OTW 248 - FAAB #2; March 29, 2026

How's it going and welcome to episode 248 of On The Wire Proud member, the Pitcher List podcast. Now we're I am Adam Howe joined as always by Kevin Hastings. Thank you all for listening or watching.

We got a great show lined up for you today as we get into the swing of things Gavin. We are officially in fab season now no longer draft season opening day is behind us all three of them.

Unfortunately we're three opening days. We had to wait until that first pitch of your your royals of the last team to officially get an opening day on the books.

But we got actual baseball to put in the rear view mirror. Look forward to for the rest of the season. We are officially in the middle of it. How you doing? How you feeling about it?

Doing great Adam. Thank you so much. Hope you're doing well as well. I think you are. You get to go go see your red socks tomorrow opening weekend.

Little rant here. I can't freaking believe it's the fourth day of the Major League Baseball season and it's the first day we get to see 15 games right ridiculous. It wasn't very long ago that we were it.

I mean it's less than five years ago because we were sitting there talking about how great it is at all 15 teams played on Thursday. I can't believe they went back on that and screwed it up but no I'm doing well other than that.

Yeah. Yeah with the Yankees in the in the Giants getting the off day the very next day. I don't really mind the one game the night before thing. I mean Cincinnati did that for years. I can live with that.

But not everybody else playing the following days. There were three other series that didn't then start until until Friday.

And Kansas City at Atlanta was originally scheduled for Thursday Atlanta changed it and I never heard a reason for that.

But that was like a month ago they changed it. I just I don't understand.

I mean the only thing I've ever heard is like are you do this scattered thing in the first couple days for the first series because for rain concerns.

Right. If you're going to get rained out you need that's why everybody Thursday.

Yeah it's just some people a day off on Friday. That's fine. Oh man.

But yeah I'm okay with the spectacle of the one game but that team should all those teams should also be playing the next day.

They shouldn't get that off day. But either way whatever we got baseball.

We now have where we're nitpicking here. This is a good time of year.

But we got so weird schedule like the first full week always has some weird scheduling as well.

We don't get into that true. You either have Monday or Thursday or sometimes both off.

Actually last year they did a really good job. They were like the most the minimal amount of two day off.

Teams all year round like I feel like every time we talked about the schedule we're like nobody has two days off.

Nobody has two days off throughout most of the year. So I'll give them credit for that.

But we have some weird days off and we'll get to that.

And we will next week as well because some teams don't have their home opener until next Friday.

And therefore they got to have an off day in case there's a rain out to have their home opener.

So yeah, there are a couple of teams that have like a four game first half of the week Monday through Thursday but only two game Friday through Sunday next week.

So be careful of that when you're setting next week's line ups and fabbing this Sunday for next weekend.

Because there may be a couple of those instances we don't catch as we're talking about the players is actually.

But with actual games happening and rosters happening to be set in all this we have news.

So we track into this swing.

Let's get into one of the more recent ones that just came through today is recording this on Saturday evening earlier today.

But the Grom was scratched from his scheduled season premiere on his Saturday start.

Jacob Latz, who many of us were hoping would or thinking he might get a shot at the fifth man in the rotation job.

He did not, but he still got in there before Kumar Rocker due to this.

You can think, I mean, do you think Latz gets another shot whether or not the Grom is healthy or not for his next scheduled start?

I think it's possible.

And Latz was a pretty popular guy late in draft season.

We started thinking he was going to make this rotation anyway.

I would if I already roster him definitely hold him this week unless we get some news that the Grom is definitely going to go right now.

It looks like roster resource hasn't been pegged in on Tuesday, which would not have been his next time through the rotation.

So yet, so that's a good sign, but I don't see where Jason got that news.

I'm not I'm not doubting it, but it could be his his thought of when he'll slide back in.

I have not seen that official news. So I would definitely keep an eye on this the rest of Saturday evening and Sunday hoping to get more news.

And if we don't get more, I definitely would not drop Latz yet.

If you did not drop drop him last weekend when he did not make the rotation.

Yeah, I mean, Latz did pretty good.

He did go just four innings, which is not totally surprising.

One of the main reasons why he didn't win that final spawn the rotation was the concerns that he wouldn't be able to last long enough into games with the velocity with his stuff and all that.

Only what only goes for innings three strikeouts, no run runs.

And so it looked pretty good all around could be an opportunity.

We hear about this a lot across a lot of different teams with the players being considered for like piggyback situations.

Rob Leskey and Otani being the most, you know, the more prominent example of that of what we expect to see over the weekend as well.

Or into next week. So there could be an opportunity for that.

If that's the case, he's obviously has more.

He has more value to us as the reliever as the first man up coming in.

And even if he just gets the three or four innings after whoever else is getting the first three or four innings, that's still going to be.

I mean, if you if you replicate what you did today, but coming in in the fourth inning instead of coming in in the first inning, I'm all about that.

Absolutely.

Until you hear some actual news or see it actually happen in real life, hard to predict when it might though.

In Cleveland or four Cleveland, Tanner by be pitched on Friday, but he did leave his start with reported shoulder inflammation.

How concerned are you hear the word shoulder and you hear inflammation to words you don't want to hear together, especially with your picture.

How concerned are you here and are you making any rash decisions within fab based on what we what we saw.

If I roster Tanner by be I'm expecting him to be out for a while.

Now we don't know that yet, but shoulder inflammation is never good to hear.

The fact that he threw one warm up pitch and was removed, that scares me.

Something's wrong in my opinion, there's it's more than just that that didn't feel quite right.

If you throw one warm up pitch, call out the trainer and you're removed.

So we don't know yet, but as far as I you don't want to drop in, I don't believe yet, but I'm definitely not counting on having him in my lineup the next couple of weeks.

Yeah, and recording.

Yeah, fair enough. I'm assuming you know he misses at least through this next week.

It did say with you pitching at the Dodgers, we wouldn't have thrown him out there anyway.

Exactly.

But so you'd have been replacing him this week anyway, hopefully, but if we do get more news, he might even be a drop.

Yeah, it's just the question of who we actually might be able to expect Cleveland to roll out there in his stead.

Throughout the course of, you know, whether it's the next start, next two starts, next three starts.

Have you eyeballed anybody that you might be looking at in Cleveland?

I hadn't yet, but I want to look quick.

It's Logan Allen probably.

We already thought he might already had a chance.

Messick had to beat him out. I mean, it's not exciting, but I think it's probably Logan Allen.

Yeah, that's unfortunately.

That's what I was afraid you were going to say.

We got Jason hasn't even made any adjustments on what he expects to have.

He's still got by me in there for the next couple starts.

So obviously, well, I wouldn't say obviously, but I do not expect him personally.

They are downplaying it.

They said that it's not serious, but he'll be reevaluated when we get some actual news on that.

We can act on it.

All right, back away from pictures.

Let's go over to some other bad news.

This is the worst part of like opening weekend.

It's like all the mystery injuries.

We didn't even know existed.

The guys that are getting the worst possible opening day luck that you can think of.

Let's start with Mickey Moniac in Colorado.

He was placed in the I.L. with a sprained right ring finger finger.

He's called up catcher Braxton Fulford to take his place on the roster.

So obviously not a one-to-one swap.

What expectations are you seeing or expecting to see out of the Rockies lineup that maybe you had in thought of prior with Moniac in place?

Well, I think we were only going to see Moniac.

I think we were only going to see Moniac versus Rites.

But that and Jake McCarthy is going to be out there.

Jordan Beck is going to be out there versus Rites as well because Jordan Beck is going to play versus anybody.

I think this is some playing time insurance for Jake McCarthy.

I think it means we see him definitely versus every single Ritey possibly versus some lefties as well.

But I think it solidifies Jake McCarthy leading off versus all Rites in Colorado.

He's already got a stolen base.

And he's not highly rostered.

So we will be talking about him later in the show as well.

Fair enough.

I also had a Colorado just a little bit of a surprising note.

TJ Rumfield did make the roster not only making the roster, but be two starts in a row at first base.

I would expect that trend to continue.

Even if it is the strong side of platoon, just the fact that he made his opening day roster with a strong spring in in Colorado.

The Rockies don't play in Colorado for like the first like three series of the season.

I feel like they do this on purpose every year.

It's like let's wait as long as possible to get these guys back to Colorado.

And it makes sense for a lot of different reasons.

But any interest in TJ Rumfield because even if you didn't think to pick him up last last weekend in fab because of the whole, you know, rookie thing in NFBC.

I mean, he's made his debut. He's available.

He'll be available wherever, wherever you're fabbing.

Yeah.

500 played appearances last year, little over in the Yankee Yankees organization.

A very, very large majority of that at AAA, only 34 of those played appearances at AA.

9 over a 9% walk rate and only a 16 and a half percent strikeout rate.

That leads to a nice batting average, moderate power, 15 home runs, 17 and 2023 at high in AA.

So just making that progression, hitting that mid teens power, just a handful of stolen bases each of the last couple of years.

This is a guy that I think it's, he's not as zero anywhere and could be a batting average asset projections for his first stint in the major leagues.

Have him at 260 down to, in the 250s and 260s, most of the projections, the bat being down into the 240s.

When projections are projecting a rookie for a batting average, it already doesn't hurt us.

I feel like we might get one that actually helps us.

Projections are pretty rough on these guys when they first come up.

So I feel like there could be something here in 15 team leagues.

You typically want a little more power out of your first basement, but in a corner spot.

I think he's definitely on the radar.

Probably not somebody I'm running to grab this weekend, but somebody to keep an eye on for sure.

58% rostered in the main event in those drafts are all done now.

So that percentage is currently set in stone until this weekend changes, changes things.

PL projections for the week have him at a 275 average now.

Obviously that's weekly.

What have you but the fact that that's what we really care about.

Yeah, that's we just this coming week, especially when only one of those series is happening in Colorado.

He doesn't get that extra boom.

But overall being projected right around the likes of Max Muncie in for the athletics, Isaac Collins, Stephen Kwan.

So he's like in that same kind of realm as far as overall value goes.

So good to see that.

Moving into Miami.

Christopher Morrell hits the I.L. with a left oblique strain.

So he'll be out for a little bit here.

He was replaced rather quickly by Davidson Dillacentos.

One of their top prospects with first base eligibility.

First and third base eligibility, at least in Yahoo.

So I'm probably not in anywhere else.

Actually not sure that he's available in.

In the in the NFBC yet because he did not make his debut yet.

And he's not a guy that was drafted much.

Yeah, yeah.

So he's not coming up in my roster ship page that I'm just trying to do.

He didn't get that we needed him in the lineup today or he could.

As long as he gets in the game today, it's it's got to be by 10 a.m. on Sunday.

And none of the games start before 10 a.m. on Sunday.

So we need to see him get into Saturday's game for him to be available this weekend.

But going back to Morrell, 2027% rostered in the main event.

Is this a quick drop, especially if you've got more than one I.L. in the NFBC formats?

I think so.

I've heard some people kind of.

Kind of just glossing over.

But at times win healthy.

Last season.

I liked Griffin Cone.

I know that wasn't much.

We only had 86 played appearances.

But at times I liked him in my lineup for that little short spurt we got.

And if he's going to be healthy and play at least against all varieties, which I believe he will.

Griffin Cone is another one I'm going to watch.

I'm not going to run out to grab him this week.

But he's the one I'm going to keep an eye on due to this injury.

Fair enough.

Yeah, of course, do the Santos might be interesting.

But just the fact that one he's probably not going to be available.

Just somebody to put on your watch list once he is.

I don't know how much he will end up actually playing either in that situation.

Very high strikeout rate last year.

Obviously put up a really good season the year before in the lower levels.

But as he has he moved up hasn't really been somebody that I've been super excited about.

Just because I wasn't sure where the playing time is going to be and what kind of production we were going to see at the major league level.

Now we get a whole week to see what that might look like in Miami in a new season.

All right.

All the news really came out of Milwaukee.

Unfortunately with one of those secret injuries I mentioned earlier.

Jack Centurio.

Many people's second round draft back in throughout draft season was placed in the IEL with a fractured left hand.

And that supposedly he he sustained early on in in spring training before the World Baseball Classic played through the World Baseball Classic with it.

And then determine that no not it's it's broken.

We're going to go on the IEL as opening day rosters were being set Milwaukee being one of those teams that didn't play until Friday.

So we had two full days of regular season baseball where we are completely in the dark.

Anyway, so he'll be on the shelf for a little bit.

Andrew Vaughn follows suit by fracturing his hammy on opening day.

So he made it through no secret injuries here.

We knew exactly when it happened.

But he'll be out probably for four to six weeks depending on how his rehab goes after that surgery.

Jefferson Quero was called up by Milwaukee to replace Vaughn.

And then there's speculation that Gary Sanchez may get some reps at first base just out of necessity.

You know, so we have a lot going on on the in the lineup in Milwaukee.

Overall takeaways here Kevin.

Nobody is drop like an automatic drop.

I don't think in this obviously not sure.

Yo Vaughn debatable, but probably not overall thoughts here on what's going on in Milwaukee.

I think for the time being at least versus righties.

Garrett Mitchell will be the center fielder.

I know they've had lockridge on the roster.

He made the opening day roster.

I talked about him a couple of weeks ago.

He did not start opening night did get the start on Saturday.

But Garrett Mitchell.

Garrett Mitchell has been in center field for both both games.

So I think we see that for the two to four weeks.

If you could use an outfielder at least versus righties once again.

The I.

Jake Bowers has been in there at left field opening night.

And that's opening up another outfield spot because I think he's playing first base not Gary Sanchez.

Sanchez might versus lefties and they have a fairly split week two lefties four righties coming up.

It is split even with each half one lefty two righties each half of the week.

That makes it kind of tough to play any of these guys.

But the guys on a large side.

If you're getting two out of three games from them in a really deep league and you're in a tough spot.

I'd take a shot.

The guy that these injuries probably didn't affect too much unless just the other positions needing field.

This definitely I think solidifies our guy David Hamilton at third base.

So if you're looking for stolen bases, I would definitely be interested in David Hamilton.

Yeah, I think it I think it means Jake Bowers is the first baseman versus righties Garrett Mitchell is versus righties.

And we will see lock Ridge out there in left field with free lick in his normal right field until we get sure you're back.

So this is only a couple of week thing. Hopefully up to four they're saying.

So probably plan on three.

I mean, you can still make these decisions knowing that that time frame is pretty much set.

Right. You got at least two weeks out of these guys.

I like the call out for David Hamilton.

I don't like the call out and the fact that I dropped him last week out of what I thought was necessity for other moves.

But you know, to see David Hamilton getting every day playing time is just kind of a dream come true.

In a lineup like that, we're even at the bottom. We expect him to give more played appearances to get on base and get us a couple of stolen bases and runs.

That's all you're asking for.

The fact that we're seeing Jake Bowers as their cleanup hitter, probably an everyday basis, though, is I don't know.

It makes you feel some feelings.

I didn't see mentioned that Christian Yelich might get some run in the outfield.

I hope they don't do that. He's so good when he's healthy.

Just let him keep the H and don't don't go there. You they have guys.

Yes. They have guys that are competent in the outfield. So please don't put Yelich out there.

Yeah.

There's absolutely no need.

All right.

We will move on to our last piece of new small little piece of news here.

Tommy fam is latched on once again this time on a minor league deal with the New York Mets.

He does have an opt out clause that he can.

He can trigger if he's not on the if he's not playing at city field by April 25th.

So we'll see if he ever dawns a Mets uniform officially on a field.

Or if he just kind of does what he has tended to do over the last couple of years and play for like at least three different teams throughout the season in some capacity.

But thoughts on Tommy fam in the outfield or in the DH spot for the Mets come the end of April.

I knew you were going to put this on the rundown because we're we bring it up at some point every season.

Tommy fam does what Tommy fam does when he's in a lineup.

Unfortunately, I think it takes an injury for him to get into this lineup.

Carson Ben just looks like he he's going to hold that spot down.

Luis Robert Jr. with his walkoff home run on Saturday is looks like the change of scenery is helping him out quite a bit and want Soto.

The the only thing that I could see and I I don't think this will happen.

Especially Brett Bates hit the ground running in the season as well.

I know we've had two games, but I don't think this would happen.

Even at.

It would be much later in the season.

I could see at some point the Mets want want Soto to DH and then that would open up a spot.

But Brett Bates filled that find so far and I don't think Soto would go for that at this point.

It would take a lot for them to convince him like he'd have to play like O'Neal crew O'Neal crews played yesterday.

But I had to throw that dig in somewhere in the episode.

That was ridiculous, but I yeah, I I think it takes an injury.

But I think we'll see Tommy fam in a lineup this season.

I don't think it's going to be the Mets.

Yeah.

Oh sure.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I think that's probably his thought too.

If somebody gets banged up, I can go with this team that that that that I expect to win.

I don't have to settle for a team just to get my playing time yet.

Maybe I can get a latch on to a team that's going somewhere.

Yeah.

I mean, that's what a lot of, you know, especially super veterans do, you know, in their waning years of their career.

They're like, you're fine.

Somebody will need me at some point.

It doesn't need to be now.

It can just be later.

I'll take a pro rated contract and I will chase that that final ring.

And time will get with that at this point.

I guess the question is, are you more surprised that Tommy fam?

Who makes their way onto a major league roster first?

Tommy fam or Lucas Geolito?

Lucas Geolito.

All right.

Okay.

On the roster, right?

Not in a game.

Because he's going to probably got some building up to do.

But there's already a couple teams that should be on the phone with Lucas Geolito right now.

If they're not already.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's the thing should be.

No, I will say in a game.

I'm going to say in a game.

Because he's a thing.

It's like, then I go with fam within a game with just a matter of getting him on to the major league roster first.

You know, he signs that minor league deal.

He's willing to sign that minor league deal.

Luckily, you know, he's smart enough to put in that opt out clause after just about like three and a half weeks into that contract.

So, you know, we'll see how quickly that happens.

All right.

Well, that is it.

You know, last piece of news that just came through was just the fact that, you know, all are are feelings so far.

We're correct.

Knock on wood.

Zach Wheeler looking pretty good in his in his three innings of work today.

Through 38 pitches, free Lee high Valley in his one of two rehab starts that he scheduled to make.

So pending, you know, a poor outing in his secondary hebsitant should see him in Philadelphia.

In short, shorter order than I think most people were drafting him might have might have fought.

I have some breaking news.

I love that.

Start start looking for who the next closer in Kansas City is.

Carlos Estevez just gave up six runs in the ninth on two walks four hits, including a grand slam.

They entered the any the entered the bottom of the ninth of two zero.

And he gave up six runs and lose six to was he throwing like 85 or is he finally back up, you know, above 90.

Because that was the big that was the big rub on Estevez throughout spring training.

And he doesn't always start off very strong either.

But this one this year, it seemed like it was.

It looks like his four seamer was sitting about 92.

Okay.

All right.

Well, it's above 90.

Um, but man, six runs.

Yeah, six runs is ugly.

I'm sure Kansas City is going to say, right, six runs is not any different for the results than three.

But, uh, yeah, that's, uh, for a guy, a lot of people were off of anyway.

And I wasn't one of them.

I drafted a lot of Estevez.

But, uh, I don't know if a team that has playoff aspirations.

I've said that he has a long leash.

I still believe that.

I don't think he's losing the role right now.

But I start thinking some backup plans.

Yeah, some stashes.

So, I mean, is it Lucas Ertsig?

Is it, well, it's probably not Matt Strom, uh, though he probably could do it.

Is there any dark horses in there that you like?

This is your team.

Yeah.

Well, I just saw this.

So I'm not sure.

Um, I would have said Ertsig, but he didn't look good this spring.

And then he had a walk in a hit.

He didn't give up any runs today.

But he had let two runners reach base in the eighth inning.

So, um, I'm not so sure it wouldn't be strong at this point.

Um, you know, John Shriver, everybody forgets has some experience in that role,

even if it was short lived, uh, and look pretty good while doing it.

So, you know, don't, don't count them out completely.

But I agree with you.

I mean, I don't, he's not being, he's not, he's not losing the job tomorrow,

because based on this one instance.

Uh, but unless it is injury related, unless it is, you know,

something else that had a lot of us worried throughout spring training.

And it just had a velocity was a big worry.

Yeah.

Um, all right.

Well, let's, uh, we got to get into who what we're actually going to do with our fab, Kevin.

But first we do have to take a quick break.

All right.

We are back.

Of course, you are still listening to on the wire.

We think you so much for doing so, whether you're listening, you're watching,

or you're just, you know, thinking about us, uh, fondly.

Uh, we are going to get right into making any kind of recommendations,

observations based on the categories, like we typically do power, speed,

opportunity.

And then hitting into the pitching categories are volume stats,

wins and strikeouts.

If you're chasing your, you want to chip away our ratios,

we'll get to that next saves.

And of course, our wild card section, which is always fun to do for the first,

you know, two thirds of the season, really.

Um, so we're, as we tend to do, we will go through category by category.

Um, let's start off with our power categories, Kevin.

A lot of options, you know, this early in the season, right?

It's like, we didn't know some players were going to even be available.

TJ Rumpfield, I brought up earlier, didn't really know.

He was an option not only to make the roster, but to start, uh,

we obviously talked about some of the big names coming up, um,

in the middle infield, JJ weather, um, weather, and, uh,

Kevin Connagall in Detroit, in St. Louis, respectively,

uh, also made available.

Most of them drafted pretty much everywhere, but, uh,

there still tends to be some guys that, um, you know,

sneak through the cracks, become available in the first week,

two weeks, then there's always injuries, guys that are coming into,

into, um, into roles that we didn't expect, like in Milwaukee,

um, that we just talked about.

So who do you have your eye on in the power category,

home runs, RBI, uh, that might, you know,

be there, be good enough just for this week,

or somebody you wish you had drafted.

So let's get them now.

Uh, somebody I did draft a couple of times late,

still has quite a bit of a late, uh, availability,

uh, Reese Hosskins in Cleveland, not in the lineup on Saturday,

and this is very intriguing to me.

Uh, Reese Hosskins off to a nice start,

and he is 58% rostered in main events.

So available in over 40% of those,

only 3% rostered in 12s,

and I would roster, uh, Reese Hosskins,

if I need a power bat in 12s.

Uh, I believe he is going to be first base DH nearly every day.

He's not in the lineup on Saturday,

but they gave both him and chased the lottery

a day off from playing in the field,

and they lotter got that DH start.

How can you, how can you take the lotter out of the lineup

when he's hit three home runs in his first two regular season games

as an MLB player?

So I don't think this is a regular thing that we will see often.

Uh, I think typically we would see, uh,

chased a lotter in right field, again, the third day in a row.

Uh, so Reese Hosskins, I think,

does get nearly every day playing time.

Uh, he signed late with Cleveland.

Uh, I, I think it's him and Monsardo just alternating days

at first base and DH most of the time,

as we've seen Cleveland do for the past couple of seasons

with other players.

So, uh, I, I love Reese Hosskins getting this playing time

out of the gate, the first two games of the season,

and going to try to grab him in the leagues I did not draft him late.

Yeah, I mean, the fact that he took a little while

to kind of latch on somewhere was a little surprising

based on who was still available, um, on the free agent market,

uh, at that point in spring, you know, getting into spring training,

um, but to see him in Cleveland, uh, projected by PLV to,

you know, be pretty good to, uh, two and a half RBI on the week,

uh, just under, oh, you know, I was the way I always look at it

is that when you have, uh, when you're projected for one,

or less than one home run in these weekly projections,

I'd just take that as percentage of chances he's going to hit a home run.

So we got a 70% chance, uh, he's projected for 0.7 home runs,

which would be an interesting thing to actually see out of staff board.

Um, so about 70%.

We have partial scoring in NFL fantasy, so why not?

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, I mean, these are, this is the, you know,

granted, also projected for a 200 average in the, uh, in the week that he has,

but that's not why we're looking at a guy like this for this,

for this particular time period.

You're not expecting to use Hoskins weekend, week out,

um, just in the right circumstance, especially if you're looking for the power situation.

Um, yeah, anybody else in the power category looking for a home run,

looking for good matchups, uh, or, you know, a couple of RBI,

because they happen to be in the right spot in the lineup, um,

that you weren't expecting.

Well, not necessarily that I wasn't expecting.

Uh, Miguel Handohar in San Diego, uh, 63% rostered in main events.

So he's available in well over a third of leagues.

Uh, so I, I like that a little bit.

Um, fortunately, we've seen Mark Vintos, uh,

get a little bit of playing time early, probably going to be short side platoon.

Um, so not a lot of interest there, unless we see, uh,

the meds set to face a bunch of lefties.

Um, but, uh, Mark Walner, uh, it's got a little bit of availability in Minnesota.

Uh, but the, yeah, Reese Hoskins can be at the top of my list for certain.

All right. Well, let's get some speed under our belt then, Kevin,

um, as we look for some runs scored, you are in some stolen bases.

Of course, you already mentioned David Hamilton being, uh,

at least some way to you take a look at, um, who might be available, um,

in your leagues also has multi eligibility, um, which is nice as well.

Um, well, he will soon, um, just second base as of right now,

but should gain that third base eligibility by, well, 10 games.

So, you know, by the, uh, the end of next week, I guess, maybe, uh, early the week

after. Um, so put him in an MI, that's what you expect.

But it will be nice to get stolen bases out of your corner or at least have the option

to if you didn't get your stolen bases elsewhere in your draft.

So, um, you can usually, you can't usually find that position, uh,

to fill in that gap in your stack cat and your stack categories, uh,

but anybody else, Kevin, that, uh, you might be eyeballing for that reason.

Yeah, uh, Jake McCarthy, uh, that we briefly mentioned earlier as well.

And Jake Myers and Houston, um, he's only 55% rostered in main events.

So there's, there's quite a few speed guys out there that aren't necessarily

going to destroy you other places, uh, all three of those guys I'd be happy with.

Uh, yeah, I mean, I feel there's, it's really, it's easier earlier in the season.

If you are doing any kind of, you know, prop betting when it comes to stolen bases,

uh, I feel like they haven't really always caught up that quickly.

If you can find the right matchups, but not as easy in my mind to stream your stolen bases,

uh, in, in your weekly leagues in your early on in your, your, your long season.

So, um, a lot of guys running already, but not necessarily, um,

you know, guys that I'm going to be, you know, reaching out and trying to like fill in the gaps

this early in the season, as far as trying to, you know, just try to find some

stolen bases on the wire.

I'm always first one to say you can definitely stream stolen bases throughout the

year. I just think it's a little harder to do in the first couple of weeks of the

season until we start seeing some patterns.

We start seeing some usage.

We had a lot of coaching changes that will affect the stolen base, uh, opportunities,

red lights and green lights.

Yeah.

So, we'll see exactly what's happening in, I think Washington is one of the

biggest ones we're looking at, um, in a couple other ones that, uh, yeah.

Nassim Nunez, who you've mentioned before, of course, uh, he is projected for

two stolen bases next, next week, uh, by PLV weekly projections.

Um, if you don't have a hold of these, by the way, if you're wondering where I'm

getting them from, of course, you can always sign up for PL pro.

You get not only daily, but weekly projections, um, powered by PLV in addition to all

the other fun stuff you can talk to us on the discord.

You can, um, do a bunch of other things with all the different cool apps that, um,

Kyle and team have put out, um, throughout the season and sign up for yearly.

You'll have all access to the live draft assistant for next year's drafts,

uh, throughout the course of the, throughout the course of the end of the,

the term of your subscription.

So take a look at that as well.

Um, moving on.

I have a question for you before we move on from Steve.

Yes.

Houston has played three games.

Two of them have been versus lefties.

And we have seen Bryce Matthews in the starting lineup versus both lefties.

Do we see him more than that?

And is three games versus lefties this early in the season enough for a guy

that stole over 40 bases at AAA last year?

We're talking speed.

Bryce Matthews is going to run, uh, and he's going to get the playing time at least versus lefties,

but it may only be versus lefties.

So what are you thinking then in Houston?

I, I think it's worth a shot the first half of the week when they face two out of three lefties.

If you're sure on bags.

Yeah.

I mean, I just love the fact that if he's going to steal on lefties, um, then.

Yeah.

Give me all the righties.

Like, I mean, even, even if he's not going to play, he's the type of guy though.

He's, if he's not going to play against righties, then he's still going to get in there

and have more opportunity to steal bases when against those right.

It's, I mean, everybody in their cousin knows it's, it's a lot much harder to steal on a leftie

because they're just staring at you the whole time, right?

At least while you're sitting on first base.

I mean, I'd like to see it happen.

And if you're, if you're looking for, if, if you know, that's how you drafted and you did not draft well

as far as stolen basically, and you're in an overall and you need that, you need some kind of bump.

Um, I, you know, I'd be going after brace mouth.

These words available.

Um, what's his, uh, he's got to be available.

He's going to strike out.

But he's also going to walk.

Uh, moderate power.

The last couple seasons in the minors mid teens home runs 15 and 17.

The last two seasons.

So he's not going to be a zero in home runs and RBI, which a lot of the guys with,

that was at that stolen base potential are.

Um, yeah, I think, I, I think he's worth a shot here.

I, I, I think he's worth a shot here.

And it's, I, for me, it's a little early to be streaming for stolen bases.

You don't want to fall behind in, uh, home runs and RBI.

But, um, if he's only going to play versus lefties and he's got that moderate power,

uh, I, I definitely interested the first half of this week on teams that I feel like I'm light in speed.

We don't know yet.

We don't know how our categories are working out.

However, all these county stats just, just like wins for the major league teams count the same

today as they count the last weekend in September.

So do these county stats.

I, I think on teams that I feel like I'm light on speed.

I might try to grab him this Sunday night and put him in for the first half of the week.

Uh, he starts getting at that's versus versus righties.

Then we'll hold on to him.

It doesn't play in the, the idea of if he's going to play against razor lefties is the most important thing.

It doesn't hurt that his next two series, uh, are at West Sacramento and at Colorado back to back.

Um, after, after the series, um, against my red socks to start the week.

Um, so that's, you know, if he's, if he's, he's not a non, he's not a zero in the other categories.

So just nice to, nice to see that opportunity, uh, present itself to really not beat the zero.

Um, in those ball parks.

Um, yeah, keep an eye and see if he, uh, starts that game, um, on, on Sundays.

Well, if you get three in a row, regardless of handedness, you know, it's still, and he can do anything with it.

Um, I'd be, I'd be, I'd be keeping an eye on it.

Um, you know, the free projections on fan graphs, it's zips that will project these guys for more of a full season.

The zips projection rather than the 30 games, the other projection systems give him, uh, 119 games, 496 played appearances with project him for 17 home runs, 22, 27 stolen bases.

So, uh, yeah, if he, if he starts getting more playing time than short side platoon, uh, he'll become more and more popular.

So if grabbing him now might be a good idea.

Mm hmm.

Um, then we will now move on to our opportunity section, Kevin, um, as we look ahead at the week's schedule.

Um, like, like we said, so far, so good.

It's only the first full week of the season, but nobody has that dreaded two days off that five game work week.

Uh, there are a handful of teams that have seven games, though, uh, Arizona, Atlanta, the New York Mets and San Francisco both play are all five teams play seven games next week.

There, everybody else has one day off, but there are some interesting days off, um, as well.

This one, not as a big of a deal, especially in your NFBC formats where you're changing your lineups over on Fridays.

But Kansas City and Minnesota have their off day on Tuesday instead of on Monday or Thursday, um, or instead of Thursday.

That is, but Toronto and the Chicago White Sox are off on Friday.

So mental note there when setting your lineups or considering who you might be picking up for the week specifically.

Yeah, that's great that they have four days in the week, but you're probably going to have to think twice whether or not you're going to start them over the weekend.

Um, in Toronto or for the White Sox, everybody else is off just on Thursday.

Uh, Colorado is splitting their week.

They continue to be on the road.

Three at Toronto to start, but they do come home against the Phillies to end the week with three.

Cincinnati also splitting.

We got Pittsburgh.

They're going to be in, uh, they're going to be hosting Pittsburgh for the beginning of the week.

They've traveled to the opposite of a hitter friendly ballpark in Texas to end the week.

And then we went on putting Tampa Bay on here anymore because they're back in their picture friendly park as opposed to their hitter friendly park from last year.

But the athletics still play in West Sacramento.

Uh, not only half the week though, they play three in Atlanta and then they do host Houston for three.

Well, that didn't mind anything else, Kevin.

Uh, who are you eyeballing that have a good opportunity in the first full week of the major league season?

I just realized I took, check this roster personage quick.

Oh, yeah, he's, he's not rostered anywhere.

And he has second base, third base eligibility playing every day.

They've faced a righty two righties and a lefty.

In fact, the same Francisco Giants have shuffled their order a little bit.

But the same nine guys have been in the lineup all three games in the hitting lineup.

And Casey Schmidt is the first baseman with the dual eligibility there at middle and corner.

He is my favorite guy for opportunity.

And a guy that I think I'm going to try to grab even if I don't necessarily need him at this point.

I think this is a good guy to have on your bench that covered middle and corner.

Uh, if you're not solid on coverage yet with your lineups, you know, in draft season, some of us will take more pictures.

Try to see a starter to out of some of the pictures and then lean more towards coverage for the weekend in season.

At least that's my philosophy.

Uh, I'll start dwindling the number of pictures on my bench and make sure I have the coverage for the weekend on offense.

And somebody like Casey Schmidt, as we're making that transition that can cover middle and corner, especially this coming week with the Giants having seven games.

Nice. Let me ask you about only because the PL projections look pretty good.

He probably won't play every day.

Um, but with the when he does play, if he is playing, if he is continuing to be in the two spot for Toronto.

Uh, Nathan Luke's left field, he did start on Friday against the righty.

He did not start on Saturday against the lefty.

Um, like I said, he was in the two spot for, uh, for Toronto when he did start against that righty.

Um, even if he only starts, you know, four out of the six games that Toronto has.

Um, if all those four do come in that first full week or the first that first.

No, but it's three and one.

So you're getting three.

Like you're going to get with most players anyway in the first half.

So yes, I think that and that's where Jason Martinez had him projected to be was in the two whole versus right handed pitching.

Uh, so yeah, absolutely.

I like that call.

One other one, uh, um, based on matchups is, uh, Joey Loper Fito is getting his playing time out of the gate.

So, uh, he's, he, we could put him here in opportunity or power.

There's a lot of borderline guys.

Uh, that I, but I think it's a little early.

Hopefully we don't need some of these guys yet.

But, uh, a couple of them could, could turn out to stick with our teams.

So, uh, definitely in 12s, right?

When we're churning.

I'm grabbing some of these guys, uh, like, uh, like Nathan Luke's who has a three game week, the first half of the week.

That's the type of guy you definitely want to be churning in at 12.

It's a little harder and 15 when you're not so sure you want to drop the guys you would have to get them in your lineup.

But, uh, yeah, I, I agree.

Yeah.

Uh, Luke's a camp from where I could tell 0% rostered and pretty much everywhere, which was, I mean, maybe a little surprising, maybe not.

But even in the main event, um, 0% Loper Fito, um, only, uh, 18% rostered in the main event.

So both those guys, if you need outfield help, um, even if it is a short term fix, uh, at least.

Houston has that split week this week.

So you might not be able to use, uh, Loper Fito much this week.

Uh, but I think he's going to be a popular ad maybe not this week, but when the week for his playing time comes up.

So if you have room, go ahead and grab him now.

Um, yeah, what, um, I think you just talked about it.

But like, who does Toronto face, uh, throughout the course of, so they, they are,

Toronto's got some pretty nice pitching matchups. Looks like, uh, in Colorado,

Sugano, Feltner, Freeland, uh, or those are home versus Colorado.

And then, uh,

Burr, they could get great from the white socks.

So Toronto has, uh, some pretty nice matchups this week.

So yeah, they, I mean, like you said, they should get three righties in the lefty in that first, in that four games.

So, you know, who knows, maybe Luke's gets in, in, and it's Freeland.

Um, they only left you the fill face, uh, in that first four days of the season of the, of the week.

So, yeah, um, I like Luke's quite a bit for this, this particular week.

And I just don't plan over the weekend, um, with that only that one game.

Yeah, he's probably going to get one. Yeah.

You'll probably only get one of those two games too, um, based on.

Yeah, exactly.

They're playing the white socks. So yeah, they'll get Anthony K probably scheduled for Saturday.

So he probably gets three days off in a row with the off day in the, in the middle.

Um, I should probably mention that I knew those Pat pitching matchups so quickly, uh, by looking at Ryan Bloomfield's, uh, weekly planner that he puts out.

As part of the, if you remember, the bubble and the bloom discord, uh, should probably let everybody know that because it's, it's a great tool.

And that's how I was able to let you know who the pitching matchups were so quickly there.

Excellent. Um, all right. Well, plenty of things to think about on the hitting side, especially if you were just trying to chip away.

Um, at things you know, you didn't do that well on in your draft. Now, uh, hard, hard to make those hard decisions, though.

Like you said, um, if you're, you know, this early in the season, because you don't want to, you know, you don't want it to go in the opposite direction.

Um, but now we need to talk about pitching, but before we do that, we will take one more break.

All right, Kevin, it's never too early to chase your wins and of course, pad your strikeouts.

Uh, so let's get into our volume stats here with our wins in our strikeouts, two-star pitchers, vulture wins, guys are just finding their way into the rotation you didn't expect.

Uh, if all you care about are wins and strikeouts, who are you looking at?

I, I, I have a few, uh, couple of guys that are 100% rostered in main events and only available in about 10% of 12 team online championships.

If you're in that roughly 10% of leagues where they're available, I definitely like Chris Bassett this week, who gets Texas at home and at Pittsburgh.

And Zach F1 is available in nearly 10% of 12 team leagues. That surprises me. He should be 100% rostered. He gets Texas at home this week, like both of those guys.

The big one, uh, that we didn't think had made the rotation and pitched well today. For me, Joe Boyle, I was so excited when he went to Tampa.

Maybe they'll teach him some control. He didn't have the strikeouts today, but he only gave up three hits, zero walks for Joe Boyle.

It was amazing. Yes, it was St. Louis, but next week he gets Minnesota, not much better to line up in St. Louis. St. Louis has put up some runs so far this season, but not against Joe Boyle.

That's, uh, the opposite of what you expect. Of course, out of Joe Boyle. His whip looks amazing and his ERA does look so good. He, I think, well, his ERA dropped down to three. He gave up the two runs early and then pitched six innings.

ERA is only three, but it did look completely backwards earlier in the game as the ERA was high as he gave up the two runs early and the very low whip. You're exactly right. It was backwards.

Davis Martin has a nice two step. He's available everywhere at Miami. Well, not a nice two step. You get at Miami. If you can.

This is this, I probably wouldn't do this Toronto as well with Davis Martin with the white socks, but I did write him down. If you really need somebody, I do really like this one.

100% rostered in the main event, but only 35% rostered in 12s. We've talked about this before main event players grabbed, grabbed him last week or were drafting him because it was later when we knew where he was and what he's doing.

Justin Verlander is available in 65% of 12 team leagues and gets at Arizona and then back home in Detroit versus St. Louis. Love that one. I think he's going to be a popular at this week.

And this one won't be so popular. This depends on what you think of Colorado's lineup and how improved are they because typically we wouldn't we go seeking out a game at Colorado.

But when you get a two step versus Washington. And if it had been the last two seasons, we wouldn't have been scared of at Colorado for Taiwan Walker.

I think he's a guy I have some interest in. He'd be at the bottom of my waterfalls. But if I need a starter for this week, I will take that chance of Taiwan Walker going to Colorado to get that Washington start when I'm not even sure that Colorado, I should be scared of.

Fair enough. Thought overall thoughts on only because like this is one of those teams that has multiple to two star pictures.

Jose Suarez and Atlanta, he goes on to or he scheduled to go on Tuesday should get the Sunday start as well.

Versus athlete at the athletics, not in Sacramento. And then at Arizona overall thoughts there with the just pure volume situation Atlanta looking like they could be a team that can put up runs and get them into the win column at least one out if not both in both games.

I'd later in the season, I'd be all about this. I don't think I'm there yet.

He's going to need he's a type of he's going to need the help, right? He's going to need that run support when I'm chasing wins. I don't think I'm taking this much of a ratio risk this early in the season.

Although projections have him, many of them for low four ZRA. I might be able to be swayed here.

Well, I won't be the one that does it. I'm sorry. Not this time. No, I didn't want to be.

Yeah. And then the other name that pops up only because nobody seems to know exactly what the angels are doing.

PLV projections seem to think that.

Oh geez, I lost my I lost the name already.

Okay.

Ryan Johnson.

Ryan Johnson might get two starts for the angels. And if he does, then we've got at the Cubs and versus Seattle. So probably also a no at this point.

But, you know, I think you kind of nailed it just now. Like we're early in the season where the wrist taking.

Like is it worth getting ahead of it when there's less teams that are willing to make the risk and like, listen, I, you know, I'm not chasing it yet.

I got it. But you're going to have to chase him at some point.

Is there something to be said about, you know, taking those risks early to get those, you know, one or two wins that you might get that you might not have opportunity to get later on in the season.

Absolutely.

There's a fine line.

And some of these guys you ask me about, I say this all the time, I might have a different answer tomorrow. I can flip back and forth because I say all the time.

The reason we stream pictures is because that's the only way you land the breakout guys in season because if you somebody streamed them, probably.

Or, or they become really expensive, all of a sudden, right? Either somebody already rosters them or they become really expensive. If you're not taking shots like this.

But at the same time, you got to pick and choose a little bit as well. So I can flip flop on some of these guys. I already told you on a couple of might can be sweet.

Yeah.

Of course, it obviously depends on your roster construction in this coming out of out of the draft lot harder to like make yourself drop a bunch of players that you just drafted in the first 20 round of your 30 round draft.

Also, it would depend a lot on the individual league and how my pitching has started out.

Some of my leagues, I have double digit ERAs and it wasn't the fringe guys, right? It was coal regains. It was Paul skiing, right?

And these guys going out there and getting blown up on those. I'm not taking a chance on these guys, but on, you know, some of the leagues you start off early and there's not a big sample size.

And you can have an ERA below two. Maybe I take that chance. But if you have an ERA below two, do you need to take that chance?

So it not very many leagues would I would I do it? But there's probably a spot out there.

Yeah, I mean, it's almost, I'm almost more apt to make the riskier play. If I did have the Paul skiing slogan web of this week, only because it's like if if I'm sitting with a sub to ERA after three days, like I know how easily that can flip.

That's going to go away.

Yeah, I was, we got a screenshot shout out to Brett Ford. He's a my TGFBI league and he's screenshoted me and him after day one.

This is after Wednesday's day game.

We were at the top of our of our league tied for first. And I'm like, all right, end it. We're done seasons over, right? All right, cool. I'm okay sharing.

But let's move on to those ratios. We talked enough about them there. If we're, if we again, we want to pad, it's what's most important to always get nine guys that are going to put forth positive stats in your rotation.

And that may just be guys that are going to help stabilize the Logan webs, the Paul skiing starts that you might have accrued from last week.

We constantly are updating this list. We usually just throw a new guy into the pile pretty much every week. Who's, who's our first one, Kevin?

This one's a little iffy. This is based on seeing him pitch knowing what his walk rate has been throughout the minor leagues and a little bit of major league baseball.

But seeing him pitch and what he's done this spring. And that's Eric Saberowski in Cleveland, the biggest thing for me, what he's had amazing stuff. We know that. And he pitched a fair amount of innings last season at the major league level had an ERA under two and a whip of 119.

That whip of 119 came with almost a walk per inning. He does not give up hits, but he makes he makes Joe Boyle look like an elite command guy.

So, so this one's kind of weird, but he wasn't walking as many guys this spring. And he looked amazing on Friday.

And the cool thing about it for me was Sean Armstrong pitched the seventh, got in a jam. And they brought Saberowski in who was pegged to be their seventh inning guy.

They brought Armstrong in first. And then Saberowski came in, cleaned up his mess and pitched an amazing eighth inning. I was watching that game. He was phenomenal.

Saberowski, his stuff looked nasty. And I hadn't heard of him. I went looking him up. And I saw all these walk issues in his past. And it was very hard to believe he did not look like a guy that has had walk issues in the past.

And he did have four walks in seven and two-thirds innings this spring. That's an improvement though. And then not to have any in his appearance. He just looked dominant.

So this is a hesitant one when we're talking ratios, but he's definitely a guy I want to add. I just know I'm going to have to be careful of that walk problem.

If he's not walking guys, this is a guy I would almost have him line up on a regular basis because you're not just getting that ERA boost.

You're getting a strikeout boost from a reliever, even if it's just three or four innings a week, he could still give you seven or eight strikeouts.

See, this is huge because obviously there's not the category we're talking about here, but whenever you are considering either stashing or utilizing a reliever, if he's not going to hurt you, nevermind help you in that strikeout department.

You can't bank on the wins chasing the wins and the vulture wins, but you can target these guys that are going to at least allow you to tread like are you going to start somebody like are you going to I'm streaming Steven Mats tomorrow in a couple of different places, but am I going to stream Steven Mats or am I going to street like who might get me two to three strikeouts or am I going to stream somebody like this or

you know, Jeremy strata, like he might be on my bench, I play put him in and if he gets three outings, he'll get me.

He very well could give me three strikeouts in each outing, probably doesn't happen regularly like that, but if you can get me some of his minor league numbers, look that way.

I think it like at one stop, he had 24 innings and 43 strikeouts, almost two strikeouts and innings.

This is something like that. I don't have his page pulled up now, but he had some ridiculous strikeout numbers, but the walk numbers are literally a walk per inning as well in those stops.

So, you know, we can get into the next section, but of course you got to be looking at the Kansas City bullpen in general as well in this area.

But again, that's probably best saved for the saves category. But yeah, I mean, ultimately to you, especially at this time of year, you can take advantage of guys that, you know, don't pitch on Sunday can lean, they can set themselves up for a decent volume throughout the course of the full week, especially if you are targeting those teams that have the full seven game work week because a lot of the starters still are not fully, you know, stretched out.

Yeah, we saw a couple of six and seven in games in the first couple of games, but majority of, you know, teams will pull their starters that they're not being super efficient early on in the games, whether it be four innings, five innings.

And then we have all these other injuries like the ground one that we talked about earlier, where the replacement lats only went for innings anyway.

So going to get some extra work out of bullpens, especially early on and especially for those teams that don't have a lot of games because they're going with a four man rotation.

So they're going to rely on their on their bullpens a little bit more as well. So these strategic about it as far as grabbing the guys you think are going to get you three outings, they're going to get you three to four innings.

One in a third, one in two thirds over the course of two or three starts or three two or three appearances to really maximize not only the impact that those ratios are going to have, but also you're not you're not losing ground in strikeouts because of it.

So good call out there Kevin. All right, well, I alluded to it already, but we do have to start speculating on saves from the jump.

Of course, we already kind of talked about Kansas City situation at the moment, Griffin jacks also blew a save earlier, not saying he's not the guy in Tampa, but we also know, you know, he wasn't the guy last year either.

So who, you know, who's to say Tampa doesn't kind of mix and match, leaving you're pretty much being the one that was drafted in his roster pretty much everywhere, at least in those 15 teamers.

So check, you know, on your 12 teamers in your shallow leagues, double check that situation.

Anybody else, you might be eyeballing Kevin as far as potential saves go.

I think the big one with the Yates injury and Stevenson down for the season is most people are thinking Jordan Romano, and I think that's probably the best bet.

I did, I am pretty sure it was Bubba in the bloom, but it was it could have been someone else are expecting triple digit bids on Romano right out the gate this weekend, which that is what we've seen in the past.

If we think a guy can grab this job and hold it and the thing is Yates could be back in a couple of weeks, but also if Romano is performing well, Yates isn't the kind of guy that's going to come in and steal the job.

I don't think, but it's that's too much for me with that possibility of Yates coming back.

So I'd rather take a shot on someone like Drew Pomerance for the angels that has some closing experience as well for much less money.

Of course, I'll put a bid in on Romano, but I don't think it's going to be enough.

There are a couple of others I like as well, but I think you have something here on Romano.

I mean, we just saw Romano do this last year. It's like he had his moment.

He ran with him from he get the $300 bids a couple of years ago.

Yeah, yeah, in Toronto.

Yeah.

But he did it last year in with the Phillies and he ran with it for about what three weeks and then fell off a table or a cliff, whatever metaphor you want to use.

And so I'm not saying I trust him enough regardless of Yates is going to come back and hunt down that job.

Yeah.

I don't expect him to keep it himself.

And they've got not that they have like some obvious answers in that bullpen.

You already you named all of them and they're all hurt.

I mean, Palmerians could could definitely do it.

But the rest of that bullpen, I mean, he's the obvious pick and he's the obvious bid.

But it's it's far from a triple digit slam dunk, if you will.

I'm still holding out hope I drafted in my in my homely.

I played the team I played last year in the championship and did not keeping redeemerced.

And so I drafted him right before his pick.

And of course, he texted me and he's like, good thing it.

He's like, it's probably going to be good now.

And he went foreign.

I'm like, I told him flat out.

I'm like, I hope he sucks at the starter and they make him the closer because that's what I'm drafting him for in this particular style of league.

He went foreign to thirds, let up a bunch of runs, but struck out nine.

This is exactly what the angels need at the back end of their bullpen, right?

And he was so good as a reliever last year.

I'm still holding out hope that that merges the one that, you know, ends up at the end of the season with more saves in an angels uniform or the most saves in an angels uniform.

I mean, it's tough right now.

I mean, that was the only, that was the only obvious one.

You know, who knows what's happening with the athletics between Harris and lighter and Barlow and stoner and, you know, just keep naming names.

The problem with the athletics is that they're, I don't want them in my lineup for half of their games anyway.

But they're now they're an actually good team or at least appear to be a good team.

It used to be a joke. It's like, oh, you always, you don't mind having the closer on a bad team if they're the closer, but you don't want a committee member on a bad team.

But now the athletics seem like they're a committee member on a decent team.

And so I was like, now do we start thinking about chasing that, but to your point, I don't want, I don't want them in half the games anyway.

And I, we have all gray area, all clouds.

We have no idea what could happen on any given day so far.

And I don't expect that to change anytime soon.

It was a lot of talking in Las Vegas that filled the so was drafting Chris Martin everywhere as the Texas closer.

And he's the one that was that that was on the Texas closer last season.

If you remember, it didn't last very long.

But, but he was the one guy that drafted him in a main event last year.

Now, Chris Martin, we had a fab period since then 65% rostered now in in maintenance.

Oh, actually, I think it was higher than that.

But he's available in 12s.

And, but here's the kicker.

On Saturday, they both pitched in the ninth and both gave it up.

They both be in Robert Garcia, who I have several shares of.

I really thought it was going to be him.

But Robert Garcia did start the night.

He was given the first opportunity.

Didn't pitch well.

They brought in Chris Martin and he gave up the tie and runs.

So it.

It's tough.

It's kind of like with the Carlos Sestavas.

If it's if it's if it's not a health thing.

And they were going to give Robert Garcia the opportunity first in the ninth inning on Saturday.

I would tend to think he's the favorite.

However, at the same time.

It was Alexander that ended up getting the save for Texas on Saturday.

I came and bailed it both out.

Then this one, I have a couple of shares of Taylor Rogers in Minnesota.

Cole Sands got that save today.

And I heard DVR talking earlier this week on on rates and barrels that that was kind of the guy he was leaning towards.

You've seen him get a couple of save opportunities in the past.

Jason has this a committee with three guys in that closer role.

But you never know with the guy that gets that first one and looks good.

Just continues getting the opportunities.

I would probably grab Cole Sands tomorrow night.

Taken that shot.

Well, I mean, it wasn't cool.

Sands.

The one everybody thought was going to take over after Jack's left and Durand left.

And it obviously nothing worked out for the twins in the in the second half last season.

But yeah, that's not that wouldn't be terribly surprising.

I mean, the fact that he already got the save is not terribly surprising.

He does seem to have some of the better stuff in that bullpen.

That's not saying a whole lot based on their roster construction at the moment.

Back to Texas.

It's just Chris Martin just doesn't seem like he.

I don't know if it's he doesn't want the job.

He doesn't need the job or the Rangers never really wanted to ever put him in the job.

Because they had a lot of opportunities last year to put him in that job.

They wanted him to take that job and he never did.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Or something.

Yeah.

Something.

Nothing ever lined up.

I'm not dropping Robert Garcia yet.

Yeah.

I think that's really what I'm getting to.

I, you know, will be very surprised at this point.

If Chris Martin runs with that job for more than a spot, you know, start spot.

Appearance in the ninth here or there.

All right.

Kevin move into my, my favorite category.

I always love to see who you're going to put in here, especially now that we're in the official period where you can't draft guys.

Unless you expect you can't pick up guys unless they've made their debut.

Wild card section.

Unless somebody drafted them and then dropped them.

So always take a look.

You never know or keep your notebook.

As Kevin will always say, who you got here in the wild card section.

Yeah.

And this is based on something we talked about earlier about a player I like for their opportunity.

They have right now in Casey's Schmidt.

But I think Bryce Eldridge will hit the ground running back at Triple A.

And we will see him pretty quickly in San Francisco.

So I would try to grab him in leagues where he is available.

And you are able to pick him up the other one.

If people in your league last weekend or this weekend, drop Dylan Cruz.

I think he's worth a stash here.

I think we see him pretty quickly.

Let me ask you about.

I knew you were going to have one for me.

I got one for you.

I got you one for you.

He's two percent roster to the main event.

I'm looking at Alex Freeland for the Dodgers.

He's third base eligible right now playing second base for the Dodgers.

Most of the time, I guess.

It's hard to say most or least of the time when there's only two games of record to look at.

But overall, can Alex Freeland, who is, you know, a decent prospect in their system,

carve out enough playing time and or production to be relevant long term.

Or are we just trying to take advantage, you know, possibly take advantage of what he's with the opportunity they're giving him right now.

At least until maybe they call him back up or something else kind of, Tommy Edmund comes off the IL.

Obviously, there are things that are going to happen in LA.

But if I'm putting any kind of like little bit of bid on Alex Freeland this week, should I be hoping that I'm striking it rich for the long term or just let's just plan for the next like two or three weeks at most.

I think that's all you plan for, but I also think this is a situation where his performance will have a lot to do with what happens.

You know, it was only 97 played appearances, but his strikeout rate went up a lot more than we would hope even making that jump from the miners to, you know, only 97 played appearances.

But his strikeout rate jumped 15 percentage points over what it had been.

You know, he had over 600 played appearances last season, counting AAA over 500 played appearances and then those 97 at the MLB level.

Now he's projected for a mid to upper 20 strikeout rate.

Because, you know, this is a guy that had mid teens home runs last season didn't steal as often as he did in 2024, but he had over 30 in 24 still approached 20 last season.

This is a guy that could play himself into more playing time.

And if you're just one piece of that Dodgers lineup for the next couple of weeks, like you were saying, and you could strike gold, I think this is a guy you could strike gold with.

It's not what I plan on. I plan on that two to three weeks, but this is, this is the type of guy that would, would really tempt me.

If I'm looking at him or a boring veteran that I'm just getting my played appearances from, which is the guys I usually, I like to play it safe with some of those guys very often.

But this, I think there's enough potential in this profile that he might be worth getting the nod over someone like that for the next couple of weeks, absolutely.

Between my aforementioned TJ Rumpfield and Alex Freeland, who, you know, position eligibility definitely plays a role here, team context obviously plays a role here as well.

That would be my other kind of wild card situation because we just haven't seen enough of him needing Colorado.

What, what opportunity, you know, which one would you tend to lean, especially if position is not a concern, you know, obviously if you need a first baseman or if you need a corner, you go to Rumpfield.

But that's not true because Freeland is available at third base currently. So they both be corner eligible.

I don't know if you'd get away with this, probably not with Rumpfield already being 58% rostered in main events, but what I'd like to say is Freeland for the next couple of weeks.

If it works out, you're holding on to him. If it doesn't, you drop him and give Rumpfield a run. However, that might be too late on Rumpfield.

In 12, she might be able to try that.

But I think this time of year, I take the shot with Freeland. I think there's enough potential there that there's a, it's not a great chance, but I, I think there's a chance that he could hit the ground running here.

And even if and when Edmund comes back, somebody's going to be gone for the Dodgers. They have so many guys that, that can be injured.

And I don't trust Colorado. The power's not really that extra great at course field until it gets hot in the middle of the summer.

If it was July, I'd probably say Rumpfield no doubt for that reason. So yeah, I think it's close, but I would lean Freeland, I think.

Yeah, I think there's definitely seem more outs for Freeland to lose the job in shorter order than Rumpfield.

There's, there's only looking at the Dodgers roster. There's only four guys that have options. Everybody else is stuck.

So you're either cutting them or you're, or you're not Miguel Rojas, Cynthia, go as Espanol being the two on the bench that do not have options either.

So between rushing, you're not going to, you're not going to send down your backup catcher.

And then Andy Pahas and Alex Cole being the other ones that have options available.

They're not sending down your world series hero either.

And they're both outfielders. So it's like, yeah, some guys can play multiple positions.

They could force Mookie's hand and have them play second base or go back in the L field in a pinch.

But I think, I think Freeland's the obvious odd man out.

Even if he is starting more regularly than any other other guys, he just, the other guys just fit in those roles a little bit better off the bench.

All right, but still some fun names to consider as you are filling out what should be very long waterfall bids, especially at this point in the season, there are still lots of names and options.

I know my waterfall bids were pretty good last last week and all my leagues and I expect them to be just as long this week.

But Kevin, anything else that you can leave us with as we set our bids for just a second time?

Yes. I'm not going to say it's early, even though I kind of just did.

But what I am going to say is kind of try to hate this phrase, but try to stay calm.

Right. And because what I'm getting at is we talked about a whole lot of different scenarios throughout this episode that at this point in the season, I'm probably not entertaining.

We talked about some picture streaming and I am all about streaming pitching versus batch ups.

Some of those I'm probably staying away from it, even I am staying away from them at this point.

I do like a couple of the two steps and like I said, even that Taiwan Walker, including an at Colorado, I kind of like that one.

I would love it later in the season, but and Verlander, I really like that we talk about he's only available available in 12s.

But for the most part, I'm only making these moves if I've had injuries or guys get sent down.

I'm not making any drops due to performance yet. Absolutely not.

I don't think anybody is, but just a reminder, just right.

I'm going to take it kind of slow and fab this week. I did you did bring up the great point that they kind of made me swayed me a little bit on a couple of these pictures.

I might pick a couple of them up if I have the room and not put them in my lineup because like I said, streamers streaming pitching is how we find the breakout pitchers.

But hopefully you don't have to do too much yet. I guess is what I don't force anything.

You'll be way more upset if you drop somebody this early and they go off.

Then you will if you wait just a couple of more weeks and maybe miss a guy because I don't think many of the Alex Freeland is very appealing to me because I think maybe not immediately.

It may be only for a couple of weeks now, but we don't know what's going to happen with the rest of that Dodgers lineup over the next two weeks.

They have some fairly old players out there in positions.

Someone like that where I think it may turn into more. I might make that move.

But for the most part, I'm going to stand pat unless I have injuries or guys got sent down.

Stay calm and fab on, right?

That's the evening.

But in those spots to your point, yes, you need really, really long waterfalls. That was another big topic in Las Vegas.

Guys that already typically have much longer waterfalls than us are saying their waterfalls aren't long enough.

So that everybody else's are getting longer ours have to.

It's one of those things where it's like when you think you're like, ah, this is fine.

I mean, I don't actually want any of these players army like, but you need something here.

You want something. And if everybody else's waterfalls are long, you're better be longer just so you can make sure that you're getting something.

You're not taking that zero and you're not just having a bench full of I L spots or whatever the case may be.

Because you're going to, you know, things happen throughout the course of the week, especially in your lineup when you have an opportunity to make that switch on Friday, you want to be able to have it.

All right. Well, that is going to do it for the first full true fab of the season second overall though.

And that's going to do it for us at episode 248 of On of the Wire. After all that, I am Adam Howe.

And on behalf of Kevin Hayes, thanks for listening. And we bid you good bye.