March 5th, Hour 1: Breakout and Deep Sleeper starting pitchers...

You're listening to the Fantasy Sports Radio Network. Fantasy Best Friends Forever. M Do Do Do Do? Do? Do Do too? Yeah? Is yes, the Fantasy Fast Friends Forever. Here are the Fantasy Sports Radio Network alongside Freggie staff Well, I am Gregg Gregg. A happy Tuesday. I got a little Game of Thrones trail out there, so that was a nice little, uh, nice little morning today. Happy about that. You know where we're at in the in the time of year. This is every year we hit this point, Greg, where it's

spring training is going on. You're watching some of these games and you see the sun beating down the weather looks great. Like we're at that time right now where although it's only March, and like we're basically in the middle of winter. It feels like windows should be over at least, That's how I feel. So I'm getting out of like bed today, and you know, come outside degree point. This is the time where you know, things gotta start

to rush a little bit right about now. So and then we always get like one more snowstorm, we do. You're absolutely right. And I will say this because I've I look in the city for for a little while now, and like I remember being like absolutely frozen walking to work. I can't feel your face, can't feel your ears, can't feel her anything. And I've only felt like that this

year once or twice. Like it hasn't been a brutally bad winter of act insanely insanely cold temperature, but it just feels it's gone for a while, like did You're right about that. You're right about that. It hasn't been a brutal winter, Like we have some snow on the ground right now, but we haven't been like blasted. That's why I like everything evens out right Murphy's law, like we're gonna get blasted again before like March is over at least, I feel like that isn't that Newton's law

You're trying to think Newton's law, what's Murphy's law? And looking up, I'm not sure like you're talking about like I think you're talking about Newton's law. That's what you're referring to. Right, anything that can go wrong, we'll go wrong with Murphy's law. Which law. That's how you're trying, that's how you're first everything every action will have an equal opposite reaction. I thought everything evens out right. Yeah, that's that's new. There's too many laws, all right, we

just laid that on the table right now. Too many laws. Murphy's law is still kind of applicable to me. Is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as anything that can go wrong will go wrong. So there you go. That's not like we're talking No, it's exactly what I meant. You know, we're talking about there's no snow on the ground that it hasn't been a bad winter through, which means everything is about to go wrong. Greg, we hope

we're not on the fantasy baseball drafts. By the way, two weeks from tonight is our GST draft, which will only be part of if you pay Adams, Yes, anybody, I mean, why don't I don't. I don't used to. I don't know. I said, you're like the highest ranking official like myself, Michael Florio. What's the difference. We're all pay equally. I know, but so it's different. You're responsible like I don't. I really don't. If I can you Kin, just Ben move you the money and you can PayPal.

I I did that last year. What's the difference, Well, I didn't. I told you my duty. I told you I paid. Are you pay both? Wow? What can't Florida do it? Great question? Get him on the line, Floria, if you're listening. Is it gonna be from a urinal again? I don't need you. I don't need to get the bathroom. Hey, I like Kyle Andricks more than cold hamals. I don't need like I don't need. I'm just like the PayPal. I don't money in the account. I don't want to

think about it. That's all it is. It's just it's easier. There's like too many money apps now cash kind I don't get I get caught up too much constantly, like moving money around in and out of bank accounts. It's annoying, thistles money, having a cold hard cash. Everyone's rid of it. Man like stadiums game. He's cash stadiums anymore. It's crazy. Speaking of stadiums, I was at the NET game last night. You see some Dirk You not how to? I mean I didn't even know if she was there. How how

was I supposed to know? Greg? Where is big time? She's too big? So yeah, I didn't know she was there. I ended up on the nets broadcast, had no idea between and they just saw you on TV. It's pretty cool. They were probably doing that thing where they show everyone who's like paying respect to dirt because everyone, like everyone was standing up with their phones out, Like I thought, there's a forty point game, and and cried the entire crowd is changing like m v P for Dirk whenever

he touches the ball. I thought more broken was died. I thought they were showing. They were just showing the celebrities are at the game, which why they showed you. Oh yeah that's too Yeah they showed it. They showed a Rod on the big screen. He was there at the game. He was front row. I mean they showed me, how are your seats nomen awesome? And I was like ten rows behind, Like that's awesome. Sick was right in the middle of the court too. And how about this

gig unlimited food, unlimited food. I didn't take enough advantage of it. I mean I did. I had bonless Buffalo wings, Nathan's fries, very good, unlimited, not unlimited booze. She made sure that she stressed that. She's like, we can't give

you unlimited drinks, so yes, and not alcoholic beverage. That's great, we need to We probably do that again before the end of the season, but like I should go this time in what there was excuse brother, um, all right, I love that about the nets and the Mavericks and whatnot. Let's let's do what people are here for, which is some of these late rast staring pictures. So, as promised,

Florio sent me his point in league rankings. I'm giving him full credit for this, but I have then taken his rankings and separated it into my own rankings, moving people up and down, color coding it as I do. And as I turned my computer around Greg Selsman's rankings boom available on Venmo absolutely for a small fee that will be about one cent less than Chris Venter's charging. Whatever that is to be perfectly, honest, I'm not ready.

I don't know later it was great. So anyway, Yeah, so we have talked a lot about rankings, and I've tried to use that to move guys up and down to my board based on like guys I like. Obviously Floria has his own ranks and franks his own rankings, but I wanted to be prepared. I wanted to um, I have my own rankings for own reasons. So here they are, once again polar coded, as I do all rankings. It's pretty cool, right, we're doing a great job, gregs funny.

Can we dive into second rankings? Let's do it right now, let's get right in the story pictures, shall I? We shall? All right? So we we've hit problems. I don't Actually, here's the one problem with my rankings. I don't have like numbers next to them, like who the first, second, and third, Like, I don't have any of those. It's just an order of the guys that I like it. So we got through what thirty forty story pictures already something like that? Yeah, I think we ended around like

Robbie Ray David Price is yesterday, which is right around me. Okay, so this whole tier. I feel like we we kind of hit um, it's here right after it's here. Five. Haven't really talked about the guy who uh ed Wara, Rodriguez, Valdi, like we brought their names up, Nick Pavetta, Joe must Grove, Andrew Heeney. That's really like, those are the hype guys this year? Yeah, so I have those guys all kind of similar. Um, some of her in my tier five, some of her in my Tier six. Just how I'm

broken it up. Um, But if you want to start with Rodriguez and Bieber and Pavetta, we could go into that if that's cool. Alright, So I have Beeber higher as well. But going into draft season, when I asked Frank a, right, who the hype guys this year? Let's really have one of the first conversations I asked before I looked at the ranking, before I studied anything, who were this year's hype guys? And the two answers he

gave me were Shane Bieber and Nick Pavetta. We've talked a lot about Shane Bieber and what's good with him, and you look at every advanced metrick. He doesn't walk. Anybody strikes a ton of guys out. He's gonna be awesome. Like I love Shane Beeber. This year, Um, everything in the minors has been consistent. We give you the Dians pedigree. We's talk a lot about Shane Baber. I don't I don't think we need to go with Beaver. But the other guy we talked that he gave to me besides

Shane Beaver Biever was Nick Pavetta. And this one was kind of a prize to me, just on the surface, like Pavetta, like I've heard his name banded about for a while. You look at Philly, it's not a great ballpark. Obviously you have Arietta there, you have arian Nola there. Of course, um you have my man. Did Evelasquez there my man? And it's like, okay, I like LASKI. I always leave Nivelaska working with a mental health coach in the off season. I got. I moved them up, and

I don't think to move him up high enough. To be honest with you, I love Evelaska and move to another tier. This is this is the best part of having rankings. I can move backs up and down. I will agree with what Modica said, is drafting right now you know, if you do some Best Ball drafts or even mock drafts, that's how you figure out how to rank players, Because when you're actually on the spot and you have to decide, oh, do I want you know Nick Pavetto, or do I wanted Wardon Rodriguez? Do I

want Nick Pavetta, or do I want Shane Bieber. When you're actually in that position where you have to make that decision yourself and and do the research, that's when you kind of figure out, like where these guys should be ranked. So definitely true. So with that being said, as I mentioned on the surface, I didn't get the Nick Pavetta love. Are you in on Nick Pavetta? You love? And like everybody else does I? I like Nick Pavetta. Um, I have him. I am thirty four, that's starting pictures.

So I have Shane Bieber twenty five. I have Pavetta thirty, so pretty significantly farther. Okay, so I'm moving back to where I had him that Okay, there's a lot to like here. Look the case for nine last year for Nick Pavetta ten point three, the wolfsper nine were under three solid groundball right nearly forty seven percent. What you're looking at here is that the EARRA indicators were much better than the four point seven seven ear A, So

don't let that scare you off too much. The x fit was three point four to and the Sierra the extro was three point five one. So there's like, by all indications, his stuff played up to a you know, sub three six e r A. He's gonna definitely have run support with the Phillies lineup this year. Uh, he didn't allow that much hard contact. He was right around thirty two percent, which was better than league average twelve percent swinging strike rad I mean, that was good enough

for top twenty among starting pitchers last year. Over sixty percent first pitch strike sixty three percent. I mean, these are all marks that he's hitting right, Like if you have the if you're over eleven swing crade, if you're over sixty pst pitch strike, that means you know, three out of five batters that you're facing, you're getting ahead

in the count. I mean, typically that's what you want. Uh. And then he's getting people to chase pitches over thirty percent of the time, which is better than league average as well. He's got a mid nineties fastball, which definitely needs some work. I mean it's it's fast, but it's like Louise Casile, like people bomb the fastball. But he has two legits. I canary pitches with the curveball and the slider to swing and miss pitches. So I understand

why people like Nick Pavetta. Last year, I got a little bit of a John Gray vibe from him, And I know he doesn't pitch in corps Field, but it was like every like all year long, people were freaking out about Pavetta, like how good he should be, But it never really came to fruition. He's still young enough where like it could happen, like he could easily break out this Year's only twenty six years old, so he could take that next step where it actually comes to fruition.

But last year, you remember this Greig, A lot of people were just talking about him all year long, like how good he should be, like all the underlying numbers. He gave me a little bit of a John Gray Field. Wasn't pitch in a good hitter's ballpark in the uh in Citizens Bank Park with the Phillies. Pretty tough division now to like outside of the Marlins he's gonna face the Nationals lineup, he's gonna face the Mets lineup, he's gonna face the Brains lineup. Pretty tough lineups there too.

So I like Pavetta. I could see why you know he's a breakout candidate. Definitely. I think I've tempered expectations a little bit more than other people, though. Yeah, I think there's gonna be people that are higher than me than Nick pavetda, Like in the leagues that we're doing the g S T A D nine days away now, Um, people are just gonna be higher on this guy than we are. Like, I know, people in an auction, they're

gonna bid more than we care for. Like I like Nick Pavetta, Like I could see why there's a chance that he breaks out, Like you also see why he may not. Like the good news is there's a good chance he could pitch around a hundred and eight hundred nine innings like that. That's awesome. Um, how do you think how do you think Nick Pavetta goes for in an auction? Fifteen teams? I have no I have no

concept of this at this moment. I'm just I'm thinking of, like how much we paid for like last year, for example, we got alex Would for like seven eight bucks, so I feel like Povetto would this year. It's kind of like in the range where alex Wood was last My first instinct was like nine, Yeah, that was my first ten bucks something like that, which you probably want them as like your SP four four yea spen ten dollars

on them in a fifte team. You know what's really interesting because we will said four pretty immediately there, Nick Pavetta, right right, yes, before yea, what have I said? And I've seen a lot of drafts where Moredcae has done he gets paved, he gets him as is four. But the funny thing about this, and what's kind of almost confirming my beliefs if I would have said, okay, the two hype guys, Nick Pavetta, we both said five s befour, I'm I give you Shane Bieber to me SP three.

I'm okay with that. It's true. Yeah, I just kind of I think there's a little bit more trust in Bieber for me. I don't know, but I have it. But I have it also, and I'm like, I'm okay with Shane Bieber is organizational organizational philosophy, right, maybe, but the other you've done such a good job. The Cleveland Indians know we've vision a pitchin too. We've hardly on this all three days this week, to be fair, or

two days this weeks only Tuesday. Jesus um. But I look at I look at Shane Bieber, and maybe it's because I looked at him more closely than I did Nick Pavett last year. Maybe it's because he had a better year than Nick Pavetta did last year, and there is more trust there, and I think it's warranted. Reminder, same people had a four point five five year last year.

These guys are pretty similar, Like spot on, it felt like we're drafting Bieber because his underlying numbers were way better, awesome, like his ear, like his exfit was three point three. Another guy was better than another guy that you keep giving out in this range is EDWARDA. Rodriguez, who people have loved for a while now, and I've taken shots

at WARDA. Rodriguez multiple times in the past. Gloria will never let you live down that last year at GST, when he wanted to draft him, you scoffed at it. How did you scoffed at Edward because I'm not let you live that down. The problem at Wardo Rodriguez is I felt, I just feel like he's never healthy. I feel like he's always one bad turn away from reinjuring that knee. I don't feel safe at all. Um that Reguez and again in a Rodo league it made more sense.

And I screwed that up in gd D. There's no doubt about it. But I scoffed. But I scoffed. I mean I wasn't. Really I'm not gonna let you sit here and take all in the head. That's fine, but I'll take that blame because I know I did it

in the head to head format. It's like, I don know what these numbers safe for Last year they were awesome, But don't you feel like he's still kind of has to break out and there's some trepidation that he won't like and whatever is in this mixed with Beaver, in this mixed with Proveta, you're higher on him than than I am traditionally. Um, what do you think about him this year? Yeah? I mean this was another picture from last year that made a conscious change. I mean, he

added a pitch he added a cutter. Last year, he threw it nineteen percent at a time, So just just to put this in perspective, he threw a four seam fastball twenty fifteen between fifty seven and sixty six percent of the time. Last year he cut that four seam usage down from sixty one percent with the fourth seamer, lowered that down to forty two percent. So lowered it by nineteen percent, basically took that nineteen percent and added a new pitch, a cutter, which was lights out right.

And I mean, there's a lot to like with him again, but he's hitting the benchmarks that we want. Over eleven strike it last year, over first pitch strike per today, over oh swing and people to chase pitches. There's a lot to like. If he stays healthy. You legitimately has you know, top thirty, top twenty five starting pitcher up. Well here more about I want to run you gains other guys in this area. When we come back daily roado dot com learn from the game's best DFS players.

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two straight years of eight. The RBI is on the batting averages taken hit over the last couple of years, so you were expecting pretty good numbers from him, especially with a lot of the speedsters in front of him, King Kansas Cy. They were gonna be aggressive on the big Beast Pas President. I've had a lot of rb I opportunities, so one of the more safer catchers, and now he is off the board. Definitely a big hit.

And for those that already drafted, that's just her week days to the four pm Eastern on the Fantasy Sports Network and on your popular podcast providers. We're back here on the Fantasy Best Friends Forever Fantasy Sports Radio Network. Frank Stample, Greg Susman hanging out with you. Done. The richest owner in fessial sports is right. Richest owner, Ah, I'll tell you. Number two is Dietrich match it's the Reds Bulls owner eighteen point nine billion. The how about

the Jaguars guy shot Con Now? Is he up there? He's not. The I only have the top five and in front of its top five, so three or two of were soccer. That's the second and fifth is should I be able to do? I know this person and he's very hard with you. You know, I don't really know anyone. What if said someone that kind of has like a background, like I know he passed away, but like Paul Allen like, so that's the absolute right mindset. You're right there, the one who has like that background.

You are right there. You could not be any closer. Oh, Bomber number one there, it is excellent job, Steve Bomber, number one. He's worth forty one billion dollars. That's a little bit more than us Panthers new owner worth. How much? Um, David Tempers number four on this list? Who's that the

new Panthers owner, Carolina Panthers? Um? Yeah, I thought I thought Bomber was gettable for you, and he was all right you were before you at the break you were talking about Eduardo Rodriguez and what makes him been triguing this year? Look, he just he checks a lot of the boxes, right, I mean the k per nine over ten. The walks have always been an issue. But if he continues to up that first pitch strike percentage and get ahead of counts, I could see the walks coming back

a little bit. That's really that's the next step for him, right, And it's not outrageous to expect someone to take that step. Zach Wheeler did it last year. I mean Zach Wheeler was always a guy that was over three walks per nine.

He goes to two point seven walks per nine last year. Now, if Edward Rodriguez can get it down to that level and you know, just have that many less people on base via the walk and he's still getting as many strikes as he is, I think he could be a sub you know, three seven, sub three six e R eight kind of guy, and you know he's gonna get run support. Pitching with the Red Sox. He hasn't been able to stay healthy. I mean that's been a huge issue for ed Ward Rodriguez. He's had the knee issues

that that Greg reference. He hasn't gotten more than a hundred and thirty seven and a third endings pitch in any season yet at the major league level. But you're just you're not healthy until you're healthy, right, like the one year that you're healthy. If he goes on a hundred fifty sixty getting pitch Greg and he you know, does similar to what he did last year, lowers that e R a a little bit. He's easily a top thirty starting pitcher and he has the upside to be

even better, you could be a top twenty guy. Yeah, the the upside is absolutely there. You get to the advantatistics there, the underlying the numbers and much with Paveta and Biver like it's here now, he walks more. To be fair, the fan graphs projections have him between a hundred and thirty six and a hundred fifty one innings, so not great, no, but the one that might be realistic, like one forty maybe maximum fifty is probably a realistic projection.

D Ward Rodriguez, he shows us otherwise he walks more, a lot more than the other guys, right, definitely more than Pavetta, definitely more than Beaver. I mean, you know, Bieber is a control artist, so that's kind of an issue, right, rod Rodriguez with the control he also strikes out more, not more than, not more than, but Bieber was he's below ten case he is, right, So he's think Patta is like around this range. Yeah, I just looked at it's an exact thing. Um, so I think that's why.

So I think that's why it's close. Like I think that's why they're in the area together around Pitcher thirty Giver kikes to with the with the influx of this cutter that he introduced last year, he limited hard contact seven excellent, especially pitching in the A at least that's what you want. That's excellent. How does Edward with a Rodriguez compare to two of his teammates, Nate Evaldi and Rick Porcella. I have Porcello a little bit lower. He's a guy that wins a lot of games because he

goes deep into games and obviously gets to run skill. Yeah, and he's a good whip pitcher. Two because he's controlling. He doesn't he doesn't walk a lot of guys, and he's gonna go deep into games. So you know, Porcello was a good guy. I'm gonna mention to to pair with some of the type of guy. Yeah, yeah, that's gonna like help out your whip. He's gonna help get you wins, and he's gonna give you two any pitch and just based on that volume, he's gonna give you

a hundred and seventy strikeouts ish. So he's a good guy to pair with some of these starry pitchers who are only you know, you're only expecting a hundred sixty innings. You need to get these guys who are gonna give you anys. And I do think that Porcelo has a place in fantasy. He's not really a target of mine until maybe I take a few of these guys and then I realized, all right, I have to get some anys. Now, I think jose Can Tan is kind of in that

mix two. So it's literally was gonna ask you who like Josecan Tan because I'm really buying into that, that that change that he made over his final twelve starts where his e r A was three point six and the strikeout rate was around I'm buying into that change from jose Katana for the Red Sox, you brought up Porcello and who was the other one? I like a Valdi a lot as well. I will say this just raw stuff. I think Edwardo Rodriguez is much better than Valdi.

Uh And I have Edward Rovadrigez one spot higher than Valdi. I have Eduardo at thirty five. I have Nathan Valdi at thirty six. But I like Valdi as well, because you want to talk about someone who made a change. Look, for a long time, we've been beating the drum for Nathan Valdi, We've wanted this to happen. He's always been a thrower. He needed to learn how to pitch. The Red Sox kind of got that out of him last year. You know, he was the guy who added a new

pitch as well. Right, he starts throwing this cutter. I mean, it seems to be again this is an organizational thing with the Boston Red Sox. You see, you see a guy like EDWARDO Rodriguez at the cutter. Nathan Valdi did the same thing. I mean he started throwing a cutter thirty two percent of the time last year. The last time we saw him pitch before this was seen where he started to work this in a little bit. Seven percent of the time he threw a cutter back in

before that he never used it. Last year thirty two percent cutter. And it's a really good cutter. Greg, it's a cutter. So you're giving me a guy who throws with his four team fastball, which was always really straight, but now he throws so hard that when he throws the cutter, hitters don't have enough time to decide whether or not it's a four team or a cutter. And then you get that little late action that's throwing people off. So he made a conscious change. He added a pitch

and he pitched much better. We all saw what he did in the postseason, especially against the Yankees and down the stretch against teams in the Al East. He was a good picture. He was a really good picture. We've been we've been trying to get this out of Valdi for a while now. He needed to learn how to pitch. He pitched to a three point eight one ear a

last year and a hundred and eleven innings. So again another guy would I don't know what the ennis are gonna look like this here we get a hundred and fifty. I think that's a safe projection for a Valdi. But his ex fit was three point six seven last year. Again, Greg, this is another guy like I don't think he has the strikeout upside. He was right around eight case per nine. I think he could push nine case per nine this year, but the walks were under two walks per nine one point.

He made huge, huge strides last year. I know a lot of people are just gonna see of all these names, they're gonna think well of Aldi. We've always been sold on a Valdi and we're tired of it. We're not buying in. It's time to buy in on a Valdi.

And I've been drafting him everywhere to this point and getting him as like my SP four, sometimes my SP five, because I am buying in on this hut cutter that he's added, and the fact that he has improved his command and that the underlying numbers mean even the real numbers weren't bad. Last year three point eight one e r A with a one point one three with in

a hundred and eleven innings very good. Valdi was great last year, And a lot of what we heard ultimately actually was about that cutter that you just spoke so highly of. It was the fact that heat for years, as Frank mentioned, perfectly, just throw the ball too straight, like you could throw a hundred miles hour. We saw it here in New York. It was just right down the middle. And hitters who are professionals catch up to it that you can throw a hundred miles power, but

if it's not moving anything. With Luis Caste, if you don't develop that third pitch, and you know it's like, hey, it's either slider or fastball, and you guess right, on the fastball. It doesn't matter how fast it is. These are major league professional hitters. So and I'm looking at the arsenal here for Valdi, of the time he throws a four seam or that's ninety seven miles power. He also has a slider he throws twelve percent of the

time eighty seven miles power. He has a thirty two percent of the time he's using a cutter which is ninety three miles power. And he has a split finger which he threw u thirteen percent of the time at eighty eight miles prowder. He has a legitimate four pitch arsenal of pitches that he throws at least twelve percent of the time, four different pitches. Of all the is learning how to pitch, which is what we've been better

lay than ever for a long long time. I know it pains me to say, it's basically like the Red Sox edition of the show. They have a lot of interesting starting pitches starting pitchers right now. So at where Rodriguez fell into this hype guy category of Nimick Pavetta and Shane Beaver, there was another one that was brought up the first show we or Frankston. I was on vacation. The first show that Frankie did with Matt Modica, he talks about a hype guy, and as a couple of

years late, that was Joe Musgrove and Joe Musgrove. Here that Joe Musgrove of now the Pittsburgh Pirates is a hype guy this year, where do you have Joe Musgrove compared to some of the names that we're talking about, and what do you think about him? Yeah, he's right in this range. Right, So I have a foursome here of Eduardo Rodriguez, Nathan of Aaldi, Nick Pavetta, and Joe muscro from thirty four to thirty seven, and I just want to try and grab as many of these guys.

Remember last year, Greg, something that I've been talking to you about I think off there. I don't know if we've done it much on the air yet, was last year we said outside the top thirty starting pitchers, you really just want to load up on as many of these arms as you could possibly get because they have a ton of upside. And the names that we were

referencing this time last year were Blake Snell. That was mostly Michael Florio I was talking a lot, and we've mentioned this, Patrick Corbin a lot this time last year, Jamison Tyne a lot this time last year. Jack Flaherty came on late during the spring. I think Clevinger was even a guy that we were talking about a little bit outside the top forty. Those are like really the five guys that we were talking about a lot, and

they made that inside the top twenty. So again like these are the skills that we're looking at from these starting pitchers are all legitimate. It's just can they give you endings this year? Can they take that next step? And that's kind of what we're hoping for, and that's why you try and grab as many of them as you possibly can. You know, I've mentioned the arsenal with Nathan Valdi where he can throw four different pitches. That's

exactly what I'm looking at here. With Joe Musgrove, greg I mean, his first year with the Pittsburgh Pirates getting to work with race series, we've seen stride from him. Last year. Um he threw five different pitches at least fourteen percent at the time. He had a four steamer thirty three percent of the time, a cutter fifteen percent, of the time, a sinker seventeen percent, change up fourteen percent at the time, and a slider, yes, three different

iterations of a fastball. He had a swinging strike rate over eleven percent. That's what we've been talking about with a lot of these guys, Right and so Edwardo Rodriguez has a swinging strike rate of eleven percent and he has a k per nine over ten Right, Greg, Last year Joe Musgrove had a swinging strike rate over eleven percent and a first pitched strike percentage six percent, So he's getting ahead of the count. We know Joe musgrob has good control. He's always had great control. He has

a chase rate of around thirty six percent. These numbers are better than some of the guys that we've talked about to this point. Greg, Yet his caper nine was only seven point eight. So that's how to me, he's got to learn how to finish off batters. I think that's like a big thing for him. It's not these things aren't always just black and white. It's like, oh, you you have a high screening strike rate, so your kper nine should be better. Because there's a maturation process

for starting pitchers. They need to learn how to finish batters off at the major league level, So it's not necessarily just black and white like, oh, you have a high screening strike rate, the strikeouts are gonna come. But technically, if you learn how to pitch at the major league level and sequence your pitches correctly, if you're getting the

swinging strikes, the strikeouts are going to come. So I see this, you know, eleven point four swing strike rate for Joe Musgrove, and I'm thinking this caper nine is closer to nine this year. And he always has great control, and he pitches in a pretty good ballpark in Pittsburgh, tough division. He's gonna have to face some tough lineup for sure. The winds might be hard to come by in Pittsburgh. But you at one point one whip last year.

If he gives you a hundred and fifty endings of a you know, his his ffit was three point five nine, his exit was three point nine. If he gives you a three point eight zero e r A with nearly nine case per nine, a hundred and fifty innings pitched with a one point to zero whip, he's a top thirty starting pitcher. Pitches. I think my guests for a lot of these guys, I think Pttic could go more because he threw more innings than a lot of these

guys last year. I think Provettic could be like one eighty. And that's where a lot of people like him. I think Ford, Water, Rodriguez, Valdi and must grow. Specifically, if you could get a hundred and fifty out of them, maybe must grow a hundred sixty. I think you feel really good about that. And he that's a fair projection, man, But you don't look at the fan grass projections. I have him between very high to make big Joe. He's a big guy. He's there. I think it's more than

than last year. He's never come close to that in his major league He also he also pitched. Let's not forget this hold on great he had seventeen and two thirds and he pitched in the minors last year, so you add that on to his total. He was he was at one two, one thirty two. He can't jump up to one sixty theoretically, sure, he was at one thirty two last year. I think that's I mean, it's fair jump up to one sixty. And what are these guys right just because I have them ranked as top

thirty five starting pitchers, that's not where they're going. I like these guys, and you don't have to draft him like right around where some of these others. But you don't have to draft him around where David Price is going. Everyone else is gonna jump on David Price. That's fine. You let those people jump on David Price. You get. You get your two starting pitchers inside your you know your top fifteen ranks starting pitchers, however you have it ranked.

Did you grab another like a Chris Archer, you get your top thirty guy. That's what I've been doing. Either Archer to knock a lot of times against my third starting pitcher, and then just grab as many of these guys as you possibly can. It's exactly what we said last year and worked out. I think it's gonna work out again. Grab Valdi, Edward Rodriguez, Pavetta, Shane Bieber, Luis Castillo, Joe. Must grove as many of those guys as you possibly can.

And then when you take two or three of those guys and you gotta round it out, you need some endings. And that's where we work. Back in, you work back in Rick Porcello, you work back in Jose Cantana because you needs some endings pitched. My Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational starting pitchers, I have Walker Bueller, and I have James Paxson. I have two of my top fifteen starting pitchers, and then I have Chris Archer as my three. I got

him in a tenth round. I took Valdi as my four, and then, you know, ideally I would have wanted to get more of these hype guys. But I mean, in a draft like this, it's like an experts draft, fifteen teams, all these guys are gunning for the same starting pitchers. I ended up getting as my five, So I would have wanted more than just Valdi, but that's just the way it worked out. And I love my pitching staff. I like it a lot to have those guys. I have Rode don as my six. Do you like do

you like cars redone this year? Think of Redonda's your six. I know it's a little bit later on that's what the guys are talking about, but always I've always been a Rodana. Everyone see the thing that the redone is everyone everyone is ty Man. You know, he was like the first round pig get it. You're tantalized by what he can do. Redone's never been able to stay healthy ever, He's always been so last year was super weird, right because he came back from like the big injury and

the strikeoups just weren't there. But if you look at the sample size everything else he's done in his career, he was around a strike up for any kind of guy. So what do you think, will the real Carlos were on really please stand up? But I don't know, but like last year, like maybe he just doesn't have anymore, right, Maybe he's changed as a picture. Maybe he's changed in order to stay healthy. I kind of give him the benefits extra was over five. Last year. It was bad.

He was bad, There's no doubt about it. I'm taking everything that he did before and kind of hoping that he builds off and gets back to that. That's what I'm hoping for. Maybe it's not fair for me to do I'm kind of throwing out last year because he came back from the injury. Maybe he was still kind of like pitching through some stuff. But we've seen the

talent before with Rodan specifically, it's sixteen right over. A strikeout for any got the walks down to below three walks per nine the xpit at three point eight nine. I think we could get there with him, man, Like if we get a sub four ear eight of Carl Shordon and a strikeout for any like, that's where the upside lies. Like, I don't think he's ever gonna be a great whip picture because he walks a lot of guys. Look,

last year he was bad. I can't really defend last year, Like the swinging strikes were down, it wasn't any people to chase as much. Last year was bad with Carl Shordon. I think he came back from the injury maybe a little bit too soon, maybe he was pitching through some stuff. But what I saw the three years before that with him, with the prospect pedigree that he has, I'm trusting that a little bit more than what I saw last year. Okay, I I don't want to. I don't want to. I'm

always done bait. Not that he costs hell No, he doesn't. And you know, I don't even have him ranks anywhere close to this right, Like, we're gonna talk about a whole group of guys that you could get at the end of your draft that you should load up onto. And he's in that range for me like I have Carl Sordan, it's my seventy ninths are gonna just for likes. I mean, there's a few guys going in this range that I do want to be like. Alaska is in another one in the same range that he has walk issues.

He also gets a ton of strike when you come back. We hit all the red sox. Let's tell the angels, Tyler's guys and yourheny they're going around here. What a striking thing. We'll tell you next. The Fantasy Sports Network is hitting you from all angles with the best fantasy sports and betting analysis. You can catch the latest programming on so many platforms. There's no way you'll miss out on any of the award winning programming we pump out

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Me personally, I keep my game face on me all the time, especially coming out with the bucker, leaving the range or even leaving the poors. What's your story? Go to game face grooming dot com from all your athletic facial wipes and body cleansing needs, brains make it rain. I think we take the Steph Curries of the world way too much. For granted, we focus so much on the train wrecks in the sports world. We forget step

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Parity boy dand song that Greg knows. Oh babe, I love that. We just have like songs and everybody in the world hates except for us. He who's that girl? I mean, I can leave Greg. I can just you just do karaoke karaoke tuesdays with Greg. Susan, that's not fun for any about it, all right, I said, going to the break some feedback in the chat, no singing, Susman, I get a lot. I've noticed. Have you seen that as well, yes, I have for about two years now.

Swing for the fences this daily Fantasy Baseball season with Daily Rodo dot Com. You're playing MLBDFS on DraftKings or Fandel Daily Rhodo will hope you hit your first home run. As the twenty nine MLB Daily Rodo Premium packages now live a lot of alerts and weather updates. They gotta be covered Fantasy projections, yep. Covered a lot of optimizers to compete with the pros. Oh yeah, you're covered there too.

Save temper cent on winning MLB DFS advice with earlier and specially using the promo code f n t s Y. That's MLB Daily Rhodo Premium package a Daily Rotor dot Com. Use the promo code fn t s why and get your temper cent off. Really bird, just count to day. It's Daily road Or dot Com. The promo code is n t s Y. All right, Frankie, Right? Can I sit out the first hour of the first segment of our two No? All right, I really want to watch Archer pa. I have to get some updates somewhere to

watch spring training Chris Archer. I have a lot of Chris Archer shares and why you're asking to sit out your own radio show, your own podcast, your own video program. One segment you could sing for a whole segment if you want to sit out for the first hour here, not the first hour, the first segment. I'm going to ask to sit out a segment, not two weeks. Is it okay? Where March Madness is gonna be on? I'm

gonna be focused. Well, you can just watch it on your computer and just throw a bunch of stuff my way, oh to me like you're gonna do with Chris Archer, and about twenty minutes from now, maybe right see how much attention I'll be paying? I will, I got you or don't. I'm not worried. I believe me. I'm not worried. I don't know if Ventre's coming up. He's got like a throat thing going all right, getting blasted by snowstorms like twenty five degrees outside. I walked into and like, Chris,

how you feeling? He kind of just like stared at me and like that he can't talk, So how's he gonna do? Radio? You know? Radio? That's fine? Um, we never red SOX already we have some requests and rightfully so talking about the Angels. Someone funny the chat, didn't I know. On the homepage of MLB dot com, there's a video of the d back singing baby Shark. So I gotta watch this. Open the TABN watch it later. Potentially I will Tyler scags Andrew Heiny, you and you out.

How do you rank them? So I have Andrew Heeney. I like Andrew Heeney, but he's dealing with something. He's dealing He's dealing with something, you know, for dropping everyone else down the draft board because because they're dealing with spring training injuries, it would be pretty hypocritical to not do the same with Andrew Heeny. So you do with an elbow. It's not just something, it's an elbow, so it's pretty legit. If he were healthy, I think he would be quite firmly right in the mix with all

these other guys. I had to drop him down a little bit. I have him down at SP forty, so he's like three four spots behind these guys. But um, I still do like Andrewhiny. Like a lot of the names that we've mentioned today, he's had a hard time staying healthy. Last year he did he was healthy for ad and eighty innings pitch, you know, a strikeout per Enning kept the walks down. Um, he had a four point one five ear A, but his X fit was three point six eight, So he was much better than

actually what he showed at one zero whip. I mean he was. He was fine. Like I remember, right owned Andrewhini. I picked him up in a lot of lease. I was drafting him with like a few of my last round picks last year around this time, uh mere twelve percent swinging strike er at sixty five first pitched strikes, so getting ahead of the counts, getting people to chase thirty three percent of the time. I mean, there's really

not a lot not to like about Andrewhini. You know, I like him, But you gotta monitor him now through the spring and see what's going on with the with this elbow injury. He's gonna he's throwing a bullpen session today apparently we'll see how he comes comes out of that. But yeah, I think he has upsides similar to a lot of the names here in this tier. But health. I mean, at least these other guys that we're talking about,

at least they're healthy right now. Andrewhini is not, so I think you gotta bump them down the board a little bit because of that. I didn't. I think that's reasonable, And I think the same people said for a Tyler's guys, who also has battle a lot of talent. Again, if you look at the age rotation, it's just a lot of guys that have talent. They just loader up on a bunch of pictures who have talent and maybe like their bounceback candidates, like they have bags, they have Heeny,

they have Trevor K. Hill, they have Matt Harvey. The Dark Night for Florio is excited about that out there on the West Coast. But you know, they just have a bunch of these guys who you don't know how many anis are gonna go, but when they do pitch, they should be pretty good. And again the same thing

with Tyler Scaggs. I believe there was one game where he really got blown up where I think he gave up, like here we go against the Tampa Bay Race, he gave up ten earned runs and against Oakland seven earned runs. They were back to back starts where he just got absolutely destroyed, absolutely shelled. Towards the end of the season, I think he came back from injury, like prematurely or

something like that. Up until that point, he hadn't allowed He had only allowed over three runs two times all season up until January, so he was performing quite well. You know what I'm gonna do this, Greig, I'll do his game log through January. I'll tell you what his ear a was, what his ear because he finished with the four point zero two ear a, but he just

got absolutely destroyed on two of his starts. Right so through its first nineteen starts last year, this is Tyler Skaggs two point six to e r A three point four seven x five. So that's probably closer to what you should expect. But at seven sent groundball rate nine point four case per nine when the two point five walks per nine. That was through July twenty last year. And I think he got hurt and he came back

in August and he got bombed. He got bombed. To put it honestly, in two starts back to back where you give up ten and runs and seven and runs. Up until that point, he was great Tyler Skaggs. It's never been a question about the talent. The talent is there, it's how how healthy, can he stay. He's just another one of these guys. But I am a little bit lower in my rankings because I mean he's like some of these other pictures at least like we've seen at

least like go the endings before t there's Skags. I mean, he's never he's like the talent is there. So you just read some of the the game logs by a month and whatnot, he said, hed have Skaggs at Skaggs said he battled an injury, which is why he struggled, and he hit it from everybody and it was a week of weight lifting his first nineteen starts creep before he got hurt. Supposedly, Well, look like last year we went a hundred and twenty five innings. That was a

career high. So I mean that's a lot of what we're talking about with the starting pitchers in this range, but I mean for him, it's even like more, it's even more promptent. Five innings pitched and he's pitched like he's only gone over a hundred and he's pitched twice. So he's a little bit lower down my board, but I do think that he has similar skills some of these guys that we're talking about, but even less durability. Do you do you have a rank a blower above Haney?

I have Heeny higher? How much I have heeny at forty eight? Have Skags? I have he at forty Skags forty eight? In this mix is Cole Hamiles between them Cole Hamile's Jay hab Tyler Glass. Now you say Cockuchie rich Hill, and it's like like bum Garner and Faulty what do you do with those guys right now? And then I have Skeags and right behind him John Gray another guy. So we had actually all the same guys in the range. One more name that I have here? Uh as you Darvish as well? I actually have little

High I have thirty third. I'm ahead of all these other guys. Just how come M like we're talking about these guys and the kind of upside that they've had to get to you Darvish's level. We know what you, Darvish is upside can be. I mean, you just don't like you. He's just like a huge mystery. To be honest, I haven't drafted him anywhere. I feel like I'd rather like where is he going? It's like he's going higher than these guys. Actually he's going right around Pavetta. He's

going on Pavette six. Bieber is one Ford two. All right, I mean look like Edward Rodriguez is going a few picks later. Like that's just how I'm looking at it, right, Like why I take the chance on dar Wish when I could get I could get uh EDWARDO. Rodriguez. A few picks later, I get Evolve the A few picks later, I get must Grove way later, like Musgrove's going two oh four. Darvis is going you know, I like, I don't dislike Darvish because we know what he's upside. I

mean he could be eleven gays per nine. Um, if he goes on ch he could be like a three five e r A. Like we know what you Darvis is town is. It's just last year he was dealing with all of these injuries. His first spring training start was I would say a disaster. Um. He had like four walks. He didn't give up a hit, but he like walked in a run. He struggled with command. His second star was much better. It was much better. So I have him a little bit higher than these guys.

But if you just ask me, like value wise, who would rather like I'd rather just wait around or two or three or four when it comes to must grove and takes some of these other pitchres. What about another name that was in there, and I asked you about him yesterday he said he's actually climbing up a drab and that's you see Coucci of the Seattle marineris. And I've said this a lot on this show, and it's that these guys that come over from Japan, it takes the league a while to adjust to what they do.

And traditionally, like the first time that he faces all these exactly the first time around on the league, he will just there's not enough. There's tape obviously from Japan, but like seeing in person is very very different. The scouting is very very different. And I've said it in the past with a guy like Kenta Maeda, and it's

something about Massa Hero Tanaka as well. Both guys were amazing their first seasons and then the league catches up in a way right Like to me, I always want one of these guys because I think there is some mystery crowding them. Now with Kakuchi, the Mariners have already said we're going to be very careful and he's going to get extra days off. We're going to really spread

out his starts. And it's not he's not going to be a guy that they will even come close to giving him two hundred innings, but specifically in a rotal league where theoretically you don't care about that. I think there's a lot to like about Kuchi. Now, he's not you Darbisch master Hero's Knaka where he's coming over and you're thinking, hey, this could be an ace. He's not that at all. He's more like a former mariners Ashi Wakuma in that three four type of starting pitcher range.

But again, he could be a two or three okay, and that's what Hukuma was. Another guy, um Hiroki Kuroda was very successful throughout his major league career. I think Kuchi could be like an Iwakuma, like a Coroda, and I think there's a lot of merit to drafting and where he's going around here. I agree. I don't know if I'm gonna own shares right because he's going right around the range as a lot of these other guys, and I just rather have those guys. If I'm being

on it. Like you know, I'd rather having water Rodriguez and Baldi, and I'd rather have Musgrove even in a vacuum. And he's going, you know, forty picks after Cacucchi right now. So I like Cacuchi. I think, you know, I agree with a lot of what you said, especially if you've seen this guy pitch at all in in spring training. I mean, he made Joey Votto look foolish, which is not something Joey Votto said it. He said he was

throwing stuff. These are seen before. Yeah, and you know, if you if you've seen there's a SloMo video the Seattle Mariners. The least of him this wind up. He hides the ball really well. He also has like a dutter in his delivery, which a lot of these pictures who come up from Japan absolutely and it destrows hitters off right. So I do think that he can, uh, you know, especially early on the season, his first season,

I think you have some legitimate value here. It's just I like these other guys going in his range a little bit more. He doesn't have overpowering stuff. He's like fastball, but it's the deception and the delivery. He has some good breaking stuff as well. Uh. The FanGraph guys have him for close to a strike up or ending, So that's pretty good. That's a pretty high praise. Their mariners have already come out and said, he's not gonna go you know, more than a hundred fifty hundred sixty n pitches.

Yere basically what we're talking about with the rest of these guys too. So I think this is a fair range for him to be in. I just p for some of these other guys that are also going in this range slightly ahead of him, which are the guys that we've talked about. There are a couple of those guys going, and he's available. I think it's a good

fallback option. There's one veteran that you just said that I think it's in this range that we haven't really talked about all the much, and that's Jay Hap of the New York Yankees, who maybe a better major league picture at this point, that a fantasy picture, but he, you know, for the Eanches should get a bunch of wins. Uh. You said half in this range, creets, what more of a solid type of guy? What do you like when

you don't like the Jay hat. Yeah, I think he might fit more of like the Ennings Eater type of uh mold of a starting pitcher for fantasy. And you know, look, it's three of the past four years he's been a hundred and seventy two or more endings pitched. Last year it was very clearly an outlier, right, Like, the strikeouts went up to nine point seven eight strikeouts per nine, whereas in his career he's seven point nine eight. The past couple of years, you know, he's been around seven

round eight. You know, I think if he goes a hundred and seventy hundred seventy five endings, he's gonna come close to giving you a strikeout per ending. Like I think he'll give you like a hundred sixty hundred seventy U endings pitsched. I think, you know, the walks have been solid the past couple of years. He's been, you know, one point one three whip last year one point three one in seventeen, not great, but then one point one

seven in ten. So at this range, it's kind of hard to find guys that are really gonna help you to whip all that much. And if if you get you a sub one point two zero whip. Um. I think you'd be happy with that. I think last year was kind of an outlier season from him, but he's always been good at limiting hard contact. The same was true last year. He was around thirty point nine percent um.

The swinging strike rate was up last year ten point four. UM. I just don't know that I buy into the renaissance all that much. Ah, but he's you know, look, he's been a He's been under a four ear even under a three point six five ear a four years in a row. And that's pitching in the A, at least with Toronto. So he's very familiar with these teams. Is

he undervalued? Did you happ undervalued? He might be. I think this was looking at this now and I'm thinking, you know, a three point six five ear a are better for four years in a row. It's basically one. We want these other guys in this range to right. I understand he's older, and you know people you know one year earlier rather than one year late, but he didn't really show signs of falling off last year. In fact, he got better. I was thirty six years old, the

strikeout got better. I don't know, that he got better. I mean the walk great went down. Um oh, he's not much apparently was the year before. Value He's gonna win a lot of games with the Yankees to seventeen games last year. I think this I'm just looking at like it's not a sexy pick, you know, certainly not man, you know what I think? Actually have ja high. What means where like I'm gonna put him over Cole Hamills

put him over Andrew Heeney, definitely gonna put him. Okay, I'm gonna put over Jose Kansana like you always move over Kazana because in Tanna over the final twelve starts, these numbers that could keep holding on too. He pitched with three for six percent strike out. Like that's what I want Jose Kantana to be for the entire season. Well that's what Jay had was last year. That's what

he is every year. Why don't I just take the guy who has done it four years in a row and is gonna win a ton of games the Yankees. He's pitching a at least, he's very familiar with the division. He's pretty good against the Red Sox too, So like, yeah, you're worry about the Red Sox, but maybe you don't worry about it as much with a guy like Jay Hat. I just talked myself into that, move him up for spots I haven't at thirty eight. Now, okay, you think

about that. Where do you have on the numbers next to it? But like what I mean, like you have them. I had up a lot of these names, so I had him behind all the names that we've talked about, every one of them. You're more inclined to move them up now I am. Now I put him more in the Kyle Hedrids, Madison bum Garner, you Darvish, who's the town out here? And put they're all kind of seems like I'll put them all next to each other. So I like him. We figured these things out on the air.

That's what this sport. There's one more veteran who is right the way below these guys I wanted to bring. I don't think you like him at all. But Jake Arietta. Does he belong in this crew? Interesting? Interesting what we saw of him in spring the other day. Very interesting. Wet'll talk about that, all right, We'll talk about Jake Arietta and we'll go even deeper on the other side, your fantasy best friends forever. Continue for hour too. Coming up next m