MLB: Leading Off June 16th, 2022 (Ep. 533)

Another near no no. Let's play ball. Welcome in, everybody to Fantasy Closed. This is leading off, brought to you by bet MGM, the King of sports Books. It's me, Joey Pa joe Piece Appea with me. Today is the Welsh, and of course it's you, the Peanuts, the cracker Jacks, the Randos as some of you like to call yourselves nowadays. But I think that's like day three of this is

Though, don't worry, it'll come back like it'll it'll make it come back like next week or something. Everyone will love it again.

Here you go. And speaking of loving it, let's get to some baseball. Let's get to some news, and we'll start, of course with another near no no, so close to the near no nos. Oh my goodness, Welsh. This time it was Tyler Anderson. Two outs come so close, so close, only to fade away. And it's funny, how I remember. I think it was ninety one was the year. I want to say, it could be wrong where we have seven no hitters or something crazy like that, like every

Can I ask you what is your definition of an almost no hitter? Is it going into the ninth? Is it going eight innings? Is it going seven in?

I think ninth, ninth is ninth? Is you got close? That was you were right there? Because that seems like you get to the ninth hitting. I think that's it.

I asked Bogmin about that because I feel like this is becoming the season of almost no hitters.

Maybe you could also.

Throw in guys that are pulled, you know, that have a no hitter and pulled in six that's kind of like a missed opportunity, and then guy that lose it in the eighth. It feels like a lot of close opportunities this season and back to back nights. That's fun.

That's fun.

Well, our boy JP was having fun. He got Tyler Anderson in a waiver wire claim yesterday, so I hope you started him. Yeah, that's if you did. It was probably a good night for you. Also good night for Spencer Stryder. Ooh fourteen baby, and you were all over that. Well, she loved the Strider yesterday.

So well, well, Joe, I love Strider in general. Maybe you heard me say I liked the under six and a half strikeouts, but it was the sixteen and a half strikeouts show.

It's actually sixty.

I liked him at sixteen.

Un what it was?

What it was?

I love Strider and I've been here's the problem. I've been wanting to say that I want to take it every single game. So of course the first time I'm like, I'll take the under. He had had only hit it twice, he got one hundred and twenty pitches, like they let him completely go, right, So now it is team Strider full force.

And how long is a forced last? You know, because he is a younger pitcher, he was a guy pitching out of the bullpen. So do you believe this is a guy you can you could start and be happy about and confident in for the next two months. Or do you think this is a guy that could take you all the way to the end of the wire.

Here, I think he could take you to the end of the wire. The problem could be is they could easily switch him. They could throw him back into that like leveraged reliever role. But he's a strikeout magnet and he's really finding his rhythm. I asked a question on in this league a couple of weeks ago Strider versus Ashby.

People lost their mind. They're just like, oh, how could you ask this?

How could just be a.

Oh look at the question, Look at it now. It's because of Strider and his strikeout ability. That's exactly why you asked that question. So yes, if if he continued starting, he's got like a mid two era strikeouts through the roof.

He threw it.

Had eleven last night. Is a huge performance. This is the type of guy and he keeps it up, he can get into that McClanahan territory where he is a must play from k props. Moving forward to the rest of the year.

Now here's a question for you too. If Soroka comes back, is that gonna be the guy that bumps him out of rotation.

I would be shocked if they just let Soroka like go. I would imagine Soroka has got to be babied. Now here's the thing. They could piggyback. You know, we talked a lot about piggybacks. They would make sense as a piggyback. Don't go nuts with Strider, and you know, maybe make those two be a seven inning guy. But if Soroka were to start and Stryder were to be your inning four, five, six, and seven, he gets the win. And in four innings

That's just what you should do six and a half.

I'm probably gonna cherry pick the bad strikeout teams, but I'm gonna hope the Strider is gonna be able to maintain this because he has looked phenomenal.

Manny Machado also look phenomenal. More on him a little later in this show, but he did it. A home run drove in four yesterday against the Cubs. Ooh boy, the Cubbies. Things are not going well there for the Cubs and many. Machado certainly on another hot streak himself. I'm at Rosario at a home run, scored four runs. Jack Flaherty yield four runs, two earned in his first return. So there you go, Jack Flaherty back. Very exciting for

Does Castle really hit a homer if Mike Mahyer doesn't choose him in the contest.

It's a good philosophical question to ask. I think that's part of it, And I think the other part of it is I almost always feel like Mike Mahor is just in his basement writing the letter, like in the eminem video where he's just like talking to him. Is like, you hit a home run the other day. You know I didn't pick you. What's up with that? You know?

Ryan?

I saw you hit that Homer was flying.

I was really excited for all the it's not seeing you when you hit balls without me, you make me feel like a little bitch.

Uh not whatever.

Raphael Devers also a home in his fourth straight game, So Devers has been red hot as well. Some injuries though to deal with. There always is something good. Some bad. We had were you who underwent his surgery, so that happened pretty quickly, and then Andrew Heaney looks like he

Just one? He was really Oh yeah, he was a beast to start the year.

It was one of those things where we saw Hemi and we were just like, oh my gosh, is this actually happening?

And he's gone. That's what we did.

He had a little over I know, it was actually almost close to a fourteen k per nine didn't give up earned run. His ex fip was sitting in the twos. Wasn't walking guys at a crazy clip. It was only over those two games. There's an argument to be had that pending the matchup, I might just throw him back out there, but you always should be cautious about guys in their first start back and not really worry about it.

He is.

I'd love to see him come back and show more of that, and then he's a must start. He's not a streaming guy. He's a must start moving forward as long as this injury isn't isn't lingering, Yeah, that's for sure, must actually sitting out.

I'm sure he's still rostered him leagues, but I mean, I wonder what that percentage is. I mean, my guess is he's probably available still in like thirty five percent of league something like that.

My guess, Yeah, Well, you're going on McK it out like CBS if I can, if I can find his Rochester percentage.

Here's a good question too, and we'll get some more of the injuries. Brank Cox wants to know would you rather have Buxton or Spring arrest of season? For me, this is an interesting one. I get where you're coming from. In a points league, I want Springer because I can I find it more dependable in that sort of format. But if it's Rodo, then I'm gonna roll the dice with Bucks, and both these guys are always injury risks. Anyway,

Care what are we talking about? Yeah, it's Buxton out.

Mike Mayer is singing the dido part of that song right now. If you didn't like the video right directly after the Ryan Mountcastle rap, I don't know. I don't question or choices, no wondering why. Yeah, it's good Starling Marte day to day with a risk contusion. Kevin Kiirmeira leaves the game with an achilles injury. Jordan Hicks, though, ready for rehab assignment with that four arm issue. So that's good news for the Cardinals, getting another picture back.

Oh yeah, we got heiny if you want it?

What's your Oh yeah yeah?

What do you? What do you guess his roster percentages?

I think he's rostered probably in sixty five percent of leaks, pretty.

Close seventy five percent of leaks in as CBS's format. So what that'll probably mean is like Yahoo, I bet it's closer to fifty ESPN probably forty. My favorite stat is that it is three percent started. Still, Dear Ryan, I wrote you, but you still ain't calling. I left my cell pager in my home phone at the bottom.

I like it. Yeah, my rap's better.

We're doing the whole h.

All right, Can we talk about this? At twenty nine years old, Maddy Machado joins MLB Royalty. He's got fifteen hundred hits, two hundred and fifty homers. The list of players in this company is staggering. Manny Machado, Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Junior, Eddie Murray, Ron Santo, Orlando Sepeda, Frank Robinson, Hank Aaron, Eddie Matthews, Mickey Manto, Willie May's Male, Jamie Fox, lou gerrig and Andrew Jones. Andrew Jones is the only guy who's not in the

Is team one hundred hits and two hundred and fifty homers before the age of thirty. That list Andrew Jones is an absolute travesty. And I just want to point out. His son is probably is probably the best baseball player.

In this upcoming draft.

A little could go number one unless the Orioles are going to go cheap, and then he would come to my Arizona Diamondbacks. Drew Jones is a phenomenal, ridiculous talent. Andrew j should be in the Hall of Fame. It makes me sick, But that is an insane list of guys.

It's ridiculous. And these are all the guys before thirty. Every single one of them is a Hall of Famer. We're talking all MLB greats. I mean, Ron Santo and Supaida maybe a little bit. I mean when you're dealing with the a Rod and Poohols and Cabrera Totals and the Frank Robinson and Mickey Manno, Willie Maze, Jimmy Fox, double x Lou Garritt names mean, it's stunning. So there's definitely a tier and there's another tier. But the Hall tier is Hall of Famers except for Andrew Jones, who

I don't know real quick, I don't know if it matters for everybody. But he played seventeen years, just reminding, had just fell short of two thousand hits, four hundred and thirty four homers, so just short of the five hundred, one hundred and fifty two stolen bases.

Wait, how many homers did he have? Four hundred and how many?

Four hundred and fifty two career homers? For fifty and three hundred and sixty eight of those came with Atlanta. He played for Atlanta for twelve years. This is probably one of the things that holds him back. Two fifty four career batting average, which was it was.

The ops though OPS was eight.

OPS was eight twenty three over his career.

Above eight hundred. You got me listening. He did not have a stolen bases? Did he have?

He had one hundred and fifty two so over seventeen years. Yeah, that's so, that's a problem here. He hadn't hit two fifty since two thousand and six, which means he finished his final six years of his career hitting under two fifty.

The guy was one of the more.

Predominant defensive players in Major League Baseball history. I mean, honestly, for talking, like center field so incredible defender, pretty good, solid home run numbers. Hits are kind of there, but storm bases down, patting average down.

I guess defense just matters for me. I mean, it's the same reason I Thinkkeithan Nandez should be in the Hall of Fame. If you're the best defensive player your position every year for a decade and you hit as well, then I don't understand how you're not a Hall of Famer. Yeah, I mean he's not a good center fielder. He is game changing centerfield. We were talking Jim Edmons should be in the Hall of Fame too.

That's ten straight Gold Gloves from nineteen ninety eight to two thousand and seven.

Ten straight.

He also finished inside MVP Award inside the top three once and he made five All Star Games in his time.

So just throwing it out there.

See I keep saying Jim Edmonds for years two. I was appalled that he was wanted down the ballot because that I mean, he's got three hundred and ninety three homers. Okay, so he's got less homers, but career two to eighty four hitter, a career ops of note three, nine oh three, a career ops of nine o three, a two eighty four hitter, one of the best defensive first center fielders I've ever seen in my entire life. And he was one and done on the ballot. It was absurd.

Andrew Jones or Jim Edmonds by the way, Jim Jim Edmond.

Jim Edmond's wife was on Real Housewives of Something and Jim Edmonds showed up.

He wasn't great.

He was He wasn't the coolest. It wasn't he wasn't a cool guy. He was a cool guy.

Are you and Mayor watching that and d and talking about it in Slack yesterday. You guys watching the Real Housewives.

You want to start the group?

How did you end up seeing this?

I don't.

My wife watches it so like if I was like laying in bed, I would look over and then and you know, hey, listen, it's not the worst show to watch on mute.

Uh.

Sometimes and uh, I see Jim Edmonds, it's like a little bit interested, and I was like, oh, Jim Edmonds not the coolest guy on the planet.

No, no, no, I mean he might be the coolest guy, but not not a good guy necessarily. It's not the Hall of Fame and nice. It's not the Hall of Nice.

Yeah, it's true baseball.

And once again, I just I'm appalled that you know, Ozzie Smith is automatically a Hall of Famer. He never hit for any power in his career. He's an amazing center for you, short stuff. I don't understand why we don't apply that to other positions, Like why doesn't that matter? Why does it only matter at short stop? Because he was fun to watch, because he played for the Cardinals, because he was at a fun nickname, and he did flips. I mean, that's not fair, you know, I'll tell you.

I'll tell you you're not wrong about the intangible stuff.

I think what's funny is the.

Gold gloves are what even Wonky says it. Ozzie Smith did backflips Joe. That's why they may come back.

With the Andrew Jones just real quick.

I think the problem is is the defensive prowess is being taken into this because if you just look at the stats, because you're not Hall of Fame war these stats alone, like under five hundred homers, not two thousand hits, a two fifty four career batting average, like I only hit over three hundred once in his entire career. The only reason we're still talking about him is because of

It really does.

That's why we're still in this list. But I will say, you know, you look at the impact of the early part of his career. Good lord, he made that list of all those players. He just had a really not great fall. Maybe a bigger question could be this if he had ended his career five years earlier, or even cut it short. You know, thirty one thirty two and just had that short extent, you know, and went off into the wild Boo Yonder with all of those gold gloves.

I always feel like those players, the players you don't see decline, you always have a different feeling for. But then I'm also the guy that looks at Paul Konerko stats over his career and go, look at this guy every year putting up incredible numbers thirty one hundred, like every year for a decade, and nobody seems to care about me. I don't get it. I don't get the criteria for the Hall of Fame. Everyone wants to make

Yes, I saw this.

Why do I not care about this? I don't this is weird. I feel like I've become mayor here. I don't care about this. This is not interesting to me at all. It came against the same three hitters, so okay, that's quirky. But do you care about this? Is this interesting to you? You know?

I don't necessarily care about it. But I did see a friend of mine, Joe Doyle from Prospects Live, he posted.

This is interesting. The chat's gotten real hot here. This is really good and this is why I love our people here. Now, Wonkee's saying, Jack Morris is in the Hall of Fame, So it means nothing. One game does not a Hall of Famer make. Jack Morris was the best pitcher in the eighties for the most part in terms of pitching and winning games when that was the standard, which is just figure out a way to win Jack.

I'll tell you, I mean, here's a hot take. I could also say, I don't care who's in the Hall of Fame.

I don't care. I love this.

He had only two hundred and fifour wins, two hundred and fifty four wins. No one's gonna smell two hundred and fifty wins in the next twenty five years of baseball wherever again Twitter, fifty wins? Uh Okay, this was in big font so I had to talk about this. Yankees thirty games over, five hundred and thirty was big.

Yeah, thanks to Judge, Thanks to Judge, and thanks to all the ancillary pieces. I mean, you have a you have a rotation. What was it coming into like mid May where your worst era starter was getting cole of all your yeah, right, you're gonna walk into a good amount of wins.

Clay Homes.

This is I was also hyper aggressive on homes regardless of what's going on with Chapman, because I really you think he should continue being the closer, and your offense is clicking, all of it working very very well, and the Yankees are a problem.

On this day in baseball, in nineteen ninety three, Ken Griffy Junior hits his one hundredth career home run, and he becomes a fourth youngest in Major League Baseball history to hit that mark, only Melott, Eddie Matthews, and Tony Canigliero. Tony C from the Boston Red Sox, which is one

Guy that was on my list, Julio Rodriguez, Yes, sir, Yes.

Or anybody else in the minor leagues right now, or anybody else coming up in baseball. If you're like, yeah, that guy's got a shot at.

It, well, I mean I get the reason like Julio immediately jumps to that list is because he's a little bit more of a prolific power hitter and he's really really young. Sure there are guys Jordan Walker would be one of those guys with the Cardinals if he gets a call up soon. He's twenty years old, already at double A, just absolutely mashing.

That would probably be the bit.

Like I said, I don't want to more. We could go a jillion miles across. But if you're looking at young players who are really going to continuously hitting homers, Jordan Walker would be the first person.

That pops my mind.

But I'm very much in on Julio getting this because young dude already stashing homer's, not being sent down, not hitting the bumps like Adele and Keln. Yeah, I think we'll be talking about this as Willis Rodriguez and in a few.

Years kellixive he gets a hundred hits in the Major League, he hits one hundreds. Now let's get to the stat heroes. Tyler Anderson top to that board. Eight k's almost a no hitter, eight and a third innings, one earned run. Zach Gallon bounced back after a rocky start last time. Five k's two earned over seven innings, Kyle Gibson eight innings, one earned, six K. Spencer Stryder with the eleven k's magnificent over five and two thirds but still eleven k's.

Know, it's frustrated and had some discount. I don't really pretendicularly loved the wave riding pitchers. I think there's like a lot of people at the beginning of the year were like, Okay, hey, Briosa is struggling, don't worry about it.

We'll get through this.

Like I don't really like those pitchers, So I don't know, regardless of how great he is, that I would go and acquire him, because I'll bet you right now you're looking at kind of high costs, you know.

Yeah, perhaps Louis Garcia nine k's six innings pitch one earned great Star from Garcia. Corbyn Burns blow out of the Mets yesterday eight k's no walks to earn six k's. I didn't have to watch youo mention of the Mets game yesterday, So the kids and I just watched Master Chef instead. Because the Mets game was not really watchable if you were rooting for the Mets. Shane mcclanahan's seven k's, six innings, one earned run, so Shane was good as well.

The innovation of baseball players at all times. Yeah, that's always my favorite.

Well, I mean, you're sitting there, you know, it's a lot of downtime. You know, this is part of the game. Brian Reynolds. Brian Reynolds siding two for three with a home run. And Luke Voight, who is actually the first guy I talked about in the waiver Wire video I just recorded. That should drop sometime later today or tomorrow morning. Luke Voight three for five with a homer. Over the last weekit in three hundred three of his eight home runs have come in the last seven games. Luke Foight's

Yeah, I'm not the biggest Luke Voight fan, but we talked about like the hot bats, you go with the hot bats when you possibly can. I will say, though, you know, he is carried pretty heavy by that one bad month in May. He did hit two sixty two in June two seventy three, so that definitely is a heat up factor. His average doesn't represent what he's done over the last two months, and the homers are picking up.

It's no doubt.

I don't really see a I don't see a home for ten team.

Yeah, look, I mean Padre's offense come in to life a little bit right here with Machado and void Bruce Zimmerman. These are the Zeros. Six earned runs, eleven hits gross, Alex Fado seven earned runs fading him and Austin Go five earned. Caparellian five earned. We went and attacked him yesterday, Art Warren one third of an inning and four earned runs for Art. Art was not good. Here you go, here's your loser hitters. Keston Hera over four to three case. God,

I loved Kess Oh. I saw him since his debut.

What happened though?

He interviewed him in the AFL like.

I think he got home run happy and he just undid his swing.

Yeah, no, I actually completely agree with you.

That's what I think happened.

He had in the very first year he was dealing with this arm issue. When he came out, he was like the highest contact, you know, projected college back coming out.

I remember talking with Jim.

Kallis about this, and he had a lot less movement going on in his entire body and was just making solid contact. And then in the AFL he had this big high front leg kick and he was launching the ball up in there, and I remember I asked him if it was like, oh, you know, if you had an any concerted swing changes, and he just like no. I was like, well you clearly do you? Like, clearly do your your.

Swing is more uppercut than it's ever been.

And I saw him in his debut, but he didn't even really recognize it. It could have been one of those unconscious things, but it's definitely something in the you know. Also, you could look at the Brewers as a whole, like look at where Yelich has gone. You know, I don't know if let me tell you is translating.

Let me let me tell you something, brother, I am not one for this whole firing of of hitting coaches. If there's one team in Major League base publisher fire their hitting coach and get a new voice in there, it's the Brewers.

Yeah.

For a myriad of reasons, the last few years have been absolutely freaking horrible for the Brewers. Offensively, Christian Yelch's going in the wrong direction. Somebody fresh needs to come into that with a new perspective and attack these guys and say, look, man, what did you do that was working? Let's get back to that. You know, And I don't believe in that. I'm not like to me, the guy's hitting.

I mean, Rowdy is well and Willia Domas was doing really good, but he was back.

Yeah, there's really not.

A good way to maintain these guys in their development, especially at the younger level. What you gotta worry about because I got a bunch of really good, interesting bat They have one of the hottest prospects in the entire world right now in Dynasty. If you guys care, Jackson Curio, Joey Weimer's coming soon.

It's a little bit worrisome with how they.

Developed it is. It's very worrisome. All right, let's get to the home run board, because somebody's at twenty Joey by number six. I'm coming for you, Larry, I'm right there. Niking in the North. Niking of the North has been at twenty one since I feel like May fifth. I'm pretty sure like he's been on. He's been at twenty one so long, unbelievable. You'll see here de Blum and title Chaser's still at twenty three. Cubbies at twenty two. Niking the Orth and Larrycy tied at twenty one, and

Good job, buddy, doing great, sweetheart doing great?

You go, Good for you. Oh Welsh, how come you're not on that?

I'll never be on it.

I'm trash.

I'm worse than garbage.

Wait, what are you up to? Are you on seventeen? Still you're stuck on seventeen?

I know it probably worse, way worse.

I'll never get another Homer again. I'm cold as ice. Don't listen to me.

All right, Look, I didn't do it yesterday, so I'm gonna do it today. Okay, Go Cards did not make the board. I don't make the board. Ethan makes the board. He's a hard working guy. I'm sorry he's not on the board. I'm going to recognize Go Cards as one of the nineteen people. In fact, i'd rather see Go Cards on there than Mike Mayor's name. So bring it up with Mike mahyor that's really the problem. Let's get to betting pros, and let's get to bet MGM, the

BRO.

This game's at two o'clock immediately after this show. Please go put money on this minus one forty eighth to the Jews. I don't care, put it in with something else. Kevin Gossman six and a half k's on DK. I like the over on that one too against Baltimore. So Musca at five and a half that's a smash.

Yeah, I'm bro I'm browing with you for sure. That was the top one before I even looked at your board. Three straight games he's hit those k's. I am in with the Musgrove against the Cubs. I also like George Kirby five strikeouts Angels second most k's per game in the league right right now around nine. They're averaging over twelve over the last three games, so I.

Might take advantage of that.

And Raffield Evers total bases one and a half over because you hit hot all those homers.

He's hot.

It's a great total base number, and you know, might talk about him here in a little bit.

You know, it's crazy, dude, because Judge getting all the attention, but Devers has been fantastic. I mean, all right, starting pitchers today over in the main slate tonight on DK you got seventy nine to four. You got Zach Wheeler at nine to six. Both are in play, but I preferre Zach Wheeler. It's a much better matchup. Just go that route your secondary arms there Showyotani's just eight point two. Or you could pick a side of the Mets game, which is Ashby at seven to one or title the

I'm going to cool off Ralpheldevers by picking him and assuring he will not hit a homer tonight, but he will hit a double. So I love my I love my total base marker way more than my home run call because I do not call homers.

Well, look, everybody gets on a heater. Eventually you'll get on the heater. I'm sure. Speaking of heaters, sure, Mike Mayer is so hot right now for Rehee Hoskins. I mean, it's just like Hoskins every day. So I don't know, I heard, you know, maybe he's a little mad at Ryan Mountcastle hit a couple home runs yesterday didn't have him, so now he's just becoming the Reece Hoskins guy. I

Okay, so he's said okay, he's officially said that it's over. It's over. By the way, I'll be in I'll be in the stages tonight, if a little bit later today, if anybody wants to come and hang out.

If you're a part of.

It, another reason to join stage, join our discord the stages. You got to be a premium member, but telling you it's worth it. If you've got stuff you're trying to work out with trades, you got stuff, you're trying to work out with lineups. Whatever you got, Welsh can help you out. So go over to Discord Fantasypros dot com slash chat to join, go to bed MGM to make your bets, and of course make sure you like this video and subscribe to Fantasy Ros MLB channel. Are we