Matt McLain Arrives and Jake Burger Stays Hot
Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball
The Athletic
4.7 • 874 Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2023
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
DVR and Al look into how Matt McLain and Casey Schmitt stack up against other hitters in the shortstop pool, and they make the case for adding Jake Burger in a wide swath of leagues. They also consider the fantasy impact of the returns of Matthew LIberatore, Gavin Stone and Taj Bradley to the majors, and sort through a less-than-inspiring group of streamable pitchers.
Rundown
0:29 Where should Matt McLain and Casey Schmitt be rostered?
12:28 Jake Burger’s return and other lineup developments
23:33 Josh Lowe is the No. 4 Roto outfielder?
28:09 Rotation developments
42:33 Streamers/two-start pitchers
54:34 Closer corner
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Follow Al on Twitter: @almelchiorBB
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to rates and barrels. It's Friday, May 19th, Derek Van Riper, |
| 0:19.2 | your album, you're getting ready for a busy weekend of waiver, wire action, kind of recap, May 19th. Derek Van Riper, here's Al Malk here. Getting ready for a busy weekend of waiver wire action. |
| 0:24.3 | Kind of recap, because of the biggest things that have happened over the last week or so. |
| 0:28.9 | And one of the most exciting things that has happened, Al, is we have another rookie shortstop in the pool. |
| 0:34.6 | We talked about Matt McLean in detail on the Project Prospect episode |
| 0:38.2 | on Tuesday, but I think the question going to the weekend is, does Matt McLean offer |
| 0:43.1 | enough to break into the shallow league range? Where are those boundaries for the shallow |
| 0:48.2 | league threshold when it comes to the shortstop position? Because Matt McLean, at least on paper, |
| 0:53.9 | can offer something in pretty much |
| 0:55.7 | every roto category. I think the bigger question long term is whether or not he's actually |
| 0:59.6 | going to hit the ball hard enough to get to the power consistently. Maybe there's a little bit |
| 1:03.6 | of batting average risk there. But he steals bases and he's in a home park that would potentially |
| 1:08.2 | mask over the power flaw a little bit being in Cincinnati with Great American Ballpark working in his favor. |
| 1:15.1 | So how are you comparing McLean to the other rookie shortstops and just the short stops in the pool in general as you look at a possible upgrade on the wire across your leagues this weekend? |
| 1:26.9 | Well, yeah, I agree with you. This is pretty exciting. And I think that he definitely |
| 1:32.5 | should be in 12 teamers. And I think in 10 teamers, and we've talked about this from time to |
| 1:37.6 | time, DVR. But I hold a little bit of a different standard for 10 teamers because there's |
| 1:43.0 | always so much talent on the |
| 1:46.2 | waiver wire there that I feel like you can take more risks. So I don't know that, you know, |
| 1:51.0 | if you're in a league that's got obviously a shortstop slot, but, you know, let's say even a |
| 1:54.9 | middle infield slot that, you know, McLean is necessarily going to be, say, you know, one of the 15 best shortstops |
| 2:02.3 | rest of season. But I think that his upside is such that you can take that risk. And if it |
... |
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