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Speaker 1: best Friends Forever, m H. Welcome to the Fantasy best
Speaker 1: Friends Forever on a Tuesday, year breaks Up will be
Speaker 1: joining us shortly. I am Frank Stamfull holding it down
Speaker 1: for now. As I mentioned yesterday, you know, Greg takes
Speaker 1: his time getting up the stairs. He's got all these
Speaker 1: things going on. He's an older gentleman. We're not gonna
Speaker 1: hold it against We're still gonna hold it down here
Speaker 1: or the time being. But we're gonna be joined by
Speaker 1: good friend of the program here, Nick Pollock at picture
Speaker 1: List Great Content. Make sure you follow him on Twitter,
Speaker 1: picture list dot com. What's out great Content ranks the
Speaker 1: top one starting pitchers Every Monday. Try and catch the
Speaker 1: First Pitch podcast every morning that he puts out. You
Speaker 1: can listen to it on SoundCloud. Nick, what's going on, man?
Speaker 1: How's everything? What is happening is it's just gonna be
Speaker 1: me and you for a moment. This is uh, this
Speaker 1: is nice. I don't know. I mean, I love Greg,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, but this feels I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's like we're the best friends forever. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to let him know you're stealing his job,
Speaker 1: like Collix swooping in here and stealing the job of
Speaker 1: one Greg Susman. But this gives us a good opportunity to,
Speaker 1: you know, actually get stuff done without craign. But last night, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, not the most eventful night. It wasn't the
Speaker 1: greatest night in terms of starting pitching. Jay happ only
Speaker 1: gave up one home run, So I'll take that as
Speaker 1: a as a positive. As a Yankees fan, Nick, I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, man, but um, you know, these
Speaker 1: West Coast games, especially with the Yankees, they kill me
Speaker 1: because you know, I stood up until off the eleventh
Speaker 1: ending last night around one am, I go to sleep
Speaker 1: and wake up in the middle of night check and
Speaker 1: what happened to see what happened with the Yankees? But
Speaker 1: it's tough. It's tough here on the East Coast staying
Speaker 1: up here trying to watch some West Coast games, and
Speaker 1: especially now the Yankees are on this West Coast road trip.
Speaker 1: It's a killer. It's a killer, man. West Coast games
Speaker 1: are the worst. I do this article every single night,
Speaker 1: which is the sp round up, going over every single
Speaker 1: starting pitcher performance from that day, and I try and
Speaker 1: write that before I go to bed, which means I
Speaker 1: need to wait until the West Coast games are done
Speaker 1: for the most part, so that I can actually report
Speaker 1: on the starting pitcher. It's it can be brutal, but
Speaker 1: I am happy you went to bed and didn't suffer
Speaker 1: the twelfth ind and come back the Yankees had and
Speaker 1: then the fourteenth any final victory, but that was we
Speaker 1: thought we were out of purgatory. And then now you
Speaker 1: got some more innings to go. Yeah, a roll of
Speaker 1: Chatman blows his first save of the season. You know
Speaker 1: the Yankees, well, the strength of the team is supposed
Speaker 1: to be the pullpen and roller. Chatman blows a saved
Speaker 1: yesterday and the whole the baccle Sunday after a great
Speaker 1: pitching performance from James Paxson, they blew his wind. It's
Speaker 1: very frustrating time. And you know whatever, Yankee fans are spoiled.
Speaker 1: I mean not really though, since like the turn of
Speaker 1: the generation. It's you know, it hasn't hasn't been all
Speaker 1: uh all rainbows and uh and blue skies here for
Speaker 1: for Yankee fans. But it is what it is. We're
Speaker 1: we're getting. We're getting a little taste of what the
Speaker 1: Mets have gone through basically over the past couple of years,
Speaker 1: with all the injuries going on. It's just it's just
Speaker 1: a crazy time. Nick before we jump into some of
Speaker 1: these starting pitchers and where they rank on the list,
Speaker 1: which I encourage everyone to go check out at picture
Speaker 1: dot com. What else do you have going on lately
Speaker 1: over at pitch list. Yeah, I mean we have a
Speaker 1: ton of content and we do about fifteen articles every
Speaker 1: single day. We have obviously your Batter's Box goes over
Speaker 1: every hitting performance last night. We have our hitter list
Speaker 1: that comes out on Wednesdays, which is the top one
Speaker 1: fifty hitters. We have our Holds Rankings, Closer Ranking, Safe
Speaker 1: spos Holds, the Top Prospects of Stash every weekend as well.
Speaker 1: It's uh, we just have everything you'd want for fantasy.
Speaker 1: Just come on buy and check it out real quick.
Speaker 1: I know we're gonna talk about the starting pictures, but
Speaker 1: you mentioned prospects there. Of all these prospects that have
Speaker 1: been getting cold up with Cold Tuckers of the World,
Speaker 1: Brian Reynolds, Michael Javis, which one intrigues you the most.
Speaker 1: I'm curious about Cold Tucker. I think there's definitely some
Speaker 1: value there. You saw right out of the gate way
Speaker 1: he can do power wise. Obviously, I don't expect a
Speaker 1: massive power search from him, but he's definitely intriguing someone
Speaker 1: in twelve teamers I would at least jump at and
Speaker 1: see see how that's gonna go. All right, Nick, let's
Speaker 1: jump in here. The first starting picture I really wanted
Speaker 1: to to get into today that a lot of people
Speaker 1: have been asking me questions about, probably asking you questions
Speaker 1: about as well. I'd imagine is Noah Synder guard Um.
Speaker 1: It seems like he has all the talent in the world.
Speaker 1: You know, the guy throws nearly a hundred miles prior.
Speaker 1: He's got like a ninety plus mile prior Slider. I
Speaker 1: put out a poll before the show started, asking you know,
Speaker 1: how do fantasy owners feel about Synderguard because I wasn't
Speaker 1: avoiding him, but I would have drafted him. I didn't
Speaker 1: end up with him anywhere. I'm actually you know, I'm
Speaker 1: playing in six or seven leagues that I'm actually playing
Speaker 1: out competitive leagues, and I don't have any shares of
Speaker 1: Noah synder Guard. So I asked people, how do how
Speaker 1: do you feel about Noah synder Gard? He has a
Speaker 1: five point nine zero e r A to to start
Speaker 1: the season. Uh. The options being he's been unlucky, I'm
Speaker 1: to man up him away and thirty eight percent say
Speaker 1: it's time to man up? Time to man up? Regarding
Speaker 1: Noah's synder Guard. So how do you feel about his season?
Speaker 1: The way that it's gone to this point? Has he
Speaker 1: been unlucky? Um? Are there things that he needs to
Speaker 1: do differently? Because I've seen multiple fantasy outlets analysts talking
Speaker 1: about this over the weekend that no, it's time for
Speaker 1: him to put it together. There there's no more excuses.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about no Syndergard? Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: you don't have synder Guard because you have Trevor Bauer
Speaker 1: in every league? Is that right? That's the guy you
Speaker 1: took in the third round instead. I do have a
Speaker 1: few shares of Trevor Bower, and I get to give
Speaker 1: you kudos for coming on before the season and talking
Speaker 1: us into Trevor Bauer over Aaronola. Uh you know, Aaronola,
Speaker 1: another one who hasn't got off to the great the
Speaker 1: greatest start. But I do have shares of Trevor Bauer.
Speaker 1: Greg and I actually own them together in an auction league.
Speaker 1: There you go. No on the other on the other
Speaker 1: side of it, you've been you've been winning the Chris
Speaker 1: Archer debate definitely so far so uh. You know. It
Speaker 1: goes back and forth here, but specifically about Noah synder Guard.
Speaker 1: There's man I could talk about this for ages. Last
Speaker 1: year put out an article in The Noah synder Guard
Speaker 1: for while we're all ignoring about how he's always going
Speaker 1: to have an elevated babbit. He's had a three twenty
Speaker 1: plus babbitt in the past four seasons, including this year.
Speaker 1: It's three forty six this year. But we've seen three
Speaker 1: thirty or three thirty seven, three twenty from him because
Speaker 1: he inherently is more of a thrower than he is
Speaker 1: a picture. He's not that kind of guy. That's going
Speaker 1: to go up it in and then change up away,
Speaker 1: slider away, and then paints a fastball in the same
Speaker 1: sax spot. He's not someone's really gonna work a batter
Speaker 1: in that way. And oftentimes with his fastballs, he's just
Speaker 1: kind of throwing it over the plate and it's going
Speaker 1: to be strikes a lot. That's why you see that
Speaker 1: sub six percent career walk rates. But there a lot
Speaker 1: of times he's gonna be hit hard because of it.
Speaker 1: And one thing I do like this year is that
Speaker 1: he is throwing more four seamers. Finally said that sinker.
Speaker 1: Sinkers generally are just don't perform as well as four seamers,
Speaker 1: and what he should be doing is throwing that fourth
Speaker 1: seamer up a ton and then pairing that slider down,
Speaker 1: that curveball down, that change up down. That will just
Speaker 1: make a better picture for him. But he's he's not
Speaker 1: throwing it up enough and he's throwing it too far down,
Speaker 1: and then it makes a slider not as effective either. Obviously,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of luck that needs to go as way.
Speaker 1: Even with that bad at three, four to six, that
Speaker 1: should still come down a little bit. But the fifty
Speaker 1: percent left on base rate is just that's ridiculous. We
Speaker 1: see like mid sixties and we think, oh yeah, that's
Speaker 1: really bad luck. Traditionally it's around seventy or so left
Speaker 1: on base right. The elites will be closer to at times,
Speaker 1: and percent is just okay. That's why you see the
Speaker 1: three Sierra, the two fIF that suggests that better days
Speaker 1: are ahead when luck is in his favor. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I think with no Syndergard, if you own him, he
Speaker 1: should get much better through the year. I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: selling him. I would be buying low on him. I
Speaker 1: think there are corrections that can be made for Syndergards
Speaker 1: to get better as the year goes on. And honestly,
Speaker 1: the fact that he's selling more four seamers and said
Speaker 1: sinkers now is a step in that direction. Things haven't
Speaker 1: gotten his way so far. But it's April. There's so
Speaker 1: much season left. I really think a lot of people
Speaker 1: will be kicking themselves later if they sold low on
Speaker 1: synder Guard. As a references, you have the list that
Speaker 1: comes out every Monday over at Picture List where you
Speaker 1: rank the top one starting pitchers, and you still have
Speaker 1: No Synderguard ranked eighth overall, just behind Corey Kluber. Blake's
Speaker 1: now Garrett Cole. He's in that tier three of starting pitchers.
Speaker 1: You still expect him to be elite, but you still
Speaker 1: haven't ranked very highly. You haven't ranked inside the top ten.
Speaker 1: I'm just looking at the skills right, So, like, the
Speaker 1: swinging strike rate is still above league average, not where
Speaker 1: it has been the past couple of years. Chase rate
Speaker 1: down a little bit as well, But the first pitch
Speaker 1: strip percentage, he's getting ahead in account more than he
Speaker 1: has in years past, sixty one percent. That's the highest
Speaker 1: it's been since. You Know, what I find so interesting
Speaker 1: about Noah synder Garden, Nick, is that the babbit is
Speaker 1: high every year. And I agree with you, he's more
Speaker 1: of a thrower. He throws very hard, so it seems
Speaker 1: like he's gonna be more prone to to giving up
Speaker 1: more hits. But the hard hit rate is not is
Speaker 1: generally not as high as other starting pitchers. Given the
Speaker 1: fact that he throws the ball as hard as he does,
Speaker 1: I would think that the hard hit rate against him
Speaker 1: would be higher than league average. And for the most
Speaker 1: part in his career he's been below league average, So
Speaker 1: it's not like it's not like he's getting squared up
Speaker 1: all of that often. So it does seem like a
Speaker 1: bit of unluckiness here for cynder Guard. You look at
Speaker 1: the e r A minus FIP leaderboards for the season,
Speaker 1: he's second among qualified starting features. So he's been unlucky again.
Speaker 1: You know, the fifth is two point nine three, the
Speaker 1: x fit is three point three six. Um, the ear
Speaker 1: A stands at five point nine zero, still at a
Speaker 1: fifty percent crown ball right that left on base percentace
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, the strand rate just you know, absolutely abysmal.
Speaker 1: I don't think, and you know it hasn't been this
Speaker 1: way for his entire career, like a guy like John Gray.
Speaker 1: But is there a chance that we're falling into a
Speaker 1: part of a John Gray situation where he's never going
Speaker 1: to be as good as his underlying numbers say that
Speaker 1: he should be. Nick well, Actually, two thousand eighteen, twousand
Speaker 1: and sixteen, two largest samples we have of Syndergard prior
Speaker 1: to this year, he outperformed a Sierra. It was to
Speaker 1: sixty EARRA and in twos sixteen three or three ear
Speaker 1: a with a three five Sierra in two thousand eighteen,
Speaker 1: So I don't think that that's necessarily something that he's
Speaker 1: always going to be under performing in that fashion, but
Speaker 1: that will obviously be influenced by the great caper walk
Speaker 1: that he has. Is a career k ray in a
Speaker 1: five point five percent walk. Great, those are good things. Uh,
Speaker 1: now you're talking about the hard contact and and how
Speaker 1: you know he's not like getting barreled up so much,
Speaker 1: but he has his elevated babbit. Well, there's something to
Speaker 1: be said about Hitter is not trying to do too
Speaker 1: much um against Syndergard, and there are a lot of
Speaker 1: times I think he'll also just get beat by singles
Speaker 1: because guys can just put out the bat against him.
Speaker 1: He doesn't like to throw inside to right. Hander's actually
Speaker 1: kind of goes middle to out, which means that a
Speaker 1: lot of times you can just put your bat out
Speaker 1: and go to right feeling and be a single highlighted
Speaker 1: that in that article last year. I think I found
Speaker 1: like seven different singles where it was exactly that case.
Speaker 1: That is just you think you have all these skills
Speaker 1: right in front of you, and you're just using them
Speaker 1: in the wrong way and you're not, you know, not nibbling.
Speaker 1: I want to see Syndergard actually maybe even walk a
Speaker 1: few more guys if that means better quality pitches in
Speaker 1: the strike zone. So I think there are just justice
Speaker 1: to make. And yeah, there is something we said about
Speaker 1: you're saying before that he needs to correct this now.
Speaker 1: Even waiting for a while though, I think he could
Speaker 1: easily do that. I think he even spoke in spring
Speaker 1: training about him fixing himself and improving. And yeah, if
Speaker 1: I have nine e r A, but that's really five
Speaker 1: starts and twent innings, it's small sample. In April h
Speaker 1: you talked about that gap. It's gonna come down massively,
Speaker 1: and there's no real reason why we can't expect the
Speaker 1: top ten picture the rest of the way. Nick, last
Speaker 1: question on cynder Guard, a classics cell high by low
Speaker 1: situation right now? Would you trade Luis Castido away to
Speaker 1: get nowhere cyder Guard? And I I used the term
Speaker 1: cell high very loosely here because I think Luis Castillo
Speaker 1: could be really good. He could definitely return top twenty
Speaker 1: five starting picture value. But if you can pull off
Speaker 1: a trade like that, is that something you would look into? Yes,
Speaker 1: I know that's crazy to say. I was the guy
Speaker 1: that was that was so high and Luis Castido last
Speaker 1: year and I got burned for it. Obviously, I am
Speaker 1: very aware of the volatility of Castillo, and we've seen
Speaker 1: again another small sample. He's looking great. I absolutely love it.
Speaker 1: We still need to recognize that we have five more
Speaker 1: months plus to go and this three to four weeks
Speaker 1: is not going to be represented necessarily of those five months.
Speaker 1: So a guy like Synde Guard that has a better
Speaker 1: innate skill set than Luis Castillo, I would be going
Speaker 1: after that. Then it would cast you. Nick, I gotta
Speaker 1: ask you about another Mets starting pitcher. We won't get
Speaker 1: into all of it now. We'll we'll kind of talk
Speaker 1: about some now and we'll get to it after the
Speaker 1: break as well. Zach Wheeler. This is a guy that
Speaker 1: I was very high and I believe you were very
Speaker 1: high on him as well. I mean into the season
Speaker 1: I had Hi ranked is my fourteen starting pitcher. I
Speaker 1: was very very aggressive on Zach Wheeler. In fact, I
Speaker 1: took him in the fourth round of the NFBC Main
Speaker 1: Event League. So putting my money where my mouth is,
Speaker 1: you know, I like Zach Wheeler. The difference with him
Speaker 1: between him and Cyderguard is okay. He's got the six
Speaker 1: point three five e R A. But it's not like
Speaker 1: the underlying numbers. The x fib is four point seven eight,
Speaker 1: the sierra is all the way down at what do
Speaker 1: we have it here? He's at five eleven. Yes, So
Speaker 1: it's not like he's uh like his underlying skills are
Speaker 1: much better. They're better than obviously his six point three
Speaker 1: five e r A. I was really hoping that those
Speaker 1: games that he made in the command department last year, uh,
Speaker 1: the walks per nine, he kept him under three for
Speaker 1: the first time in his career. He had them at
Speaker 1: two point seven one. The command was much better over
Speaker 1: those final eleven twelve starts of the season. This year,
Speaker 1: it hasn't been the case. He's had some tough matchups.
Speaker 1: He's faced the Nationals twice. He's faced the Phillies on
Speaker 1: the walks per nine though, all the way up over five.
Speaker 1: And despite the velocity being up this season across the board,
Speaker 1: swinging strike rate down, case rate down, first pitch strike
Speaker 1: percentage down. So I do have some concerns regarding Zach
Speaker 1: Wheeler at this point in the season. Uh, we have
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes here before the break, give us
Speaker 1: a little tease regarding Zach Wheeler. Well, all right. This
Speaker 1: is this is what the hardest parts about fantasy baseball is.
Speaker 1: We try to say, Okay, this guy performed like this,
Speaker 1: and he should have performed like this, so okay, So
Speaker 1: for example, Wheeler performed badly, so we're trying to find
Speaker 1: a reason to say, hey, he's going to be good,
Speaker 1: and we don't necessarily have one from the underlying numbers. Right,
Speaker 1: But these are people that you know, sometimes they pitch
Speaker 1: poorly and they have bad results, but maybe they'll actually
Speaker 1: pitch well. It's not that they're going to pitch the
Speaker 1: same and get different results. It's that we expect them
Speaker 1: to be better than they were, and the underlying numbers
Speaker 1: won't necessarily say that she's going to do that because
Speaker 1: he didn't pitch well before. That's just kind of how
Speaker 1: it was. The last two starts, Wheeler's fastball command overall
Speaker 1: was much better. This is the reason we loved him
Speaker 1: last year was that those final I think seventeen starts
Speaker 1: or so from Zach Wheeler or phenomenal with his fastball command.
Speaker 1: He was going to deep into games because of it.
Speaker 1: And that's set up this trio of secondary pitches that
Speaker 1: were never none of them were really elites, but they
Speaker 1: were all a little bit of above average, and it
Speaker 1: made them even better being set up by this incredible
Speaker 1: fastball command. So in the last two starts that improved.
Speaker 1: That's great. He pitched seven innings last time out against
Speaker 1: the Fields. Before that, it was six innings of eight strikeout.
Speaker 1: I love that. It's It's kind of funny to look
Speaker 1: at the Sierra at this moment because I mean, one
Speaker 1: game was that a ridiculous one against the Nationals where
Speaker 1: we walk seven guys. That's a three Sierra in that
Speaker 1: one start. And that's four starts total of the year,
Speaker 1: So that's of a SRA right there to the other
Speaker 1: ones to six five s three ninety sevens here. So
Speaker 1: it's really small sample we're dealing with. It's going to
Speaker 1: make all these numbers look really bad, and walking and
Speaker 1: all of that stuff. You can just kind of throw
Speaker 1: it away at this point. I really do encourage people
Speaker 1: to look more at trends and their skills as a
Speaker 1: picture themselves, to see if there's an indication of them
Speaker 1: improving or getting wort or or getting worse. I guess
Speaker 1: so I like Wheeler. I think that he will rebound
Speaker 1: as the season goes on don't freak out too much
Speaker 1: so far. That's Zach Bieler of The New York Man's
Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about him when we come back.
Speaker 1: But Nick Pollock at picture Less make sure you follow
Speaker 1: on Twitter. I am Frank Standfeld. Gregson will join us
Speaker 1: at some point today, I think hopefully and see best
Speaker 1: friends for every on the Fantasy Sports radio network Daily
Speaker 1: rodo dot com. Learn from the game's best DFS players.
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Speaker 1: more embarrassing saying you have a podcast or saying you
Speaker 1: have a Game of Thrones podcasts? Well, probably just saying
Speaker 1: you have a podcast I think more people have. Is
Speaker 1: this possible as this math gonna work? If more people
Speaker 1: have Game of Thrones podcasts than there are podcasts? Can
Speaker 1: I do that? That doesn't that math does not check out.
Speaker 1: That's like saying one plus three equals seventy Six's at
Speaker 1: least what we did, though, is we put a behind
Speaker 1: the page. Saturday's two pm, E Stern on the Fantasy
Speaker 1: Sports networking on your popular podcast providers. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Fantasy best Friends Forever. Frank Stanfeld, joined by Nick
Speaker 1: Pollock at Pitcherless, Mitchy Falm on Twitter, sec at all
Speaker 1: the great work at pitcherless dot com. We're talking about
Speaker 1: Zach Wheeler before the break and mentioned that seven walk performance,
Speaker 1: seven earned runs against the Washington Nationals in that second
Speaker 1: start that just, you know, really really inflicated the numbers.
Speaker 1: That just brutal, brutal performance there, which really up the
Speaker 1: wall watch per nine this year for Zack Wheeler as well,
Speaker 1: and his first start of the season, you know, if
Speaker 1: you were watching it, it was one bad pitch of
Speaker 1: Trade Turner where he gives up a three run homer.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not gonna be one of those people
Speaker 1: that says it will take that away and he only
Speaker 1: gives up one and run. It happened. So but it's
Speaker 1: against a really good players against Trade Turner, and you
Speaker 1: know he's already getting some of these starts out of
Speaker 1: the way against you know, tough Nationals Phillies opponents as well.
Speaker 1: I do think better days are coming. I noticed next week,
Speaker 1: I believe he has a two star week, really tough
Speaker 1: matchups coming up. Again, it just seems like every matchup
Speaker 1: for Wheeler has just been tough one thus far. So
Speaker 1: he gets the Reds next week, which is not the worst,
Speaker 1: but then at Milwaukee, so I'd be okay with that, though,
Speaker 1: I mean, the Reds are also struggling at time. It's okay.
Speaker 1: I will say this, the Mets are gonna have a
Speaker 1: lot of tough matchups this year just being in the
Speaker 1: NL East. I used to call it the n L Easy.
Speaker 1: I can't do it anymore. It was the best type
Speaker 1: I ever made, and I'm kind of upset about it.
Speaker 1: But I was starting for that two star a week. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I agree. Um, you know, not the NL Easy anymore,
Speaker 1: and more like you know, they used to call the
Speaker 1: American Leg East the a L Beast, right It's looking
Speaker 1: more like the NL Beast right now if I'm being honest.
Speaker 1: So according to the list, you have Zach Wheeler ranked
Speaker 1: as the twenty second starting pitcher right now. He's in
Speaker 1: Tier five with David Price and Steven Strasburg. You dropped him,
Speaker 1: uh seven spots from yep, last week or from the
Speaker 1: start of the season. Is this from week to week
Speaker 1: or from the start of this This is every single
Speaker 1: Monday I put out this update. So this was from
Speaker 1: last week. Okay, so you dropped them from fifteen to
Speaker 1: twenty two, that is regarding Zach Wheeler. But it sounds
Speaker 1: overall like you're pretty optimistic regarding him. He's another by
Speaker 1: low candidate for you. Definitely. I think he's someone that
Speaker 1: a lot of people are giving up already on. And
Speaker 1: if you can sell someone like I don't know what
Speaker 1: Tyler Glasnow that someone is really high on at this moment,
Speaker 1: which I think a lot of people would do in
Speaker 1: a heartbeat, I think that's something you can definitely take
Speaker 1: advantage of taking. You know, Wheeler is hated right now.
Speaker 1: Everyone loves Tyler Glass. No great, take advantage of that
Speaker 1: because it's only four weeks into the season and you
Speaker 1: have another gain five months ahead. I appreciate that, man,
Speaker 1: Nick Pollack coming and spit some Moti sell Tyler Glass
Speaker 1: Now for Zach Wheeler. We've had a lot of Tyler
Speaker 1: Glass Now questions. Someone actually tweeted me last week they
Speaker 1: treated away tyler Glass now Nick to get Chris sale.
Speaker 1: That's wonderful, that's so great. It's insane, man, that's the same.
Speaker 1: But people, you know, they get really giddy about their
Speaker 1: players early on in the season. But you have to
Speaker 1: remind you again, only one month into the season, tyler
Speaker 1: Glass now house looked awesome. Uh, you know, let's see
Speaker 1: how he fares once he starts to face some of
Speaker 1: these tougher teams in the American League East, for example.
Speaker 1: But that I welcome in, Greg Man, Greggy, what's going on, man?
Speaker 1: How did you sleep? I slept well, Man, I slept well.
Speaker 1: I had some very descriptive dreams. But I'm feeling good. Man.
Speaker 1: Pok is on the line. Then, how you doing? I'm good?
Speaker 1: So last night when what if I was like, hey, Ny,
Speaker 1: possibly be on tomorrow, Like who do you want to
Speaker 1: talk about? Because they really want to talk about Zach
Speaker 1: Wheeler and Zach Zach Eflin and JAREDI cough And I
Speaker 1: just walked in on the summation of Zach Wheeler and
Speaker 1: I'm just like, I need to go back and listen
Speaker 1: to the podcast because you just have so much insightful
Speaker 1: information that I want to make sure that I feel good,
Speaker 1: but so summarizing you feel good about Zach Wheel's gonna
Speaker 1: turn it around starting tonight. Yes, that sounds good to me. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: We've already gone through a synder guard, Greggy, who's you know?
Speaker 1: I don't have to a weird start checkpoint nine array
Speaker 1: and we got into Zach Wheeler. This is really the
Speaker 1: National League edition of the list here with h with
Speaker 1: Nick Pollock, because I didn't even really realize this until
Speaker 1: I was putting the run ount together. Everyone that we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about today, Greg is in the National League.
Speaker 1: A lot of National League East pitchers as well. So
Speaker 1: we've already got two mets down. Next one up, Joe
Speaker 1: must Grove, Big Joe, draft Joe must Grove, Nick. Last
Speaker 1: year we used to chant about, you know, drafting Joe
Speaker 1: two two years ago. We've been towdy Joe must Grove
Speaker 1: for years now, and it seems like everyone's kind of
Speaker 1: hopping on our bandwagon. So and rightfully. So, Look, he's
Speaker 1: been awesome to start the year. Uh he I believe
Speaker 1: he was the r A leader heading into last night.
Speaker 1: It seems like they tried to squeeze a little bit
Speaker 1: too much out of him. They leave him out there
Speaker 1: for the seventh and he he gives up a hit,
Speaker 1: he gives up a walk, and then Kyle Craik comes
Speaker 1: in and everything goes to hell, and uh, some of
Speaker 1: some runs here get charged Joe Musgrove's way, although he
Speaker 1: himself did not actually give up those runs. He has
Speaker 1: been awesome though to start the year, you have him
Speaker 1: ranked the thirty third starting pitcher, so inside the top
Speaker 1: thirty five. Um some pretty some pretty lofty ranking here
Speaker 1: for for Joe Musgrove, what have you seen this year?
Speaker 1: Nick Well? One thing I liked specifically about last night
Speaker 1: is that his fastball velocity went up to ninety one
Speaker 1: and a half after being around ninety point five, maybe
Speaker 1: touching ninety one or so previously, which is a good
Speaker 1: sign because we were hoping to see that three consistently
Speaker 1: from must Grove, and to see him get up there
Speaker 1: a little bit last night was definitely a plus. He's
Speaker 1: maintained this amazing swing strike grade at thirteen point five percent.
Speaker 1: He has to what we call money pitches here at
Speaker 1: a picture list, which is a swing strike grade fifteent
Speaker 1: or higher zone rate and chase ray essentially means he's
Speaker 1: getting swings off the place, getting swings on the plate
Speaker 1: and getting strikes and they're missing it a ton. He
Speaker 1: has that with a change at minutes slider, and that's
Speaker 1: really great. I've loved his approach of the way he's
Speaker 1: attacking it. I will say one thing about must Grove
Speaker 1: is he hasn't faced a lot of tough teams. It's
Speaker 1: been the Reds who have been struggling massively. Twice he
Speaker 1: faced the Tigers, he faced the Dining Backs, and then
Speaker 1: he also went to Wrigley against the Cubs. I mean
Speaker 1: that's about it, though, and it might get a little
Speaker 1: bit tougher as he isn't n L Central. He's gonna
Speaker 1: have to face the Brewers, He's gonna have to face
Speaker 1: the Cardinals. He's gonna have to face more of the
Speaker 1: Cubs as well, and maybe the Reds are better off
Speaker 1: later in the year. But honestly, I love Muscrow. I
Speaker 1: love the fact that the Pirates are letting him go
Speaker 1: deep into games. That's generally what they do in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: You see tie in the same way, Musco is gonna
Speaker 1: be a quality start guide essentially for those leagues. And
Speaker 1: I love rowing with Musgrove right now right This is
Speaker 1: why I like talking to different fantasy analysts get different opinions.
Speaker 1: I love what you guys do with the money pitches.
Speaker 1: You know what I talk about a lot here on
Speaker 1: the show is three specific stats that I like to
Speaker 1: look at a lot. Nick are swinging strike rate, overall
Speaker 1: first pitch strike per centential. Guys that are getting ahead
Speaker 1: into account and you know, overall have solid command, and
Speaker 1: I think Joe Muscrove actually has great command. You see
Speaker 1: that with the walks per nine under two for the
Speaker 1: second straight year. And then I like looking at the
Speaker 1: oh swing the chase rate. So those are really three
Speaker 1: underlying statistics that I like to look at a lot
Speaker 1: regarding starting pitches starting pitchers, so you know, I like
Speaker 1: kind of hearing different perspectives and what you guys do
Speaker 1: over with the money pitches as well. It's really cool
Speaker 1: because you know, you try and learn as much as
Speaker 1: you can regarding each starting pitcher. But yeah, I do
Speaker 1: agree regarding Joe Musgrove that the velocity was up. It's
Speaker 1: something that I paid attention to in his first couple
Speaker 1: of starts, and I referenced Gregg that the velo has
Speaker 1: been down across the board this year. I like the
Speaker 1: fact that he's been using the slider more. It seems
Speaker 1: like it's been one of the more useful pitches for
Speaker 1: him dating back to last season and then the second
Speaker 1: half where he really took off. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of that had to do with using the slider more. So,
Speaker 1: I like the fact that he's been doing that more
Speaker 1: of this season, Greg. Yeah, absolutely, And I think one
Speaker 1: of the keys of Joe muscro is for him to
Speaker 1: stay healthy and just have a full season, which we
Speaker 1: haven't seen from Joe Muscrove in that starting rotation. And
Speaker 1: I think this can be this season that we get there,
Speaker 1: and you heard it from Nick a few moments ago,
Speaker 1: just to provide in that quality start on a on
Speaker 1: a consistent basis, quality start start. God, I kind of
Speaker 1: like it has a good ring to it. Yeah, Joe
Speaker 1: muscro So the thirty third rank starting pitcher for you.
Speaker 1: He's moved up one spot from last week. Now these
Speaker 1: he's a little bit different than the first two Mets
Speaker 1: pictures that we've talked about where he could potentially be
Speaker 1: a cell high based on what you were telling us.
Speaker 1: We know he's not going to pitch two an e
Speaker 1: r A under two. He's at one point five nine
Speaker 1: right now, but the x Fit is at three seven
Speaker 1: five and the Sierra is at three eight. Oh. Now,
Speaker 1: you can try and sell him if you're worried about
Speaker 1: the Brewers coming up, Greg and the Cardinals and the
Speaker 1: Cubs at some point. But even if he pitches to
Speaker 1: let's say a three six or three seven e r
Speaker 1: A from here on out with a good whip and
Speaker 1: nearly a strike app for Anny. I'm fine with that, Like,
Speaker 1: that's kind of what we were respecting from Joe Musgrove.
Speaker 1: So do you really want to sell high? That's you know,
Speaker 1: what do you think? I think? I'm fine with that.
Speaker 1: Like read the rewards of m okay with that, I
Speaker 1: really am. I know it's going to get tougher. I
Speaker 1: know he plays in that tough division, but I'm okay.
Speaker 1: Just if he reverted to me in a little a
Speaker 1: little bit in you know, he's gonna be fine. He's
Speaker 1: not gonna be there outstanding, no doubt. I think it's
Speaker 1: gonna be well worth starting on a consistent basis on
Speaker 1: your fantasy team, Nick, where are you at on that spectrum? Well, okay,
Speaker 1: So when it comes to selling a guy, it's about
Speaker 1: what the market values them at. I think where I
Speaker 1: value Musgrove is probably a little bit higher than most.
Speaker 1: I think, especially someone that isn't you know, hasn't been
Speaker 1: touting him like you guys have for ages or yeah,
Speaker 1: as a pitch entire off season, like two money pitches.
Speaker 1: This guy is clearly top fifty. He's our guy. And
Speaker 1: I don't think that someone is gonna really buy into
Speaker 1: this with four starts under his belt for the most part.
Speaker 1: Uh that that's the real hesitation with Musgrove, So I
Speaker 1: would just be holding tight here. I don't think that
Speaker 1: you're gonna get relative value back for Musgrove, and I'm
Speaker 1: I'm perfectly fine with it, Gregg. You know, if he
Speaker 1: he's my SP four, my SP five, because a lot
Speaker 1: of people got him later on in draft. You got
Speaker 1: him in you know, around twelve plus round thirteen fourteen,
Speaker 1: I had him ranked in the top fourty starting pitcher.
Speaker 1: We ended up with him in a few places together, Greg,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna reap the rewards. If people don't want
Speaker 1: to pay up for Musgrove, that's fine, and then you
Speaker 1: don't have to try and sell everyone who's performing well
Speaker 1: to start the year. So I'm just gonna kind of
Speaker 1: sit back and enjoy the ride here. With Musgrove, I
Speaker 1: realized it's gonna get tougher. You know, maybe he's not
Speaker 1: doesn't put together the stellar performances, but again, quality start
Speaker 1: after quality start. If we get that from Musgrove, I
Speaker 1: think we're good with that. Great yep, I completely completely
Speaker 1: agree with you, Frankie. Moving on, we have we had
Speaker 1: a few requests to talk about brave starting pitchers, so
Speaker 1: we'll just keep going with the with the National League East.
Speaker 1: Here for a few pictures, Max freed Man. Max Freed
Speaker 1: has been awesome to start the year, Nick, and you
Speaker 1: have them ranked all the way up at your forty
Speaker 1: six starting pitchers, so you know you're valuing him as
Speaker 1: you know in the twelve team league and SP four
Speaker 1: and I think the way that he's performed, we have to,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of put put some respect on Max
Speaker 1: Freed's name. The one question that I've had regarding him
Speaker 1: is can he succeed with just the two started with
Speaker 1: the two pitches, because I do have my concerns with
Speaker 1: that when it comes to starting pictures and what I've
Speaker 1: said about him, Nick is I think the fact that
Speaker 1: his the screpting CD the miles per hour between its
Speaker 1: fastball and it's curveball. We everyone's seen the curveball. It's
Speaker 1: a big, looping curveball. It's about seventy five in the
Speaker 1: mid seventies. He has a fastball that he compliments it
Speaker 1: with in the mid nineties. So you have, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty mile per hour difference. You keep hitters all balance
Speaker 1: a lot when you have two pitches like that, and
Speaker 1: he keep this going with only two pitches, Nick, So
Speaker 1: inherently having just two pitches isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker 1: We saw Patrick Corbin having full season with that uh
Speaker 1: and have success. We see Jose Burrios pretty much have
Speaker 1: success as a two pitch pitcher. Yeah, he does do
Speaker 1: that change of a little bit, but it's not that
Speaker 1: creative a pitch. I here, Okay, there's a lot to
Speaker 1: say about freed one. I I do my worries that
Speaker 1: he's getting a bit lucky when it comes to balls
Speaker 1: and play at the moment. And his fastball and curveball
Speaker 1: are really good at tunneling. That is, fastball staying up
Speaker 1: he actually got a little bit squeezed in that Indian game.
Speaker 1: And then the curveball going straight down, starting at the
Speaker 1: same spot but being located at the bottom of the zone.
Speaker 1: That's great. I really love that. I think that his
Speaker 1: fastball command inherently is actually I have three tiers of
Speaker 1: fastball command. One being amazing to put it where you want.
Speaker 1: Three is you have no idea where it's going. I
Speaker 1: probably put breed in between one and two. I think
Speaker 1: it has a really good four seam fastball. You can
Speaker 1: just kind of put it wherever he wants for the
Speaker 1: most part, and when he does miss, it's not by
Speaker 1: a lot. So I love those aspects of Freed a ton.
Speaker 1: I think, really the question is, okay, he has this
Speaker 1: change up for that third velocity band right in between
Speaker 1: that fastball and curb as you were mentioning, I think
Speaker 1: he can develop that. It's not even a bad pitch.
Speaker 1: He also has a slider he messed around with a
Speaker 1: little bit. I believe when he faced the Cubs he
Speaker 1: had some against If I remember correctly, I think it
Speaker 1: was kyleege Forever. I could be making all of this up.
Speaker 1: It's fine, but I think Max Reread now being the
Speaker 1: number four in the Brave's rotation is huge. Seeing Bryce
Speaker 1: Wilson and Kyle right get pushed down two key des
Speaker 1: now is in the minors, and even with Mikes Toroka,
Speaker 1: who I think we'll talk about in a second, I
Speaker 1: think that the Braids are gonna be a little more
Speaker 1: cautious with that shoulder and just let Max Freed have
Speaker 1: this spot. So I like his situation right now. I
Speaker 1: like where he's at. And I mean when you get
Speaker 1: to the forties and fifties and sixties on the list,
Speaker 1: that's when it starts getting messy really quickly. So when
Speaker 1: it comes to guys that I'm actually pursuing that, you know,
Speaker 1: and we're thinking about, hey, should we be going after
Speaker 1: I don't know, some some new guy like Luke Weaver
Speaker 1: him having successfully you know what, Now, I'll hold on
Speaker 1: with Max Freed for the moment. See how that works first. Um,
Speaker 1: that's why you see him at forty six. But I
Speaker 1: like Freed. I'll be happy wherever I got him. I'd
Speaker 1: be holding on tight and uh and see how this
Speaker 1: plays out. Yeah, what I what I've liked about Free
Speaker 1: Feed so far. To start the season, Nick, as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: has has been the command because this was a guy
Speaker 1: who struggled in the minor leagues. You know, over four
Speaker 1: walks per nine. It kind of seems like he's sacrificing,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to strip people out because you see
Speaker 1: the first pitch strike percentage up this year, but the
Speaker 1: swinging strikes are down. It seems like he's pitching to
Speaker 1: contact more and you know the bat is really oh,
Speaker 1: it's at two seven. But the groundball rate, so I
Speaker 1: do you know, there's there's a lot of good, there's pros,
Speaker 1: and then there's cons. That I've seen with Max Freed
Speaker 1: liked the control, like the command that I've seen from him. Uh,
Speaker 1: the fact that he's not walking many people. He did
Speaker 1: have three walks against the Indians, but every other walk
Speaker 1: he's been every other start he's been two walks or less,
Speaker 1: and and most of his starts he's actually he's been
Speaker 1: one walk or less. So the control has has been
Speaker 1: really good, and he's getting a lot of groundballs, but
Speaker 1: it seems like he's almost sacrificing strikeouts a little bit
Speaker 1: pitching too contact. Is that something that you've noticed You
Speaker 1: think it's by design or do you think he just
Speaker 1: doesn't have the stuff to get strikeouts, because I think
Speaker 1: he does. You know, back in the day, I think
Speaker 1: it was two thousand fifteen or so, I tweeted at
Speaker 1: Trivor Bauer about him all of a sudden lowering his
Speaker 1: content his walk rate, but also having fewer strikeouts. And
Speaker 1: I tweeted at him saying, hey, are you trying to
Speaker 1: pitch the contact now? And he said, that's a ridiculous phrase.
Speaker 1: That that you know, I never want to pitch the contact.
Speaker 1: Why would ever want to pitch the contact. I want
Speaker 1: to miss every bad every single time. That's ridiculous, And
Speaker 1: I kind of agree with him. I think it's something
Speaker 1: that isn't inherently good, especially for fantasy purposes. Generally, the
Speaker 1: more pitch the contact, guys are not going to be
Speaker 1: that sustainable as far as their success goes. So it
Speaker 1: is something I think that inherently with how free pitches,
Speaker 1: he is more contact guy than he is a strikeout guy.
Speaker 1: So I'd be highly surprised if he turns into plus
Speaker 1: strikeout rate that is over a k per inning, which
Speaker 1: does give me a little bit of pause. And you
Speaker 1: see that one ear a right now, the fifth is
Speaker 1: a three fourteen at nine, I think he is more
Speaker 1: of a three point five ear a three point six
Speaker 1: kind of pitcher. The hip or nine needs to go
Speaker 1: above seven. But you know, I think that's okay. I
Speaker 1: think that he's good enough at it that he's not
Speaker 1: like synder Garth throwing over the middle of the plate
Speaker 1: and they're slapping it. So there is something to that, Yes,
Speaker 1: pitching into contact, of pitching well inside the zone and
Speaker 1: getting weaker contact than most. That's what I'll say about that. Right,
Speaker 1: do you have any Max free shares? And until have
Speaker 1: you been? That's annoying about him far. I've just been
Speaker 1: impressed with him thus far, and it's annoying because I
Speaker 1: wanted him coming into the year. That was the guy
Speaker 1: when everyone's talking about to usan Um and Bryce Wilson
Speaker 1: who you love for about a week, Kyle, Right, there's
Speaker 1: always a new brave starting pitching procect that everyone's trying
Speaker 1: to talk about. Mash Free was the guy. And I
Speaker 1: kept going back that stupid Freddie Freeman quote, and I
Speaker 1: wish I listened to myself and really took advantage because
Speaker 1: I've been obviously impressed. Now can he do it? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm going forward. I don't know, but you know me, Frank,
Speaker 1: I I ride the hot head and I'm riding the
Speaker 1: hot head of Mash Freed right now if I had him,
Speaker 1: But I don't. And I think the Braves are too.
Speaker 1: That's what we said all along. Uh, Nick, we have
Speaker 1: about a minute left before the break. You know what
Speaker 1: I've said about the Braves is it's a very fluid rotation.
Speaker 1: I think as long as people are performing in said rotation,
Speaker 1: they're gonna have an opportunity to to start and stick around.
Speaker 1: So you know that's why you see two tusan a well,
Speaker 1: he performs well in a relief appearance. Um, all right,
Speaker 1: we'll keep him around. He stays for a start, he
Speaker 1: gets blown up, all right, we're gonna send him back
Speaker 1: down and now focus in the rotation. So I think
Speaker 1: it's very fluid, there's moving parts. But as long as
Speaker 1: you perform well, I think you'll stay in the brave rotation.
Speaker 1: Do you agree completely? I mean, look at this, Sean
Speaker 1: Nucom isn't even in it anymore. So they really are
Speaker 1: going to give these guys the opportunities and if they succeed,
Speaker 1: you'll see them for a long time. Yeah. I looked
Speaker 1: as it's exactly what I've said, and I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna stick by it. Um. And that's why I like
Speaker 1: Sarrocca a lot. I do think he's a really talented
Speaker 1: picture to get into him after the break here, Nick
Speaker 1: hasn't ranked one spot behind Max Freed as his forty
Speaker 1: seventh starting pitcher. We saw a lot of high fab
Speaker 1: bids in the NFBC and the Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational
Speaker 1: this past Yeah, well we'll try Rocca and then we'll
Speaker 1: get to the Phillies. Guys, I know you wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about Zach Eflyn and we also are trying to
Speaker 1: get into Jared. I call thanks man. Appreciate that it's
Speaker 1: a lot. You can take us out alrighty Here on
Speaker 1: the Fantasy Best Friends Forever, It's Greg Sustenan, Nick Pollock
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the fantasy best friends forever. Frank Stanfeld
Speaker 1: here with Greg Sussman and Nick Pollock at picture lists
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Speaker 1: Going over a few interesting starting pitchers right now and
Speaker 1: where they rank in the list. So every Monday, Nick
Speaker 1: Pollock ranks the top one starting pitchers in fantasy baseball.
Speaker 1: We were just talking about Max Freed, who is the
Speaker 1: forty six ranks starting pitcher. He moved up seven spots
Speaker 1: from last week to this week, and then Mike Saroka,
Speaker 1: who was unranked last week. Greg moves all the way
Speaker 1: up inside the top fifty forty seven starting pitcher you
Speaker 1: know what I've liked about to Rocca for a while
Speaker 1: is in the minors, elite groundball rate, great command. I
Speaker 1: don't think that he's ever going to be an elite
Speaker 1: strikeout kind of guy. I mean, if he gives me
Speaker 1: eight case per nine with good command and an elite
Speaker 1: groundball rate, that's that's more than enough for me. Nick.
Speaker 1: Regarding Mike Saroka, where are you at regarding him? Uh?
Speaker 1: You know, just from I guess, like from a scouting perspective,
Speaker 1: like what kind of pitches does he use? What can
Speaker 1: we expect moving forward? I know he has the shoulder injury,
Speaker 1: so he had the shoulder injury. He's in the rotation now,
Speaker 1: but that might cause the Braves to be a little
Speaker 1: bit careful with him. How do you feel overall about Sirocca? Oh, Man,
Speaker 1: I love Mike Saroka. I last year, I remember the
Speaker 1: start he had against the Mets, and the way that
Speaker 1: he used essentially three different types of fastball is one
Speaker 1: of the very rare occasions I've ever seen this where
Speaker 1: he had a forcing him with some cut action. He
Speaker 1: had an actual writing horizontal two steamer, but then he
Speaker 1: also had a sinker on top of it. Generally I
Speaker 1: say that two steamers and sinkers are synonymous, but this
Speaker 1: was one of the legit scenarios where it was a
Speaker 1: sinker that went down and then a two steamer that
Speaker 1: rode horizontally and it was amazing. It blew my mind
Speaker 1: from a twenty one year old doing this. Uh. And
Speaker 1: then he has these two pitches, a slider and a
Speaker 1: change up. They're both developing. However, the slider that we
Speaker 1: saw last week was really good and you threw it
Speaker 1: about thirty percent of the time and it made me
Speaker 1: really excited there. Uh. He wasn't on the list prior
Speaker 1: because I only expected him beyond the in the Brave
Speaker 1: rotation for one start, and I didn't really think that
Speaker 1: was worth it for the top one hundred with two
Speaker 1: ki decan being decent against the terrible Indians offense. Well,
Speaker 1: that obviously didn't work out. He's in the rotation now,
Speaker 1: and obviously Sarrocca deserves your love in twelve teamers, but
Speaker 1: I I personally love Sarroka. I think it's a matter
Speaker 1: of innings and how much we'll get out of him,
Speaker 1: and hopefully that shoulder isn't bulky or barking at him.
Speaker 1: I should say, uh, to the point that it removes
Speaker 1: this command like it did last year. We actually saw
Speaker 1: some of those starts last season just didn't go right
Speaker 1: because the shoulder was bothering him. So hopefully the Braves
Speaker 1: let him loose and everything is okay if that's the case. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: I mean down the road it kids twenty one. If
Speaker 1: he's injury free, this is legitimately the top twenty five
Speaker 1: upside player. I really just love what he brings to
Speaker 1: the table. Yeah, I regarding Mike's roker, and you know
Speaker 1: what we've seen in the miners regarding his pitch usage,
Speaker 1: his arsenal. You mentioned the three different types of fastballs
Speaker 1: that he uses, and the slider. Uh, he upped the
Speaker 1: usage and that first start and it was it looked
Speaker 1: like a pretty good slider. Nick just being perfectly honest,
Speaker 1: it looked like a very solid slider. So I think
Speaker 1: the fact that you kind of see this across baseball
Speaker 1: right now, a lot of people upping their slider usage.
Speaker 1: We talked about Joe Musgrove and you know, even going
Speaker 1: back to last year, Patrick Corbin, how how much he's
Speaker 1: starting pitchers are using uh their slider. And I know
Speaker 1: Matt Boyd. You know Boyd to men, I saw you
Speaker 1: guys are huge on Matt Boyd. But it seems like
Speaker 1: across baseball Greg these pitchers are starting to use their
Speaker 1: breaking balls more and specifically the slider, and I think
Speaker 1: that's something that could potentially help Mike Siroka. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: I got a question over the weekend. It might have
Speaker 1: been from our friend Leland saying, you know what if
Speaker 1: he's on an endings limit, I think you just kind
Speaker 1: of take it start by start, like you want to
Speaker 1: be short sighted regarding sirocca If you think that there's
Speaker 1: a chance that he's gonna get shut down and you
Speaker 1: want to sell him because of that, that's fine. Me personally,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm I'm just gonna take it from a
Speaker 1: short term perspective. I start to start basis maybe week
Speaker 1: by week, month by month with Mike Sarroka, but I
Speaker 1: think as long as he's in the rotation, he's gonna
Speaker 1: perform quite well. You know that I've been bullish on him.
Speaker 1: I'm not backing down from Sirocco. Yes, yeah, he's been
Speaker 1: your guy, like since last the Seed last year at
Speaker 1: this time, he wanted to stash Sroka and seeing him
Speaker 1: perform in that one outing, I don't think it's like
Speaker 1: a a mirage like took to my only worrying. The
Speaker 1: same to be said with Mare And you heard it
Speaker 1: a few moments ago from Nick Pollock, range aren't afraid
Speaker 1: to continue to maneuver this all season long. That if
Speaker 1: you have a bad start, you go away, and there's
Speaker 1: plenty of other options from Wilson to Newcomb to Tucson,
Speaker 1: and they can call up to replace Rocca or replace
Speaker 1: Max Freed. And you heard the reasons a second ago
Speaker 1: from Nick where you don't necessarily think it happens, but
Speaker 1: that that is in the back of my mind in
Speaker 1: trusting these guys long term, I know the next question
Speaker 1: is do you buy them? Do you sell them? What
Speaker 1: do you do? I lean to sell only because I
Speaker 1: don't trust the Braves to commit long term, so I
Speaker 1: would say sell to answer your question you haven't asked yet.
Speaker 1: I think, just in general your sentiment is probably right,
Speaker 1: But overall, I don't think that you're gonna get much.
Speaker 1: I don't think you're gonna get much in return for
Speaker 1: Max Freed or Mike Roka because for the reasons you
Speaker 1: just mentioned, I think a lot of people have similar concerns. Greg,
Speaker 1: and I have been on records saying I think, as
Speaker 1: long as you perform well, I was a Braves pitture,
Speaker 1: you will stay in the rotation. Uh And I think
Speaker 1: so Rocca will perform quite well. But every picture, any
Speaker 1: pitch in baseball is prone to having a bad start.
Speaker 1: I mean, Max sus are struggle against the Marlins his
Speaker 1: last time out, So any starting pitcher is prone to
Speaker 1: having a bad start. Does it mean all right, Sarroka
Speaker 1: has one bad start and they're automatically gonna send him down.
Speaker 1: I think that's the worry amongst fantasy owners who have
Speaker 1: Saroka right now. Greg, So, I think your sentiment is
Speaker 1: correct in that you worry that something like that can
Speaker 1: happen with the Braves. They might have a short leach
Speaker 1: with these guys, But overall, I don't think you're gonna
Speaker 1: get much in return, So overall I would just keep
Speaker 1: both freed. The only the only reason why I think
Speaker 1: you might be able to get something that I don't
Speaker 1: know what that something is, so some please don't ask,
Speaker 1: is because the prospect pedigree, the excitement around young players
Speaker 1: like a free like a Sarroca that someone could be
Speaker 1: I want to buy that, Like I want to be
Speaker 1: in on that, and you get excited over that, So
Speaker 1: you may want to overpay because you think that that
Speaker 1: long term viability this season will be good, Like you
Speaker 1: want that hot young thing, and like, would you trade
Speaker 1: Mike Sarroka for who's akn Tana? Personally? Oh gosh, I
Speaker 1: love both of these guys. I would take hold Quintana,
Speaker 1: I think, like, I think that's something that isn't so
Speaker 1: out of the woods. Yeah, Nick, don't do that. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know what I noticed last night? You have Kantana
Speaker 1: ranked all the way down at sixty four, And I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, man, I gotta ask you Nick about
Speaker 1: this is really this is a really quick one. This
Speaker 1: is pretty easy. He's essentially having the curveball that he
Speaker 1: had in like two thousand sixteen. He said it for
Speaker 1: maybe two starts. Maybe it's possible all of a sudden
Speaker 1: Katana has that back for the rest of the season.
Speaker 1: I think it's such such a small sample and this
Speaker 1: is more likely to burn out than it's to last.
Speaker 1: On the quick Siroca topic, I will say this about him.
Speaker 1: I think the Braves are if Sarka has a bad start,
Speaker 1: it's not going to be like the two key one
Speaker 1: that we saw. If it is like the two key
Speaker 1: one that we saw, then it's an injury. Something is
Speaker 1: actually causing that. I think the Braves are definitely gonna
Speaker 1: give a longo leash if if Sirocca is pitching. But
Speaker 1: it's that I guess the I guess the question is
Speaker 1: really going to balance like his injury history, saying, you
Speaker 1: know what, this is too many innings. We want to
Speaker 1: take it really slow to nine because you're twenty one,
Speaker 1: you already have this shoulder problem. Maybe we'll just make
Speaker 1: this small season for you is a real one. But
Speaker 1: as long as I mean, I don't really see him
Speaker 1: having those massive blow ups like we saw the two
Speaker 1: Dusant or the high walk rates of Sean Nugam, etcetera,
Speaker 1: which should give him a little bit better cushion than
Speaker 1: those guys. It hurts my heart that you hate Hosie
Speaker 1: Kantana May yeah all the way down at sixty four.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, I saw that last night and I said,
Speaker 1: oh god man, this reminds me of Chris Archer all
Speaker 1: over again. Overta in in in the preseason and to
Speaker 1: start the season. It's very small sample size again, and
Speaker 1: he's dominated the Marlins and the Pirates. I'm taking with
Speaker 1: a grain of salt. You know, I'm not looking. I'm
Speaker 1: not expecting this type of strikeout upside from Katana started
Speaker 1: and started off. But what I've seen is that he's
Speaker 1: kind of gone back to his pitching you siege from
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago when he was a quality
Speaker 1: starting pitcher. Again, I'm not expecting of the world here,
Speaker 1: but can you get back to a mid to highs
Speaker 1: three ear a from years past with the White Sox.
Speaker 1: I leaned towards you Ken Nick, Okay, if he if
Speaker 1: he's going at a three a ear a or so
Speaker 1: with I don't know k rate, that's awesome. That's why
Speaker 1: he's in the mid sixties. That that's essentially what we
Speaker 1: call a Toby at picture list, which is your the
Speaker 1: guy at the back end of your staff. You don't
Speaker 1: really love him, but he gets the work done, so
Speaker 1: you keep him around and like, you know, like Toby
Speaker 1: from the office, and I'd rather go after someone like
Speaker 1: Luke Weaver that I think could be a two point
Speaker 1: three point five ear a guy this year who's pitching
Speaker 1: really well with this change up at the bomb the zone.
Speaker 1: Sonny Gray is making moves right now and Guardarodo Riguez
Speaker 1: could bring much bigger value. Katana is someone that I understand,
Speaker 1: especially in deeper leagues. All four Katana there twelve teamers.
Speaker 1: It's not enough of pushing the needle. I think that
Speaker 1: will get from Katana, and that's why I want to
Speaker 1: favor the other guys instead. Sorry, Frankie, those listening on
Speaker 1: the radio, I'm making a sad face. You got artswer right, Yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: but you know I mean I pushed them up into
Speaker 1: the top forty, which I did not expect myself to do.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate that you give you credit there, and
Speaker 1: I think I had him right inside my top twenty
Speaker 1: five entering this season. So that's pretty high on high
Speaker 1: on Chris Archer. He faces the Dodgers this week, so
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a nice little test there for Chris Archer. Gregy,
Speaker 1: I know you wanted to hear from Nick regarding Zach
Speaker 1: Eflyn and Jared i Cough. I said, I Cough was
Speaker 1: the guy that I liked this week because he was
Speaker 1: going up against the Marlins. He was one of these
Speaker 1: one start pictures that I liked because of the matchup. So, Nick,
Speaker 1: what do you have regarding e Flynn and I cough
Speaker 1: moving forward in the Phillies rotation? Sure? Uh so I
Speaker 1: actually have I Coff and ef Flyn right below Quintana
Speaker 1: in the next night in the next tier. So I
Speaker 1: mean Katana was sixty four at the end of Tier eight,
Speaker 1: fifty four would be in the high of that. So
Speaker 1: you know it's not even you see the number, but
Speaker 1: it's really just a clump of pictures I with Evelyn
Speaker 1: and if they're kind of two different sides of the
Speaker 1: same coin. I cough. I really love his curveball. I
Speaker 1: think he improved even the small boat we saw last year.
Speaker 1: Everything we've seen thus far has been, oh yeah, this
Speaker 1: curveball is much better than it used to be in
Speaker 1: two thousand and sixteen when he had that fantastic season.
Speaker 1: I like going after a Coff right now because there's
Speaker 1: a higher chance that he makes a big impact for
Speaker 1: your team. But this could be something falls apart quickly.
Speaker 1: While Fflyn. I don't think Evelyn is going to be
Speaker 1: necessarily detrimental to your team this year, but kind of
Speaker 1: like Kantana, where there's a good chance where he's just
Speaker 1: bouncing back and forth through the season. He doesn't have
Speaker 1: that overwhelming strikeout stuff. Unfortunately, there are times that you
Speaker 1: can really work outs that ninety four mile per fastball
Speaker 1: and then this slider slash cutter around eight six or
Speaker 1: so that when used right, can miss bats. But outside
Speaker 1: of that, sometimes there's this changeup. It's it's a little
Speaker 1: bit questionable. And because of that lack of sistance strikeout
Speaker 1: ability I mean right now is a percent rate last
Speaker 1: year was twenty point five. I think that's what we
Speaker 1: should expect. Plus is out the window. Well, I think
Speaker 1: there's a chance I could do that. So I like
Speaker 1: oting them both. I think they're both guys that can
Speaker 1: get a lot of wins on the fields and especially
Speaker 1: can play the matchups right. They should excel for your
Speaker 1: twelve teamer, but they're not my favorite ones to go
Speaker 1: go after because there's still a harder path to achieve
Speaker 1: their ceiling. Right. We talked about the improved the increased
Speaker 1: breaking ball usage here for just starting pitchers across the
Speaker 1: landscape of baseball right now, and I'm I'm looking at
Speaker 1: the slider usage for for Jared I Cough Actually in
Speaker 1: his first start, where twenty three point eight percent. Nick,
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about this, so you know,
Speaker 1: I bounced back and forth. I try and use as
Speaker 1: many different resources as possible. I try and use fan graphs,
Speaker 1: I try and use Baseball savant. But when it comes
Speaker 1: to labeling pitches, it seems like there's a very fine line.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you consider something a cutter, sometimes you consider it
Speaker 1: a slider. So when I look at when I look
Speaker 1: at Zach Eflyn, and I see the thirty seven point
Speaker 1: five percent cutter usage this year, whereas in years past
Speaker 1: he's been throwing a slider. Like, what do you make
Speaker 1: of that? Is he actually flowing a new pitch? Is
Speaker 1: it a cut fastball? Is it a slider? This is
Speaker 1: regarding Zack Efflyn, because it seems like you try and
Speaker 1: use as many resources as possible, but one place will
Speaker 1: label it as a slider, one place will labeled as
Speaker 1: a cutter. Uh. You know, how do you differentiate when
Speaker 1: it comes to a guy like Eflyn. Is he actually
Speaker 1: using a new pitch or they just labeling it differently? Yeah?
Speaker 1: This is I think a labeling thing. Well, okay, specifically
Speaker 1: with Efflyn. Uh. For example, pitch type which I believe
Speaker 1: is provided by Pitch Info Solutions. Maybe no no way
Speaker 1: to hold on that's not that's not pitch Info Type
Speaker 1: is Info Solutions, and that has it as a cutter,
Speaker 1: while pitch Type has it as a slider. But the
Speaker 1: main thing is that it's an eighty six mile prower
Speaker 1: slider last year and now it's eighty seven point five.
Speaker 1: So whatever that pitch is, he's just throwing it harder.
Speaker 1: It can be very tough about the actual labels. The
Speaker 1: biggest differences really you'll see is is uh, slider versus cutter.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you'll see confusion between curveball and slider. Sometimes you
Speaker 1: get that from del Patansas, for example. From if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, Uh. It can be kind of tough to
Speaker 1: sit through it. But really most of the time, as
Speaker 1: long as the velocity is about the same or I mean,
Speaker 1: and this is definitely a case where it's essentially the
Speaker 1: same pitch, there's no way he decided to all of
Speaker 1: a sudden change everything and get one mile per hour difference.
Speaker 1: He's probably just moving it slightly on his hand to
Speaker 1: get a little bit less spin. To focus more on
Speaker 1: velocity is what my guests would be. But it's not
Speaker 1: really a massively different pitch. It's pretty much the same thing.
Speaker 1: So I coughed versus e Flyn. You have you have
Speaker 1: f f Lyn sixty six. They're back to back ranks
Speaker 1: on the list over at picturelist dot com. You would
Speaker 1: argue that JAREDI cough has more upside overall moving forward.
Speaker 1: I would say his strike at rate is more. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say has a higher ceiling with strikeouts, just
Speaker 1: because the kurpo is so good. Uh, And that's why
Speaker 1: he's slightly above Efflyn at the moment. There you go, Greggy,
Speaker 1: I heard I cough over Efflyn. That helps you know.
Speaker 1: Efflyn's had great control the stars walks for nine or
Speaker 1: you know, he's getting he's getting ahead in the coup
Speaker 1: very early on here in the season, you know, nearly
Speaker 1: first pitched strike percentage. But I do agree, I just
Speaker 1: I don't know that he hasn't enough to to get
Speaker 1: a lot of swings and misses here. That's regarding Zach Eflin.
Speaker 1: He was pitching well and of course ran into the
Speaker 1: Miami Marlins, right, which is we say all the time here, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we're trying to stream against the Marlins. And
Speaker 1: he goes out and he lets us down. But Nick,
Speaker 1: thanks you so much for for joining us. We have
Speaker 1: a few more minutes here. H Is there anything else
Speaker 1: that that you want to promote that you've got going on?
Speaker 1: Where can people find all your work, everything that's going
Speaker 1: on with Pitcherless? Sure there. Well, we didn't get to
Speaker 1: talk about Trevor Williams, but I should have a piece
Speaker 1: out today on him, because this is the weirdest thing ever.
Speaker 1: I don't know how he's doing kind of buying. I'm
Speaker 1: kind of buying that it's okay. There, There's like a
Speaker 1: last piece of research I need to do. I have
Speaker 1: a theory all of a sudden, I need to double check.
Speaker 1: This should have been out on Saturday, but I kind
Speaker 1: of threw everything away and restarted it. Uh So, definitely
Speaker 1: check that out on rhotographs. But yeah on Twitter at
Speaker 1: picture list, We're obviously putting on a ton of gifts there.
Speaker 1: I'm super reachable. But yeah, follow us on Patreon, Patreon,
Speaker 1: dot com, slash picture. Let's join our massive Discord community
Speaker 1: where I am twenty seven of us of the staff.
Speaker 1: Come join us. We talk fantasy baseball all day. It's
Speaker 1: the best community on the internet. So we didn't get
Speaker 1: to Williams, but it's you know, we've got an article
Speaker 1: coming out from over at Rhotographs which I will definitely
Speaker 1: be checking out because he's just a really interesting starting picture.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a guy who has outperformed his
Speaker 1: peripherals for you know, now almost two straight, you know,
Speaker 1: from from last year to this year. He's only got
Speaker 1: twenty four any of this season, but he's got an
Speaker 1: uptick and swinging strikes. So a really interesting picture. They're
Speaker 1: regarding Trevor Williams. Any last words for Nick? Nick, has
Speaker 1: been a pleasure to talk to you, buddy. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just feel like I feel like I want more of
Speaker 1: Nick Pollock to be honest with this, So we're gonna
Speaker 1: make that happen. That would be We've got to do this.
Speaker 1: We'll set it up where, you know, every couple of
Speaker 1: weeks or at least want a mom something like that,
Speaker 1: as long as you're down. Assuming. Yeah, we've had a
Speaker 1: really good feedback from people who listen and watch. Um,
Speaker 1: obviously they love your work as as do we. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you, guys. It's really been and I are to
Speaker 1: be here absolutely. There you go, Nick, Nick time We'll
Speaker 1: make you dance again. From hit your list. When do
Speaker 1: we return? Will be joined by The Closer. Chris Ventcher
Speaker 1: missed yesterday, but it's back today. I will go over
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff that is not really its pictures,
Speaker 1: but stuff from last night hitter wise and bitual wise.
Speaker 1: I guess a whole lot of stuff fantasy wise. And
Speaker 1: we want to get Nancy. Nick Pollock, do you appreciate
Speaker 1: the time we're back? The fantasy BFFs right after us