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| Thursday, April 15, 2021 |
| What a crazy journey it's been for Carlos Rodon. From Tommy John surgery to shoulder injuries and now a no-hitter. You can't help but feel ecstatic for the guy. Chris and I both moved him inside our top-50 starting pitchers for Fantasy, but more on that below. Rodon wasn't the only dominant starting pitcher on the mound Wednesday as Corbin Burnes cemented himself as one of the best in the game. Armed with a 96 mph cutter, Burnes continues to rise up the ranks. He now has 30 strikeouts without a single walk over his first three starts. |
| Pitchers weren't the only ones grabbing headlines Wednesday as Jazz Chisholm continues to rake for the Marlins. He added another home run and stolen base against the Braves and is rostered in just 44% of CBS leagues. He's going to strike out quite a bit, which will limit his batting average but Chisholm has legit 20-20 potential if he can stay healthy. Maybe the Marlins won't regret trading Zac Gallen after! You can find everything else you need to know from Wednesday both on the podcast and below. |
| And of course, you can subscribe to make sure you get the latest episodes of Fantasy Baseball Today right when they drop on Apple and Spotify. |
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| Is now a sneaky good time to sell high on Rodon? |
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| And just like that, we had our second no hitter of the season. Joe Musgrove got it done last week and on Wednesday night it was White Sox SP Carlos Rodon -- the former top draft pick turned forgotten man -- who completed the second no-hitter of the season. Rodon was actually close to pulling off the perfect game on a night where he had his best stuff. Eventually, he hit Roberto Perez on his foot in the ninth inning, which ended the perfect game bid. |
| Rodon finished with seven strikeouts and 19 whiffs on 114 pitches. His 95 mph fastball remains harder than he's ever thrown it in his career. As Chris pointed out, the most impressive part was that his velocity kept going up and up and reached 98.8 mph with his 110th pitch of the game. He was routinely hitting 98 in the ninth inning. Rodon is using his changeup 23% of the time -- the most of his career. The White Sox broadcast mentioned that Yasmani Grandal wants Rodon to be a four-pitch pitcher. |
| Rodon is currently rostered in 83% of leagues and that obviously needs to be 100%, but the better question to ask right now is where should he be ranked and what should you do if he's on your team right now? |
| Chris moved Rodon up in his rankings just behind Trevor Rogers but has him in a fluid spot and believes he could move anywhere inside in the SP 48-52 range. He's right now inside the top-50 SP for both Chris and me. We both see the real potential for Rodon for the rest of the season -- specifically based on the rising velocity. |
| So do we sell high? Chris would be OK trying to trade him for a buy-low like Jesus Luzardo and believes that despite the reason to get excited about Rodon, he's an excellent candidate to sell high right now. However, with someone like Zach Plesac, both Chris and I won't be selling high on Rodon to acquire the Cleveland pitcher. |
| One more thing to keep in mind -- Rodon is of course still coming off Tommy John surgery and has had shoulder issues in the past. |
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| More news and notes |
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| The biggest news of the day might be that Braves SP Max Fried does indeed land on the IL with a right hamstring strain. We talked about that a bit last night after he got rocked by the Marlins. We'll probably see one of Kyle Wright or Bryse Wilson enter the rotation. Most importantly, this guarantees Huascar Ynoa will get at least a few more starts. As we've mentioned multiple times this week, Ynoa is a must-add SP right now. The Astros placed Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Yordan Alvarez, Martin Maldonado, and Robel Garcia on the IL for undisclosed reasons, though it's safe to assume it's for health and safety protocols. Aledmys Diaz started at 2B with Abraham Toro at 3B and Ronnie Dawson at DH. Nationals OF Victor Robles was dropped to ninth in the lineup Wednesday. Manager Dave Martinez said he wanted Trea Turner at the top of the lineup given his past success against Adam Wainwright. However, this is something to monitor as a lot of Robles' value is tied to him batting in the leadoff spot. The Brewers placed OF Lorenzo Cain on the 10-day IL with a left quad strain. OF Avisail Garcia does have six hits, including two HRs over his last five games. Garcia is 19% rostered with six games next week. If you're desperate for OF help, you can do worse. OF Christian Yelich was out of the lineup for a third straight day with this back injury. The Blue Jays placed Julian Merryweather on the 10-day injured list with a left oblique strain. We can assume Jordan Romano is the closer but we assumed that coming into the season as well so don't be surprised if someone else works into the mix in Toronto. Of course, their bullpen is left very thin after the Merryweather injury. OF Alex Kirilloff was the 27th man for the Twins' doubleheader on Wednesday. He went 0 for 3 with a strikeout. The fact that he was used in this role tells me they might be close to just calling him up for real. The Giants will activate and start SP Alex Wood this Sunday against the Marlins. Logan Webb was moved back to the bullpen and SP Johnny Cueto left Wednesday's start with a lat injury. SP Jose De Leon has been moved to the Reds bullpen to make room for Sonny Gray. Jeff Hoffman will remain in the Reds rotation. Padres 1B/OF Wil Myers was diagnosed with patellar tendinitis and was out of the lineup Wednesday though the Padres said they expect him back Thursday. The White Sox placed SP Dylan Cease on the IL with COVID-19 symptoms though he has not tested positive. The Twins placed SS Andrelton Simmons on the COVID IL. The Cubs optioned SP Adbert Alzolay to their alternate training site Wednesday but I wonder if it's a situation similar to what the Yankees did with Domingo German. Maybe they just need an extra bullpen arm. |
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| Waiver-wire starting pitchers |
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| Mets SP David Peterson was dominant against the Phillies on Wednesday and here was his stat line: 6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K and nine whiffs on 80 pitches. What was so impressive to me about this start is that he effectively used his sinker a lot more than usual. Peterson is only 35% rostered and goes up against the Cubs next week. Chris has a middling interest level in adding Peterson based on his track record and he brought up a great point: strikeouts are way up again, and there is a league-record 24.7% strikeout rate leaguewide right now. So while Peterson's raw stat line looks incredibly impressive (10 strikeouts in six innings), when you peel it back (only nine whiffs), and consider his track record and stuff -- he's not worth adding in anything but deep leagues. Angeles SP Griffin Canning delivered the following stat line against the Royals on Wednesday: 5 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K with 15 whiffs on just 92 pitches. For next week, Canning makes two starts against the Rangers and Astros. He is currently only 56% rostered. Chris is excited to see Canning using his slider as his primary pitch -- and that he brought back his curveball (where he got three whiffs) -- and he's impressed with what he's seeing. In other words, Chris suggests Canning is the go-to waiver SP add for this coming week. |
| Deeper league SPs |
| Nationals SP Joe Ross faced St. Louis on Wednesday and delivered this stat line: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. He tacked on nine whiffs on 89 pitches and he is throwing his slider much more this season. Right now, Ross is 27% rostered and it looks like he'll have two starts next week: vs. STL, at NYM. Tigers SP Michael Fulmer delivered the following stat line in his first start of the season: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K. He added nine whiffs on 78 pitches and his velocity is all the way back to his 2016/2017 days when he was Fantasy relevant. Rangers SP Kohei Arihara was impressive against the Rays and finished with the following stat line: 5.2 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K. Most impressively, he has issue only one walk through three starts this season with 13 whiffs on 85 pitches. Arihara also threw six different pitches at least nine times against the Rays. He's a true deep-league option and is only 8% rostered. Next week: at LAA, at CWS. |
| I asked Chris to rank the above deep-league SPs in the order he would prioritize them on waivers. Chris would prefer Ross in a H2H points league, Fulmer in a Roto league and Arihara last on this list. I'm excited about Fulmer's upside. Fulmer's two-start week is against the Pirates and Royals -- it doesn't get much better than that from a matchup standpoint. |
| Waiver-wire hitters |
| Royals OF Andrew Benintendi went 2 for 5 with his third SB in his last four games on Wednesday. He's only 44% rostered and the Statcast numbers are bad, as he's striking out a lot. However, he is running and in Roto leagues you need speed. Chris is not expecting the stolen bases to continue here and thinks his swing is broken. I tend to agree, so don't fall for this one -- he's a stay away for us. Brewers CI Travis Shaw went 2 for 5 with his third home run of the season on Wednesday and he is going to play basically every day now with Orlando Arcia gone. He is only 20% rostered. I'm interested and think he should be added in any 14-team and 15-team leagues. As for 12-team leagues, if you're playing in a deeper roster Roto league, he's worth adding there as well. His contact rate suggests he may have fixed his issues from the last two seasons. Blue Jays C Alejandro Kirk picked up his first hit of the season -- a two-run homer off Corey Kluber. He's 24% rostered. I think he should be rostered in two-catcher leagues and he can take over the job if Danny Jansen goes into a slump (as we've seen him do before). Pirates OF Adam Frazier went 3 for 5 with two RBI on Wednesday and is now batting .300. He's still only 22% rostered and could be a source of cheap batting average and steals. |
| Friday SP streaming options |
| These are the SPs slated to make their starts on Friday. As always, we'll play to stream or not to stream and if we give the go-ahead, head over to your waiver wires to scoop them up for tomorrow's start. |
| Braves SP Drew Smyly at CHC - NAY Rangers SP Mike Minor vs. TOR - NAY Brewers SP Adrian Houser vs. PIT - NAY Twins SP Matt Shoemaker at LAA - NAY Red Sox SP Nick Pivetta vs. CWS - NAY Indians SP Logan Allen at CIN - NAY Orioles SP Jorge Lopez at TEX - NAY Rangers SP Mike Foltynewicz vs. BAL - NAY Cardinals SP Carlos Martinez at PHI - NAY Pirates SP JT Brubaker at MIL - NAY Phillies SP Matt Moore vs. STL - NAY Diamondbacks SP Taylor Widener at WAS - YAY - but only in a H2H points league where he's RP-eligible and you can slot him into one of those spots! |
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| | | | | UEFA Europa League | | PGA Tour on CBS | Arsenal travels to Slavia Prague, who are undefeated at home in the competition, and need a result to stay alive following their 1-1 draw in North London. Watch all of the action today at 3PM ET on Paramount+.
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| | The PGA Tour returns to Hilton Head, South Carolina, with a great field of competitors scheduled to tee off at the RBC Heritage this Saturday and Sunday at 3PM ET on CBS or streaming live on the CBS Sports App and Paramount+.
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