his last four have been really bad for someone you probably drafted as your sp1 yeah no I mean it’s it’s been disappointing disappointing stretches are going to happen for good players uh but I I don’t know it gets it gets frustrating after having to relitigate it go through the long laundry list again here Pablo Lopez his strikeout rate his swinging strike rate his walk rate are all normal in fact the walk rate is the career best uh his XC and X FIP at least coming into this game were actually better than last year when he was an unquestioned ace uh I had pointed out before the one thing that really looked different for Pablo Lopez is he was allowing too many home runs in a year when most pitchers were uh having lower home run rates Pablo lopezes was higher and that’s something that I think will correct in time uh given that everything else looks the same and it’s worth noting that home runs weren’t really the problem here for Pablo Lopez he did allow one the problem was he walked six which he’s never done before the last time Pablo Lopez had walked even five in a game was August 26 2018 his rookie year so completely out of character there with the walks unless he’s hurt or something not something you should expect to ever see again at least not in the foreseeable future it’s just one of those it’s baseball Susan kind of things and you move on from it and you should move on from it mentally you should put it out of your mind because next week Pablo Lopez is in line for two stars and those two starts are against the Rockies and the Athletics you’re obviously going to start him and I’m going to predict right now it’s going to go well and that start against the Rockies is in Minnesota so makes it even more enticing Pablo Lopez is currently 78% started on CBS so there are some people that did bench him this week against the Yankees and obviously that looks like the right decision now but if you have Pablo Lopez you should look to get him back in your lineup and if you don’t you should probably to buy really really low on Pablo Lopez right now yeah yeah yeah I was I was um sharing sorry that yeah yeah yeah made it sound like I was dismissing what you were saying I was just trying to get in there real quick and um yeah yeah yeah I had actually uh tweeted out you should look to BU low on him and and some people were asking oh should I trade Jarett Jones for him should I trade Garrett crochet for him I don’t know that those are clear byy lows because those are really good pitchers I think I like the way you said it you should look to buy really low on Lopez uh you may not be able to pull it off I saw somebody else share he offered Seth Lugo for for um I would try that for Pablo Lopez and it didn’t it wasn’t accepted it was rejected very quickly makes sense that that’s kind of a combo buy a sell High Buy Low situation so I don’t even know that you have to do that I don’t know that you have to go as far as Seth Lugo but I agree that I would do that if it can to it and you know it’s just worth throwing whatever offers you can out there see see how see how cheap you make it a challenge yourself see how cheap you can get Pablo Lopez without damaging relationships I might have to clip out that uh yeah yeah yeah I am Scott yeah yeah yeah uh before we move on to our Prospect Spotlight it is Friday I got a text from uh Adam AER not Adam major and he had a fun team name do you watch stranger things or have you yet so you’re waiting I’m I’m gonna share my whole thing because I think it’s it’s like really improved the quality of my life I enjoy everything so much more I try not to watch shows until they’re done or almost done ideally if I can time it right I watched them in their last season I binge the whole thing so I can kind of enjoy the finale with everybody uh but if I don’t time it right and I just wait till the show’s completely over that’s fine too I don’t like having to wait and have all this builtup anticipation that the show is almost certainly not going to live up to because nothing can live up to my anticipation for things and then I just come away disappointed from the whole experience it helps me remember details of the show better it’s just it’s just a better way to enjoy the show the only downside is you miss out on all the social media discussions but that’s kind of something I can live without I’m trying I’m trying to curtail my social media use as it is so uh that’s something I can live without well I recommend it for the stranger things fans out there the team name is Running Up That heel with Luis heel as the name in there I love it and I uh I can’t wait till the show comes back stranger things and I can’t wait to see Adam major make his next start on Sunday let’s get into another Prospect Spotlight it’s time to discuss some of the prospects who are catching our eye from a fantasy perspective thanks to our sponsors at Hyundai we’re there thinking about every step of your journey out on the road let’s talk about Braves pitching Prospect huren waldrip who we did mention recently got promoted up to Triple A he’s 22 years old first round pick in last year’s draft 10 starts in the miners this year 309 ra a 136 whip just over a strikeout per inning he recently got bumped up to Triple A as I mentioned and he struck out 11 in his first start there it’s mostly a three- pitch mix fast ball splitter slider that splitter is devastating though hon waldrip does struggle with command uh Scott what are your thoughts on waldrip the prospect the pitcher and when we might see him with the Atlanta Braves maybe even this season yeah so really exciting prospect really exciting pitcher in fact I think the consensus coming into this season was that he was the second best pitcher taken in last year’s draft behind of course Paul skines and that wasn’t clear on draft day itself but just the way he looked and the uh the little bit we saw of him uh in the miners last year huren waldrip was was a big Riser following the draft his first couple starts at Double A this year were kind of shaky uh specifically the walks were high so if you look at his overall whip it’s 13 six and okay whatever but in his last four starts including his first at triaa Hurston waldrip has a 213 erra a 0.99 whip 12.1k per nine his strike rate is 68% which is Elite his swinging strike rate is 19% which is ridiculous wow and you mentioned uh the splitter I think he threw it like 44% of the time in that first AAA start and it it’s especially devastating because he has this really over the top delivery um great slider good vo on the fast ball just just a really goodlooking Prospect and you know considering he’s up to Triple A we know the Braves like to move these pitchers quickly they promoted schwell and box straight from double A they’ve been searching for somebody to fill that Spencer Spencer Strider spot in the rotation I think HST waldrip could be the one who stops the revolving door not saying he’s getting promoted tomorrow but I think there’s a good chance he’s up at some point this season if he continues to pitch well at triaa all right again that was hon waldrip one of Scott’s five prospects on the periphery in his latest Prospect report make sure to check out that article which is live on the site cbssports.com fantasybaseball thanks again to Hyundai for sponsoring this segment and the show learn more at Hyundai usa.com quick reminder to download and follow fantasy baseball today in five wherever you listen to podcast we have a bonus Prospect episode coming out every Saturday of the Season we’ll take our first break and when we return we’ll hit some more news and notes right after this I think the cool part about being on team yosa is that everyone represents the American dream whether you’re a white straight male athlete or me who’s an Asian-American queer female athlete I want to be the Beacon of Hope that a lot of other people don’t have [Music] welcome back in news and notes Joe musk has been diagnosed with a bone spur and a bone bruise in his right elbow he got PRP and cortisone injections with the hope of resuming throwing in two weeks so that’s just throwing and then it’ll have to build up after that it’s June 7th maybe a month from now maybe second half of the season I think it’s going to take quite a while for Joe Musgrove to get back and it may not work true yeah if if if the inflammation doesn’t subside he’s going to need surgery so Joe Musgrove uh he wasn’t particularly high in my IL stash articles that article that came out earlier this week and um he would be even lower now I think with this news Edwin Diaz shuck out to in his first rehab appearance on Thursday there’s still hoping he’ll be activated on Tuesday June 11th Manny Machado was out of the lineup Thursday due to a mild right hip flexor strain I did see that he got a pinch hit appearance in that game so maybe back in the starting lineup on Friday Andres Munoz who’s missed the past few days with a back injury hopes to avoid the iil and return at some point this weekend p bradish is next start is TBD manager Brandon Hyde said the decision wasn’t related to health concerns they just want to get bradish extra rest and the Orioles have a long stretch of games coming up so I think they’re trying to space things out ah you know I’m naturally skeptical and and pessimistic Scot I don’t I don’t know this sounds a little scary for Kyle bradish do you know anything I don’t no I mean it it makes me a little uneasy um he already got a lot of rest early this season so it’s not like they’re worried about an Innings accumulation there we know he has ligament damage in his elbow it was called a sprain but I’m not sure that heals completely we’ve seen other pitches come back from UCL sprains and and you know Zach Gallen had one years ago it hasn’t it’s not like it’s led to surgery so the way brat is just pitching I think we’ve become pretty uh sanguin about it but yeah I don’t know this this does raise an eyebrow that they’re already like H we gotta we gotta pull back on this guys’s usage he just got back especially coming off of his worst start of the Season too that’s what makes makes it a little bit more weird he allowed five earned runs over two and two thirds against Tampa Bay on June 1st and has not pitched since then uh hopefully he’ll pitch at some point this weekend but we as of now we just don’t know with Kyle bradish Clayton Kershaw is expected to pitch a two inning simulated game Friday manager Dave Roberts said on Sunday that Kershaw is quote way ahead of schedule but still about six weeks away so probably in the second half of the season coming out of the All-Star break assuming there are no setbacks we’ll get Clayton Kershaw 43% rostered he ranked 30th out of 50 I stash rankings that Scott wrote about earlier this week W uh Willy kras was throwing that was a big jump for Kershaw too I think he’s I think the time to pick him up and stash him is right now Wilson Gras was throwing catching and running on the field prior to Thursday’s game he is out with a fractured left forearm and is not expected back until closer to the all-star break Max Meyer will make another start at AAA on Friday but Marlin’s manager skip Schumacher said he expects Meyer to be back in the majors soon and kind of weird timing because Max Meyer uh has not been very good in the miners 685 ra a 161 whip walks and home runs have been a problem for Meyer he’s 34% rostered Scott who would you rather stash between Kershaw and Max Meyer well I I think Kershaw for one thing you can put him in an iil spot so he’s a lot easier to stash yeah than then Max Meyer uh but we don’t know exactly what soon means skip Schumacher also called Max Meyer’s last couple outings out standing I believe is the word he used so it’s being a little loose with the language there I would say I don’t know that outstanding is how I described him he just gave his numbers uh at tripa I will point out because because obviously Max Meer was looking great before he got sent to the miners so what happened here I I had read that they wanted him to focus on the development of his change up so he was consciously limiting his slider use in the minors he was throwing at 49% of the time when he was dominating in the majors the slider but in the minors it’s only been 34% of the time so that might explain why he hasn’t been as effective it’s a developmental issue they’re just having to work on other things but it even so it’s kind of magical thinking to say okay well he’s gonna come back to the majors and be as dominant as he was when he got sent down in April i’ certainly no guarantee of that and he’s going to be on a bad team and again we don’t actually know when Max Meyer is coming back no I think that’s really good context to add too and a good reminder that unless we read about it we don’t necessarily know what’s going on at all times with pitching prospects and their development I I know I’ve heard the Welsh talk about this where uh he spoke about he spoke with Bryce Miller last year and it was the same thing apparently the ma the Mariners just wanted their pitching prospects to throw certain pitches in the miners whether they were getting bombed or not it didn’t matter they didn’t care about results they just wanted them to work on those specific pitches and I read something similar about Noble Meyer who is also a pitching Prospect in the Marlins organization got off to a really bad start the season and then has just been dominating since like you know the first couple of weeks uh and apparently he was working on specific pitches too uh as someone who has him in the Scott White Dynasty League I am very invested and so I do read up on Noble Meyer pretty often but I think it’s just a really good note and and context to add to pitching prospects Tyler Stevenson was hit by a pitch on his right hand but stayed in the game x-rays came back clean ELO Jimenez will begin a rehab assignment next week he’s been out since May 22nd with a left hamstring strain the Reds optioned Graham Ashcraft to Triple A it’s likely Nick Martinez will shift back into the Reds rotation Chris Bryant was placed in the iil with a left rib contusion and one Prospect update the Nationals top prospect James Wood went through a full practice on Wednesday he’s been out since May 23rd with a strained right hamstring but appears on track to rejoin the AAA lineup next week what is wrong with these struggling pitchers feels like we’ve been saying that a lot lately Scott maybe this has been the turn of all right June started offense coming around we’ll wait until a couple more weeks into the month to you know compare numbers month by month Etc uh but Pablo Lopez was not the only one Javier Assad over his last four starts now has a 566 ra a 165 Whip and in this specific start start it was five earned runs uh two walks I believe he gave up another home run in this one uh walks and home runs have been a big problem for Javier Asad uh what do you make of this recent stretch and are you starting him at Tampa Bay next week yeah I we kind of saw this coming for Javier Assad and I’ll I’ll point out that he has only three quality starts all year he’s and and all of them were exactly six Innings so it’s been really limited usage even though the erra has been low and lately we’re seeing some correction happening to the ER there for Javier Assad I’m not saying he’s unplayable against the Rays that’s a good matchup but he’s just not a high priority choice to roster much less start uh Sunny gray has similarly taken a step back over the last month he was up against the Rockies in St Louis and he didn’t come through four and two3 three runs allowed four walks five strikeouts control was clearly a problem in this start he does have three plus walks in back-to-back outings and sunny gray over his last six starts a 546 er a 128 whip I think a lot of this is just kind of natural regression because you look at the numbers and they’re basically where they should be it’s a 321 ra it’s a 107 whip uh any actual concerns with sunny gray yeah the strikeout numbers are still great for sunny gray the ER estimators all love him uh I I think the biggest concern I have for sunny gray and this is one that pops up all the time for him throughout his career this has been an issue six straight non-quality Starts Now mostly because of innings he did have one six inning start during that stretch but he just gave up too many runs for it to be a quality start so six straight non-quality starts for a guy who finished second in uh sa young voting in the AL last year and uh you know that doesn’t mean Sunny gray is it doesn’t mean what what I said for Javier Assad applies to Sunny gray obviously Sunny gray is M must roster and usually somebody you’re going to want to start but it does show the limits to what he can provide in fantasy even as good as the strikeout rate is it’s undercut by the short outings that he tends to have speaking of short outings Walker bu continues to struggle he was at the Pirates where he only went three Innings he allowed seven hits four runs three of those earned he only had five whiffs on 78 pitches and he really has only had one dominant start in six tries so far and the whiff rates are way down on his cutter his slider the change up entering the start it was a 7.7% swinging strike rate for Walker buer that’s 11.5% for his career coming back from a sec Second Tommy John surgery I think it’s going to take some time but there’s no way I would look to start him next week against the Texas Rangers yeah I really feel like it’s mainly a matter of approach for Walker bu because the one good start was the one where he threw the softest but he threw 71% of his pitches for strikes instead of 61% basically opposite ends of the spectrum there uh for the entire span of the majors you know you look at the bottom of the strike percentage leaderboard it’s about 60 61 top is about 70 so um I in in this start Walker ber I think this was his hardest throwing start of the year so he’s going the wrong direction with it I think maybe he feels pressure to get the velocity up to to where it was in his prime coming back from Tommy John’s surgery he did say after that one good start something like he just really focused in on locating the ball and I don’t know why he didn’t stick with that approach because obviously it worked in that start but the point is that one start gave us kind of the blueprint for the kind of pitcher Walker buer can be even coming back from the second Tommy John surgery and I’d like to see him have another start where he’s throwing 94.9 on his fast ball to see if it goes just as well because I think that would tell us a lot Walker buer is still 95% rostered would you be looking to drop him in any leagues I said after his last start that I don’t think he’s UND droppable Chris pushed back on that as I recall but there’s just you know it kind of depends what league you’re talking about obviously the 15 team Roto leagues there’s no way you’d even dream of it but those are very deep leagues yeah 12 teamers if you’re loaded with great starters which a lot of us are given the context of the League this year I just don’t know that you’re going to miss Walker bu very much I I don’t feel confident that he has Ace upside anymore even if he gets to doing what he did in that one good start even if he gets to doing that consistently uh I that’s probably more like a top 40 pitcher than a top 15 pitcher so you know if you’re loaded with pitching I don’t know that you have to holdt out would you drop Walker beer for Matt walren he is the top most added starting pitcher on CBS I’m not eager to do it I think Waldren is more startable than berer now so if you need a starter I have Waldren among my T sleeper pitchers for this week so I could I could see it all right sticking with the Dodgers we had a big offensive showing in that entire game the Dodgers up against the Pirates the Dodgers put up 11 runs on 14 hits Mookie Betts went two for four with two walks and his 10th home run Freddy Freeman went one for four with a three-run homer that was his eighth and one of the unsung heroes of the Dodgers lineup and in fantasy this season one of the very few hitters that’s actually performing tasar Hernandez he went three for five with his 13th home run he’s batting 254 which is okay but the 13 homers 36 runs 39 RBI three steals 792 Ops entering Thursday tasar Hernandez was a top 20 top 12 outfielder in both Roto and head-to-head points so shout out to uh one of the hitters getting in t right now and tasar herandez on the other side the Pirates put up seven runs on 14 hits O’Neal Cruz had himself a game he went two for five with a sock and a shoe his eth home run his fifth stolen base K Brian Hayes continues to hit since returning he went three for five with his third steal and in seven games since returning 360 batting average one Homer three Steals and 894 Ops and we spoke about Nick Gonzalez earlier uh Scott any any thought to moving O’Neal CRA Cruz down in the rankings this week I know that was something I mentioned did last week uh big game here but overall it’s it’s still been quite a disappointment for him so I I wrote about this in my last edition of rankings movers uh talking about O’Neal Cruz and CJ Abrams both well and Bo bashet all three of them uh Short Stops we considered highend coming into the year who have per haven’t performed as well as like Willie adamus and Anthony vulpi guys who I don’t feel like have as high of a ceiling still as Cruz Abrams and Bo bashet but have clearly been performing better so far and I still want to keep the underperforming trio ahead for now uh I mean you look at Cruz that that home run he hit was like 118 miles per hour it went over 460 feet we’re still talking Transcendent power at a time when power is really hard to come by or at least it has been so far and I understand Cruz hasn’t lived up to the power himself but he is more capable of that than most every hitter in the game so you know I’m kind of clinging to that upside still in my search for upside uh among the the The Hitter ranks so no I’m not I’m not inclined to move cruise down more than I already have I don’t know exactly what it would take maybe by the start of July I will be if if he doesn’t have a big June here but uh I still think there’s of upside sticking with the teams that had big offensive outbursts on Thursday the Red Sox clobbered the white socks there’s a lot of that happening recently uh the white socks have lost 14 in a row the Red Sox put up 14 runs on 24 hits jiren Duran four for five with a walk in his fifth home run he’s been great 271 batting average he’s got 11 Steals and 801 Ops sidon Rafaela four for six with four RBI over his last 12 games batting 302 with two homers two steals perhaps in conjunction with that swing change with for uh for rafhaela he’s 59% rostered and does have the triple eligibility Outfield second base and short stop uh do any of these names matter for Fantasy Scott Connor Wong went two for four with a walk three runs and two RBI and Manuel Valdez went one for six with a three-run homer and Dominic Smith that Dominic Smith went three for five with a walk and two RB guy I mean Connor Wong matters in two catcher leagues obviously the numbers have been good all year um in a way that’s not really backed up by the data so we keep waiting for Connor Wong to fall off but it hasn’t really happened yet and you have to go so deep into the catcher rankings in two catcher leagues that yeah I think he’s obviously relevant there the others are a long way I think from being being worth being deserving of fantasy consideration yeah I think probably Al only leagues for now that was and Manuel Valdez and Dominic Smith Kade bovic made his uh debut here on Thursday and it was not great five and a third five hits allowed six runs four walks only had eight whiffs on 100 pitches uh did do a good job limiting hard contact only two hard hits allowed but mostly a four- pitch mix for Kade Povich 49% fastball usage 92 milph on that pitch 177% curve 16% cutter 15% change up only through 58% of his pitches for strikes anything else that stood out here Scott I’m not even sure he’s going to stick around for a second start you mentioned two hard hits 76.5 miles per hour was the average exit velocity anytime you get an average exit velocity starting with seven uh that that is suppressing hard contact but other wise yeah was basically my concerns come to life for Kade Povich with you know too many walks not enough whiffs not enough strikes in general if the Orioles are skipping Kyle bradish I would think Povich would have to stick around right but that hasn’t been confirmed yet no it has not so yeah I mean nothing nothing to no reason to pick a Povich now obviously in fantasy and we’ll continue to monitor to see if he gets another turn and if he improves in those future turns the big blow against Kade Povich by the way uh Vlad Jr hit a three-run opposite field home run I just find it uncanny how often we talk about a player in a negative context and then the next day they go out and just have a big game or do something special and hopefully this is a sign of more power to come for I would rather see him pulled the home run though you know for all the reasons we talked about yesterday yeah I agree with that uh two waiver wire pitchers not many options here from Thursday’s action but uh JP Sears turned in a quality start against the Mariners six Innings two runs eight strikeouts had 15 whiffs on 101 pitches 31% rostered and might be a twar pitcher let me quickly rankings from Scott White yeah yes at the Padres and at the twins for next week uh for JP seers and Mitchell Parker the other name he pitched well against the Atlanta Braves shout out to you Scott you threw him out there as a uh as a streamer for today seven Innings two runs two strikeouts to zero walks did give up some hard contact in this one but Mitchell Parker has allowed three earn runs or less in all 10 of his starts he has a quality start in three of his last four outings a 347 ra a 105 Whip and it looks like he is at the Tigers next week I I could see that start going pretty well for Mitchell Parker um are you actually interested in adding either Parker or JP Sears I do have Parker what a treat on a Friday we get Robo Scott joining the party yeah are you here Scott I can see you was bad this happened the other day nope nope it was no still nothing Robo Scott has taken over with vengeance and a fury to come demolish the podcast yeah am I back I think you’re back now am I back when this happened the other day it was genuinely internet problems I just lost my internet for yeah like half an hour so hopefully that’s not like I think I’ve solved the normal problem the normal reasons Robos Scott appears but uh but yeah that was just a just the rare internet failure the other day Okay anyway um what were you asking me about you’re asking me about okay so Mitchell Parker I do have a sleeper pitcher for next week JP Sears no even though he’s lined up for two starts don’t love the matchups for him Parker as you said facing Detroit they’re especially bad against lefties and I just think Parker is I think he’s pretty good uh he’s had great control um the whole Nationals pitching staff has been quietly good this year even more impressive to me than Mitchell Parker’s been Jake Irvin and I’m not saying either is Poise to become a stud but they they feel a little more they’re their profile feels a little more durable than like Javier assads when Javier Assad was pitching well so yeah I like I like both of them next week against the Tigers all right let’s take our final break and when we return we will get into the week 12 preview we’ll do that right after this will you need your sports news anywhere we’ve got breaking news to bring you then get your sports anytime you want them big trade news overnight to discuss because we know you need Sports all the time a lot of movement in the rankings this week a legend adds to their legacy we’re bringing you that breaking news right here on HQ CBS Sports HQ anywhere anytime all the time welcome back in let’s preview week 12 beginning with the schedule eight teams have seven games next week including the Orioles white socks Royals Twins Yankees A’s Mariners and Rays 20 teams have six games and two unlucky teams have five games that would be the Reds and the Guardians what is the rocky schedule next week they have six games just three at home in course field against the Pittsburgh Pirates starter sit these fringy two star pitchers and Zack effin threw just 55 pitches in his return on Wednesday he is going up against the Cubs and at the Atlanta Braves yeah I think that’s fine I don’t I’m not uh fearful enough of either of those matchups right now that I would be tempted to sit effin with two starts I I do want to point out Seth Lugo has two starts and it seems okay obviously Seth luga you’re gonna start Yankees Dodgers are his matchups we yeah so I you know you’re gonna start Seth Lugo even with those matchups but it might give you a little bit of pause I I don’t have him in the must start section of the two star pitcher rankings of course depending how things go with Juan SoDo I don’t know maybe well they might have a woto replacement someone who’s just as good as him no I’m just kidding well uh but yeah no it’s it’s worth uh worth mentioning we’ll see where the Yankees lineup goes from here uh Marcus strowman is at the Royals and at the Red Sox next week yeah I mean he just got bummed here on Thursday he was coming off a very strong may I would lean yes on Marcus strowman all right what about Brady singer who gets those same matchups up against the Yankees and at the Dodgers also a guy who got knocked around on Thursday nine hits in three and two thirs innings I believe it was though only only gave up two runs so didn’t do much damage to Brady singer’s ra but still i’ I’ve been a Brady singer skeptic all season so with those very tough matchups I would leave him for points leagues Jose Sorano at the Dbacks at the Giants uh sorry I got caught up looking at Brady singer stats who was it you mentioned Jose Sorano at the Dbacks at Giants yeah that’s a points leag play Kyle Harrison is home against the Astros and the angels yeah I don’t love it I could see doing it in points leagues if you’re if you’re really hurting for options this next one if you can’t start him with these matchups there’s no reason for him to be on your fantasy team Jordan Montgomery up against the angels and the white socks I don’t think you can start him with those matchups do you think you can oh God gosh I I think I would do it in a points League categories is so scary right now he’s he’s been so terrible but those matchups are so good well yeah but you know we we we said that for other pitches when we do the daily streamer segment oh they’re facing the white socks so I guess you can use them even though they’re bad and then the white socks have a good game against them so I take the angels are third in wug against left-handed pitching all right there you go yeah 14 earned runs on 17 hits in six Innings his last two starts Jordan Montgomery so I I would not risk it myself yeah that is probably the prudent move what about two star pitchers that you are looking to add and stream for next week so Eric fety barely qualifies for this discussion and I think he’s over rostered at this point but if you happen to have him rostered or you’re looking for a two-star pitcher uh one of his two matchups is at Seattle so uh you know hopefully he’ll give you hopefully he’ll give you some good Innings Chris Paddock I I mentioned Pablo Lopez’s matchups well Paddock has the same ones hosting the Rockies and the Athletics now pck has been not so great lately and we didn’t get a chance to talk about him yesterday but he he threw a slider a lot and it didn’t matter the slider seemed like it might be the key to getting Paddock back on track so uh I wouldn’t call him a must start by any means but facing the Rockies and Athletics eh if if you’re if you’re scouring the waiver wire for streamers it’s it’s gonna be hard to pass him up I would say Tyler McGill uh kind of inconsistent but has his moments in one of his two matchups against the Marlins we already mentioned Jose Sorano and Kyle Harrison and that’s probably it for me and two star streamers what about the single star streamers we already mentioned Mitchell Parker at the Tigers he is one of them but you have seven names total yeah so Louis srino coming off a great start is facing the Marlins second worst offense in baseball ree olssen it seems like he’s on this list every week against the Nationals seems like a pretty easy call Brandon fought for as good as the angels are against lefties really bad against righties and Brandon F’s been pretty steady this year so I like that one Matt Waldren gets the Mets we mentioned him earlier it’s middle a mid- tier match up but Waldron’s been on fire I mentioned Jake irvan and Mitchell Parker already both at Detroit and then Ben Brown we’ll see how his I believe he’s starting this weekend so we’ll see how that goes and uh but but if it if he if he pitches well then uh he goes against the Cardinals who have the third worst offense statistically this year at least as of this recording let’s slide over to the hitters and the best matchups for next week the twins podr Diamondbacks Pirates and Mariners the worst hitter matchups Red Sox Phillies Rockies Rangers and Guardians with that who are your favorite sleeper hitters for week 12 so yeah I mentioned it at the top of the show Nick Gonzalez is number one on the list with the Pirates having those fourth best hitter matchups and they’re really good matchups they’re facing the Cardinals rotation for three and then in Colorado for the other three further down on the list here I have Connor Joe as somebody like to take advantage of those matchups uh got Davis Schneider on here for the third straight week I believe roster R really needs to go up uh the Blue Jays matchups are very good even though they’re not in the top five in fact maybe they should be in the top five it looks like the toughest pitcher okay they’re they’re facing Freddy Peralta in a six-game week but then after that it’s like Logan Allen been live it’s not good so yeah take advantage with David Schneider uh the twins have the best matchups as you pointed out and so I like Jose Miranda for this week but even more I like Willie Castro because three of the seven pitchers on tap are left-handers Willie Castro is batting 352 against left-handers this year see we got uh Andy pz on here with the Dodgers having the fifth best matchups uh Elliot Ramos who has been so hot jock Peterson with the Diamondbacks having the third best hitter matchups and only one left-hander Jack Peterson actually plays and has been playing quite well against the right-handers I like JJ Blade with uh Oakland scheduled to face seven righties Bay tends to perform well against lefties and finally Josh Bell who uh uh last year he had great numbers against lefties and he’s been he’s been pretty consistent of late the the Marlins have four lefties on the schedule and pretty good matchups overall so Bell if you need some first base help shout out to Josh Bell we haven’t played this sound bite since last year but why not it’s Josh [Music] Bell all right let’s get into some of the leftovers and pitchers who were actually great on Thursday Tanner H was awesome at the White Soxs seven Innings two runs nine strikeouts only had nine whiffs The Swinging strike rate the strikeouts generally have come down a little bit for Tanner H but he’s still performing um so great right now he’s allowed three earn runs or less in 12 of 13 he’s down to a 191 ra a 092 whip us say Kikuchi pitched very well against the Orioles six Innings one run six strikeouts 22 whiffs on 89 pitches for Kikuchi Brian woo turned in a great start at the Oakland A’s six shutout two hits zero walks six strikeouts only eight whiffs but he did throw 85 pitches which were a season high for Brian woo and Ronaldo Lopez just keeps getting it done another quality start at the Nationals six Innings two runs seven strikeouts uh did allow two home runs but it didn’t matter he has a 185 ER and a 109 whip uh anything to add for Ronaldo Lopez Brian woo Kikuchi and Tanner H yeah Lopez was kind of unraveling in that last inning but managed to make it through six and his his erra is a lot better than his ra estimators I think the only one that really likes what he’s doing is FIP I believe that’s around three yeah but XC and xfip are closer to to 375 you know I he’s a cell High technically but I don’t mind just riding out Lopez if if nobody’s eager to buy uh let’s see Kikuchi as you pointed out big whiff game nice bounce back for him after a couple of shaky outings 10 ear and runs over eight and a third in his previous two uh couple of the Velocity was up on uh on the change up and he was also throwing it more throwing his fast ball more so it it was nice to see him kind of tinkering with things to get back on track and it seemed to work against a good Orioles lineup and yeah I had the same note here about Brian Woo’s 85 pitches being a season high and yet it was his fourth straight start with six Innings so he has been crazy efficient uh 107 erra a 0.53 whip his expected ER is just North of two and he’s in line for two starts next week so Brian woo two starts and one is against the white socks o yeah sounds good to me yeah Briant woo has allowed four earned runs total through six starts he’s not getting lots of strikeouts but he also isn’t walking anybody either so it’s working it is all right let’s uh there’s one other pitcher outing I wanted to mention Tanner byby wasn’t great not part of that previous group a Soo outing um a mixed start five innings three runs allowed two of those earned seven strikeouts did have 16 whiffs on 94 pitches did a good job limiting hard contact in this one last five starts for Tanner BBY a 212 ra a 0 94 Whip and just over a strikeout per inning the the overall ra is still 373 it’s slowly coming down I’ve moved Tanner Bobby back inside of my top 40 starting pitcher Scott because he just looks more and more like the pitcher I I expected him to be uh at least recently yeah I mean the results have been great recently but what what straight like this start he actually did what we wanted him to do he faded the fast ball through 37% of the time three the previous four he had thrown it more than 50% of the time so down to 37% through the slider more got a ton of whiffs but you know he’d been pitching well regardless even he he pumping that fast ball in more than 50% of the time 340 batting average against and he had been pitching well regardless so I i’ like I like the development here of fading the fast ball we’ll see if it continues for Tanner BBY but it’s hard to really knock what he’s doing right now either way some hitting leftovers big game for adley Rutman who went two for four with a double dong three RBI Jose Ramirez just keeps crushing two for four with his 17th home run and he is up to 60 RBI which leads all of baseball Bobby Whit continues to run wild one for four with a walk and two steals he’s now up to 19 steals for the season a sign of life for Mitch Garver two for two with two walks and his sixth home run it’s been a nightmare season there’s no way around it um maybe Mitch Garver can build off of this uh Marcel Ozuna crushed another home run his 18th of the Season Lane Thomas has hit well since returning from the iil 11 G games 250 batting average two homers six runs six RBI and four steals SE Suzuki looks like he’s turning things back on last 13 for him 30 out2 batting average three homers nine RBI one steel hitting the ball hard lots of fly balls during that stretch maybe Ellie De La Cruz is getting ready to go on another big run he went one for five with his 11th home run and his last four games he has six hits including two homers and five RBI and please let this be the start of something for Corbin Carroll three for four with two runs and his 10th steal he now has three hits in two of his last eight games so I’m grasping at straw Scott but baby steps for Corbin Carroll yeah we’ll see uh all three of the hits had an expected batting average of 640 or higher so they were they were not just like lucky hits but one game so we’ll see la de la Cruz you know two home runs in three games I believe now so it’s if if if you are listening to certain Fantasy Baseball influencers on Twitter you might have come away convinced he’d never do anything good again it’s I I’m finding the whole conversation around Ellie De La Cruz exhausting because it seems like whenever he has a good stretch certain people want to Pat themselves on the back for that whenever he has a bad stretch certain people want to Pat themselves on the B for back for that you look at the whole of his season it’s basically exactly what it was it seemed like it it was it always seemed like it was going to be 230 240 batting average 20 to 25 homers and a bazillion Steels and like overall I’d say he’s outperformed my expectations because it’s closer to like an 85 Steel Pace than a 60 steel Pace you know it’s yeah maybe maybe one of these years probably one of these years he’ll cut down on the strikeouts enough to get that batting average up he’ll cut down on the ground balls enough that he could maybe hit 30 to 40 homers and and be like this total World beater but even that statline I just laid out you let’s say hits 235 with 23 homers and 80 steals that’s probably still a first round player in categories leagues so like you know you know we don’t we don’t have to relitigate it every two you know every two week streak he has he’s GNA have streaks okay every player has streaks yeah andly try not to get too try not to get too high or low on Ellie De La Cruz no matter what’s going on I think he’s he has about a full season’s worth of stats now and I think that’s basically what you should expect from him yeah I I think he is going to be prone to being even more streaky than other hitters just because there is a lot of swing and Miss in his game what about the analyst Scott who for every Big Stretch that Ed La Cruz has they just tear themselves down what about those analysts because that’s me that’s what I do you know there’s a range of outcomes for every player and uh I I could see taking a super pessimistic view or super optimistic view on Ellie deor Cruz coming in you took the more pessimistic View and you know I I tried to keep a more middleof the road view even then but like again he’s played exactly so this was his 161st career game Ellie De La Cruz he’s hit two so these stats aren’t updated with today’s numbers but in his career 237 batting average 23 homers 67 steals is as with the profile he has now as la de la Cruz is currently constructed he is probably a 237 hitting 23 Homer uh 70 plus steel guy yeah that’s and that’s that’s very valuable um it could be better I guess but it’s very valuable just as it is yeah that also comes with 108 runs scored so far in Ed de la Cruz’s career some Bullpen updates for the blue jads Yim Garcia entered the ninth with a three-run lead he gave up a two-run homer but converted his fourth save for the Royals James MacArthur got the ninth with a one-run lead he pitched a clean inning for his 12th save for the Mariners Andres Munoz was unavailable it was Ryan stanik who pitched a clean ninth for his fourth save for the Dodgers Evan Phillips entered in the eighth inning with a seven-run lead I think they’re just trying to get him some work coming off the injury and he gave up a three-run homer to O’Neal Cruz for the Braves rice glacius picked up his 16th save for the Rockies Jaylen beaks entered in the eighth with a one-run lead he recorded the next five outs two of those via the strike out then Tyler Kinley entered to get the final out of the game against Paul gmid he gave up a single but did close it out against noan Gorman and Tyler Kinley picked up his third save for the Yankees Klay Holmes gave up a hit but struck out one for his 18th save and for the Dbacks it was Paul seaal who walked one what picked up his seventh save since returning from the iil I was kind of hoping well maybe no hoping is not the right word but I was kind of wondering if yimi Garcia could just kind of shore up the closer role for the Blue Jays as dominant as he’s been this year with with Romano out for the second time with the same injury and he’s been shaky even when he was been available uh well so far not so good for yi Garcia though overall numbers still look great but if you’re not converting saves then you’re not going to to steal that closer roll away I wouldn’t think to stream or not to stream on Friday and I believe yesterday we gave out the Irvin Jake Irvin up against the Braves Cole Irvin at Tampa Bay and Ryan weathers home against Cleveland there’s also Cooper Criswell at the White Soxs uh maybe Lance Lynn he gets the Rockies in St Louis what do you think yeah I’ll stick with what we said yesterday Cole Irvin Ryan weathers Jake Irvin actually I might go Jake irvan over Ryan weathers on Saturday we have oh Ben Brown at Cincinnati facing the same lineup two times in a row uh don’t love it yeah but it’s a young lineup strikeout prone Ellie De La Cruz is you know he’s terrible or he’s great we’ll see which version of Ellie shows up on Saturday we do have Kyle Gibson against the Rockies in St Louis I think that’s pretty good uh Ben Lively at the Marlins Matt Waldren versus the Dbacks all pretty good oh yeah Hunter Brown at the Angels it’s pretty good too in fact a lot of these guys were in my sleeper pitchers for the week that’s now coming to a close week 11 including Ben Brown Kyle Gibson Kyle Gibson against the Rockies is probably the best of all of these um but Ben Brown at Cincinnati Alec Marsh against the Mariners I’m not sure you mentioned him I like that one and uh I wouldn’t mind Matt Waldren against the Diamondbacks not the best matchup on paper but I I I I kind of think knuckle ballers are you can ignore the matchups because nobody knows how to hit a knuckle ball I think my three favorites are going to be Waldren Kyle Gibson and Ben Brown for Saturday and on Sunday uh there was a few tbds lots of names um not necessarily available yet and yeah I don’t love a lot of these I think I would say uh our good friend Adam major against the Dbacks if I had to choose one that sounds risky I don’t trust that Adam major guy any further than I can throw him you might be able to throw oh wait no that’s Adam AER yeah oh that’s right is there anyone that stands out on Sunday not really no no no get get your streamers in on Saturday all right I don’t want to put I don’t want to give my stamp of approval to any of these Knuckleheads all right well we’re gonna wrap there for Scott I am Frank thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today please make sure to follow and leave a Fest star rating on Apple or Spotify and we will be back again next week bye-bye