First Cup Baseball: Apr 9 – Rankings & Sal Stewart

0:00Every team, every topic, everywhere. This is believed. Hi, everybody. My name is Joe Bond. Welcome to the Phantasy 6-Pack Hours. First Cup, Phantasy Baseball Podcast here. If you're new to this, this is something that Corey Piper and I do pretty much every morning. We alternate who does the days and we just cover the news and performances from the previous days and some betting actions and news and notes. And then we have a rotating daily main topic, which today is going to be touching on the rest of season rankings update, which will be published for the first time today over on Phantasy 6-Pack. Of course, if you want all of the access to those, you've got to jump over to Phantasy 6-Pack.net, becoming all access member. Use promo code F6P pods to save 15%. Let's jump right into things here. Yesterday on the 8th of April, had a bunch of games here.

1:11There's some highlights here for some guys that have some good days. James Wood, homering for his third straight game. He had a rough start to the season overall. This guy, we know what James Wood is, right? At this point, he's a phenomenal player overall. At the end of the season, you're going to look at his stat line. You're going to go, oh, he was awesome. Probably James Wood is kind of like an LED of the crews, right? Super talented. He's going to put up numbers, but the ups and downs, the streaks he's going to put up, where he's going to strike out a ton. But when he gets hot, he's hot. When he's cold, he's cold. You just have to kind of live with it. That's obviously what you have to deal with with him. He is, in my opinion, a much better roto player than he is a head-to-head player because he can win some weeks and head-to-head, but he's going to lose some weeks and head-to-head as well because he's just going to go ice cold. Corbin Carroll, the hammy phone injury that had him miss the majority of the spring, is that is a long gone issue.

2:18This guy is crushing it this early season. Last night, three for five of Ron to RBI. He's already hit two bombs this year. He's in over 300. He's got an over 1,000 OPS. I am not even the least bit worried about Corbin Carroll. So glad I bought back into him as soon as it was apparent that he was going to start the season in the lineup, moved him back up my board and grabbed him at the back end of my 15 team leagues in the first round. So happy to do that. Jordan Walker, man, this is a name I never thought we'd be talking positive about after the last couple of seasons were just awful. Hit another home run last year. I believe this is now six on the year for him, just incredible. What a great, excuse me, what a great story. He's obviously changed something into swing and it's working. Hopefully this is going to be sustained for him. We so many people in the industry were on this kid for so long. He came up with high pedigree, high rankings and prospects in all the prospect ranks lists.

3:25And there was a good reason for it, but we got to the major leagues and just suffered. So hopefully he is going to be able to sustain this. I don't know if you know the home run pace is not going to stay on, but hopefully this just being a productive player for him is going to be sustained for him. And if it is South like he looks like he's going to be a very fun player to watch this season and beyond. So I'm looking forward to seeing how that's going to work out. Sal Stewart, another young guy coming in and beat myself over the head. He was my sleeper pick originally moved off of him because I early in the spring, I wasn't seeing the playing time. It was a lot of what's his name. I'm playing on the on the other guy for the for the red to who kind of moves all over the field now playing left field. But South Stewart I thought was going to be it looked like he was being more platoon and more you know situational utility guy at first.

4:33And so I backed off of that a little bit and didn't take him in any drafts and I'm I'm regretting it big time. He is is killing this this early season. Last night two for four two runs and RBI and a steel and a home run by the way. So it just does everything. This is the guy who I thought he could be if he was going to get sustained playing time. I just didn't see it early enough and most of my drafts are early. So I missed out unfortunately. Over the pitching side, we got Mizorowski just straight up domination last night, 10 strikeouts. This guy was was unbelievable last year. I did not get any of him in any of my drafts. Unfortunately, it wasn't because I didn't want him, but there was somebody else in my league who wanted him a whole lot more. Corey was that guy in a couple of leagues. He definitely as a brewers fan was all over him. Ryan Nelson for the Diamondbacks had a nice bounce back game kind of rocky start to the season so far.

5:37Last night, five and two thirds, five hits and earn run and five Ks. We have seen Ryan Nelson go on just unbelievable stretches of just great games. Last season at the end of the year for a couple of months was one of the better picks in the entire league. This guy can keep it going. If he's out there on waivers, I would keep a very close watch on maybe right now play matchups. I wouldn't be throwing them out there against the Dodgers per se, but there's a lot of other teams I probably would throw them out there against. He's risky. He's got a bit of that blow up potential. But if he can get right, we know what he can do. He's done it before. So I would keep a very close watch on him. Johé Otani dominated again on the mound, six innings, four hits and earn run just two Ks. That's kind of a little odd.

6:40But just unbelievable in the mound that you're actually better than he's been hitting. I'm still not benching him in my line up. We just know that any day now he's just going to go off and you do not want to miss that. Johé and I'm going to Johé, I'm going to butcher this last name, Kunl. He got a save for the athletics second appearance last night. The athletics, they're back in bullpen. Their closer role is bit up in the air. We don't really know who's going to be the guy. I don't think they know who's going to be the guy. Look at these out there and you're in 15 team leagues, 20 team leagues, whatever it is, you know, saves only. You got to go after whoever is out there, you know, whoever's available and getting save opportunities. And he's one of them. If they're going to give him the role, you got to just try it and see what happens. Where it comes to worse, you just drop him a few days later or next week at the next fab run. And it is what it is. I wouldn't blow a lot of money on him, you know, couple percentage points of your fab. If that's what you got.

7:48The negative side, Framber Valdez for the Tigers, he got rock last night. I had a couple of good outings to start the year, but last night, not so great. Eight earnman pen hits in five innings. That happens. That's going to happen to anybody on Valdez, though, is the guy who I wasn't really high on this year. I kind of thought the contract was a little, a little overpriced, but I think he'll be, you know, he's better than that. But Valdez is not somebody who I'm like super eager to throw in my, you know, throwing like my DFS lineups any day. If you've got a money team, you're obviously throwing them out there in your lineups, but Valdez is just not a guy who I really target in a lot of, in a lot of matchups here. Going over here to the bet of the day presented by Fandall. I'm looking at some stuff over here, and I am really trying to target this white socks team right now.

8:50They are playing, they are throwing out Anthony K on the mound today. The guy over on fancy six pack in the daily pitch up pitching tool is projected as the worst pitcher on the slate by quite a large margin. Guy has had pitch nine innings this year has a four year a terrible, but only has like a five and a half Cape her nine. It's not good. They actually may even be worse than that. I don't have the numbers up in front of me computer for a little slower now. So I don't want to switch, switch, switch windows here and lose what I'm doing. But the run totals for the, the royals are, are pretty good here. The four and a half is looking like a odds total of negative 148.

9:50If you want to get a little bold and I don't hate it, I probably would, would throw a unit on this half a unit, three quarters of a unit, whatever you feel comfortable with. Five and a half is at plus 120. I really do think the royals are going to get to this guy early. The bullpen for the, for the, for the white socks is not good either. I think this could just be an absolute, just train wreck of a game for, for the white socks here and I think the royals are going to pounce. When you throw out a pitcher like that, you're not, you're really not expecting a whole lot. He's either going to come out and throw three innings and just gas everybody and just, you know, just plow through it and that is going to be a bullpen game the rest of the game. Or he's just going to get absolutely rocked and get pulled anyway. And that, and then at that point, you've already got your run toll. So you're fine. I think I do really do believe that this was going to be a good one over there. And again, the odds over there on Fandall are pretty good for the five and a half at plus 120. So I would, I would go ahead and do that. Just over here to some news, rip through some things real quick.

10:54Cole Reagan is probably the big one here injured his thumb got pulled in the first inning of last game. There was a comebacker early that struck him. They're saying right now it's a contusion. And of course, all the positive from arts right now from Reagan's and the team that always expected to make his next start. Yeah, we'll see. We know how this happens. They come out and they say, you know, he's fine. He's getting testing. We'll get imaging. We'll see what happens. It would not shock me if he gets put on the 10 day DL and miss his one or two starts just to make sure it heals the long season. They do not want to lose this guy for long term. Hopefully it is just a bruise and it just go, you know, it just passes really quickly. Reagan's has had a very interesting start to the year. Got shelled one start was awesome last game. And then got hit hard this game, but it's hard to know if it was because of the comebacker. I know what I'm feeling right.

11:54I don't know. I still believe in Cole Reagan's. I really think it's a good picture. But this is just an unfortunate circumstance happened. Michael King. Keep an eye on him. Kind of had a weird start last night. If you look at the stat line, it wasn't like horrible. But velocity was down. He walked a few more guys and he usually does. So we need to start seeing velocity down and picture struggling and having to throw. You know, he threw a bunch more changeups last night than he usually does. That is a red flag to me. I mean, he was, you know, either he was a sore, working through something dead arm, whatever. We don't know yet. And we may not know. He may just start next next time. And maybe the velocity is down again. And then then at that point, right? That's when he starts, you know, hearing elbow issue, shoulder issue, something like that. Hopefully it's not the case. But again, just something I would keep an eye on with him.

12:55Because I miss yesterday's show, my bad. I had the days mixed up. I thought Corey had Wednesday. I actually have Wednesdays. But I didn't do yesterday's show. Jacob the Grom. We're still awaiting the MI results. So we'll have to see what goes on there about his knee. So unfortunately, Jacob the Grom entered again. So that's going to be one that we're going to be looking at. Zach Eflin for the Baltimore Orioles season ending surgery. Look, they brought up Brandon Young this past time. And he pitched great. So he'll probably stick around for at least another start. But I'm kind of wondering where Dean Kramer is. I know he's not like an awesome guy, but look, he's just been a rock in that rotation for a couple of years now. You can just pump out endings. I'm surprised they're keeping him down. I kind of think any day now he gets the call up, you know, or any start now. When it's Eflin's turn.

13:55I expect to see Dean Kramer's name get called up. He's a streamer pitcher for sure. Pitch him against the white socks, you know, pitch him against. I would say the Rockies, but hey, there's six and six right now. What do you know? But I would still pitch him against the Rockies. You know, in teams like that. You know, your average to below average teams, Kramer can be good. I would not be throwing him out there against, you know, the Blue Jays, the Yankees, the all the top top end teams. I would avoid Kramer for, but he's a name that you can stream on the regular for the Orioles there. Couple rehab assignments here to take note of Sean Murphy is on rehab Jackson holidays on rehab assignment, which is good. Second base is not a great position this year as we all expected. So that will be a much welcome addition to people's lineups and Zach Wheeler on rehab six strikeouts and four and a third and he's pitch.

15:02He's going to have quite a few starts. So don't expect anything imminent here with him. But it's good to see him on the mound and get out of a game unscathed. All right, over here to today's main topic and that is the rankings movers now. Look, we've had what 14 days of baseball. There's not a lot of movers at this point. The only guys that are really moving up and down are guys that are just, you know, they're getting more playing time than usual. Guys that were buried in the rankings initially that are performing much better. Guys that are injured get moved down things like that. Again, it's very minor movements at this point. I'm not an overreaction guy. Oh, you know, he's, you know, Julio Rodriguez, right? Like we know April, not a good month. He's starting off not great.

16:05I'm not going to sink him, you know, 30 spots because he sucks right now. I'm not going to over react to that. What that ends up having, you know, the result of that ends up being that you trade a guy. You know, now for, you know, relatively a good player, but at the end of the day is the end of the season. You're kicking yourself in the butt because you just traded a top 10 player at the, at the end of the season for, you know, a top 25 player. It's just, it's something I'm not going to do and I never will. You can, you can come hit us up on the discord. Members get, you know, the access to ask us and the rest of this, ask me and the rest of the staff. You know, you trade questions. You're, you know, you're, you know, ask us to evaluate players and things like that. All the time. So if you have specific questions for specific players, trades, your team, that's, that's where you can get it. But jump into the rankings here. A couple of guys though that are moving in different directions here.

17:09Of course, South Stewart mentioned him earlier, moving up. I did drop him just slightly. Because I was a little bit worried about the playing time. And I didn't, I didn't adjust enough at the end of my rankings to move him up. But even if I had like the, the start to the season he is having is just everything I thought he could be. And so I'm moving him up just a little bit. His teammate on the other hand, the guy that I did pivot to as my sleeper for the season. With Matt McLean, an awesome spring. It really looked like he was looking like the prospect and the guy that came up in 2023 when he was awesome. But or 24. It just, man, it is not working right now. I'm hoping he's had a couple of decent games. But as of right now, it looks at the game. He's lost the plate. And so moving him down a little bit.

18:09Obviously, Jordan Walker gets moved up. He was the guy who was just completely buried in the rankings and rightfully so he's been atrocious the last couple of years. No signs of anything really changing and then boom, he hits six home runs. So moving him up a little bit to give him a little bit of a. A little bit of a reward for his, his early season success. Roman Anthony and man, honestly, a lot of these what red socks are probably moving out a couple of notches here. I was skeptical about Roman Anthony and I didn't have him ranked as high as a lot of people did anyway. Now him and the rest of that red socks team is getting off to a really bad start. You know, Duran is another one as well. And Duran's now like sitting games as we were all kind of feared. Initially, it looked like he was going to play against lefties and now it's not. It's just a complete mess over there.

19:09Either management needs to, you know, go and. So they can get this lineup figured out. I don't know what's going to happen over there. It's it. I can't imagine it's going to be this bad all year. I think they're too talented. But it's not looking great to start. So you move him down. Connor Griffin got the call a lot earlier than I expected. So he gets move way up my rankings. So that that's a good one there. I still think. You know, contract me damned. So you're going to get a lot of ups and downs with him. He's obviously crushed a couple of nights ago. But you know, just with a young player like that, it's going to be, you know, streaks, peaks and valleys big time with him. Pitching side here. A couple of guys moving up. Dylan sees walks are who walks are interesting with him as always. In fact, they're worse than usual. But me and the strikeouts are unbelievable. He's looking good.

20:11Hopefully he can get those walks back down a little bit. You know, even if it means he loses a couple of, you know, notches in the Cape or nine, I would take that in a heartbeat. But looking like we're going to get a good year from cease. Other than, you know, like it seems like he alternates, right? He gets a really good year, really bad year, really bad year with his ERA and stuff. So hopefully we're going to get a good year. Looking, looking like a good start for him. It's Annie Alcantara. Looking like the sandy of old man. One below a one ERA below a one whip. The case per nine or only like six and a half. Gotta get that up. He's never been like a big strikeout guy anyway. But he's been better than that. But hard to complain about. The elite ratios you're getting from him. And I do believe, you know, the strikeouts will get up to about seven to eight at least.

21:15And you know, he'll just rack up endings. You know, he went eight. The other night. And that's what he does. So he goes long. He goes deep into games because he's super efficient. And even though the Cape or nine rate is low. He racks up strikeouts because he pitches so many innings. So you get the strikeouts regardless from him. It's just not as the big gigantic numbers like Mizorowski with 10 the other night or last night. So just know what you're getting from him. But looking like we're going to get a good year from Sandy. All right. That is it for the April 9th edition of the fantasy baseball first cup. We enjoyed it. Go over to fantasy six back becoming all access member. Use promo code at six p pods to say 15% wherever you're listening. Please hit the follow button. Subscribe, whatever it is. And leave comments with other here from you and see you next time.

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