Why Chris Sale Is Still a Top Fantasy Pitcher to Acquire

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00:00Give me a couple of buy lows.

00:01Give me a pitcher and then maybe give me a hitter.

00:03And then we can do the same maybe for so high.

00:06Let's go.

00:07Look, the number one buy on my board is without a doubt this week, Chris Sale.

00:11And here's why.

00:12Chris Sale, still pretty good at baseball.

00:15I don't care that he's got a 617 ERA.

00:17I don't care about it.

00:18Here's why.

00:19The expected ERA is 3.96.

00:22The FIP is 379.

00:24And the XFIP is 319.

00:26The strikeout per nine, still really good.

00:28But still dominant, 12.34.

00:31Exactly where he wanted to be.

00:32Now, the walks are a little higher than they've been in the past.

00:34His highest rate so far.

00:35But again, it's very early in the season.

00:37So maybe it's a little struggle with command.

00:38Maybe coming off a year where he threw more pitches than he had in a long time.

00:42I think maybe that's where we're at with Chris Sale a little bit.

00:45I think he'll get past that hump.

00:46Spencer Schreiter's back in this rotation now, too.

00:48So there's very little pressure on Chris Sale to carry all the load by himself.

00:53But when you're looking at the actual numbers and the expected numbers,

00:56this is where we always make our money.

00:57Every single year.

00:59And this is why you pay attention to those trends.

01:01Because there's guys on that flip side, too, that have great ERAs.

01:04But their expected ERAs, their FIPs are much higher.

01:07So what you want to do is you want to find those guys with variance,

01:10trade for the guys that right now the ERA doesn't match in a bad way.

01:14And then flip side the other way.

01:16Get rid of the guys where those deeper numbers don't match that great,

01:19sparkling, sterling ERA.

01:21That's probably most likely unsustainable.

01:24So Chris Sale pitches on a very good team, still has the strikeout stuff.

01:30Yeah, the walks are a little up this year, and that's a little concerning.

01:32But also some of the outings for him have been shorter, too.

01:35So that might magnify some of these numbers also for him.

01:38I think we are looking to get past April.

01:41Everything physically seems to be okay with Chris Sale.

01:43So as far as I'm concerned, this is where you get your ace if you don't have one.

01:48Go acquire Chris Sale.

01:49Do what you got to do.

01:50Is he going to win the Cy Young again?

01:52I don't know.

01:53Probably not.

01:54But at the same time, you can't dismiss how good this guy was last year.

01:5818-3.

01:59Just incredible season of 2-3-8 ERA.

02:02Even if he ends up with an ERA in the mid to high threes,

02:05you're going to be very happy to have Chris Sale.

02:07All right, I'm going to ask you this for each of these, so prepare.

02:10Do you have a hypothetical, logical deal that you would do for Chris Sale?

02:16That's a good question here.

02:17I think with Chris Sale, you're going to have to probably put a pitcher and a hitter together here,

02:21would be my guess.

02:22You're probably looking at trying to unload another pitcher that's maybe playing a little bit over their head.

02:29I think potentially even a guy that, let's say maybe you have a Shane Boz plus,

02:35maybe that would start the conversation.

02:38Okay.

02:38I think you'd have to have a pretty good bat in there as well.

02:43I'm just trying to look through some of the other pitchers that might kind of be in this range.

02:47On the flip side, it's funny because you have a guy like Max Freed who's been so good, right?

02:50The 1-8-8 ERA.

02:52That's not going to last, right?

02:53I don't know if I want to do that deal straight up there.

02:56But I will say there's definitely opportunities here where you're looking at just some of the bigger strikeout pitchers in baseball

03:02or some guys that the ERA is unsustainable.

03:05Like right now, Chris Bass has got a .77 ERA.

03:08That's not sticking around.

03:09I wonder if you could put Kodai Senga, who's got an ERA under one currently, who's pitching very well.

03:15Kodai Senga plus a bat all of a sudden for Chris Sale.

03:19That Chris Sale manager looking at that six ERA, killing his team, goes,

03:23Kodai Senga could really help me right now.

03:25And I get a bat for Chris Sale.

03:26I might consider doing that.

03:28I think you want to give them somebody that's pitching over their head, Nick Pavetta, Kodai Senga, something like that,

03:34and then take the old stalwart back with you and Chris Sale.

03:38That would be my approach.

03:39It's probably going to cost you a pitcher and a bat to do it.

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