Speaker 1: Playing for keeps, let's talk to the pros. Welcome in
Speaker 1: everybody to Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy Baseball Podcast.
Speaker 1: To this b Joey p Joe Pizapia, and today we're
Speaker 1: talking about.
Speaker 2: The keeper league targets.
Speaker 1: We're talking about leagues that are starting up that have
Speaker 1: keepers involved. Some are one, some are ten, some are more,
Speaker 1: some are less. But we're gonna talk about some of
Speaker 1: our favorite targets. If you were in one of those
Speaker 1: drafts this year, that's just starting up guys in some
Speaker 1: of the later rounds and some of the early rounds
Speaker 1: too that we want to target, or if you're in
Speaker 1: those salary cap drafts, the one you want to spend
Speaker 1: some money on or maybe get some nice discounts on
Speaker 1: later on. The Welsh of course, is here to help
Speaker 1: me figure it all out.
Speaker 2: And don't forget.
Speaker 1: If you've got drafts coming up, make sure you use
Speaker 1: your draft simulator because it's right here.
Speaker 2: Right now.
Speaker 1: The MLB Draft Wizard is open for business here at
Speaker 1: Fantasy Pros. So go to fantasypros dot com slash Draft
Speaker 1: Wizard and you could start your mock drafts. You can
Speaker 1: do it in ten minutes. Go through undo. I just
Speaker 1: did one right before here. Actually I did two. I
Speaker 1: got a B plus on one and I'm an over
Speaker 1: so I went to another one got an A plus
Speaker 1: on the second one. So clearly my strategy is starting
Speaker 1: to take shape here. But you got to get your
Speaker 1: strategy straight before you get into the twenty twenty three season.
Speaker 1: You could do that fantasypros dot Com slash Draft Wizard again.
Speaker 1: Go get your draft on Welsh while you start off
Speaker 1: with one of your guys on your top ten list
Speaker 1: of keeper league targets for twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3: I also just want to add real quick that not
Speaker 3: only can you draft and use the Draft Wizard, but
Speaker 3: you can connect them to your own leagues, which I
Speaker 3: just did last week, and it is incredibly invaluable. When
Speaker 3: you even if you're drafting somewhere else, you connect it.
Speaker 3: You get the projections, you get us who we hate you,
Speaker 3: we love you, You get all the incredibly fun information
Speaker 3: even if you're not drafting on Fantasy Pro. So I
Speaker 3: just want to point that out because it is one
Speaker 3: of the most fun tools to use in the offseason,
Speaker 3: is a draft wizard. And it is not just one thing.
Speaker 3: It is many things. Okay, we're talking about keeper buys.
Speaker 3: This one is weird because it doesn't feel like this
Speaker 3: would be a guy that would be a keyper buye.
Speaker 3: But mister Mike Mayer is going to love me for
Speaker 3: it on Fantasy Pros, and I'm a big buy in
Speaker 3: on this guy. My number ten as far as keeper
Speaker 3: pickups this year, going with Ryan Mountcastle. Ray Mountcastle, by
Speaker 3: the way, is only twenty five years old. He'll start
Speaker 3: the season as a twenty six year old. Last two seasons,
Speaker 3: he's put up fifty five homers and an average of
Speaker 3: eighty seven RBI. In that time, he's hit a round
Speaker 3: two fifty with a couple stolen bases that have been
Speaker 3: thrown in. But a couple of things I've really loved
Speaker 3: on him over this past season. Expected slug rate this
Speaker 3: past year was the eighth best in the league at
Speaker 3: five oh nine. Eighth best. That also went with a
Speaker 3: huge increase from his batting average was expected batting average
Speaker 3: a two point fifty batting average with a two seventy
Speaker 3: seven expected batting average. Then on top of it, this
Speaker 3: isn't a one for one because they did change the
Speaker 3: dimensions and this might just be a part of Orioles.
Speaker 3: In general, we had the third biggest home run to
Speaker 3: expected home run differential in the league last year of
Speaker 3: qualif fight batters with an over five home run differential
Speaker 3: five homers. He had twenty two this past year. That
Speaker 3: would be twenty seven homers. And you put all of
Speaker 3: that together with really good, strong, hard hit numbers an
Speaker 3: offense that is trying to rebuild a team that is
Speaker 3: building itself back up. I have a hard time not
Speaker 3: buying into a post one hundred player who's under twenty
Speaker 3: seven years old. He's got a ton of underline analytics
Speaker 3: in his favor in an expected home run ratio that
Speaker 3: just looks like it's going to pop back up. I
Speaker 3: think Ryan Mountcastle is a nice, good, cheap option, even
Speaker 3: if he's not your first baseman, he's your corner infielder
Speaker 3: and he just qualifies on that young keeper range.
Speaker 1: So give me Ryan Mountcastle, all right, number ten for
Speaker 1: me on my list. Typically, I'm a little antsy when
Speaker 1: it comes to catchers. Francisco Alvarez just missed this list
Speaker 1: for me because he hasn't quite proven it yet.
Speaker 2: In the show.
Speaker 1: Got a little cup of coffee, but not enough to
Speaker 1: really know yet.
Speaker 2: It's more of a dynasty league selection. But instead I'm.
Speaker 1: Looking at Adlie Ruschman, catcher for the Baltimore Orioles. Last
Speaker 1: year thirteen home runs, forty two. He's hit two and
Speaker 1: fifty four for the Baltimore Oriols. If you'll get the
Speaker 1: minor league numbers of one hundred and eighty games, thirty dingers,
Speaker 1: one hundred and eleven RBI, hit two eighty one, three
Speaker 1: ninety OVP, forty seven slogging practically a three four to
Speaker 1: five guy. Everybody knows I love the three four to
Speaker 1: five guys. He's gonna be twenty five years old this year.
Speaker 1: He's in a better ballpark situation now that you know
Speaker 1: they've kind of made some adjustments last year where I
Speaker 1: think that it's going to look. I know it took
Speaker 1: away for some and I know the pitchers in some
Speaker 1: situations were very pleased. We saw the Orioles make a
Speaker 1: run last year. But I think Addley Rutchmand's one of
Speaker 1: these special players where it doesn't matter what the ballpark
Speaker 1: is like. You go back and look at him in college.
Speaker 1: I remember watching them at Oregon State. The guy just
Speaker 1: absolutely mash. I mean, he was just unbelievable. He's a
Speaker 1: first rate guy too, and I think that stuff matters
Speaker 1: when you look at a keepers, like guys who are
Speaker 1: going to be leaders of teams, guys who are going
Speaker 1: to be out there. Typically with the catchers, you're worried
Speaker 1: about them giving up some of the offense to learn
Speaker 1: the pitching staff. I think we got some of that
Speaker 1: adjustment last year. I think this year it's going forward now.
Speaker 1: Adley Rutchman's going to be a superstar in the major leagues,
Speaker 1: and a catcher just not a lot of great options there.
Speaker 1: There's a few, not a lot of great ones. So
Speaker 1: when keeper leagues, I think Rushman's were of those guys
Speaker 1: who was number nine on your list.
Speaker 3: Welsh, Well, I'm going to go with the pitcher. There's
Speaker 3: a guy that I've talked up a little bit over
Speaker 3: this offseason. It's Nicolodolo. First half last year and only
Speaker 3: about twenty six innings. It really took up a big
Speaker 3: portion of what he lacked in success. He had a
Speaker 3: five to eight one ERA. He was pitching to batters
Speaker 3: four hundred babbit four thirty five babbitb and over three
Speaker 3: hundred batting average in the second half, which equated to
Speaker 3: essentially three fourths of his season. He had a two
Speaker 3: nine to two ERA batters had an under three hundred
Speaker 3: BAB and a two hundred batting average overall. What's interesting
Speaker 3: about him there are twenty pitchers. If we're looking at Steamer,
Speaker 3: I want to point out the bat and the bat
Speaker 3: X is now out and these numbers look lower. But
Speaker 3: Steamer had projected two hundred strikeout pitchers. There were twenty
Speaker 3: of them this year. I believe the bat has around fourteen.
Speaker 3: There were only two pitchers that were outside the top ten,
Speaker 3: top one hundred in overall eightp that had those two
Speaker 3: hundred strikeouts. Those teammates and Nickelodolo. The difference Nickelodolo used
Speaker 3: ten percent or more on pitches compared to a two
Speaker 3: pitch pitcher. That Hunter Green is ten percent or more
Speaker 3: on four different pitches. For Nicolodolo, Green had a really
Speaker 3: great twenty eight percent whiff rate on his slider last
Speaker 3: year with a forty percent usage. Lodolo on his curve,
Speaker 3: which he used thirty percent of the time, had a
Speaker 3: forty six percent whiff rate, almost the exact same k
Speaker 3: percentage and a full mile per hour less on his
Speaker 3: ev Nickelodolo. I think he's just really prime for a
Speaker 3: big breakout. He's more of a control pitcher where a
Speaker 3: hunter Green's little bit more of a power pitcher. He's
Speaker 3: also a big analytics guy Niicolodolo outside the top one
Speaker 3: hundred overall, a young pitcher on maybe not a great
Speaker 3: team in a bad pitcher environment all things to consider,
Speaker 3: think makes Green more volatile. And I'm a Nickelodolo guy,
Speaker 3: so he's someone I'd be buying in on Dynasty and
Speaker 3: even keeper leagues who doesn't cost especially in keeper is
Speaker 3: not going to probably cost you top one hundred.
Speaker 2: Here's a sneaky guy in keeper leagues too.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to cost you as much
Speaker 1: as you might think at twenty three years old last
Speaker 1: year for the leveland and almost at Indians Nope, Guardians,
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Collars season without saying it. And this
Speaker 1: is what happens, you know, when you're still coming off
Speaker 1: of football, your mind is still fuzzy. Seventeen homers, twenty steals.
Speaker 1: I think in roatal leagues Andres Jimenez is a guy
Speaker 1: that people are just really sort of coming around on.
Speaker 1: Certainly a breakout year last year he's so young still,
Speaker 1: he's gonna have that job for the foreseeable future. He's
Speaker 1: in a good situation there. I think that the Guardians
Speaker 1: did well here in this trade when they gave up
Speaker 1: Francisco Lindor. Having watched him come up through the Mets system,
Speaker 1: you know, I saw a lot of Jimenez. It was
Speaker 1: just whether or not you would grow into any power.
Speaker 1: And I think last year flashing that for sixty six
Speaker 1: lugging that was a big positive for him, and two
Speaker 1: ninety seven batting average was terrific. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: a guy who's gonna hit for batting average, hit for power,
Speaker 1: give him soul bases in roatal leagues. He might be
Speaker 1: one of the best return on investments in keeper leagues
Speaker 1: right now. So I like the adp in those situations,
Speaker 1: and I like the player. I think he's got maybe
Speaker 1: another year, but even if he just becomes this guy,
Speaker 1: this guy's pretty good to keep, especially in those deeper
Speaker 1: keeper leagues. All right, Welsh, who is number eight for
Speaker 1: you on your list of twenty twenty three keeper league targets.
Speaker 3: Well, it's another one of these young guys. It's really
Speaker 3: interesting and redraft. He comes at a cheaper cost. He's
Speaker 3: going to be a little bit more expensive in keeper leagues,
Speaker 3: but you know what, it might not tick up to
Speaker 3: a crazy degree. Go with Vinnie Pasquinino with the Kansas
Speaker 3: City Royals is one of those guys that's on a
Speaker 3: little ho home of a team overall offensively that I
Speaker 3: don't think really helps. But you know, Vinnie was pull
Speaker 3: heavy and the power wasn't insane and about three hundred
Speaker 3: plate appearances he had ten overall. But we need to
Speaker 3: talk about those home run to expected home run differentials.
Speaker 3: Mount Castle's number three. Paus Quentino number four was number
Speaker 3: four in the league ten homers with an expected fourteen
Speaker 3: point eight on that home run total. You pair that
Speaker 3: with an expected batting average that was within right on
Speaker 3: his overall batting average two ninety five, batting average two
Speaker 3: eighty nine expected, no big difference how to higher x
Speaker 3: slug slug of four fifty and almost four. It was
Speaker 3: four to seventy six on his expect slug, which you've
Speaker 3: gotta love. And overall when you just take a look
Speaker 3: at him, there's big EV numbers. Had almost one hundred
Speaker 3: and thirteen max EV overall, I think a lot is
Speaker 3: working in favor of a guy that doesn't strike out.
Speaker 3: A whole bunch is going to hit for power that
Speaker 3: doesn't show up quite yet. A lot of underlining things
Speaker 3: work in favor of it. And if you do have
Speaker 3: a Royals team that tries to manufacture and you get
Speaker 3: modesty back in there, they're running a little bit more.
Speaker 3: It's more RBI opportunity, even though they kind of stink overall.
Speaker 3: Minny Pascuatino doesn't he walks, he doesn't strike out, He
Speaker 3: makes lots of contact, and there's power that's gonna come
Speaker 3: in there. A little Italian breakfast there for you, Joe,
Speaker 3: Minni pass.
Speaker 2: Have a good Italian breakfast.
Speaker 1: Can't get enough little espresso, you know, maybe a biscothy,
Speaker 1: very nice biscoti.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what are you Bisconti? I don't I don't know
Speaker 3: what biscuit? Well, a biscuit, you like a biscuit.
Speaker 2: Bisconti, You don't know what bisconti is.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, after the show, I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: send you a whole case. Uh it's a you dunk
Speaker 1: him in the coffee. It's like this Italian little biscuit
Speaker 1: cookie thing. And it's kind of shaped almost like a
Speaker 1: long you ish kind of thing in this chocolate. There's
Speaker 1: different one. I mean, we're gonna have to educate you
Speaker 1: on some of the Italians.
Speaker 3: Maybe Veny can educate men.
Speaker 1: You can Wander Franco by low Okay, geez, can we can?
Speaker 1: We not overreact. He's barely old enough to drink. I mean,
Speaker 1: twenty two years old here. And I know last year
Speaker 1: was disappointing. I was disappointed. I was expecting big things.
Speaker 1: I was expecting a power surge. It didn't happen. Injury
Speaker 1: happened instead. But there's a reason why the Rays committed
Speaker 1: so much money to this player. He is a special player.
Speaker 1: He is still just twenty two years old. In the
Speaker 1: minor leagues, he hit three thirty five with a four
Speaker 1: hundred OBP over two hundred and twenty four games. And
Speaker 1: if you combine and look at the last two seasons,
Speaker 1: you know he's got one hundred and fifty games there,
Speaker 1: thirteen home run, seventy two RBI, ten steals, two eighty
Speaker 1: two batting average.
Speaker 2: That's something to build on.
Speaker 1: I mean, I just don't think we're being fair to
Speaker 1: the Wander Franco evaluation system yet.
Speaker 2: And Wander Franco.
Speaker 1: Maybe he'll never be a forty home run guy, but
Speaker 1: I do think at some point he's going to be
Speaker 1: a twenty five to thirty home run guy, and I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be sooner than you realize. And I
Speaker 1: think you're in the unique position to buy low almost
Speaker 1: in keeper leagues on him for the first time and
Speaker 1: maybe the last time you're gonna be able to do that.
Speaker 1: Certainly the last couple years he was very hyped. He
Speaker 1: should be hyped. He's that good of a player. The
Speaker 1: Rays are the raised and they're always gonna have some
Speaker 1: deficits there offensively. But I think for me, Wander Franco
Speaker 1: is that perfect price this year to buy low in
Speaker 1: these keeper league drafts on him, or if you're in
Speaker 1: a keeper league, buy low on him and just enjoy
Speaker 1: this player for the next decade, because I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna be an absolute star. And we're just getting started
Speaker 1: still with Wander Franco. Let's not overreact to a down
Speaker 1: and disappointing year. All right, Next on the list here,
Speaker 1: that's my number eight, number seven for you, your keeper
Speaker 1: league target for twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna jump up the board now. This doesn't
Speaker 3: necessarily have to be a board where we're up at
Speaker 3: the top and then we down to the top guys.
Speaker 3: A draft overall necessarily not mine. This is kind of
Speaker 3: ranking and how I'm approaching this. So I'm going to
Speaker 3: jump up the board to a definitely a higher ADP player,
Speaker 3: but in a keeper league, I don't know if there's
Speaker 3: a priority, and I think there's still some value to
Speaker 3: be had at third base, and I'm gonna go with
Speaker 3: Austin Riley. And I know you're thinking to yourself, like, well, okay,
Speaker 3: Austin Riley might be a second round player. Keeper leaks
Speaker 3: you start to get some of the young guys in
Speaker 3: there that might push down. If you're talking about dynasty,
Speaker 3: Austin Riley is a player that actually could push into
Speaker 3: the third round in some places because he doesn't steal bases.
Speaker 3: And I think there's an overall question. I think people
Speaker 3: overall have maybe in the power. My point here is
Speaker 3: Austin Riley is the type of guy that I think
Speaker 3: can still push higher and can you maybe get you
Speaker 3: into a first round overall value, That's what I still
Speaker 3: think is on the table, especially if he pushes back
Speaker 3: a little bit and Austin Riley this past year had
Speaker 3: the eighth best slug percentage in the league or number,
Speaker 3: and he had the six best expected x slug. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's crazy, that's crazy to improve off of that, though,
Speaker 3: those power numbers are absolutely real. Seventy one homers over
Speaker 3: the last two years. His RBIs ticked down a little bit,
Speaker 3: his strikeout numbers came down, but his batting average came off.
Speaker 3: He was a three hundred hitter the year before he
Speaker 3: ticked down to two seventy three. And I think there's
Speaker 3: some value. I would not be surprised if Austin Riley
Speaker 3: pushed forty homers this year and pushes up one hundred hundred.
Speaker 3: He's more of a fat four category player, maybe three.
Speaker 3: But I would buy in on keeper leagues because he's
Speaker 3: still really young. And this is a player that could
Speaker 3: be a first run overall talent if you can get
Speaker 3: him in the late second or third round.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And some of these guys are going to talk about
Speaker 1: today that obviously the prices are going to vary. We're
Speaker 1: going to talk about the premium guys and the reason
Speaker 1: why you want to pay for some of them. And
Speaker 1: we're talking about some guys in the middle, and some
Speaker 1: of the guys we just mentioned too, Pas Galentino probably
Speaker 1: going a little later in drafts. There still a little unknown,
Speaker 1: still divisiveness there on the opinion Wander Franco kind of
Speaker 1: coming off a down year. Lots of different evaluations of
Speaker 1: a lot of these players, and again we're trying to
Speaker 1: give you a range, you know exactly, you know how
Speaker 1: you're can to approach some of these drafts. And look,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about some big time players and why
Speaker 1: they're still worth that big investment.
Speaker 3: And Franco's fascinating. By the way, it's a time for
Speaker 3: another conversation we could have, but Fronco is ultimately fascinating
Speaker 3: because I'm not sure there's a player in Keeper and
Speaker 3: dynasty formats that has a wider range of valuation than
Speaker 3: Wander Franco anywhere from the top twenty five down to
Speaker 3: maybe his redraft value, which is in the nineties. So
Speaker 3: there is a wide, wide spectrum of outcomes for him
Speaker 3: as far as how people value him, and that's what
Speaker 3: makes him really intriguing, especially if you're in a league
Speaker 3: where that value is quite a bit lower and someone's
Speaker 3: in the sixties or seventies is kind of given up
Speaker 3: because the counting stats will never catch up, and I
Speaker 3: agree with you, I don't think that's necessarily the case.
Speaker 1: And for me, I'm trying to look for guys too,
Speaker 1: who have proven something in the major leagues already. Like
Speaker 1: these are guys that you know, again, not pure minor
Speaker 1: league talent, guys, guys who have shown you at least
Speaker 1: something here in the major league level. And one guy's
Speaker 1: shown you a lot so far, and he's still just
Speaker 1: twenty five years old. Again, a lot of these guys
Speaker 1: and stay in that twenty six and under range too,
Speaker 1: so I know, like the prime of their career is
Speaker 1: still ahead of them, which is the twenty eight to
Speaker 1: thirty one years that's the prime typically of these players.
Speaker 2: So Kyle Tucker.
Speaker 1: Hasn't hit the prime yet, but he's got two back
Speaker 1: to back thirty home run seasons with ninety plus rebies.
Speaker 1: He's gonna steal bases twenty five last year. The batting
Speaker 1: average did take a tumble year over here.
Speaker 2: That's fine. But if there's one guy too, along with.
Speaker 1: Corey Seeger, where the shift change is going to help him,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be Kyle Tucker back to back years playing
Speaker 1: over one hundred and forty games as well. You know,
Speaker 1: he plays in a go ballpark surrounded by good lineup support.
Speaker 1: There's a lot to like here with Kyle Tucker. And
Speaker 1: this is a player too that is going to continue,
Speaker 1: I think, to even get better. But you've seen, my goodness,
Speaker 1: what a high ceiling he has. There might be another
Speaker 1: gear in Kyle Tucker where you get all the high
Speaker 1: batting average, you get all of the thirty plus homers,
Speaker 1: you get fifteen steals, you get everything in there in
Speaker 1: one season all together. I think it's very possible. I
Speaker 1: think it's probably coming very quickly. So he's one of
Speaker 1: these guys that I think is starting to you know,
Speaker 1: like he's a first round talent in any redraft leagues already.
Speaker 1: But we're talking about salary cap leagues and issues where
Speaker 1: we're gonna look at how much you want to pay
Speaker 1: for a player. This is the guy who's already shown
Speaker 1: you what he is and I think the best is
Speaker 1: still yet to come with him, which is huge. And
Speaker 1: I think Kyle Tucker is in a good spot right
Speaker 1: here at twenty six years old, to be a great
Speaker 1: investment where you might even overpay to get him. What
Speaker 1: do you think about Kyle Tucker Welsh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm into this. I mean, actually this really fascinating debate.
Speaker 3: Just the other day we were talking about Mookie bats
Speaker 3: versus Kyle Tucker, and that's the range that he's living
Speaker 3: in right now. Stolen bases, we can question how real
Speaker 3: they're going to be, but the powers there, the hit
Speaker 3: tools there were just one of those guys too that
Speaker 3: just you look and you're just like, why are you
Speaker 3: not hitting for more average? And kind of like Austin Riley,
Speaker 3: I also kind of think people are just not caught
Speaker 3: up on like the true value that he holds in
Speaker 3: keeper leagues, especially with top end power and speed. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm with that. I'm pretty aggressive on him. He's a
Speaker 3: top ten and no doubt, so anytime you can get
Speaker 3: him outside of that, whether it's dynasty keeper, that's another
Speaker 3: thing to point out as well. Dynasty's and keepers are
Speaker 3: not necessarily valued in the same way. That's something I
Speaker 3: had to adjust because I do a huge top four
Speaker 3: hundred dynasty list, but keepers they're all not created equal
Speaker 3: because you could be keeping two or three, or five
Speaker 3: or ten. So there's so many different ways to look
Speaker 3: at it, so proximity is more important. And that's also
Speaker 3: why we're not sitting here talking about Ellie Day, La
Speaker 3: Cruz or Jackson Curio in these keeper formats, because there's
Speaker 3: just so many different ways you can go right.
Speaker 1: And when you're talking with a player like Moogi Bets,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be thirty this year, Kyle Tucker, I'd rather
Speaker 1: have Kyle Tucker the Moogie Bets, even if the stolen
Speaker 1: base has never reached Moogie Bets levels or sustainability. That's
Speaker 1: why I prefer Kyle Tucker because I think you know,
Speaker 1: when you give me five extra years on a guy,
Speaker 1: it's a no brainer. Let's take a quick break in
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Speaker 1: Next guy on the list for you? Number six?
Speaker 2: Who is it?
Speaker 3: Number six? I'm gonna go with the exact opposite of
Speaker 3: everything we just talked about. I'm gonna go with a
Speaker 3: player that has very little track record, but he's a
Speaker 3: player that in a keeper format he still is prospect eligible.
Speaker 3: But he's a player that you're gonna want to get.
Speaker 3: And you know his price is a little bit higher
Speaker 3: right now in a redraft, which pushes it up, but
Speaker 3: there is top two round upside. I'm talking about Corbyn
Speaker 3: Carroll with my Arizona Diamondbacks, and Corbyn Carroll is coming
Speaker 3: off of a phenomenal Minor league season where he had
Speaker 3: twenty eight home runs. I got to go through because
Speaker 3: he had some complex level time here. He had twenty
Speaker 3: eight homers between complex and the major leagues. And I
Speaker 3: think there's a lot of questions that people have on
Speaker 3: him overall about like where is this power going to
Speaker 3: come from? Because he looks like a smaller guy. One
Speaker 3: thing I have cited multiple times Corman Carroll in his
Speaker 3: entire minor league since in twenty nineteen, has only once
Speaker 3: had an ISO under two hundred. So I want you
Speaker 3: to think about that ISO a measure of like overall power,
Speaker 3: and it has only been under two hundred once and
Speaker 3: that was that rookie ball as an eighteen year old
Speaker 3: in twenty nineteen. Since then, not a single level has
Speaker 3: it ever been under that. It's not crazy strikeout numbers.
Speaker 3: It's always been a good batting average, and it's elite speed.
Speaker 3: It is top one percent in the overall in the
Speaker 3: league for speed totals. And you look at projections, listen, Steamer,
Speaker 3: I think is more aggressive twenty homers nineteen stolen bases.
Speaker 3: The bat X kind of kills them a little bit
Speaker 3: down to twelve homers and sixteen stolen bases. I think
Speaker 3: you can make arguments across the board on where the
Speaker 3: power is going to be. But here's what I know.
Speaker 3: Everybody is understelling the speed. The speed numbers will beat
Speaker 3: every projection system this year. If he leads off for
Speaker 3: the Diamondbacks even half the time lefties and righty's, he's
Speaker 3: gonna have some good run totals. They are going to
Speaker 3: manufacture runs. And I am a believer in Corman Carroll.
Speaker 3: He costs a little bit more in all formats, but
Speaker 3: I think the upside in the return. I don't want
Speaker 3: to do the old Bobby Wit stuff, but I'm just
Speaker 3: saying thirty stolen bases is in my mind, and we
Speaker 3: might have fifteen to twenty homers. And there's a similar
Speaker 3: player that put those numbers up last year.
Speaker 1: Sure was Carol's a guy on my radar two. Gonna
Speaker 1: talk more about him later in the week, but twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three rookie of the Year in National League should
Speaker 1: be top of the board guy in my opinion, like
Speaker 1: that's you know, if you're going to be making those
Speaker 1: wagers right now, like that's the guy you're looking at.
Speaker 2: I think one of them anyway.
Speaker 1: But another great point too about just because a small
Speaker 1: player doesn't me can't hit for power. I mean, doesn't
Speaker 1: Betroit hit for power. Hoseel two a hit for power.
Speaker 3: Miki yeah, MOOKI. Actually, I've always been very intrigued. I
Speaker 3: never went and did this. I was going to do
Speaker 3: this a while back. I wanted to do this big
Speaker 3: minor league comparison on Corvin Carroll and Mookie Bets. I mean,
Speaker 3: he is smaller than Mooki at this point, but MOOKI
Speaker 3: never built into some big, crazy, big physical specimen or
Speaker 3: anything like that. And Corban Carroll's completely transformed his body.
Speaker 3: And this is a guy that for his size is jacked.
Speaker 3: Is very smart analytical. I really believe in the hit tool.
Speaker 3: I worry about slumps that are going to go on
Speaker 3: and how he's gonna adjust, but he's done it at
Speaker 3: every stop of his minor league career.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Next guy on my list is actually the oldest
Speaker 2: guy on my list. Old Man Show. Heyo Tommy at
Speaker 2: twenty eight years old.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of why he is not higher on
Speaker 1: the list, even though he is probably the best player
Speaker 1: in baseball, even though in most leagues he should be
Speaker 1: the guy. It's the pitcher and the hitter. There's also
Speaker 1: a huge risk in this because he's the pitcher and
Speaker 1: the hitter. It's the same thing we come through every
Speaker 1: single year with this player, which is if he has
Speaker 1: a pitching related injury, it takes him out most likely
Speaker 1: of being the hitter as well.
Speaker 2: So this is the go.
Speaker 1: Bigger, go home. But in the situations, I think, especially
Speaker 1: in the keeper leagues where you're limited to a three
Speaker 1: year window on a player, Otani you could argue is
Speaker 1: the number one because it is go bigger, go home.
Speaker 1: You can go win a couple years with Otani at
Speaker 1: that peak. You are in the peak of Otani right now.
Speaker 1: It's not going to get potentially better than this. I
Speaker 1: think you've seen the absolute top. If it does get
Speaker 1: better than this, that's unbelievable. But you're experiencing the prime
Speaker 1: of Otani. And if you're in a keeper league that
Speaker 1: again has the limitations on it's one thing where you
Speaker 1: can keep the player forever, or you have the escalating
Speaker 1: contracts on them, or anyo situations. But if you're in
Speaker 1: one of those situations where it's just you know, you
Speaker 1: can keep the player three years and that's it, this
Speaker 1: is the time to go in on showey Otani because
Speaker 1: you are getting a player in his prime. We're getting
Speaker 1: a pitcher and a hitter in those leagues specifically where
Speaker 1: you can use him as such.
Speaker 2: It's a special talent and he's going to be playing.
Speaker 1: Somewhere else other than LA and there's a good chance
Speaker 1: wherever that place is could be an even better environment
Speaker 1: for him potentially, because you know, Mike Trout just hasn't
Speaker 1: been around that much these last couple of years to
Speaker 1: play with him. Unfortunately, the rest of that team is
Speaker 1: very I would say, how do I put it nicely here?
Speaker 2: With the Los Angeles Angels of Vanna, him and scrubs?
Speaker 2: Is that the best way to say it? Is that
Speaker 2: the best way to say it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a top party.
Speaker 2: I guess it's total.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like an auction valued stars and Suns and scrubs.
Speaker 3: It's like they spell their money on two spots and
Speaker 3: they're trying to make it up in other areas.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's not going to work. But shoo Tani.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know the talent, you know what we're
Speaker 1: talking about here, perennial MVP candidate. But look, the oldest player.
Speaker 1: For a reason I don't have him in the top five.
Speaker 1: It's because of the danger you still have with him.
Speaker 1: But you can't argue the next three year window for Showyotani.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go to your number five. We're in
Speaker 1: the top five, guys, Now things are getting exciting. Was
Speaker 1: your top five keeper League target of twenty twenty three?
Speaker 3: Yeah, And the only thing I just want to add
Speaker 3: to that is I do try to think very much
Speaker 3: and keep her dynasty in three year windows. So I
Speaker 3: think It's why you can also give a little bit
Speaker 3: more of a leeway to even twenty nine to thirty
Speaker 3: year old players that they can push or ma tin value.
Speaker 3: Atani is one of those guys. I really think in
Speaker 3: that window.
Speaker 1: When you're talking about, like, you know, Ronald Acunya, who's
Speaker 1: going to show up on our list here?
Speaker 2: Yes, it's different.
Speaker 1: You know, when you've got an extra five years potentially
Speaker 1: or four years on a player who's already shown you
Speaker 1: who's elite, it's no comparison, especially when you're trying to
Speaker 1: spend money on salary cap league on there.
Speaker 3: I actually think an incredible debate is Akunya at his
Speaker 3: age and level right now versus Otwani in a daily
Speaker 3: moves one player between pitcher and hit or format like
Speaker 3: interesting that there's an ultimate debate that we're not going
Speaker 3: to have. But yeah, it's some other time. It may
Speaker 3: be some other time. My guy, I'm going to point
Speaker 3: out here is almost laughable to people who followed us
Speaker 3: all year last year because I'm going to tell you
Speaker 3: about O'Neill Cruz. Yes, O'Neill Cruz is on this list.
Speaker 3: Because now we're not dealing with the insane expectations of
Speaker 3: a rookie coming up, and he's had some time and
Speaker 3: we actually saw some improvement on O'Neill cruise. Obviously a
Speaker 3: strikeout numbers overall, we're the biggest concern, almost thirty five percent.
Speaker 3: It was in the forties early on. It was a
Speaker 3: big worry. His batting average kind of struggled, but he
Speaker 3: improved a decent amount on the second half of the season.
Speaker 3: He hit two o four in the first half in
Speaker 3: limited games. Second half, he ended up hitting two forty five.
Speaker 3: Still a few more bases. Power numbers came up. Projections
Speaker 3: pretty favorable across the board. Here was something I had
Speaker 3: put together and this is based on Steamer, just really quickly.
Speaker 3: Was based on Steamer's projection. They had him at twenty
Speaker 3: seven homers in eighteen stolen bases in alle hundred and
Speaker 3: thirty games of the two fifty batting average. Those are
Speaker 3: insane numbers. Well, there's only three players that put up
Speaker 3: those type of numbers last year Kyle Tucker who went
Speaker 3: thirty twenty five, Jose Ramirez who went twenty nine to
Speaker 3: twenty and Julio Rodriguez who went twenty eight and twenty five.
Speaker 3: So you take those second half numbers. You take those
Speaker 3: projections and you're looking, what do all those guys have
Speaker 3: in common. I've said this before, first rounders the first
Speaker 3: round talent. So there's first round talent built in the
Speaker 3: upside of Oneokruz. Now, if you want to get down
Speaker 3: to earth a little bit, the strikeout numbers are still
Speaker 3: a concern, but even the bat x still is projecting
Speaker 3: essentially as a twenty twenty guy twenty two homers, nineteen
Speaker 3: stolen bases under thirty k percentage, and an almost two
Speaker 3: to fifty batting average. Listen, if he hits two fifty,
Speaker 3: he's hitting thirty homers. He broke stat cast last year,
Speaker 3: the hardest hit ball ever, one hundred and twenty two
Speaker 3: miles per hour. I think there are tons of warts
Speaker 3: in his game, but I do think O'Neill Cruz is
Speaker 3: going to be streaky with enough talent that he's going
Speaker 3: to put up ridiculous numbers. It's like old school Javier
Speaker 3: Baya's stuff, with maybe even less of a swing and
Speaker 3: miss in there. But the stolen base and the power
Speaker 3: numbers are real. The context of the team limits the
Speaker 3: runs in RBI. You should buy in on him. I
Speaker 3: would buy in on him, even if he's risky. It's
Speaker 3: outside the top forty or fifty in a lot of
Speaker 3: places with first round potential. Those are the type of
Speaker 3: guys in keeper leagues I'm going to take a shot on.
Speaker 3: And that's why Oneil Cruz is on the list.
Speaker 1: What a difference a year makes last year just trying
Speaker 1: to push people away from Monyo Cruz, this.
Speaker 2: Year of pushing towards an Yeo Cruz. But I think
Speaker 2: you're right.
Speaker 1: I think it was a much better circumstance now and
Speaker 1: a much better concept of how much he can give
Speaker 1: you this year as opposed to what he could give
Speaker 1: you last year, and projectability thirty twenty could be this year.
Speaker 1: It's very possible he could put that season together. It
Speaker 1: was unlikely he was going to do it last year,
Speaker 1: which is why that was my problem. We were kind
Speaker 1: of pushing away from him.
Speaker 3: I mean also just pointing out the day it was
Speaker 3: like the day he debuted, he became the NL favorite
Speaker 3: for Rookie of the Year, which was like absurd to me.
Speaker 1: You're not finish in the top two award. But he
Speaker 1: was not amidlanded it. He was not a brief well
Speaker 1: that happened sometimes. Number five on my list, and the
Speaker 1: only reason he's not top three is because he has
Speaker 1: had some injuries around the knee.
Speaker 2: He is a bigger guy too.
Speaker 1: Series wondering about how those guys are going to age sometimes,
Speaker 1: but Jordan Alvarez is that dude.
Speaker 2: I mean, he is a special talent.
Speaker 1: And depending on your league eligibility situations too, there's limitations here,
Speaker 1: and there are some concern whenever you have a younger
Speaker 1: player who's had a history of some knee issues early on,
Speaker 1: that doesn't always bode well for the bigger guy.
Speaker 2: But we've seen plenty of big guys like.
Speaker 1: David Ortiz play well into their late thirties and being
Speaker 1: extremely productive, So I think he is worth the risk.
Speaker 1: I think he's an incredible talent. Obviously, we all know
Speaker 1: he is. If you look at that one sixty two
Speaker 1: average for this guy, forty three home runs, one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty five RBI already to ninety six, batting average
Speaker 1: nine to seventy three ops. I mean, it's just it's
Speaker 1: off the chart. He makes baseball look so damn easy.
Speaker 1: He's only twenty six years old too, so he's again
Speaker 1: still a few ways away. From entering his prime. But
Speaker 1: I think when you get to the true prime of
Speaker 1: this player, you're looking at like a forty one to
Speaker 1: twenty kind of guy. Like that's how unbelievable. I think
Speaker 1: the ceiling of Alvarez is and we haven't even gotten
Speaker 1: there yet. I think we are just kind of getting
Speaker 1: teased a little bit. If you're asking me the early
Speaker 1: wager guy for leading the major leagues at home runs,
Speaker 1: for me, it's Alvarez. He's just got to play enough
Speaker 1: games to do it, and I think he can. And look,
Speaker 1: I expect a little regression from Judge who hit sixty
Speaker 1: last year, like you can't get Yeah, you can't get
Speaker 1: a I hit in sixty on runs every year, at least,
Speaker 1: we don't think.
Speaker 2: So we'll find out more.
Speaker 1: But Alvarez to me again, yourson, he's not top three
Speaker 1: because of those little issues. I would put him right
Speaker 1: at number five though, because the bat is just too
Speaker 1: good to ignore.
Speaker 2: Is he gonna steal the bases? No?
Speaker 1: Is he gonna give me incredible power and everything else?
Speaker 1: I want to cross the board. Yes, that's good enough
Speaker 1: for me. I want him on the squad. Now we're
Speaker 1: getting into the top four here, very exciting stuff. Welsh,
Speaker 1: who's your number four guy and the keeper League targets
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you won't like this one from previous conversations, but uh,
Speaker 3: Sean McClanahan. I'm very much on Sean McClanahan. My one
Speaker 3: of my favorite things about him, and I mentioned this before,
Speaker 3: was he had a dramatic change in his pitch mix
Speaker 3: and he ended up going from an eight percent change
Speaker 3: up to the second most thrown pitch of all pitches.
Speaker 3: And what's so great about that is it ended up
Speaker 3: pushing his slider, which he now has. Four pitches he
Speaker 3: throws over fifteen percent of the time, so it's a
Speaker 3: really good mix. Four pitches have an over forty four
Speaker 3: percent with rate, one of those being the change up.
Speaker 3: I haven't gone to look at this. I'd be fascinated
Speaker 3: to know. I don't know if there is a pitch
Speaker 3: being used twenty five percent or more that any pitcher
Speaker 3: has a lower exit velocity hit against it. Is it
Speaker 3: under eighty four eighty three point six percent ev or
Speaker 3: eighty three point six mile per hoor ev on average
Speaker 3: against that change up? I don't know if there's another
Speaker 3: pitch that's used that much who has a lower hard
Speaker 3: hit rate against, and he was able to dead knit
Speaker 3: a little bit more. I love the whiff rate, I
Speaker 3: love the mix. He struggled a little bit in the
Speaker 3: second half where the K numbers dropped as era went
Speaker 3: from like two and a half to three and a half.
Speaker 3: But I think he's an elite pitcher. I think you're
Speaker 3: actually going to get more of a discount on him
Speaker 3: in Dynasty. He's my number one Dynasty pitcher because you're
Speaker 3: still looking at a very young mean, especially when you're
Speaker 3: comparing against the rest of the crew. He's twenty five
Speaker 3: years old. Twenty five year old pitchers with a little
Speaker 3: bit of a discount and a keeper format with I
Speaker 3: think really sustainable changes pounds the zone he gets his cas.
Speaker 3: Don't love the second half, but listen, like, this is
Speaker 3: still an adjustment period. This isn't a guy who's twenty
Speaker 3: years old and has multiple two hundred seasons under him.
Speaker 3: So I'm very big on buying on Shae McClanahan.
Speaker 2: You'll see no pictures on my top ten lists. Just
Speaker 2: fair enough?
Speaker 3: Why not?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's and that's how I look at this. Like,
Speaker 1: if you're talking about elite keepers, like the ten guys
Speaker 1: that I like in terms of target value either their
Speaker 1: round or the player they are, or I'm willing to
Speaker 1: overpay for them in salary cap leagues. No pictures, because
Speaker 1: I will figure that out later. I will find a
Speaker 1: way to pieces together. They're just not great investments anymore.
Speaker 1: Long gone with the days of Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez.
Speaker 1: I mean, Randy Johnson was such a great keeper back
Speaker 1: in the day. Every year, you know, two hundred and
Speaker 1: age strikeouts, three hundred strikeouts, eight hundred and thirty innings,
Speaker 1: Pedro even. You know, there were a lot of guys
Speaker 1: in that era not that long ago. There were very
Speaker 1: good investments every single year. Knew what you were getting
Speaker 1: out of them.
Speaker 2: Not now. I just can't get there with these.
Speaker 3: It's back as sure, I mean sures there was another
Speaker 3: one of those guys as well, But yeah, I sree.
Speaker 3: I guess my definition is more defining players that I
Speaker 3: think I can sugger upsides from where they're being valued.
Speaker 3: And that's why only two come up on this list.
Speaker 3: But they're kind of like my two key guys this year.
Speaker 1: Well, one guy came up on my list last year.
Speaker 1: He is going to come up on my list this year.
Speaker 1: Still twenty three years old. Bobby Witt, junior shortstop for
Speaker 1: the Kansas City Royals. One hundred and fifty games last year,
Speaker 1: twenty home runs, thirty steals. Definitely a rough start, there's
Speaker 1: no doubt about that. But if you stayed true and
Speaker 1: you trusted the process and we did.
Speaker 2: You got rewarded.
Speaker 1: Now, he hurt you last year in head to head
Speaker 1: formats in the beginning of the year, there's no doubt
Speaker 1: about the guy hurts you. He is no other way
Speaker 1: to put it. But in the rotal formats, if you
Speaker 1: stayed patient, you got rewarded. And let that be a
Speaker 1: lesson for you too. With the young players. In the
Speaker 1: rotal format, you can have more patients. It's hard in
Speaker 1: the head to head formats to have the patients. But
Speaker 1: I think we're just getting started with this guy again.
Speaker 1: This is another player that has even more upside.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: She mentioned that it's not the greatest offense. The guy
Speaker 1: still had eighty run score and eighty RBI with the
Speaker 1: Royals last year. I still think that's something that we
Speaker 1: kind of overlook. We talk about the power in the speed,
Speaker 1: but he still scored eighty runs and he still drove
Speaker 1: in eighty runs is a rookie. As a rookie, that's
Speaker 1: an incredible.
Speaker 2: Thing to do. He's a star in the making.
Speaker 1: Eventually, the OBP will come up, the batting average will
Speaker 1: come up. You saw the second half numbers of the ops.
Speaker 1: All that stuff came up in the second half. It's
Speaker 1: only going to get better from here. This is a
Speaker 1: player twenty three years old in the premium position two that.
Speaker 2: You go when you target.
Speaker 1: So while some people might be looking at, you know,
Speaker 1: some other big time shortstops, I would still be paying
Speaker 1: extra for Bobby Witt, and I understand why some people
Speaker 1: would still want some.
Speaker 2: Of the guys ahead of him on the list.
Speaker 1: And you see him on the ranks and Fantasy pros two,
Speaker 1: I think this is the guy that I'd.
Speaker 2: Be targeting Welsh. That's my dude.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go to your number three top three
Speaker 1: time for the twenty twenty three Keeper League targets.
Speaker 2: Who's number three?
Speaker 3: Well, a guy that I thought was actually valued like
Speaker 3: Bobby Witt is no longer and it's Bobachett. And Bobachett
Speaker 3: is one of those he used to be Bobby Witt
Speaker 3: and now as a twenty four year old is cast
Speaker 3: aside and redraft and even keeper where I think he's
Speaker 3: barely even a second round pick in a lot of places.
Speaker 3: And I'm just not done. He has had a kind
Speaker 3: of significant decrease over four years if you look at
Speaker 3: it as a total as far as like batting average
Speaker 3: and slugging has gone. But this is a guy that
Speaker 3: actually pushed his hard hit numbers higher than they'd ever
Speaker 3: been before. Barreling is still there, and even those expected stats,
Speaker 3: they're not going that much further down. I don't know
Speaker 3: if projections know what quite to do with the stolen bases,
Speaker 3: because he went from twenty five to thirteen the power
Speaker 3: numbers were relative, but he's consistently playing. This is a
Speaker 3: sub twenty five year old guy that has twenty twenty
Speaker 3: upside in a great offense, who still hits the ball
Speaker 3: incredibly hard. I'm not ready to give up on Bobaschett.
Speaker 3: I think you actually get him in kind of a
Speaker 3: good deal, Like you couldn't even imagine trading Bashett for
Speaker 3: Bobby Witt at this point, and I don't think they're
Speaker 3: incredibly far off now. If the stolen base numbers go away,
Speaker 3: it's gonna cap them a little bit, but Bobashet is
Speaker 3: still a great buy in keeper leagues.
Speaker 1: All right, speaking of great buys, this might be the
Speaker 1: one year maybe you get any kind of discount on
Speaker 1: Wan Soto four years old.
Speaker 2: I'm just never going to give up on Juan Soto
Speaker 2: and all my love for him. Now he's not one
Speaker 2: or two.
Speaker 1: Maybe last year we do this list, he maybe he's
Speaker 1: my number one guy, he's number three. Still, the consistency
Speaker 1: of Juan Soto is just unbelievable. Now, I understand last
Speaker 1: year down year for him. This is a player with
Speaker 1: a two to eighty seven career batting average, So I'm
Speaker 1: not going to freak out the fact that he played
Speaker 1: with a Washington team that was dreadful, had nobody in
Speaker 1: front of him, nobody behind him. It was absolutely the drags,
Speaker 1: all the rumors about being traded, contracts.
Speaker 2: All that stress. He's still a young player. I think
Speaker 2: that affected him mentally.
Speaker 1: He's a tough kid, but still I think that affected him,
Speaker 1: and I think the change affected him.
Speaker 2: I think he just flat out pressed too much. How
Speaker 2: many times have we seen.
Speaker 1: The guys, whether it be Bryce Harper, Carlos Belcher, all
Speaker 1: these years. The guys who end up somewhere else are
Speaker 1: in a big contract. They press, they pressed, they pressed,
Speaker 1: they pressed. This is the same kind of thing you
Speaker 1: went to a situation was like, okay, I gotta be
Speaker 1: you know, Juan Soto, superstar guy in San Diego, and
Speaker 1: it just didn't happen. Relax, be fine.
Speaker 2: This year.
Speaker 1: They've got so much talent around this guy. He's a
Speaker 1: phenomenal player. He's gonna be playing for a contract pretty
Speaker 1: soon too, and you're getting a player once again.
Speaker 2: I'm looking for upside. Yeah, they're still upside.
Speaker 1: His best season thirty four to one to ten. I
Speaker 1: think he can go forty one to twenty easily. I
Speaker 1: think there might even be more in the right circumstance
Speaker 1: for him. Juan Soto is a generational talent. Does he
Speaker 1: give you the stolen bases and that stuff. No, But
Speaker 1: in those OBP leagues especially, he's about as good as
Speaker 1: a gets. I mean, a career four to twenty four
Speaker 1: OBP guy, and that is something that's really hard to
Speaker 1: find these days. So if you're in that format, you
Speaker 1: could even argue one Sodo over some of the other
Speaker 1: guys too, because you can find stolen bases.
Speaker 2: I think guys that get on bas at.
Speaker 1: The clip that Jan Soto does consistently, with the power
Speaker 1: he has consistently, with the batting average he typically has consistently,
Speaker 1: it's hard to find. Give me Juan Soto still the
Speaker 1: one to one in my heart. Going to your number
Speaker 1: two guy, Welsh, who is it?
Speaker 3: Well, let's do this. I'm gonna make an alteration here
Speaker 3: because we I purposely tried to be different from your list.
Speaker 3: I agree with lots of your players. This is one
Speaker 3: that I missed. I didn't see that we had the
Speaker 3: same guys. This is my number one, he's your number two,
Speaker 3: so let's talk about him together. I think it's one
Speaker 3: of the most important ones and I can give you
Speaker 3: I actually think maybe the most fascinating conversation as my
Speaker 3: number one, and it's ronald' Kunya, who we both have.
Speaker 3: I did not notice that you had him at too.
Speaker 3: I have him at one, and I think this is
Speaker 3: the number one overall player in Redraft this year. I
Speaker 3: think there is debate in question as far as keeper
Speaker 3: in Dynasty. He is in the top elite top three
Speaker 3: conversation of overall players. I think go Tani and daily
Speaker 3: leagues you have to still look at the guy that
Speaker 3: as your number one. You have to look at and
Speaker 3: Acunya is in that list. And even when he struggled
Speaker 3: last year, still was able to put up power, had
Speaker 3: top fifteen biggest differential between home run and expected home run.
Speaker 3: He still was in like the top two or three
Speaker 3: or five in stolen bases and under one hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty games last year he compensated, which is exactly what
Speaker 3: you want to great line up. Ronald Cunya is young,
Speaker 3: the power he is don't It's a non worry. The
Speaker 3: hard hit numbers are there, everything is still there. Ronald
Speaker 3: Cunya is an easy buy. He's your number two. I'll
Speaker 3: place him at too, so we can be together. And
Speaker 3: what's important here is us focusing that Ronald d'acunya at
Speaker 3: any discount in a keeper league based off of maybe
Speaker 3: suppressed power numbers or people worried about injury is a
Speaker 3: buye And I know you agree with you.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Look, he is the only reason he's not my two
Speaker 1: is because of who number one is, which I'm shocked
Speaker 1: that your number one is not the same as my
Speaker 1: number one.
Speaker 3: Well he is, but I tried to be different. I
Speaker 3: tried to be different. I didn't want to have all
Speaker 3: the same names. He would easily be my number one
Speaker 3: buying keeper in Dynasty overall. So that just know that
Speaker 3: I completely agree.
Speaker 2: Look Ronald Cunya doing what he has done.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because we even touched on it last
Speaker 1: time we did the show, which is people were worried
Speaker 1: about the stolen bases after the knee injury. Well, I
Speaker 1: mean came back, so twenty nine, one hundred nineteen games.
Speaker 1: It's just it's stunning.
Speaker 2: The power.
Speaker 1: I didn't drag, but I mean the power was the
Speaker 1: thing that you know wasn't quite where it was. I'm
Speaker 1: not worried about Acunya. He's gonna be twenty five years
Speaker 1: old this year. The prime is still way ahead of him.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Is there a time where you might start to look
Speaker 1: at Acunya and say, okay, is the forty one home
Speaker 1: run season and outlier?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we'd have that conversation.
Speaker 1: I mean might be, but is he a player that's
Speaker 1: still maybe your best bet for thirty thirty every year
Speaker 1: or one of the top guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think.
Speaker 1: That's what you have to come back to, is that
Speaker 1: thirty thirty situation, and not to mention, you know, I
Speaker 1: have three outfielders in my top three.
Speaker 2: Outfield is not good.
Speaker 3: Nope, take a pack.
Speaker 2: It is bad.
Speaker 1: And in those leagues where you have to play five
Speaker 1: or four even it's rough. Acunya's value is very high,
Speaker 1: SODA's value is very high. So for me, Acunya is
Speaker 1: again number two. I can argue number one, but the
Speaker 1: guy like at number one is just I think you
Speaker 1: know another special generational talent where we're looking at players
Speaker 1: with even more upside. Why don't you go for your
Speaker 1: number one too? Since we both had a Kunya there
Speaker 1: towards the well.
Speaker 3: And again understanding the context of it, you know this
Speaker 3: is I think is an important guy. This is my
Speaker 3: number one important conversation attempting to be different from your
Speaker 3: list because I think your guy is the number one
Speaker 3: keeper dynasty player in general, again taking Otani's context out,
Speaker 3: but it's Fernando Tatis Junior, and I think it's one
Speaker 3: of the most important keeper league. Keep your eye on
Speaker 3: situations where Fernando Tatis is coming off of in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty one, of course, a forty twenty forty two, twenty
Speaker 3: five overall season insane numbers. Where in fifty games in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty still with seventeen and eleven, I mean he
Speaker 3: was pacing to put up these same incredible numbers. Obviously,
Speaker 3: there's questions around whatever steroid usage was out there and
Speaker 3: what effect that's going to have. But what you're still
Speaker 3: doing is you're still looking at a twenty four year old.
Speaker 3: He just turned twenty four years old. All year he'll
Speaker 3: be twenty four years old. He's had some injury stuff obviously,
Speaker 3: might be moving more to an outfielder with them bringing
Speaker 3: in Zanto Bogarts and everything like that.
Speaker 1: Because I look at shortstop, I'm looking for the guys
Speaker 1: like you got with Lindor Simmey and you know seeger
Speaker 1: Trey Turner, Boba Schett, you know all these guys, you know,
Speaker 1: Xander Bogar, sim Anderson Swanson, Anio Cruz Franco and man
Speaker 1: is like Shortze's pretty good. I almost feel like he
Speaker 1: is more valuable in Fantasy in the outfield now.
Speaker 3: I couldn't agree more. I could care any of the
Speaker 3: guys that I take in the first round. I really
Speaker 3: don't care about your position for the most part, Like
Speaker 3: Cosey Ramirez, the differentiating factor between maybe him and Trey
Speaker 3: Turner might be that he has third base, and you
Speaker 3: might side on that, but I don't care. I don't
Speaker 3: care that I have Trey Turner as a shortstop. I
Speaker 3: don't care about Tatus as a short stop. I actually
Speaker 3: care that I get him more an outfield. There's more value.
Speaker 3: I could go and take Dansby or Xander later and
Speaker 3: I can go and put Tatis out in the outfield
Speaker 3: because it stinks this year. So no, it might keep
Speaker 3: him a little bit healthy. He's still an elite power
Speaker 3: speed combo player. You are obviously stepping into a situation
Speaker 3: where maybe he's more volatile because you don't know what
Speaker 3: you're getting coming off of a two surgeries in the
Speaker 3: offseason and be steroid allegations. But I still I don't think.
Speaker 3: I don't think that retracts from the in same talent
Speaker 3: of who he truly is. And I'm willing to take
Speaker 3: the buy. And he's under twenty five years old, he's
Speaker 3: got a suspension coming up for this year. You take
Speaker 3: all of that in, you could do a keeper you
Speaker 3: guys could do a keeper league where he's not drafted
Speaker 3: in the first round. His ADP is in the second
Speaker 3: round for redraft, but you might have a wheel pick
Speaker 3: in a keeper league where he has not taken, and
Speaker 3: he's a must take. He's a top three overall overall
Speaker 3: keeper league dynasty player regardless of this stupid month he's missed.
Speaker 3: And it's a great buying opportunity. So if you want
Speaker 3: to chalk this up as top twenty, top ten keeper league,
Speaker 3: pay attention to buys. Guys, you need to know Tatis
Speaker 3: is as important as anybody on this list, because there's
Speaker 3: inherent value compared to who we both agree is like
Speaker 3: the number one keeper player who you have on your list.
Speaker 2: Well, you know it's funny too if you go back
Speaker 2: two years ago to Tis is probably number one on
Speaker 2: this list.
Speaker 3: On both It was number one on my list before
Speaker 3: any of these rights, and.
Speaker 2: I think we can't forget that. Does he have a
Speaker 2: lot of risk? Yeah? Is it a little bit more
Speaker 2: inherent now I got to know the player better. Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 1: And there's a chance that San Diego could flip him
Speaker 1: somewhere else, Like he's got a huge contract, but you know,
Speaker 1: maybe they decided they like Soto instead and they're gonna
Speaker 1: move tat Teas and that contract might be appealing to
Speaker 1: somebody else and say lock up this young kid instead.
Speaker 3: I mean, who the teams are? Gonn bring him on?
Speaker 3: By the way, like, is anybody gonna dislike Tatia? I
Speaker 3: was about to say, is anyone gonna dislike tatis if
Speaker 3: he's a New York Yankee? I mean maybe personally, but
Speaker 3: not fantasy wise.
Speaker 1: No, not fantasy wise, well, the number one fantasy guy. Look,
Speaker 1: we tried our best to be patient last year and
Speaker 1: calm about Julio Rodriguez. And I give Welsh a lot
Speaker 1: of credit too, because he's been a Julio guy for
Speaker 1: years and I've liked the player a lot too, and
Speaker 1: both of us were trying very hard to be reasonable,
Speaker 1: and you know what, Julio Rodriguez makes it fun to
Speaker 1: be unreasonable. Twenty eight home runs is his rookie season.
Speaker 1: Twenty five steals. He only played one hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: two games. But that's okay, two eighty four batting average.
Speaker 1: It's just about this guy stays healthy. This is the
Speaker 1: perennial MVP candidate in the American League. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is who this guy is. He is a forty forty
Speaker 1: type player, Like, that's who this guy is. Those guys
Speaker 1: do not grow on trees. He has a good thirteen
Speaker 1: years ahead of him. If you could keep a player forever,
Speaker 1: I don't care what you gotta pay, what you got
Speaker 1: to do to get that first pick. Maybe you know,
Speaker 1: if you have an extra kid or laying around your house,
Speaker 1: you're like, you know, I got a bunch of kids.
Speaker 1: Put this kid up and you'll see what we get
Speaker 1: to look find a way to get Julio Rodriguez. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm joking everybody. I don't really want to sell kids,
Speaker 1: although I mean, well, you know, when they start to
Speaker 1: get to that preteen years, you know your kids are
Speaker 1: still tiny, You're you're gonna start changing your tune about
Speaker 1: their availability.
Speaker 2: You're gonna start at least looking at, you know, kicking
Speaker 2: the tires.
Speaker 3: But you're just hoping for good education with those kids.
Speaker 3: You're pretty good.
Speaker 2: Off with Julio Rodriguez. Let me tell you.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, the thing is you want him to
Speaker 1: obviously dial back on the strikeouts a little bit.
Speaker 2: That's something you hope over time can happen.
Speaker 1: Will the league make adjustments to him, Yes, but I
Speaker 1: think this is a player that is going to adjust
Speaker 1: back well, Julio, is your.
Speaker 2: Guy talk to it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, I mean it's everything that you said. I'm
Speaker 3: still enamored personally, just off of my experience, and you
Speaker 3: know my interview way back that we all joke about.
Speaker 3: It's like everyone's like, have you ever interviewed Julio. We
Speaker 3: talked about it a lot, but like it's a fascinating
Speaker 3: He was never gonna be a stolen based guy, and
Speaker 3: he literally tells me like, I want to steal more
Speaker 3: bases and that was his focus. And look at him now,
Speaker 3: I mean, this is a guy that could be an
Speaker 3: easy thirty thirty, It could be a forty forty if
Speaker 3: you want to put on it. It's an incredible it's
Speaker 3: an incredible bat. It's elite skills across the board. He's
Speaker 3: made himself into a premial five tool player, and he
Speaker 3: is what Akunya and Tatis were last year the year
Speaker 3: before that, Like what you envisioned in those type of players.
Speaker 3: You have that with Julio. He overcame being pinched by
Speaker 3: umps early on in the season. He overcame all of
Speaker 3: the rookie struggles that you might think are going to
Speaker 3: surround a player. They continuously try to surround him with
Speaker 3: more talent. This is it's an easy bet. Also just
Speaker 3: with the age, you know, I mean he's got two
Speaker 3: or three years on pretty much everybody. So like where
Speaker 3: Otani is, a daily moves player is so above and
Speaker 3: beyond everybody else because if you can daily move him
Speaker 3: to a hitter and pitcher, there's.
Speaker 1: In the leagues where you have windows of time where
Speaker 1: you have restrictions of keeper keeper restrictions. Otani probably is
Speaker 1: my number one, especially in this scenario you're paying.
Speaker 3: But that's why it's so fascinating. A twenty one year
Speaker 3: old thirty thirty potential bat versus a you know, closing
Speaker 3: in on thirty multi position. It's a fascinating debate on
Speaker 3: where the top goes. And the reiteration of all of
Speaker 3: this is, we give you guys a lot of players.
Speaker 3: It wasn't a top ten overall keepers or anything like that.
Speaker 3: It's twenty keepers that you guys need to be paying
Speaker 3: attention to. But keeper leagues are not all equal, So
Speaker 3: understand that in your evaluation of these. Some keeper leagues
Speaker 3: you can pay more attention to redraft values, some closer
Speaker 3: to dynasty. These are twenty regardless of your format, that
Speaker 3: you've got to pay attention to.
Speaker 1: And those twenty are Ryan Mountcassel on Welsh's list at ten,
Speaker 1: Nick Lodolo, Austin Riley, Vinie Pasquentina Corbyn, Carol Annio Cruz,
Speaker 1: Shane McClanahan, Boba Sheet, Fernando Tatis Junior and Ronald Acunya.
Speaker 1: My top ten list of the guys again, different reasons
Speaker 1: all of them. Adlie Ruschman at ten, Andres Jmenez at nine,
Speaker 1: Wander Franco at eight, Kyle Tucker at seven, Joey o'tanni
Speaker 1: at six, Jordan Alvarez, he almost at the Jordnal because
Speaker 1: I just like saying so much Jordan Alvarez, Jordan. I
Speaker 1: like to say Jordan, but Jordan Alvarez, the Houston Astros,
Speaker 1: Bobby Whitt Houston. Something I told you, dude, it's techno
Speaker 1: tonof football season.
Speaker 2: Alvarez Houston Astros, not Texans.
Speaker 1: Bobby Witt from the Kansas City Royals, not the Chiefs,
Speaker 1: Juan Soto from the Well there are no more Chargers
Speaker 1: in San Diego, Ronald Acunya from Theolanta Braves and Julia Rodriguez.
Speaker 2: Who are your guys? We want to know?
Speaker 1: Let us know we always tweet us at is it
Speaker 1: the Welsh at Joe piece of PS seventeen and of
Speaker 1: course don't forget start preparing now. The Wizard is open
Speaker 1: for business Fantasypros dot com slash Draft Wizard. Go get
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Speaker 1: do it for us, but the story of the game
Speaker 1: goes on for the Welsh.
Speaker 2: I'm Joey P. We'll see you next time. Kids. Thanks
Speaker 2: for listening to the Fantasy Pros Baseball Podcast. Follow us
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