Speaker 1: Welcome in everybody to Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy
Speaker 1: Baseball Podcast. Its met Joey b Joe Pusia, and today
Speaker 1: it's time for the Ultimate Infield Guy. That's right, there's
Speaker 1: no other guide as ultimate as this one. The Welsh
Speaker 1: and I are gonna take you through all the infield
Speaker 1: positions first base, second base, third base, shortstop, and even
Speaker 1: some catchers. We're gonna talk about the top twenty guys
Speaker 1: or so at each position, talk about the tiers, talk
Speaker 1: about our favorite values, our favorite premium guys. Well, you're
Speaker 1: always my favorite premium guy. I just want you to
Speaker 1: know that. And speaking of premium, don't forget to go
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Speaker 1: And remember, our draft kit is live now Fantasy bros
Speaker 1: dot Com slash Draft Kit. So is our mock draft
Speaker 1: draft Wizard Fantasy bros dot Com slash mock. Go ahead
Speaker 1: and run a million simulations in about what like I
Speaker 1: don't know, I mean, how many drafts have can you
Speaker 1: do in an hour? I think I mean only do
Speaker 1: thirty in an hour?
Speaker 2: A million would be a lot. Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 2: You know we should do that.
Speaker 1: How many drafts can we do in an hour?
Speaker 3: But like, actually you have to do our picks. We
Speaker 3: should do shul almost like simultaneously. Be like, I like that,
Speaker 3: we could go I like that.
Speaker 1: What I mean cheat sheets?
Speaker 2: I mean if it was five minutes in theory, would
Speaker 2: be twelve drafts?
Speaker 1: Too much? I guess though, that's that's too much. Well
Speaker 1: not if I had multiple devices. Ah see what I did? Loan,
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to the infield. Let's start at
Speaker 1: first base here and obviously a place we're looking for power,
Speaker 1: we're looking for run potential. RBIs all of the above.
Speaker 1: Let's start here with the expert consensus rankings. Freddie Freeman
Speaker 1: is at the top of the first base board, follow
Speaker 1: by Matt Olsen, Bryce Harper, who last year came off
Speaker 1: the injury obviously maybe a little too soon, as we
Speaker 1: were saying back in the summertime, but he's such a gamer,
Speaker 1: that dude, Vlad Guerrero Junior looking for a bounce back,
Speaker 1: and Pete Alonzo at number five Welsh to me, this
Speaker 1: is the definitive tier of the top first baseman, because
Speaker 1: after this we dropped to Cody Bell and Drew West
Speaker 1: to repeat a very strong season Chicago, where still as
Speaker 1: a recording is don't know where he is going to
Speaker 1: play in twenty twenty four and Goldschmid and some others.
Speaker 1: I think it's Freeman, Olsen, Harper, Vlad pe Alonzo. Your
Speaker 1: thoughts on this upper tier. Somebody want to move in,
Speaker 1: somebody want to move out of the top tier first basement.
Speaker 3: Okay, so for our well, I am going to argue it. Yes,
Speaker 3: you're right, except I do think we can split these
Speaker 3: and I think you could look at this if you
Speaker 3: want to like be a little bit more you know,
Speaker 3: uh analytical or find tooth fine cone.
Speaker 2: What's the what's the jack?
Speaker 1: I can't sass him at the top of the show,
Speaker 1: a fun.
Speaker 3: Is it the fine fine tooth comb.
Speaker 1: What did you say a tooth fine comb?
Speaker 2: I don't, but what does that even mean? What is
Speaker 2: a tooth?
Speaker 1: It means, well, you're asking the bald guy about the
Speaker 1: fine tooth comb. What it is is you know when
Speaker 1: you're kind of looking for something, you know, like when
Speaker 1: the kid gets lice in the class and they're trying
Speaker 1: to pull it like the little tiny.
Speaker 2: No, no, I know the analogy, but like the fine
Speaker 2: tooth comb.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you do.
Speaker 3: But if you, I know a version of it. There's
Speaker 3: something in my brain. It's called the Welshism. So this, yes,
Speaker 3: it is like a five tier, but I think you
Speaker 3: can break it apart. And the top three are almost
Speaker 3: in there.
Speaker 2: And this is how I view tears. This is how
Speaker 2: I've always took tears.
Speaker 3: Is like there's no way I would move the guy
Speaker 3: below above. So I agree that, like definitively, these five
Speaker 3: are the core first basemen that you want bogin.
Speaker 2: And I did this. Look at you take like Roto.
Speaker 3: And you take what championship teams look like and what
Speaker 3: starters and we took that. What did all the starters
Speaker 3: at first base cumulatively get? And the common first baseman.
Speaker 3: The type of first baseman you want is a guy
Speaker 3: that hits I think around twenty eight stolen bases, around
Speaker 3: two seventy basis, I'm sorry, twenty eight home runs, really
Speaker 3: no stolen bases, and then high RBI and high run.
Speaker 2: So who are the guys that do that? All these
Speaker 2: guys do that.
Speaker 3: But there isn't a scenario where I'm gonna put Vlad
Speaker 3: Guerrero as much as I'm into him this year above
Speaker 3: Bryce Harper right now, so I would break the Freeman
Speaker 3: Olsen Harper as probably one A, Vlad and Alonzo one B.
Speaker 3: And then here's the big thing, though it's a pretty
Speaker 3: stark drop off on all these guys, but these are
Speaker 3: the core guys, all giving you big homers everything you need.
Speaker 3: The only difference is number one who actually can get
Speaker 3: you great out of position stolen bases in Freddie Freeman.
Speaker 3: But I agree with this tier by the way, this is.
Speaker 2: How I tier them out.
Speaker 3: Not everybody has it, because some like Harper over Olsen,
Speaker 3: some like Alonzo over Vlad Guerrero. But this is actually
Speaker 3: my definitive first base.
Speaker 1: Run Matt Olsen coming off a year with fifty four
Speaker 1: bombs by the way. I mean, come on, now, I'm
Speaker 1: with you. I would even argue, I mean further because
Speaker 1: I'm Italian, because I like to argue Freeman Olsen their
Speaker 1: own tier. Harper probably in that grouping as well, but
Speaker 1: maybe he's his own little you know, maybe there's one A,
Speaker 1: one B and then one C being Alonzo Guerrero. Again,
Speaker 1: I just want to see Harper kind of bounce back completely,
Speaker 1: although you know, end of the year he certainly looked
Speaker 1: more like himself. They hit two ninety three last year,
Speaker 1: twenty one bombs. But I mean, I do agree with
Speaker 1: what you're saying. There's an elite tier where there's a
Speaker 1: super elite tier within there. So if you want to
Speaker 1: call them the A tier and then the S tier,
Speaker 1: the S tier is freedom A team.
Speaker 2: Can we call them the A team?
Speaker 1: We can be a baracas, mister t all of those
Speaker 1: guys I love, who doesn't draft mat For those of
Speaker 1: you who are too young for the A Team. The
Speaker 1: end of every episode, they basically had a van or
Speaker 1: some sort of you know, vehicle that they found and
Speaker 1: turned it into a tank and then took on bad guys.
Speaker 1: Was that much the show?
Speaker 3: That's like a great day, just like every day, just
Speaker 3: turning something into a tank.
Speaker 1: I will tell you that turned something into a tank.
Speaker 3: Well, these two are tanks. Vlad and Pede Alonso the
Speaker 3: one B tier. What's interesting about them is they are
Speaker 3: the positive side. Like Alonzo put up huge, massive homers
Speaker 3: last year with bad batting average. Vlad really had a
Speaker 3: mediocre year. They are both big boosted players. I think
Speaker 3: it's the expected batting average to come back up for
Speaker 3: Alonzo with forty plus homers. And if you're looking at
Speaker 3: Vlad Carrero, he is probably the biggest projection monster because
Speaker 3: big all like everything was like relatively sustainable across the board.
Speaker 3: He just had poor results, better launch angle. He's projected
Speaker 3: to have almost ten more homers this year, big run
Speaker 3: in RBI, So that one BE tier. Maybe there's some
Speaker 3: queasiness that's a little bit involved, and that's why they're
Speaker 3: one be But they are heavily projected because projections are
Speaker 3: waiting over the last three years.
Speaker 2: But they're great. But then we're about to take a
Speaker 2: big old step off of the first base ladder.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Cody Bellinger again, great season last year, twenty twenty season.
Speaker 1: Can he repeat it? We'll see the batting average bounced
Speaker 1: way back from where it had been in previous seasons.
Speaker 1: Paul gold Schmidt, I know the power dipped a little
Speaker 1: bit so of the average, but I think the Cardinals
Speaker 1: just overall were just a team that just struggled last see,
Speaker 1: and so I think gold Schmid has another thirty home
Speaker 1: run season in him. Christian Walker in this grouping as well,
Speaker 1: back to back thirty home run seasons for him. I
Speaker 1: feel good about him. Tristan Cassis comes in at number
Speaker 1: ten on this list, twenty four bombs for him last year.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people are very high on him.
Speaker 1: I'm very high on Nolan Jones also in this tier,
Speaker 1: and then Spencer Torklssen in this grouping as well, who
Speaker 1: was one of our favorite bilos last year. If you recall,
Speaker 1: there were videos we did about Spencer Togletzen leading off
Speaker 1: episodes we did about hey, now's the time in Dynasty
Speaker 1: and redrafted by this guy because it hit rock bottom
Speaker 1: and then the second half was great thirty one home runs,
Speaker 1: ninety five rubies. Last year he hit just two thirty four.
Speaker 1: But for me, it's gold Schmidt ahead of Bellinger. I
Speaker 1: would even take Christian Walker possibly ahead of Bellinger. To
Speaker 1: be honest with you, Nolan Jones and Bellinger, we could
Speaker 1: have that conversation than Cassis and Torkosen, I think are
Speaker 1: close to each other. What are your thoughts here in
Speaker 1: this grouping? Do you think you would move the tier
Speaker 1: or adjust it slightly?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm not super big into Bellinger, but I'm
Speaker 3: open to the possibility whatever he changed is the new thing.
Speaker 3: But he changed was completely lowered to strikeouts, but he
Speaker 3: stopped hitting the ball hard barely everything that went down
Speaker 3: hard hit percentage like absolutely plummeted. Those aren't great things
Speaker 3: for like long term sustainable power, But it doesn't mean
Speaker 3: he's just not going to just be a really good
Speaker 3: contact hitter with pure raw power that doesn't strike out.
Speaker 3: But I think there's more variance with him, and he's
Speaker 3: shown it, so I'm not super excited about him.
Speaker 2: I love Goldie.
Speaker 3: This year, you look at Goldie's profile, He's another one
Speaker 3: of those guys underperforming.
Speaker 2: But to what degree?
Speaker 3: It just looked like he had a little bit less
Speaker 3: exit velocity, launch angle kind of dropped across all pitches
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 2: I put that up to.
Speaker 3: Bat speed and guess what drive line this year he
Speaker 3: spent the offseason, specifically working on bat speed a drive line.
Speaker 3: So I really like Goldie in this front. Nolan Jones,
Speaker 3: you and I have gone back and forth with I
Speaker 3: think this is I think it's some version of Bellinger, Goldie,
Speaker 3: Nolan Jones, Christian Walker, and I would say Cassis Cossus
Speaker 3: is the one I would jump in here because I
Speaker 3: think I just did a social short talking about players
Speaker 3: that are going to boost their power. Cosis is one
Speaker 3: of those guys. I think that is going to do that.
Speaker 3: He's going to take a big step up this year.
Speaker 3: Big hard hit numbers, good barreling, he does everything right,
Speaker 3: it's just more games and he's projected at almost thirty
Speaker 3: home runs.
Speaker 2: So I think that is kind of a rough tier.
Speaker 3: So I did Bellie, I said, Bellinger, Goldie, Nolan Jones, Walker,
Speaker 3: and Cossas's kind of I guess that's two, right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: we're doing one A, one B and then two.
Speaker 1: That's fairly something to that effect.
Speaker 2: Number all three.
Speaker 1: Spencer Steer another guy who's hovering around this grouping. In fact,
Speaker 1: if you look over fantasypros dot com for the MOB
Speaker 1: rankings right now, you can see that Steer is put
Speaker 1: himself into this number twelve overall conversation right now, do
Speaker 1: you think of him in the same group of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: if you're in a twelve te mixed league, that's about
Speaker 1: where you're starting first basement? Are I know Josh Nail
Speaker 1: or Yondi Diaz are also kind of on that bubble.
Speaker 1: Do you have a preference of Steer Diaz a Nailor
Speaker 1: in terms of ranking?
Speaker 3: So I'm actually like a really big Josh Naylor guy
Speaker 3: this year, Josh Naylor, We're okay, we're starting to get
Speaker 3: in to the territory in my eyes where boy, these
Speaker 3: are high plus r P fee corner infielders like corner,
Speaker 3: Like if you get these guys in the corner infield,
Speaker 3: you're doing awesome. But in fifteen team, it's not what
Speaker 3: you can do. So if you missed out on first base.
Speaker 3: Josh Naylor specifically is somebody that I love because it's
Speaker 3: really high batting average, great hard hit numbers. Power is
Speaker 3: a little bit in question, But big RBIs he put
Speaker 3: up because he hits in the middle of the order.
Speaker 3: Steer is kind of in this same range. But I
Speaker 3: have a hard time and maybe it's just more clerical
Speaker 3: about it, Like I have a hard time viewing him
Speaker 3: as the first baseman. He's gonna play in the outfield.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of potential tuning in this roster still,
Speaker 3: but he still puts up stats. He's kind of a
Speaker 3: twenty twenty guy. So I like Josh Naylor a lot.
Speaker 3: I would then go to Spencer Steer for the stolen bases,
Speaker 3: and Yandy Diaz is kind of a little bit of
Speaker 3: the grown up version of Naylor, but I think Naylor's
Speaker 3: upside is higher. So those guys do belong in a tier.
Speaker 3: But YONDI and Naylor a little bit closer, Steer is
Speaker 3: a different animal. Love him as a corner infielder though.
Speaker 1: All right, so we've got basically our top twelve ish,
Speaker 1: maybe even at fifteen. Again, if you're in those deeper leagues,
Speaker 1: I agree with one hundred percent on Nailor, by the way,
Speaker 1: looking at the fancy pros projections to twenty two homers,
Speaker 1: eighty five rbi, eight steals, two eighty batting average. That's
Speaker 1: pretty solid numbers wise. After that grouping, we're gonna get
Speaker 1: into this next group here, which involves guys like Santander
Speaker 1: coming off another season. Again, you know, we could talk
Speaker 1: about who gets squeezed out maybe in Baltimore at some point,
Speaker 1: but he had twenty eight homers last year ninety five RBI.
Speaker 1: You got guys like Vinnie Pascuentino, Christian Strand, who qualifies there,
Speaker 1: Reee Hoskins coming off the injury signing with Milwaukee, Alec Bohm,
Speaker 1: Nathaniel Lowe, Like, there's a lot of guys here that
Speaker 1: kind of are in this mix in the corner infield
Speaker 1: from the first base perspective spot, is there one guy
Speaker 1: or two guys that stand out to you as players
Speaker 1: that you feel like, yeah, this is a really good
Speaker 1: value or a guy that could really outperform as adp
Speaker 1: Reece Hoskins.
Speaker 3: Reee Hoskins is absolutely that guy going to Milwaukee. You
Speaker 3: do worry if they like completely deplete the team. But
Speaker 3: you know, the last big run we saw with him,
Speaker 3: it was still good hard hit numbers. It was still
Speaker 3: solid double digit barrel percentage. I think he's going to
Speaker 3: just kind of jump right back into the fold of
Speaker 3: who he was before, and who he was before was
Speaker 3: a dude that put up twenty seven homers in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty one, thirty homers in twenty twenty two. I think
Speaker 3: we can get back to that spot in Milwaukee's a good,
Speaker 3: good hitting environment. He would be one of my choices
Speaker 3: if I was chasing batting average. Pasquentino probably. I don't
Speaker 3: know if the power is going to get there, but
Speaker 3: that team is going to be a little bit more
Speaker 3: aggressive this year. They got guys that can run at
Speaker 3: the top in Michael Garcia and Bobby wit Junior, so
Speaker 3: Paspuentino and Reese Hoskins would be the later guys.
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Speaker 1: now back to the action. All right, let's move on
Speaker 1: to the second base grouping here, and no surprise at
Speaker 1: the top, you're gonna find Mookie Betts, as you should.
Speaker 1: Ozzie Albi's our favorite guy last year, who we just said,
Speaker 1: I mean, it was just crazy. The value on Albi's
Speaker 1: last year was so good. And you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: willing to pay the premium this year because I don't
Speaker 1: love second base this year at all, coming off a
Speaker 1: year where he had thirty three bombs one hundred and nine.
Speaker 1: Ribi's ninety six runs, score hit two eighty also stole
Speaker 1: thirteen bases. So if you can't get Moogie Betts in
Speaker 1: the top five picks a year, draft Alice Albi's is
Speaker 1: a really nice consolation prize. After that, we move on
Speaker 1: to Marcus Simeon. I think this is where the tier
Speaker 1: stops because after this we're jumping to al Tuove and
Speaker 1: just too many injuries at this point. For Altuove, the
Speaker 1: last few years, the missing, the amount of time. I
Speaker 1: still think he is a great player, but he does
Speaker 1: have a lot of tread on the tire. So for
Speaker 1: me personally, I'm gonna knock him down. Maybe it's another
Speaker 1: like one a scenario for people. But Bets Albis Simeon
Speaker 1: to me is the elite tier. Do you agree or disagree?
Speaker 2: Betts is the elite tier. He is his own oh tier.
Speaker 3: Sometimes these guys like O Kunya kun We'll do an
Speaker 3: episode we're talking about overall, Kunya gets his own tier. Bets,
Speaker 3: in my mind, gets his own tier, then Albi's and Simeon,
Speaker 3: they occupy that next tier, that second round pick. I
Speaker 3: love Albi's, love the stolen bases. I love Atlanta's offense,
Speaker 3: I love the power. There's no doubt about it. Marcus
Speaker 3: Simeon is consistent. Of course, secret misses some time we'll
Speaker 3: see and he can get into some bad slumps. Here's
Speaker 3: the only thing that happens with me because I disagree
Speaker 3: with you. I actually like second base. I think there's
Speaker 3: a lot of good later second base values. And here's
Speaker 3: what has happened to me multiple times in drafts. I
Speaker 3: pull the trigger Albi's or Mookie bets I've done and
Speaker 3: then I get this like, ooh, what's going on in
Speaker 3: the sixth round. I'm like, Glabor Torres is still here,
Speaker 3: could tell Marte ends up falling, and get I get
Speaker 3: this sense of like, ah, man, I screwed up. I
Speaker 3: should have taken another position, or with Mooki Bets, I
Speaker 3: move them to the outfield, and I still draft draft
Speaker 3: Labor Torres. So I actually think there are quite a
Speaker 3: few second base options in general. It shouldn't necessarily take
Speaker 3: away from the good value of those top guys. But
Speaker 3: what I will say is those are the elite, and
Speaker 3: I think the tier differences the gap isn't as big
Speaker 3: as some other positions. That gap in my mind between
Speaker 3: who the Alonso and Bellinger, that's like that's a huge gap.
Speaker 3: My gap between Simeon to like Altuve Maclain it's not
Speaker 3: that big. And then the tier difference going down to
Speaker 3: Glaber and like could tell Mary from those guys, it's
Speaker 3: not massive. So I actually kind of like the position,
Speaker 3: but it is Mooki, and then it is Albi's and Simeon,
Speaker 3: and then you know you're not having these big tear
Speaker 3: drops when we start moving to who I have Matt
Speaker 3: McClain and al tuv and I think the ranks also
Speaker 3: show that.
Speaker 1: All right. So after Albi's and Simeon, Altuove comes in
Speaker 1: at four on Fantasy Pros, the Matt McLain, Nico Horner, Glaber, Torres,
Speaker 1: hass Young, Kim Mikhtel Marte. So let's talk about this
Speaker 1: grouping here as we get from five to ten at
Speaker 1: Bryson Stoppi and guy number ten is they're a favorite
Speaker 1: of yours in this grouping. I know, Nico Horner you've
Speaker 1: expressed to me, you know when you're doing the Black
Speaker 1: Book write ups for Infield, which Welch wrote all those
Speaker 1: up there. You can go check it out on Amazon
Speaker 1: right now. When you were doing those, you had some
Speaker 1: concerns about Nico Horner being able to repeat his season.
Speaker 1: Kim was a guy who stole a lot of basses
Speaker 1: last year. So who do you like to target here?
Speaker 1: As we get to more of that next tier, that
Speaker 1: next grouping at second base.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you nailed that.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm not into Nico Horner, like that's not I'm
Speaker 3: also I kind of want to be into has Sun Kim,
Speaker 3: but there's a couple guys like they felt like they
Speaker 3: just did everything right and they just got the right
Speaker 3: bounce in some spots, And all I'm saying is like,
Speaker 3: I'm not sure has Sun Kim is a high teens
Speaker 3: to twenty home run hitter. He might be a lower
Speaker 3: and if the stolen bases ticked down a little bit.
Speaker 3: Same thing with Nikohrner. Niicohner is not a double digit
Speaker 3: power guy. He is lifted up by what we should
Speaker 3: acknowledge elite runs and batting average. But I'm just not sure.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry stolen base and uh, batting average and runs
Speaker 3: kind of, but I just don't think the stolen bases
Speaker 3: are going to be completely repeatable and it's a dip
Speaker 3: and I don't like paying that price for those stolen bases.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 3: I love Glabor Torres. Glaber Torres expected numbers across the
Speaker 3: board up, he stole more bases, he was closing in
Speaker 3: on thirty homers. I think we can get there this year.
Speaker 3: Glabor Torres is a major target for me, and I
Speaker 3: think Homer is a aside like I like kateell Marte
Speaker 3: because he's going to hit high in the Diamondbacks lineup
Speaker 3: between Christian Walker, Lordus Guriel, and Corbyn Carroll, and he
Speaker 3: goes late.
Speaker 2: He just consistently goes late. And he's not a big
Speaker 2: stolen base guy.
Speaker 3: But twenty two twenty five Homers, big runs, big rbuys,
Speaker 3: he'd get moved into the three spots sometimes. So those
Speaker 3: labor Tories and cautel Marte are kind of some of
Speaker 3: my favorites. I pass on Nico, I pass on has
Speaker 3: Sun Kim and that's kind of my grouping.
Speaker 1: Torres was my guy too. He actually had a ten
Speaker 1: point higher xbau two eighty three, as most was two
Speaker 1: seventy three. Average. Also roses OBP up to three forty seven,
Speaker 1: which to me tells me he started to take a
Speaker 1: better approach at the plate, getting on baseball, you know,
Speaker 1: starting that evolution. You know Torres been waiting a long
Speaker 1: time for him to really find this, you know, really
Speaker 1: strong productivity lower.
Speaker 3: He lowered a strikeout rate right so almost to the
Speaker 3: level of what of what Bellinger did, but while still
Speaker 3: being a significant power hitter, and he stopped chasing sliders,
Speaker 3: which was his big deal. He really cut down on
Speaker 3: how he chased sliders. It made him such a better hitter.
Speaker 3: And he's going to carry that in, by the way,
Speaker 3: with a healthy judge and Juan Soto.
Speaker 1: So look, it's his best year since twenty nineteen Torres,
Speaker 1: and I think if he can get back to being
Speaker 1: that player here consistently at this juncture in his career,
Speaker 1: we're all going to be very very pleased with that.
Speaker 1: ADP The next grouping here, when you're looking at outside
Speaker 1: the top ten, Andre Semeniz and gel Off from Oakland,
Speaker 1: you have Spencer Steer, Luisa Raie. So I know Welsh
Speaker 1: has feelings about Luisa Rise Again, he is a batting
Speaker 1: average player. You say it all the time, Estrada, Nolan Gorman,
Speaker 1: Edmund My Boy, Edward Julian Jonathan India. You're not a
Speaker 1: fan of Brandon Drury at twenty and then it's the
Speaker 1: Parades and the Polancos of the world who are outside
Speaker 1: this top twenty, maybe Brandon Lau Here. Here's my question
Speaker 1: to you, Welsh, this is why I don't love second base,
Speaker 1: which is why I'm looking to you know, if I
Speaker 1: don't get Ozzie Albi's glamor, Torres is a good fallback.
Speaker 1: I don't mind Marte, but the rest of this grouping
Speaker 1: when it gets a little deeper here, especially in leagues
Speaker 1: when you're playing middle infielders, I don't love this grouping.
Speaker 1: I don't feel really warm and fuzzy about them. Who
Speaker 1: are some of the guys in this ten through twenty
Speaker 1: range that are targets of yours this draft season.
Speaker 3: So one of the things we found when we were
Speaker 3: doing the what do you need out of your positions
Speaker 3: when you're trying to accumulate? And obviously it's like a
Speaker 3: roto conversation, but it can be a applied to categories.
Speaker 3: Maybe not so much points that you need. You need
Speaker 3: like premium stolen bases where you can unless you're going
Speaker 3: to make up for it significantly somewhere else at second
Speaker 3: base and at shortstop.
Speaker 2: So Andrasimenez is actually a player that I really like.
Speaker 3: Where everybody is reaching for the sky for Nico Horner
Speaker 3: because he hit you know, two ninety and had the
Speaker 3: forty something stolen bases, you can probably get thirty out
Speaker 3: of Andres Himenez with more power and not a big
Speaker 3: major dip in batting average, I mean different from Nico,
Speaker 3: but not one that's going to like completely deplete your team.
Speaker 3: So I don't mind andras him in, especially from a
Speaker 3: little bit.
Speaker 2: Of a speed deficienty.
Speaker 1: It's ten less homer. I mean it's had ten less
Speaker 1: deals and twice as many homers potentially as what you're looking.
Speaker 3: At it, and it's like it's probably like fifty sixty
Speaker 3: spots lower on the overall. I'm not looking what is
Speaker 3: Jimenez overall? He's one well over Horner sixty four. It's
Speaker 3: almost it's almost half the costs. So you don't want
Speaker 3: to do this exercise all the time. It was good,
Speaker 3: but you know what, Jimenez has more power, almost as
Speaker 3: many stolen bases. You're gonna score some runs maybe RB
Speaker 3: Like I think Kamenez is a great fallback, especially if
Speaker 3: you got maybe like you know, Judge er Lely, or
Speaker 3: you got Matt Olson and you don't have big significant
Speaker 3: stolen bases. I love Jimenez. I love getting him there.
Speaker 3: I'm kind of down with Bryson Scott. You mentioned the
Speaker 3: Arise thing. The only thing I'll say is like he
Speaker 3: is fine, but I can't fathom the ooing and the aweing.
Speaker 2: We do over a guy that literally.
Speaker 3: Does one category. He's okay in runs, but that's a
Speaker 3: one and a half player. Now he's the best player
Speaker 3: at that one spot, but he doesn't get the treatment
Speaker 3: of Estuary Ruiz and but everyone like he's a better
Speaker 3: real life player than he is a fantasy player. He's
Speaker 3: better in points, he's an elite fantasy player in points,
Speaker 3: he's not in head to head categories. Rodo, so I
Speaker 3: don't have as much interest in him. But this is
Speaker 3: also why that position is not the worst. You could
Speaker 3: suffice with Luisa Rise on your team as your starting
Speaker 3: second basement, and he's a fourteenth.
Speaker 2: Off the board, I would just suggest against it.
Speaker 1: Fair enough, Let's move on to the third base position.
Speaker 1: Jose Ramirez at the top, again, coming off slightly down
Speaker 1: year from what we're you know, used to with him.
Speaker 1: Usually we're well above the one hundred RBI total, just
Speaker 1: eighty last year. But again we can look at that
Speaker 1: Guardians offense and poke holes all day, because it really
Speaker 1: just did not do a whole lot. In fact, it
Speaker 1: feels like that meme where they're poking it with a
Speaker 1: stick and they're like, come on do something, but hopefully
Speaker 1: nailer and nailer and maybe there's a third dam like
Speaker 1: you get a third nailer in Cleveland?
Speaker 3: Actually is there is John Wait, there is Boe Nailor,
Speaker 3: and there is another nailor, Miles Naylor who plays for
Speaker 3: the Oakland As who just got drafted.
Speaker 1: But Jose Ramirez to me, Whilsh's still just above everybody
Speaker 1: because the soul base potential, even Austin Riley back to
Speaker 1: back thirty five home run plus if you want to say,
Speaker 1: it's Riley, Devers and Ramirez at the top and they're
Speaker 1: all one group. I still have Ramirez slightly above those
Speaker 1: guys in my own tier because I do think, you know,
Speaker 1: this year, maybe we get back to that super elite
Speaker 1: first round level guy. Do you agree or disagree? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Now I agree with you. Like again, tell everybody what's
Speaker 3: my what's my deal with tears? Would I take Austin
Speaker 3: Riley over Jose Ramirez, No it would not. Would I
Speaker 3: take Raphael Devers over Ramirez?
Speaker 2: No it would not.
Speaker 3: I'm not as speed hungry as some or even as
Speaker 3: I've been in the past.
Speaker 2: It's just because there's a lot to go around now.
Speaker 3: I do think you should always focus on when you
Speaker 3: can get an elite and when you can step ahead
Speaker 3: of everybody else. But getting a guy that steals like
Speaker 3: twenty five bases, I don't think that makes them no.
Speaker 1: Look, of those three guys, Ramirez is the only potential
Speaker 1: thirty thirty guy that's it. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: he has hundred guy And I think that's that potential alone,
Speaker 1: because he's the only guy really at this position who
Speaker 1: can give you that. I think it's or at least
Speaker 1: that we were counting on giving us that potentially. In
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, he's his own tier. Gunner Henderson at
Speaker 1: number four, a guy that last year had a miserable
Speaker 1: first half but was so good of the second. He
Speaker 1: still scored one hundred runs, still drove in eighty two,
Speaker 1: stole ten bags, hit two fifty five with twenty eight bombs.
Speaker 1: Then after Gunner Henderson, you have Elie de la Cruz,
Speaker 1: Many Machado, Royce Lewis, and then of course Alex Bregman
Speaker 1: at eight. Now I'm gonna stop there and pump the
Speaker 1: brakes here because I think this is where big time
Speaker 1: conversations can happen. Henderson, Dela Cruz, Machado, Royce, Lewis Bregman.
Speaker 1: What's the Welsh order of these guys, because I feel
Speaker 1: like it's going to be very different potentially of what
Speaker 1: it is right now in FP okay.
Speaker 3: And now there's one caveat I want to do to
Speaker 3: this because I didn't get to say it. I think
Speaker 3: that Raphael Devers real quick might be one of the
Speaker 3: most underrated players. And I have seen instances n n
Speaker 3: FBC specifically where Ellie De la Cruz and Gunner Henderson
Speaker 3: go ahead of him, and I think Devers is as
Speaker 3: great of a plan B to Missing Riley or Jose
Speaker 3: Ramirez as there is with those elite hard hit numbers,
Speaker 3: highest of his career fifty five point one, second highest
Speaker 3: barrel percentage.
Speaker 2: I mean, he is just a monster. He's just a thirty.
Speaker 3: Plus hundred hundred guy with high batting average that you love.
Speaker 3: So now you go from like the safest dude, Austin
Speaker 3: Riley and Raphael Devers are like the safest of safe
Speaker 3: third basemen. You know you're getting awesome four categories they're
Speaker 3: all going to play. Then you start coming down to
Speaker 3: like Elie de la Cruz and Gunner Henderson.
Speaker 2: So you asked me, how do I have these guys
Speaker 2: set up?
Speaker 3: I've gone back and forth on the Gunner and the Ellie,
Speaker 3: and I will tell you I continuously do that. I
Speaker 3: flip those two quite a bit. And I know some
Speaker 3: people are gonna have Ellie out at this moment. I
Speaker 3: am prioritizing Ellie over Gunner Henderson. And I know I'm critical.
Speaker 1: About Ellie Delac you are, I'm surprised.
Speaker 3: But one of the things, especially when you pay attention
Speaker 3: to projections, and a lot of people have talked about
Speaker 3: one of the deficiencies of Elie de la Cruz built
Speaker 3: in is playing time, and a lot.
Speaker 2: Of people talk about that. Yet you still see big numbers.
Speaker 3: You see like almost twenty forty out of a lot
Speaker 3: of projection systems, and his cost isn't.
Speaker 2: As big in a lot of leagues.
Speaker 3: Everybody here is playing, like if you play FBC, is
Speaker 3: gonna be like a top twenty player, top twenty two player.
Speaker 3: But that doesn't happen in probably seventy five percent of
Speaker 3: most leagues because there is fear strikeout problems. If he
Speaker 3: does struggle, could he be sent down. They've got a
Speaker 3: plethora of great players that they could throw in there
Speaker 3: at any time, so it's not unfeasible that he could
Speaker 3: not be on this roster.
Speaker 2: But he also puts up absolutely top.
Speaker 3: Percentile hard hit numbers, top percentile speed numbers, and I
Speaker 3: think he's gonna just continuously hit at the top of
Speaker 3: the lineup until the wheels fall off. So the reason
Speaker 3: he is down for a lot of these people saying
Speaker 3: he's overrated is because they are projecting lower playing time
Speaker 3: because it might fall apart. I'm gonna not I'm gonna
Speaker 3: take a chance. In ten team, you can take bigger chances.
Speaker 3: In twelve team, you can take it. Fifteen's a little
Speaker 3: bit diceier. I'll go Ellie with those monster stats, even
Speaker 3: though Gunner is pretty solid and then many Manny and
Speaker 3: Royce is the next kind of tier of this position.
Speaker 3: Manny also, by the way, looking like he is going
Speaker 3: to start the season at least being able to DH
Speaker 3: is a great sign, so he should come up.
Speaker 1: We had this conversation a month ago. It was like,
Speaker 1: this whole concern about Machado is completely overblown. If his
Speaker 1: ADP and early drafts and Best Ball or stuff like that,
Speaker 1: it's floating around there, just take advantage of it. Even
Speaker 1: if it was a week or two in April, who cares.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's gonna be fine socially with the DH
Speaker 1: in the National League last couple of years. Lewis is
Speaker 1: the guy that I'm targeting in this group. To me,
Speaker 1: he's the best ROI. He gives you sole base potential,
Speaker 1: which is something Bregman going right around that same spot
Speaker 1: won't give you. He gives you batting average, which could
Speaker 1: be higher than Bregman as well. So I'm fine with Alex.
Speaker 1: Bregman is kind of like that. That's like a line
Speaker 1: I'm kind of drawing. I mean, if you want to
Speaker 1: talk about Nolan Aeronaudo, a guy's been very steady throughout
Speaker 1: his career, I feel like Bregman and Aeronaudo are kind
Speaker 1: of I'm fine with them. Like third base to me,
Speaker 1: is one of the deeper positions where I'm very comfortable
Speaker 1: looking late for these guys. If I end up with
Speaker 1: a Bregman, If I end up with an Aeronado, that's fine.
Speaker 1: But Lewis is the guy that I want to target
Speaker 1: because he gives me the upside for the batting average
Speaker 1: and the upside for the stone bases and I think
Speaker 1: power wise, he's gonna be in that twenty five is
Speaker 1: range as well, just like those guys. But he's gonna
Speaker 1: give me a little something extra. It's healthy, but that's
Speaker 1: a big right now.
Speaker 2: I think he's in his I think he's in the
Speaker 2: above tier.
Speaker 3: I you like Bregman a little bit more than me,
Speaker 3: and maybe that is also some of the points that
Speaker 3: sits in your head.
Speaker 1: Like I don't really like him, iron infect his floor,
Speaker 1: and I think often we get so wrapped up in
Speaker 1: he gets so wrapped up in the potential of the
Speaker 1: led other cruise of the world, who I also love
Speaker 1: just like you. I mean, gosh, it was like the
Speaker 1: unofficial mascot of the show last year. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, especially if we're talking about salary cap drafts, right,
Speaker 1: if you're telling me it's going to cost me an
Speaker 1: extra fifteen dollars for that player, I'll take Bregman, I'll
Speaker 1: take Aeronauto, I'll take you know, we're even ten dollars,
Speaker 1: you know, potentially difference between him and Royce Lewis. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll save the ten bucks and I'll take Royce Lewis.
Speaker 3: Well, I think that's important, Like Eronado, is someone I
Speaker 3: target because he just keeps falling like Bregman kind of falls.
Speaker 3: Ernado is the last of all of those, and I
Speaker 3: took him in my first DC I did, and I
Speaker 3: will target him because I think you can get back in,
Speaker 3: especially if this team kicks back, you can get back
Speaker 3: into a twenty five to thirty one hundred hundred decent
Speaker 3: batting average player. I think he is massively underrated. I
Speaker 3: just don't believe Bregman has the power upside anymore. And
Speaker 3: he does have a floor, but I think like Aeronaudo's
Speaker 3: floor to his ceiling just feels better than what Bregman provides.
Speaker 3: So like I'm just more down I guess on Bregman overall.
Speaker 3: But I do agree with you on Aeronado and in
Speaker 3: salary cap you're doing anything like that, Yeah, you do
Speaker 3: pay attention to the dollar month.
Speaker 2: That is important.
Speaker 3: There's a huge difference of you getting Aeronautu at seven
Speaker 3: dollars and having to pay fifty five for Ellie.
Speaker 1: Sure, I would say it converts also to you know,
Speaker 1: the same concept of rounds, like if you want to
Speaker 1: get that extra pitcher and slide him in there in
Speaker 1: those you know, mid early rounds. There you go, which
Speaker 1: Ani round, which I tend to also because that's the
Speaker 1: range where I like the pitchers so much in that ADP.
Speaker 1: So to me, it makes a little bit more sense
Speaker 1: to wait potentially on that outside of this top ten.
Speaker 1: Now you're going to Josh Young, Spencer Steeer coming off
Speaker 1: a great season, qualifies everywhere, which is good because you
Speaker 1: figure get him in the lineup. Max Munsey, who I
Speaker 1: don't care how many home runs yet I'm not touching
Speaker 1: with a ten foot pole. Jake Berger coming off a
Speaker 1: surprisingly fun season boom noelve, Marte Yandy Diaz, Cabrian Hayes,
Speaker 1: who I just I don't know why we're still chasing that.
Speaker 1: And then Perettis Nolan Gorman. I know some of our
Speaker 1: friends in the industry. Still hio on Nolan Gorman two
Speaker 1: twenty seven bombs still strikes out a lot for me.
Speaker 1: But that's see that. This is the thing. It's like,
Speaker 1: I like third base. Let me rephrase, I love third base.
Speaker 1: When we get about ten deep after that, I don't
Speaker 1: like it as much. I think this is where the
Speaker 1: drop off gets very steep. Your thoughts, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Think versus starters, like when you look and you're like, oh,
Speaker 3: mid mid tier third baseman, I got Nolan Ernado or Lewis,
Speaker 3: and then the lower on a fifteen team is like,
Speaker 3: you know, they're like I'm starting Alec Boom.
Speaker 2: You know, Like it's not that.
Speaker 1: I don't think Marte can be a great player. I do.
Speaker 1: I think noelve, Marti has a lot to offer. I
Speaker 1: think Diaz is a player. You know, we saw the
Speaker 1: best of Daz last year, a career high twenty two
Speaker 1: home runs, hit three thirty. Big fan of his as well,
Speaker 1: you know, but he's you know, plays one hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty seven games every year, so it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'd like to get a guy he was playing one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty five.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well a lot of these guys.
Speaker 3: What's weird is like Boom I think is good batting
Speaker 3: average but low power. Yanda Diez can be the same thing,
Speaker 3: really good batting average on base skills, but the power
Speaker 3: doesn't really go key. Brian Hayes, he started hitting the
Speaker 3: ball harder, tapping into those expected stats, but he steals bases,
Speaker 3: doesn't have big power. So it's like, you know, you
Speaker 3: want the consistent, big power bats, you've got to go
Speaker 3: a little bit higher. I know you hate it. I
Speaker 3: like Max Max Munsey. Still I'm still gonna take him.
Speaker 3: I do think you have to pay attention to the
Speaker 3: build because the batting average could be a problem. But
Speaker 3: he had a two thirty five expected batting average, where
Speaker 3: if he's hitting two thirty two forty you can live.
Speaker 3: He had one of the you had a top ten
Speaker 3: percentile expected slug this past year.
Speaker 2: He huge walk still big.
Speaker 3: Power numbers when the batting average struggled, and it's the
Speaker 3: fricking Dodgers, like that team is ridiculous, and current roster
Speaker 3: resources got him around four or five in that lineup.
Speaker 3: So RBIs are going to go over a hundred. He
Speaker 3: hit over one hundred RBIs while hitting garbage last year.
Speaker 3: So if you see an improvement, Max Munsey might be
Speaker 3: a really great, big power bet that you can't get
Speaker 3: in later rounds. But you do got to pay attention to,
Speaker 3: like what's the rest of your bill. You don't want
Speaker 3: like the lees, or you don't want like super low
Speaker 3: batting average, or you're gonna end up punting the position.
Speaker 3: But Max Munsey is probably a target for me. But
Speaker 3: again I will say I little want to cheat a
Speaker 3: little bit like I love these guys just my corner infielders.
Speaker 3: I love the idea of Max Mounsey as a corner
Speaker 3: infielder for the flexibility and not as a starter. So
Speaker 3: I am prioritizing getting a higher third baseman. Nolan Aernado's
Speaker 3: kind of my cutoff of what I want at third base.
Speaker 3: If i'm you know, if I have the choice. Sometimes
Speaker 3: you don't deep fifteen teen leagues, you're screwed.
Speaker 2: But in ten and.
Speaker 3: Twelve team leagues, I don't want to let the position
Speaker 3: fall off because I'd rather take the elite guys and
Speaker 3: then depth I can play at the corner, the corner spot.
Speaker 1: Max Munsey had a great April and a great July,
Speaker 1: and everything else outside of that was ah, we're talking.
Speaker 1: He hit one eleven in June, he hit one eighty
Speaker 1: six in May. I mean two seventeen in July to
Speaker 1: twenty six in September. If the power starts to drop
Speaker 1: off at all, it's going to be a dangerous, dangerous slope.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, let's get to shortstop because that's a
Speaker 1: lot more fun. Bobby Wood Junior at the top, Trey
Speaker 1: Turner at number two, Corey Seger at number three. Francisco
Speaker 1: Lindor another guy. Last year we talked about why is
Speaker 1: Lindor being faded so much in drafts? It was stupid
Speaker 1: because he had a thirty thirty season. I know he
Speaker 1: hit two fifty four, but I don't care ninety eight RBI,
Speaker 1: one hundred and eight run scored. He is an elite
Speaker 1: fantasy player still, folks, even if the Mets are far
Speaker 1: from an elite team. That to me is the grouping
Speaker 1: those four guys. I assume you want to put Bobby
Speaker 1: Wit on a pedestal above them, though, yes.
Speaker 3: Yep, I'm putting the win on a pedestal for sure,
Speaker 3: and then Turner, Seger, and Lindor are their own.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that makes a ton of sense.
Speaker 1: I think I feel very comfortable with that. Lindor, once again,
Speaker 1: if you're talking about salary cap leagues, maybe the best value,
Speaker 1: because he probably will become the cheapest of them most likely.
Speaker 1: The Turner cost is going to be interesting this year
Speaker 1: because you know, at the end of the day, you
Speaker 1: step back and you look at what happened, and I know,
Speaker 1: you know, people were just bringing their hands most of
Speaker 1: the season, but at the end of the day still
Speaker 1: was a twenty five Homer thirty steel guy. As we
Speaker 1: talked about many times here on the show so far
Speaker 1: this year, the evolution or re evolution and reinvention of
Speaker 1: the game with stolen bases being so much easier to find,
Speaker 1: is Trey Turner still in your mind and asset people
Speaker 1: should be chasing or you better off I don't know,
Speaker 1: kind of sitting back and waiting if you don't get
Speaker 1: Bobby Witt and maybe going with some other names we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about on this list that are going
Speaker 1: to come at a cheaper cost.
Speaker 3: Man, I wish you didn't ask it like that, because
Speaker 3: it's a great question. I kind of think I'm not
Speaker 3: into Trey Turner, like to what you're saying, he doesn't
Speaker 3: provide elite stolen bases. Power definitely upticked. It was a
Speaker 3: little bit streakul like he's a great player. But like
Speaker 3: you mentioned, Corey Seeger, Corey Seeger is going to be
Speaker 3: a value this year because of that hernia surgery, which
Speaker 3: the expectation is he's going to be ready for the
Speaker 3: opening day because he's just gonna ramp up. Wasn't going
Speaker 3: to play a whole bunch and he can DH for
Speaker 3: the team and he could end up being a value.
Speaker 3: So here's the problem. Can Trey Turner still return his value? Yes,
Speaker 3: of course I think that's a possibility. But when you
Speaker 3: start to look at the returns in other spots, Corey
Speaker 3: Seger now going from where he was in the high
Speaker 3: teens to in a twelve team league, an instance is
Speaker 3: going in the third round. I'd rather have that same
Speaker 3: thing with lind Or. Lindor between a second and third
Speaker 3: round player, I think the return is better for the
Speaker 3: big bats we've talked about that you can take instead
Speaker 3: of Turner, and then you go down the list, they're
Speaker 3: definitely is value. I mean shortstop nine to short stop
Speaker 3: I mean shortstop twelve on this list is my have
Speaker 3: to draft every single team this year player. So yes,
Speaker 3: I think without the big hardcore eliteness, he's just a
Speaker 3: totally fine player that to me gets lost in the
Speaker 3: wind a little bit, and I don't prioritize him anymore
Speaker 3: because he's not like fifty sixty stolen bases.
Speaker 1: So Gunnar Henderson I have five over on Fantasy Pros
Speaker 1: than Bob Baschett, whose stolen bases have been cut in half.
Speaker 1: Two consecutive seasons, by the way, So that's a guy
Speaker 1: the real blue Stone base hasn't gone down the right direction. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's over. Elie Dela Cruz CJ Abrams, a guy
Speaker 1: who we talked about last year on the show being
Speaker 1: one of those great values that is gonna cost you
Speaker 1: nothing to find out and guess what forty seven stone
Speaker 1: bases later. I know he's a divisive figure. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about him in a second. Matt McClain at ten, Nico
Speaker 1: Horner at eleven, and then O'Neil Cruz at twelve. I
Speaker 1: agree with you. If you're gonna take a shot in
Speaker 1: the dark here as you get later, why not O'Neil Cruz.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I've said it like a good jillion times over.
Speaker 2: It's so annoying.
Speaker 3: Someone tweeted me, I think like as we were doing
Speaker 3: this about about like there's gonna.
Speaker 1: Bead I should have.
Speaker 2: I don't blame I don't blame them again.
Speaker 3: By the way, they tweeted Welsh just twenty year burners
Speaker 3: one of if I can you know cheat again. I
Speaker 3: love the idea of O'Neill as my middle infielder. It's
Speaker 3: unfair to others. That's what I love about it. If
Speaker 3: you do it, you might be taken away for another spot,
Speaker 3: So it just might not be ideal. But he is
Speaker 3: the player I want to draft on every even if
Speaker 3: I have a shortstop, because there's obviously some injury worries,
Speaker 3: so if I have the ability, I think I've said
Speaker 3: this on one of the episodes we did, Bobaschett and O'Neal,
Speaker 3: Cruise might be an incredible pairing O'Neill or Bobaschet. High
Speaker 3: batting average, You're gonna have good run, good RBI totals,
Speaker 3: if the power comes back, he doesn't steal. You could
Speaker 3: pair him with a Cruise that might have a deficiency
Speaker 3: in batting average, but he's going to hit for power,
Speaker 3: he's going to have stolen bases. I more aggressive than
Speaker 3: any other position, trying to get too top twelve to
Speaker 3: two top fifteen shortstops, one to start and one in
Speaker 3: my middle infield, and it's usually not Bobachet. Unfortunately, it's
Speaker 3: usually not Abrams because of the high cost. It is
Speaker 3: something more like I took an Elite one and then
Speaker 3: I take O'Neal Cruise later, and if that doesn't happen,
Speaker 3: the other pairing.
Speaker 2: I love.
Speaker 3: He's a player we haven't talked about yet. I would
Speaker 3: go O'Neal cruise in Sandra Bogart.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, stole it from me, you jerk, all right,
Speaker 1: So Kim at thirteen, Bogart's was the guy that I
Speaker 1: was all hyped up to talk about. You can still
Speaker 1: be here to do it. That's not the same now,
Speaker 1: but he look in nineteen nineteen season twenty twenty basically
Speaker 1: last year, you remember wash, I was like, he's being
Speaker 1: overdrafted last year and here's the perfect example. Like it's
Speaker 1: not that I hate the player. I hated the ADP
Speaker 1: last year and he drove in just fifty eight runs.
Speaker 1: He did it too, eighty five. He was fine, But
Speaker 1: you know, we got to get those RBI back up.
Speaker 1: We got to, you know, get that working a little bit.
Speaker 1: But to me, Bogarts is that perfect guy where if
Speaker 1: I'm gonna wait on short stop, Bogarts is the dude
Speaker 1: for me. I think we have our new.
Speaker 2: I think we have our first shirt of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: Don't hate the player, hate the eighty ADP instead of
Speaker 3: the game. I think that's our first Fantasy Pro shirt.
Speaker 1: Let's doing other things I'm full of a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: Xander bogarts at fourteen, Dansby Swanson comes in at fifteen. Uh,
Speaker 1: not surprised with the drop off. There another guy too
Speaker 1: where the rules change and he stole less basis, so
Speaker 1: go figure. The batting average went back down to the
Speaker 1: two forties after being at two seventy seven, So you know, look, Swanson,
Speaker 1: you maybe adjustment to Chicago. Whatever it is, the power
Speaker 1: was still there. He's also fine. William Damas another guy
Speaker 1: who you know, I think we all look at in
Speaker 1: kind of this. These guys feel like a clump to
Speaker 1: me that I'm okay with. And that's the thing. It's
Speaker 1: like short stop for me. It's like if I don't
Speaker 1: get Bobby witt or Lindor at a good price, I'm
Speaker 1: in a bargain shop here for Xander Boguards, even Swanson.
Speaker 1: I look, I've watched a lot Anthony Volpie in person,
Speaker 1: and I know he's a much better player than when
Speaker 1: he showed last year. And I would not be surprised.
Speaker 1: You know, even with all his struggles, he was still
Speaker 1: a twenty twenty player last year. His batting average is
Speaker 1: gonna be much better this season. I'm telling you he's
Speaker 1: just a much better player. I think he's just he
Speaker 1: just pressed so hard last year. He is a very
Speaker 1: Dustin Pedroia esque sort of guy in terms of makeup
Speaker 1: and in terms of game. I know, other side of
Speaker 1: the plate, but still like when I watched him, that's
Speaker 1: the kind of player he reminded me of. And I
Speaker 1: think he is another one that I'm circling Layton drafts
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna take another shot at Oolpy.
Speaker 3: Listen, dude, you if I screw up this O'Neil cruiz
Speaker 3: thing and it gets too high, Anthony Volpi might bolby
Speaker 3: that version. Yeah, it could be an easy twenty five
Speaker 3: to twenty five guy. He has proven to hit for
Speaker 3: average in the past, and he is overcombatting average issues
Speaker 3: in a hit or friendly environment.
Speaker 2: I don't think it is.
Speaker 3: Ridiculous to say that Volpi, if you look at value
Speaker 3: at this point, might be one of the best values
Speaker 3: on the counting stats.
Speaker 2: That you can get.
Speaker 3: So again, go take a safe one, get yourself as
Speaker 3: Xander Bogart's if you missed out, or you go super
Speaker 3: high and get a Corey Seeger come back later middle infield,
Speaker 3: get Anthony Volpi.
Speaker 1: I I love Volger. Yeah, Bogart's ball good. It's Harry Palta.
Speaker 1: What's your Patrones Yeah, yours is yours is Rico program.
Speaker 2: I'll show you.
Speaker 1: But seriously, I like that the Volpi is the secondary guy.
Speaker 1: With Bolger, you're only your go Bogarts has that floor again,
Speaker 1: which we need to respect the floor a little bit more.
Speaker 1: I think it's just something that in fantasy baseball some
Speaker 1: sort of get too locked into projectability and not enough
Speaker 1: about well, you know, the Alex Bregman's of the world,
Speaker 1: but the Xander Brograts of the world. Those guys are
Speaker 1: just gonna win you leagues because they're coming at really
Speaker 1: solid ADPs. And it's natural progression because the youth of
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball the last two to three seasons has
Speaker 1: been off the charts good. So there's that anticipation of
Speaker 1: wanting to be ahead of the curve all the time.
Speaker 1: We sort of neglect the proven assets and it's something
Speaker 1: I think that this season, the way the ADP structures
Speaker 1: out totally like that. Let's talk about the catchers. We'll
Speaker 1: get these guys in your Adley Rutchman, he is the
Speaker 1: one the catcher. No debate about that yes, uh yeah, absolutely, Okay,
Speaker 1: Now you're putting him in a tier, or you're gonna
Speaker 1: put Real Muto, will Smith Contreras with.
Speaker 3: Him adly is in his own tier, and then the
Speaker 3: next tier is empty because I wouldn't take them, and
Speaker 3: then the next tier after that, the third tier is
Speaker 3: where we'll start to consider some players.
Speaker 1: So where does that start for you? So it's Real Muto,
Speaker 1: Will Smith, Contreras, stop me when you want to start
Speaker 1: drafting somebody.
Speaker 2: Now it's really oh that I want to start drafting somebody.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, so start over, because.
Speaker 1: This is like the game on the price is right
Speaker 1: with the little yodeler guy has he continues to go op.
Speaker 3: So start at the very tippy start at the very
Speaker 3: tippy top, and I will I'll yodel when I'll take
Speaker 3: a guy.
Speaker 1: Okay, perfect, even though we're going down the hill, it's
Speaker 1: the metaphors still.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they got so.
Speaker 1: Rutchman, we love him. After that, Real Muto will Smith
Speaker 1: number four, Contreras number five, Diaz number six, cal Rawley seven, Salparez, Yo,
Speaker 1: you're really going here? Sean Murphy at eight, Wilson Contreras, Francisco. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's go Francisco Alvarez. Let's talk about him. He can't
Speaker 1: finished last year with twenty five bombs. I know he
Speaker 1: hit just two o eight, but again, a better hitter
Speaker 1: in the minor leagues that we saw in the major
Speaker 1: league level. This is another player that we already seen
Speaker 1: the power. Now we just got to put the rest
Speaker 1: of the game together. And I always think it's tough
Speaker 1: for rookie catchers. Young catchers, they're managing pitching staffs, they
Speaker 1: got a lot in their mind. Offense tends to come
Speaker 1: a little later for these guys. So why do you
Speaker 1: like Alvarez so much?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's gotten into incredible shape this past offseason that
Speaker 3: he has spent the entire offseason working through trimming down,
Speaker 3: which is going to just improve more bat speed. You
Speaker 3: had power last year, you have small sample size too.
Speaker 3: Improvement into a sophomore year, I think he's going to
Speaker 3: take a big, big step forward. He is an offensive
Speaker 3: first catcher, he always has been. So the point of this,
Speaker 3: I actually was yodling at Wilson Contreras, but Alvarez was
Speaker 3: the same thing.
Speaker 2: I want Lake catchers.
Speaker 3: If I had I thought you I was gonna expense,
Speaker 3: but it was I kind of was actually going like,
Speaker 3: do I want to do this Alvarez to contraraers. I
Speaker 3: want both of those guys, and actually Alvarez is a
Speaker 3: dramatic target, but I want Moreno, I want Alvarez and
Speaker 3: I want.
Speaker 2: Contrerasts because they're going to go near the bottom.
Speaker 3: And I think the difference between them and what you're
Speaker 3: getting at the top is minute. I don't think it
Speaker 3: is big enough to pay a top one hundred cost. Now,
Speaker 3: last thing, real quick. The cost is inflated because of NFBC.
Speaker 3: I say this all the time. So the rankings of
Speaker 3: catchers look weird, and it screws up ADPs because they
Speaker 3: are two catcher leagues building them up. There's one catcher
Speaker 3: in the top ten I probably reach for in a
Speaker 3: single and it's Yon your Diaz because of the big
Speaker 3: numbers with the Astros. But Alvarez, Contreras, Mario, Ohapi, Garver,
Speaker 3: those are my targets fifteen team teams later. Two catcher
Speaker 3: leagues are different.
Speaker 1: Of course, I'm surprised you put Marina on that conversation
Speaker 1: with Contreras and Alvarez just because the best batting average
Speaker 1: hit well, I guess that's the whole thing. It's the
Speaker 1: batting average, you know, give up there.
Speaker 2: Power is gonna come.
Speaker 1: I believe early.
Speaker 3: I think I think you're gonna get to You're gonna
Speaker 3: get seventeen to twenty this year. He gets high batting average,
Speaker 3: he might even hit three for this team whilst they
Speaker 3: did it in the World Series, and they did in
Speaker 3: the playoffs. And if he gets back into that spot,
Speaker 3: you're gonna have RBI numbers come up.
Speaker 2: They love marine.
Speaker 1: If he hits three hundred or two eighty five with
Speaker 1: seventeen homers, he's going to be the number three catcher
Speaker 1: on this list of them, and it is.
Speaker 3: Possible all of all the catchers on this I think
Speaker 3: he is the most likely to be one of those
Speaker 3: tippy top guys.
Speaker 2: Plus he can steal a little bit. Moreno is an
Speaker 2: incredible athlete.
Speaker 1: So him's a twelve. Then o'hapi, who you mentioned. That's
Speaker 1: a guy that I like to target late too. In fact,
Speaker 1: in single catcher leagues, give me Ohape, give me Alvarez.
Speaker 1: Moreno's fine towo, especially in points because I do like
Speaker 1: the batting average and head to head points leagues. After that,
Speaker 1: you're going with ruiz Bow Naylor, Mitch Garver, Campusano, Stevenson Kirk,
Speaker 1: and then Diaz in Colorado at twenty Danny Jansen just
Speaker 1: outside the top twenty. But in two catcher leagues, for
Speaker 1: those of you who are still playing them, Welsh, what
Speaker 1: your approach you're just trying to hammer that middle or
Speaker 1: do you want to just you know, kind of take
Speaker 1: one steady guy, maybe one reach and then one you know,
Speaker 1: star scrub kind of thing.
Speaker 3: So my two DC's one of them I took, like,
Speaker 3: excuse me, I took like a middle guy.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to remember who. I think it was Sean Murphy.
Speaker 3: Who fell, and then I ended up taking a later
Speaker 3: got Mitch Garver, I think it was. And then in
Speaker 3: my other one, I waited really late and I took
Speaker 3: Luis Campusano, and I ended up before you signed. It
Speaker 3: took Gary Sanchez, and Gary Sanchez signed.
Speaker 2: To be the backup in Milwaukee.
Speaker 3: But don't look now, because you're not going to pay
Speaker 3: him what they did for him to not play games.
Speaker 2: He might catch.
Speaker 3: The contres has played in the outfield before I could
Speaker 3: see them switching it around. So the bottom line is,
Speaker 3: in two catcher leagues, I'm not gonna pay up for two.
Speaker 3: I will be fine for paying for one, but I'm
Speaker 3: probably hitting one of the middle tier guys, targetingy on
Speaker 3: Ere or Murphy or Salvi or like we said, the
Speaker 3: contraras Alvarez. And then I'm gonna push a little bit down.
Speaker 3: Give me a Mitch Garver who's gonna DH for the Mariners,
Speaker 3: or Luis Campusano who's gonna start for the Padres.
Speaker 2: That's my two catcher strategy.
Speaker 1: Well, there you have it, folks, that's our rundown of
Speaker 1: the ultimate infield guy. But who are your favorites of
Speaker 1: each position? We want to hear from? You? Drop your
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Speaker 1: We'll see you next time, kids. Joey