Speaker 1: Welcome in Brendos to Leading Off.
Speaker 2: The final week of Leading Off. That's right, I am
Speaker 2: your host, Chris Welsh. Joining me today is Andrew Seifer.
Speaker 1: You can find him on Twitter at Andrew Underscore Seifer.
Speaker 2: Me at is it the Welsh and Andrew? Not only
Speaker 2: is this the final week, this is your final show
Speaker 2: on Leading Off as you've been joining me for the
Speaker 2: last couple of months. How have the championship runs been
Speaker 2: going and is this going to be a tight race
Speaker 2: in the final week for that Rodo ship.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm feeling pretty good about that. I'm feeling very
Speaker 3: sad about it being my final appearance on Leading Off
Speaker 3: for the season.
Speaker 4: It's been a great ride.
Speaker 3: I guess I'm metaphorically getting moved down to the batting order
Speaker 3: no longer leading Off. But yeah, the teams are going great.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm sort of in cruise control, honestly. In that
Speaker 3: home league I've talked about so much. I'm up twenty
Speaker 3: points now heading into the final week, so I've kind
Speaker 3: of just blown the competition out of the water. My
Speaker 3: friend was messaging me during our fantasy football draft and
Speaker 3: he's like, I still can't get over that run you
Speaker 3: made in August, so it's a nice time to be alive.
Speaker 4: But I will miss being on the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent, Danas asked aw Man. No offseason
Speaker 2: as of this moment, not planned, but you guys can ask.
Speaker 2: You guys feel free to flood them with We want
Speaker 2: the Welsh, and we want the crew, the Peanuts and
Speaker 2: the cracker Jacks.
Speaker 1: We want more. You just got to flood them and
Speaker 1: let him know.
Speaker 2: But as far as I know, this is the final
Speaker 2: week and and coming up on Friday, but the final show,
Speaker 2: I have confirmed it. We have a celebrity joining us
Speaker 2: on Friday, mister Joe Pisa Pia is weak and he
Speaker 2: will be back for the final show. And another piece
Speaker 2: of news, it's his birthday today, so birthday, no, it'll
Speaker 2: be you know what. And I was thinking about this too.
Speaker 2: We should we should have had I should have talked
Speaker 2: to Wonky about this. What a great day this would
Speaker 2: have been to have a home run bonus. We really
Speaker 2: it's not my contest, then the home run bonus. I
Speaker 2: thought it would have been really great if every day
Speaker 2: this week there was a bonus in this final run
Speaker 2: and today's bonus would have been double homers for any
Speaker 2: bald player that you pick that hits a home run
Speaker 2: today in honor of Joe Piezapia, who I think turned.
Speaker 1: Sixty eight this year, so you know, hat tip to Joe.
Speaker 2: He's closing in on retirement and his birthday is today,
Speaker 2: so make sure you shout him out and he will
Speaker 2: be back again with us on Friday, the old crew
Speaker 2: of me and Joe back in the saddle. So people
Speaker 2: asking I don't know who to hit up, So I
Speaker 2: mean I kind of do. But you can hit up
Speaker 2: all of the people over in the discord, all the
Speaker 2: main important people you want off season.
Speaker 1: Feel free to ask.
Speaker 2: But as of this moment, that Joe and I show
Speaker 2: on Friday should be the last one. But we don't
Speaker 2: need to focus on that.
Speaker 3: Well, I knew I liked that Joe guy, and now
Speaker 3: I know why because my birthday's tomorrow. So sleebra's to
Speaker 3: stick together. Us hairless guys got to stick together. So
Speaker 3: happy birthday, Joe.
Speaker 1: Happy birthday.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 1: You could probably be his son. I think, what are
Speaker 1: you going to turn like thirty thirty.
Speaker 4: One something right here in the ballpark, as they.
Speaker 2: Said, yeah, and Joe's like, you know, it's like in
Speaker 2: the sixties, or something. Joe's not really, but you know
Speaker 2: we like to play like that. Yeah, Wonky, I could
Speaker 2: have decided that, but I should have thought of it earlier.
Speaker 2: I thought of it literally as I was talking with
Speaker 2: Joe yesterday. I was talking with him yesterday and we
Speaker 2: didn't talk about birthdays. I didn't know it was but
Speaker 2: it would have been. Uh, it would have been fun
Speaker 2: to do that. Oh, and Wonkey says, you can email
Speaker 2: info address on Fantasy Pros if you'd like.
Speaker 1: If you guys want some more off season.
Speaker 2: I would love to do some more off season with Wonky,
Speaker 2: with Andrew and with.
Speaker 1: The whole crew. But you know, we'll have to see.
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of applicable stuff there.
Speaker 2: But let's talk about the things that have got us
Speaker 2: here to our championships, or just the likes of baseball.
Speaker 1: Albert Albert pooholes.
Speaker 2: As Will Fare would have said, as as Harry Carey.
Speaker 2: Albert pool holes hom twice on Friday to become the
Speaker 2: fourth player to reach seven hundred homers in his career.
Speaker 2: And if I remember correctly, I believe.
Speaker 1: He did it on Apple TV. Isn't that right? So
Speaker 1: nobody saw it? Nobody?
Speaker 4: Why?
Speaker 2: Only reason I did, by the way, is because I
Speaker 2: got a brand new phone like a month and a
Speaker 2: half ago and they threw Apple TV in as part
Speaker 2: of my new service.
Speaker 1: So I have Apple TV. But I'm probably one of
Speaker 1: the like ninety.
Speaker 2: Four people who care about baseball that had Apple TV
Speaker 2: and got to actually witness it. Not on a highlight reel,
Speaker 2: but he did it. He officially did it. Andrew and
Speaker 2: pool Holes is at seven hundred.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so awesome.
Speaker 3: And if you had said at the start of his
Speaker 3: career that he was going to reach seven hundred home
Speaker 3: runs on Apple TV, people would have been very confused
Speaker 3: what you were talking about. But it's a wonderful world
Speaker 3: we live in with modern technology. I will say, you know,
Speaker 3: I feel like Albert pool Holes he's the true heir
Speaker 3: to the Hank Aaron legacy because a fun fact is
Speaker 3: that he never hit fifty home runs in a season,
Speaker 3: and neither did Hank Aaron, So you know, they were
Speaker 3: just the models of consistency. Forty home runs every single year,
Speaker 3: over and over and over again to get to that milestone.
Speaker 3: It's a great milestone and it's a lesson for Aaron. Judge,
Speaker 3: don't cut it too close to the end, because the
Speaker 3: closer you get to the end, the more pressure there
Speaker 3: is to do it. So Poohols was wisely getting to
Speaker 3: his milestone early.
Speaker 2: My favorite thing about all of this, too, is the
Speaker 2: internal stories of like the home runs of like you know,
Speaker 2: the one guy I think who caught seven hundred like
Speaker 2: immediately left the stadium and is being offered five hundred
Speaker 2: thousand to a million. I believe there was an auction
Speaker 2: price out there of a of a million. This is
Speaker 2: great story if everybody didn't see it about Mark McGuire's
Speaker 2: home run ball where the guy that caught it, they
Speaker 2: offered him all this stuff. Here's what I love about
Speaker 2: this time of year because of getting these stories. And
Speaker 2: they were saying this story about how you know, they
Speaker 2: offered him like autograph, fat a ball, this, that and
Speaker 2: the other thing, and he agreed to all of it
Speaker 2: except his one other thing was he wanted to meet
Speaker 2: Mark McGuire and McGuire said no, of course, of course,
Speaker 2: and the guy ends up saying, okay, I'm not doing
Speaker 2: it and sells the ball for three million dollars, you know,
Speaker 2: like a couple months later and made millions. And there's
Speaker 2: a lot of hostage negotiation stuff going on with these
Speaker 2: home runs with between Judge and Albert Poolhols, and I
Speaker 2: know we're currently in that with the with the pool
Speaker 2: holes seven hundred seven.
Speaker 4: I got a pretty cool story about this too.
Speaker 3: So my dad was actually at the game where Roger
Speaker 3: Marris hit his fifty fifth home run the year he
Speaker 3: hit sixty one, and his bat broke after he hit
Speaker 3: the home run and he handed it hit the bat
Speaker 3: boy handed the bat to my dad. So my dad
Speaker 3: has the bat that Roger Marris hit his fifty fifth
Speaker 3: home run with, and he has the box he kept
Speaker 3: scoring that game. So we actually went back and looked
Speaker 3: to make sure it was the right game because he
Speaker 3: was like because he hit the fifty sixth and the
Speaker 3: fifty fifth both against Cleveland, so we're trying to make
Speaker 3: sure it was the fifty fifth. So we went back
Speaker 3: and watched the video and there's a there's a clip
Speaker 3: of Roger Merris running into the dugout, and we froze
Speaker 3: the YouTube and zoomed in and you can actually see
Speaker 3: my dad in the second row behind the dugout at
Speaker 3: the game.
Speaker 1: So it's pretty got to authenticate that.
Speaker 2: And that's your retirement plan, Yeah, right, which I had
Speaker 2: a retirement plan like that. That's definitely pretty nice. And
Speaker 2: then also it's all it's all enshrined in like this
Speaker 2: hilarious conversation about chord cutting and how this game could
Speaker 2: possibly you know, they could possibly do this on Apple TV.
Speaker 2: You've got also the complaining going on in the NFL
Speaker 2: about the NFL being on Amazon Prime in general and
Speaker 2: maybe moving there. I don't think I think this is
Speaker 2: the tip of the iceberg into this, and I know
Speaker 2: over the last two years we've had it, it's a
Speaker 2: much bigger, different conversation.
Speaker 1: But you know a lot of people.
Speaker 2: Got pissed off about like the YouTube games and the
Speaker 2: Facebook games. We don't think we've seen anything yet. I
Speaker 2: don't think we're this is the smallest little thing we're
Speaker 2: in for. Because the chord cutting of streaming services purchasing
Speaker 2: more games and more games, it's going to get louder
Speaker 2: and bigger and it's going to be more intense. And
Speaker 2: I think this is this is that little tip just
Speaker 2: to remind us, like, look at you've got a really big,
Speaker 2: big time you know, record breaking a baseball piece of
Speaker 2: history that is stuck behind a paywall that most people
Speaker 2: do not have. I think it's going to get worse.
Speaker 2: I think it's gonna get a lot worse for people.
Speaker 2: But again, that's a conversation for a whole nother day.
Speaker 2: But congratulations to Albert Poolhols for doing it. We now
Speaker 2: don't have to have the stupid conversation of like, would
Speaker 2: he come back for a couple of games even though
Speaker 2: he said he would and blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: We don't have to worry about it.
Speaker 2: He did it. He doesn't really even care. Someone's going
Speaker 2: to be rich. I'm excited to see what the final
Speaker 2: bit of the numbers are and maybe he can attack
Speaker 2: on another too.
Speaker 1: If he's even getting to play at this point.
Speaker 2: If he hit the record, they might not, but you
Speaker 2: know what are they playing for this last week? Some
Speaker 2: other headline here pieces Ronald Acunya hit to go ahead
Speaker 2: RBI single also walked on Sunday as the Braves beat
Speaker 2: the Phillies eight to seven. I believe he had been
Speaker 2: out of the lineup for quite some time and it's
Speaker 2: going to be fascinating just to see where Acuna goes
Speaker 2: next season. But getting Acunya, hopefully for this back end
Speaker 2: of the week, is going to be a helpful piece
Speaker 2: for everybody. Also, Mike Trout Homeward doubled twice walk and
Speaker 2: also score three times for the Angels, say crush the
Speaker 2: Twins ten to three on Sunday. And Mike Trout coming
Speaker 2: through in this back half of like five months or
Speaker 2: so with a little bit of production for any Roto Championships.
Speaker 3: Andrew, Yeah, I mean he's a different player than he
Speaker 3: was in his peak. You know, he doesn't steal bases anymore,
Speaker 3: he doesn't hit three twenty anymore, but the power is
Speaker 3: absolutely still there as much as ever, maybe more than ever.
Speaker 3: So I wouldn't be surprised to see him continue that
Speaker 3: for a few more years where he's putting up forty
Speaker 3: home run seasons.
Speaker 2: I wonder if this is gonna look reminiscent at all
Speaker 2: of like this is his version of this where you've
Speaker 2: got the pitchers. Verlander's gone through this Kershaw Bumgarner where
Speaker 2: you are a certain type of player and then you
Speaker 2: can no longer do that thing anymore, and you really
Speaker 2: struggle with yourself in figuring out, well, I can't do this,
Speaker 2: You're still trying to be the old player, and then
Speaker 2: you find a way to work with where around it,
Speaker 2: and I know I'm dancing around it, but like Kershaw
Speaker 2: did that when he lost Villa, so he had to
Speaker 2: learn and he was having back issues, he had to
Speaker 2: learn to be a different pitcher.
Speaker 1: Verlander had that.
Speaker 2: But then Verlander found his velocity again, which is really
Speaker 2: incredible at an older age. And the same thing I
Speaker 2: kind of wonder with Trout where in twenty nineteen, you know,
Speaker 2: he still stole double digit bases. He'd been coming off
Speaker 2: of three straight years of twenty or more stolen bases,
Speaker 2: and then you have the pandemic year that's mixed in
Speaker 2: with a broken year of injuries in twenty twenty one
Speaker 2: that I don't know if either one of those you
Speaker 2: could really be like, oh, he is trying to find
Speaker 2: himself in a different way. He is trying to reinvent
Speaker 2: his game until this year because this is like the
Speaker 2: first full season he's had since the pandemic really took
Speaker 2: place that he's had to figure out how to be
Speaker 2: a different player.
Speaker 1: And we've kind of taken him and broken him.
Speaker 2: Apart because the guy's only still four bases from two
Speaker 2: thousand on four stolen bases from Mike Trout since two
Speaker 2: thousand he's had and I think just overall, yeah, twosand
Speaker 2: I'm sory, Yeah, two thousand would be that would be amazing.
Speaker 2: He played in twenty eleven, twenty twenty, you've seen the
Speaker 2: strikeout rate go up because I think you're seeing him
Speaker 2: find you know, getting back onto being an impactful power
Speaker 2: hitter is the way he's got to do it, instead
Speaker 2: of being this five tool player that's also stealing basis.
Speaker 1: That's just not part of his game anymore.
Speaker 2: And we're going to have to come to terms that
Speaker 2: maybe if he can find health and he can get
Speaker 2: that going, he is going to be a plus plus
Speaker 2: four category player.
Speaker 1: He just will not be five.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, honestly, this is a pretty standard age curve
Speaker 3: that you see with hitters. I feel like the power
Speaker 3: is the thing that they can keep the longest. I
Speaker 3: mean we even saw that with Albert Poohols, right, the
Speaker 3: power maintained in those down years with the Angels. It
Speaker 3: was the other things that went away, you know. I mean,
Speaker 3: Trout is never going to be a batting average liability.
Speaker 3: He's just too talented a hitter for that. But yeah,
Speaker 3: the strikeout rate of twenty eight percent, I mean, you're
Speaker 3: looking at a two eighty batting average like he's got
Speaker 3: this year, that's kind of the baseline expectation. I just
Speaker 3: find it interesting that pitchers actually seem to despite how
Speaker 3: much stress there is on the arm and how many
Speaker 3: injuries pitchers tend to have earlier in their careers. I
Speaker 3: do think we see more dominance from older pitchers than
Speaker 3: we do from older hitters. It's just hitters have a
Speaker 3: more sort of graceful, gradual decline, whereas pitchers can fall
Speaker 3: off a cliff, then they can re emerge and be
Speaker 3: dominant again. It's sort of like capturing lightning in a
Speaker 3: bottle with pictures, whereas with hitters it's kind of more
Speaker 3: of a longer term trajectory.
Speaker 2: Over on the In This League Fantasy Baseball podcast with
Speaker 2: Bagman and I, we are conducting a slow draft, early
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three draft, of course, and we're going to
Speaker 2: be breaking it down this week. Where do you think
Speaker 2: Trout should go and where do you think he went
Speaker 2: in ours?
Speaker 3: I would say Trout it is probably like a third
Speaker 3: round player, maybe second if you want, but yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean he's probably a top fifty overall player in Rodo
Speaker 3: and he's got a very high floor. He's not risky
Speaker 3: in any way other than of course he did have
Speaker 3: some injuries, but generally speaking, I feel like he's kind
Speaker 3: of like the rich man's George Springer at this point.
Speaker 2: I feel like, so maybe surprise you. It's a fifteen
Speaker 2: team roto mock draft ten. He went ten overall, so
Speaker 2: still maintaining that value.
Speaker 4: It's all rich for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it is a little rich for me
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: And actually he went two picks before my pick, and
Speaker 2: I still wouldn't have I don't think I would have
Speaker 2: taken him.
Speaker 1: I ended up going with a Bobby wit junior.
Speaker 2: But I think there's a lot of stolen base guys
Speaker 2: that are in there, but just interesting breakdown of like
Speaker 2: where his value is still perceived to where he's going
Speaker 2: to be drafted. He's literally almost being drafted in the
Speaker 2: same spot he was preseason. So this is this is
Speaker 2: why it's fascinating. And I think you can have Yeah,
Speaker 2: doctor Glenn says, you can have him in the first
Speaker 2: round he did go. I think he'll move further out
Speaker 2: as time goes on.
Speaker 1: Another guy that went in.
Speaker 2: The first round of that many Machado hit his thirty
Speaker 2: first homer of the year, also walked as the Padres
Speaker 2: lost to the Rockies. Few other notes as were burning through.
Speaker 2: Nester Cortes had six scoreless innings. Very impressive outing against
Speaker 2: the Red Sox on Sunday night in New York at
Speaker 2: four five with the two run homer. On Sunday as
Speaker 2: the Mets beat the A's thirteen to four match, Schuzer
Speaker 2: struck out seven walk nun allowed a loan run over
Speaker 2: six innings against the A's and Dray Jamison Diamondbacks with
Speaker 2: these young pitchers, dra Jamison didn't surrender a run over
Speaker 2: five hits in five and one thirds of an inning
Speaker 2: in a no decision against the Giants, Like incredibly impressive
Speaker 2: between what Ryan Nelson has maintained to do and what
Speaker 2: Dray Jamison is looking like right now. Probably back in
Speaker 2: rotation guys that don't really mean much to you. You get
Speaker 2: one start out of Dre Jamison if you want this week.
Speaker 2: What I wanted to ask you real quick is next season,
Speaker 2: Pete Alonso or Paul Goldschmid, who's the top first baseman
Speaker 2: in your eyes?
Speaker 3: Honestly, in a redraft format, I think you have to
Speaker 3: give the edge to gold Schmith. Just based on what
Speaker 3: he's done this season. I mean, it's just like Alonso.
Speaker 3: The thing about Alonso is he's he's kind of like
Speaker 3: Trout honestly at this you know, at this stage of
Speaker 3: Trout's career, he's a lot like Alonzo. He's decent batting average,
Speaker 3: but not going to excel there tons of power.
Speaker 4: I would say Alonzo.
Speaker 3: Has a little more power even than Trout, but not
Speaker 3: really much in the stolen bases category. So you're you're
Speaker 3: talking like a three category, three and a half category
Speaker 3: kind of a player, whereas, uh, with gold Schmidt, I mean,
Speaker 3: he's just done it all this year. So you know, certainly,
Speaker 3: like I could see the argument for Alonso just because like,
Speaker 3: if anything, he could even get a little bit better perhaps,
Speaker 3: and this has got to be the best we could
Speaker 3: see from gold Shmate at this year.
Speaker 2: It'd be this whole Like, I don't want to buy
Speaker 2: last year's stats with Goldman, he didn't make it into
Speaker 2: the first runt of our mock, but he did go
Speaker 2: before pet Alan. So I think it's an interesting conversation
Speaker 2: to have with those guys that first base has gotten
Speaker 2: a little bit more stocked up and we actually have
Speaker 2: elite players where I feel like, I don't know, kind
Speaker 2: of like lack the eliteness. Maybe we would throw Freddy
Speaker 2: Freeman into that, and Freeman's not even going in the
Speaker 2: top two.
Speaker 3: But it's a lot of Yeah, I think, I just
Speaker 3: truly I think, I like I had a point earlier
Speaker 3: in this season where I thought gold Schmidt was going
Speaker 3: to fall off and then he did so based on that,
Speaker 3: I'm not ready to just assume he's suddenly going to
Speaker 3: fall off next April.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Over on the injury front, Jeremy Paania cleared concussion protocol
Speaker 2: after having sustaining a head injury on Sunday. He's expected
Speaker 2: to be available on Tuesday. Short slight to games here
Speaker 2: on Monday. Dustin May was placed on the fifteen day IL.
Speaker 2: Dave Roberts stated that he could possibly be available out
Speaker 2: of the bullpen for the postseason if he's healthy enough.
Speaker 2: But for re Drafters, we know you have nothing to
Speaker 2: worry about. Edward Cabrera left Sunday start with a right
Speaker 2: ankle sprain. No bueno if you're counting on him. Jesse
Speaker 2: Winker is removed from Sunday's game with a bruce left wrist,
Speaker 2: but fantasy owners wouldn't have known it outside of not
Speaker 2: getting an zero for four with two strikeout performance on
Speaker 2: their card for him. Cal Raley left Sunday's game after
Speaker 2: aggravating an existing thumb injury, and Wander Franco was removed
Speaker 2: from Sunday's game with a hand injury.
Speaker 1: So no bueno. The injuries have stacked up for wander Franco.
Speaker 1: This is an interesting question.
Speaker 2: You just put together your final Waiver wire pickup article
Speaker 2: which is over on Fantasy Pros, and I figure maybe
Speaker 2: if there's a few of these wee can answer these
Speaker 2: throughout the show. I would love to get your thoughts
Speaker 2: on a couple of the hitters. Well, let's do that first,
Speaker 2: a couple of hitters that you targeted as far as
Speaker 2: pickups for this final week. If you're going for most
Speaker 2: likely head to head is not playing. If you are,
Speaker 2: you're crazy. But Roto championships are on the line right now.
Speaker 2: Who are a couple of the hitter pickups?
Speaker 1: If someone is making some last desperation moves this week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so, as we talked about last week, Ezekiel Tovar
Speaker 3: has to be at the top of that list just
Speaker 3: with the potential that he has. But I will just
Speaker 3: caution that the Rockies just finished up their final home
Speaker 3: stand of the season, so you're going to be getting
Speaker 3: him on the road, I believe, against the Dodgers and
Speaker 3: Padres the last week, so not the same kind of
Speaker 3: hitting environments that he's going to enjoy next year. But
Speaker 3: I still think he can provide some instant speed.
Speaker 4: He's got a.
Speaker 3: Pretty good played approach for a player that's just coming up,
Speaker 3: and so I think he can hold his own in
Speaker 3: batting average.
Speaker 4: And Steel's power still developing.
Speaker 3: Josh Donaldson, I mean, we're talking about these old players,
Speaker 3: and he's been hitting really well lately. You know, he's
Speaker 3: had a ton of injuries over the recent years. He's
Speaker 3: thirty six years old now, but he's hitting in a
Speaker 3: great lineup with the Yankees, and he's swinging hop out
Speaker 3: right now. So as long as he's in the lineup, go.
Speaker 3: You gotta make sure he's in the lineup. But I
Speaker 3: think he's a good plug and play option. And then
Speaker 3: Hunter Green on the pitching side, you know, he had
Speaker 3: some ups and downs earlier in the year, which is
Speaker 3: to be expected from a twenty three year old in
Speaker 3: his first major league season, but then he missed six
Speaker 3: weeks with a strange shoulder in August in early September,
Speaker 3: and ever since he's come.
Speaker 4: Back, he's looked really, really good.
Speaker 3: We know, he throws insane gas over he had the
Speaker 3: most one hundred mile per hour pitches in a game
Speaker 3: in the pitch tracking era recent outing, and he gets
Speaker 3: the Pirates tomorrow, so that's about as good as it gets.
Speaker 2: Well, actually, funny enough, that was a question that we
Speaker 2: got from Ray made the finals.
Speaker 1: Would you drop Pablo Lopez for Hunter Green?
Speaker 2: A lot of positive Hunter Green talk in the chat
Speaker 2: going on right now as well.
Speaker 3: I got to look at how Pablo Lopez is set
Speaker 3: up so he gets the nets. Yeah, I mean that's
Speaker 3: that's kind of a tough outing. I mean, he's mostly
Speaker 3: still maintained what he's doing, so you know, I would
Speaker 3: be happy to use Pablo Lopez in that start. But
Speaker 3: if it's a choice between the two, yeah, I think
Speaker 3: I might actually go with Green.
Speaker 1: And if you guys got any other questions, feel free
Speaker 1: to drop them.
Speaker 2: We might try to hit those at the end of
Speaker 2: the show. As far as this week and you crazy people,
Speaker 2: Doctor Glenn I got head to head championships in two
Speaker 2: leagues this week. Come on Welsh, No, come on you
Speaker 2: doctor Glenn. You guys playing head to head into the final.
Speaker 2: I just I'm so adamantly not a final week guy.
Speaker 2: It is different, of course, it's a different world of
Speaker 2: non forty mans.
Speaker 1: I still just don't like it, but I get it.
Speaker 1: I get it. I'm just surprised. I think Gokard said
Speaker 1: the same thing.
Speaker 2: I'm surprised you guys have a lot of these head
Speaker 2: to heads going to the final week.
Speaker 1: But like Walky said, maybe it's like this I did thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I did want to say in the column.
Speaker 3: I also just talked a little bit of kind of
Speaker 3: broader advice, and it's just we have to remember at
Speaker 3: this point in the season the things we're looking for.
Speaker 3: I mean, we're looking for hitters who are literally on
Speaker 3: a hot streak right now. It doesn't matter how they've
Speaker 3: done all season. And we are looking for pitchers who
Speaker 3: have good spots starts lined up right now. It doesn't
Speaker 3: matter if they've had their ups and downs and been
Speaker 3: inconsistent over the course of the year.
Speaker 4: So you know, it's really.
Speaker 3: At this point saves and steals like those are things
Speaker 3: like that could just be freely sitting out there and
Speaker 3: can make a real difference, Like you can just pick
Speaker 3: a guy up and win a category. Those kind of
Speaker 3: players have extra value right now. So we really just
Speaker 3: have to simplify our approach at this point this season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is a complete just break your mind and
Speaker 2: just cut and go as you need to. This is
Speaker 2: a fun fact in the from Jeremy Frank, who I've
Speaker 2: done a couple panels with Jeremy Frank before, like at
Speaker 2: Pitchcon and stuff.
Speaker 1: He's a good guy.
Speaker 2: MLB random Stats is a Twitter follow Albert Poolhol's average
Speaker 2: home run trot over the years has been tracked by
Speaker 2: stat Cast is twenty six seconds, so putting that over
Speaker 2: as full career, Jeremy Frank tweets that Pool also spent
Speaker 2: just over five hours of his life running the bases
Speaker 2: after hitting a home run, which is a phenomenal stack,
Speaker 2: phenomenal stack, five.
Speaker 1: Hours of running.
Speaker 2: What I'm looking for will be the one person on
Speaker 2: the internet that will do this, that will pull every
Speaker 2: single trot and all five hours of those trots.
Speaker 1: And put it into one YouTube video. Oh yeah, it'll
Speaker 1: be there, you know, the Grand Opus.
Speaker 2: It'll be the greatest thing that's ever five hours of
Speaker 2: Albert pool Holes Trots. I'm looking for someone tag me
Speaker 2: and tweet me when it actually happens.
Speaker 4: That's very meta.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'll just be like in a state
Speaker 3: of peace when I'm watching that.
Speaker 1: I totally agree.
Speaker 2: It's like, you know what you ever like put on YouTube,
Speaker 2: like they have those like looped music channels, and you
Speaker 2: just sit there and you like, that'll be it.
Speaker 1: It'll just be like ever pool Boom just walk and
Speaker 1: you just go to sleep to five hours of pool
Speaker 1: Holes Trots. I think that.
Speaker 2: I think that's incredible. I really Abso let's go over
Speaker 2: to some stat heroes here. Petlanz four for five with
Speaker 2: a homer five RBIs. We talked about him on Sunday.
Speaker 2: Stephen Kwan, who I've been just having a lot of
Speaker 2: conversation about Stephen Kwan and how bad it was to
Speaker 2: start or good it was, and then it just tabled
Speaker 2: off for so long, really quietly putting together the counting
Speaker 2: stats that we dreamed of that he could put together.
Speaker 2: And he, like I said, I think I said this
Speaker 2: in the show last week. He's no longer a one
Speaker 2: category player. He's a three category player, which really makes
Speaker 2: him more serviceable and He had a combo meal over
Speaker 2: the week in a homer, two stolen bases, five RBI,
Speaker 2: going three for five with a couple of runs. Any
Speaker 2: thoughts on Kwan moving forward? I mean, this is one
Speaker 2: of those guys that hopefully preemptive moves.
Speaker 1: If he was dropped, you were able to jump on.
Speaker 1: But are you going to be in on Kwan next year? Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think so.
Speaker 3: I think he's like one of those players that it
Speaker 3: will probably still be a little bit underrated, just because
Speaker 3: you know, when they say chicks dig the long ball,
Speaker 3: everyone digs the long ball, you know. So the fact
Speaker 3: that he's I mean, he has hit a couple this
Speaker 3: last week, so that's nice to see. Maybe over next
Speaker 3: season he could at least get in that ten to
Speaker 3: fifteen home runner, which would be a huge plus. But
Speaker 3: as we said on last week's show, even if he
Speaker 3: doesn't do that, I mean, the fact that he's now
Speaker 3: stealing bases at a high clip. We know he's one
Speaker 3: of the better bets for batting average in all of baseball,
Speaker 3: and he's gonna score a lot of runs in that
Speaker 3: Guardians lineup.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean, I.
Speaker 3: Feel like he's one of those players that like people
Speaker 3: are not going to be excited to draft, but you're
Speaker 3: gonna look at the end of season where did they finish,
Speaker 3: And he's probably gonna sneak his way into the top
Speaker 3: one hundred or.
Speaker 1: Something like that.
Speaker 2: Those Guardians always have the guys, you know, like I
Speaker 2: don't get any type of w on this.
Speaker 1: I mean, if there's anything I'm.
Speaker 2: Really bad at, he's like the bold predictions because I'll
Speaker 2: just go off table and then if you look back
Speaker 2: on them, they just don't play like my home run one.
Speaker 2: But you know, like I just get like lost in
Speaker 2: those Guardians players, and you look at him and Rosario,
Speaker 2: who's one of my bold predictions. He's not gonna do
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty season, but he's just one of those
Speaker 2: guys like he has a like eleven homer, seventeen stolen bases,
Speaker 2: good batting average. He's actually kind of sneinky in you know,
Speaker 2: putting together. You know, I think I was even hoping
Speaker 2: maybe a fifteen homer, twenty five stolen base. There's just
Speaker 2: so many bases to be stolen on that Teamjmenez.
Speaker 1: And Kwan and Straw. That just gets me excited.
Speaker 2: I'm probably always going to have some type of love
Speaker 2: for any of those players, and Kwan is going to
Speaker 2: be one of those next year where you know, the
Speaker 2: the adding in your rookie season of this type accounting
Speaker 2: stats leaves a lot out there that like what if,
Speaker 2: what if Stephen Kwan ended up being like a low
Speaker 2: key Whit Maryfield. I mean, statistically he almost looks better
Speaker 2: than Maryfield this year. Maryfield's home run totals not high
Speaker 2: stolen base number. I think Kwan is now has more
Speaker 2: stolen bases than him that I wouldn't be surprised if
Speaker 2: we're valuing Kwan over Whit Maryfield into next year or something.
Speaker 1: To consider some.
Speaker 2: Other of these stat heroes, George Springer had two homers,
Speaker 2: Kyle Schwarber two bombs with his two four batting average
Speaker 2: or whatever it is. Mike Trout had a homer, as
Speaker 2: we mentioned, JD. Davis went four for five with a
Speaker 2: home run. Shout out to piece of PA. Brandon Drury
Speaker 2: two for five with a homer two RBIs actually just
Speaker 2: took him in our slow mock draft. Will Myers had
Speaker 2: a homer, and C. J. Abrams went three for four
Speaker 2: with a couple stolen bases. In that regular playing time
Speaker 2: and Michael Massey with a homer, four our bi and
Speaker 2: two runs. Do you find yourself at all are you
Speaker 2: going to hold back on some of the rookie hype
Speaker 2: next year.
Speaker 1: I was just thinking about that with CJ. Abrams. He's
Speaker 1: a fascinating case to talk about in the.
Speaker 2: Offseason, but there are so many of these young players
Speaker 2: that are going to now be given the full reigns
Speaker 2: and so many of these players that are going to
Speaker 2: be thrust into it to the beginning of the year.
Speaker 1: Do you think you're going to be.
Speaker 2: A heavy buyer on rookie or sophomore ish type of
Speaker 2: seasons like the CJ. Abrams or paying for some of
Speaker 2: the rookies that are going to have high costs.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't want to.
Speaker 3: I don't want to overpay for them at the draft table,
Speaker 3: but I will definitely always be in on rookies because
Speaker 3: the plus the upside is so high. I mean, you
Speaker 3: can talk about all the rookies that failed this year,
Speaker 3: but you could also talk about Bobby with Junior or
Speaker 3: Julio Rodriguez Michael Harris. I mean those guys were legitimate
Speaker 3: league winning.
Speaker 4: Type of stripers.
Speaker 1: People forget st with Strider.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly the rookie.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, So, I mean the upside is massive
Speaker 3: with these rookies. It's very common to see a few
Speaker 3: every year step right up and be you know, first round,
Speaker 3: second round talent producers right away. So yeah, maybe eighty
Speaker 3: percent of them are going to struggle and you just
Speaker 3: move on.
Speaker 4: But that's I feel like that's the way.
Speaker 3: To manage a fantasy baseball team is at least if
Speaker 3: you have bench spots to work with, you know, put
Speaker 3: guys on your bench that have that upside, and rookies
Speaker 3: are the guys that have that upside for sure.
Speaker 2: Pitchers on the positive side, Christian Javier struck out eight
Speaker 2: over six, a lot of just guys that went six.
Speaker 2: Nister Cortes give up only one hit over six, striking
Speaker 2: out five, Dylan Cees a low strikeout total.
Speaker 1: We're not used to that. Six innings, three walks, five strikeouts.
Speaker 2: Sureser struck out seven, as we mentioned, And another one
Speaker 2: of those rookies that I actually also drafted him in
Speaker 2: our early redraft was Nicolodolo, who went six, struck out six,
Speaker 2: and has been a strikeout monster this entire year. He's
Speaker 2: been really phenomenal on the zeros. Austin Riley went one
Speaker 2: for six yesterday with four strikeouts, Gonner Henderson oh for
Speaker 2: four with four ks, Still a little volatility there, Juli
Speaker 2: gariel O for five three k's, David Palta and Jose
Speaker 2: Ramirez both with three k's no hits over the weekend.
Speaker 2: On the pitcher bluch side killing you going into your
Speaker 2: final week if you had a few of these, and
Speaker 2: there's a few you would have had. Kyle Frielan couldn't
Speaker 2: get to the third inning, giving up seven earned runs.
Speaker 2: JP Sears hopefully you weren't streaming six earn runs and
Speaker 2: three and two third.
Speaker 1: Max Castillo gave.
Speaker 2: Up six earned runs, Mike Clevenger four innings, eight hits,
Speaker 2: five earned runs only, while Allie struck out two, Dylan
Speaker 2: Bundy didn't get to the fourth, give up four earned runs,
Speaker 2: Charlie Morton six earned runs, and Adam Waynwright only got
Speaker 2: to the third, striking out one, walking three and giving
Speaker 2: up four earned runs. Did you get smashed by any
Speaker 2: of these guys going into this final week that you're
Speaker 2: trying to recover from?
Speaker 4: I did not, Thankfully.
Speaker 3: I had Clevenger for big chunks of this season, but
Speaker 3: I noticed that his strikeout rate had tailed off since
Speaker 3: before the injury, so I felt like that was kind
Speaker 3: of a warning sign, and when he started hitting some
Speaker 3: bumps in the road, I moved on from him pretty quickly,
Speaker 3: pretty proactively, And I'm glad that I did, because four
Speaker 3: of his last five starts have been really bad, so
Speaker 3: hopefully no one had them and had him in their
Speaker 3: lineups at this point. And then Morton, I have to say,
Speaker 3: He's a guy I've always loved, always been very high on,
Speaker 3: but thankfully this year someone else drafted him before me,
Speaker 3: so I didn't have to suffer through it because he
Speaker 3: was great for three months in the summer, but the
Speaker 3: rest of his season has just been a total train wreck.
Speaker 1: Go cars.
Speaker 2: Maybe last thing I'd love to be in a draft
Speaker 2: room with Welsh where O'Neal Cruz is taken in the
Speaker 2: first round. Fun fact Oneal Cruz has not been taken
Speaker 2: in our early mock draft yet and we are in
Speaker 2: round ten right now, so just fun.
Speaker 3: If you have exit velocity as a category.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent, if Eve was, he would be a
Speaker 2: first round pick. If we were talking about how fast
Speaker 2: they throw the ball as an extra category, we you
Speaker 2: know what fan tracks is pretty customizable.
Speaker 1: I want to do one of those next year.
Speaker 4: I want to that would be fun.
Speaker 2: I want to do a league of just ridiculously dumb stats.
Speaker 2: It'll be like exit velocity on hits, on throws, putouts.
Speaker 1: It'll just be the dumb league.
Speaker 2: It'll be the dumb fantasy baseball league with no actual
Speaker 2: ale launch sure launch angle. We'll do a lot of
Speaker 2: that stuff. Yeah, we'll ce sw will have it. Not
Speaker 2: that that's dumb, but we'll have that as not a actual,
Speaker 2: like you know, categorical type of thing accounting stat We'll
Speaker 2: just put all that fun stuff in there that everyone
Speaker 2: likes to site.
Speaker 1: For Oneo Cruz love.
Speaker 2: It, love it all right, home run calls, frindos, someone's
Speaker 2: going to be winning that. Fernando Tatis Jersey signed for
Speaker 2: Nano Tatis Junior sign Jersey and right now.
Speaker 1: It is Cat Fox Cat Fox with fifty six.
Speaker 2: Homers as we are tailing out. I'm assuming this goes
Speaker 2: not till Friday when we end, but probably till like
Speaker 2: Wednesday or whatever. October third is when this contest is
Speaker 2: going to go through. So if that is the case,
Speaker 2: someone will have to let me know. I won't be
Speaker 2: able to announce necessarily the winner, but currently Cat Fox
Speaker 2: got a Mike Trout.
Speaker 1: Homer which puts them in the.
Speaker 2: Lead over Elscow with fifty five, Helpless in Miami at
Speaker 2: fifty four high Kubby twenty sixteen at fifty three, de
Speaker 2: Blum and Go Cards got back on the board at
Speaker 2: fifty two, so very tight race. With a tiny bit
Speaker 2: over a week to go, we are within two homers
Speaker 2: of the top three, so anything can happen at any moment,
Speaker 2: and wonky hit okay till a regular season, so that's
Speaker 2: till next week with a wonky bonus in there. Final
Speaker 2: day will probably have a wonky bonus.
Speaker 1: So it is all on the table for everybody. Friendos.
Speaker 2: If you guys want to get your bonus today, you
Speaker 2: can still do it over at BETMGM.
Speaker 1: Just just that promo code leading off.
Speaker 2: Get a thousand dollars risk free first bet up to
Speaker 2: that and you can make some awesome bets on props
Speaker 2: or It is going to be baseball playoff season, a
Speaker 2: great time to make the action even more exciting.
Speaker 1: Go over to bet MGM today.
Speaker 2: Our sponsors use a promo code leading off and you
Speaker 2: are gonna get hooked up and I put some bets
Speaker 2: together today. And Andrew, I'm excited to see what you
Speaker 2: have to say about these. Of course, you know my drill.
Speaker 2: Total bases ks the top and then the top plus
Speaker 2: money play on both of those. Tristan Cosas is the
Speaker 2: number one play of the day according to the Betting
Speaker 2: pros algorithm. Projected at two total bases. The number today
Speaker 2: is only one. It's half, so you need one total base.
Speaker 2: It is minus one sixty five at bet mgm for
Speaker 2: Tristan Cosas of the Boston Red Sox going up against Baltimore.
Speaker 2: The plus money play is Travis Darnault with Atlanta. It
Speaker 2: is one and a half total basis. He's projected at too,
Speaker 2: but it's paying you plus money on bet mgm at
Speaker 2: plus one fifteen. That was the number one plus money
Speaker 2: total base play that I found on betting pros prop
Speaker 2: cheat sheet, the Pitching Ones. This one was almost a
Speaker 2: plus money play. Luis Severino going up against Toronto projected
Speaker 2: at almost six strikeouts. The number is only four and
Speaker 2: a half and it's minus one oh six on FanDuel,
Speaker 2: so it's practically even money and the plus money play
Speaker 2: because there's not a whole lot of options.
Speaker 1: Today.
Speaker 2: You did get one Kevin Gossman, who is six and
Speaker 2: a half on the strikeouts projected at six sevens, which
Speaker 2: really tight. But it's going up against the Yankees and
Speaker 2: it's plus one ten on bet MGM. So MGM is
Speaker 2: giving you the big plays as far as everything goes,
Speaker 2: the best lines that you can find. So Cassas, Darnault, Severino, Gossman,
Speaker 2: anything you like out of these?
Speaker 4: Andrew Well, I really like the Severino one.
Speaker 3: I think that he he should be able to cruise
Speaker 3: past that so I and that's almost even money. I
Speaker 3: think that's a really solid bet. I'm tempted by the
Speaker 3: Darnault one as well. The problem is we need to
Speaker 3: see if he's actually in the lineup today because he's
Speaker 3: been in the lineup the last four games in a row,
Speaker 3: so there's a chance that he sits for this game.
Speaker 3: But if he doesn't, he's swinging a hop at lately,
Speaker 3: and you know he's facing a Corey Abbot, so it's
Speaker 3: a good opportunity for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and yeah, the char will be back.
Speaker 2: I'm going to bring the tier back on Wednesday for
Speaker 2: Walkee and then I'm going to bring it back on
Speaker 2: Friday with Joe.
Speaker 1: What you guys have for Friday, which is why we.
Speaker 2: Should flood the stream if you have the potential of
Speaker 2: the Crown, the King, and I guess the Queen, the
Speaker 2: Tiara and the Crown in one place together, which you
Speaker 2: have not seen. So that is going to be on
Speaker 2: the docket for Friday for sure. DFS. It's such a
Speaker 2: short slate of stuff. You know, there's obviously some implied runs.
Speaker 2: Pittsburgh actually might be kind of interesting to go with today,
Speaker 2: but you guys can kind of fin through that and
Speaker 2: that leads us finally to the home run calls, And
Speaker 2: this is your final final home run call of the year.
Speaker 1: So what do you got for us?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm going to go with my favorite pickup of
Speaker 3: the year and that's Michael Harris. So Michael Harris going
Speaker 3: against Corey Abbott. You know, if I wanted to go,
Speaker 3: I feel like the Braids are going to score a
Speaker 3: lot of runs in that game. It'd be easy to
Speaker 3: go with Riley, He's the biggest power bat.
Speaker 4: In their lineup.
Speaker 3: But I'm going I'm going with my boy, Michael Harris,
Speaker 3: who's made me a happy fantasy manager this season.
Speaker 1: Go Cards, Come well, I mean, you know, we're good here.
Speaker 1: We like this tire.
Speaker 2: We like to have fun, my friend, and it'll be
Speaker 2: fun with Joe and I. I wonder who Joe's home
Speaker 2: run call is going to be. By the way, it's
Speaker 2: going to be Aaron Judge like it is today, I'm
Speaker 2: not going to go with there and Judge, I'm actually
Speaker 2: go with the guy you just said. I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: with Austin wrighty. I actually would have liked Michael Harris.
Speaker 2: I don't want to jump on yours, So I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go with Michael Harris on I'm sorry with Austin Rightley,
Speaker 2: as you go with Michael Harris will stay in the
Speaker 2: same game. Wonkey has got Adley Rutschman, and Mike Mayer
Speaker 2: is going with Raphael Devers.
Speaker 1: And just if I.
Speaker 2: Had just gotten before it, we probably could have had
Speaker 2: that bald bonus. But maybe we can get a bald
Speaker 2: bonus on Friday. That would be kind of fun in
Speaker 2: the whole thing of it. Andrew, you did a fantastic
Speaker 2: job this season. I don't know obviously if there was
Speaker 2: you know, there's more shows in the playoffs or something,
Speaker 2: maybe we'll get more of you. But but the regular
Speaker 2: season goes. This was the final show. I really enjoyed
Speaker 2: doing these shows with you and all these episodes, and
Speaker 2: I think everybody did as well. You can find them
Speaker 2: on Twitter at Andrew Underscore Cipher. Any last things to plug,
Speaker 2: my friend.
Speaker 4: Just go check out that Waiver Wire article. It'll give
Speaker 4: you a whole bunch of names.
Speaker 3: It's even got some names for deeper leagues as well,
Speaker 3: so if you just look on the baseball page, you're
Speaker 3: sure to find it on Fantasy pros to give you
Speaker 3: a few names to get in your lineup and take
Speaker 3: home that Champ.
Speaker 4: And Chip do it.
Speaker 2: Find me on Twitter at is it the Welsh and friends,
Speaker 2: we've got the Bubba in the house tomorrow, Casey Bubba's
Speaker 2: hanging with me. We will be back same time on Tuesday,
Speaker 2: not the Tiara and the Crown.
Speaker 1: But it'll be the Bubba and the Welsh and then
Speaker 1: we'll have the Crown and the Tiara on Friday. Happy
Speaker 1: birthday to Joe.
Speaker 2: Go and shoot him at text and let him know
Speaker 2: until next time. Friends, we'll talk to you again tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Right here, and leading off for Andrew, I'm Welsh.
Speaker 1: Goodbye. Go in those ships, Go in those things. When
Speaker 1: two things