Cleaning Up: Closer Chaos Breakdown (Ep. 987) - podcast episode cover

Cleaning Up: Closer Chaos Breakdown (Ep. 987)

Apr 23, 202534 minEp. 987
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Episode description

Join Chris Welsh (@IsItTheWelsh) and Joe Orrico (@JoeOrrico99) as they tackle your questions live on Discord every Wednesday of the season at 2 PM EST at fantasypros.com/chat.

Timestamps: (May be off due to ads)

Intro - 0:00:00

League Wide Closer Chaos - 0:01:34

Trade Tanner Scott or Kyle Finnegan? - 0:12:19

FantasyPros Discord - 0:14:34

Spencer Strider and Cristopher Sanchez - 0:16:02

Luis Robert or Victor Scott II in Dynasty - 0:18:40

Yainer Diaz or Austin Wells? - 0:21:44

Luis Robert or Nick Castellanos? - 0:23:32

Landen Roupp or Jackson Jobe? - 0:24:52

Ben Rice or Marcell Ozuna? - 0:26:41

Cade Smith or Kirby Yates - 0:29:28

Outro - 0:31:15

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Transcript

Speaker 1

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Speaker 2

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Speaker 3

What's Up, Friends, and welcome in too, Fantasy Pros MLB. This is Cleaning Up the Cleaning Up Podcast Joe Rico, Chris Welsh. We are live on the Fantasy Pros Discord, hanging out with the best community in the world. The leading off guys come over there and the Fantasy Pros MLB article.

Speaker 4

People.

Speaker 3

Everybody comes together on the Fantasy Pros Discord can hang out. They've built their own community of people with different rooms and we have got live podcasts.

Speaker 4

That we do.

Speaker 3

It's your opportunity to be a part of it. You can ask your questions. Some people can be on if they raise their hand. We'd love to have you guys, so come on down. You can check us out fantasypros dot com, slash chat to join. We got a premium and I would let everybody know changing some times. I think we're going to be moving to five pm Eastern on Mondays, so put a little marker into that that we're going to be doing that, and I know, I

think it's the schedule for next week. Might have to ask talk to everybody about that for that, but five pm Eastern on Mondays is when we are going to be live on the discord switching up some time. So hopefully you can join us and be a part of the show and talk to the great and powerful Joe Rico somebody.

Speaker 4

I felt more great and powerful when Christopher Sanchez was still at full strength yesterday. But I'm doing well, man. Let's talk through some of this stuff. We can use this as kind of like a therapy session for some of our players today because I like to been a big Justin Martinez guy, and that doesn't look great today either.

Speaker 3

Yeah, we've got a couple of topics we're going to hit just on the here. We want to talk about closers, and we want to talk about injuries, and unfortunately injuries kind of move around to everybody. Let's start with the closer situation, though we'll be waiting see if we get any of our guys. We got a couple questions in the queue. We'll hit a few things, so drop him in for anybody hanging. But closers are getting kind of weird. The very first one, I want to get your take

on this. Joey's backtracking a little bit. Joey piece of Pia, but he was kind of having an implication, the implication of Emmanuel class A and kind of being like, I don't know, and then he backtracks a little bit, except he was doing it because of because of Cad Smith getting back to back staves. But they had said they wanted to give class a couple of days off. There's some like arm fatigue that's going on. Doesn't seem like anything serious, but there's a lot of closer situations that

are kind of fluid right now. So the question to you to start with is is should we be worried at all about class A? There is a shoulder thing that I think is a worry. I don't think kid Smith is a worry or the early results, but the early results maybe being because of the shoulders the problem. So what's your worry level of Emmanuel class.

Speaker 4

Ah, it's kind of high. I mean, even going back to the playoffs last year, he didn't look good. If you look below the surface, there's nothing that's like jumping off the page that you necessarily The strikeout rate being down is the only thing that I can really point to, but like he's still not allowing a ton of hard contact. The walk rate is only five point seven percent. If you look at his sierra it's three seventy three. A lot of the era estimators are pretty good, but the

velocity dip is kind of drastic. Last year he was averaging almost one hundred and ninety nine point eight on his fastball. This year's at ninety eight point two. Everything is kind of down. Every pitch is down at least a tick or so in velocity, and he hasn't been good going back to the playoffs last year. So I am a little bit worried. If you have kid Smith out there on the waiver wire and you're a class A owner. I would be adding him up like asap if you can.

Speaker 3

Okay, that was what I was going to ask, is do you think CAD is like a must in this situation? So, and I think the shoal that's where it's kind of weird here because it's like a what am I doing with class say, like, I'm just not doing anything. Like at the end of the day, I'm not going to panic. I'm not going to freak out. But if you've got the ability, it's probably not the worst thing in the world to go pick up Kid Smith because he is

the replacement if there's something worse with that shoulder. I mean, hell man, like, that's gonna be one of the top closer markets out there, especially if they're going to get and he has looked really good so far. Okay, so caate Smith pick up Arizona Diamondbacks. There's worry you were justin Martinez guy. I've been an AJ puck guy. I think I had a slight lead in that, and then Ajpuck hurt, I l MRI and then second and third opinions. We know exactly what that means. We're not stupid. This

is not our first rodeo, we know where that's going. Okay, Justin Martinez, he's moving up, he's got some fatigue and some army sh use as well that they're kind of tapering back. So here's the thing. A, do you go all in on Justin Martinez? B Do you speculate on a guy like Shelby Miller who they love? His fastball is graded out incredible, he did have like a prior to the blown save, he was untouchable, but his little blown save they ended up getting the wind, but they

really like him. Or see, do you look at a guy and speculate on Kevin Ginko right now who is inching closer to coming back and he had been thrown in the mix by Tory Levello, So which obviously, like Justin Martinez is like the main piece here, but like in ordering, what is the most aggressive play here? Is it going all in on Martinez to kind of buy or is it speculating on the other two pieces?

Speaker 4

I think with Martinez, I still don't really know how serious it is. They're saying it's shoulder fatigue, but they're also saying he's very close to one hundred percent. That's what the quote from Lebello said, So, I don't think we need to sound all the alarm bells, but especially in deeper leagues, if you have a little bit more leeway to pick up players, picking up Shelby Miller for the time being probably makes a little bit of sense

if you're looking for like very short term saves. But Kevin Ginkel is the guy who has some experience in the role. They've never really let him run with the role. Four saves, five saves here and there, but he's put up really good numbers over the last several seasons three thirty eight, ERA two forty eight, three twenty one, really good numbers. Doesn't walk a lot of batters. I think that Ginkle, if I was running the team, would probably get the job when he comes back, assuming there's something

more seriously wrong with Martinez. But I think Martinez as of now, my concerns aren't off the charts until we get a little bit more information.

Speaker 3

Yeah, and I guess again the theme of that is like do you go and you're like, Hey, I'm gonna buy on Justin Martinez right now because we know Puck is going to be done and there's a little bit of worry with Martinez or is it like, oh, you kind of avoid and you play in that speculation. Mark, I think an investment on Ginkle right now actually makes

a lot of sense. I'm a little bit Shelby millerish, but I guess it's like even if Shelby gets an opportunity or too, when Ginkle comes back, Like you said, he's like the guy Banshee said, what about Beaks? I don't. I don't think so. Lavello is obviously making lots of bad decisions. There's just too many guys that are above him. I don't think Beeks is I think Beaks is low down the rings. But you know what if all these dudes keep getting hurt, you never know, right Beeks.

Speaker 4

Being the only lefty is going to work against him in that regard because there will be times when Yeah, I mean, I'm assume, I'm assuming Puk is just gone and he'll be the only lefty, so that kind of works against him. I don't think that he's an option unless you're in a saves and holds the league.

Speaker 3

Will vest for the Tigers. Head got a couple opportunities and look good. What is your comfort level or your desire of investment? On Will Vest. If if Ginkle was out there and Vest, which one are you picking up?

Speaker 4

I'd probably go with Ginkle. It's a better team. There's gonna be more victories. I feel like, especially if Martinez we hear he has to miss a lot of time and podcasts miss a lot of time, then Ginkle becomes a pretty obvious option. Where in Detroit they could go back to Conley next week and it wouldn't really shock me. I know he blew a save on Sunday, but he has also been not too bad this year as a whole, you know, one O four E R eight to this point. I know that he blew a save, but I don't

really trust anybody in Detroit. I feel like it's a situation where you pick up one guy for one week and maybe they go with Conley and maybe they go with Vest, and you're kind of just chasing your tail on the waiver wire and wasting your fab on this situation. It's not a team that's gonna win a ton of games, So how many saves are you really getting, especially if

they're gonna mess around like this. I just I just can't get myself invested in the Detroit Closer situation unless it's a super deep league and you're really desperate, in which case I'd probably still go with Conley is there.

Speaker 3

Do you have any concerns moving over to the Kansas City Royals with Carlos Estevez blowing a save? I think Erseeg has been a little bit banged up, but he's like the dude that it was kind of in the wings as the closer before. Do you think people should be concerned in speculating off of Carlos Estevez right now?

Speaker 4

So, I don't think we need to sound the alarms just yet for Estevez because leading up to that start, he'd only allowed one run on the season. It was a it was a bad start. It was a blown save. It happens, I now. I was definitely more in the Erseg camp preseason, but after really thinking about it and the arbitration money that they're gonna have to pay uh Erseg in the offseason, they're not gonna want to have to go into that meeting with Erseg having twenty five

saves because they're gonna have to pay him more. STZ has been a closed in the last couple of years. I don't think that the talent level is better with Stevez. I think Erseg is a much better pitcher, but just based on Kansas City situation, it's probably gonna be Erseg outside of an injury. Now, maybe later in the season, Let's say they're making a playoff push and we're getting done to the final two months and Stevez doesn't look great, then they're not gonna worry so much about how many

saves Erseg is gonna have. And there's a chance that are excuse me, how many saves asked them? Or no, I'm getting myself confused. They're not going to care about arbitration money for saves. If Ersag is the closer for just the last month or two of the season, I think there's a chance that could happen, but I think Askedebez is still the guy.

Speaker 3

Is there any other closer situations and or guys of speculation that have you worried or have picked your interest so worried about any other situations, Like you said, you're kind of picking up Cad Smith. Obviously. You know Yankees have been Devin Williams been a little bit shaky, and I think Fernando Cruz had gotten a save and you got Weaver out there. But is there any other speculative worry or is there any other guy that you think it's looming of interest?

Speaker 4

I mean, the Cincinnati situation is always a little bit interesting. Alexis Diaz, I just don't really trust him, and he's the one who's still on more rosters if I'm looking at just like Yahoo now, Emliopegan blew a save last week, but for the most part he's been pretty good. That's a situation I'm really keeping an eye on because I'm not one hundred percent sure about which way they're going to go. But I see Pegan I was on thirty

five percent of rosters. Diaz is on fifty five. I think that even the people who are more believers in Daz should be a little bit worried right now. I don't think he's looked good for a while. And because Terry Francona wasn't the one who put him in that closure role, I don't think he'll have much loyalty towards keeping him there or putting him back there. So that's

what I'm keeping an eye on. But I think the Pagan is going to be the guy to roster there personally, I know I might be in the minority there, but I'm kind of still on the pagan side.

Speaker 3

I think Diaz is going to jump back to it. I actually if Diaz are available, I want to speculate there. But there's also a part of me that this Reds team is going to be like highly competitive, that they that might be something you have to make a move for. You know, they went out and got Taylor Rodgers and they brought in Pegan like they got a bunch of help and never worked out, you know what I mean, Like none of those guys, so you might need to

keep going. But unfortunately, how many sellers are there out there? So I think if Pegan and Diaz are both available, those are fun speculative guys. There's a lot of Arizona guys closer situations are weird and at the tippy top. Obviously a couple of those big names like Emmanuel Classe have people worried if you, I guess I didn't ask you this, what would be your rank of your top three speculative pickups? Like is Caid Smith at the tippy top of everybody we've talked about?

Speaker 5

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Speaker 4

Yeah, Caid Smith has got to be at the top there. If he goes into that, like let's say class they say that some injury has to miss a few months of time, then Kate Smith becomes like a top five or seven closer. The skill set is just unbelievable. Like he is truly one of the best pitchers in baseball. As the best relievers in baseball, I'll put that caveat there,

but he is just fantastic. If he were the closer, then I think he's easily a top ten closer rest of the season, assuming that clause like let's say class is done, which I don't think is necessarily the case. But if he were, Kate Smith is a top ten closer.

Speaker 3

Okay, I'm with that one. I think it works. We had another closer question as well. Elsba said, should I trade Tanner Scott or Kyle Finnegan for Ryan Helsley says, I got Alvarado and Mason Miller, so we'll kind of stop there for a second. So Tanner Scott, that's a kind of a weird one. Should I trade Tanner, Scott or Finnegan for Hellsley? Already having Miller and Alvarado, I would feel like the quick answer is.

Speaker 4

Like, yes, probably. Helsley worries me a little bit. I don't think he's been that great this season. I know he's got a few saves, two twenty five era is not too bad. I worry a little bit about the injuries that he's racked up over the years, and I wonder if his arm is gonna be able to stay healthy for the whole season. I think that i'd probably

trade Scott for him, though. Kyle Finnegan just seems to be the guy that nobody was interested in, and he's gonna do what he did last year once again, and maybe it's not going to be forty saves, but it'll be like thirty something saves that were absolutely free. I don't really trust Scott as much just because there are so many Bible options in Los Angeles. It's a tricky one because I don't really have a lot of faith

in Hellsley either. On there's a part of me that says, you know, maybe you could trade some of these closers for a non closer, because having Alvarado and Mason Miller is probably good enough in most leagues, don't.

Speaker 3

You think I do? That's why I was like, if I guess if there was a market the Tanner Scott one's really weird because the whole Dodgers that's another one of those we didn't really I guess, like focus on Vesia is getting opportunities, Kirby Gates is getting opportunities. Like they're still very rotational with all of that. So if you're just looking to pick up a random save, Kirby Yates is not the worst to be looking at right now. But like, what's the value on getting fin again and

Tanner Scott? But I would be more hard pressed to trade them for positional players, like you said, than targeting another closer Alvarado Mason Miller. That's getting it done. But if there is no market for that and someone's offering Hellsley, Like, you know, Helsy was a top ten closer coming into this year. Things are weird. But you know, if the Cardinals were to fade, he's probably a guy that ends up getting moved and maybe he goes into a closer

sit Maybe our Reds goes into a closure situation. So I don't really hate I don't hate doing that. I just wish Tanner Scott would turn it around. The Finnegan one stands out to me like I'll trade Fin again for Helsley. That's fine, Totally fine by me. We had else had another question that's going to coincide with where we're going to go. But want to remind everybody, as I mentioned at the top, but with a little bit more details. Join our Fantasy Pros Discord community at Fantasypros

dot com slash chat. You can chat with other fans, get access to exclusive amas that will wind up on the podcast. You could talk with Joe, Rico and I moving to Mondays at five pm Eastern. Come and get your questions answered. Be on the show at Fantasypros dot com slash chat. Plus, we've got a lot of other podcast offerings in other sports, and we've had an incredible community, whether it is the free side, which you can do

or you want to set up premium premium. Also getting access to joining the home run contest, which we have got over on Leading Off, and we've got a Sammy Sosa autograph jersey that's on the line this year and I'm in the top ten right now, so and I challenged Piezapia today to get on the board at some point this season. And just as a little aside, I put it out to the audience if you go on the YouTube channel, look for the Leading Off episode on Wednesday,

so the twenty third be a part of that. Go into the comments section and pick what the what the odds are, what the ramifications are for Joe to get it or not get it. So if he gets on the board, what should happen? If he doesn't get on the board, what happens. We ask the audience members to go on the YouTube and comment there and that also gets you eligible for Nico Horner autographed that we're doing. So it pays pays to do all that stuff, but

check it out today. Fantasypros dot Com, slash Chat, join the discord. Elsba Rico had also thrown in thoughts on Strider and I want to do this because the other thing we were going to talk about, and then we'll just answer a few of these last questions. We're getting out and we got our voy mctunda wants to come up. Is we had a couple big injuries. The two biggest art Strider, which seems to be okay, just as giant hamstrings,

it's not on our issue. But then Chris Sanchez, who went fifty something inning our pitches, his velo was down. But as we're recording this today, they had no expectation there's any structural damage. They're not even going to perform an MRI, but he is going to miss a start. So your level of worry between Chris Sanchez and Spencer Strider is what for Strider.

Speaker 4

It's not too bad. They've said it's a Grade one strain and I am very far from a doctor, but from what I've understood, it's like a few days to maybe a few weeks at most, So that one's not concerning, especially because it's not the arm. Right. If it was anything to do with his arm, oh boy, that would have been serious. Trouble probably for Strider. With Sanchez, why are they not just gonna do the MRI? I don't understand it? Is it so much of it? Is it

that taxing on him? Is it that expensive? Like? What's the reason to not do it? And why not just make sure? Even though like he said yesterday, his quote was, I've never felt something like that when I was pitching before. Why would you not just do some imaging and just make sure you're not missing something? I don't really understand that point of view. It feels like it's kind of the Phillies being lazy or something, which I don't necessarily

know if they are or not. But they also just signed Jordan Romano and gave him money when there was no real reason to when he was coming off a bunch of injuries. So my head right now with the Phillies is what are they doing surrounding injuries that other teams are not? And with Sanchez, I don't know why you wouldn't just give him the scan. That part of it makes me worried for sure. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but just give him a clean bill

of health. He says he's feeling okay, But why not just make sure well he was checked out.

Speaker 3

The doctor looked at looked at it there internally and just determined that there's nothing. But yeah, to be on the safe side, it'd be nice just to go get it checked out. But you know, I think based on it, they felt that there were no structural issues. He feels better today, so I think those are signs why to move through. But again, I'm not going to disagree with you, like, let's just be sure about it. So tiny little worry maybe on the Crisanchez side. I'm not worried about Strider

as much. I don't like that he's hitting back the il, but it's not an arm issue. So I'm breathing a little bit, maybe even buying Strider. But hopefully the injuries aren't going to keep taxing themselves up together. I hope not. Hey, it's our boy mctund to raise hand. Let's get mctonda on what you got brother.

Speaker 6

A question for you there. Somebody dropped Luis Robbers in my ten team head to head dynasty league. So right now for center fielders, I either have him or Victor Scott moving forward. I mean kind of Corby Carrol's had centerfield eligibility, so they're kind of floating them there anyway.

Speaker 3

Oh, it's one of those like left field, right field, center.

Speaker 4

Yeah, we don't have three outfielders.

Speaker 6

We have actual left, right and center and so, but who do you like going forward? Luise Robert or Victor Scott.

Speaker 3

That's a good question. It's like the question every week it was. It's turned into different things. It was Tristan Cassis, it turned into Luise Robert. It's kind of turning again. But Robert continuously keeps coming up in this He's hitting only one fifty one bunch of stolen bases, seven couple homers to sixty seven OVP. That sucks, but it is a profile that is very reminiscent of the player that we know. In general, his expected batting average is like

eighty points higher. It's two thirty four. He's barreling more than he has, he's hitting the ball as hard, he's actually striking out less than last year. The profile screams, this is the player that we know, and we know there's a trade looming here. I leen Luise Robert. I don't even lean, especially because it's keeper. It's Louise Robert. He will be traded this off this season and it

will probably be to a much better team. And he, unfortunately is one of these dudes that like, oh, I only play with the White Sox, and he kind of plays down. He's going to play up when he goes to a bigger team. He's loud tools. This is pretty easy, Robert for me. But it has been pretty bad so far, Arico, what say you? Victor Scott or Luis Robert Jr.

Speaker 4

It's probably still lou Bob, but it's not quite as clear for me with the decision. Like Victor Scott has been fantastic. He's sitting two ninety eight steals, he's got a homer, and he's doing it from the bottom of the order too. If he does find his way to the top of the lineup, then who knows what he could do. But Victor Scott is almost like Chandler Simpson if he could hit for a little bit of power, maybe not quite as much speed, but that kind of

profile is really interesting. We've seen lou Bob, whether it's been the injuries or the disappointments and the performance like it's been a disappointing career for him. I think things will turn around eventually. But it's a long stretch now where he's been, he's been pretty bad. If he gets traded, I would hope that his attitude and everything would turn around and his performance would follow, but I'm not necessarily

assured of that. Like I would still probably take lou Bab, But I think this is really really close.

Speaker 3

Personally, I'm surprised it's maybe that that close, But but I get it. I understand. I mean, Victor Scott, there's you know, there's a lot of big improvements this year, the stolen bases. We just would like to see him hitting high on the lineup again. But I guess I'm just still a believer. Robert still only twenty seven. I know it feels like he's like thirty two. He's only twenty seven. The most recent trade rumors were with the Dodgers.

I really hope he can turn the career around. There is some like just knucklehead stuff because you know, he seems to kind of play down and and he's streaky as well, and maybe streaky isn't like great for everybody. Not everybody likes a streaky fantasy player. All Right, we got some other questions in here. Let's see what is going down. Finner says Yannier is being dropped in a bunch of my leagues. Would you drop Austin Wells for him in a Points league?

Speaker 4

De Diez, I think I would. I know it's been rough, but it's not like Wells has been so great either, So I think I would default to where we were before the season. I think that Houston's lineup is still just as good, if not even better than the Yankees. It's probably fairly close. Judge does a lot of the heavy lifting there in New York, but I think that I would still go with Diaz here.

Speaker 3

I would too. It's ironic that both of those are just like bad catchers. We had a lot of people This is a very popular question over the last two days. Do I drop Austin Wells for Augustin Ramirez? And you know he's going mollistic, stolen base attempts, homers, hard to hit balls, and it feels like it's a little bit premature. A points league makes a lot of this different. I think the like Wells and Ramirez or bigger strikeout threats than the Yon ear So I would pick up Yanner in this one.

Speaker 4

And you're with me, Yeah, Yeah, Augustin Ramirez, though I'm pretty excited, like the potential for the power and the speed, if only it wasn't for the bad lineup in ballpark. But I think I would take him over Wells. Maybe that's me being a little bit to reactionary, but is that crazy to take him over Wells? Right now?

Speaker 3

Someone asked a question I said, I would probably stick Wells, But I'm also okay, Like if it's a ten man league, sure like Burn and churn Man, there's only like a couple good catchers anyways. If it's a fifteen team league, I don't know. Like I guess Ramirez is probably secured, especially with how he's playing, but there's like some swing and missing his game too. I'm not gonna kill anybody that does that. I guess that would be my big thing. You want to do that, that's fine. I probably stick

Austin Wells at the ballpark. But Wells hasn't He hasn't really been great either. We actually had another Robert thing. The Big Dance said, do I pick up Luis Robert in a ten ten team? Rodo outfield is Butler Castiano's Cheerio judge would my gut says maybe to drop one of my closers. But I'm only leading in saves by two, so you didn't give us who the closers are. Would Robert versus Castianas is the only one that's close there, and Castianis has been really good right now, ten team,

if you're not leading in saves, I don't know. I feel like, based on what you said, you're probably gonna not pick up Robert in this scenario.

Speaker 4

I think it's pretty close with Castillanos. I think the ceiling is higher, especially if if lu Bob goes to the Dodgers, then that would change everything. As of today, I think it's probably Castellano still though, And in the ten team league like that, there's gonna be a lot of options. So even if Castiano's cools off a little bit, the fact that lou Bob's already on the waiver wire means that there's going to be options for you.

Speaker 3

Yeah, that's why, like I could do that. By the way, his closers were Luke, Jackson, McGill, Alvarado, Munos, and Hoffman, So it's like, could he cut one of those for Robert?

Speaker 4

Well, yeah, you don't need five closers. That's a little excessive.

Speaker 3

I would, and I would probably drop Luke Jackson of all those so probably yeah, okay, so drop Luke Jackson to pick up Robert. Then don't worry about your Castiana situation. Bing Bang boom, landon Roup is looking good. Would you drop Job or Nesky in a ten team head to head points league.

Speaker 4

I'm not as impressed with Joe, but the thing is he's got relief, picture, eligibility, and in a points league that's really valuable. I don't know that rape has it. Oh no, you know what rape does have it too. On looking at Yahoo, I would make the swap personally landing route for Jackson Job in that situation.

Speaker 3

Wait, you would you would go Roupe over Job?

Speaker 4

I would, Yeah, I would.

Speaker 3

I don't think I would. Like he's super interesting right now, but I'm not sure that everything is locked down. I think it's a short leash.

Speaker 5

I don't.

Speaker 3

I don't. I don't think I would make that move Like at the Job's I think it was his last start was pretty encouraging. Was Nesky with the strikeouts? I'm gonna stick with those two, but I guess I get it. What was was mctime to try to get rid of me. This is how do you not have recall announcements for your folks that come into sub in on leading off? Would love to see Welsh to the vacation list and we recall Joey O from cleaning up. You want to get rid of me?

Speaker 4

I think he's looking for something on the I think you want something on the blurb feed, like the MLB account tweeting out like Chris Welsh gone to the disabled list, Joe Rico, Oh okay, I think that's what he's looking for, which would be kind of funny for the blurb guys to do that, but.

Speaker 3

That actually would be really really funny. I was like mctunda, I thought we were boys, like everyone's trying to get rid of negativity. But I am actually out on Friday, So it will be the Joey and Joe show is going down Friday's leading off. It'll be a Rico and piece of Pia all Joe's all the time to Joe's one show, as I will not be there. My first non leading off episode I think of the year probably going to be one of my only ones. Not much on the vacation list, but that would be very funny

to have that announcement. Would you drop Ben Rice from Marcelo Zuna? Is how we will finish this bad boy off? What a question?

Speaker 4

And there's got to be somebody else other than Rice, right, There's got to be somebody. Rice has just been so good. I get maybe in a shallow league he'd be your only option. There's it's probably Ozuna Ozona is probably the right decision, But dropping Ben Rice feels icky right now.

Speaker 3

Gotta drop somebody else, dude. The game is going on right now. We got a heavy set of games going on as we're doing the show, probably not helping everyone coming in. He's one for two with two runs and an RBI. He walked, He's hitting two ninety two. He's lead off. I mean, I just I can't I guess in that scenario, like it's gotta be Ozuna. But like you said, you gotta find somebody else Ben Rice is.

He's borderlining, like you can't even consider cutting him in places I wouldn't in team leagues do make it different, of course, but he's so good. The Yankees leadoff hitter who's hitting almost three hundred at the end of April, who keeps going, who has an insane hitting profile, I just was redoing my redraft or my my ranks for rest of season. I do them every single week here and Fantasy Pro, so it helps some of the algorithm.

And you guys can check that out, dude. I mean Ben Rice and Sodastrom, those guys are both like in the top ten range. I think I put them both in my top ten first base and rest of season. I believe in those guys. I kind of don't have a long term belief of like Torkolsen being in that same camp, but those two I'm fully in on. I just don't know how you make a move for it. Like the same thing. What if this question was soda Strum or Ozuna? Could you cut Sodastrum?

Speaker 4

No, I couldn't do it. I can do it. The ballpark, the fact that he's so much younger, the fact that he looks so good. Ozuna's dh only I love I mean Ozuo. I'm not gonna say I love Marcelo Zuna, but he's a very good fantasy asset. But Tyler Soderstrom might be a top fifty player this year, and I don't know that we're gonna see quite those heights from Ozuna again. We could, but this is this is the problem with super shallow leagues. It's very hard to make

room for everybody. But if it was Sodastrom or Ozuna, I would takes oders from there.

Speaker 3

Well look at this els but even updated, So you dropped Torklsen for Azuna?

Speaker 4

Absolutely, yeah, I wouldn't. Again, I wouldn't feel great about it because Torklesen has been fantastic.

Speaker 3

Tork Ben rice Ozuna. What's the order for you?

Speaker 4

It has to be it has to be Torkosen at the bottom. It has to be. But man, Torklsen has been great this year. Yeah, he's the number sixteen player overall, number sixteen overall so far.

Speaker 3

He just heard us though, by the way, he struck out literally as we were talking, struck out swinging against Kyle Hurt. But yes, I would drop Torkosen for Azuna very last one. This is actually a good question.

Speaker 4

Would you.

Speaker 3

Uh Well, it's a good question because like I know exactly what I'm doing. But if if it's out there, people are wondering, would you drop an injured George Kirby to pick up a Caid Smith? And the answer would be.

Speaker 4

No, No, I wouldn't go quite that far. No, I couldn't do it.

Speaker 3

He's close.

Speaker 4

Base myself into it for a second, but I couldn't make it.

Speaker 3

As far as I'm told he had been here at the complex, I was told he left complex. So that means, you know, he's in a state where it's really getting close. Maybe I don't know, if he's in Seattle and he's throwing a live session and then he's going to, like, you know, bail out and then maybe do one rehab start. He seems like he's very close. So it's good to talk about Kirby here because I don't think Kirby should go anywhere, and I think that's the most importin thing.

Speaker 4

He corrected his message. I think he was talking Kirby Yates, not George Kirby here. He added a little, oh yes here.

Speaker 3

Oh well, that's a good question I would go. I mean we kind I think we kind of answered that we would go Kate Smith over Kirby Yates.

Speaker 4

Yeah, Kirby doesn't even have a saved this year yet. I mean, as much as we can dream on it, he hasn't saved a single game for them this year, and Kate Smith already has a couple even with class A being around the whole time so far.

Speaker 3

So you know, no, sorry, I'm sorry, I cut you off. Keep going.

Speaker 4

No, No, I'm just gonna say, like, Kate Smith as a pitcher is in my opinion, much better than Kirby Yates, even if we're just like getting rid of the whole save thought, but then you're also adding in that Smith is in a much better position to get saves right now. I think it's got to be him.

Speaker 3

I was thinking about draft time where it was like like how crazy people were going with Kirby Gates even when Tanner Scott was there, and like Kirby Gates was being drafted like really high, and it was like, I don't think so, I don't think this is the way to go. And he's you know, he's being put in leverage situations but he's not there. But Kid Smith would definitely definitely be the answer. Friends. If you guys want more, well, we always got it for you. Wednesdays at four pm

Eastern on our YouTube It's Joey p and Me. That's right. You can interact with us for live fantasy baseball advice on YouTube dot com Slash Fantasy Pros m LB Wednesdays at four pm Eastern. All the questions and we even have an ability for guaranteed answered questions using the super chats. People can jump in super chat a question they get put up there. It's a great rewatch if you guys want to go on because there are gajillion questions. So even if you miss it live, you guys can go

back see what we've covered. We're probably going to be talking about Caid Smith's of the World and Ben and Luis Robert. It'll even be more. But if you can make it, put a pin in it. Make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube, get notifications, and then when we're live you can jump in and hang out with Joey p and me.

Speaker 4

Very good.

Speaker 3

Thank you guys for hanging out for Joe Rico, who is going to be on leading off on Friday. Make sure you guys are tuned into that and make sure you guys are locked in because I believe next Monday we are moving times on cleaning up to five pm, so five pm Eastern Mondays is where we're going to be doing. I have a little scheduling thing that's why it could maybe even be the following week. But just make sure you're locked in. If you're on the discord,

we'll tell you. Also if you're following us on the socials. We try to update everybody on all the shows, So Joe Rico Friday Leading Off, I will be there Thursday on Leading Off, twelve pm Eastern for mister Joe Rico, I'm Welsh. Thank you for hanging out with us, and we'll talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros MLB.

Speaker 1

Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Baseball podcast. If you love the show, the best freeway to support us is by

Speaker 5

Leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, follow us on x, Instagram, and TikTok at Fantasy Pros, and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash Fantasy Pros MLB

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