Episode 9: Prospect Crossroads w/ Eric Cross, DFS picks, and more...

Matt and Mike discuss AEW, Waiver Wire Pickups , DFS picks and the low down on hot prospects with special guest,  Fantrax' Eric Cross.  All this and more on the latest edition of the Fantasy Baseball Hour. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, thanks for downloading the podcast, and remember, if you
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(00:24):
You'll find us there. Enjoy the show and thanks for listening, ladies,
And now to the Fantasy Baseball Hey, guys, are you
at the bottom of your league? Ashamed of your small
d FS account? Does your topics well would make the

(00:47):
girls go non bro? Then listen to the Fantasy Baseball
Hour with Matt Striker and Mike the Rhoto Cops and
turn your war into a drawer. Hey, what's up everybody?
Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Hour. I'm not Striker alongside
Mike the Rhodo Cop. We are back in our old
stomping grounds, the Great Long Island Podcast Studio and Mike.
This is special because we have the man Slick Nick

(01:10):
on the ones and two is doing the show. Nick.
What's up man? Hey, guys, how are you? How are you?
Great man? Yeah, Mike, you want to say something, I
just want to show to be even. I was just
thinking about Joe a little bit. You know. I'm I'm
happy to have you here, Nick, though you'll you'll be
a good filling. I don't want to say the word replacement.
You'll be a good filling. It's a big shout out
to Joe, who is being knighted right now. He's earned
his tenure as a former school teacher. I can tell

(01:32):
you that tenure is something that every teacher earns, and
I think a guy like Joe is gonna continue to
earn his tenure. A lot of people get tenure and
then they just sit on their cushy butts and they
don't try, kind of like you. I don't know about
all that, but you you said it before we got
on air. Joe is a good guy. That is a good,
perfect way to describe him. He's a nice guy. But
we give Nickel out of responsibility in his uh filling

(01:53):
role here to give us some current events. What do
you got for us? Nick? Hey, we still today, we
got a e W going on for e W three letters.
I don't know if you're too happy to hear, are
you of course, I think the whole entire world is
happy to hear those that don't know that's all Elite Wrestling.
They had a huge show this past weekend on Saturday.
It's streamed outside of the US on Fight, inside of

(02:13):
the US on Bleacher Report, and a lot of people
are incredibly excited. Did you watch the show, Mikey? Of
course I watched the show, texted me the entire time
I watched the show, and when Moxley formerly known as
d Nambro's came out, that was definitely a highlight of
my last i'd say ten years of watching wrestling. That
might have been close to the number one spot there.
And the Cody Dustin Rhodes match was probably the best

(02:36):
storytelling I've seen in at least ten years, maybe gone
back to HPK against Rick Flair, that would be the
only thing I could think that would um rival that.
So it's funny you're not the first person to tell
me that that watching a e W made them feel
like how people felt during the Monday Night Wars during
e c W, during things like where you never know
who was going to show up. It has become must

(02:59):
see TV. I will float this out there. Uh, someone
in the industry. Vince russo positive the notion that W
W E and A E W are working together. I
would hate it, of course you would. But stranger things
have happened because people don't realize WW is working with
E C W and nobody knew, Uh, Sammy's A and

(03:20):
did mention a W on air last night and people
don't know if it was a shoot or not. That
was one thing. Another thing, and I thought of you
and I read this today. J R Swears he didn't
know that Dan Ambrose now John Moxley was coming out,
and I was just thinking what would Mat be doing
announcing this match and demon and teen Moxley John out
from the crowd, Wolan match strikers. Two things. One, I

(03:43):
will say this after working with JR and King, and
this was something that was taught to me. You don't
want to know because you want your reaction to be organic,
you know, so you don't want to know. But if
I was there, I think it will probably be the
same reaction I had when Kevin Nash came out and
Booker T came out. I would say, holy sh it,
this is a mark out. I'm marking out. So I
just think that um, not knowing is the beauty. Um,

(04:05):
It's kind of like this. Imagine if in baseball, everyone
in the building knows making it up. It's a full count.
It's Max Scherzy're facing Bryce Harper. Everyone knows the fastball
is coming, or at least you think it is, but
you don't know. Is harder going to be able to
connect on it? Maybe? Maybe sure that throws him a
change things like that. I like not knowing, So I
don't know. Maybe Jr. Was was telling the truth there.
Shout out to our sponsor McDonald's right here. I take

(04:27):
a duncan. The world runs on Duncan. But that was
that was a great show. I'm very excited to see
what they do next there in Chicago. Hopefully uh see
him Punk comes out and see him Punk And if
he does, maybe you'll give me a little heads up
so I could uh see to some people I need.
I need the listeners to know. So my Texas all
weeken along. I was a part of something called star Cast,

(04:48):
which a big shout out to h to Conrad Thompson
and everyone that was a part of star Cast, just
bringing people all around the world behind the scenes. Look
all the podcast everything Fight TV was a huge part
it as well. Uh, you were texting me the entire weekend. Hey,
any surprises, Hey anything? I can know? What kind of
friend would I be if I gave you spoilers? I

(05:10):
wasn't gonna text you, but then you tweeted that you
saw somebody backstage and that kind of I gave the
hint and people didn't realize that this would be a
good surprise. And no one picked up that Moxley's real
last name is good g O D. And that's why
I threw it out. Even you know I'm gonna something incredible.
Not one person said anything in but nobody got it incredible.

(05:32):
They guessed and some of them got Moxley right. You know,
it's just time and time again. I don't give you
enough credit. I'm sorry, continue to underestimate blown, mind blown.
So we talked about a w talking about stodcast. Hey, Nick,
what else we want to talk about here? We also
got out the NBA Finals this week as well. Okay,
fair enough. I thought that was going to be Golden

(05:52):
State in the box. I really did. Uh, it's interesting
to me now, it's the raptors in Golden State. To me,
the biggest story here is who's gonna punch Drake in
the face the court? And I don't know if you
know that about me. I'm a big Drake fan, which
kind of makes sense to a lot of people when
they know me, they always say they always say that
makes sense. But I'm a big Drake guy and I

(06:13):
am not a big honest guy. Let me ask you something.
Do you think he's the best player in the NBA
currently the second best player in NAMBA. Argument can be made,
but I don't pushing it. I can't shoot. I could
go this isn't a basketball podcast, so I don't want
to get into it all day. But there's no way
he does more on a court than Lebron James, Kevin Durant,

(06:36):
Kawhi Leonard and I could even argue a couple more
people he's top five. Steph Curry in there for you. Yeah,
that's a tough one. I'd probably at this point you
really can't deny what Steph's done. I'd have to think
long and hard about it. But Steph Harden, you could
even throw your kitchen the mix. These are guys that
I know a lot of people would take before Janice

(06:56):
and I can't argue with it because you honest can't
shoot outside the paint. So that's just a whole, another whole,
another podcast. So so here's the thing though, Um, people
don't know where Golden State is. Do you know where? Okay?
Do you know what that is? California? Specifically Oakland, Oakland,
San Francisco. Okay, Right, so now I've been to Oakland.

(07:17):
Uh and there's a promotion out there called hood Slam. Okay,
shout out to Drugs Bunny and all the guys over
at hood Slam. If Drake walked through downtown Oakland, Drake
would come out pants less, sneaker list, necklace list, wallet list.
So I'm really really intrigued to see what's gonna happen
when Drake is jumping up and down the sidelinespecially when

(07:37):
the ball is in play. That guy's really taking attention,
you know what I mean? That stuff is suing kind
of weird. So, but your prediction for the finals Golden State,
Golden State in I'll give it six wins at home,
I'll give it six. Yeah, I agree with you too.
So all right, nick, Um, we talked about a w
starcast the finals. What else we got on the list here?

(07:59):
I'm talking abou Bill Buckner today as well. So here's
the thing about Billy Buckner. Rest in peace, Bill Buckner.
So many people are going on social media and saying
Bill Buckner was more than just the era in the
World Series. Yet every picture they post is the ball
going through Billy Buckler's leg Right, Bill Buckner career heads,
I think he played for over twenty seasons, twenty two years,

(08:19):
hit two nine and ESPN tagged him as the guy
who made the faithful heir in the well. That just
goes to show that people will remember you for one
thing and that that's all the way in social media people.
Oh well he said this, and he said that, we'll
look at the body of work, you know. And here's
the other thing too. Technically, that wasn't Billy Buckner's fault. Yes,
the ball went through his legs. But a lot of

(08:40):
people say that John McNamara was all season long, was
making late inning defensive replacements. I forget the guys I want,
say Stapleton or single times. This one just before you
were a glimmer in your daddy's eye. So Buckner shouldn't
have been out there anyway. And I think, what's great.
I remember Billy Buckner is he and Mukie Wilson did
this really cool um like sizzle, real kind of thing

(09:01):
for MLB Network, And uh, the thing is that Buckner
and Mooky Wilson those don't know. Mookie Wilson was the
one that hit the ball right that goes through Buckner
saying I think Ray Night comes around to score. I
can't remember, but um, so Buckner has an error. The
ball rolls through his legs. It's a famous call behind
the bag. It gets past Buckner and the match are
gonna win. So the video moment you knew you wanted
to be an announcer. I knew I wanted to be

(09:22):
announcer long before that, and I was seven years old,
just calling commentary in the kitchen and now mom breaking
up two eggs. Look at the way those eggs fall
out of afew quiet um. But the video was really good, gift.
The video was really cool because things are throwing at Buckner,
like a flower pot. He catches it while he's talking
to Mookie, and uh, you know, a car goes by

(09:42):
and he catches whatever, and then a ball rolls and
he goes to his feet and he looks at Mookie
Wills and they look at each other and just start laughing.
I think it was funny if Bill Buckner to poke
fun at himself. But rest in peace, Bill Buckner. Um, Nick,
what else we got before we get into the actual
fantasy baseball stuff. Oh yeah, Dustin Pedroia, that was that
was Nick just looked at me and smiled. He did

(10:04):
that on purpose, because Pedroia is taking a little time
away from baseball. Your thoughts, Mike, Yeah, he was great.
He was great when I was growing up. He uh,
six years after he signed the first ever nine year
deal for a second baseman. Now and we don't know
if he's ever gonna play again, but he had that
m VP season, that Workie of the Year's season. He
was awesome growing up. Talk about a guy who plays hard,
plays the right way, kind of the Derek Jeter for

(10:27):
Boston fans is how it described Dustin Pejoia fantasy ramifications. Now,
even though Pejoia hasn't been a factor, is there anyone
out there on a waiver wire that maybe you go
out and grab right quick or has this pretty much
been commonplace since the beginning of the year and no surprise. Yeah,
if anybody's rostering Dustin pa Joy. At this point, they
were really holding out. There's a bunch of other guys

(10:48):
there too to replace him. If you are rostering him,
maybe if you're a guy like Joe who owns the
average Joe is and drafted a Dustin p Joy a preseason,
maybe something like that, but not many people have Dustin
Joy on their roster at this point. It actually I
think Tommy Dreamer may have drafted him, but that's a
conversation for something entirely different. A guy that many people
have probably had on their roster that now has been

(11:08):
removed is Michael Gibbons. He's lost his job. Do you
drop Michael Gibbons? If you own him, what do you do? Yeah?
Fantasy value. I don't think there's any any left. I
think they squeezed, or any owner squeeze what they could
have out of Michael Gibbons. At this point. They say
it's just a command and confidence issue, But at this
point it means more for the Orioles because this would

(11:28):
have been a nice trade chip at the All Star
break when they were how many of her games are
going to be behind five center? This would have been
nice for them. So if he could regain some confidence
in command, Like they say, that's what the issue is.
They could turn him into some sort of prospect down
the line. You never know who it is. I mean
Fernando Rod and he got traded for Chris Paddock. So
Fernando Ron, you just got d fade? He did? You

(11:48):
got released today? They I think they called up Ricky
Ricky Martini if I'm not mistaken, one of the minor leaguers.
But yeah, you never know what it could turn into.
And you could get a Chris Paddock out of a
guy like Michael Gibbons, or even in Gibbons case, he
could turn around with a new scenario. So sure we'll
see what happens with him. Michael Gibbons and the Orioles
take away. So Michael, we have not seen each other

(12:09):
in a while. No, we haven't had a good weekend.
You loved your a e W. How is your DFS stuff?
Did you win any money? DFS is going well? I
want some money. It's actually funny. One of the guys
I used to do a podcast with the Fantasy Benefits.
He always were still in a group chat together, so
he always send screenshots of his DFS and he got
his wife into his wife's like hook now, so divorce

(12:31):
is coming. So she shout out to Colin Weatherwax. So, um,
she won four thousand dollars yesterday, came in fifth place
in DFS and she didn't win it at all because
I think he said the top guys that took roster
Tommy Malone. And I don't know who's out there smart
enough to roster tom Malone. But he went five innings
to run seven straps. So I thought that was pretty funny.

(12:53):
She went four grand I was like, wow, cook for her.
So shout out to Colin's wife on the Fantasy Baseball
Hour on a flip side that think I've mentioned this before.
So I had a friend of mine and his girlfriend
would have all of his passwords. That's just how their
relationship was. And they got into this huge fight and
it was during face Why would he do that? Well,
he loved her and she had trust issues whatever, and um,

(13:13):
during football season they got into this huge fight. She
went into his Yahoo football team and just dropped every
good player that he had. I think you told me
this one. I'm wondering now if if if Mrs weather Wax,
let's just give her name. The Bernice weather Wax. He's
gonna go in and kind of like see what Colin's
playing and then try to like play against that. But

(13:35):
four grand for for Beatrice weather Wax. Congratulations Colin. We
tried last year. She got into it a little bit,
but then she kept picking players that when I'm playing,
and then I had to stay on top of it,
and so you got to replace him, and then I
turned out making the replacements and just all went downhill
from there because sometimes you know how it is. So
she started losing, got frustrated, and now it's just me

(13:55):
and wasting a lot of money for dfs. That's it.
You don't want to frustrated partner. No, definitely not at all. Well,
speaking of people that are not frustrating us, we want
to move into something called is he for Real? And
this is where can you say it? In the NBA
jambler is he for Real? Where Mike and I talk
about a handful of players that I think some are

(14:16):
playing over their head, but others might actually be for real,
and they might be people that you want to go
out there and try to pick up. For me, the
first guy on the list. Not only is this guy
intriguing but also his position is what's intriguing to me
because this position has been one of great annoyance for
a lot of fantasy since the beginning, and now as

(14:38):
the season is beginning to really flush itself out, there
are names that are emerging at the catcher position, from
Mitch Garver and things like that. Even though I think
he's still hurt or he may be coming off a DL,
but this guy here for Oakland, Josh Fegley, I just
think from a catcher's position, Mike, I posit the question
to you, is he for real? Josh Fley is definitely

(14:59):
not for real? Yeah, not really. Even though he is
a catcher and he's hitting two eighty two seven homers
thirty two r b I s. His hard hit is
in the eighteenth percentile, which means, you know what it means.
Then that means with the listeners out there, what the
hell does hard hit means? Eighty two percent of Major
League baseball is hitting the ball harder than Josh Fegley,
and eight six percent of Major League baseball has a
better exit vetle than Josh Fegley at fourteen percentile, and

(15:22):
he's having a real problem with breaking pitches. He's only
hitting one fifty against breaking pitches. So combine all that
with a three point eight walk percentage, I do not
think Josh Fegley is for real. How about you, Well,
let me ask you something as far as his heart
hit rate goes. Is there any correlation to the fact
that the harder a ball is hit, the more likely
it's going to go for a positive badded event and

(15:44):
at the end of the day in most scenarios. Yeah, okay,
So so based off of that, you're saying the fact
that Fegley isn't hitting the ball hard tells you that
there will be a regression coming and that the past
couple of weeks or just especially in the power department
when if he's not hitting the ball hard, like we
talked about with barrels on last week's show, I think
it was last Wednesday's show, barrels are essentially exit vo
plus launch ain. So that's something Fegley is having in

(16:06):
trouble with. And if he's not getting the barrel on
the ball, all his numbers are obviously gonna dip. So
guys that I like to call stack cast heroes that
we'll get into, I think I got one or two
of these on the list, He's definitely not one of
them because his numbers are so so below average and
most of those stack cast categories that it's not going
to translate to two good results. Now, every time I
hear someone in wrestling, we call it verty disparage a player.

(16:29):
Immediately the restaurant me goes, do you think you could
beat Josh Fegley in a fight? Like, I want Josh
Fagley in studio, and I want you to tell him
to his face. Man, So what's up with the hard
hit rate? Son? What's good with that exit? Vieo? Yo?
Maybe you could do the this is for real? Do
you think he's for real? Fegley? And then now you're
changing your tune because you we're talking about geting him

(16:49):
in studio, right But I'm not going to disparage him.
I'm just saying, is he for real? Right now? If
you have a great player, he made it to the
major leagues. Okay, everybody knows that. I'm not denying that, um.
But yeah, if you need a catcher and you have
that open position where you can stream a guy, meaning
hold onto him and then drop him, ride Fegley till
he's hot, I'm big on riding guys until they're not

(17:13):
hot anymore. Ride him to the wheels, fall off of
what it is. You want to hear some six ship. No,
I don't want to finish my second and then you
can give me some six ships. But you have, but
you have to do it in hip hop. Actually, Nick
can play a beat for us. The only six ship
that you can say is if you've freestyle it off
the top of your head. I won't stop. I'm Mike

(17:34):
the Rhodo cop. Yeah, who do you like? Forty on
the second baseman. But as far as as far as
Fegley goes, he's not for real. But you can definitely
roster him until he is no longer real, especially given
the fact that catcher is such a position where from
day to day, if you didn't draft Gary Sanchez, you

(17:57):
know what do you do? Well? I was going to say,
was none of you gotta wait for the beat before
the six ship. I'm gonna get in you talking to here.
Then until that beat gets going and he's the fifth,
I'm gonna I'll just give you a beat. Pot Ray.
I can't do it. I physically can't. I wish I could,
over and over. I've tried. I cannot physically do it.

(18:18):
Maybe you Chris spit around about Josh Fegley, but we
could sit here for that. What are you gonna say?
Josh Begley is the fifth rngth catcher in my Yahoo
Pro thousand league right now? So what rhymes with league peak?
So now give me something about fifth in my Yahoo
leaves something something something, Yeah, l peak. I can't do it.

(18:42):
I physically can't. I wish I could. This is making
for bad radio because I can't. If they heard you
freestyle right now, they think it was like the greatest
thing ever. Anyway, Josh Begley is fifth right now, right fifth? No, alright,
he's the fifth rated got in the Yahoo league. That
that was your six ship? Yeah, how sick is that?

(19:03):
The Josh Fagley, who had a preseason ranking of one
thousand four one is currently like two forty five. I
had a Yadia Molina Wilson, Rammo's, Omar Nevayez, Mitch Garver,
Jonathan Lukewix, Christian Vasquez, what goes on and on? I
own two of those guys. Actually I owned var and
uh who else him again? Garver? Garver? Garver? I just

(19:24):
like he got hit in the head for a living.
Chcarver is a free agent in this league. Alright, So
moving on, how about Brian Reynolds, Brian Reynolds. I'm a
big Brian Reynolds fan. Is he for real? The verdict
is still out on Brian Reyolds. I can't give you.
I cannot. I cannot commit myself to h he is
for real or noncommittal? Millennial? I'm shocked if I hear
that fucking word again. What noncommittal? No, I'm a millennial too,

(19:48):
Why don't you like not yet? All right, anyway, I'm fourteen.
Brian Reynolds. Go ahead, Brian Reynolds, go ahead. Pittsburgh outfield.
He's not Gregory Polanco, he's not Stanley Marte. And he
has a third the seven point four oh swing when
the average is thirty point five. So he's swinging at
the balls outside of the zone thirty seven percent of
the time, which is a way above league average. And

(20:10):
believe it or not, when you swing outside the zone,
you're not gonna make as much contact in most cases,
swinging strike rates thirteen percent league averages eleven. So obviously,
not only is he swinging out of the zone, but
he's also missing a lot of pictures more than the
average baseball player. He is hitting three five homers sixteen RBIs.
He has limited playing time with this point, but now
he's getting every day looks in the outfield. He's another
guy that struggles against breaking pictures. He's only hitting one

(20:33):
oh five and that's a key to to to keep
that bad in the lineup in the major leagues. You're
not just gonna see fastballs every day. I don't care
what slot you're hitting. Yeah, So if you can't deal
with breaking pitches, eventually things are gonna Once you start
slumping against fastballs or off speed or whatever it is,
you're you're gonna have trouble. So he's a guy stack
cast wise who is actually very good in the stackcast apartment.

(20:56):
His hard hit percentages in the ninety seven percentile, which
is insane. His exit wields an eighty nine percentile, which
is insane too. It is a small sample because he's
only had I think a little north of a hundred
at bats. So the verdict is still out the stack
as numbers show me that there's something there. But as
far as what I run to my waiver wire again him,
I would say no, run, Michael Run. I would say

(21:17):
no in a wound. How do you do it in
a wound? How do you do a counter terrorism police
officer runs to the weaver wire? Brian Reynolds is the
man that he runs to negative. Okay, here's my thing
with Reynolds as far as the position goes. I think
there's a dozen other outfielders I'm gonna look to try
to get, I mean, from Mercado's on my waiver wire

(21:39):
or some of these other guys. I'm gonna stay away
from Reynolds Pirates. To me, it's just not someone that
I find sexy. This guy, though, coming up, is someone
who is sexy, like wears nice perfume, high heels as
a nice calf I like to like s calf um.
I grew up on a farm, but and I've rostered

(22:00):
in my fan tracks league. Yeah, you grew up on
a phone from Canada. I'm Western Canada. Grow up in
form I could just tell your Actually, do you know
the place called Medicine Hut. That's where I learned to
play hockey. No. Absolutely, when you say you grew up there,
I grew up there like that was nine really, So
how do you get from Canada, Queens. My father what

(22:23):
was that? I'm saying what he said? Come on, we're
going to the whole family moved leave me Queens, Queens.
My dad had a business that he owned and it
got bought and it moved to Manhattan. So he didn't
want to live in Manhattan. So we lived in one
of the last suburbs of Queens called Bay Terrocet Bayside,
Queen's home of Day Valley from the Seattle Mariners shout
out to base, my dad play a little league baseball
against Dave Valley. Way to make this about you, do

(22:45):
you have dual Citiens? Only if you could say it again, Ship, yes,
I do. You got to prove that after this. Do
you want me to prove it office there? Anyway? This
guy I have rostered in my fan tracks league and
I've been contemplating whether or not to keep him. But
he's not allowed me to make that decision. And that's
obviously Garcia, who I think is for real, for real.

(23:06):
I totally agree with you, and this kills me because
I wrote an article before the season started about how
this signing Avvy Garcia at a Tampa meant absolutely nothing
for the raids and it was a horrible move, and
it got like a hundred comments, and people are going insane.
Some people are saying they agree, some people are saying
they don't agree. It became this whole big thing, and
now I look back on it and I'm just I

(23:27):
just can't believe these numbers that he's putting up. He's
hitting two seventy nine and nine homers by this guy
is six stolen bases. So I'm gonna give you the good.
The good is his ex batting expected batting averages in
the eight percentile, which is obviously high number. Like I
was talking about before, his ex slugging ninety percentile x well,
but eighty nine percentile that all sounds great. His ex
sprint I don't even know how this possible. A sprint

(23:48):
speed is in the NINETI percentile. You're telling me Avvy
Garcia is nine out of ten faster than nine out
of ten guys in Major League Baseball. He may just
be getting a better jump, and he definitely knows how
to run the basis. Something changed, something changed with Avi
Garcia in his profile, but he's still the free swinger
that led him down the road to all the problems
that he's encountered in the past. His OH swing is

(24:09):
forty percent. League average is thirty So he's swinging bowls
outside the zone and in insane rate. And his swinging
strike rate is nine pent, which is the highest I've
seen and pretty much since we've been doing this. Is
he for a real thing in the last couple of weeks.
This is the highest I've seen it. Swinging strike rate,
that's insane. How many whiffs does he actually have? I
should have looked that number. His contact percentage is lower

(24:31):
than league average as well, almost by twelve percent. He's
hit his contact percentage the league average is seventy six.
So it's crazy to say he is for real. But
I think I'm going to take an l on this
one and go against my whole article and what I
posted on Reddit, and I'm gonna say he is for real.
I actually believe in the stack Cast numbers here. He's
what you would consider a stack Cast hero. So Mike

(24:53):
has used to take in the day, but today he
takes the l M. Yeah, obviously, I see. I think
it's definitely the team. I think guys go to Tampa
and set that organization. It's what infectious. Okay, the organization
is just I had no idea. Actually I never know
with you when you try to speak English. Um, but yeah,
I think the organization really does great things. Like obvious,
Garcia is a professional hitter, and we're just a few

(25:14):
days outside of June, and as of right now, obviously
I was certainly a guy that if you have him
or he's out there on your wire, there are worse
choices you can make. We'll revisit this in a couple
of weeks and see what's going on, But right now,
I like, obviously Garcia, here's the guy that you and
I talked about, and next to his name, I have
who cares, and that's Sean Armstrong. Your thoughts on Sean Armstrong?

(25:35):
People can man when you're when you're talking about saves,
people people are crazy for saying this is true. People
really go crazy for saves. And we talked about my
call Givens losing the job earlier in the show. There's
not really a set closer in Baltimore. Could be Blyer,
Fry Cash, Stroke, could be any of these guys any day.
I'm strong at the first crack at it could be
could be how fast can you throw a baseball. I've

(25:57):
topped out at like really not anything special, but that's
not bad. You're a big guy. I'm definitely more athletic
than you. But anybody that's not what she said? All right?
Sean arm Strong, yes or no? Is he for real? People?
I would not grow grab him. He is not for real,
not because his numbers don't say so, but more because
he's a Baltimore Orioles relief pitcher. All right on the

(26:24):
line with us right now is a very very special
guest courtesy of Mike the Rhodo Cop. I'm a big
fan tracks guy. I'm a big prospect guy. But nobody
is any bigger than our guests right now. You can
find him at Eric Cross. Oh for Eric Cross, Eric,
what's going on? It's Matt Striker. How are you? I'm doing? Woman?
How are you doing? I'm doing all right? Mike say, hi, Hey,
what's going on? Eric? Thanks for coming on the show. Hey,

(26:45):
thanks for having me on. Man, you got it all right,
It's our pleasure. So Mike and I were just running
down guys if we thought they were for real. We
just ended with Sean Armstrong and both of us just
basically realize that He's a Baltimore Orial relief pitcher. So
unless you're chasing saves, he's really not someone you should
run out to on your waiver wire. But what I
want to talk to you about is all of these
call ups, so many people in so many fantasy leagues

(27:08):
are just clamoring for people. Uh, can you talk to
us a little bit about Let's start with Let's start
with Mitch Keller. A lot of people went out grab
Mitch Keller. He looked like he came out of a
little league game. They sent him back down today. Uh,
is Keller a guy that people should roster? Will he
be back up? Yeah? He should be back. Yeah. That
first sitting was disastrous. Uh, he just it looked like

(27:28):
he was just like overthrowing things. He was a little
bit of jitters out there. But um, you know that's
a you know, a good example of you know, we
we've been spoiled really with all these prospects coming up
over the last you know a few years and just
basically dominating right away. And it doesn't always happen, as
evidence with Keller, but he settled back. He settled down
after that first hitting. It looked really good. The rest

(27:49):
of the way you have about a run after that
first you kind of't think he was kind of getting
in his groove. So um, yeah them back down. He
should be back up fairly soon. He's basically, you know,
done everything he can in the minors to show that
he's ready for the major leagues. Um, he's a future
kind of number two type starter, got a really good
fastball and curveball change up to work in progress, but

(28:11):
um it's always you know, serviceable. Number three gets a
lot of groundballs, So um, he's kind of like I
kind of compared into like a Kyle Hendricks just like
statistically kind of a guide that is like never You're
never gonna be excited about owning Kyle Hendricks on your
team really, but you know he's gonna be you know,
post solid ratio at the end of the day, you know,
right around and straight out for inning. So um, it

(28:33):
depends how deeper league is right now. Um, Dynasty definitely
has roster. He's one of the top twenty started pitching
prospects in baseball. Um for the twenty nineteen read draft leagues.
You know, if you've got room, I'd stash hims. He
should be back up fairly soon. I say, with the
next month or so. Um, but if you're in a
shallow league, you compare to let him go and pick
him back up later on. Yeah, and we might see
him sooner than later, because as of seven fifty four PM,

(28:55):
Jordan Lyles was removed against the Reds doing an apparent injury.
So I might be packing his bags to go down
today and then packing them to come right back up,
So we'll see what happens there. I was just curious,
how long have you been doing fantasy baseball. I've been
playing since since I was a kid, so probably talking
like early two thousands or so. All right, so you've
been around for a long time in the in the

(29:16):
fantasy industry. Have you ever seen back to back weeks
or a two week period where this many prospects have
got called up at once. I mean, it's ridiculous. You know,
my boss of fan tracks to Tim Wagner, he kind
of he came to me one day and he's like,
you know what I want to start doing? You know,
it's quick little prospect videos, like one minute videos telling
people why you know they should be you know, picking

(29:37):
these guys up or not, and then like the very
that very next day, you give me like late at
night next day, Kessingeria gets called up. After that, Austin Riley,
after that, Brendan Rodgers. How was doing like videos back
to back to back days, you know, And then we
had that that wave earlier the season. It's ridiculous, you know.
It's like once one guy gets caught up the floodgates opening,
five or six more get called up. So that been

(30:00):
it's been fun to watch them, even as a prospect guy.
It's it's great, you know, but this provides a ton
of content for guys like you, and it provides a
ton of a ton of value for guys like me
and Matt who are really scouring the waiver wire to
pick these guys up before anyone else gets to him.
One one guy I wanted to talk about, who's making
his debut right now. He's an ending in he had

(30:22):
to strike out in the first sitting. Is Zach please act?
What do you what do you got for us? On
Zach please act? Is he worth a speculative ad? Yeah,
he's uh, he's not quite you know, on niche Colors level,
but you know he's kind of one of those back
end like workhorse starters, got to eat up a lot
of innings post you know, decent but non spectacular numbers.

(30:43):
Doesn't straight out a bunch of guys. Um. He throws
fairly hard a little bit nineties and get like nineties
six sometimes um, but it doesn't really have any really
good you know, doesn't have any good breaking balls. Changed
up his mediocre at best. So he's like gonna be
a guy that's gonna go out there and just like
rack up ten eleven, twelve ks and outing um. But
he's no set of pitch. He mixes his pitch as well,

(31:05):
and he's really good command, which really helps you know
when you when you have a kind of a lackluster
overall arsenal, like like pleaseach has you gotta you gotta
hit your spots, and he certainly does. He can't remind
me like like a poor man's Shane bieber Um kind
of guess not gonna walk a lot of guys. Didn't
really blow you away, but you know, probably post solid
ratios and umat a bunch of endings. So he's god

(31:27):
like a number four number five type starter. Um, my
dad him in deeper leagues, you know, like sixteen plus
teams or you know al only leagues. He's definitely a
good target there. That's a lot to live up to,
even being a poor man. Shane Bieber. The way the
way Bieber is pitching these days. You know what I
love that you do, uh, Eric, is when you tell
me that this player is like someone that the average

(31:49):
fan can relate to. To me, that's so important because
we hear all these names, and if you don't have
any frame of reference, you really don't have anything to
go off of. So I tipped my Montreal expo Is
cap that I'm wearing to you on that. Yeah, it's
an old one, it's all beaten up to um, but
I want to go to Toronto. Everyone's obviously about Lottie,
and I made some moves to pick up Cavin Bigio,

(32:10):
who I think just took an eye Elstint Is that right?
I know he's sat today. He's sick, all right? So um,
two things. One, the whole thing surrounding Bideo is everyone's
climbing for him. Is he that great? Should you run
out and get him? Also, when Bobischette comes up, if
he comes up, who's a better pick up? If I

(32:32):
could only pick up one? Yeah, if you want one,
I'd still go with Bobichette. Um, Bisio is good. Um,
I think I think everyone gets lost in the fact
that you know, his father is a Hall of Famer
and you know he's a very very good player, but
he's not He's not the caliber of of of Vladdie
or a Bishette or a Kissing Furia, even Austin Rodley,

(32:54):
guys like that. Um, he's gotten a lot better over
the last couple of years. He's had some power, started
hitting more fly balls the last couple of years. One
from eleven home runs and seen and I think twenty
six last year, got a little of speed to he's
a bigger guy. To he was a little speed as well. Um,
I would definitely be adding him right now. Ums. Fact

(33:16):
that he can give you a little bit of everything.
You know, he's got a really strong walk rate, so
like if you're an O B P league and gets it,
gets a nice little boost there. Um, it's probably not
more than like a two six seventy hitter and then
the long run, but he said he probably has like
a three six, three seventy oppic along with that, so
he can add you know, I said, probably like a
twenty five home run guy long term can add dele

(33:39):
digit steals with that as well. And I think the
big thing too is like he can play. He's mostly
a second basement, but he's played some first, some third,
got some look in the outfield last year on the
Arizona Fall League, so you know that flexibility should keep
him in the lineup, you know, fairly regularly. So if
he still is available, he can give you a little
bit of everything for average, for power, hit for be

(34:00):
or steal some basis. So I'd definitely be adding him.
But you gotta pick between him and Busio Busy um
excume him and a Bichette. Machette is the real deal.
He's one of the top ten prospects and all Baseball.
This guy can hit three, he can steal thirty bases.
He can hit twenty home runs, you know down the road.
He's got so got more power raising it for not
much power yet, but definitely more power on that bat.

(34:22):
And I've seen all these guys a lot. They're Double A.
Toronto's Double A team is about two hours from my
my house, so I gotta get up there a lot,
so a lot of a lot of these guys last
year when they were all there for a good portion
of the season. So definitely, Busio definitely be a solid
long term player, but not nobody that you're gonna it's
gonna be the reason why you are, you know, in

(34:43):
first place or something like that. Yeah, and like you said,
you get to those games a lot and stuff. There's
a difference between guys in our industry who actually go
to the games and guys who are scouting from their couch.
Not that there's anything wrong with that in certain in
certain cases, but it's nice to have you on to
talk about your experien and says when you've seen these
guys playing person because that's an element that you can't
really replicate. I want to uh me and a lot

(35:05):
of other fantasy fantasy baseball players out there, managers are
wondering who you would rather have, Josh Naylor or Kevin Crones.
They're both They're pretty similar players. I mean, look at
their raw skills. I leaned slightly over towards Kevin Krawn.
I really like the adjustments he's made. He was He's

(35:26):
always had the power. He's always been, like you know,
on pace for thirty plus home runs every year in
his minor league career. But you know, he used to
be you know, average, was inconsistent. He like to twenty
something back in But over the last three years, including
this year at Triple A, he's really been more patient
and waiting to drive the ball more. It's walker rate's

(35:48):
way up this year to a career high rate, and uh,
you know it's really paid off. One home runs in
forty four games. Yeah, the Pacific Coach League is notorious
hit her friendly league, but one home runs in forty
four games, You've got to be impressed amount of how
hit or friendly the league is. Um, he's a guy.

(36:08):
You know he can hit hit for solid average now too,
because he's probably been more patient, has been cutting down
the strikeout. So, um, Naylor. I I go back and
forth on how I feel about Naylor. He's he's always had,
you know, watching the batting practice shil you know, be
Pepper and balls over the fence and right field. But
that you know, that power has been more more batting

(36:30):
practice power. Then he hasn't really shown that power a
lot in games yet, He's not even hit twenty home
runs in the minor league season, yet it's still in there.
I think he can be a twenty five home run
guy long term, but then you get a factor in
how does pet Go Park play into that. So um
for this year long term it's closer. I still get
the edge to Crown this year definitely Krawn, just due

(36:52):
to the fact neither one is as a really consistent
path of playing time. Naylor has been playing less, you know,
a week or so since he got called up as
a d H and they had six string games in
a L Parks. But after this little stint is over,
who knows grace that play? You know, Hawser is making
too much money bench unless he totally goes in the tank.

(37:12):
You know, they're not gonna bench Eric cosmer So, and
you know they have like seven out fielders they've been
trying to find time for. So I don't really know
how Naylor fits into their plans in the short term.
You know, I said when he got called out that
if he just hit really well in this little American
League extent when he was d aging, that maybe he'd
cut into you know, Hunter Renfroze playing time, who would

(37:34):
have been kind of struggling over the last three or
four weeks. But he hasn't really done. Now he's he's
had like four got four hits from seventeen a bats
or something like that. But I don't think he's played.
He's probably probably headed back down, especially you know, what
are these Padres Healtfieler is trying to get healthy so
or getting close to coming back. So you know, I
don't see eeen. I don't want to see a lot

(37:55):
of value in Naylor. But long term, you know, it
could be a you know, he hits for decent average
to get to seventy to eighty guy one phone runs
just you might need a trade out of San Diego
like that happen there, you go, Yeah, that's what I
was thinking too. I mean, it's almost as an embarrassment
of riches down there, and if they can, can you know,
swing a deal they certainly. It just seems that's one

(38:15):
of the fun teams to watch. So I have the
MLB package, and I'm in New York, so anytime Padres
games are on, those games are on late, and I
really love to sit down. I opened up, honestly, a
whole entire box of Oreos and a jug of milk,
And I mean back when I was in college, I
would just do bong hits and watch baseball so now
and that I'm older, it's just it's oreos and milk,
because Mike is a police officer and nobody does drugs.

(38:37):
Speaking of doing drugs, I have a friend of mine
and one of my Yahoo leagues. He's a huge Angels fan.
He has stashed Joe Adele for as long as I
can remember, and my conversation with him is that I
don't think we're gonna see Adele this season until maybe September.
Your thoughts, That's exactly right. I had that question, asked
me today on Twitter, and especially no early in the season,

(38:57):
before he Adele had that that leg in jury that
worried me. I looked like he was out, gonna be
all for the entire season. When that happened that then
there was a shot, you know, for September. Now I
think it's it's almost I'm not putting a zero percent,
but you know, unless like the way I see him
Adele playing into plans is if he's just going full

(39:20):
beast mode in the minors, which he definitely could do.
He's got that skill. But and then also the Angels
would probably need to be in playoff contention, which is
not not a very common occurrence over the last decade
or so, but it could happen. But you know, I
think that the latest as long as you know, things
go accord on the plane this year doesn't get injured,
keeps progressing that he has. I think we should see

(39:42):
him fairly early in maybe opening day, maybe they played
the service time card, who knows. But the upside, like
your buddy has been right to stat this guy, the
upside is massive. I think I said earlier today that
no um hitting hitting prospect has the combination of the
same combination of power and speed as I mean you

(40:02):
could you combine his projected home runs and steals at
peak adelve you know levels Nobody in the minor leagues
can match it. You know, he's could be a thirty
thirty guy freaking scry athletics so much raw power. Um,
I would love that I have been stashed him in
a few leagues to even leagues that you have to
have him on the bench spot, and it's called bench spot,
and so I'd love to see him in twin nineteen.

(40:24):
But put that at like five percent chance or less. Alright,
not bad, Okay. I am in a fan tracks writers league.
My team auto drafted so I'm currently in the eleventh
place and I'm embarrassed, Steven show my face. Um, if
I had to pick up two of the following people,
who would it be in why Honeywell, Lozardo, Mountcastle, Puck

(40:48):
your novz uh two of us? So Alvres would definitely
be one of them. He should be everyone's Actually where
is he gonna play? Talk abouna be up? First? The
thing is, you know Alfrez can you know play first
space as well? He's not a great wherever you put
a piece, not a great defender, but that bad is

(41:09):
so special they're gonna eventually they're gonna make room for him.
Likely he'll probably play a d h of Kydler White can.
He's absolutely nothing that he answered so far this season. Um,
So definitely with al fresbi one of them. Outside of that,
the second one, I'm tempted to say a J Puck
because he he was you know, he's still recovering from

(41:31):
Tommy John, but he was fairly close before and he's
he's almost back now, so I think he could provide
some value in August September. Um. Outside of that, you know,
Honeywell keeps having setbacks now, he's dealing with a nerve
issue and the shoulder, which you know, who knows with that.
You know, I have nerves issues and I didn't one

(41:53):
of my shoulders, but you know, it's no fun. And
I'm not a major league pitcher or a mind lea pitcher,
so um. You know. Mountcastle an interesting one though, Like
he's another one that he doesn't He's not the flashiest
guy in the world. He's doesn't that huge power. It's
not gonna get three over three hundred. But he's kind
of like, you know, for compared to maybe a poor
man's key boom Carter key boom, that might be you know,

(42:16):
not doing Mountcastle as much justice as he deserves. But
he's kind of like a two seventy two eighty hitter,
you know, homeown power, and he's he's fairly close. So
he's been playing fairly well this year in the Upper miners.
So Baltimore doesn't really have much in his way. So
you know, maybe you Mountcastle for that second one. He
should be up with the next month or two. I's like, wow, no,

(42:37):
Lozardo love Wow, that's funny. I like boyd leve Lzzardo.
But again, he's another one, like he keeps getting pushed back,
and think who it was. It was one of the
writers for the Athletic Countain San Cisco or someone's out there.
He might not even be back or up until like August.
So I just don't see. And he's you know, he

(42:59):
was shut down last year as well, and I still
think Oakland's been really babying him over the last couple
of years. So I just don't know, if you know,
long term, it's one of the top pitching prospects in
the minors, you know, you know, super highly could be
the next sing Madison, Bums Gardner type of picture. But

(43:19):
I don't know. I just don't see a lot of
value there, all right, Eric Cross from fan Tracks on
the line, Eric, before we let you go, you saw
these three following pictures in person. I just want to
quick comp for each of these guys before you sign off. Here,
Casey Mays, Nate Pearson, and Matt Manning. Man this this
this was a fun That was a fun week getting
to see three the top ten pitching prospects all in

(43:42):
the five days stretch. He only went two innings in
his start, but my so I saw mys first and
he's the one highest on he's my he's my top
pitching prospecting baseball. He's passed forward with Ley, He's pasted
Lazardo in my mind. I really like those guys. But
this he has everything you could want in an ace pitcher.
I've compared. I've compared him to like a This is

(44:04):
a lofty, lofty comparison because this guys don't want the
best pitching guys over the last fifteen years, but Justin Verlander.
Maybe not quite as high on the strikeouts, but he's
just a guy. He's gonna be. It's a workhorse. He
knows how to pitch that the dynamic arsenal, doesn't walk
many guys. Now, he's a guys could be thrown, you know,

(44:24):
two plus innings, two strikeouts, probably low ratios. So he's uh,
he's definitely one that if I was a start, you know,
start a team and could take any pitching prossure in
the minors, maybe taking case some eyes. Probably. Wow. That
is a glowing endorsement from Eric Cross. You can find Eric.

(44:46):
He's a great follow at Eric Cross O four And
before we let you go, give a little love. I'm
a Cardinal fan. Just tell me how great Alex Reyez
is going to be once he's back up. Yeah, I
love yez. I've love for has for a while. And
you know between the head needs a little work obviously,
you know, is the lightlatest little you know, punching the

(45:09):
wall at least did with his non pitching hand, So
give him a little credit of that. I guess silver lining,
you want to call it that, but um, you know
he's got you know, obviously he throws a hundred curveball.
Is the elect tricks changeup has been, you know, gotten
better and better every year. If he can just you know,
stay healthy, keep his head on his shoulders. You know,

(45:31):
he's got super high upside. Like I put him, he's
right there with like the forest Whitley's minds, he's right
behind them, and I take mines over him. But he's
a super high upside. He's to keep his head on straight,
stay healthy, get to a groove. That's the thing. He
hasn't been able to get to a groove yet. Every
time he starts like wearing together, a couple of starts

(45:54):
in the road where he's looking really good, and stuffing happens.
You get injured, punches the wall, whatever it may be.
So he can just get into a groove and you know,
show what he can do. And he said, you have
a really good picture for a long time. All right.
The last thing, and honestly, I just I love guests
like you that really just go into detail to give
the listener someone that they haven't been thinking of. So

(46:15):
I really do appreciate your time and your knowledge. Last thing,
is there someone out there that, if you can stas
room right now, is going to pay immediate dividends in
the next two months. Who would that be? Well in
the next two months. Yeah, listen, that's a good question.
I got a lot of long term thoughts here. I
have one good question a year, and I saved it

(46:36):
for you. So we kind of covered a lot of
the guys. You know, a guy who's been really you know,
started a year he wasn't really high and a lot
of you know, a lot of prospect list but Zach
gallon Miami Marlin's he's just been absolutely dominating in Triple A.
And he's not a guy he doesn't have a high
upside like I've been talking about, you know, the top

(46:58):
pitching prospects, and people have been I go, where's that Gal?
And I'm like, Okay, he's not. He's not on Whitley's level.
He's not on Lose Harvard's level yet, but he's on
that type of arsenal. But he says really really solid,
really good command, mixes his pitch as well. He could
be a really good middle of the rotation guy for
a long time. And the only thing is he's not
on the he's not on the Marlins forty man roster yet,

(47:20):
so they gotta make a movie. But they can face
someone's to Marlins. They don't have much going on down there,
so he should be up, I say, before the All
Star break and be a big pitching add for a
second half of the season. All right, there you go.
That's Eric Cross and folks, if you're not familiar with
fan tracks, please go check them out. I'm in a
couple of their leagues. It really is fantastic. Anything else

(47:41):
you want to add before we let you go, ec,
I know it's yes. Check out fan Tractually been kind
of building up our you know content over the last
couple of years, been really put on a lot of
good stuff. So you know, I got right through articles
a week, Waiver Wire, Dynasty and Prospects, So I'm going
you know check it out head on over the fan tracks.
So much for your time. We truly appreciate you. That's

(48:02):
Eric Cross. Follow him at Eric Cross oh four. Thanks Eric,
we'll talk to you man. Thanks thanks for having me.
Take care, take care, bye bye, Mike Man. Let me
tell you something, bro. For all of my absolute hatred
of you, you seriously get some really good guests. How
did you get Eric? How do I get him? If
you just bothered him on Twitter and I just kept
asking straight up, hey could you be on this show? Hey?

(48:23):
Can you be on the show now? Eric is a
guy I've been following him on Twitter for a while now.
He uh, he gets a ton of prospect questions every day,
so it's some good insight if you don't follow him
already at Eric Cross oh four and he'll answer your
question if you send it, So definitely send something over
to Eric if you have any prospect questions. Nice. That's
really good. I think that segment right there helps so
many listeners because everyone is out there on the guys

(48:46):
that they know. I mean, he doesn't say you don't
need me or you to tell you they get Paul
gold Schmidt. You know he's owned in a d leagues.
But he's given you some really good interesting stuff. And
to me working the waiver wires, how you in your
leagues outside of drafting, Well, you and I have talked
about this. Don't look at me like that. It will
stab you in the eye with because you said you

(49:06):
don't need us for something, but you do need us
to tell you to go pick up Marcus Walden. How's
that first segue? God? Alright, So forget what I was saying.
Why should we go pick up Marcus Walden? Michael, because
he's only thirty two owned and he has thirty four
strikeouts in thirty innings. He has six wins like your
boy John Gan, he's racking up the winds. Yeah, but
does Walden have a path to play every day? So

(49:29):
you have, it's going to be in the back of
the bullpen and might work with kidney saves. He just
got he just got his first the other day. He's
throwing four pitches that are all pitch values above one.
His cutter as a pitch value of five point nine.
What does that mean? That means it's a very valuable
pitch and he's at a five point nine. The positive
Your mom is listening. She has no idea what pitch

(49:50):
value means. Marcus Walden is a guy that you should,
uh definitely keep an eye on if if you need saves.
I would go out and get him before he starts
getting saves, because that's the next step in revolution him.
His prophils are all average or above average, and the
opportunities are going to be there. He has a fourteen
point one spinger strike rate, so, like we said earlier
for hitters, same for pictures, that eleven is a league average,

(50:10):
so he's getting his whiffs, he's getting guys to chase
the cutters insane, almost a six pitch value so far.
Even the slider has a two point three, so he's
been great. One point four eight R eight this year
is whips on a zero point seven nine, which is awesome,
so he won't be thirty two on for long. Another
guy that is thirty three percent on that won't be
there for long is lorda Scurry l Jr. So if

(50:32):
he's still on your waiver wire, I'd go grab him.
He did hit one fifty nine and eleven games to
start the year, got sent down, came back, worked on
his game, and now he's back. He's seven fourteen with
three homers since he's been back, and he hands himself
pretty well, breaking pictures and off speed stuff. So playing
every day in a good Blue Jay's lineup, he's an
intriguing by low. So here's the thing, and it all

(50:52):
depends on who's on the waiver wire in your league.
A lot of times I'll get with friends, I'll say hey,
let me see your waiver wire in your league, and
I'm like, oh my god, Sky is available, that Sky's available.
And then I go to some of my leagues that
I mean, most of my am in twelve team leagues,
usually mixed with some pretty uh pretty tough you know,
fantasy owners. The waiver wire is just like, yeah, I

(51:14):
don't know what he's spelled like, but it's just like, so,
I'm looking in one of my leagues right now, and uh,
the waiver wire consists of zac Afflin, Mark Gonzalez, La
Clark is on there. He should get his job back. Torontos,
I think is a guy that that people should go
out and maybe grab. But he's I think he's played
in twelve of the last four teen games for that
ball club with stasy on the on the bench or

(51:35):
on the injured list. So that's interesting to me. Miguel
so No is available in a couple of my leagues.
John Gant is available, who you mentioned. And the reason
why I like Ghant is because he has sp RP eligibility,
which means you can throw him out there every day.
He won't eat up your innings. He can get your saves,
he can get your peripherals, which means that he can
help your stats and things like that. So those are
a couple of guys that I'd be looking at on

(51:56):
my wire. Is there anyone else on your on your
wire that you like? Yeah, you should check if Kevin
Kiemeyer is available. He's only fourteen percent on so he
should be available in your league. He has nine stolen bases,
five homers in two forty. This was a guy that
was supposed to be a perennial fifteen fifteen guy. Injuries
got on the way. His heart hit rates the highest
it has ever been in his career. His egg and
Vilo is the best that's been in his career, and

(52:17):
he's a great source of steals for one of the
one of the fastest guys in the game, and he's
playing every day in a good Ray's lineup that is infectious.
Like I said earlier with Vi Garcia Kimyer, if that
average goes up a little bit, he's gonna be very valuable.
Definitely not fourteen percent, and he should be way higher
than that at this point. You know, this time last year,
he would not be on waiver wires. I mean that

(52:39):
to me is just that's that's huge. Also a guy
that um that I like and I just had his
name in my head. And then because I used to
get hit, Tapa is in the top of that Rocky's
lineup black Men on the L and black Man goes
on the d L. I think Tappy is definitely a
good guy that you can try to go out there
and get as well. Now, Mike, you and I, UM,

(53:01):
we're insane, right. We're invested financially in our fantasy leagues,
were invested financially in our DFS stuff, and you have
to take this information and understand that it's valuable because
if you have information, That's why I don't understand why
people do not play Daily Fantasy Sports. The information is
there for you. We're basically saying here's money, take it,

(53:22):
and you're going Now, I don't like it. I get it.
But if you listen to to this show, or you
just basically go on the internet and just do a
cursory search, very basic search, you can really get information.
Especially in Daily Fantasy, for instance, that recording right now,
I think, are the angels playing the a's? Is that
the h uh angels a's? You ask? I ask this,

(53:46):
angels are currently okay? So sho Heyo Tani's numbers against
I want to say it's a sinker bowl or breaking
ball that Frankie Mantas throws like forty something percent of
the time, or astronomical. So if you just do that
kind of search and you see which angels hitters do
well against a particular pitch that a starting picture of

(54:08):
their opponents has a propensity to throw, you now have
math on your side, and you cannot deny math. I mean, honestly,
think about it. If it tells me Mike the Rhoto
cop throws a fastball percent of the time and match
striker crushes fastballs of the time, you don't have to
hit me over the head to tell me that you

(54:28):
need to take match striker When Mike the Rhoto cops
on the mound, well you need what do I need, Mike,
you need a blackboard, a piece of chalk, and a
sweater vest. You think so, you think, Yeah, it worked
for ten years in w W. But now I'm here. Now, Mike,
some DFS stuff for you. Let's talk about it for Thursday.

(54:52):
And I'm sorry for Wednesday and Thursday. That's my first
day on this planet, so I don't know. Let's talk
about Wednesday DFS, Thursday DFS go out a little nugget
for each day when exactly like you said about fastballs.
So the Tampa is facing the Tampa my grandmother, Tampa,
Tampa is facing the Blue Jays and they're they're pitching

(55:14):
Trent Thornton tomorrow. This is for Wednesday, and he's going
lefty righty against guys like Austin Meadows and Brandon low
Austin Meadows who's hitting three fifty this year, which is
insane to me. He's really been awesome, three fifty seven.
If he's not an All Star, they got some serious issues.
But he's in three fifty seven against right handed pitching,
three fifty on the year, I think it was Brandon
Lowson and two eighty four against right handed pitching. And

(55:35):
the key here, like you like you mentioned, is Thornton
Stone a four seam cutter slider curve that four scene.
He's sting forty percent of the time, and while it's
a decent pitch, allst Meadows is hitting three three against
for Steamers and Brandon Lous three fourteen against for Seamers.
So if you want to stack Tampa, or even stack
Meadows and Law as your key corner, stone tor dfs

(55:56):
line up tomorrow, I think that's a good idea star
today whatever this for corner comes out. Starling Marte on
Thursdays going against Chase Anderson. He's thirteen seven his career
hitting fordy one two homers, five stolen bases on ops
of fourteen two, which is well above a thousand, which
means it's awesome. Chase Anderson has been good, but he
has a career ear a at p n C Park

(56:17):
which is over a four, and Marte has his number,
so it seems logical to play more to there. And
then on Friday, I got another stack here. It's the
Houston Astros against Oakland and Mike Fires. I know it's
not you don't gotta be a genius to stack Astros
against Mike Fires, but particularly Alex Bregman and Michael Brantley
both have success against fires. Bregman's three for five with
the homer Brantley seven for two fires only plus pitches

(56:39):
is change up and Brantley's hit in two ninety five
agains change ups this year, and if Bregman can lay
off that change up, he should make some hard contact
as well. So those are the picks for this week
Medals and Allow for Wednesday, Starling Marte for Thursday, and
Bergman and Brantley for Friday. All right, so now as
far as DFS goes, and and I know the I
r S isn't listening, but if they are, look I
won't lie. I'm plus the money for the entire season.

(57:02):
I'm doing quite well. And one of my rules is
to not overthink it. I like to keep it simple.
Stupid kiss, So basically that's kiss. So if I see
like Nolan Arronado is doing well against Robbie Ray, I'm
gonna spend for Nolan Arinado. I don't need to overthink
this and try to get cute. Um. The other night
someone was telling me that they didn't play Malex Smith

(57:24):
because he was in the nine hole, and they did.
They want to overthink it and what did he do
in one inning? I think he amassed like thirty something
DFS points because he stole second third and home. So
don't overthink it. So I like Nolan Arinado on Wednesday.
I also like with Merryfield on Wednesday as well. I
just think that they may seem obvious, but you're not

(57:45):
gonna get, you know, really thinking outside the box here.
You're not gonna get sneaky sexy. Don't get that way
with your money, because that's how you lose your money.
Outthink yourself. Another guy that I like if he plays
with me, Gregory Polanco. I know that de scalfani is
is the hot I right now, but maybe a little
pirate stack of Polanco and Bell might be interesting. Even
a Anthony rhyndone against Vin Gosman. Again, I'm not telling

(58:07):
you anything that you need to be hit over the
head with. It's just to me, don't outthink yourself. On
the next day after that, Thursday, I also have Starling
Marte against Chase Anderson. I just think that that works.
Kendris Morales said has good numbers against Chris Sale if
Morales plays What else away from that one, though? Why
Chris has has a point to make, especially against interesting point.

(58:31):
Interesting point, and I'm beyond that. Nothing else really is
crazy for me. Although I am a cardinal fan, I
do like Ozuna's numbers against I cough, even though I
don't know where Ozuna fits. And again you have to
take all these things with a grain of salt. Check
if these people are playing. That to me is the
biggest thing, because if they're not playing, they cannot win
you any Kashish Speaking of cash officer, do you have

(58:54):
anything to make change out of Fantasy Baseball Hour Twitter
at Fantasy bb our at Mike the Rhodo cop on Twitter,
and every Thursday you can find my DFS article at
picture list dot com. Yeah, I actually I like your articles.
I read them quite a bit. Um. I just think
they're chock full of information, as was this episode of
Big Thanks to Eric Cross Eric Cross zero four at

(59:15):
Eric Cross zero four check out our good friends over
at fan tracks. We have given you today names of
guys that if you're listening, go on your waiver wire
right now, see if they're there. If you're DFS NG
right now, open up your fan duels, open up your DraftKings,
make those lineups, put in one, put in two, and
then hit us up at Fantasy bb our, hit me

(59:37):
up at Matt Underscore, Striker, underscore photo, photoshop high screenshot,
and show us your winning or show us you're losing.
Things like that because it inspires other people to do it.
And remember this. If you're not out there taking this
information and making money, trust me, someone else is Nick.
Anything you want to say before we go? My friend Now,

(59:57):
Nick just shook his head at me and put up
his middle finger. That's why I like Nick. Mike always
a pleasure. On gread, we're back here on our old
stomping grounds. To everybody out there, to all our friends
over the Fantasy Sports Network, to all our friends and
family all around the world, we say good luck, be safe,
have fun. We'll see you out there.