Paul Sporer’s Baseball Chat – June 11th, 2025

Paul Sporer: Hey y’all, thanks for coming out. Slightly shorter chat today (~40 mins) as I have an appt. I need to get to so let’s roll!!

Matt: In Ottoneu H2H, you dropping Logan Allen로건 for Yarborough?

Paul Sporer: Ya I’m good w/that

Adenolith: Standard H2H league. Good on HRs, middle of the pack on R, RBIs, SB, and last in AVG. Can pick up J. Lowe or CES. What’s your preference?

Why not Zoidberg: Royce or CES in a standard league?

Paul Sporer: Interesting debates here w/CES. I think I lean against him in both cases, though, preferring Lowe and Royce. Lowe bc Adenolith is good in CES’s best category and Lowe can be more of a multi-cat piece when he’s rolling and I just think Royce is do for some strong regression back to the mean. Plate skills are excellent, power metrics are in line w/history, and so that leads me to believe the .213 BABIP is the major culprit here. As that regresses toward his career .281 mark (or better), stats will come flowing in — IF he stays healthy, of course

Matt: I asked Justin on Monday, but curious your response:
How do you deal with teams not giving any feedback in trades? I’m in an Ottoneu league with randos, of my last 4 trade offers, no comment, no comment, “i’ll pass for now” and “X player is not available”. No: not looking to trade now, I can move this player but I’d need more, these aren’t positions of need for me, etc. I’m kinda just frustrated and giving up, as I don’t want to just keep peppering offers at people that are just rejecting with no feedback. I make it a strong policy of mine to never decline a trade without feedback.

Paul Sporer: Yeah that is really frustrating! I tend to do what you do which is decide I’m just not gonna make offers then bc that’s just so annoying to put in effort and get nothing in return. How active is the league with trading overall? Not trying to be a narc, but if it’s an active trade lg this particular manager is slacking, maybe they need a nudge from the commish to at leeeeaaassstt reply to offers

Oof: Is jung hoo lee worth dropping for Jesus Sanchez (or another OF upside play) in points leagues?

Paul Sporer: I know Lee is cool of late, but I’d stick w/him. You’ll start chasing your tail if you’re hot-potato’ing too much. Obviously you gotta be active and go for new guys, especially in shallow/medium formats where the wire is richer in talent, but I believe in Lee so I’m inclined to ride his cooler streak in anticipation of better work down the road

The 6ix: Addison Barger:  exhibit A why hitting coaches shouldn’t try to fundamentally change a player’s swing.  The previous regime tried, the current coach is working to refine players’ natural swings.  Discuss.

Paul Sporer: I think it’s def player-to-player re: the kind of changes you can attempt with them, but yeah, a lottt of time it’s better to work w/that player already does and try to improve them that way as opposed to fundamentally overhauling them. Again, definitely a case-by-case basis situation, but nice to see Barger cooking of late.

Matt Damon: MATT. DAMON.

Paul Sporer: DATT. MAMON!!!

Justin 3Ber: If CES picks up 3B eligibility, would you take him over Muncy (LAD) in points leagues?

Paul Sporer: No, I’d stick w/Muncy. Gotta imagine his BB and being on the Dodgers (thus getting ancillary R/RBI opps allll the time) keeps the points flowing even when he’s not fully dialed in at the dish

smuckles: Paul, love your work: in Dynasty I traded Kurtz, Zebby, N Cameron, Chase Burns for Vladito.

Will I regret this?

Paul Sporer: No, I don’t think so. You got a foundational superstar for an appealing prospect package. Seems like a completely fair deal on both sides. Now, we could get 3-4 yrs into the future and it looks terrible for you, but that doesn’t mean you should regret the deal if that happens. Can’t predict the future, but you made a perfectly sound deal w/the knowledge we have in front of us

Ray: Evan Carter. Are we buying?

Paul Sporer: I love Carter, so I’m still bought in from last yr. For me, it’s way more about his health than skills. If healthy, he should be a good, productive player!

Pete: Is Grant Taylor the closer rest of season for Sox?

Paul Sporer: Impossible to say. He’s their nastiest reliever without a doubt so they should give him a look, but he’s also a rookie so no real idea how good he’ll be

JD: nl only roto. Would you drop realmuto for A. Ramirez? And would you take Woodruff when he returns over Liberatore?

Paul Sporer: I don’t think I’d make either move. I’m closer on the catcher move than the SP one. I love B Woody as a fan, but not looking to roster him anywhere this year. Let’s see how he returns from injury and revisit in 26. Re: the Cs — they’re close, but I’m gonna trust the track record of JTR and his MARKEDLY better situation in PHI v. the rookie Ramirez in MIA. 1-C league, I presume w/Ramirez being available?

Matt: Follow up on lack of trade response: league is actually pretty active. Sometimes I worry maybe my starting offers are just too weak, but then I see trades go through where I’m saying “my no response offer was stronger than that” so it nudges me to err towards a lighter initial offer to spark conversation

Paul Sporer: Is there a friend in the league who will give you an honest assessment of the offers and let you know if that’s why you’re getting stonewalled?

Guest: can I just say that I think Lovullo should be sued for Justin Martinez injury. I watched the 6/4 game, his second game back from should injury, where Lovullo made him throw 37(!!!) high stress innings over 1.2 innings, wherein he clearly didn’t have control…4BBs including forcing in a run, a WP, a HBP. It was almost sadistic, watching him leave him out there. It should be no surprise he has a UCL injury now.

Paul Sporer: I didn’t get to see it last night, but that’s brutal. I like Torey, too, usually find him to be a pretty good manager. He did give J Mart 4 days between outings and he’d been hurt earlier so it’s hard to say if that outing did it, but yeah the inning in question was nearing that mega danger zone of 30 pitches in an inning w/28 and 3 of those 4 BB you mentioned. That’s tough, espec. for ARI at large as their pitching continues to hemorrhage guys damn near every day lately

Why not Zoidberg: RE: Trade feedback. I’ve personally found that asking something along the lines of “hey, are you interested in a 1B, or I’d love to talk about Player X” before sending an offer gets me further than just sending the offer. I’ve also seen people knowingly send lopsided trades and then get upset there’s no counter. I’m not countering garbage. Be honest with yourself and make sure you’re sending something of interest initially.

Paul Sporer: I definitely like the opening of seeing if there’s interest before going to the trouble of constructing an offer. And yeah, like I mentioned in the earlier response, maybe they have someone in league who will shoot ’em straight and let ’em know if the initial offers are just too light to even engage

Chuck: If I have to drop one, is it Edward Cabrera or Will Warren?

Paul Sporer: Cabrera, even if for team situation only

Colton: What kind of value do you think we get from Eury ROS in a points league? IP and K’s are most important but I’m worried about how much length they’re willing to give him coming off injury. Would you be in favor or cutting Pfaadt for him in this situation? It’s also a dynasty format with increasing salaries each offseason

Paul Sporer: Not much, IMO. MIA is gonna be focused on keeping him healthy and easing him back into the mix so he won’t be turned loose at any point this year. Tough to cut in dynasty because he does still have so much upside, but I do prefer Pfaadt over him rest of season even w/my concerns over Pfaadt’s inability to get lefties out and his career-long HR issues

Pete: With Ben Rice gaining catcher eligibility yesterday where does he rank in next year’s Catcher pool? I was thinking Top 10.

Paul Sporer: 5-game eligibility, btw! Just for anyone in a 10-gm lg who might’ve gotten excited. Definitely top 10 C next year if he carries the eligibility over to 2026. I need 20 in my lgs for him to get it next year, but I’ll take the 10 later this yr to get in-season for my Main Events. I got him in so many spots, biiig Ben Rice fan!

Adenolith: How come I’ve never drafted Turner in one of his good seasons?

Paul Sporer: Trea Turner? He’s doing well this year! 17th overall on the Player Rater and 5th at SS — https://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy-tools/auction-calculator?teams=12&lg…

Ben: what kind of impact do you see from Misiorowski in 2025?  I see where Civale was sent to bullpen.  Do you expect Misiorowski to stay in rotation ROS?  Thanks

Mike: MIs a must add in 12 team H2H?

Paul Sporer: Def worth taking the shot bc he has legit upside and could click right away, but I’m keeping my expectations tempered. Could be very frustrating w/his modest command profile. He’s never been below 12% BB at any MiLB stop which puts a lottt of pressure on his hit & HR suppression. Again, he has the nasty stuff to curb both of those and be worth the pickup, but I could also see him in the bullpen or back in AAA in relatively short order this year.

Matt: Thanks for the feedback Paul and Why Not Zoidberg!

Paul Sporer: No prob!

RP: What to do with Ryan Walker? worth holding onto?

Paul Sporer: Depends how many teams, tbh, and how viable closer stashes are. Doval has the sparkly ratios, but his skills are modest at 25% K, 12% BB so if the BABIP & HR rates regress and Walker finds himself again, they could swap roles again

Hank Scorpio: Hey Paul, thanks as always for the chat. 12tm 6×6 QS roto, I got 1.5 starts out of Pablo Lopez as part of a blockbuster, league winning trade before he went down. No IL spots, would you hold for the next two months and hope he comes back useful? The wire is thiiiiiiiiiin with Roupp being the best option, or stashes like Painter or Logan Henderson.

Paul Sporer: Ughhhh that is SO painful, I’m sorry to hear that. I’m probably cutting and going for the Painter stash bc he’s closer to a month away per the Phils (they’ve said July call-up all along) and while I’m not sure he can fix all your problems, he has crazy upside. I don’t hate Roupp in a vacuum, but he gets LAD/BOS in his next 2 so need to grab him right now

Paul Sporer: OK y’all, I gotta scoot early. If you didn’t get a chance to read the intro of the chat, I’m planning on having the first in-season SP rankings out before next week’s chat  so we can discuss those on the 18th! Have a good rest of your week, everyone!!

Adenolith: Oh I know this is a good Turner year. He was a decent draft price but I convinced myself to stay away because it seemed like he lost his power and stopped running last year.

Paul Sporer: Ohhhh, I misunderstood! So you keep getting the meh years and missing the gems, got it. That is a huge bummer

Paul Sporer: OK, bye for real now!