4/23, Part 1: Monday night recap, Thor’s struggles, and more...

us there. Enjoy the show and thanks for listening. Fantasy best Friends Forever, m H. Welcome to the Fantasy best Friends Forever on a Tuesday, year breaks Up will be joining us shortly. I am Frank Stamfull holding it down for now. As I mentioned yesterday, you know, Greg takes his time getting up the stairs. He's got all these things going on. He's an older gentleman. We're not gonna hold it against We're still gonna hold it down here

or the time being. But we're gonna be joined by good friend of the program here, Nick Pollock at picture List Great Content. Make sure you follow him on Twitter, picture list dot com. What's out great Content ranks the top one starting pitchers Every Monday. Try and catch the First Pitch podcast every morning that he puts out. You can listen to it on SoundCloud. Nick, what's going on, man? How's everything? What is happening is it's just gonna be me and you for a moment. This is uh, this

is nice. I don't know. I mean, I love Greg, don't get me wrong, but this feels I don't know, it's like we're the best friends forever. All of a sudden, I'm gonna have to let him know you're stealing his job, like Collix swooping in here and stealing the job of one Greg Susman. But this gives us a good opportunity to, you know, actually get stuff done without craign. But last night, uh, you know, not the most eventful night. It wasn't the

greatest night in terms of starting pitching. Jay happ only gave up one home run, So I'll take that as a as a positive. As a Yankees fan, Nick, I don't know about you, man, but um, you know, these West Coast games, especially with the Yankees, they kill me because you know, I stood up until off the eleventh ending last night around one am, I go to sleep and wake up in the middle of night check and what happened to see what happened with the Yankees? But

it's tough. It's tough here on the East Coast staying up here trying to watch some West Coast games, and especially now the Yankees are on this West Coast road trip. It's a killer. It's a killer, man. West Coast games

are the worst. I do this article every single night, which is the sp round up, going over every single starting pitcher performance from that day, and I try and write that before I go to bed, which means I need to wait until the West Coast games are done for the most part, so that I can actually report

on the starting pitcher. It's it can be brutal, but I am happy you went to bed and didn't suffer the twelfth ind and come back the Yankees had and then the fourteenth any final victory, but that was we thought we were out of purgatory. And then now you got some more innings to go. Yeah, a roll of Chatman blows his first save of the season. You know the Yankees, well, the strength of the team is supposed

to be the pullpen and roller. Chatman blows a saved yesterday and the whole the baccle Sunday after a great pitching performance from James Paxson, they blew his wind. It's very frustrating time. And you know whatever, Yankee fans are spoiled. I mean not really though, since like the turn of the generation. It's you know, it hasn't hasn't been all uh all rainbows and uh and blue skies here for for Yankee fans. But it is what it is. We're

we're getting. We're getting a little taste of what the Mets have gone through basically over the past couple of years, with all the injuries going on. It's just it's just a crazy time. Nick before we jump into some of these starting pitchers and where they rank on the list, which I encourage everyone to go check out at picture dot com. What else do you have going on lately over at pitch list. Yeah, I mean we have a ton of content and we do about fifteen articles every

single day. We have obviously your Batter's Box goes over every hitting performance last night. We have our hitter list that comes out on Wednesdays, which is the top one fifty hitters. We have our Holds Rankings, Closer Ranking, Safe spos Holds, the Top Prospects of Stash every weekend as well. It's uh, we just have everything you'd want for fantasy. Just come on buy and check it out real quick. I know we're gonna talk about the starting pictures, but

you mentioned prospects there. Of all these prospects that have been getting cold up with Cold Tuckers of the World, Brian Reynolds, Michael Javis, which one intrigues you the most. I'm curious about Cold Tucker. I think there's definitely some value there. You saw right out of the gate way he can do power wise. Obviously, I don't expect a massive power search from him, but he's definitely intriguing someone in twelve teamers I would at least jump at and

see see how that's gonna go. All right, Nick, let's jump in here. The first starting picture I really wanted to to get into today that a lot of people have been asking me questions about, probably asking you questions about as well. I'd imagine is Noah Synder guard Um. It seems like he has all the talent in the world. You know, the guy throws nearly a hundred miles prior.

He's got like a ninety plus mile prior Slider. I put out a poll before the show started, asking you know, how do fantasy owners feel about Synderguard because I wasn't avoiding him, but I would have drafted him. I didn't end up with him anywhere. I'm actually you know, I'm playing in six or seven leagues that I'm actually playing out competitive leagues, and I don't have any shares of Noah synder Guard. So I asked people, how do how

do you feel about Noah synder Gard? He has a five point nine zero e r A to to start the season. Uh. The options being he's been unlucky, I'm to man up him away and thirty eight percent say it's time to man up? Time to man up? Regarding Noah's synder Guard. So how do you feel about his season? The way that it's gone to this point? Has he been unlucky? Um? Are there things that he needs to

do differently? Because I've seen multiple fantasy outlets analysts talking about this over the weekend that no, it's time for him to put it together. There there's no more excuses. How do you feel about no Syndergard? Well, first of all, you don't have synder Guard because you have Trevor Bauer in every league? Is that right? That's the guy you took in the third round instead. I do have a few shares of Trevor Bower, and I get to give you kudos for coming on before the season and talking

us into Trevor Bauer over Aaronola. Uh you know, Aaronola, another one who hasn't got off to the great the greatest start. But I do have shares of Trevor Bauer. Greg and I actually own them together in an auction league. There you go. No on the other on the other side of it, you've been you've been winning the Chris Archer debate definitely so far so uh. You know. It goes back and forth here, but specifically about Noah synder Guard.

There's man I could talk about this for ages. Last year put out an article in The Noah synder Guard for while we're all ignoring about how he's always going to have an elevated babbit. He's had a three twenty plus babbitt in the past four seasons, including this year. It's three forty six this year. But we've seen three thirty or three thirty seven, three twenty from him because he inherently is more of a thrower than he is

a picture. He's not that kind of guy. That's going to go up it in and then change up away, slider away, and then paints a fastball in the same sax spot. He's not someone's really gonna work a batter in that way. And oftentimes with his fastballs, he's just kind of throwing it over the plate and it's going to be strikes a lot. That's why you see that sub six percent career walk rates. But there a lot of times he's gonna be hit hard because of it. And one thing I do like this year is that

he is throwing more four seamers. Finally said that sinker. Sinkers generally are just don't perform as well as four seamers, and what he should be doing is throwing that fourth seamer up a ton and then pairing that slider down, that curveball down, that change up down. That will just make a better picture for him. But he's he's not throwing it up enough and he's throwing it too far down,

and then it makes a slider not as effective either. Obviously, there's a lot of luck that needs to go as way. Even with that bad at three, four to six, that should still come down a little bit. But the fifty percent left on base rate is just that's ridiculous. We see like mid sixties and we think, oh yeah, that's really bad luck. Traditionally it's around seventy or so left on base right. The elites will be closer to at times,

and percent is just okay. That's why you see the three Sierra, the two fIF that suggests that better days are ahead when luck is in his favor. But I mean, I think with no Syndergard, if you own him, he should get much better through the year. I wouldn't be selling him. I would be buying low on him. I think there are corrections that can be made for Syndergards to get better as the year goes on. And honestly, the fact that he's selling more four seamers and said

sinkers now is a step in that direction. Things haven't gotten his way so far. But it's April. There's so much season left. I really think a lot of people will be kicking themselves later if they sold low on synder Guard. As a references, you have the list that comes out every Monday over at Picture List where you rank the top one starting pitchers, and you still have No Synderguard ranked eighth overall, just behind Corey Kluber. Blake's

now Garrett Cole. He's in that tier three of starting pitchers. You still expect him to be elite, but you still haven't ranked very highly. You haven't ranked inside the top ten. I'm just looking at the skills right, So, like, the swinging strike rate is still above league average, not where it has been the past couple of years. Chase rate down a little bit as well, But the first pitch strip percentage, he's getting ahead in account more than he

has in years past, sixty one percent. That's the highest it's been since. You Know, what I find so interesting about Noah synder Garden, Nick, is that the babbit is high every year. And I agree with you, he's more of a thrower. He throws very hard, so it seems like he's gonna be more prone to to giving up more hits. But the hard hit rate is not is

generally not as high as other starting pitchers. Given the fact that he throws the ball as hard as he does, I would think that the hard hit rate against him would be higher than league average. And for the most part in his career he's been below league average, So it's not like it's not like he's getting squared up all of that often. So it does seem like a bit of unluckiness here for cynder Guard. You look at the e r A minus FIP leaderboards for the season,

he's second among qualified starting features. So he's been unlucky again. You know, the fifth is two point nine three, the x fit is three point three six. Um, the ear A stands at five point nine zero, still at a fifty percent crown ball right that left on base percentace as you mentioned, the strand rate just you know, absolutely abysmal. I don't think, and you know it hasn't been this way for his entire career, like a guy like John Gray.

But is there a chance that we're falling into a part of a John Gray situation where he's never going to be as good as his underlying numbers say that he should be. Nick well, Actually, two thousand eighteen, twousand and sixteen, two largest samples we have of Syndergard prior

to this year, he outperformed a Sierra. It was to sixty EARRA and in twos sixteen three or three ear a with a three five Sierra in two thousand eighteen, So I don't think that that's necessarily something that he's always going to be under performing in that fashion, but that will obviously be influenced by the great caper walk that he has. Is a career k ray in a

five point five percent walk. Great, those are good things. Uh, now you're talking about the hard contact and and how you know he's not like getting barreled up so much, but he has his elevated babbit. Well, there's something to be said about Hitter is not trying to do too much um against Syndergard, and there are a lot of times I think he'll also just get beat by singles because guys can just put out the bat against him.

He doesn't like to throw inside to right. Hander's actually kind of goes middle to out, which means that a lot of times you can just put your bat out and go to right feeling and be a single highlighted that in that article last year. I think I found like seven different singles where it was exactly that case. That is just you think you have all these skills right in front of you, and you're just using them in the wrong way and you're not, you know, not nibbling.

I want to see Syndergard actually maybe even walk a few more guys if that means better quality pitches in the strike zone. So I think there are just justice to make. And yeah, there is something we said about you're saying before that he needs to correct this now. Even waiting for a while though, I think he could easily do that. I think he even spoke in spring training about him fixing himself and improving. And yeah, if I have nine e r A, but that's really five

starts and twent innings, it's small sample. In April h you talked about that gap. It's gonna come down massively, and there's no real reason why we can't expect the top ten picture the rest of the way. Nick, last question on cynder Guard, a classics cell high by low situation right now? Would you trade Luis Castido away to get nowhere cyder Guard? And I I used the term cell high very loosely here because I think Luis Castillo could be really good. He could definitely return top twenty

five starting picture value. But if you can pull off a trade like that, is that something you would look into? Yes, I know that's crazy to say. I was the guy that was that was so high and Luis Castido last year and I got burned for it. Obviously, I am very aware of the volatility of Castillo, and we've seen again another small sample. He's looking great. I absolutely love it.

We still need to recognize that we have five more months plus to go and this three to four weeks is not going to be represented necessarily of those five months. So a guy like Synde Guard that has a better innate skill set than Luis Castillo, I would be going after that. Then it would cast you. Nick, I gotta ask you about another Mets starting pitcher. We won't get into all of it now. We'll we'll kind of talk about some now and we'll get to it after the

break as well. Zach Wheeler. This is a guy that I was very high and I believe you were very high on him as well. I mean into the season I had Hi ranked is my fourteen starting pitcher. I was very very aggressive on Zach Wheeler. In fact, I took him in the fourth round of the NFBC Main Event League. So putting my money where my mouth is, you know, I like Zach Wheeler. The difference with him between him and Cyderguard is okay. He's got the six point three five e R A. But it's not like

the underlying numbers. The x fib is four point seven eight, the sierra is all the way down at what do we have it here? He's at five eleven. Yes, So it's not like he's uh like his underlying skills are much better. They're better than obviously his six point three five e r A. I was really hoping that those games that he made in the command department last year, uh, the walks per nine, he kept him under three for the first time in his career. He had them at

two point seven one. The command was much better over those final eleven twelve starts of the season. This year, it hasn't been the case. He's had some tough matchups. He's faced the Nationals twice. He's faced the Phillies on the walks per nine though, all the way up over five. And despite the velocity being up this season across the board, swinging strike rate down, case rate down, first pitch strike percentage down. So I do have some concerns regarding Zach

Wheeler at this point in the season. Uh, we have a couple of minutes here before the break, give us a little tease regarding Zach Wheeler. Well, all right. This is this is what the hardest parts about fantasy baseball is. We try to say, Okay, this guy performed like this, and he should have performed like this, so okay, So for example, Wheeler performed badly, so we're trying to find a reason to say, hey, he's going to be good,

and we don't necessarily have one from the underlying numbers. Right, But these are people that you know, sometimes they pitch poorly and they have bad results, but maybe they'll actually pitch well. It's not that they're going to pitch the same and get different results. It's that we expect them to be better than they were, and the underlying numbers won't necessarily say that she's going to do that because he didn't pitch well before. That's just kind of how

it was. The last two starts, Wheeler's fastball command overall was much better. This is the reason we loved him last year was that those final I think seventeen starts or so from Zach Wheeler or phenomenal with his fastball command. He was going to deep into games because of it. And that's set up this trio of secondary pitches that were never none of them were really elites, but they were all a little bit of above average, and it made them even better being set up by this incredible

fastball command. So in the last two starts that improved. That's great. He pitched seven innings last time out against the Fields. Before that, it was six innings of eight strikeout. I love that. It's It's kind of funny to look at the Sierra at this moment because I mean, one game was that a ridiculous one against the Nationals where we walk seven guys. That's a three Sierra in that one start. And that's four starts total of the year, So that's of a SRA right there to the other

ones to six five s three ninety sevens here. So it's really small sample we're dealing with. It's going to make all these numbers look really bad, and walking and all of that stuff. You can just kind of throw it away at this point. I really do encourage people to look more at trends and their skills as a picture themselves, to see if there's an indication of them improving or getting wort or or getting worse. I guess

so I like Wheeler. I think that he will rebound as the season goes on don't freak out too much so far. That's Zach Bieler of The New York Man's talk a little bit more about him when we come back. But Nick Pollock at picture Less make sure you follow on Twitter. I am Frank Standfeld. Gregson will join us at some point today, I think hopefully and see best friends for every on the Fantasy Sports radio network Daily rodo dot com. Learn from the game's best DFS players.

We don't just give you advice. We play every day, all major sports, all year round. We never stop. Industry leading DFS tools and custom projections, and now the Daily rodo dot Com Optimizer in minutes, build an optimized line up for cash games and tourneys. Learn from the game's best DBS players. Join Daily rodo dot com. The following ad contains shucking material. Listener discretion is advised. Is someone in your family playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette?

Over forty three thousand people die a year from drug overdose. A hundred and twenty people a day, five people every hour, one person every twelve minutes. Thousand people die every year from alcohol abuse, over two hundred and forty people today ten one person every six minutes somebody you know. Maybe next learn how to help someone you love get away from the drugs, alcohol, and bad influences. With the f m l A, people can take a leave of absence from their job and still keep it. Call now and

learn how we can help you. Eight six six four eight four nine six two one eight six six four eight four nine six to one. That's eight six six eight four ninety six one in this leave. Okay, what's more embarrassing saying you have a podcast or saying you have a Game of Thrones podcasts? Well, probably just saying you have a podcast I think more people have. Is this possible as this math gonna work? If more people have Game of Thrones podcasts than there are podcasts? Can

I do that? That doesn't that math does not check out. That's like saying one plus three equals seventy Six's at least what we did, though, is we put a behind the page. Saturday's two pm, E Stern on the Fantasy Sports networking on your popular podcast providers. Welcome back to the Fantasy best Friends Forever. Frank Stanfeld, joined by Nick Pollock at Pitcherless, Mitchy Falm on Twitter, sec at all

the great work at pitcherless dot com. We're talking about Zach Wheeler before the break and mentioned that seven walk performance, seven earned runs against the Washington Nationals in that second start that just, you know, really really inflicated the numbers.

That just brutal, brutal performance there, which really up the wall watch per nine this year for Zack Wheeler as well, and his first start of the season, you know, if you were watching it, it was one bad pitch of Trade Turner where he gives up a three run homer. You know, I'm not gonna be one of those people that says it will take that away and he only

gives up one and run. It happened. So but it's against a really good players against Trade Turner, and you know he's already getting some of these starts out of the way against you know, tough Nationals Phillies opponents as well. I do think better days are coming. I noticed next week, I believe he has a two star week, really tough matchups coming up. Again, it just seems like every matchup

for Wheeler has just been tough one thus far. So he gets the Reds next week, which is not the worst, but then at Milwaukee, so I'd be okay with that, though, I mean, the Reds are also struggling at time. It's okay. I will say this, the Mets are gonna have a lot of tough matchups this year just being in the NL East. I used to call it the n L Easy. I can't do it anymore. It was the best type I ever made, and I'm kind of upset about it. But I was starting for that two star a week. Yeah, absolutely,

I agree. Um, you know, not the NL Easy anymore, and more like you know, they used to call the American Leg East the a L Beast, right It's looking more like the NL Beast right now if I'm being honest. So according to the list, you have Zach Wheeler ranked as the twenty second starting pitcher right now. He's in Tier five with David Price and Steven Strasburg. You dropped him, uh seven spots from yep, last week or from the

start of the season. Is this from week to week or from the start of this This is every single Monday I put out this update. So this was from last week. Okay, so you dropped them from fifteen to twenty two, that is regarding Zach Wheeler. But it sounds overall like you're pretty optimistic regarding him. He's another by low candidate for you. Definitely. I think he's someone that

a lot of people are giving up already on. And if you can sell someone like I don't know what Tyler Glasnow that someone is really high on at this moment, which I think a lot of people would do in a heartbeat, I think that's something you can definitely take advantage of taking. You know, Wheeler is hated right now. Everyone loves Tyler Glass. No great, take advantage of that because it's only four weeks into the season and you

have another gain five months ahead. I appreciate that, man, Nick Pollack coming and spit some Moti sell Tyler Glass Now for Zach Wheeler. We've had a lot of Tyler Glass Now questions. Someone actually tweeted me last week they treated away tyler Glass now Nick to get Chris sale. That's wonderful, that's so great. It's insane, man, that's the same. But people, you know, they get really giddy about their

players early on in the season. But you have to remind you again, only one month into the season, tyler Glass now house looked awesome. Uh, you know, let's see how he fares once he starts to face some of these tougher teams in the American League East, for example. But that I welcome in, Greg Man, Greggy, what's going on, man? How did you sleep? I slept well, Man, I slept well. I had some very descriptive dreams. But I'm feeling good. Man. Pok is on the line. Then, how you doing? I'm good?

So last night when what if I was like, hey, Ny, possibly be on tomorrow, Like who do you want to talk about? Because they really want to talk about Zach Wheeler and Zach Zach Eflin and JAREDI cough And I just walked in on the summation of Zach Wheeler and I'm just like, I need to go back and listen to the podcast because you just have so much insightful information that I want to make sure that I feel good, but so summarizing you feel good about Zach Wheel's gonna

turn it around starting tonight. Yes, that sounds good to me. Yeah. Yeah, We've already gone through a synder guard, Greggy, who's you know? I don't have to a weird start checkpoint nine array and we got into Zach Wheeler. This is really the National League edition of the list here with h with Nick Pollock, because I didn't even really realize this until I was putting the run ount together. Everyone that we're gonna talk about today, Greg is in the National League.

A lot of National League East pitchers as well. So we've already got two mets down. Next one up, Joe must Grove, Big Joe, draft Joe must Grove, Nick. Last year we used to chant about, you know, drafting Joe two two years ago. We've been towdy Joe must Grove for years now, and it seems like everyone's kind of hopping on our bandwagon. So and rightfully. So, Look, he's been awesome to start the year. Uh he I believe he was the r A leader heading into last night.

It seems like they tried to squeeze a little bit too much out of him. They leave him out there for the seventh and he he gives up a hit, he gives up a walk, and then Kyle Craik comes in and everything goes to hell, and uh, some of some runs here get charged Joe Musgrove's way, although he himself did not actually give up those runs. He has been awesome though to start the year, you have him ranked the thirty third starting pitcher, so inside the top

thirty five. Um some pretty some pretty lofty ranking here for for Joe Musgrove, what have you seen this year? Nick Well? One thing I liked specifically about last night is that his fastball velocity went up to ninety one and a half after being around ninety point five, maybe touching ninety one or so previously, which is a good sign because we were hoping to see that three consistently from must Grove, and to see him get up there

a little bit last night was definitely a plus. He's maintained this amazing swing strike grade at thirteen point five percent. He has to what we call money pitches here at a picture list, which is a swing strike grade fifteent or higher zone rate and chase ray essentially means he's getting swings off the place, getting swings on the plate and getting strikes and they're missing it a ton. He has that with a change at minutes slider, and that's

really great. I've loved his approach of the way he's attacking it. I will say one thing about must Grove is he hasn't faced a lot of tough teams. It's been the Reds who have been struggling massively. Twice he faced the Tigers, he faced the Dining Backs, and then he also went to Wrigley against the Cubs. I mean that's about it, though, and it might get a little bit tougher as he isn't n L Central. He's gonna have to face the Brewers, He's gonna have to face

the Cardinals. He's gonna have to face more of the Cubs as well, and maybe the Reds are better off later in the year. But honestly, I love Muscrow. I love the fact that the Pirates are letting him go deep into games. That's generally what they do in Pittsburgh. You see tie in the same way, Musco is gonna be a quality start guide essentially for those leagues. And I love rowing with Musgrove right now right This is why I like talking to different fantasy analysts get different opinions.

I love what you guys do with the money pitches. You know what I talk about a lot here on the show is three specific stats that I like to look at a lot. Nick are swinging strike rate, overall first pitch strike per centential. Guys that are getting ahead into account and you know, overall have solid command, and I think Joe Muscrove actually has great command. You see that with the walks per nine under two for the second straight year. And then I like looking at the

oh swing the chase rate. So those are really three underlying statistics that I like to look at a lot regarding starting pitches starting pitchers, so you know, I like kind of hearing different perspectives and what you guys do over with the money pitches as well. It's really cool because you know, you try and learn as much as you can regarding each starting pitcher. But yeah, I do

agree regarding Joe Musgrove that the velocity was up. It's something that I paid attention to in his first couple of starts, and I referenced Gregg that the velo has been down across the board this year. I like the fact that he's been using the slider more. It seems like it's been one of the more useful pitches for him dating back to last season and then the second half where he really took off. I think a lot

of that had to do with using the slider more. So, I like the fact that he's been doing that more of this season, Greg. Yeah, absolutely, And I think one of the keys of Joe muscro is for him to stay healthy and just have a full season, which we haven't seen from Joe Muscrove in that starting rotation. And I think this can be this season that we get there, and you heard it from Nick a few moments ago, just to provide in that quality start on a on

a consistent basis, quality start start. God, I kind of like it has a good ring to it. Yeah, Joe muscro So the thirty third rank starting pitcher for you. He's moved up one spot from last week. Now these he's a little bit different than the first two Mets pictures that we've talked about where he could potentially be a cell high based on what you were telling us. We know he's not going to pitch two an e r A under two. He's at one point five nine right now, but the x Fit is at three seven

five and the Sierra is at three eight. Oh. Now, you can try and sell him if you're worried about the Brewers coming up, Greg and the Cardinals and the Cubs at some point. But even if he pitches to let's say a three six or three seven e r A from here on out with a good whip and nearly a strike app for Anny. I'm fine with that, Like, that's kind of what we were respecting from Joe Musgrove. So do you really want to sell high? That's you know, what do you think? I think? I'm fine with that.

Like read the rewards of m okay with that, I really am. I know it's going to get tougher. I know he plays in that tough division, but I'm okay. Just if he reverted to me in a little a little bit in you know, he's gonna be fine. He's not gonna be there outstanding, no doubt. I think it's gonna be well worth starting on a consistent basis on your fantasy team, Nick, where are you at on that spectrum? Well, okay, So when it comes to selling a guy, it's about

what the market values them at. I think where I value Musgrove is probably a little bit higher than most. I think, especially someone that isn't you know, hasn't been touting him like you guys have for ages or yeah, as a pitch entire off season, like two money pitches. This guy is clearly top fifty. He's our guy. And I don't think that someone is gonna really buy into this with four starts under his belt for the most part. Uh that that's the real hesitation with Musgrove, So I

would just be holding tight here. I don't think that you're gonna get relative value back for Musgrove, and I'm I'm perfectly fine with it, Gregg. You know, if he he's my SP four, my SP five, because a lot of people got him later on in draft. You got him in you know, around twelve plus round thirteen fourteen, I had him ranked in the top fourty starting pitcher. We ended up with him in a few places together, Greg,

I'm just gonna reap the rewards. If people don't want to pay up for Musgrove, that's fine, and then you don't have to try and sell everyone who's performing well to start the year. So I'm just gonna kind of sit back and enjoy the ride here. With Musgrove, I realized it's gonna get tougher. You know, maybe he's not doesn't put together the stellar performances, but again, quality start after quality start. If we get that from Musgrove, I

think we're good with that. Great yep, I completely completely agree with you, Frankie. Moving on, we have we had a few requests to talk about brave starting pitchers, so we'll just keep going with the with the National League East.

Here for a few pictures, Max freed Man. Max Freed has been awesome to start the year, Nick, and you have them ranked all the way up at your forty six starting pitchers, so you know you're valuing him as you know in the twelve team league and SP four and I think the way that he's performed, we have to, you know, kind of put put some respect on Max

Freed's name. The one question that I've had regarding him is can he succeed with just the two started with the two pitches, because I do have my concerns with that when it comes to starting pictures and what I've said about him, Nick is I think the fact that his the screpting CD the miles per hour between its fastball and it's curveball. We everyone's seen the curveball. It's a big, looping curveball. It's about seventy five in the mid seventies. He has a fastball that he compliments it

with in the mid nineties. So you have, you know, twenty mile per hour difference. You keep hitters all balance a lot when you have two pitches like that, and he keep this going with only two pitches, Nick, So inherently having just two pitches isn't necessarily a bad thing. We saw Patrick Corbin having full season with that uh and have success. We see Jose Burrios pretty much have success as a two pitch pitcher. Yeah, he does do that change of a little bit, but it's not that

creative a pitch. I here, Okay, there's a lot to say about freed one. I I do my worries that he's getting a bit lucky when it comes to balls and play at the moment. And his fastball and curveball are really good at tunneling. That is, fastball staying up he actually got a little bit squeezed in that Indian game. And then the curveball going straight down, starting at the same spot but being located at the bottom of the zone.

That's great. I really love that. I think that his fastball command inherently is actually I have three tiers of fastball command. One being amazing to put it where you want. Three is you have no idea where it's going. I probably put breed in between one and two. I think it has a really good four seam fastball. You can just kind of put it wherever he wants for the most part, and when he does miss, it's not by a lot. So I love those aspects of Freed a ton.

I think, really the question is, okay, he has this change up for that third velocity band right in between that fastball and curb as you were mentioning, I think he can develop that. It's not even a bad pitch. He also has a slider he messed around with a little bit. I believe when he faced the Cubs he had some against If I remember correctly, I think it was kyleege Forever. I could be making all of this up. It's fine, but I think Max Reread now being the

number four in the Brave's rotation is huge. Seeing Bryce Wilson and Kyle right get pushed down two key des now is in the minors, and even with Mikes Toroka, who I think we'll talk about in a second, I think that the Braids are gonna be a little more cautious with that shoulder and just let Max Freed have this spot. So I like his situation right now. I like where he's at. And I mean when you get to the forties and fifties and sixties on the list,

that's when it starts getting messy really quickly. So when it comes to guys that I'm actually pursuing that, you know, and we're thinking about, hey, should we be going after I don't know, some some new guy like Luke Weaver him having successfully you know what, Now, I'll hold on with Max Freed for the moment. See how that works first. Um, that's why you see him at forty six. But I like Freed. I'll be happy wherever I got him. I'd be holding on tight and uh and see how this

plays out. Yeah, what I what I've liked about Free Feed so far. To start the season, Nick, as you mentioned, has has been the command because this was a guy who struggled in the minor leagues. You know, over four walks per nine. It kind of seems like he's sacrificing, you know, trying to strip people out because you see the first pitch strike percentage up this year, but the swinging strikes are down. It seems like he's pitching to contact more and you know the bat is really oh,

it's at two seven. But the groundball rate, so I do you know, there's there's a lot of good, there's pros, and then there's cons. That I've seen with Max Freed liked the control, like the command that I've seen from him. Uh, the fact that he's not walking many people. He did have three walks against the Indians, but every other walk he's been every other start he's been two walks or less, and and most of his starts he's actually he's been

one walk or less. So the control has has been really good, and he's getting a lot of groundballs, but it seems like he's almost sacrificing strikeouts a little bit pitching too contact. Is that something that you've noticed You think it's by design or do you think he just doesn't have the stuff to get strikeouts, because I think he does. You know, back in the day, I think it was two thousand fifteen or so, I tweeted at Trivor Bauer about him all of a sudden lowering his

content his walk rate, but also having fewer strikeouts. And I tweeted at him saying, hey, are you trying to pitch the contact now? And he said, that's a ridiculous phrase. That that you know, I never want to pitch the contact. Why would ever want to pitch the contact. I want to miss every bad every single time. That's ridiculous, And I kind of agree with him. I think it's something

that isn't inherently good, especially for fantasy purposes. Generally, the more pitch the contact, guys are not going to be that sustainable as far as their success goes. So it is something I think that inherently with how free pitches, he is more contact guy than he is a strikeout guy. So I'd be highly surprised if he turns into plus strikeout rate that is over a k per inning, which

does give me a little bit of pause. And you see that one ear a right now, the fifth is a three fourteen at nine, I think he is more of a three point five ear a three point six kind of pitcher. The hip or nine needs to go above seven. But you know, I think that's okay. I think that he's good enough at it that he's not like synder Garth throwing over the middle of the plate and they're slapping it. So there is something to that, Yes, pitching into contact, of pitching well inside the zone and

getting weaker contact than most. That's what I'll say about that. Right, do you have any Max free shares? And until have you been? That's annoying about him far. I've just been impressed with him thus far, and it's annoying because I wanted him coming into the year. That was the guy when everyone's talking about to usan Um and Bryce Wilson who you love for about a week, Kyle, Right, there's always a new brave starting pitching procect that everyone's trying

to talk about. Mash Free was the guy. And I kept going back that stupid Freddie Freeman quote, and I wish I listened to myself and really took advantage because I've been obviously impressed. Now can he do it? You know, I'm going forward. I don't know, but you know me, Frank, I I ride the hot head and I'm riding the hot head of Mash Freed right now if I had him, But I don't. And I think the Braves are too. That's what we said all along. Uh, Nick, we have

about a minute left before the break. You know what I've said about the Braves is it's a very fluid rotation. I think as long as people are performing in said rotation, they're gonna have an opportunity to to start and stick around. So you know that's why you see two tusan a well, he performs well in a relief appearance. Um, all right, we'll keep him around. He stays for a start, he gets blown up, all right, we're gonna send him back down and now focus in the rotation. So I think

it's very fluid, there's moving parts. But as long as you perform well, I think you'll stay in the brave rotation. Do you agree completely? I mean, look at this, Sean Nucom isn't even in it anymore. So they really are going to give these guys the opportunities and if they succeed, you'll see them for a long time. Yeah. I looked as it's exactly what I've said, and I think they're gonna stick by it. Um. And that's why I like

Sarrocca a lot. I do think he's a really talented picture to get into him after the break here, Nick hasn't ranked one spot behind Max Freed as his forty seventh starting pitcher. We saw a lot of high fab bids in the NFBC and the Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational this past Yeah, well we'll try Rocca and then we'll get to the Phillies. Guys, I know you wanted to talk about Zach Eflyn and we also are trying to get into Jared. I call thanks man. Appreciate that it's

a lot. You can take us out alrighty Here on the Fantasy Best Friends Forever, It's Greg Sustenan, Nick Pollock and Frank Stanfeld. You're listening to us live on the Fantasy Sports Radio Network. We've that right, ef. The Fantasy Sports Network is ready to take you out to the ball game. Our experts and analysts are following the Boys of Summer through all one and sixty two games of the two thousand nineteen MLB season with the best fantasy

baseball analysis in the industry. Catch the latest news and notes every day to help you win your fantasy leagues and your dat Best tournaments. Will always want you back listening and watching the Fantasy Sports Network on the F and T s Y Radio app and the f F and T s Y YouTube channel. The Fantasy Sports Network where we're root route rooting for your fantasy baseball team.

Morie Allen two thousand and fifteen two thousands and sixteen European Long Drive Tour Champion two thousand seventeen World number one. Me personally, I keep my game face on me all the time, especially coming out with the bunker, leaving the range or are you leaving the boys? What's your story? Go to game face grooming dot com. From all your athletic facial wipes and body cleansing needs. We get fantasy up team. As the ref, sometimes you're like, you know

what I'm gonna I'm gonna let this go today. And you may have let something go earlier in the game, same play but didn't get reviewed because you let it go. You saw it, but he decided I'm gonna let it go,

and I don't mind that. As a player, I don't mind with ref let things go if as long as the team for everybody, you know, if they don't let holding go the whole game, fine, as long as I know that we hold being consistent exactly Saturday and Sunday eleven a m. Eastern on the Fantasy Sports Network and on your popular podcast providers, I can't get enough fantasy football.

Rhoto Experts has launched their NFL three sixty five Fantasy Football package, which includes the best math based seasonal projections and rankings available anywhere on the Internet. Davis Madig and the Rugo Experts are providing dynasty, season long betting, best ball, and NFL Draft content every day of the year to give you an edge regardless of what type of fantasy football you play. Say temper cent at Ruto Experts dot com.

I'm with the promo code Evans is why it's the NFL Fantasy Football package only at Rhoto Experts dot com. Welcome back to the fantasy best friends forever. Frank Stanfeld here with Greg Sussman and Nick Pollock at picture lists on Twitter. Make sure you check out picture lists dot com with all the great content that they are putting out. Going over a few interesting starting pitchers right now and

where they rank in the list. So every Monday, Nick Pollock ranks the top one starting pitchers in fantasy baseball. We were just talking about Max Freed, who is the forty six ranks starting pitcher. He moved up seven spots from last week to this week, and then Mike Saroka, who was unranked last week. Greg moves all the way up inside the top fifty forty seven starting pitcher you know what I've liked about to Rocca for a while

is in the minors, elite groundball rate, great command. I don't think that he's ever going to be an elite strikeout kind of guy. I mean, if he gives me eight case per nine with good command and an elite groundball rate, that's that's more than enough for me. Nick. Regarding Mike Saroka, where are you at regarding him? Uh? You know, just from I guess, like from a scouting perspective, like what kind of pitches does he use? What can we expect moving forward? I know he has the shoulder injury,

so he had the shoulder injury. He's in the rotation now, but that might cause the Braves to be a little bit careful with him. How do you feel overall about Sirocca? Oh, Man, I love Mike Saroka. I last year, I remember the start he had against the Mets, and the way that he used essentially three different types of fastball is one of the very rare occasions I've ever seen this where he had a forcing him with some cut action. He had an actual writing horizontal two steamer, but then he

also had a sinker on top of it. Generally I say that two steamers and sinkers are synonymous, but this was one of the legit scenarios where it was a sinker that went down and then a two steamer that rode horizontally and it was amazing. It blew my mind from a twenty one year old doing this. Uh. And then he has these two pitches, a slider and a

change up. They're both developing. However, the slider that we saw last week was really good and you threw it about thirty percent of the time and it made me really excited there. Uh. He wasn't on the list prior because I only expected him beyond the in the Brave rotation for one start, and I didn't really think that was worth it for the top one hundred with two ki decan being decent against the terrible Indians offense. Well,

that obviously didn't work out. He's in the rotation now, and obviously Sarrocca deserves your love in twelve teamers, but I I personally love Sarroka. I think it's a matter of innings and how much we'll get out of him, and hopefully that shoulder isn't bulky or barking at him. I should say, uh, to the point that it removes this command like it did last year. We actually saw some of those starts last season just didn't go right because the shoulder was bothering him. So hopefully the Braves

let him loose and everything is okay if that's the case. Ultimately, I mean down the road it kids twenty one. If he's injury free, this is legitimately the top twenty five upside player. I really just love what he brings to the table. Yeah, I regarding Mike's roker, and you know what we've seen in the miners regarding his pitch usage, his arsenal. You mentioned the three different types of fastballs that he uses, and the slider. Uh, he upped the usage and that first start and it was it looked

like a pretty good slider. Nick just being perfectly honest, it looked like a very solid slider. So I think the fact that you kind of see this across baseball right now, a lot of people upping their slider usage. We talked about Joe Musgrove and you know, even going back to last year, Patrick Corbin, how how much he's starting pitchers are using uh their slider. And I know Matt Boyd. You know Boyd to men, I saw you

guys are huge on Matt Boyd. But it seems like across baseball Greg these pitchers are starting to use their breaking balls more and specifically the slider, and I think that's something that could potentially help Mike Siroka. Uh. You know,

I got a question over the weekend. It might have been from our friend Leland saying, you know what if he's on an endings limit, I think you just kind of take it start by start, like you want to be short sighted regarding sirocca If you think that there's a chance that he's gonna get shut down and you want to sell him because of that, that's fine. Me personally, I'm not. I'm I'm just gonna take it from a

short term perspective. I start to start basis maybe week by week, month by month with Mike Sarroka, but I think as long as he's in the rotation, he's gonna perform quite well. You know that I've been bullish on him. I'm not backing down from Sirocco. Yes, yeah, he's been your guy, like since last the Seed last year at this time, he wanted to stash Sroka and seeing him perform in that one outing, I don't think it's like

a a mirage like took to my only worrying. The same to be said with Mare And you heard it a few moments ago from Nick Pollock, range aren't afraid to continue to maneuver this all season long. That if you have a bad start, you go away, and there's plenty of other options from Wilson to Newcomb to Tucson, and they can call up to replace Rocca or replace

Max Freed. And you heard the reasons a second ago from Nick where you don't necessarily think it happens, but that that is in the back of my mind in trusting these guys long term, I know the next question is do you buy them? Do you sell them? What do you do? I lean to sell only because I don't trust the Braves to commit long term, so I would say sell to answer your question you haven't asked yet.

I think, just in general your sentiment is probably right, But overall, I don't think that you're gonna get much. I don't think you're gonna get much in return for Max Freed or Mike Roka because for the reasons you just mentioned, I think a lot of people have similar concerns. Greg, and I have been on records saying I think, as long as you perform well, I was a Braves pitture, you will stay in the rotation. Uh And I think

so Rocca will perform quite well. But every picture, any pitch in baseball is prone to having a bad start. I mean, Max sus are struggle against the Marlins his last time out, So any starting pitcher is prone to having a bad start. Does it mean all right, Sarroka has one bad start and they're automatically gonna send him down. I think that's the worry amongst fantasy owners who have Saroka right now. Greg, So, I think your sentiment is correct in that you worry that something like that can

happen with the Braves. They might have a short leach with these guys, But overall, I don't think you're gonna get much in return, So overall I would just keep

both freed. The only the only reason why I think you might be able to get something that I don't know what that something is, so some please don't ask, is because the prospect pedigree, the excitement around young players like a free like a Sarroca that someone could be I want to buy that, Like I want to be in on that, and you get excited over that, So you may want to overpay because you think that that long term viability this season will be good, Like you

want that hot young thing, and like, would you trade Mike Sarroka for who's akn Tana? Personally? Oh gosh, I love both of these guys. I would take hold Quintana, I think, like, I think that's something that isn't so out of the woods. Yeah, Nick, don't do that. Uh. You know what I noticed last night? You have Kantana ranked all the way down at sixty four, And I was like, oh, man, I gotta ask you Nick about this is really this is a really quick one. This

is pretty easy. He's essentially having the curveball that he had in like two thousand sixteen. He said it for maybe two starts. Maybe it's possible all of a sudden Katana has that back for the rest of the season. I think it's such such a small sample and this is more likely to burn out than it's to last. On the quick Siroca topic, I will say this about him. I think the Braves are if Sarka has a bad start, it's not going to be like the two key one that we saw. If it is like the two key

one that we saw, then it's an injury. Something is actually causing that. I think the Braves are definitely gonna give a longo leash if if Sirocca is pitching. But it's that I guess the I guess the question is really going to balance like his injury history, saying, you know what, this is too many innings. We want to take it really slow to nine because you're twenty one, you already have this shoulder problem. Maybe we'll just make

this small season for you is a real one. But as long as I mean, I don't really see him having those massive blow ups like we saw the two Dusant or the high walk rates of Sean Nugam, etcetera, which should give him a little bit better cushion than those guys. It hurts my heart that you hate Hosie Kantana May yeah all the way down at sixty four. I'm telling you, I saw that last night and I said, oh god man, this reminds me of Chris Archer all over again. Overta in in in the preseason and to

start the season. It's very small sample size again, and he's dominated the Marlins and the Pirates. I'm taking with a grain of salt. You know, I'm not looking. I'm not expecting this type of strikeout upside from Katana started and started off. But what I've seen is that he's kind of gone back to his pitching you siege from a couple of years ago when he was a quality

starting pitcher. Again, I'm not expecting of the world here, but can you get back to a mid to highs three ear a from years past with the White Sox. I leaned towards you Ken Nick, Okay, if he if he's going at a three a ear a or so with I don't know k rate, that's awesome. That's why he's in the mid sixties. That that's essentially what we call a Toby at picture list, which is your the

guy at the back end of your staff. You don't really love him, but he gets the work done, so you keep him around and like, you know, like Toby from the office, and I'd rather go after someone like Luke Weaver that I think could be a two point three point five ear a guy this year who's pitching really well with this change up at the bomb the zone. Sonny Gray is making moves right now and Guardarodo Riguez could bring much bigger value. Katana is someone that I understand,

especially in deeper leagues. All four Katana there twelve teamers. It's not enough of pushing the needle. I think that will get from Katana, and that's why I want to favor the other guys instead. Sorry, Frankie, those listening on the radio, I'm making a sad face. You got artswer right, Yeah, sure, but you know I mean I pushed them up into the top forty, which I did not expect myself to do. So I appreciate that you give you credit there, and I think I had him right inside my top twenty

five entering this season. So that's pretty high on high on Chris Archer. He faces the Dodgers this week, so it's gonna be a nice little test there for Chris Archer. Gregy, I know you wanted to hear from Nick regarding Zach Eflyn and Jared i Cough. I said, I Cough was the guy that I liked this week because he was going up against the Marlins. He was one of these one start pictures that I liked because of the matchup. So, Nick, what do you have regarding e Flynn and I cough

moving forward in the Phillies rotation? Sure? Uh so I actually have I Coff and ef Flyn right below Quintana in the next night in the next tier. So I mean Katana was sixty four at the end of Tier eight, fifty four would be in the high of that. So you know it's not even you see the number, but it's really just a clump of pictures I with Evelyn and if they're kind of two different sides of the

same coin. I cough. I really love his curveball. I think he improved even the small boat we saw last year. Everything we've seen thus far has been, oh yeah, this curveball is much better than it used to be in two thousand and sixteen when he had that fantastic season. I like going after a Coff right now because there's a higher chance that he makes a big impact for your team. But this could be something falls apart quickly.

While Fflyn. I don't think Evelyn is going to be necessarily detrimental to your team this year, but kind of like Kantana, where there's a good chance where he's just bouncing back and forth through the season. He doesn't have that overwhelming strikeout stuff. Unfortunately, there are times that you can really work outs that ninety four mile per fastball and then this slider slash cutter around eight six or so that when used right, can miss bats. But outside

of that, sometimes there's this changeup. It's it's a little bit questionable. And because of that lack of sistance strikeout ability I mean right now is a percent rate last year was twenty point five. I think that's what we should expect. Plus is out the window. Well, I think there's a chance I could do that. So I like oting them both. I think they're both guys that can get a lot of wins on the fields and especially

can play the matchups right. They should excel for your twelve teamer, but they're not my favorite ones to go go after because there's still a harder path to achieve their ceiling. Right. We talked about the improved the increased breaking ball usage here for just starting pitchers across the landscape of baseball right now, and I'm I'm looking at the slider usage for for Jared I Cough Actually in

his first start, where twenty three point eight percent. Nick, I want to ask you about this, so you know, I bounced back and forth. I try and use as many different resources as possible. I try and use fan graphs, I try and use Baseball savant. But when it comes to labeling pitches, it seems like there's a very fine line. Sometimes you consider something a cutter, sometimes you consider it

a slider. So when I look at when I look at Zach Eflyn, and I see the thirty seven point five percent cutter usage this year, whereas in years past he's been throwing a slider. Like, what do you make of that? Is he actually flowing a new pitch? Is it a cut fastball? Is it a slider? This is regarding Zack Efflyn, because it seems like you try and use as many resources as possible, but one place will label it as a slider, one place will labeled as

a cutter. Uh. You know, how do you differentiate when it comes to a guy like Eflyn. Is he actually using a new pitch or they just labeling it differently? Yeah? This is I think a labeling thing. Well, okay, specifically with Efflyn. Uh. For example, pitch type which I believe is provided by Pitch Info Solutions. Maybe no no way to hold on that's not that's not pitch Info Type is Info Solutions, and that has it as a cutter,

while pitch Type has it as a slider. But the main thing is that it's an eighty six mile prower slider last year and now it's eighty seven point five. So whatever that pitch is, he's just throwing it harder. It can be very tough about the actual labels. The biggest differences really you'll see is is uh, slider versus cutter. Sometimes you'll see confusion between curveball and slider. Sometimes you get that from del Patansas, for example. From if I

remember correctly, Uh. It can be kind of tough to sit through it. But really most of the time, as long as the velocity is about the same or I mean, and this is definitely a case where it's essentially the same pitch, there's no way he decided to all of a sudden change everything and get one mile per hour difference. He's probably just moving it slightly on his hand to get a little bit less spin. To focus more on velocity is what my guests would be. But it's not

really a massively different pitch. It's pretty much the same thing. So I coughed versus e Flyn. You have you have f f Lyn sixty six. They're back to back ranks on the list over at picturelist dot com. You would argue that JAREDI cough has more upside overall moving forward. I would say his strike at rate is more. Yeah, I would say has a higher ceiling with strikeouts, just because the kurpo is so good. Uh, And that's why he's slightly above Efflyn at the moment. There you go, Greggy,

I heard I cough over Efflyn. That helps you know. Efflyn's had great control the stars walks for nine or you know, he's getting he's getting ahead in the coup very early on here in the season, you know, nearly first pitched strike percentage. But I do agree, I just I don't know that he hasn't enough to to get a lot of swings and misses here. That's regarding Zach Eflin. He was pitching well and of course ran into the Miami Marlins, right, which is we say all the time here, Uh,

you know, we're trying to stream against the Marlins. And he goes out and he lets us down. But Nick, thanks you so much for for joining us. We have a few more minutes here. H Is there anything else that that you want to promote that you've got going on? Where can people find all your work, everything that's going on with Pitcherless? Sure there. Well, we didn't get to talk about Trevor Williams, but I should have a piece out today on him, because this is the weirdest thing ever.

I don't know how he's doing kind of buying. I'm kind of buying that it's okay. There, There's like a last piece of research I need to do. I have a theory all of a sudden, I need to double check. This should have been out on Saturday, but I kind of threw everything away and restarted it. Uh So, definitely check that out on rhotographs. But yeah on Twitter at picture list, We're obviously putting on a ton of gifts there. I'm super reachable. But yeah, follow us on Patreon, Patreon,

dot com, slash picture. Let's join our massive Discord community where I am twenty seven of us of the staff. Come join us. We talk fantasy baseball all day. It's the best community on the internet. So we didn't get to Williams, but it's you know, we've got an article coming out from over at Rhotographs which I will definitely be checking out because he's just a really interesting starting picture.

I mean, this is a guy who has outperformed his peripherals for you know, now almost two straight, you know, from from last year to this year. He's only got twenty four any of this season, but he's got an uptick and swinging strikes. So a really interesting picture. They're regarding Trevor Williams. Any last words for Nick? Nick, has been a pleasure to talk to you, buddy. Yeah, I just feel like I feel like I want more of Nick Pollock to be honest with this, So we're gonna

make that happen. That would be We've got to do this. We'll set it up where, you know, every couple of weeks or at least want a mom something like that, as long as you're down. Assuming. Yeah, we've had a really good feedback from people who listen and watch. Um, obviously they love your work as as do we. Well, thank you, guys. It's really been and I are to be here absolutely. There you go, Nick, Nick time We'll make you dance again. From hit your list. When do

we return? Will be joined by The Closer. Chris Ventcher missed yesterday, but it's back today. I will go over a bunch of stuff that is not really its pictures, but stuff from last night hitter wise and bitual wise. I guess a whole lot of stuff fantasy wise. And we want to get Nancy. Nick Pollock, do you appreciate the time we're back? The fantasy BFFs right after us