Speaker 1: Hello, everybody, Welcome into the cycle, a brand new Fantasy
Speaker 1: Pros Fantasy Baseball weekly podcast.
Speaker 2: I am Ryan Warmley.
Speaker 1: I am joined by Mike Mayer, who will be on
Speaker 1: every show with me, and by Kelly Kirby, who will
Speaker 1: be on many shows here and there throughout the year
Speaker 1: filling in as a guest lending her expertise to the show.
Speaker 1: You can find her at the Wonky Penguin on Twitter
Speaker 1: if you're not following her already. Kelly, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for coming on to the very first episode.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.
Speaker 2: We are excited to have you.
Speaker 1: Like I said, Kelly will be on throughout the season
Speaker 1: very regularly, so we figured let's bring her on for
Speaker 1: a large chunk.
Speaker 2: Of the first episode.
Speaker 1: We will also have Chris Welsh on a bit later
Speaker 1: in the show to talk about some prospects. He will
Speaker 1: also be a regular appearer on this show.
Speaker 2: Mayor.
Speaker 1: We did our preview episode last week. We are now
Speaker 1: here for the real thing. We're recording just one day
Speaker 1: before opening day.
Speaker 2: How are you feeling, I'm feeling great.
Speaker 4: Are we sure apeerer is a word? Can we look
Speaker 4: that up?
Speaker 1: Actually was pretty sure it's not, but I had already
Speaker 1: committed to saying it when I started to say it.
Speaker 1: So we're off to a really excellent start.
Speaker 2: Do you want to mention it?
Speaker 1: If you enjoy those sorts of diatribes or this content
Speaker 1: in general.
Speaker 2: The best freeway to show your support and encourage more.
Speaker 1: Content like this is to leave a positive review at
Speaker 1: fantasypros dot com slash MLB review. And also, if you
Speaker 1: ever are leaving a review on any of our platforms
Speaker 1: that you're listening to the show on, go ahead and
Speaker 1: ask a question in there. Mayor and I will be
Speaker 1: sure to answer it in next week's episode. That's gonna
Speaker 1: be a great way to get your question on the show.
Speaker 1: If you have question about trades or specific player, or
Speaker 1: really anything fantasy baseball related, Mayor and I will be
Speaker 1: happy to answer that if it appears in a review.
Speaker 1: Guys will start things off with rounding the bases. We'll
Speaker 1: hit on four major headlines here. There will be a
Speaker 1: lot of weeks where we kind of own in on
Speaker 1: one major headline and do a deep dive. There hasn't
Speaker 1: been any baseball played outside of a couple of games
Speaker 1: in Korea, so we figured let's just hit on a
Speaker 1: bunch of different things here as we are, you know,
Speaker 1: on the eve, the precipice of opening Day, we're gonna
Speaker 1: start off with one of those performances from the Korea series.
Speaker 1: That was Yamamoto, who I briefly mentioned in our preview
Speaker 1: episode with may Or how I almost wanted to recommend
Speaker 1: against drafting him where he was going, and then I
Speaker 1: was afraid that he would have an excellent first start
Speaker 1: and make me look bad before a first show even
Speaker 1: came out.
Speaker 2: Turns out I should have just stuck with my guns.
Speaker 1: He pitched one inning, about four hits, had one walk,
Speaker 1: five earned runs, did have two strikeouts. Mayor, what is
Speaker 1: your concern level on Yamamoto after his first ever major
Speaker 1: league start.
Speaker 5: It's non zero, but I don't think it's high. But
Speaker 5: you know, his spring training numbers are not great either.
Speaker 5: His r's over eight in springtraining, and you know we
Speaker 5: always talk about how like, you know, spring training stats
Speaker 5: don't matter, but we all still look at them, and
Speaker 5: so I would like that does come with fourteen strikeouts
Speaker 5: against four walks, So it's they're not all terrible. So
Speaker 5: I'm a little concerned, but I'm not like very concerned
Speaker 5: because I did expect it would take.
Speaker 4: Him a little a little while to get up and running.
Speaker 5: And I was listening to the the CBS guys not
Speaker 5: too long ago, and they made a really good point
Speaker 5: about how last year Kodai Sanga actually skipped the World
Speaker 5: Baseball Classic just to start pitching in spring training, to
Speaker 5: get used to the American you know, the ball that
Speaker 5: they use in Major League Baseball. And so I think
Speaker 5: he's got a lot of things going on. You know,
Speaker 5: it was his first appearance as a Dodger in a
Speaker 5: real game. He wasn't even at Dodger Stadium. He was
Speaker 5: in Korea, and I'm sure there was a lot of
Speaker 5: things going on there. And you know, I think it's
Speaker 5: going to take him a little bit of time to
Speaker 5: get his feet under eath them. But I am still
Speaker 5: confident that he's going to be.
Speaker 4: A very good pitcher.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Kelly, I mean, this is somebody
Speaker 1: who was, by the end of draft season, was like
Speaker 1: a top seven pitcher off the board, you know, top
Speaker 1: three round pick in a lot of leagues. His ADP
Speaker 1: on our Fantasy Pros consensus page was thirty fourth overall
Speaker 1: pitcher number seven.
Speaker 2: I mean this is a guy.
Speaker 1: That play, you know, managers are relying on to be
Speaker 1: nearly or an actual fantasy ace for them.
Speaker 2: He certainly didn't look like that in his first start.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was kind of confused about the ADP. I
Speaker 3: thought it got too high, But then I also looked
Speaker 3: at pitcher injuries, and by that point I think like
Speaker 3: people who started in the hundreds probably ended up being
Speaker 3: the SP ten. But I'm with Mayor. Unfortunately I don't
Speaker 3: like to agree with him, but I am here. I
Speaker 3: feel like there was so much offense in the in
Speaker 3: those two games, and it's in create right like, so
Speaker 3: there's so many factors that it's really hard to get
Speaker 3: a feel for it for where he's going to be.
Speaker 3: But yes, I also think the concern is higher than
Speaker 3: zero that he I mean, I don't know if he'll
Speaker 3: return that value this year.
Speaker 1: But Kelly, did you find yourself like considering changing him
Speaker 1: in your draft rankings after that? Or he's kind of
Speaker 1: still wherever he was for you before, which I don't
Speaker 1: know where that was.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think I had him. I think I'm
Speaker 3: a little lower on him to start with, but I'd
Speaker 3: have to look at it for sure. But Yeah, I
Speaker 3: consider dropping him, maybe just one or two, but again,
Speaker 3: with the injuries, it's just a difficult. It's difficult to
Speaker 3: know where to put him at this point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, same question, Mary, what about you?
Speaker 1: It looks like in our ECR he was you know,
Speaker 1: forty two here overall, like I said, ADP is a
Speaker 1: you know, about eight spots higher than that. Where did
Speaker 1: you have him ranked and was that impacted at all
Speaker 1: in terms of an actual draft ranking?
Speaker 2: Based on that first.
Speaker 5: Start, I had him as a top ten sp and
Speaker 5: I think I still have him there. I may have
Speaker 5: dropped him like one spot, but I didn't like actively like,
Speaker 5: you know, go look to drop him after that start.
Speaker 4: But you know, I did open my eyes a.
Speaker 5: Little bit and try to hedge a little bit based
Speaker 5: on that performance.
Speaker 1: Yes, let's go to his teammate for our second headline here.
Speaker 1: Not really a ton to spend on here, a ton
Speaker 1: of time, but show he o toddy gambling. I don't
Speaker 1: even know how to really describe what's going on. It's
Speaker 1: a wild story. Obviously, everybody listening to the show is
Speaker 1: probably very aware of what's gone with his interpreter, who was,
Speaker 1: you know, reportedly stealing money from him. And using that
Speaker 1: to make very you know, big gambling bets on a
Speaker 1: litany of sports, including baseball.
Speaker 2: I saw it.
Speaker 1: It's similar to, you know, after all the stuff came
Speaker 1: out with the Astros that you know a lot of
Speaker 1: these YouTube accounts would go back and find old highlights
Speaker 1: and be like, oh, look here, how like you know,
Speaker 1: Altuve wouldn't let them take his jersey off, or you
Speaker 1: can hear the trash can in these moments. I've seen
Speaker 1: a couple of those similar types of stuff being put
Speaker 1: together with Otani, like, oh, his interpreter had like a
Speaker 1: million dollar bet placed in you know, an overseas account
Speaker 1: on this day for the Braves to you know, cover
Speaker 1: three and a half runs against the Dodgers or against
Speaker 1: the Angels rather and oh look Otani gave up six
Speaker 1: runs and pitched terribly and struck out twice. You know,
Speaker 1: this stuff like that has started to come out as
Speaker 1: these sort of internet salute I've been looking into it.
Speaker 1: I mean, mayor what was your just like initial takeaway
Speaker 1: to all this happening. Again, it's not really like baseball
Speaker 1: relevant yet, but it just was such a major story
Speaker 1: with the biggest player in the sport that I felt
Speaker 1: like we had to at least address it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's fascinating.
Speaker 5: I feel like I've also changed my mind on what
Speaker 5: I think is the truth, like a dozen times already,
Speaker 5: like over the last week since this came out. I
Speaker 5: think the main thing so far that like you know,
Speaker 5: originally Baseball said they didn't you know, they weren't even
Speaker 5: investigating it, and then everyone's like, you have to, you
Speaker 5: have to investigate this, and so they are at least
Speaker 5: going to like.
Speaker 4: Look into it now.
Speaker 5: I did think it was interesting so far, like there's
Speaker 5: no betting on baseball that they know of, unless that's
Speaker 5: changed in the last like twenty four hours, which, like
Speaker 5: you know, according to like the baseball purists, like that's
Speaker 5: the big thing. The one thing my initial thought was
Speaker 5: like I can't there's no way this guy could be
Speaker 5: betting this much money without Charlie Ottwani like realizing it.
Speaker 5: But I have kind of changed my mind a little
Speaker 5: bit on that. Listening to the I forget the guy's name.
Speaker 5: I want to say it was Daniel Kim, but I
Speaker 5: don't want to misspeak. But he was like a he
Speaker 5: was on the broadcast for the series in Korea, and
Speaker 5: he was like, look, these interpreters are more than just
Speaker 5: like the media presence and like helping them like talk
Speaker 5: to people on their team. He's like, these guys are
Speaker 5: like at the grocery market, grocery store with them. They're
Speaker 5: opening their bank accounts for them. So like he probably
Speaker 5: has access to Otani's bank information because he set up
Speaker 5: the account. So I was like, Okay, that does make
Speaker 5: a little sense. There are still a lot of concerns
Speaker 5: in red flags here. I don't know that it'll be
Speaker 5: that relevant for Fantasy this season because I think even
Speaker 5: I think this is going to take a while for
Speaker 5: them to like dig into and so even if worst
Speaker 5: case scenario there's like some punishment coming from Otani, I
Speaker 5: think it's probably like next season that we see anything happen,
Speaker 5: But we'll see.
Speaker 2: I think that's probably right. Kelly. What was going through
Speaker 2: your mind when every twisted turn to this story has
Speaker 2: you know, kind of dropped.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I surprised myself with the first one was I
Speaker 3: was just like, look, if there's any player we should
Speaker 3: just shove this under the rug and ignore, it would
Speaker 3: be Otani because I love him and I think he's
Speaker 3: great for the game and all of that and then
Speaker 3: of course, you know, I got to the logic side
Speaker 3: of my brain where, yeah, the stories, it's it's kind
Speaker 3: of the Akam's Razor problem for me, where it's like,
Speaker 3: what's the most plausible with the least amount of complications explanation?
Speaker 3: And so I'm just trying to wait and see, like
Speaker 3: how far off that does this go before it kind
Speaker 3: of like settles into this is what actually happened where. Yeah,
Speaker 3: So I don't know, I'm not worried about him for
Speaker 3: fantasy this year either, although it does kind of have
Speaker 3: that feel of when you know, like a rookie gets
Speaker 3: caught with PDS and then all of a sudden he's
Speaker 3: just gone for eighty games, Like like that's kind of
Speaker 3: where I put this, where that is always going to
Speaker 3: be hanging over his head this summer.
Speaker 1: I think let's move to an actual, more relevant to
Speaker 1: this season baseball topic, hopefully more relevant, and the time
Speaker 1: of thing won't become relevant to fantasy baseball this season.
Speaker 2: Jordan Montgomery, Yeah, our long national nightmare is over.
Speaker 1: He finally signed one year deal with the Divingbacks, who
Speaker 1: have made an attempt here to kind of revamp the rotation.
Speaker 2: You know, EDWARDO.
Speaker 1: Rodriguez Montgomery obviously E rod is you know, dealing with
Speaker 1: injuries himself. Clearly Montgomery will not be ready by opening day,
Speaker 1: since by the time people are listening to this, it
Speaker 1: will already be opening day. Kelly, what kind of time
Speaker 1: whine do you think we're probably looking at for Montgomery
Speaker 1: if you even have a sense of it. And on
Speaker 1: top of that, once he is kind of up and
Speaker 1: you know, up to speed and you know, arm strength
Speaker 1: built up, everything like that, what do you think, you know,
Speaker 1: what do you make of the fit really for fantasy
Speaker 1: with the Diamondbacks.
Speaker 3: I think it's a decent fit for him. I'm not
Speaker 3: you know, he doesn't have to necessarily anchor the staff
Speaker 3: or really do anything larger than what he's capable of doing. However, like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I think it's going to cost him maybe I would
Speaker 3: say three starts at a minimum, possibly four before he's
Speaker 3: really ready to roll. So I wouldn't rely on him
Speaker 3: until maybe the third or fourth week of April at
Speaker 3: this point for him to get stretched out. But yes,
Speaker 3: I too, am very glad that the nightmare is over
Speaker 3: and that all of the big named free agents signed
Speaker 3: in the off season is basically what we can say.
Speaker 2: Right technically, just in under the buzzer.
Speaker 1: His ADP was, you know, one sixty four obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: driven by the uncertainty of him not having signed until
Speaker 1: so late and the fact that it was pretty clear
Speaker 1: by the time we got into draft season that he
Speaker 1: was going to not be ready by the start of
Speaker 1: the season because of this delayed signing. Mayor if you
Speaker 1: had known from the beginning of draft season that he
Speaker 1: was with the Diamondbacks and he was starting the year early,
Speaker 1: where do you think he would have been going.
Speaker 2: Where do you think you would have ranked him?
Speaker 1: You know, how much of a value do you think
Speaker 1: people got, if anything, based.
Speaker 2: On where he was going because of the uncertainty.
Speaker 4: That's a good question.
Speaker 5: I think a lot of people got like several round
Speaker 5: value because of the uncertainty. He actually signed last night
Speaker 5: while I was in the middle of that draft. I
Speaker 5: was telling you about last night that draft champions. So
Speaker 5: I actually got him in the eleventh round like one
Speaker 5: fifty four overall, which is pretty you know, pretty good value.
Speaker 5: He didn't I thought it was interesting, like because he
Speaker 5: didn't sign while I was on the clock, I was
Speaker 5: up in like seven picks and I was like, oh,
Speaker 5: I'm not going to get him, and then like he
Speaker 5: just didn't go And I assume everyone saw in the
Speaker 5: news because I saw the news, so I just picked
Speaker 5: him up when he came there. I do think there's
Speaker 5: almost like this mystery like fact going on or like
Speaker 5: this mystery effect going on with him or like, and
Speaker 5: it's probably the same thing that like affected his free agency.
Speaker 5: Like I think a lot of people think he's better
Speaker 5: than he is. I mean, he's good, he's very solid.
Speaker 5: He's not like an ACE and he's going to be
Speaker 5: like a really good innings Zeter, and he has a
Speaker 5: lot of value, but I think people are kind of
Speaker 5: valuing him similarly to like Blake Snell, who I also
Speaker 5: have concerns about, but he's at least more of like
Speaker 5: that ACE level.
Speaker 4: But like I like Jordan Montgomery. He's very solid.
Speaker 5: He can like help you in a lot of ways,
Speaker 5: but he's he doesn't strike out a batter per inning.
Speaker 5: You know, last year he threw one hundred and eighty
Speaker 5: eight and two thirds innings one hundred and sixty six strikeouts.
Speaker 4: Like that's fine, that's good.
Speaker 5: It was a good er three point two his expected
Speaker 5: numbers are all higher, you know, between three point five
Speaker 5: six and up over four, and like at that point,
Speaker 5: how fiable is he?
Speaker 1: Well, he was also better with Texas, which I think
Speaker 1: prop might stick in people's minds, you know, maybe you know,
Speaker 1: two seventy nine ERA as opposed to three to twenty
Speaker 1: on the season, one oh nine whip as opposed to
Speaker 1: one point one nine on the season. So, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he did seem to kind of level up a bit,
Speaker 1: you know with the Rangers, Kelly even with.
Speaker 5: Them, though, even with them though two seven nine ERA
Speaker 5: with the Rangers four point zero whit Sierra.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, I with you, I'm not like,
Speaker 1: I'm not really trying to play Devil's advocate because I
Speaker 1: do think he's become.
Speaker 2: A bit overrated by being so I.
Speaker 1: Think I think I think he's become a bit overrated
Speaker 1: by being, you know, the last guy available. And it's
Speaker 1: like all these teams that you're pitching, it's like, well,
Speaker 1: the Yankees should lookt him. Cauzan pitching, well, the Oriil
Speaker 1: shouldok at him, Caise AINI pitching, well, everybody who needs
Speaker 1: pitching should look at him, because he was the last
Speaker 1: guy there, you know, alongside Blake Snow for a while,
Speaker 1: so I see why people might have kind of put
Speaker 1: put them together. I am with you on him maybe
Speaker 1: being a little overrated Kelly, Like if you had to
Speaker 1: put a rest of season ranking to it, like, are
Speaker 1: you know what kind of pitcher do you think we're
Speaker 1: looking at here? Are we're looking at like an SPO
Speaker 1: Do you think that's you know, maybe too aggressive?
Speaker 2: What would you say?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean, like right now, I think he's going
Speaker 3: to be like a very good SP three, which like
Speaker 3: I put him behind Meryl Kelly in that in that
Speaker 3: rotation just in terms of how much that are going
Speaker 3: to help you. He has some SP two upside, but
Speaker 3: not enough where I'd be like beating down the door
Speaker 3: to trade for him or any or anything along those lines,
Speaker 3: because yeah, I feel like he he benefited from the
Speaker 3: scarcity issue right where he was the only one left
Speaker 3: and whether he was good or not, he was experienced
Speaker 3: in a veteran so everyone was like, we have to
Speaker 3: go get this guy. He was just the one out
Speaker 3: there at the time.
Speaker 1: So let's wrap up the Round of the Bases sort
Speaker 1: of headline segment here with just a general like there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of pitching injuries. Early I had a
Speaker 1: listener of the show reached out to me and asked
Speaker 1: me my opinion on Hey, you know, pitching kind of
Speaker 1: got away from you my draft. Here's like five screenshots
Speaker 1: of all the pictures that are available.
Speaker 2: Is anybody you like?
Speaker 1: And I was like, every single player that I like
Speaker 1: here has an O next to their name, like they're
Speaker 1: just all injured. It's really I mean, the Diamondbacks themselves,
Speaker 1: Rodriguez s all like like already, and it's.
Speaker 2: Across the board, it's everywhere.
Speaker 1: Kelly, is there an injury, you know, rather than going
Speaker 1: through all of them individually because it's so so many
Speaker 1: of them, is there an injury that stands out that
Speaker 1: is creating an opportunity for somebody else, or that you
Speaker 1: think is going to be really impactful for the rest
Speaker 1: of the season. Any of these injuries really significant to
Speaker 1: you in any way?
Speaker 3: I think you know, when Brian with Brian wu going down,
Speaker 3: I looked at Seattle as a very deep rotation that
Speaker 3: you could really count on when you were drafting, and
Speaker 3: I knew he had the elbow problem, but it seemed
Speaker 3: like he was doing okay. So with him going down,
Speaker 3: I don't know necessarily if that creates an opportunity somewhere,
Speaker 3: but it does. It caused me to reevaluate sort of
Speaker 3: the Mariners as a whole and to keep an eye
Speaker 3: on them because it seems like they sort of have
Speaker 3: like what Tampa used to have. We're the next person
Speaker 3: up just kind of of shows up and does pretty well.
Speaker 3: And I suppose we could also talk about Tampa losing
Speaker 3: what three fifths of their rotation. But yeah, so that
Speaker 3: he was the first one or he was the biggest
Speaker 3: one where I thought, okay, this kind of swings a
Speaker 3: few things for me.
Speaker 1: So yeah, a very popular draft target in you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of my leagues. He was people were going
Speaker 1: after from pretty aggressively. Mayor what do you think about
Speaker 1: just kind of the injuries in general? And is there
Speaker 1: one that stands out to you?
Speaker 4: Well, there's a couple that stand up. Brian wu was
Speaker 4: one of them.
Speaker 5: Dylan Carlson was another one because of what it means
Speaker 5: for Victor Scott. But I think, you know, the Welsh
Speaker 5: will be on a little bit later and he'll he'll
Speaker 5: break that one down. I had a similar situation to
Speaker 5: you where someone on our discord which everyone should join
Speaker 5: fantasypros dot Com slash chat you should join that reached
Speaker 5: out and he was like, I had a bunch of
Speaker 5: picture injuries. Which are these three guys should I pick up?
Speaker 5: And it was like Nathan Valde, Nick Pavetta or Brian Wu.
Speaker 4: And I was like, well, not.
Speaker 5: Brian Wu because he's also hurt, so don't pick him
Speaker 5: up unless you can also stash him. The good news
Speaker 5: for with the Brian Wu injury, you know, pooring out
Speaker 5: for Brian Wu, is that Emerson Hancock is getting called up.
Speaker 5: And so that's another name I'm sure we'll ask Welsh
Speaker 5: about later on in the show.
Speaker 1: Yes, definitely, everybody will want to stick around for Welsh
Speaker 1: because we're gonna try and hit on all these rookies
Speaker 1: and prospects that got kept up and sent down and
Speaker 1: everything like that. Any other thought on the injuries, Kelly, I.
Speaker 3: Had something and now it's gone because you know, I'm
Speaker 3: too old for this. Oh yeah, no, that was it
Speaker 3: on discord. I was I was mentioning with may Or
Speaker 3: where we try to get to everybody's questions and it's
Speaker 3: it's totally worth being in there, and it's worth being
Speaker 3: in the premium channels, which are great. I try to
Speaker 3: be like I always try to be democratic about it,
Speaker 3: like here's how I would look at it, but if
Speaker 3: you look at it differently, e'ta, etcetera. But yeah, so
Speaker 3: many of those screenshots and I'm like, well, that's the
Speaker 3: only guy with a working arm, so I feel like
Speaker 3: that should be the guy. Or you know, it's a
Speaker 3: complete coin flip because we have no idea what to
Speaker 3: expect from them, so.
Speaker 2: Everything harder to do advice.
Speaker 1: Every time I get like DMed for advice or something,
Speaker 1: I'm always like, here's what I would do. I'm getting
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be very thoughtful and like give you my
Speaker 1: full here's what I would do and why.
Speaker 2: But I'm probably wrong, so I would ignore me. Anyway.
Speaker 2: Let's move on to normally. This will be a section
Speaker 2: of the show where we do buy low sell Hi.
Speaker 1: We kind of talked about it before the show because
Speaker 1: there hasn't really been any games yet, it makes more sense.
Speaker 1: We're gonna reference our bold Predictions article that you can
Speaker 1: find on fantasypros dot com. You know, we had a
Speaker 1: bunch of writers come together and kind of share their
Speaker 1: favorite bold predictions for the season. So we're gonna go
Speaker 1: through and pick our favorites there. Of course, Mayor and
Speaker 1: Kelly contributed to that article, so they'll be picking their own.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna pick my favorite from the others.
Speaker 1: Like I said, typically this will be by low Sell High,
Speaker 1: but for this week only, we're gonna do our bold
Speaker 1: predictions ahead of the season.
Speaker 2: Mayor, let's start with yours.
Speaker 5: Sure, so, Mayor and Kelly contributed to the article. Worm
Speaker 5: famously did not contribute to the article, so we'll start
Speaker 5: with that. Welcome to though, whenever you'd like to help
Speaker 5: out contribute, you're welcome to join us.
Speaker 2: I will I will contribute at my leisure.
Speaker 4: As you as you will with everything.
Speaker 5: So my bold prediction, there were there were a lot
Speaker 5: of why at Langford bold predictions which I wasn't going
Speaker 5: to go into anyway. I think Kelly we'll touch on
Speaker 5: that a little bit with her answer. I went into
Speaker 5: zach Eflin, and my bold prediction is that zach Eflin
Speaker 5: is a finalist for the al Say Young aboard. I'm
Speaker 5: a big zach Eflin guy, always have been. I was
Speaker 5: sharing with Kelly earlier today that one of my favorite
Speaker 5: things to do several times a year is just like
Speaker 5: pull up Zach Eflin's stackcast page and just like, look
Speaker 5: at what crazy pitch mix he has going on this year,
Speaker 5: or even like this part of the year, because it
Speaker 5: changes so often. Like a couple of years ago, he
Speaker 5: was like, hey, I throw a cutter now. And last
Speaker 5: year his slider became a sweeper, which was probably more
Speaker 5: of a classification thing. But I was really in on
Speaker 5: him last season when he went to the Rais and
Speaker 5: I was like, Oh, this is perfect. Zach Cuffen on
Speaker 5: the Rais is going to be fun. And it was fun.
Speaker 5: One hundred and seventy seven innings, one hundred and eighty
Speaker 5: six strikeouts. He won sixteen games. I know we can't
Speaker 5: really count wins, but we won sixteen games. You know,
Speaker 5: the cy young voters still care about that stuff. Three
Speaker 5: point five VR. All of his expected numbers were about
Speaker 5: a half front lower than that, and that was even
Speaker 5: with a hard hit rate that was up a career
Speaker 5: high or not a career high, but his highest hard
Speaker 5: hit rate against in three years. And I just think
Speaker 5: there's so much more room to improve, and that if
Speaker 5: he can stay healthy, because he has been you know,
Speaker 5: had some nagging injuries throughout his career. But like, if
Speaker 5: he can stay healthy, I think he takes another step
Speaker 5: forward and I think he's a finalist for the al
Speaker 5: Cy Young Award, and even with someone like Eric Cole
Speaker 5: being out, I think he's the dark horse to win it.
Speaker 5: And he's plus four thousand on Betting Bros.
Speaker 4: Right away.
Speaker 2: Well, you know Corbyn Burns is in the ale or
Speaker 2: now right it's a lock.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but he's got to go to Fenway Park and
Speaker 5: play that play against that Red Sox lineup.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, how scary? Yeah, No, I know. I think
Speaker 2: you mentioned e Flynn on last.
Speaker 1: Week's previews show as well as a player you were retargeting,
Speaker 1: targeting and drafts. So he's definitely a favorite of yours.
Speaker 1: What do you think, you know, a top three finish
Speaker 1: in the Cy Young voting. What do you think this
Speaker 1: means for fantasy? Is he somebody that you would even
Speaker 1: be trying to trade for early on in the year.
Speaker 2: Because you're a big believer in him.
Speaker 1: Do you think that's going to be more more of
Speaker 1: a real life Cy Young winner as opposed to like
Speaker 1: a fantasy league winner.
Speaker 2: What do you make of him on the fantasy side.
Speaker 5: I think he's going to be a high end SP two.
Speaker 5: I don't actually have a ton of shares of him
Speaker 5: this year because I think a lot of people that
Speaker 5: are you know, seem to you know, they saw what
Speaker 5: happened last year, and they're high on him too. I
Speaker 5: have a lot more of Aaron Savali, who's like this
Speaker 5: year is Zach Eflin. He's like this year's fun new toy,
Speaker 5: so he's much further down.
Speaker 4: But I have Savali too.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I think he's going to be valuable just
Speaker 5: because he's going to be on a good team.
Speaker 4: I think the strikeouts are going to be there.
Speaker 5: He's got really good ratios. But yeah, I think he's
Speaker 5: going to be really solid s P two SB one Upsete, Kelly.
Speaker 1: I know you are loath to agree with Mayor, but
Speaker 1: are you siding with him on e Flyn or now? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 3: I actually have a lot of shares of him. So
Speaker 3: whether it's Hope or what, I'm on board.
Speaker 2: Who's your bold prediction, Kelly?
Speaker 3: So I think I've been working with Mayor for too
Speaker 3: long because even though I still think it's cute when
Speaker 3: adult adults catch fall balls and hand them to children
Speaker 3: as opposed to evil like he does, I do, I
Speaker 3: believe I've grown some sort of contrarian thing inside of
Speaker 3: my poor little brain. So my bold prediction was because
Speaker 3: I knew everyone was gonna pick why at Langford. My
Speaker 3: bold prediction is that Evan Carter's actually going to end
Speaker 3: up being more valuable than him in like five by
Speaker 3: five leagues. And I think I'm basing it on a
Speaker 3: couple of things. One is definitely that Carter should have
Speaker 3: a higher opp and be on base just more in
Speaker 3: general with through hitting and and maybe not as much power,
Speaker 3: but more consistency. He's also right now, I think he's
Speaker 3: batting third in the lineup, so he gets to be
Speaker 3: behind Corey Seeger and Marcus Simmon and a head of
Speaker 3: a doulas Carsia and Langford. And to me that just
Speaker 3: means like count the runs count. The RBIs like here
Speaker 3: it comes. So I feel like at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, well, Langford is, you know, the talk of
Speaker 3: the town, and everybody wants to already shower him with
Speaker 3: all of the gifts. I feel like Carter may just
Speaker 3: kind of sneak in there as more valuable. In fantasy,
Speaker 3: it's Langford will carry the storyline and probably get Rookie
Speaker 3: of the year, but I think Carter's gonna end up
Speaker 3: the guy you want for much cheaper.
Speaker 1: I love Carter, and I mean the other thing that
Speaker 1: I don't think you mentioned is that we've seen him
Speaker 1: do it at the big league level before, which which
Speaker 1: I think everybody believes Langford will be very.
Speaker 2: Successful, you know, hitting into the big league level.
Speaker 1: It's not that I'm doubting that will happen, but we
Speaker 1: have actually seen Evan Carter be very successful, you know,
Speaker 1: hitting major league pitching already. And Carter is I think
Speaker 1: younger actually too, so theoretically you can build an even
Speaker 1: more upside that with Langford. It was funny, you know,
Speaker 1: reading through these bull predictions. Every player got one mention
Speaker 1: except for Langford got four, So like, the hype is there,
Speaker 1: and it was a lot of like like our you know,
Speaker 1: friend and colleague Pat fitz Morris said, what Langford will
Speaker 1: hit three twenty or better and win the AL batting
Speaker 1: title as a rookie. Joey p said he was gonna
Speaker 1: be a top twenty overall player. We had a couple
Speaker 1: other contributors say top twenty five overall player, top two
Speaker 1: round player. So the hype is very there for Langford,
Speaker 1: but I think it is deserved to give some of
Speaker 1: that hype to Carter as well. What do you think
Speaker 1: about Carter? Not necessarily versus Langford, but is Carter in
Speaker 1: general as a pick?
Speaker 5: Well, I think first off, we're trying to get people
Speaker 5: to read the article, and you just read the whole
Speaker 5: thing on air.
Speaker 2: I just read White Langford. There's still like eight or
Speaker 2: nine other players.
Speaker 4: That's half the article. Half the article, that.
Speaker 2: Is like half the article.
Speaker 4: What was your question? I wasn't listening.
Speaker 2: The you know, just even Carter in general, just Kelly's pick.
Speaker 2: What do you make of him?
Speaker 1: And again not necessarily as he relates to Langford, but
Speaker 1: just in general as a guy who could be a
Speaker 1: you know something of a league winner.
Speaker 5: Oh, I like him and and for reasons you said,
Speaker 5: we saw him do it last year. We saw him
Speaker 5: do it on the biggest stage last year. He should
Speaker 5: have pretty good placement in that order and it's going
Speaker 5: to be a very good order. And yeah, I think
Speaker 5: in some of that White Langford hype, he's kind of
Speaker 5: being like forgotten about and maybe you can get him
Speaker 5: like a round or two later, like he should be
Speaker 5: a top one hunter player.
Speaker 4: But I've seen him go outside the top hundred.
Speaker 1: I was going to list some of my choices that
Speaker 1: I liked in here that I didn't end up going
Speaker 1: with for my favorite Bowl prediction, but I rather than
Speaker 1: risk Mayor yelling at me again way too many players
Speaker 1: on this list, I will just list the one that
Speaker 1: I went with, which was Dylan ceased. And it's not
Speaker 1: that I think we're going to see a repeat of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two now that he has the new home
Speaker 1: in San Diego. But I do think he was a
Speaker 1: value where he was going. He was like going in
Speaker 1: the ninety to one hundred range in ADP. You know,
Speaker 1: the writer who mentions him in this article mentions that
Speaker 1: he got him in taut Wars for thirteen dollars. I
Speaker 1: think that's a value for a guy that, you know,
Speaker 1: assuming health, is going to strike out over two hundred guys.
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot more room for improvement in
Speaker 1: terms of wins this year. I think I know the
Speaker 1: Padres didn't have the best season last year. I think
Speaker 1: I'm certainly expecting a bounce back from them in the
Speaker 1: wind department that will be reflected in ceases stat line.
Speaker 1: I think that the era while it won't be what
Speaker 1: it was in twenty twenty two, I think will be
Speaker 1: closer to that than it was last year.
Speaker 2: It was at you know, four fifty eight.
Speaker 1: Last year it was two twenty the year before. I
Speaker 1: think we're going to see something in the threes and
Speaker 1: in this pitching landscape. If you're giving me a guy
Speaker 1: with an er that starts a three and he's going
Speaker 1: to strike out over two other guys and he's probably
Speaker 1: going to win double digit games, I think that's a
Speaker 1: value where he was going. I know, the whip was
Speaker 1: like a lot higher last year. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff that went into that. His walk rate was slightly
Speaker 1: lower last year than it was in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: It's not like every number got way worse. It was
Speaker 1: kind of a multitude of things. He was playing on
Speaker 1: a bad team last year, and I do think that
Speaker 1: actually matters. Kelly, what do you make of Cease as
Speaker 1: a bold prediction to outperform his value?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think that he's a good choice
Speaker 3: in that regard. He can't do anything that more than
Speaker 3: outperform my prediction for him, because I don't like him,
Speaker 3: so kind of anything higher than that is probably going
Speaker 3: to be okay, But that walk rate, I don't care
Speaker 3: that it went down point three percent. I'm not touching it.
Speaker 3: So it's yeah, he's the best two hundred plus strikeout
Speaker 3: guy who went the latest, I think, so there will
Speaker 3: definitely be value there.
Speaker 1: And I think it's reasonable to be anti because that
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two season is the clear outlier if you
Speaker 1: look at his career, so I think where he was
Speaker 1: going again, given I mean, the strikeouts are just so intoxicating, right,
Speaker 1: It's so hard to look at those three straight years
Speaker 1: of two hundred plus strikeouts and not be really excited
Speaker 1: about it. I mean, I mentioned the walk rate went down,
Speaker 1: so did the strikeout, right, So that is worth you know,
Speaker 1: mentioning as well.
Speaker 3: I was just gonna say it went down three percent,
Speaker 3: So I mean you know that.
Speaker 1: Too, Mayor what do you think about cease where you
Speaker 1: know where he was going? Do you think that was
Speaker 1: too low in drafts?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 4: Yeah? And I like him for a lot of the
Speaker 4: reasons that you were laying out. I had.
Speaker 5: I drafted him in a in an auction keeper league
Speaker 5: that Kelly is in, and it was a league where
Speaker 5: I ended up being able to keep a few like
Speaker 5: really cheap pitchers, and so I used my budget to
Speaker 5: kind of like load up on hitting, and then I
Speaker 5: was like, let me see where where I can get
Speaker 5: some value on pitching. And the first pitcher I ended
Speaker 5: up drafting was Dylan Ceas for like ten bucks, and
Speaker 5: I was like, perfect, let me lock in two hundred strikeouts,
Speaker 5: like last year was a down year, and he struck
Speaker 5: got two hudred fourteen guys, Like, I'm fine with that.
Speaker 4: You know, I obviously don't want a four point.
Speaker 5: Five eight ERA and a whip almost at one point five,
Speaker 5: but I'm assuming it's gonna be a little bit better
Speaker 5: than that. And if it is two hundred strikeouts for
Speaker 5: my SB four, what's right.
Speaker 3: Let me just say that in that same league, Mayor
Speaker 3: offered a contract extension to Zach Gallon and he drafted
Speaker 3: Xander Bullgart's and Dylan Sees and that's literally the anti
Speaker 3: Wonky Penguin team.
Speaker 1: So I will be very curious to hear throughout the
Speaker 1: year who has proven right and who's proven wrong in
Speaker 1: that league. So be sure to keep breaking it up.
Speaker 1: Let's go to waivers Central. Each of you guys is
Speaker 1: going to give me your favorite hitter. And each of
Speaker 1: you guys is gonna give me your favorite pitcher that
Speaker 1: is available in a lot of leagues.
Speaker 2: You know, for the purposes of this week.
Speaker 1: You know, we'll be somewhat like, not overly reactionary, but
Speaker 1: we'll be looking at what's happened obviously during the season
Speaker 1: and saying, oh, this is a trend we think can continue.
Speaker 1: This is somebody that'd be willing to pick up or
Speaker 1: drop or what have you for this week. Since the
Speaker 1: season hasn't really started, it's more of who do we
Speaker 1: think is maybe begin to gain some value early that
Speaker 1: we want to get in before they become a very
Speaker 1: popular pickup that everybody's going to be trying to add.
Speaker 1: Whose roster percentage do we think is going to be
Speaker 1: a lot higher a couple of weeks from now the
Speaker 1: mayor let's start with your favorite hitter to pick up
Speaker 1: before the season starts.
Speaker 2: We're kind of as the season is starting.
Speaker 5: Sure, So I'm so glad you asked me to keep
Speaker 5: bringing up that league, So I'm gonna bring it up again.
Speaker 5: In that league with Kelly, I massively overpaid for someone
Speaker 5: named Spencer Steere and that's not my waiver Central because
Speaker 5: he's rosters everywhere. But I massively overpaid for Spencer stear
Speaker 5: mostly because you can move him around to play him everywhere.
Speaker 5: Except I didn't draft another first baseman, so he's locked
Speaker 5: as my first baseman. And so my first waiver move
Speaker 5: of the year was to pick up my waiver pickup
Speaker 5: the week, ty France, who's not rostered in a ton
Speaker 5: of places. You can get them all over the place,
Speaker 5: and for good reason. His numbers are not that great.
Speaker 5: He only plays first base. He's no longer second base eligible.
Speaker 5: I think last year is when he lost second base eligibility.
Speaker 5: That's when a lot of his value lost, or is
Speaker 5: a lot of his value kind of like you know,
Speaker 5: went away.
Speaker 4: And he also only hit twelve runs one hundred fty
Speaker 4: eight games.
Speaker 5: But he did go to a special place called drive
Speaker 5: Line this offseason and focus on his swing and focus
Speaker 5: on cutting down his swing. And I'm all in on
Speaker 5: a tie fans ty Franz bounce back, and not just
Speaker 5: because I need him to be my starting first basement
Speaker 5: so I can move Spencers Tear around, but I am
Speaker 5: a believer. And the other thing is he's really also
Speaker 5: devalued because of where he's going to hit in that
Speaker 5: Mariners lineup because they haven't protected to hit eighth right
Speaker 5: now on roster resource. But I'm looking at the jabbronis
Speaker 5: above him in this order, and it's it's nobody's it's
Speaker 5: it's the ghost of Mitch Hanniger.
Speaker 4: It's cal Raley.
Speaker 5: Sorry, Wonky, I know you're a big cal Raley guy.
Speaker 5: It's Mitch Garber playing d H and Jorge Polongo. Ty
Speaker 5: France is going to be back in third by the
Speaker 5: end of this year, and you know you can book it.
Speaker 5: This is going to be a pickup that's going to
Speaker 5: win your league, I think, or at least I hope
Speaker 5: for my league.
Speaker 1: Don't maybe, you know, maybe don't alienate us from the
Speaker 1: players too much calling them Jabebroni's I mean, take it,
Speaker 1: take it. He's he there there, ty Franz Kelly. Any
Speaker 1: thoughts on him, I mean, not a guy that was
Speaker 1: like you needed to go out and aggressively draft this
Speaker 1: year if you want to have a chance to ad
Speaker 1: him now obviously No.
Speaker 3: In fact, this would be the first time I've thought
Speaker 3: about ty France this entire fantasy season, So I trust
Speaker 3: what Mayer said. I feel like he goes in strings
Speaker 3: as well. He's certainly no cal Raley, but I guess
Speaker 3: if you want someone else in that lineup, you can
Speaker 3: have him.
Speaker 2: Kelly, who's your favorite hitter that you can pick up
Speaker 2: right now?
Speaker 3: I just like watching Mayor's face when I talk. I
Speaker 3: had this guy last year and he frustrated me NonStop.
Speaker 3: So I'm going with MJ. Melndez. And the primary reason
Speaker 3: I'm going with him is basically that all of his
Speaker 3: like underlying numbers for sure for the second half of
Speaker 3: the season, were actually really good. His hard hit percentage
Speaker 3: went up like over six percent last year in general,
Speaker 3: so it is very confusing why he didn't hit more homers. Why,
Speaker 3: you know, aside from striking out a bunch, though some
Speaker 3: of those hits should have fallen. Some are gonna leave ballperks,
Speaker 3: and I think they're gonna happen this year, much like
Speaker 3: I feel like lineup matters. He's projected to hit fifth,
Speaker 3: so he's behind the with Pascontino Perez. I could see
Speaker 3: him moving up in that if they would, if they
Speaker 3: decided to kind of flip a couple of people. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm I feel like he's been left out because he's
Speaker 3: lost catcher eligibility. Pretty much everywhere, but not in Yahoo leagues.
Speaker 3: But I think I have catch your eligibility in Yahoo leagues,
Speaker 3: and so it is it's worth it, I think to go.
Speaker 3: I know well and I once drove by drive line,
Speaker 3: so does that count maybe? But anyway, I just think
Speaker 3: he's a good option and he's out there if you
Speaker 3: need an outfielder, especially in like five outfielder leagues. I
Speaker 3: think that there are a lot of guys that were
Speaker 3: drafted that I'm going to drop in favor of him.
Speaker 1: So yeah, if you look on his page on Fantasy
Speaker 1: Pros at the roster percentage section, it's Yahoo fifty four percent,
Speaker 1: ESPN twelve percent. That is very much driven by the
Speaker 1: catcher eligibility. May any quick thoughts on Melendez.
Speaker 5: I haven't really thought about him much this offseason until
Speaker 5: last night and that deep deep draft where I was
Speaker 5: you know, I went pitching heavy early, and outfield I
Speaker 5: did not. I locked in like two studoutfielders, and then
Speaker 5: I just kind of forgot that I had three more
Speaker 5: to fill. And so once we got started getting into
Speaker 5: like the teen rounds, I kind of had to fill
Speaker 5: those outfield spots. So I did get m J. Melendez
Speaker 5: last night in the twentieth round, it picked two ninety seven,
Speaker 5: so I will also this is my first share, and
Speaker 5: it was because for the same reason, I was kind
Speaker 5: of like, well, he's not a catcher anymore.
Speaker 4: What do I care? Now? I care? I care. I
Speaker 4: hope he's a good now.
Speaker 2: Both Kelly and Mayor and on MJ. Melendez.
Speaker 1: That's those are the guys that are planting their flag
Speaker 1: on this season. Mayor, who's your favorite pitcher that you
Speaker 1: can pick up right now?
Speaker 5: My favorite pitcher maybe not my favorite picture, but a
Speaker 5: picture I'm picking up it was available is Michael Kopek.
Speaker 5: And it's also a picture I massively overpaid for at
Speaker 5: TGFBI buy a lot of money, which I was was
Speaker 5: talking to Kelly. You know, Waivers run at like ten
Speaker 5: pm Eastern on Sunday nights. I was like, I was
Speaker 5: slacking with Kelly. Like as it happened, I was like,
Speaker 5: I'm about to massly overpay Michael go back. And I
Speaker 5: did by a lot, not as much as some other
Speaker 5: people who I saw overpay, but like I think the
Speaker 5: next closest bid to me was like one hundred dollars less.
Speaker 5: So I are overpaid by a lot and it's all.
Speaker 5: It's because I'm banking on him being the closer for
Speaker 5: the White Sox. And everyone wants the closer for the
Speaker 5: White Sox because they're going to win one hundred games.
Speaker 4: No they're not, but.
Speaker 5: He's going to be valuable in some leagues if s
Speaker 5: p rpligibility matters. I'm not in a ton of those,
Speaker 5: but you know that absolutely matters in some leagues. It
Speaker 5: matters if you're going to be in a safe ley,
Speaker 5: because I do think he's going to be the closer
Speaker 5: for the White Sox, and I think he could be
Speaker 5: a really good closer for the For the White Sox,
Speaker 5: the strikeout ability has always been there. He's been a
Speaker 5: little inconsistently pretty much everywhere else, including staying healthy. But
Speaker 5: even a few years ago, I kind of thought, like,
Speaker 5: this guy is destined to like be a good closer
Speaker 5: and be in be in the bullpen. And maybe I'm
Speaker 5: just fulfilling my own prophecy by overpaying for him to
Speaker 5: make him, you know.
Speaker 4: The best closer in baseball.
Speaker 5: But he's available pretty much everywhere, and like saves are
Speaker 5: very viable, especially if you're in saves only leagues, and
Speaker 5: you also don't need to.
Speaker 1: Be on a good team to get a lot of saves,
Speaker 1: because bad teams win games not by blowing them out.
Speaker 1: That if they're getting win, it's probably a save opportunity,
Speaker 1: so right, if anything, it's it might even be a
Speaker 1: point in his favor from that perspective.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is. It was kind of the double edged
Speaker 4: sword there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Kelly, what do you think about him?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm a big fan of him. I think that
Speaker 3: he's gonna end up closing. I feel like he definitely
Speaker 3: fits the mold for a guy that you want to
Speaker 3: be a closer. And I'm also a big fan of
Speaker 3: closers on bad teams for that exact reason. That's in
Speaker 3: that they're all one run games or two run games.
Speaker 3: And if he's dominant, the White Sox might just be
Speaker 3: dumb enough to even flip him at the dead line
Speaker 3: to somebody who needs one, so even though he's young
Speaker 3: and under control. But yeah, I like Copec a lot.
Speaker 2: And who's your pitcher pick up of the week?
Speaker 3: Well, I was actually gonna I have one that's a
Speaker 3: little lesser known, But I just want to make a
Speaker 3: plug for Mason Miller for exactly all the same reasons
Speaker 3: that we just said everything about Kopec because if Oakland
Speaker 3: doesn't make him their closer, I don't really know for
Speaker 3: sure what they're doing with themselves. But I also it's Oakland.
Speaker 3: I don't ever know what they're doing with themselves. So
Speaker 3: the guy I picked is actually really kind of more
Speaker 3: of a deep deeper league. Look at is Chase still
Speaker 3: seth for the for the Angels. I had him last
Speaker 3: year and he turned in a couple of performances that
Speaker 3: were fantastic before he got injured. I was actually riding
Speaker 3: him into the playoffs pretty well. So he has also
Speaker 3: has good underlying numbers. He struck out twenty five percent
Speaker 3: batters last year in spring training, which you know it
Speaker 3: matters gigantically. He's striking out thirty over thirty percent and
Speaker 3: walking only four So if he can settle in a
Speaker 3: little bit to kind of lower that walk rate, things
Speaker 3: can I think go in his favor. But there's just
Speaker 3: a lot that I like about him most definitely that
Speaker 3: if he can strike out that twenty four percent batters,
Speaker 3: then he's free like he's he's not. He's not rostered
Speaker 3: anywhere for the most part, so I think he's worth
Speaker 3: going out, especially with pitcher injuries.
Speaker 2: Definitely somebody flying under the radar.
Speaker 1: When you entered him his name into the outline, I
Speaker 1: went to pull him up and just check his recent
Speaker 1: news and notes on our site, and the most recent
Speaker 1: player news Chase Silseth a place on concussion I l
Speaker 1: retroacted to August twenty seven, thirty weeks ago.
Speaker 2: Was a ubdate. So definitely not reallybuddy that people are, you.
Speaker 1: Know, clamoring about right and left marriage. Do you have
Speaker 1: any thoughts on Chase Silseth.
Speaker 5: I'll tell you one thought because while Kelly was talking,
Speaker 5: I looked up where he went in that draft last night.
Speaker 5: He went in the twenty fifth round, three hundred and
Speaker 5: seventy first overall, and the person who drafted him used
Speaker 5: fifty four of their fifty five seconds on the clock,
Speaker 5: so they really thought long and hard about drafting him.
Speaker 2: That's great sign.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 1: All right, that'll wrap up our time with Kelly. Kelly,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on again. Obviously you
Speaker 1: will fill in for mayor me here and there. You
Speaker 1: will be on as a guest here and there, so
Speaker 1: you know you will certainly be back on the show
Speaker 1: plenty of times. But I appreciate you making the time.
Speaker 1: How'd you feel about episode one?
Speaker 3: I loved it. I love what you guys are doing,
Speaker 3: and I'm very excited to participate whenever you'd like me to,
Speaker 3: or just have me sit here and stare mayor down
Speaker 3: for you whatever you need.
Speaker 1: So we will be very excited to have you back. Everybody,
Speaker 1: stick around and we will be right back with Chris Welsh.
Speaker 1: We are back, joined now by Chris Welsh. Welsh, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for coming on to the first episode.
Speaker 2: You are, of course.
Speaker 1: Here to talk about prospects slash rookies because some of
Speaker 1: these guys are now on big league rosters.
Speaker 2: First of all, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 6: Hey, thank you guys for having me. I'm excited for
Speaker 6: the show. I get to hear it every single week,
Speaker 6: be a part of this awesome stuff with to my
Speaker 6: good buddies, two buddies I got to hang with. And
Speaker 6: you know, when you think of cycles, by the way
Speaker 6: you clearly think of me. You guys got to see
Speaker 6: my athletic skill in person. It was football, not baseball,
Speaker 6: but you definitely think of cycles.
Speaker 1: Chris the cycle of Welsh as we started calling him recently.
Speaker 2: Mayor.
Speaker 1: You know we talked when we were first trying to
Speaker 1: plan out this show as we want to have sort
Speaker 1: of a prospect corner element to this show where we're
Speaker 1: talking about guys in the minors. Maybe it's a dynasty look,
Speaker 1: maybe it's a prospects to stash kind of look.
Speaker 2: But I know you are also excited to have well, Shan.
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, and especially like you and I have both
Speaker 5: talked about wanting to do a lot of like dynasty
Speaker 5: stuff too, and so Welsh is a perfect you know,
Speaker 5: expert to have on for that. I'm more of like
Speaker 5: a numbers guy when it comes in when it comes
Speaker 5: to like evaluating prospects, I just look at like their history.
Speaker 5: I look at the metrics I'm looking for. But Welsh
Speaker 5: is out there actually like going to spring training games
Speaker 5: in Arizona, so he's seen these guys in person more
Speaker 5: than I definitely haven't, and.
Speaker 6: Trying to talk to it and try to talk to
Speaker 6: some of them, you know, some of the guys we're
Speaker 6: going to talk about. I had one of these big names,
Speaker 6: one of the biggest names were well not the biggest name,
Speaker 6: but the most exciting recent one I've I did an
Speaker 6: interview with on my Prospect one show.
Speaker 2: I was at the debut of a couple of these guys.
Speaker 6: I was actually in an autograph signing a friend of mine,
Speaker 6: Dennis Siddler, has one of these guys we're gonna talk
Speaker 6: about in an exclusive client and I hung out with
Speaker 6: one of.
Speaker 2: These guys for two hours. So yeah, I.
Speaker 6: Definitely bring like in field experience, but I love the
Speaker 6: extracurricular weird stuff of like whether I'm a part of
Speaker 6: a debut or talking to a guy or being around them.
Speaker 6: And I do have a history with quite a few
Speaker 6: of these guys.
Speaker 2: Let's jump into some of these names here. We'll start
Speaker 2: with the prospects.
Speaker 1: And you know what I asked well Sh to do
Speaker 1: for this episode is, you know, in the future, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be on a lot this season. If one of
Speaker 1: these guys gets called up, we're gonna have him on
Speaker 1: and like dive deep if like a top prospect is
Speaker 1: coming up. For today, I wanted to hit on a
Speaker 1: bunch of names and include the guys who made opening
Speaker 1: day rosters and the guys who did.
Speaker 2: So let's start with the guys who did.
Speaker 1: We talked earlier in this episode about in our Bold
Speaker 1: Predictions article on the site. This week, four of the
Speaker 1: twelve or so submissions for bold Predictions. Where about why
Speaker 1: at Langford he is an extremely exciting hitter who did
Speaker 1: make the Rangers opening day roster, obviously was a one
Speaker 1: of the top picks you know, in that elite top
Speaker 1: five grouping in last year's draft class has done nothing
Speaker 1: to you know, keep expectations down since being drafted.
Speaker 2: Obviously dominated at Florida.
Speaker 1: So well, I mean, my main question with Langford is like,
Speaker 1: to what degree is this hype actually justified? Is he
Speaker 1: somebody that a year from now people will be drafting
Speaker 1: in the top two or three rounds in their redraft leagues?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think so.
Speaker 6: I h one way to equate it. I wouldn't be
Speaker 6: surprised if it went this path is I could see
Speaker 6: this going the Gunner Henderson path, because look at Gunner.
Speaker 6: How high were we drafted Gunner is about last year
Speaker 6: roughly white Langford costs. I would say his path was
Speaker 6: different than my bay Cormyn Carrol's a little bit different
Speaker 6: because Gunner was a real problem. At one point. Gunner
Speaker 6: was potential cut and then he completely bounced back. And
Speaker 6: then you go and look and you look at his
Speaker 6: stats and you're like, like these are great. They remember,
Speaker 6: weren't like mine numbing stats and we also, you know,
Speaker 6: clearly had this big bump. I'm pretty critical by the
Speaker 6: way of how fantasy analysts like wipe away the bat.
Speaker 6: Now specifically, what I'm saying is like, oh, we love
Speaker 6: this guy, we love this guy, and then they stink
Speaker 6: to a cuttable level and then they bounce back and
Speaker 6: everyone's like, ah, I was right, and it's like, no,
Speaker 6: you weren't, because this guy stunk and was potentially cuttable.
Speaker 6: And that just happened to me, by the way, So
Speaker 6: like you have to think about like not trying to
Speaker 6: be like accountable, but that's like the thing that goes
Speaker 6: along with some of these guys. So wrapping this all
Speaker 6: around and why I specifically picked on Gunner is that
Speaker 6: I do think there's the possibility that there could be
Speaker 6: a little bit of down for Whiteling for this year.
Speaker 6: I don't think that's al realma possibility. Early on, he's
Speaker 6: still adjusting to MLB. I think he could get pitched
Speaker 6: to a level of like a lot of high fastballs
Speaker 6: which he might push into the ground. He had some
Speaker 6: ground ball stuff in spring. I just wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 6: if that happens. But here's what I do think. I
Speaker 6: think he's going to adjust. I think he is a
Speaker 6: generational hype talent because of the fast turned the guy
Speaker 6: gets on base. He doesn't strike out at crazy clips.
Speaker 6: He definitely shows some incredible ability to get the ball
Speaker 6: in the air, he can run. It's a five tool
Speaker 6: player I actually like in it. I think it's kind
Speaker 6: of Mike Troutish. I think he looks kind of Mike
Speaker 6: Troutish as well in the game in general. But I
Speaker 6: think the possibility that he could struggle is there, So
Speaker 6: how do we wrap it and come back around that.
Speaker 6: I think the cost when you take him in the
Speaker 6: sixties or seventies, I think that's fine because it builds
Speaker 6: the upside. I think him as a prospect uniquely unlike
Speaker 6: some of these other guys, don't have that floor, and
Speaker 6: I think push comes to shove by the end of
Speaker 6: the season. I think he's gonna have pretty wild RBI numbers,
Speaker 6: probably some good run numbers, probably eighty five plus on
Speaker 6: both twenty plus homers, Maybe he touches the twenty stolen bases.
Speaker 6: I think it'll all come together, but I don't think
Speaker 6: it'll be this linear path where everyone's.
Speaker 2: Like, uh, look at me. I told you, yeah.
Speaker 4: So you're penciling in twenty twenty, then no, I.
Speaker 6: Actually think the stolen base are gonna be a little
Speaker 6: bit lower. Actually, the CBS guys had me come on
Speaker 6: and we created it's this very detailed system. It was
Speaker 6: called Chris Welsh or it was Chris the Welsh projections,
Speaker 6: where I just had to make up my projections for
Speaker 6: prospects and I had Wyatt under the twenty stolen bases.
Speaker 6: I don't think he's going to steal it a crazy clip.
Speaker 6: If I remember correctly when I was doing the research,
Speaker 6: I think the Rangers stole the least amount of basses
Speaker 6: last season, So I don't think he's gonna be the
Speaker 6: guy that's gonna be running like crazy. I liken it
Speaker 6: more to like twenty five fifteen. That's where I think
Speaker 6: it's gonna sit.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: The next guy I want to ask you about is
Speaker 1: another elite prospect and a guy who has the.
Speaker 2: Speed to run quite a bit.
Speaker 1: You know, he's been a true power speed threat in
Speaker 1: the miners, you know, since bursting out of the scene
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. That's Jackson Curio, who got
Speaker 1: the big contract, So we knew there was a really
Speaker 1: good chance he was going to be on the opening
Speaker 1: day roster if he, you know, didn't completely fall on
Speaker 1: his flate face, which he did not in spring training.
Speaker 1: So he, you know, is going to be starting in
Speaker 1: the opening day lineup. They said, uh, just earlier today.
Speaker 1: So Jackson Curio uber talented power speed guy. I've said,
Speaker 1: you know, I've liken him to like a very very
Speaker 1: very poor man's Akunya, but like that kind of can
Speaker 1: contribute in those types of categories. Super young, still super inexperience.
Speaker 1: What's your hype level for him?
Speaker 6: Yeah, And this is the guy, by the way, that
Speaker 6: I hung out with for a little bit, and he's
Speaker 6: so funny. He's actually a really funny guy. Too energetic dude.
Speaker 3: And that.
Speaker 6: Comp that you gave, I remember Chris Blessing telling you
Speaker 6: that a couple of years ago. I've seen Cherio a
Speaker 6: whole bunch out here, but he had kind of thrown
Speaker 6: that comp out there as well. So Cheerio's in a
Speaker 6: unique situation. I do think of like the big big prospects,
Speaker 6: he's the one that has the most susceptibility to bad
Speaker 6: batting average, and it's like he's going to or anything
Speaker 6: like that. And he has cut his strikeouts down, but
Speaker 6: it's been this gradual strikeout cut from the lower levels
Speaker 6: up to the higher When you get to the majors,
Speaker 6: it's gonna be a lot different. You're gonna be jid,
Speaker 6: you know. I mean there's a lot of great prospects
Speaker 6: pictures and the miners and stuff like that, but every
Speaker 6: picture is amazing. And whether they're throwing ninety seven with
Speaker 6: a bunch of ride or they're throwing ninety with elite command, like,
Speaker 6: it's gonna be a different game. So the thing with
Speaker 6: sure you is I trying to build this in like
Speaker 6: I think he's gonna be good. I think these are
Speaker 6: generational type of prospects. I don't I'm trying to not
Speaker 6: trying to throw around all these like euphemisms of oh
Speaker 6: they're all amazing, but like, this is gonna be an
Speaker 6: elite class of guys that we're gonna end up seeing
Speaker 6: that last year Carolyn Gunner were as well. But will
Speaker 6: there be struggles? Yeah, I think there can be. I
Speaker 6: think there could be a much higher strikeout rate than
Speaker 6: people are giving when they look at like, you know,
Speaker 6: a twenty percent.
Speaker 2: Strike cut rate guy.
Speaker 6: I think he could struggle with some RBI numbers because
Speaker 6: I think Pat Murphy is going to be a real pain,
Speaker 6: is gonna it's gonna take so much to push him
Speaker 6: up the lineup. It might take every player fracturing their
Speaker 6: wrist like Errett Mitchell for him to gradually move up.
Speaker 6: So it's like, I think the RBI numbers might be
Speaker 6: kind of black. I think he's gonna score decent amount
Speaker 6: of runs. I think he's gonna steal exponentially more bases
Speaker 6: than power and I think I think my projection I
Speaker 6: put him around like there's like eighteen homers and like
Speaker 6: the thirty stolen base mark. Again, this is another player.
Speaker 6: Top seventy five is great, but there there there can
Speaker 6: be some up and downs. I would bet more up
Speaker 6: and downs from a like ooh, this is getting bad
Speaker 6: with Churio where Langford's I think up and downs might
Speaker 6: be like does he really only have like one homer
Speaker 6: over the last like thirty games, Like that's the type
Speaker 6: of thing I think with Langford, I just don't think
Speaker 6: he's ever going to struggle. I think those two could
Speaker 6: have a twenty five to thirty point difference in their
Speaker 6: batting average when it's all said and done. But again,
Speaker 6: I think they're worth it. They're both worth it for
Speaker 6: different reasons. If Langford's hitting, if he moves to three
Speaker 6: or is hitting five, his RBI totally he could have
Speaker 6: one hundred rbi. Was it Gunner that had what a
Speaker 6: Gunner have a one hundred run or a hundred RBI?
Speaker 6: I think whyatt can be the guy that could have
Speaker 6: like ninety something RBI, but his homerun totals might not
Speaker 6: be monstrous. Turio is the type of guy. I think
Speaker 6: he could score ninety runs. He could steal close to
Speaker 6: forty bases, but there might be, you know, a few
Speaker 6: up and downs. But it's an amazing talent and I
Speaker 6: wouldn't be shocked if he was, you know, a thirty
Speaker 6: thirty guy.
Speaker 2: Gunnar did have one hundred runs, but that's what was
Speaker 2: on the dot.
Speaker 1: Mayor, did you find yourself this draft season in redraft
Speaker 1: getting a lot of Langford or Churio as the sort
Speaker 1: of the.
Speaker 4: I have no Langford. I I do have some Cheerio though.
Speaker 2: Did you get him when he was cheaper?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5: It was kind of before the helium hit, you know,
Speaker 5: like the last week or so, he's become more of
Speaker 5: a name. But there was a there was a while
Speaker 5: there where like it was again towards the end of draft,
Speaker 5: and I was like, I.
Speaker 4: Guess I'll take Cheerio now, no one's gonna take him.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was a good I got him in a
Speaker 6: DC early and then I didn't really do any and
Speaker 6: then this is what I did.
Speaker 2: I did like a collective.
Speaker 6: Of those Dinger best balls over an underdog and I
Speaker 6: got I paired Cheerio and Langford together because outfield is
Speaker 6: monstrous in those leagues. It really stinks, and they go
Speaker 6: crazy high, and I pivoted away while getting elite picture
Speaker 6: because they do like infield, outfield and pitcher, and I
Speaker 6: did like elite infield and pitching. I would get one
Speaker 6: good outfielder and then I would go and grab Langford
Speaker 6: and Cheerio. And I did that in like three of
Speaker 6: my Dinger drafts. I have a lot of shares in
Speaker 6: best ball of those guys, but you know there's some volatility.
Speaker 1: I didn't get a lot of Cheerio and redraft because
Speaker 1: I have him in so many of my Dynasty leagues
Speaker 1: that I like, I'm already kind of you know covered
Speaker 1: if he's good, I'm in plenty of leads.
Speaker 2: Ye, I'm really excited about that.
Speaker 1: Another Jackson Jackson Merrill we've already seen actually make his
Speaker 1: debut because of that, you know, early Korea series.
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts on him?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 6: I love Jackson Merril. This was one. This is gonna
Speaker 6: be my Joe moment. Like I've been telling you guys
Speaker 6: about this a long time ago, Like this is one
Speaker 6: I've been saying, Joe.
Speaker 2: I know I did it too. He's blue.
Speaker 6: I have been saying this one for quite some time
Speaker 6: that like, watch out for Jackson Merrill. Uh being on
Speaker 6: the roster a lot this year and the outfield stuff
Speaker 6: was kind of looming around so much so that I
Speaker 6: did sprinkle a little tiny Rookie of the Year bet
Speaker 6: when he was plus like seventeen hundred. It's now moved
Speaker 6: to nine point fifty. You know, the only problem with
Speaker 6: him is gonna be like, what are the counting stats
Speaker 6: look like? I think there's some hidden power. I think
Speaker 6: he can steal some bases. What will not work is
Speaker 6: if like Iyamamoto is decent and Churio is like pretty
Speaker 6: dang good, it's just gonna be tough. Where Merrill could
Speaker 6: be like a Rookie of the Year guy is if
Speaker 6: he's hitting five and he's able to move up the
Speaker 6: lineup and he's scoring a bunch of runs, and that
Speaker 6: kind of brings it back to fantasy, Like I think
Speaker 6: he's a great like post two hundred pick right around there,
Speaker 6: he'll be in field outfield qualified guys like him and
Speaker 6: Saddana Rafaela. Those would be two Ruffeli specifically I'm drafting
Speaker 6: a lot. Those would be two guys I would be targeting.
Speaker 6: I just don't know which direction it'll go with Meryl.
Speaker 6: I just don't know. Also if he's gonna hit out
Speaker 6: of like ever eight or seven or something like that,
Speaker 6: but there could be some injuries. He's he's a nice
Speaker 6: bet at the end of the draft with really solid
Speaker 6: upside because you know, sky's the limit with him. He
Speaker 6: really could be a guy that ends up stealing thirty
Speaker 6: plus bases or could hit twenty homers. And a lot
Speaker 6: of people don't believe that.
Speaker 5: He's betting ninth ninth right now, but they only really
Speaker 5: have like one other legit left handed bat in that lineup,
Speaker 5: and it's cronin Worth betting third right now. So through
Speaker 5: his potential, if he does get up to a hot start,
Speaker 5: they might want to move that lefty bat up higher
Speaker 5: than I would love.
Speaker 6: To see, like personally, Meryl leading off, then go into Bogarts,
Speaker 6: then go in Tatis Machado, and then try to throw
Speaker 6: another lefty that's a little too righty heavy, But like
Speaker 6: you could do that with Bogart's Tatisa Machado. And I
Speaker 6: don't think that's out of the realm of possibility because
Speaker 6: like they embraced Merrill on this team, the Brewers, Pat
Speaker 6: Murphy's he's just old staunchy, just like you know, like
Speaker 6: he's not embracing Cheerio to that team has embraced Merrill
Speaker 6: to the point where it's like if they were having
Speaker 6: a little bit of lineup struggles, I could absolutely see
Speaker 6: if Merrill's hitting well, moving up in that lineup.
Speaker 2: So that's a positive.
Speaker 1: You talk about being in on a guy early. My
Speaker 1: very good buddy watched Jackson Merrill in high school play
Speaker 1: in the Maryland State championship game because his alma mater
Speaker 1: was going up against Saverna Park, and his alma mater
Speaker 1: one that one sure would.
Speaker 2: So he's been he's been watching Jackson Merrill for.
Speaker 1: Like three years, the best two, yeah, and then the
Speaker 1: last guy that's on the opening day roster. We've talked
Speaker 1: a lot about speed in this segment. Victor Scott the second.
Speaker 1: I mean over under fifty steals this year. I mean,
Speaker 1: what are we looking at here?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 6: And this is a guy I have a great relationship
Speaker 6: with Victor. I interviewed him at the Arizona Fall League.
Speaker 6: We talked like a ton. It was actually me in
Speaker 6: Ineno Serris. If you ever listened to the interview, we're
Speaker 6: kind of doing a dual thing, and we were talking
Speaker 6: a lot about the stolen bases. Victor is, first off,
Speaker 6: just like a great guy, an incredible dude, and he
Speaker 6: is an immensely talented player all off season long, analytics,
Speaker 6: trying to improve his swing, trying to get more homer
Speaker 6: and power. If people don't know, ninety four stolen bases
Speaker 6: in the minder. One got taken away from him by
Speaker 6: the way, which is crazy. With the Arizona folly, he
Speaker 6: stole over one hundred bases. Here's the tricky part. As
Speaker 6: much of a Victor Scott fan as I am, there
Speaker 6: is no guarantee because it took all these injuries to
Speaker 6: get him on the roster, there's no guarantee he sticks around.
Speaker 6: Why he can stick around, for any pessimist about it
Speaker 6: is he's a gold glove defender, one a minor league
Speaker 6: gold glove. He's an incredible defender if the bat stays
Speaker 6: alive outside of just like veteran love, there's no reason
Speaker 6: to get like Carlson or Edmund like Victor Scott's the
Speaker 6: best of all those guys defensively. So does he steal
Speaker 6: fifty bases? If he plays one hundred games, he steals
Speaker 6: fifty bases. If he plays eighty games, he might still
Speaker 6: still fifty bases. You should my point, and I said
Speaker 6: this a couple of weeks prior, even when he got
Speaker 6: like sent down and it kind of stunk. You should
Speaker 6: draft Victor Scott if this works out, If he makes
Speaker 6: a roster and then he didn't pray to God you
Speaker 6: didn't cut him, because then two days later Carlson slams
Speaker 6: into Walker out here in Phoenix, and then now he's out.
Speaker 6: Victor Scott is the type of guy that could never
Speaker 6: let go of this job. But there is a logjam
Speaker 6: of outfielders here. I would hold on to Victor right
Speaker 6: now and see what happens over the next month. He
Speaker 6: could be sent down in two weeks, but when he
Speaker 6: gets on base, this everyone's like a Stury Ruiz or
Speaker 6: Victor Scott. Victor Scott is a contact hitter. He's got
Speaker 6: real power. He is exponentially better than as Sturry Ruiz,
Speaker 6: as Swy Ruiz. But it's just going to be about
Speaker 6: the playing time that they are gonna end up giving him.
Speaker 6: I would hold for a month to see what it
Speaker 6: looks like. Even if he's sent down, I would hold
Speaker 6: on to it because I legit, think over one hundred
Speaker 6: and six games and even in his rookie year, Victor
Speaker 6: Scott could steal sixty plus bases, And as this guy grows,
Speaker 6: I would not be shocked to see him at the
Speaker 6: major league level stealing like eighty plus.
Speaker 1: Especially seeing Stone bases Spike, you know, with the new
Speaker 1: rules in everything, Yeah, exactly setting up so well for
Speaker 1: him to do that.
Speaker 2: Any thoughts on Scott mayor.
Speaker 5: My only real thought is my only worry, and there's
Speaker 5: this is completely unjustified and not real analysis, but I
Speaker 5: feel like I have like Cardinals outfielder fatigue because we've
Speaker 5: just been doing this for like eight years where they've
Speaker 5: just been cycling. They always have like five good outfielders
Speaker 5: and then it turns out like none of them were good,
Speaker 5: and it.
Speaker 4: Feels like we've just been doing that.
Speaker 6: Forever, but none of them are like good defenders like
Speaker 6: Victor vic I've said this, Victor is like Mason win
Speaker 6: and Mason Wins deal was if you put him at short,
Speaker 6: the dude has to hit under one hundred to get
Speaker 6: him off because he's your best defender. He's the best
Speaker 6: defender on that team. On the infield. Victor's kind of
Speaker 6: the same way. He's the fastest guy, he's your best
Speaker 6: outfield defender, and he's your best runner. So give me
Speaker 6: the reasons why he can't be on the roster. What
Speaker 6: was the reason, Well, we want to see Dylan Carlson
Speaker 6: and we got and you're gonna cut that out. Carlson's hurt. Yes,
Speaker 6: it could be like, well, we don't want him to
Speaker 6: lose his job because of injury, but it's gonna be
Speaker 6: a crazy justification for Victor to not stick around. But
Speaker 6: guess what if he hits like two ten and maybe
Speaker 6: has an error here or there, they can send him down.
Speaker 2: Even if he's, by the way, hitting three p fifty.
Speaker 6: They could send him. They sent Jordan Walker down last
Speaker 6: year after hitting two eighty and they sent him down.
Speaker 6: So don't think the Cardinals won't. And that's what's dangerous
Speaker 6: about getting into like. I would never bet like Victor
Speaker 6: Scott is going to lead the league in stolen bases
Speaker 6: because I don't know it. To your point, it's the fatigue.
Speaker 6: I don't know what the hell the Cardinals are going
Speaker 6: to do.
Speaker 2: I uh, you know.
Speaker 1: The whole time you're talking about Victor Scott, I keep
Speaker 1: wanting to ask about Henriy kue Bradfield with the Orioles,
Speaker 1: because he's describing a lot.
Speaker 2: Of him, so he's a Instead.
Speaker 1: Of that, since we don't have time, I'll ask about
Speaker 1: a different oriol who didn't make the opening day roster,
Speaker 1: who game close another Jackson Jackson holiday of course number
Speaker 1: one prospect in baseball consensus, you know, everywhere you look.
Speaker 1: I was highly disappointed, and make it they are, of course,
Speaker 1: you know, claiming it's not because of service time manipulation.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to believe. He clearly would be
Speaker 1: the best second based option on the team. I feel
Speaker 1: strongly about considering they're rolling out like Tony Kemp and
Speaker 1: they had Colton Wong and I don't even know who
Speaker 1: else is playing second, assuming Westburg's at third, So we'll
Speaker 1: see kind of how long he's held down. I would
Speaker 1: hope he would come up soon. Is he at the
Speaker 1: top of your prospects to Stash list?
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
Speaker 6: I think the article is out by the way, the
Speaker 6: named prospects to stash for the opening week, It is
Speaker 6: absolutely Jackson Holiday. I feel, I can be honest with you,
Speaker 6: a gut feeling, this gut feeling that Jackson's gonna be up,
Speaker 6: like really really soon. Like we did this great show
Speaker 6: with Craig Mish on betting Pros talking about futures, and
Speaker 6: he just instantly was saying, Nah, it's still Jackson Holiday.
Speaker 6: I think Jackson Holiday he's my number one prospect. And
Speaker 6: I know that's crazy in a world of white length,
Speaker 6: but I think his floor is low. I do think
Speaker 6: there's manipulation, and I just would be shocked if May
Speaker 6: first gets here and he's not on the roster. Another
Speaker 6: goofy thing. If you just want to pay attention to
Speaker 6: the markets, He's plus four fifty for Rookie of the Year.
Speaker 6: He's the third highest bet and he's not on the
Speaker 6: roster right now. I mean like that also tells you
Speaker 6: something about where the market is sitting on a guy
Speaker 6: like this, that he is within, you know, a point
Speaker 6: of Evan Carter, two points of Whya at Langford, like
Speaker 6: they're still all in the same territory. He is the
Speaker 6: number one stash like Victor Scott, and that's a really
Speaker 6: tough one. Who would you rather stash Victor Scott in
Speaker 6: that it could be sent down or would you rather
Speaker 6: stash to Jackson Holiday? I probably I trust them. When
Speaker 6: Holiday's up, he ain't going back down, and I think
Speaker 6: he's gonna I think he's just steal a ton of bases.
Speaker 6: I had Welsh projected thirty five stolen bases from him
Speaker 6: this year, and I still think he can do that.
Speaker 6: If he plays over one hundred and thirty one hundred
Speaker 6: and forty games, I think he will run like crazy.
Speaker 6: My interpretation of Jackson Holiday will be a better batting
Speaker 6: average Rookie of the Year Bobby Witt. That's how I
Speaker 6: think Jackson Holiday like Bobby Witch rookie season. Bobby Witch
Speaker 6: rookie season. If you remember he was twenty thirty. That's
Speaker 6: how I think Jackson Holiday can go, but probably higher
Speaker 6: stolen bases, little bit lower power.
Speaker 1: Well, you can't get me going like that on the show.
Speaker 1: I love Holiday, I love him, My gosh. He wasn't
Speaker 1: the only oriole set Dad, of course, I mean Kowser
Speaker 1: was up, but Kars Dad, Kobe Mayo, Connor Norby. They
Speaker 1: just have so many options that I don't know how
Speaker 1: they're going to find time for these guys. They're gonna
Speaker 1: have to make make moves the other names. We don't
Speaker 1: have to go through these each individually because we're running
Speaker 1: a long on time. But you know, Paul Skins Junior, Cameronaro,
Speaker 1: Kyle Manzarro, Chased a louder. Any of these stand out
Speaker 1: as like, you know, prospects of sash that you're really,
Speaker 1: you know, excited to have on your roster.
Speaker 2: If you have a spot at the end of your bench.
Speaker 6: I think the only one that I'm in stash mode
Speaker 6: for is Cam and Arrow. That's another guy that I
Speaker 6: just don't know how long they're gonna hold him down
Speaker 6: like this is a classic raise also maybe manipulation thing,
Speaker 6: because you know, what's your number one thing to do
Speaker 6: as soon as a guy gets up, they're gonna trade him,
Speaker 6: or as soon as the contract is up, they're gonna
Speaker 6: trade them because they won't pay him. Is camon Aro
Speaker 6: is gonna, I assume be up by like May. But
Speaker 6: they let Austin Shenton, who, by the way, is like
Speaker 6: actually a really good prospect, older guy, but he made
Speaker 6: the roster because Ronda was hurt. There's only so long
Speaker 6: that like Ronda and Estok paridies and stuff are going
Speaker 6: to hold him down. Kevin Aro's the.
Speaker 2: Guy would hold But I will tell you all of
Speaker 2: those others.
Speaker 6: I'm paying attention to. I've been screaming about de Lauter
Speaker 6: for a long time. I really like kle Manzardo. He
Speaker 6: was one of those guys I got to interview in
Speaker 6: the Arizona Fall League. Those guys I think can change
Speaker 6: the scope of what we know from the Guardians lineup.
Speaker 6: So those are two offensive bats. If they get the
Speaker 6: call up, or we get a month into the season
Speaker 6: and they haven't, there's nothing bruin. I would stash them.
Speaker 6: Paul Skeins is the unknown. I mean, if you can
Speaker 6: stomach it, absolutely you should. But I think his timeline
Speaker 6: could be April fifteenth, to July fifteenth or longer. I mean,
Speaker 6: you just don't know what the pirates and what that
Speaker 6: team is going to look like. I really don't have
Speaker 6: good gauge. It's gonna be more determining of like how
Speaker 6: can you and what is your level of stash. Also,
Speaker 6: it's a pitching guy like pictures are kind of tough. So,
Speaker 6: I mean, Bryce Miller was one of the most uniquely
Speaker 6: great rookies last year, but Caminaro is the one I'm
Speaker 6: stashing now. The other three are on my hot watch list,
Speaker 6: and as the weeks go by, we get into like
Speaker 6: I'm gonna pick them up like Manzarto in Skeins if
Speaker 6: it gets to May first, even if there's no rumblings,
Speaker 6: I am gonna pick them up because I do think
Speaker 6: we are starting to get into like weeks away territory.
Speaker 1: We don't have time for you to go into detail,
Speaker 1: but just give me in order how you would rank
Speaker 1: these five prospects in ditey because we're talking about so
Speaker 1: many elite guys, So just give me the names. Why
Speaker 1: at Langford Jackson, Cheerio Jackson, Holliday, Paul Skeins, Junior, Camenaro.
Speaker 6: Okay, I have it Holiday Langford, Cheerio Camonaro schemes. That's
Speaker 6: my that's actually my prospect rank, and that is also
Speaker 6: my Dynasty rank because uniquely, all of those guys will
Speaker 6: not prospects by the end of this year. That's what's
Speaker 6: so cool about that, and that's why there's not a
Speaker 6: lot of deviation.
Speaker 2: All right, let's move to the end of the show.
Speaker 1: We're going to wrap up the show each week with
Speaker 1: sort of our what are we most excited for this
Speaker 1: weekend and for this week since opening day? You can
Speaker 1: kind of be kind of a bigger picture, what are
Speaker 1: you most excited for for the season?
Speaker 2: And Mayor I'll start with you.
Speaker 5: So sure, So a guy we already talked about earlier
Speaker 5: in the show, I'm excited to see the Tampa Bay
Speaker 5: Rays version of Aaron Savali. So we're getting Zach Eflin
Speaker 5: on Thursday and Savally on Friday, and I'm ready to
Speaker 5: see the first glimpse of, you know, in a regular
Speaker 5: season game of the new Aaron Savali. And I promise
Speaker 5: every week I'm not going to only talk about raise
Speaker 5: pictures because I know I've done two weeks of Eflyn now,
Speaker 5: so no more Eflyn for a couple of weeks, but
Speaker 5: maybe another week of Savai.
Speaker 4: We'll see how he does this week.
Speaker 5: And then the bonus one is that you know, the
Speaker 5: main complaint everyone has in Fantasy every year is you know,
Speaker 5: we know all these guys are going.
Speaker 4: On the IL this week, but none of them are
Speaker 4: on the IL yet.
Speaker 5: But as of like tomorrow, and maybe you have to
Speaker 5: wait till Friday because we already have two games to
Speaker 5: postponed that as of tomorrow, a lot of those guys
Speaker 5: will officially be on the injured list and we'll be
Speaker 5: able to make pickups for our teams this weekend.
Speaker 1: I missed out on picking up Victor Scott in a
Speaker 1: league because I was like, I have all these injured
Speaker 1: guys that I can't drop, but can we please get
Speaker 1: them on IL so I can go make other pickups.
Speaker 2: So I am right there with you.
Speaker 1: It is so frustrating to know, like, beyond a shadow
Speaker 1: of doubt, this guy's on IL and not be able
Speaker 1: to do anything with it. On your rosters, Welsh, I
Speaker 1: know that you were prepared for the prospects segment and
Speaker 1: not this, but anything in particular that you're super excited about.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, one thing is gonna be just crossing
Speaker 6: my fingers for my number one shared player. I mean,
Speaker 6: it's not gonna shock, but it also it's crazy. Corbyn
Speaker 6: Carrol is my number one shared player.
Speaker 2: That's why. How do you do is that even have?
Speaker 6: Well lucky, of course I love him, but I'm saying,
Speaker 6: that's a guy that's like a top four or five
Speaker 6: pick hog. And I did a Shares episode. Half of
Speaker 6: my leagues I have Gore mc carroll and and they're
Speaker 6: not keeper. I don't even know how it happened, but
Speaker 6: there's some best balls and stuff. I will tell you
Speaker 6: this opening day, this is the most excited I have
Speaker 6: ever in my life been for a Royals Twins game,
Speaker 6: to watch Paba Lopez and Cole Reagan's go go at
Speaker 6: each other. I'm I'm I don't think I'm betting it.
Speaker 6: I kind of want to bet it. I'm absolutely going
Speaker 6: to be watching it because that is two frontline starters
Speaker 6: and really watching Reagans Reagan's and Trek Scouoble. Getting to
Speaker 6: see both of these guys with that are being put
Speaker 6: in like the Tyler Glass now and the Pablo Lopez
Speaker 6: ranged to get to see them kind of go and unleashed.
Speaker 6: I'm very very excited about that.
Speaker 5: All concerned about the Cole Reagans spring training numbers, No.
Speaker 6: I'm as concerned as I am Logan Web giving up
Speaker 6: twenty six earned runs but only walking three. By the
Speaker 6: way in spring train, I'm not at all.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm exclusively concerned about spring training stats when they
Speaker 1: don't fit my narrative.
Speaker 6: And yeah, no, my narrative is super important here, guys actually,
Speaker 6: Like so if they're really good and I'm talking positively,
Speaker 6: that's what we're going to focus on. But if it
Speaker 6: doesn't fit it, then no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: The most exciting thing for me, you guys went with
Speaker 1: specific players. Today was pretty much the greatest day of
Speaker 1: my life because the Orioles sale became official and the
Speaker 1: bad man John Angelis can't hurt us anymore. Our long
Speaker 1: national nightmare is indeed over. It's the start of the
Speaker 1: David Rubinstein era in Baltimore. New ownership, just kidneans so
Speaker 1: many things, and I'm so very hopeful. Obviously the Oils
Speaker 1: are supposed to be great this season, like you know, regardless,
Speaker 1: but just having the new ownership, like it's it's going
Speaker 1: to be a very very very fun opening weekend in
Speaker 1: Baltimore with people just kind of feeling celebratory and really
Speaker 1: excited about this new era. The last thing I want
Speaker 1: to mention Mayor and I want to do some kind
Speaker 1: of competition, maybe a bed of some kind this season.
Speaker 1: We have not landed on what that will be, so
Speaker 1: we wanted to sort of solicit the listeners.
Speaker 2: Maybe Wels can think on.
Speaker 1: It as well, since you're here while I'm bringing it up,
Speaker 1: But any ideas for how we want to separate it
Speaker 1: from the home run calls contest leading off that's their
Speaker 1: own thing, so something different than that.
Speaker 2: But we want to do some sort of season long
Speaker 2: cycles here cycles predicted predicted hit for the cycle each week.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you pick your cycles every single week. It'll be
Speaker 6: great because it'll be like four payoffs. Also every nine
Speaker 6: years will hit one. Oh no, I got I got
Speaker 6: a great idea for you. I have one for you.
Speaker 6: How about you pick four players and you have to
Speaker 6: complete a cycle.
Speaker 1: Everyone get one single, one double, one triple. Hover that's
Speaker 1: a really good idea. I don't know how the triples
Speaker 1: are going to be really tough, but that's a really
Speaker 1: it's like a draft.
Speaker 6: You guys should draft you could draft your players or
Speaker 6: just do straight picks for a second.
Speaker 1: I think that's a really fun, contending option. We will
Speaker 1: strongly consider that. If anybody else has ideas, please send
Speaker 1: them in as well. But we I know this is
Speaker 1: a super sized episode. These will usually be shorter. We
Speaker 1: wanted to squeeze in both Welsh and Kelly for this
Speaker 1: episode because they're going to both be on the show
Speaker 1: so often this season.
Speaker 2: We want to kind of introduce everything.
Speaker 1: But I really appreciate everybody who stuck through for the
Speaker 1: full hour plus. Here to our first episode of the
Speaker 1: cycle four Mayor and Kelly and Welsh. I'm Ryan Wormley
Speaker 1: and we'll see again next week. Thanks for listening to
Speaker 1: the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Baseball podcast.
Speaker 2: Follow us on x, Instagram
Speaker 1: And TikTok at Fantasy Pros, and subscribe to our YouTube
Speaker 1: channel at YouTube dot com slash Fantasy Pros MLB