Speaker 1: What's going on? Everybody. Welcome into Fantasy Pros. This is
Speaker 1: the Fantasy Baseball Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Rico, and
Speaker 1: today we're bringing you part two in our ADP Battle series.
Speaker 1: If you missed Pitchers last week, be sure to check
Speaker 1: it out. We are moving into the infield today, going
Speaker 1: to bring you guys two battles at each position, including catcher,
Speaker 1: for a total of ten. And we have a couple
Speaker 1: of fantastic guests on the show. You're definitely familiar with
Speaker 1: both of their work, Derek Van Riper from The Athletic
Speaker 1: and Jeff Erickson from Roda Wire Fellas. I really appreciate
Speaker 1: you taking the time today. How's it going.
Speaker 2: It's going great. Thanks for having us on.
Speaker 3: Absolutely can't wait to battle here with Derek fight No.
Speaker 3: Very excited about this. You know, it's been a long
Speaker 3: time since Derek and I used to do pods together,
Speaker 3: so it should be fun to do one together for
Speaker 3: a while.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was part of the reason when I was
Speaker 1: pairing people up for this, I thought, okay, you guys
Speaker 1: know each other. We were We took a car ride
Speaker 1: together in Arizona to go down to one of the games.
Speaker 1: I forget which one it was. But you guys know
Speaker 1: each other. We've been familiar with each other for a
Speaker 1: couple of years, and I don't think there's anybody really
Speaker 1: better to start breaking down these ADPs. We're going to
Speaker 1: start behind the dish and we're gonna work our way
Speaker 1: around the diamond. We're going to kick things off here
Speaker 1: with Salvador Perez and cal Rawley, and I'm using the
Speaker 1: Fantasy Pros Consensus ADP. There will be some differences depending
Speaker 1: on which platform you are drafting on. Of course, if
Speaker 1: it's a points league head to head roto, there will
Speaker 1: be some differences. But I did try to capture battles
Speaker 1: that are generally about the same on each site. So DVR,
Speaker 1: let's start with you on this one, Salvi Perez and
Speaker 1: cal Rawley, which one have you been landing on more?
Speaker 1: If you're landing on either of them?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't land on them very often, but it
Speaker 2: would be Sal for me. I think there's a chance
Speaker 2: he slips every now and then you get into a
Speaker 2: room where everybody just writes them off because he's old.
Speaker 2: But the thing that makes me a little more confident
Speaker 2: in Sal is that the batting average downside is a
Speaker 2: lot lower, and they're both high volume catchers. Sal doesn't
Speaker 2: catch as much as he used to thanks to Freddy
Speaker 2: for meen. But when you talk about high volume catchers,
Speaker 2: that's when the batting average liabilities become more of a
Speaker 2: problem for me. For the guys that share the job,
Speaker 2: I don't care if they hit two ten or two twenty,
Speaker 2: because you're not taking on as much dead weight in
Speaker 2: that category. So I wanted to give up a little
Speaker 2: bit of power, maybe a little bit of run production,
Speaker 2: and go the route of salth Perez. I'm choosing from
Speaker 2: this bucket, but I've found that more often than not,
Speaker 2: I mean, they're investing earlier or I'm waiting a little
Speaker 2: bit longer to get that catcher one. These are two
Speaker 2: guys that I've generally steered away from.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you broke my heart and Labor. You did go
Speaker 3: early on William Contreras at three five. I would have
Speaker 3: taken him there in that draft just last Tuesday, Derek.
Speaker 3: But I do land on these guys a couple of times.
Speaker 3: But I think you make a really good point about
Speaker 3: the batting average, and in fact, that's one thing I've
Speaker 3: been kind of trying to tweak my valuation system is
Speaker 3: to account better for batting average, because I found myself
Speaker 3: in this particular draft, I took cal rally, and I
Speaker 3: found myself chasing batting average for the next like eight
Speaker 3: rounds because of the amount of bat Betsy gets in
Speaker 3: because two twenties in play. So you know, I was
Speaker 3: aware of it enough to not take Kyle Schwarber. In
Speaker 3: a number of leagues, I always take our ozuna or
Speaker 3: a rooker instead, But I need to pay a little
Speaker 3: bit more attention to that. I feel like there. So
Speaker 3: if you look right now in retiwar my rankings probably
Speaker 3: have Rally ahead of Salby, But I think I want
Speaker 3: to do it the other way around in my next draft.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's totally fair. I think the Royals
Speaker 1: are going to be very careful with South to try
Speaker 1: and keep him healthy. He's going to get more first
Speaker 1: base in DH days, as for Mean gets more time
Speaker 1: behind the dish, and with Raley, the lineup is not
Speaker 1: good against Seattle, and on top of that, the ballpark
Speaker 1: is a serious detriment. So I don't know. There's been
Speaker 1: talk about the batter's eye getting changed, but I don't
Speaker 1: think that's happening this season. I think that might be
Speaker 1: something that they do in future years. Have you guys
Speaker 1: heard anything along those lines, because early in the offseason
Speaker 1: there was a lot of talk about potentially making it
Speaker 1: a bit of a more hitter friendly park, but I
Speaker 1: haven't heard much about that in a while.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen any follow ups indicating that it's going
Speaker 2: into effect this year. We've talked about it on Rates
Speaker 2: and Barrels a few times. The center field wall is
Speaker 2: not like straight on with home plates slightly angled. There's
Speaker 2: some issues with the sun at different times of day.
Speaker 2: The environment itself, just the atmospheric conditions aren't conducive to
Speaker 2: the ball flying in that park. It's a little bit
Speaker 2: of everything. It also seems like it's worse on righties
Speaker 2: than lefties too, so that's something I've tried to factor
Speaker 2: into my overall analysis of hitters. It's a lot worse
Speaker 2: for guys going into that park for the first time
Speaker 2: as opposed to players that have been there for multiple years.
Speaker 2: So I do worry about the park as far as
Speaker 2: like a secondary effect on Raleigh because it seems like
Speaker 2: for the most part, he's adapted well enough. And look,
Speaker 2: I mean for catchers easily the most power in the
Speaker 2: pool ninety one homers the last three seasons sALS second
Speaker 2: was seventy three, So you are getting that sort of
Speaker 2: Schwarberian boost behind the plate, but it comes with that.
Speaker 3: Risk absolutely, and to your point too, like Seattle, they
Speaker 3: know they have this world class rotation, they know they
Speaker 3: have this known deficiency in terms of the batting eye,
Speaker 3: they know they have this lineup that really struggled to
Speaker 3: score runs, so they probably did nothing this offseason. I
Speaker 3: am heads up to them for that.
Speaker 1: Horiy Polanco being your key acquisition, I guess him returning
Speaker 1: is not enough. I thought Pete Alonzo was going to
Speaker 1: Seattle for sure. They had a bit of an opening.
Speaker 1: At first, I thought it made sense, but yeah, the
Speaker 1: bitching is unimbeachable. Five guys. You can probably take those
Speaker 1: five rotation names and throw them at a wall, and
Speaker 1: however you arrange them, you could live with it. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the lineup does leave something to be desired. So I
Speaker 1: think it's unanimous there on Salvi Perez, not much of
Speaker 1: a battle there to start off. Well, let's see if
Speaker 1: I can put these two against each other on the
Speaker 1: next one, and that's JT. Real Mudo and Logan o'hapi
Speaker 1: roughly around pick one sixty. Again, this will vary a
Speaker 1: little bit, but this has been a decision I've had
Speaker 1: to make a couple times in my drafts. Jeff, let's
Speaker 1: start with you on this one, between real Mudo and
Speaker 1: Logan o'hapy.
Speaker 3: I might be out of out of line on this one,
Speaker 3: but it's clearly Ohappy for me. With real Muto, so
Speaker 3: much of his value is generated from a speed. They're
Speaker 3: talking so much about playing him less this year. I'd
Speaker 3: rather take the guy in the Rise of Ohapi, who
Speaker 3: I understand has some known deficiencies. He's not gonna run
Speaker 3: a whole lot either, but I'm not counting on that necessarily.
Speaker 3: I am looking at the power, the power ability from him.
Speaker 3: I think there's some days there's gonna be a twenty
Speaker 3: five homer season from Ohapi. I'm going Ohapi here.
Speaker 2: I like Logan o'happy too. I mean, I think, if
Speaker 2: I'm choosing straight, I'm with Jeff o'hapis the way to go.
Speaker 2: I do think the demise of jt Reel Mudo is
Speaker 2: being overstated in some circles. At least, I think the
Speaker 2: batting average floor for the position is still high. Even
Speaker 2: if he's going to give up a little bit of
Speaker 2: playing time, he's still going to probably be top ten,
Speaker 2: top twelve and played appearances For a catcher, I'd be
Speaker 2: surprised if we dipped more than that. Even in a
Speaker 2: down year last year, we still had a double digit
Speaker 2: barrel rate, So he's making enough hard contact to get
Speaker 2: to the power. I think it's twenty homers and a
Speaker 2: good batting average with good run production because of the lineup.
Speaker 2: But I think the stolen bases used to get from
Speaker 2: jt Reel Mudo those days are probably over. Like fifteen
Speaker 2: plus steals seems unlikely. You're probably getting five to seven
Speaker 2: bags over a healthy full season if that. So we're
Speaker 2: seeing him age pretty gracefully. I think the injury last
Speaker 2: year makes it look a little worse than it really was,
Speaker 2: and some of that may have just been also compounded
Speaker 2: by year over year workloads, working a ton in the
Speaker 2: regular season and going to the playoffs, and maybe that
Speaker 2: was starting to take its toll a bit in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four on jt Reil Mudo.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I understand both sides of the real Mudo coin.
Speaker 1: The barrel rate, like you said, was still in double digits.
Speaker 1: The sprint speed was still seventy eighth percentile. I don't
Speaker 1: think Garrett Stubbs is gonna you know, take over catch
Speaker 1: and partial like maybe he gets the odd day here
Speaker 1: and there, but I don't think he's gonna lose a
Speaker 1: ton of playing time. But I think still when you
Speaker 1: look at the Angels lineup and o'hapy, a lot of
Speaker 1: it depends on if Mike Trout stays healthy. But I
Speaker 1: think that lineup is kind of underrated a little bit
Speaker 1: this season. Again, if Shrow get hurt gets hurt, all
Speaker 1: bets are off. But I think o'hapy is probably the
Speaker 1: way I would lean. I had been kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: going back and forth between the two of them, but
Speaker 1: I think you fellas have talked me into the logan o'
Speaker 1: hoppy side a little bit here Before we keep it
Speaker 1: going on, I'll give you guys a bit of a
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Speaker 1: I wish I was eligible to claim this one, Nfortunately
Speaker 1: I am not. We're going to move on to first
Speaker 1: base here, and we're going to start with Josh Naylor
Speaker 1: and Christian Walker. It's interesting because Naylor essentially replaced Walker
Speaker 1: out there in Arizona. I have some interest in both,
Speaker 1: but for me, I think it's Christian Walker. But DVR,
Speaker 1: I'll let you start off with this one.
Speaker 2: I like Walker as well. I think with Josh Naylor,
Speaker 2: one thing that's overlooked is the difficulty of hitting for
Speaker 2: power on the left side at Chase Field. It is
Speaker 2: one of the worst park factors for left handed homers.
Speaker 2: Leaving Cleveland, I think he ends up going from kind
Speaker 2: of a neutral, maybe slightly above average park to actually
Speaker 2: a well below average one in that regard, I think
Speaker 2: Naylor is a good, solid all around player. I think
Speaker 2: the thing I've always liked about him high batting average floor,
Speaker 2: not a lot of swing and miss in his profile.
Speaker 2: All of that's still true. He's not a particularly great runner,
Speaker 2: So you look at the run count from last year,
Speaker 2: eighty four seems like a high water mark, even though
Speaker 2: he's going into a better lineup. So I do think
Speaker 2: he's going to take a step back from a power perspective.
Speaker 2: I think that's where That's where my main issue lies
Speaker 2: with Josh Naylor. It's just like a little bit worse
Speaker 2: across the board and being in a more difficult spot.
Speaker 2: I think it's like a bounce back an average, but
Speaker 2: at the expense of maybe five to seven homers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's totally fair. I mean, Christian Walker's batt at
Speaker 1: Baldata is still so good. Going to the Crawford boxes
Speaker 1: is definitely appealing. Are you on the same side there, Jeff, I.
Speaker 3: Like them both. I think both of these guys are
Speaker 3: targets for me. Slight worry for me about Walker is
Speaker 3: the age. You know a lot of times first Baseman
Speaker 3: kind of fall off a cliff at thirty three, thirty
Speaker 3: four years old. You know, I don't think this is
Speaker 3: going to be jose A braw two point zero or
Speaker 3: anything like that for Houston, but I got a smidge
Speaker 3: of a concern there. You know he's starting to miss
Speaker 3: more time due to injuries, had the oblique injury last year,
Speaker 3: But overall, I think you're right. I like Naylor though,
Speaker 3: because what he loses for loses out on a park,
Speaker 3: I think he gains in lineup. I think he joins
Speaker 3: an Arizona lineup that just is going to score a
Speaker 3: ton of runs this year, so I think his counting
Speaker 3: stats are going to remain pretty steady. You may lose
Speaker 3: you trade a couple of homers for a couple of
Speaker 3: points of average, I think it'll all kind of wash out.
Speaker 3: So I like them both this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Arizona. I don't think a lot of people would
Speaker 1: be aware of just thinking about it. They would probably
Speaker 1: say the Dodgers or the Yankees maybe, but Arizona had
Speaker 1: more runs than any other team in Major League Baseball
Speaker 1: last season. With Corbyn Carroll kind of struggling for half
Speaker 1: of the season, he still ended up with one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty of them. So definitely a prolific offense there.
Speaker 1: I like both of these players. I think i'd probably
Speaker 1: lean slightly to more towards Walker. I've heard it. I
Speaker 1: forget who exactly was, and I'm sorry for not giving
Speaker 1: them credit. But when you compare Christian Walker's profile to
Speaker 1: Mattelson Pete Alonso, there's a lot of similarities there that
Speaker 1: you can kind of just get this same guy who
Speaker 1: is maybe not exactly the same, but thirty home or
Speaker 1: one hundred RBI potential several rounds later. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of the narrative I've bought into with Christian Walker. The
Speaker 1: age does worry me a little bit, but I think
Speaker 1: he is really interesting this upcoming season. These two are
Speaker 1: going neck and neck on a lot of NFBC drafts,
Speaker 1: going on to the next battle here, Vinnie pas Quentino
Speaker 1: and Tristan Casses. A lot of the time these two
Speaker 1: are neck and neck and the ADP and on the
Speaker 1: draft boards they'll be right beside each other. Jeff, we'll
Speaker 1: start with you on this one. Any concern with the
Speaker 1: bit of the circus that seems to be developing in
Speaker 1: Boston with Rafa is not happy and Cass is commenting
Speaker 1: on it that factor.
Speaker 3: What does think about that? You know, what does he
Speaker 3: think about the closing job in Baltimore? I need to
Speaker 3: know these things. Uh, small lean towards Vinnie here. Although
Speaker 3: it's kind of funny, I think he piled up a
Speaker 3: lot of those RBIs in a year where he wasn't
Speaker 3: especially strong last year. But I think the reasons why
Speaker 3: he was strong are going to remain. I think he's
Speaker 3: a smack dab in a great lineup. Uh not in
Speaker 3: a great lineup, but smack dab behind Bobby Witt and
Speaker 3: Salvador Perez. If I want Perez, I'm gonna want to
Speaker 3: pass Spontino too. I think there is another level still
Speaker 3: left in him in terms of the power. You know,
Speaker 3: obviously he hasn't quite gotten there just yet. I think
Speaker 3: if Cassis gets dealt elsewhere to kind of in the
Speaker 3: wash of trying to make the playing time work, as
Speaker 3: was once rumored in Boston, he probably lands in a
Speaker 3: better spot. So I think you can make a case
Speaker 3: for Casses too. I mean, there's a reason why these
Speaker 3: guys are close and why we're actually and why he
Speaker 3: selected this as a battle because they are very in
Speaker 3: similar straits.
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, I like both players too. I think Cassis,
Speaker 2: from a long term league's perspective, is a great target
Speaker 2: if you're trying to trade for someone a keeper or
Speaker 2: dynasty league that could give you surplus value for the
Speaker 2: next couple of seasons he could do it. I wonder
Speaker 2: if the fallout from things getting more crowded there could
Speaker 2: actually cost Cassis some playing time at a certain point.
Speaker 2: I think he could get caught up in that, maybe
Speaker 2: end up in more of a strict platoon. I don't
Speaker 2: think that happens with viny pass Quentino. So as much
Speaker 2: as I like the Red Sox supporting cast more than
Speaker 2: the Royal supporting cast, Benny pass Quentino was doing some
Speaker 2: pretty interesting things in the second half last year, had
Speaker 2: an injury that cost him time, but looked much more
Speaker 2: like the player he did before shoulder surgery by the
Speaker 2: end of last season. It's hard to find anyone in
Speaker 2: the pool that hits the ball hard often and keeps
Speaker 2: the k ra as low as Vinni pas Quentino does.
Speaker 2: Kind of intrigued by some of the conversation I saw
Speaker 2: from him. He was going back and forth with Tom
Speaker 2: Tango a few weeks ago about some stuff he was
Speaker 2: doing at to play. Just seems like he's very, very
Speaker 2: cerebral about craft, but also puts together a profile that's
Speaker 2: unique for the position. You might get a really high
Speaker 2: average with twenty five plus home run power. Kaufin Stadium
Speaker 2: is a park that does hurt homers, kind of like
Speaker 2: we talked about Chase Field earlier. But I think the
Speaker 2: good thing is it boost runs all around. So I
Speaker 2: think this is an overall really solid player. Slightest of
Speaker 2: edges to Vinnie because I think of their respective injuries.
Speaker 2: The cassis ribb thing from last year basically just a
Speaker 2: tear of the rib cartilage from swinging the bat too hard.
Speaker 2: That gives me more long term concern. That's more like
Speaker 2: a wear and tearor sort of problem, kind of like
Speaker 2: a chronic back injury as a as a long term problem,
Speaker 2: whereas with pascent Twina. At Pascentino, we saw more evidence
Speaker 2: that he was just over the major injury, having the
Speaker 2: surgery and then playing a lot better over the course
Speaker 2: of the season last year.
Speaker 3: Absolutely one other thing real quick, I'll throw in. You know,
Speaker 3: you mentioned that Vinie's a cerebral player. I think those
Speaker 3: of us in the analytic community tend to favor these guys.
Speaker 3: I mean, I still remember, like Brian Vanister, like I
Speaker 3: wanted that to work so much. I was really a
Speaker 3: standing for him so hard does never quite happened. But
Speaker 3: I do feel like we sometimes like to give that
Speaker 3: little plus to those sort of guys.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, yeah, we see a player that wants to invest
Speaker 1: more in their own development, and that will peak our
Speaker 1: interest over the guys who, to use an extreme example,
Speaker 1: like the Rendows of the world, who just don't seem
Speaker 1: to care. There's definitely a difference in opinion there, and
Speaker 1: I agree completely that past when they're close, but pass
Speaker 1: Pentino gets a slight edge, and I think, especially if
Speaker 1: we're talking a very underserved part of the fantasy world,
Speaker 1: which is points leagues, I think pass Quentino certainly gets
Speaker 1: the edge there. He just doesn't strike out. There's less concern,
Speaker 1: I think as we've gotten farther away from that labor
Speaker 1: and it's I think he's healed. I think he's healed
Speaker 1: very well, and I think the team is going to
Speaker 1: be smart about keeping him healthy. He's gonna not just
Speaker 1: play at first base one hundred and sixty two times.
Speaker 1: He's gonnadh. He'll get some days off, So I think
Speaker 1: they'll be smart about it, and I think that pass
Speaker 1: Quentino is the way that I would go there as well.
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Speaker 1: up into the top one hundred ADP and we're gonna
Speaker 1: put Jose Altuve and Ozzy Albi's up against each other here.
Speaker 1: This one's a little spicy. I can see going both ways.
Speaker 1: There are reasons to be kind of a bit pessimistic
Speaker 1: about both of them. DVR, do you have a strong
Speaker 1: lien here one way or the other.
Speaker 2: It's definitely not a strong lean, but you do have
Speaker 2: to look at these guys and decide who you dig.
Speaker 2: If you're sitting in the early rounds and want to
Speaker 2: cover second base. I have Albi's just the head of
Speaker 2: LTVA literally written next to each other on my overall
Speaker 2: hitter rankings right now. The main reason for it comes
Speaker 2: down to support cast. I mean, these astros are not
Speaker 2: quite the same as the astros that made seven consecutive
Speaker 2: trips to the ALCS, right like, this is just not
Speaker 2: the same loaded supporting cast, and they're still good. We
Speaker 2: have some questions now about Jordan Alvarez's health already in
Speaker 2: spring training, though, and he's becoming increasingly important to that
Speaker 2: lineup in a post Kyle Tucker world as well. So
Speaker 2: I think Atlanta's going to be more likely a lot
Speaker 2: healthier in twenty twenty five than they weren't twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: They had a lot of injuries and they were key
Speaker 2: impactful guys up and down that lineup. So you get
Speaker 2: healthy Riley healthy, Acunya healthy, Albi's himself healthy, Michael Harris,
Speaker 2: I think that's going to go a long way towards
Speaker 2: making the run and RBI counts pop. I don't think
Speaker 2: we're seeing any indication from this organization that they're going
Speaker 2: to back off their everyday guys all that much. So
Speaker 2: I think you're still looking at a possible max playing
Speaker 2: time sort of ceiling, which is appealing. So slightest of
Speaker 2: edges to Ozzie Albi's And you know, with l tv Man,
Speaker 2: the move to left field is just weird. I wonder
Speaker 2: if they're actually going to follow through on that, at
Speaker 2: least as of now, it seems like they will. But
Speaker 2: I don't think that's gonna have any sort of negative
Speaker 2: impact on him. I just see a slowly eroding supporting
Speaker 2: cast around him, whereas Atlanta still looks like it could
Speaker 2: hit a stride similar what it did two years ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry, I was gonna say. I'll tell his second
Speaker 1: base metrics are just brutal, so I can understand moving
Speaker 1: him off of second. He's never been a great defender,
Speaker 1: but it's gotten progressively worse. But go ahead, Jeff No.
Speaker 3: I just think it just overall supports the thought that
Speaker 3: there's an erosion of overall skills. You know, speed metrics
Speaker 3: are a little down, the x slug is a little down,
Speaker 3: the expected batting average was a little below what he did.
Speaker 3: All these things indicate that there might be a next
Speaker 3: stage of the decline for him. I think moving him
Speaker 3: off second might help, you know, as long as he
Speaker 3: doesn't have like the growing pains, the embarrassment of having
Speaker 3: some struggles in the outfield. Sometimes you see that. Sometimes
Speaker 3: you get like Robin Yellt where it works out really well,
Speaker 3: where you move him out off of short stop, moving
Speaker 3: to the outfield. Oh, it's great, it extended his career.
Speaker 3: Other cases that you just feel like it seems like
Speaker 3: it's a fish out of water. So I'm kind of
Speaker 3: curious to see how that plays out. But I do
Speaker 3: slightly have Albi's ahead of Altuve, And there's a lot
Speaker 3: of talk about you know, availability is a big ability,
Speaker 3: and you know Albi's hasn't had that. But it's always
Speaker 3: been these fluke injuries, you know three you know, twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two it was like a broken left foot, a
Speaker 3: broken pinky finger. Those aren't like chronic muscle type issues
Speaker 3: or anything like that. Last year fractured risk, fractured toe again.
Speaker 3: Not the sort of thing where it's like, oh, he's
Speaker 3: always breaking down, he's got that hamstring again. No, it's
Speaker 3: not that. It's not that case with Albi's. So I
Speaker 3: also have Albi slightly ahead of al Tuo.
Speaker 2: Ba.
Speaker 1: I have had al Tuova ahead, but I think that's
Speaker 1: something I really need to look into. Like as much
Speaker 1: as I like Christian Walker and he saw parates, they
Speaker 1: are not quite Kyle Tucker and Alex Bragman, so that
Speaker 1: is a downgrade. Altuove's quite a bit older. You know
Speaker 1: that you guys have made a lot of the good points,
Speaker 1: and I think that that is something I'm going to
Speaker 1: have to look into. I think that they're still relatively
Speaker 1: close because al Tuove he's always just defied the metrics.
Speaker 1: He's never been somebody that you would have expected would
Speaker 1: have had the career he's had to begin with, and
Speaker 1: I almost want to give him the benefit of the
Speaker 1: doubt until we see him fall off a cliff. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, I'd rather be out a year
Speaker 1: early than out a year late if those are the options,
Speaker 1: and I think that I'll be's in that lineup. I
Speaker 1: think it is the way that makes sense. But there
Speaker 1: was a report I saw today I think it might
Speaker 1: have been a Rode Wire blurb that al Tuve is
Speaker 1: looking more and more likely to be in the outfield.
Speaker 1: So I guess that multiposition eligibility is also nice. The
Speaker 1: infield and outfield switch. But yeah, he's he's not what
Speaker 1: he once was in his postal too.
Speaker 3: And they want to make sure it's one or the other.
Speaker 3: They don't want to move him back and forth. Is
Speaker 3: that I think his spots point about that there is
Speaker 3: they really want to focus on. Okay, you will be this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's been some examples of middle endfielders going to
Speaker 1: the outfield in the last couple of years tattoos Chisholm.
Speaker 1: But they do it. They don't do it at thirty
Speaker 1: five years old. They do it when they're quite a
Speaker 1: bit younger. So interesting to see how that one will
Speaker 1: will play out. The other one I have down here
Speaker 1: at second base is Bryce Terrang and Luis Garcia generally
Speaker 1: about pick one thirty one thirty five on average. Bryce
Speaker 1: Tranger getting a ton of speed, where with Garcia a
Speaker 1: little bit more of a balanced approach. They did send
Speaker 1: him down a couple of years ago, twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: when he was having a decent year. The Nationals do
Speaker 1: tend to do that sometimes, but I think that they're
Speaker 1: both relatively similar in value. Jeff, We'll start with you
Speaker 1: on this one, Bryce Terrang or Luis Garcia.
Speaker 3: I'm a little ahead on Garcia. I think then Terrang,
Speaker 3: I worry about Terreng's ability to actually hit Still, I think,
Speaker 3: you know, there's always the green light with both of
Speaker 3: these teams actually that you know he's going to be
Speaker 3: able to run if he can get on. But I'm
Speaker 3: kind of worried about Terang second half. I think they
Speaker 3: have alternatives. They're not super strong alternatives, but say if
Speaker 3: he gets off to a terrible start, unlike the blistering
Speaker 3: hot starready got off to you last year, maybe there's
Speaker 3: even a possibility of moving down the lineup, maybe even
Speaker 3: sitting a day or two here or there. I feel
Speaker 3: like Garcia is a little bit more on stable ground
Speaker 3: WUDBR Yeah.
Speaker 2: Same overall read, I find myself kind of moving away
Speaker 2: from second basement in this part of the draft. I
Speaker 2: think part of it's that I see similar Rodo skills
Speaker 2: in Andreas Jimenez as Bryce Terrang and Menez available later.
Speaker 2: I think Bryce and Stott does some similar things. His
Speaker 2: situation as a hitter looks a little more stable than
Speaker 2: Terrang as well. I mean from May first on last year,
Speaker 2: Bryce Terrang had a seventy nine WRC plus you can
Speaker 2: stay in the lineup every day being that bad when
Speaker 2: your defense is that good. But that doesn't mean I
Speaker 2: want you on my fantasy team. And I just don't
Speaker 2: see a path to more power. Terrang's not one of
Speaker 2: those guys you look at and say physically he's going
Speaker 2: to get a lot stronger and develop that part of
Speaker 2: his game. It would just take a lot of changes
Speaker 2: for him as a hitter to become even a league
Speaker 2: average guy at this point in his career. So it's
Speaker 2: Garcia for me, but it's a tier that in general
Speaker 2: I'm steering away from in redraft.
Speaker 1: Joe Pisapa will be happy to hear that, because he's
Speaker 1: been a big, big stand for Luis Garcia this draft season. DVR,
Speaker 1: I wonder, though you're you're in Milwaukee, you're a Brewers fan,
Speaker 1: is the lineup? Has it taken a step back this season?
Speaker 1: You think with the loss of Willia Damas, with the
Speaker 1: question marks around Christian Yalich's status, what's your opinion on
Speaker 1: the team as a whole. Do you think they're going
Speaker 1: to be worse than last year? Offensively?
Speaker 2: I think you have to assume a slight step back
Speaker 2: just because replacing a Dames alone and the season a
Speaker 2: Damis just had is particularly difficult. So I think Joey
Speaker 2: Ortiz could be seventy percent of that player overall from
Speaker 2: a real life perspective, he does it a different way,
Speaker 2: less power, a little more speed. Ortiz actually ran into
Speaker 2: a tarp last year and was a much better player
Speaker 2: pre injury than post injury. It caused some kind of
Speaker 2: neck problem for him, so keep that in mind. I
Speaker 2: guess when you're looking at how they're using him and
Speaker 2: what he's doing early in the season, I look at
Speaker 2: guys like Caleb Durban and I can't quite see what
Speaker 2: the Brewers see beyond the fact that their speed and
Speaker 2: there's a versatile glove, and they'd like guys they can
Speaker 2: mix and match. But you know, you could look at
Speaker 2: Jackson Turio and say, a Churio is going to be
Speaker 2: ten percent better than last year, and Ortiz is going
Speaker 2: to be seventy percent of Willia Dames, and then they're
Speaker 2: gonna need more out of someone like Garrett Mitchell. They're
Speaker 2: gonna need to bounce back from Brye Hoskins. It's a
Speaker 2: pretty long list of things that need to go right
Speaker 2: for them to hold the level they were at last year.
Speaker 2: But they also are not built like a lot of
Speaker 2: other lineups right now, built more on speed than power.
Speaker 2: So I think a lot of it's just putting balls
Speaker 2: in play, putting pressure on opposing defenses to make plays,
Speaker 2: and it seems like it serves them pretty well. So
Speaker 2: slightly worse, but still probably getting a lot of things
Speaker 2: right and beating projections.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've seen them around eighty two and a half
Speaker 3: in the win total projections here and there, and you
Speaker 3: know it's you know, they won ninety three last year,
Speaker 3: so it's quite of a drop down. I don't think
Speaker 3: they lost. I don't think they're eleven games worse than
Speaker 3: last year. But on the flip side, you know, some
Speaker 3: things did work right. As DVR said, I think two
Speaker 3: keys are Garrett Mitchell, who DVR alluded to in South Freelik. Also,
Speaker 3: I think, you know, both of those players need to
Speaker 3: kind of do a little bit more and they'll get
Speaker 3: a full season out of Mitchell. I think Mitchell's a
Speaker 3: really good player. It's just a matter of him being
Speaker 3: able to stay on the field. But I think there's
Speaker 3: a chance that he could help advance that cause a
Speaker 3: little bit. I also think they'll be better and run
Speaker 3: prevention this year. I think get Woodrof for some portion
Speaker 3: of the season. I think Nestor kirk Tez will fit
Speaker 3: well there. And I like Tobias Myers, who another player
Speaker 3: DVR snatched from my loving arms in the LABR draft.
Speaker 1: Tobias Myers, I forget who it was the other day,
Speaker 1: but somebody said that, and I've forgotten about this, that
Speaker 1: he was traded for Junior Camenaro a few years ago,
Speaker 1: and I've completely forgotten that one. That was just boggling,
Speaker 1: But it happens, and.
Speaker 3: Then released and then released by the Giants, finally lands
Speaker 3: in Milwaukee and resuscitates his career. But interesting, whiney, twisty
Speaker 3: path for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you never know, you never know what these young guys.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to third base and this one is
Speaker 1: the only triple battle that we have today. It's a
Speaker 1: spicy one for sure. Rafael Devers, Manny Machado, and Austin Riley.
Speaker 1: Now Devers has started to fall a little bit, but
Speaker 1: he's still generally going in the third round. This is
Speaker 1: a debate that a lot of people have to make
Speaker 1: on the third round if they want to lock down
Speaker 1: a third basement here. Devers Machado and Riley DVR. We'll
Speaker 1: kick it back to you on this one, any preference.
Speaker 2: I feel like these guys have been stuck together for
Speaker 2: three draft seasons now, and they're still very close. In
Speaker 2: my rankings right now, I've got Machado just ahead of Riley.
Speaker 2: I think the difference for me is Machado runs a
Speaker 2: little bit. I think there is a little more batting
Speaker 2: average downside, just that reflected in some projection systems. But
Speaker 2: Machado's track record is just so hard to bet against.
Speaker 2: So when you're looking at very similar players, that's something
Speaker 2: I can use as maybe a tiebreaker. I just have
Speaker 2: Devers as a slight downgrade from these two right now,
Speaker 2: because when you get to spring training and you had
Speaker 2: a chronic injury that you played through and played pretty
Speaker 2: well through last year, I'll say too, and it's still
Speaker 2: a problem in the early weeks of spring training, that
Speaker 2: doesn't give me a lot of confidence that there's not
Speaker 2: something more problematic on the horizon. So I look at
Speaker 2: Devers and think maybe last year is a more accurate
Speaker 2: reflection of who he's going to be, if those shoulders
Speaker 2: are going to just bother him all season long again,
Speaker 2: not that worried about moving off third base and him
Speaker 2: being frustrated about that. I think that's he's there to hit,
Speaker 2: and I think he's ultimately going to realize that. And
Speaker 2: I think winning is a lot more fun than not winning.
Speaker 2: And their best lineup is probably playing Alex Bregman at
Speaker 2: third and using Devers a lot more as a DH.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I look at that group and that's the
Speaker 2: that's the main separator between them right now. It's just
Speaker 2: like Child's got the slightly longer track record than Riley
Speaker 2: and he runs. Devers just doesn't seem like he's completely healthy.
Speaker 2: And we're talking about this in the first week of March.
Speaker 1: Both shoulders have had problems with both shoulders. I mean
Speaker 1: that you got to start worrying a little bit. I
Speaker 1: think that with the whole position thing, Devers will realize eventually.
Speaker 1: I agree with you there that like he's there to hit,
Speaker 1: he's not there so he can win a Gold Glove
Speaker 1: at third base. And he's locked up until he's I
Speaker 1: believe thirty five or thirty six, so it's not like
Speaker 1: he's going to get another big, long term contract after this.
Speaker 1: I don't think it really matters where he's where he
Speaker 1: is in the field, Jeff, where do you land on
Speaker 1: this one?
Speaker 3: Same order as DVR. Joe Shehihen wrote in his Zoos
Speaker 3: letter when this thing flared up about Devers not wanting
Speaker 3: to move off at third base, titled it that's what
Speaker 3: the money's for, you know, after the great mad Men scene.
Speaker 3: And he's absolutely right, you know, shut up and help
Speaker 3: your team win. You got paid already, so you need that.
Speaker 3: I think this hangs over the team for a while.
Speaker 3: I think this is something that is a negative effect. Uh,
Speaker 3: he's not playing for a contract, so it's nothing of
Speaker 3: that nature either. I also tried not to draft any
Speaker 3: of these three where they go. I would go a
Speaker 3: shadow if I was gonna go one of them there.
Speaker 3: But more often than not, you know, maybe I've already
Speaker 3: taken the advantage of like a Sodo dropping or or
Speaker 3: for that matter, Jordan Albert is dropping. So I'm missing
Speaker 3: a little bit of speed. I'm either looking for speed
Speaker 3: or I'm looking for a pitcher in this spot. I
Speaker 3: when I got when I did get William contraras when uh,
Speaker 3: when DVR took him, I pivoted a pitcher. I would
Speaker 3: I would have done that even if like Riley was
Speaker 3: sitting there for me, or Devers was sitting there for me.
Speaker 3: I think that's the route I would have gone. Still,
Speaker 3: so because I like other third basement downstream a little
Speaker 3: bit more. I like, uh, the two guys were gonna
Speaker 3: be talking about in our next battle, but also Jake
Speaker 3: Berger I like, I like Bregman in Boston. I think
Speaker 3: there's one one more good year, at least out of him.
Speaker 3: I think he landed in the absolute right spot. And
Speaker 3: I end up on a Juenio Suarez often as well.
Speaker 1: Not somebody that's talking about a lot. Asuarez was ridiculous
Speaker 1: in the second half last year. It was the best
Speaker 1: stretch of his career. I think I agree on the
Speaker 1: order here that it's Machado at the top, and then
Speaker 1: it's Riley, although it's close, and then there's a slightly
Speaker 1: bigger gap between him endeavors there. You know, I never
Speaker 1: know how much to factor in the whole mental aspect
Speaker 1: of things when players are mad TV are you had
Speaker 1: it with Corbyn Burns last year the year before where
Speaker 1: there was an arbitration battle debate and then it seemed
Speaker 1: like he wasn't happy, he wasn't and then the performance
Speaker 1: kind of lagged behind a little bit that season. That
Speaker 1: could just be anecdotal stuff, but you do wonder about
Speaker 1: how much stuff gets into players heads when there's some
Speaker 1: discontent within the team there. Does that go into your
Speaker 1: evaluations at all, DVR, not just with the situation, but
Speaker 1: for any situations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I try to get a read on
Speaker 2: that as best I can. I guess, in the example
Speaker 2: of the Burn situation, you know, being frustrated about how
Speaker 2: arbitration played out, I kind of feel like that's more
Speaker 2: of a motivating chip on my shoulder going to come
Speaker 2: out and do everything I can do to go get
Speaker 2: a free agent, big free agent deal and leave like
Speaker 2: that was that all seemed like that was pretty much
Speaker 2: written on the wall in that situation. It's it's hard
Speaker 2: when we're on the outside looking in. We're going on reports,
Speaker 2: trying to trust the best beat writers that are there
Speaker 2: every day and trying to make sure that you know
Speaker 2: what's being reported is actually a problem in some of
Speaker 2: these cases, right, It varies pretty wildly, I think from
Speaker 2: person to person, from clubhouse to clubhouse. So I try
Speaker 2: to account for it, but I feel like it's a
Speaker 2: it's a weakness in my game. If there's a skill
Speaker 2: to be gained from it.
Speaker 1: That's that's totally fair. Let's move on to the other
Speaker 1: one here, and this is the two young and ascending
Speaker 1: targets a third base, both of their prices arising, one
Speaker 1: of them more so than the other. So this one,
Speaker 1: within a couple of weeks, people won't be saying, Junior
Speaker 1: Cameron Aro is going in the third round of my league?
Speaker 1: What are you talking about? But Junior Cameranaro and Mark
Speaker 1: Fiento's roughly around pick one hundred, generally a little bit earlier.
Speaker 1: We'll kick it to you, Jeff for this one. You
Speaker 1: buying into the hype of Junior Cameronaro.
Speaker 3: I am. I think that this will be the last
Speaker 3: year we'll get them in anything below fit. I think
Speaker 3: this is one of a total star in the making,
Speaker 3: able to hold his own at twenty at the big
Speaker 3: league level. You know, defense isn't a problem with him
Speaker 3: as opposed to Vientos, which I think is something we'll
Speaker 3: have to watch for in the future. Add in the
Speaker 3: fact that he's going to get a ballpark improvement over
Speaker 3: the next two years in terms of how the ball
Speaker 3: should carry you. Now, if he were left handed, even
Speaker 3: be more of a benefit, but I still think he
Speaker 3: benefits by that. The humidity there. I think that's all
Speaker 3: going to work in canon Eero's favor. I want to
Speaker 3: be on board the train. Yeah, I'm already seeing him,
Speaker 3: Like you know, I play a lot of NBC League
Speaker 3: formats and I'm seeing him going around pick seventy five
Speaker 3: there already. So yeah, there's a lot of helium associated
Speaker 3: with him. Nothing against against Biento's. I love Viento's too,
Speaker 3: and if I miss miss out on Kennero, I'll take
Speaker 3: Biento's in the next round. But I think there's a
Speaker 3: rounds worth of difference between the two.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the strikeout rate with Viento's is a concern.
Speaker 1: The lineup is probably a little bit better in New York.
Speaker 1: Not probably, it is better, Yeah, but well the ballpark
Speaker 1: may be negate some of that with Tampa DVR. Are
Speaker 1: you landing on this one.
Speaker 2: I've got Junior Cameron Aro ranked probably about twenty spots
Speaker 2: ahead of Ventos on my overall hitter rankings, And I
Speaker 2: realized that the fallacy can be that you're hoping for
Speaker 2: the season. Mark Ventos just had as like a median
Speaker 2: sort of outcome from Camanaro, but you're paying the premium
Speaker 2: because Junior Camanaro's ceilings should be higher. Projections give you
Speaker 2: probably a twenty point edge in batting average. With Junior Camonaro,
Speaker 2: I think he's going to hit in the heart of
Speaker 2: that lineup. Vento's might slide a little further down just
Speaker 2: because there's more quality in the Mets lineup as it's built.
Speaker 2: But man, I keep thinking about the way Steinbrenner Field's
Speaker 2: gonna play compared to the Trop, and it's not making
Speaker 2: me run away from Raised pictures because I think that's
Speaker 2: a good group of pictures, but I think their top
Speaker 2: end bats have a higher ceilings as a result of
Speaker 2: not playing in a place that's generally very difficult to hit.
Speaker 2: We know the Trop boosts strikeouts and suppresses runs. It's
Speaker 2: a very challenging environment for hitters to deal with. So
Speaker 2: two thumbs up on Junior Cameronaro, and I think picks
Speaker 2: seventy five. I don't know about you, guys, but that's
Speaker 2: the rain. Like that end a round five. If I've
Speaker 2: gone pretty boring with my build up to that point,
Speaker 2: I'm happy to take more risk on if I draft
Speaker 2: a guy in the fifth round and he gives me
Speaker 2: ninth or tenth round value that's not going to ruin
Speaker 2: my season, And I'm getting the possibility of having someone
Speaker 2: who might be a second or third rounder next year
Speaker 2: on my team. So I think that's that's why I'm
Speaker 2: comfortable taking on that extra risk and sort of dreaming
Speaker 2: on the potential showing up in twenty twenty five with
Speaker 2: a player like Junior cam and Arrow.
Speaker 1: So with the hype train on cam and Arrow, where
Speaker 1: would the price have to get to make you tap out? Where?
Speaker 1: What would be the point where you say, Okay, somebody
Speaker 1: else can can take this chance on him?
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, go ahead, Jeff, I was just going to say,
Speaker 3: probably around pick fifty or so, like if he goes
Speaker 3: into where Royce Lewis was going last year, that's probably
Speaker 3: too much.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: That's fair.
Speaker 2: I would agree, because I think a lot of the
Speaker 2: pictures I still like as sp ones are available then,
Speaker 2: so I'm giving up a lot of value by passing
Speaker 2: got a picture to take him there. I think even
Speaker 2: some of the bats that go in that if you
Speaker 2: get him up closer to the Wyatt Langford territory and
Speaker 2: even Langford's creeping up himself. I think there's to me,
Speaker 2: there's more categorical balance than some of the players that
Speaker 2: go around that pick forty five, pick fifty range. So
Speaker 2: that's probably where I would back out completely for redraft purposes,
Speaker 2: even though the long term ceilings phenomenal.
Speaker 1: All right, we are all in. It seems like wheels
Speaker 1: up for Cameron Aro. You know, sometimes the players just
Speaker 1: get super hyped in spring and then they fall on
Speaker 1: their face a little bit. But this doesn't feel like
Speaker 1: that situation between his talent between the ballpark. I really
Speaker 1: like the raised lineup around him. I think this is
Speaker 1: a good spot, and I understand what you said about
Speaker 1: we're kind of hoping that he has a Viiento's type
Speaker 1: of season. But the upside for Cameron Aro is the
Speaker 1: first round second round player, and I don't think Vanto's
Speaker 1: can get there, even what the great lineup he has
Speaker 1: around him. Before we keep it going, I want to
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Speaker 1: smarter today. All right, guys, we're down to the final
Speaker 1: position and that is shortstop and we're gonna go inside
Speaker 1: of the top one hundred. Here we're kind of going
Speaker 1: in and out. But this one is O'Neil Cruz and
Speaker 1: CJ Abrams. I have kind of mixed feelings on both
Speaker 1: of them at DVR. I'll kick this one to you.
Speaker 2: I like go to you A Cruz a lot more
Speaker 2: than CJ Abrams, and I'm not against cj Abrams at all.
Speaker 2: I think there's a reason to believe he could still
Speaker 2: take a few steps forward. But the main thing for
Speaker 2: me with O'Neil Cruz, he does enough damage to get
Speaker 2: away with the high k rates, So if he stays
Speaker 2: at a thirty percent k rate, that's fine. I think
Speaker 2: he had a little bit better against lefties last year,
Speaker 2: so he's less of a liability, less likely to fall
Speaker 2: into a platoon, and that team has no business platooning
Speaker 2: O'Neal Cruz. Look at that depth, Shart, you can't possibly
Speaker 2: justify have him out of the lineup on a day
Speaker 2: where he's healthy other than just like needing a little
Speaker 2: bit of maintenance. I think the other part of O'Neal
Speaker 2: Cruz's game that could still take another step forward is
Speaker 2: what he could do on the base paths eighty eight
Speaker 2: percentile and sprint speed. So even if it's not getting
Speaker 2: to the power more consistently, who's to say he can't
Speaker 2: go twenty forty And I just I trust that power
Speaker 2: floor from cruise the ceiling is good in that category.
Speaker 2: The improvements we've seen with some more exposure have been nice.
Speaker 2: I just I see a guy that does more ticks,
Speaker 2: more roto boxes, whereas the CJ abrams profile. Even going
Speaker 2: back to last year, I looked at where he was
Speaker 2: going and I saw more of that sort of Andres
Speaker 2: Jimenez Bryson Stott sort of player with maybe more stolen
Speaker 2: base potential. But just given the way he faded in
Speaker 2: the second half, and I don't care about the casino
Speaker 2: incident and the little suspend, I'm past all that. He's
Speaker 2: probably their lead off hitter, he's probably the ever very shortstop.
Speaker 2: I just wonder like, is there more power and can
Speaker 2: he be even good in the batting average category, because
Speaker 2: I think those are two things that could really kind
Speaker 2: of pull that value back down to the point where
Speaker 2: he ends up being at overpriced this draft season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we've been trying to reach for steals
Speaker 1: for forever really, or at least a long time. I've
Speaker 1: been playing Fantasy Baseball for the last ten or twelve years,
Speaker 1: and we don't really need to do it as much anymore. CJ.
Speaker 1: Abrams feels like such a specialist for steals in the
Speaker 1: third round, maybe in the fourth round that I just
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily feel that need to take that chance.
Speaker 1: For with O'Neil Cruz sixteen percent barrel rate, hard hit
Speaker 1: rate well over fifty percent. If he raised the launch
Speaker 1: angle a little bit and hit thirty homers, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: really be surprised, Jeff, you have a strong preference between
Speaker 1: these two.
Speaker 3: I thought this was supposed to be an ADP battle
Speaker 3: and not an ADP. I know we agree on everything,
Speaker 3: you know, because I'm in lockstep with you guys on this.
Speaker 3: I just what is the ultimate upside of cg Abrams?
Speaker 3: You know, the hard hit metrics set suggests this is
Speaker 3: as good as it gets. And you know, we saw
Speaker 3: like the the twenty twenty three looks more like an
Speaker 3: outlier than we you know, because even before the gambling thing,
Speaker 3: you know, he was already in decline pretty hard in
Speaker 3: the second half there maybe coming back to level there.
Speaker 3: We've seen one full season out of O'Neil Cruz. I
Speaker 3: think that's one of the big arguments in favor of him,
Speaker 3: is there's still something left to be attained by O'Neil Cruz.
Speaker 3: There could be a trajectory that he hasn't hit yet.
Speaker 3: The fact that he's going to the outfield that that
Speaker 3: kind of skews both ways again, and we talked about
Speaker 3: that with al Twov. They except Cruz is younger. You know,
Speaker 3: this is one of those where you know there's still
Speaker 3: growth to be had. I just want to see a
Speaker 3: full season out of Cruise. I don't want to see
Speaker 3: them messing around with them. Just put them in one spot,
Speaker 3: let them hit every day, let them hit it against
Speaker 3: both sides. Let him just do his thing. And there
Speaker 3: is nothing stopping the Pirates from doing that. They can
Speaker 3: do all the stupid non spending things they want, but
Speaker 3: just getting out of the way of Enel Cruz, just
Speaker 3: letting him develop as a player, is the best thing
Speaker 3: they could do this year.
Speaker 1: I completely agree. And it's funny because the previous show
Speaker 1: we did, part one was Pictures, and it was Enosaurus
Speaker 1: and Nick Pollock, and I think they disagreed on nine
Speaker 1: under the ten pictures that I have. That's awesome, So
Speaker 1: we'll see if we can get some disagreement here on
Speaker 1: the last one. And it's Xander Bogarts and Ezekiel Tovar.
Speaker 1: I think Bogarts really makes sense from a roto standpoint.
Speaker 1: He just really balanced. Tovar for me, feels like a
Speaker 1: bit more of a risk. Maybe it's the swinging strike
Speaker 1: rate pushing twenty percent. I know there's a couple of reasons.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's the Rockies lineup around him. Jeff, where do
Speaker 1: you land between Xander Bogarts and Ezekiel Tovar in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five.
Speaker 3: I'm going Tovar over Bogarts. I'm agist here as the
Speaker 3: old guy in the industry now anti my own age. Now,
Speaker 3: I just think there's just this could be what we
Speaker 3: see from Xander Bogart's going for. And I know he
Speaker 3: had the injury late in the season, but you know
Speaker 3: he was miserable in San Diego all along, but he
Speaker 3: was already starting to decline in Boston before that. You know,
Speaker 3: I just think this has all the auspices of being
Speaker 3: a bad Pooh holes in contract there, except worse because
Speaker 3: Pooh Hooles was actually good for a couple of years.
Speaker 3: Maybe I'm holding the contract against Bogers, but what does
Speaker 3: he do? You know he's gonna hit. He maybe hits
Speaker 3: for average. Maybe this is but maybe not. Maybe it
Speaker 3: doesn't come back. You know, he's not going to hit
Speaker 3: for more than fifteen homers in San Diego. I think
Speaker 3: at least Tovar there is an upside again, and we're
Speaker 3: at the point in the draft too, where you can
Speaker 3: take some chances again where if it doesn't work out, okay,
Speaker 3: well that's a problem. The two hundred strikeouts are super
Speaker 3: scary by Tovar, But you know what, he still won
Speaker 3: twenty six, you know, twenty six and seventy eight despite
Speaker 3: those strikeouts, still hit to sixty nine somehow. Now gets
Speaker 3: see he gets the benefit of the batting average in
Speaker 3: course field. Give me Tovar every day.
Speaker 1: What do you think you are? Yeah?
Speaker 2: The corpus situation makes it much more possible for me
Speaker 2: to roster a player that has the plate discipline of Tovar.
Speaker 2: I mean, Tovar is one of the more aggressive, free
Speaker 2: swinging players in the pool right now, but he's a
Speaker 2: phenomenal defender at short. He's young enough where he could
Speaker 2: get even just a little bit better. You look at
Speaker 2: things like the underlying hard hit rates. He hits the
Speaker 2: ball harder than Bogarts at this stage of their respective careers.
Speaker 2: I do think while I prefer Tovar, I end up
Speaker 2: with a lot of Bogarts. I think I got him
Speaker 2: in labor. I keep looking at Bogarts and saying, you know,
Speaker 2: why can't he do something like what he did in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three. He's an injury that cost him some
Speaker 2: time last year, pretty significant shoulder injury that he made
Speaker 2: it back from faster than expected, but he was a
Speaker 2: homer and a steal away from going twenty twenty in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three. He has to play every day because
Speaker 2: of the way that roster's built in San Diego. You
Speaker 2: got a high batting average floor and you probably have
Speaker 2: useful production in every single category with pretty good balance.
Speaker 2: So I like Bogarts more than most, but I would
Speaker 2: take Tovar ahead of him if I'm looking at those
Speaker 2: two straight up, because Cores really helps mask one of
Speaker 2: the major major flaws with Tovar's free swinging approach.
Speaker 1: Maybe there will be some drafters who look at it
Speaker 1: based on how they've already put their team together, where
Speaker 1: if they've gone a little bit risk heavy early on,
Speaker 1: maybe they'll offer a Bogart, where As if they've gone
Speaker 1: a little bit safer, maybe that's where they'd be more
Speaker 1: willing to take a tow bar. Interesting though, and we
Speaker 1: finally had a little bit of disagreement. We finally got
Speaker 1: to some but that is the way it goes. Smart
Speaker 1: people are going to agree and DVR and Jeff are
Speaker 1: two of the absolute best, smartest the industry has to offer,
Speaker 1: and I really appreciate them taking the time today. I
Speaker 1: want to give them a chance to just let you
Speaker 1: guys know where their work can be found. I think
Speaker 1: if you're familiar with our guest from last week, you
Speaker 1: know you probably know DVR. But Derek tell us where
Speaker 1: everybody can find your work.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen to the Rates and Barrels podcast for five
Speaker 2: days a week now this season, so tons of content
Speaker 2: coming out there. I've got some hitter rankings dropping on
Speaker 2: the Athletics soon if I do right. It's not very often.
Speaker 2: It is over at the Athletic and I'm over on
Speaker 2: Blue Scott's DVR over there, so if you want to
Speaker 2: follow me over there, please please do. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's hard to keep track of who's on the Twitter
Speaker 1: and who's on the Blue Sky, but follow both locations. Jeff,
Speaker 1: what about you? Are you on the Blue Sky?
Speaker 3: Hi? I am Jeff dash ericson. Just like on Twitter,
Speaker 3: I wasn't the first to get my own name there,
Speaker 3: So I'm Jeff Underscore on Twitter and Jeff dash on
Speaker 3: Blue Sky because they don't do underscore at a Blue
Speaker 3: Sky either, but I'm overexposed. You can catch me in
Speaker 3: Serious XM. You can catch me on vsen now five
Speaker 3: days a week, Monday through Friday at eleven to twelve
Speaker 3: Best Coast that's West Coast for you guys that are unaware,
Speaker 3: and then also of course on rote wir just jo
Speaker 3: check us out there rodewire dot com slash Try. You
Speaker 3: can see everything we have to offer. Our rankings. Our
Speaker 3: latest roundtable rankings will be going up again tomorrow there
Speaker 3: with four of us in a composite set of rankings
Speaker 3: to go with that, all of our draft kits stuff there.
Speaker 3: Just check it out free two day trial rodwire dot
Speaker 3: com slash Try.
Speaker 1: Fantastic sites. Rode Wire's blurb feed is fantastic. It's a
Speaker 1: great site to subscribe to. You and I mean Rates
Speaker 1: and Barrels. I think is probably my number one podcast
Speaker 1: whenever there's a new episode, essentially drop what I'm doing
Speaker 1: and go put the earbuds in. So great work from
Speaker 1: both of these guys, and Jeff, I definitely hear you
Speaker 1: on the overexposed front. I'm starting to feel that way
Speaker 1: myself a little bit doing three different podcasts this season.
Speaker 1: It definitely feels a little overexposed, but fantastic stuff from
Speaker 1: both of you. I really appreciate you taking the time.
Speaker 1: Make sure you follow both of these gents, and make
Speaker 1: sure you subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so,
Speaker 1: all go check out that show with Eno and Nick
Speaker 1: and next week Blad Settler versus Kevin Massa Rajon who
Speaker 1: you probably know better as the Rodo Surgeon. So it's
Speaker 1: Roto Gut versus the Rodo Surgeon next week talking outfielder.
Speaker 1: But until then, everybody, take care, have yourselves a great night.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Baseball podcast.
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