Welcome to the RotoWire Fantasy Baseball podcast. I'm your host, James Anderson, and we are brought to you by prize picks.

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My guest this week is Melissa Lockard of the Athletic and usually have Melissa on to preview the Oakland

Athletics before the season, but I'm actually glad that we're doing this now because I think

we actually have maybe more to talk about and, you know, some a large sample to analyze with some of these players. And they're actually, you know, some, a large sample to analyze with some of these players.

And they're actually, you know, not the worst team in baseball like they might have been

predicted to be before the season.

So very happy to have Melissa on the show.

Melissa, I just want to start with Mason Miller because he's obviously the top draw in Oakland

right now. He's the player that casual fans know about, the top fantasy option on the athletics.

And I want to ask you if Mason Miller stays relatively healthy over the rest of this season,

do you think he or the team would consider trying it again as a starter?

Or is everyone sort of at peace with the idea of him just being the best reliever possible?

Yeah, you know, it's a really interesting question because if we had done this at the start of the season, I would have said for sure they were still thinking of him as a potential starter. You know, the only reason they have him in a relief role is essentially he has only a certain number of endings he's going to be able to throw just based on the number of endings he's been able to throw the last couple of years. And so they figured why not use those in the most high leverage way possible. You know, that said, like obviously they had no idea he was going to take to pitching in the pressure of a ninth inning the way that he has. So, you know, it could be where he ends up. But I mean, he certainly has the stuff to be a starter. It's not like he's just that two pitch pitcher. He's used mostly two pitches because he doesn't need his other stuff as often in a short inning. But, like, you know, he's got a lot of different weapons he can use. His command is good enough that, you know, you can stretch him out a lot further. So I think it remains to be

seen a little bit, but I think mostly trying to get him through a fully healthy season is the

biggest goal. And if that happens, then I think, you know, the options on the table can be,

you know, pretty wide for him. Yeah, he's just, he's so fascinating because there's just so many

different ways his career could go and

obviously the health and durability is something that's very important to mason miller's fantasy value

you know i mean there's a there's been definitely stretches this season where i think you could

argue he's the best reliever in baseball.

And so it's just it's a it's a big time predicament in terms of are you satisfied with just being the best reliever in baseball?

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