Rankings 3 PITCHERS Including Javier Assad, Bryan Woo & Taj Bradley! | Fantasy Baseball Advice

we just updated our rest of season rankings let’s break down some pitches up next on fantasy baseball today in [Applause] five welcome into fbtn 5 on Thursday May 16th I am Frank stanfold joined by Scott White and let’s rank three pitchers could be out there in some shallower leagues very shallow leagues uh Brian woo pitched well against the Royals five in a third innings one run five strikeouts in that one velocity looks fine coming back from that elbow injury Taj Bradley was solid at the Red Sox five innings two runs six strikeouts for him the fastball velocity down a little bit compared to his first start but still pitched well in that one and Javier Assad a name that we have not talked much about he has a 149 ra and a 103 whip just through six shutout Innings with seven strikeouts at the Atlanta Braves how are you ranking woo Bradley Assad okay I’m going to rank them exactly as you listed them off there woo Bradley and Assad but you know there there are there are things I like and dislike about all three I would say woo gets the top spot partly because I liked him most in the first place and he hasn’t done anything to fall out of favor with me except you know that first start back from the iel he left with tightness in uh the forearm area and uh that kind of raised an eyebrow for everyone haven’t heard any reports about it being the case in the second start and the results were fine so hopefully hopefully Woo is trending the right direction Taj Bradley his velocity was way up in his first start back from the I it was closer to normal this time out so maybe there was a lot of adrenaline that first time uh this start like I said closer to normal the exceptions were the cutter and the splitter those were both up one mile per hour about a mile per hour from last year it was more like two in the first start but the point is Taj Bradley even if you look at during his minor league rehab assignment that cutter he seems to be throwing it harder this year and maybe that will help key a breakthrough for a pitcher who know top prospect pedigree for Taj Bradley so wouldn’t be surprising to take see him take a step forward in year two Assad is probably the most interesting here that 149 ra because you look at all the underlying data that the the the ways we normally measure talent for a pitcher and there there’s just not a lot to get excited about the swinging strike rate is awful the strikeout rate is nothing special even the quality of contact is middling um and he allows a lot of fly balls I big reason why Assad has that 149 is because only two of those flyballs have turned into home runs so maybe that’s just good fortune that is bound to end I’d lean that way but I will point out that the league context as a whole right now is not so favorable for home runs in fact if you think back to 2022 which was not a great year for home runs either we were referring to a deadened baseball that year well the Home Run uh the the Home Run To Fly ball rate that year was 11.4% in 2022 came back up last year we thought we were out of the woods there but this year it’s 10.8% so far it’s even lower than 2022 so um a lot of fly balls are turning into outs instead of home runs more than any of us playing fantasy can remember happening in the past really and it’s worth pointing out that April you know we’ve only had one full month April it’s always the worst month for offense always the worst month for home runs and as we get into the summer I expect the the home run to flyball rate to increase but it’s really low right now and Assad may be able to continue something close to the trick that he’s performed so far if if uh if that doesn’t drastically change let’s wrap up with one more pitcher Michael King are you kidding me man last week he goes out he throws seven shutout Innings with 11 strikeouts against the Dodgers and that was on everybody’s bench in fantasy then this week he gets the Rockies on the road in San Diego a home start great matchup what does he do he gives up six runs against the Rockies five in a third Innings seven strikeouts still had 13 swinging strikes limited the hard contact under the hood actually looks like it was a solid start but the numbers don’t lie here Scott it’s a 431 ra a 136 whip for Michael King he’s still 91% rostered he’s 74% started with two starts next week against the Yankees at the Reds what do we do with Michael King I think he’s pretty fringy at this point you know it’s not like he has a long track record of success as a starter he’s walking a lot of guys this year he entered this start having allowed the most home runs in baseball in a year when not many pitchers are allowing home runs so far as I just pointed out so that start against the Dodgers obviously it was very impressive the movement on all of his pit all of his pitches was up kind of returned to normal in this start so that may have just been a a blip there for Michael King I’m not saying he’s must drop or anything but he’s right around 80th in my starting pitcher rankings rest of season so in shallower leagues if you got if you got like a a Taj Bradley out there or even like a Christian Scott uh there’s a chance he’s out there still and I’d be happy to drop King for him in that case just because I don’t have a lot of confidence in what’s going to come next from this guy doesn’t have the kind of track record that justifies it mhm yep I think that’s totally fair for more extensive Fantasy Baseball coverage listen to the fantasy baseball Today podcast on Spotify Apple podcast The Odyssey app or anywhere else podcasts are found thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today in five and we will be back again tomorrow bye-bye [Applause]

Javier Assad continues to pitch well! How do we rank Assad, Bryan Woo and Taj Bradley? Michael King got crushed by the Rockies in San Diego! What do we do with King in Fantasy?

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