Speaker 1: Welcome in everybody to Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy
Speaker 1: Baseball Podcast. It is me, Joey Pa Joe Pisapia and
Speaker 1: with me back again as my boy, the Welsh, Chris
Speaker 1: Welsh returning. It's January. You know what that means. It's
Speaker 1: time to turn the page. We're talking baseball now. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about the top fifty guys and the ranks
Speaker 1: over Fantasy pros in the ECR. Welsh has done his ranks.
Speaker 1: I've done mine. It's very early. Guys are still signing.
Speaker 1: Carlos Carea could have three or more teams you could
Speaker 1: try to sign with before the end of the show.
Speaker 1: But no, he's actually gonna be a twin. It looks
Speaker 1: like as we're recording this, so Welsh. It's great to
Speaker 1: see her face. It's great to be back talking baseball
Speaker 1: with you. Are you ready for twenty twenty three? Baby?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Am?
Speaker 2: I ready? Are you ready?
Speaker 1: Buddy?
Speaker 2: I mean I've got the transition, you got the crazy
Speaker 2: football transition. I've been doing football obviously, but it is
Speaker 2: full time fantasy fantasy. Joe's on the football side, but
Speaker 2: now you're coming. You're comeing too, baseball with me. Which
Speaker 2: I'm excited about, which you were just talking about ranks,
Speaker 2: and my only anxiety is like, oh my god, I'm
Speaker 2: already gonna have to go and change Carlos Korea. And
Speaker 2: then we just got news broke about Trevor's story as well,
Speaker 2: having a UCLA ucl surgery UCLA u SEL surgery that's
Speaker 2: gonna leave him out four to six months, which might
Speaker 2: push him post All Star breaks. This is another player
Speaker 2: at also a really garbage position that we're gonna take
Speaker 2: off the board, really glad.
Speaker 1: I updated the Black Book for Carl's Korea a couple
Speaker 1: hours ago before this I saw now I did. I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I gotta go do it again, so
Speaker 1: I'll update this, rewrite some things there, and then this happens.
Speaker 1: So now I'm gonna have to go back tomorrow and
Speaker 1: do some more. But I'm gonna I'm just got talk
Speaker 1: baseball now. Enough of that. More injuries I'm sure to come.
Speaker 1: But we've got a fresh slate, a new start, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about the top fifty. We're gonna break
Speaker 1: down these tiers. Let's start at the top one through ten,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna talk about these guys. Give you our
Speaker 1: opinions here maybe who's too high, who's too low, who
Speaker 1: should be in the top ten, who's not. Before we
Speaker 1: do just reminder not only his baseball season open for
Speaker 1: business here, but it's also open for business and Fantasy
Speaker 1: pros because the Draft Wizard is now open for business.
Speaker 1: That's right. You can go there and start doing mock drafts.
Speaker 1: I got a B plus online yesterday. I did my
Speaker 1: first one of the year. I'll take the B plus.
Speaker 1: It was pretty good. Got a lot of Joe guys.
Speaker 2: And now you know, i'd say, do we have it
Speaker 2: yet where the analysts are on did you love your
Speaker 2: own draft?
Speaker 1: Or you know what? I didn't even see if I'm
Speaker 1: sure I did. If anybody loves my own drafts, it's me.
Speaker 1: You're right, I should go back and see who graded
Speaker 1: me how. But look, you can spend five minutes, ten minutes,
Speaker 1: three hours go to fantasypros dot com slash draft Wizard.
Speaker 1: Check it out right now. You can have all the
Speaker 1: settings you want, and obviously you have more settings available
Speaker 1: to you when you're a premium member of Fantasy pro
Speaker 1: So you can go do that. Fantasybros dot Com slash offers.
Speaker 1: Go take one of our offers there upgrade six three
Speaker 1: months of Fantasy Pro. You could do that, but I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, I love the Draft Wizard. Welsh loves the
Speaker 1: Draft Wizard. It's a great way to start getting prepared
Speaker 1: for the season. To go check that out. Let's also
Speaker 1: check out these top dogs. The consensus number one, it's
Speaker 1: Trey Turner of the now Philadelphia Phillies. So he has
Speaker 1: come to Philadelphia. Bryce Harper, we'll see sometime this season.
Speaker 1: We'll see Aaron Judge is at the two spot. Julio
Speaker 1: Rodriguez is at three, Jose Ramirez at four, Ron Laconi
Speaker 1: at five, Kyle Tucker at six, Juan Soto at seven,
Speaker 1: Jordan Alvarez or Jordan Alvarez, I have to call him
Speaker 1: by his name now his number eight, Mookie Betts is nine,
Speaker 1: and Vlad Guerrero at ten. Welsh, you and I have
Speaker 1: a different number one. You have Ronald Acunia. So do
Speaker 1: I let's talk about it, because Trey Turner is up
Speaker 1: at the top. Why is not Ronald Acunia that guy?
Speaker 1: Why is the consensus early on Trey Turner instead?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's really interesting, and to throw this
Speaker 2: out as well, just to give some perspective. I know
Speaker 2: this isn't everything. There's also NFBC Drafts out there, which
Speaker 2: has really probably created all of the ADP, but it's
Speaker 2: a different game. It's a little bit of a different
Speaker 2: game than a lot of the consumer stuff we're going
Speaker 2: to be playing. I did a sorting of Draft Champions,
Speaker 2: which is probably a better way to look Draft Champions
Speaker 2: twenty one drafts have happened so far since December first,
Speaker 2: and check this out. Trey Turner is the number one
Speaker 2: overall player again, so that if you really want to
Speaker 2: find the consensus, I think we're kind of on the
Speaker 2: consensus at Fantasy Pros with what's going on over there.
Speaker 2: But the next four are not the same. Ronald Dacunya
Speaker 2: is number two over on NFBC on the Draft Champions,
Speaker 2: Julio's three, Jose Ramirez is four, and Aaron Judge is five.
Speaker 2: So I'm bringing that all in to say that I
Speaker 2: think what you've got with Ronald 'cuoney right now is
Speaker 2: you've got a little bit of depressed power from last year,
Speaker 2: and you've also got an injury, and then you're gonna
Speaker 2: pair that with some crazy performances, and you've got Jose Ramirez,
Speaker 2: who I think justified to be in this conversation because
Speaker 2: you're getting elite stolen bases and really consistent production four
Speaker 2: straight years I think of twenty twenty or even twenty
Speaker 2: five to twenty five, and it's at a position that
Speaker 2: kind of stinks, and you get the stolen bases. Aaron
Speaker 2: Judge lop off twenty percent of his production and he's
Speaker 2: still probably one of the number one Fantasy overall players,
Speaker 2: and he steals, and then Julio Rodriguez with his elite steals,
Speaker 2: So like, what's the common denominator here? It steals. It's
Speaker 2: all the steals. So why is Zacunya coming back down
Speaker 2: when his savant page is as red as red? It's
Speaker 2: the red scene. It's still everything it was before. And
Speaker 2: what did he do in the meantime when the power
Speaker 2: was a little bit suppressed coming off of injury? Is
Speaker 2: he just stolen the lead amount of basis? I think
Speaker 2: he was still fourth in.
Speaker 1: Baseball nineteen games, and while that was supposed to be,
Speaker 1: like he's coming off knee surgery, so maybe this sole
Speaker 1: base will be down. Literally we talked about everybody thought
Speaker 1: would be the case, and it wasn't the case. At
Speaker 1: all Acuni is my one turner two and then I've
Speaker 1: got Julio three too. So it's funny how we see
Speaker 1: things in a different light necessarily than the early consensus.
Speaker 1: But I mean with a more time removed from that injury. Look,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously, Coul you have played in the postseason two,
Speaker 1: so a little bit more tread on the tires, and
Speaker 1: then you know, maybe some other players coming off injury.
Speaker 1: But regardless, I'm kind of where you are, Like, I
Speaker 1: think he is that combination of those things and not
Speaker 1: a knock on tray turner if you are in a
Speaker 1: three active outfielder league and the supposed to five. Sure,
Speaker 1: I can understand that because you get the flexibility of
Speaker 1: that too. Plus I like the ballpark factor too, a
Speaker 1: little bit easier place to hit home runs a Dodger Stadium.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I just want to I want to add
Speaker 2: like outfield is kind of a big key here as well,
Speaker 2: and I just want to.
Speaker 1: Throw out here, by the way, can we just.
Speaker 2: It's one of my big issues that I'm going to
Speaker 2: be dealing with, but you know, just the thing to
Speaker 2: add lastly, when we're looking at it, you still had
Speaker 2: top percent markers even though the power was down fifteen homers,
Speaker 2: a lot less than you would have wanted to see
Speaker 2: in normal years. I'm not looking at where his ISO was,
Speaker 2: I don't have it, but I think his slugging was down.
Speaker 2: But you've got a top two percent max ev top
Speaker 2: eight percent in x slug and expected slugging top five
Speaker 2: percent and expected wOBA wobacan top five percent. Hard hit
Speaker 2: was top eight percent.
Speaker 1: So like some of them going Wolbacon by the way,
Speaker 1: great and it's going to be right. I'm dressing up
Speaker 1: as a swinging strike rate, you.
Speaker 2: Dressed up as a baseball, you drive as a baseball drift.
Speaker 2: It's a big min that's exactly right. But my whole
Speaker 2: point is is like the the stats weren't exactly there,
Speaker 2: but all the underlying stuff is still there. With a
Speaker 2: great team in a great ballpark, the factors are there.
Speaker 2: I'm still with Ronald Lacunya, and you get him at
Speaker 2: a deal. And it's actually kind of why I really
Speaker 2: love that fourth pick in drafts right now, because it
Speaker 2: allows you one of elite, these elite players to kind
Speaker 2: of drop and then you get to make the decision
Speaker 2: a little bit like maybe you're getting Judge, maybe're getting Hulio,
Speaker 2: maybe you're getting Acuna. Any of those work Turner and
Speaker 2: Ramirez obviously makes sense. But yeah, I think the guy
Speaker 2: to focus on here is Akunya because you and I
Speaker 2: have met one and he shows up at five on
Speaker 2: the consensus rank, and I one one hundred percent believe
Speaker 2: that will change over the next two or three months
Speaker 2: and at least two months, and you're going to see
Speaker 2: him jump up to maybe at three on consensus, but
Speaker 2: he might not push one.
Speaker 1: Real quick too. Kyle Tucker, I think one of the
Speaker 1: guys is going to benefit some of the most from
Speaker 1: the shift banning or changing modification whenever you want to
Speaker 1: call it. Corey Seger another guy too, probably the most
Speaker 1: guy to be helped from that shift change concept. I
Speaker 1: look one, so to what seven is a great value?
Speaker 1: Love this? Jose Ramirez is my early guy for MVP
Speaker 1: this year. We're go to talk more about that as
Speaker 1: we go. Lots to talk about there, because I do
Speaker 1: think go Tani does get traded this year, so that's
Speaker 1: going to make things really real lacky and wonky when
Speaker 1: we get to that point. But look, I don't have
Speaker 1: much of a problem with the top ten Actually, this
Speaker 1: is a really solid top ten. I love that my
Speaker 1: boy Alvarez is in there. I think Glad should be
Speaker 1: in there. The only question is we get to that
Speaker 1: next year, the eleventh or twenty. We start with Otani
Speaker 1: at eleven. If you're in a league where you get
Speaker 1: the two players in one, especially in a points league,
Speaker 1: head to head, oh, Tani's a number one player, period,
Speaker 1: end of story. Like it's not close, so's.
Speaker 2: And that's my pretty adjustment, and that's my problem with it,
Speaker 2: and that's why my focal point on this group of
Speaker 2: ten is Showho Tani that we have to talk about
Speaker 2: him in like four different ways. You got to talk
Speaker 2: about his hitter only as pitcher, only as dual weekly
Speaker 2: and dual daily, So dual daily, he's the number one
Speaker 2: player in every format, points, head to head, roto dynasty, keeper, redraft.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter. He's the number one player. You and
Speaker 2: I famously last year were obnoxious about Otani and how
Speaker 2: he didn't win the titles and everything, but it is
Speaker 2: what it is. He's a number one player in there.
Speaker 2: Now you take away and he's a dual eligible player
Speaker 2: in weekly leagues, that's tougher because he's probably primarily a hitter.
Speaker 2: He's almost just a straight up hitter in that format.
Speaker 2: And this is where I still think he's inside the
Speaker 2: top ten. Though I still think even in that format
Speaker 2: he's in the top ten. You can make adjustments, you
Speaker 2: get the pitching edge. As a hitter, he's still an
Speaker 2: insanely crazy high performer of thirty plus homers, double digitsole
Speaker 2: and bases. The team is definitely looking to be better.
Speaker 2: You're gonna have Anthony Rayn dooneback. They brought in Hunter Renfro. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they just brought some more pieces into maybe offensively help.
Speaker 2: And then when he's a sole eligible player, which at
Speaker 2: this point I think is just like Yahoo, maybe there's
Speaker 2: another one. This is where that's tough because Otani is
Speaker 2: probably like between fifteen and twenty at SP at best,
Speaker 2: and then hitter he's probably you know, he's util lonely.
Speaker 2: That's the thing that holds him back. If he was
Speaker 2: like an outfielder, if he was outfield and sp eligible,
Speaker 2: the weekly would even move up. But only does drop
Speaker 2: you just a tiny bit. But still as a hitter,
Speaker 2: he's a top two round player. I just think that
Speaker 2: you got to focus here because this is the one
Speaker 2: player that is not traded equal. And I know like
Speaker 2: points and head to head changes, but this is a
Speaker 2: player that can go from number one overall down to
Speaker 2: even in the late twenties if he's just a pitcher
Speaker 2: or something like that.
Speaker 1: But yeplayer variance depending on you know what where he is.
Speaker 1: And again, the push I'm making is looking at the division,
Speaker 1: seeing what the Texas Rangers did this offseason, seeing what
Speaker 1: the Astros still are, seeing what the Mariners, I still
Speaker 1: believe are and I think they're the fourth best team
Speaker 1: in this division at best. And I just don't think
Speaker 1: that's gonna be good enough at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why the early market for Oton's
Speaker 1: gonna be fastening, because you're gonna looking at teams who
Speaker 1: can afford to make that kind of move, who have
Speaker 1: the prospects to get it done, because you could get
Speaker 1: the most enormous haul for prospects maybe we've ever seen
Speaker 1: for a guy like shoey Otani, because it's one thing
Speaker 1: to add a big picture of the deadline. It's a
Speaker 1: nothing to add a big hitter, it's nothing to add
Speaker 1: both with one player. It's something we've never seen in
Speaker 1: our lifetimes. Happen, and I think it's gonna happen this
Speaker 1: year because I think the Angels once again are going
Speaker 1: to be irrelevant when push comes to show.
Speaker 2: The interesting thing about that, though, I think there's a
Speaker 2: lot of different sides to it. Like they've they've made
Speaker 2: their push, this is the best thing Angels can do
Speaker 2: with the money that they've spent and screwed up. Also,
Speaker 2: by the way, well, and that's that's.
Speaker 1: What it comes to.
Speaker 2: Like they brought in, they traded for renfro and then
Speaker 2: they bring in Tyler Anderson, and they get rin doone
Speaker 2: back and they get to trying to put the pieces together.
Speaker 2: If they don't win, I actually kind of agree if
Speaker 2: they've done all of that, they really do need to
Speaker 2: look at themselves and say, can we bring him back?
Speaker 2: And do we just need to retool this. Here's my
Speaker 2: only problem. I don't even know if the Mets. I mean,
Speaker 2: there are other organizations that could have better Hall Mets happened.
Speaker 2: I don't know if the Mets, well, I just don't
Speaker 2: know if they do. I mean, Francisco Alvarez would be
Speaker 2: the key piece, one of the biggest guys to it,
Speaker 2: But where else are they going to go, they don't
Speaker 2: treat well.
Speaker 1: Do you think it's a Do you think it's a
Speaker 1: surprise that they went out and got another catcher, had
Speaker 1: more catcher depth.
Speaker 2: This year with no, I don't mean yeah, well, I
Speaker 2: mean Alvarez was in the rumored stuff with with one
Speaker 2: Soto and that never ended up.
Speaker 1: Well, well, I mean it is. But I think at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, the Angels, more than any team,
Speaker 1: need to restock the organization and they can't let Atani walk.
Speaker 1: But let me, this is gonna be a topic. I'm
Speaker 1: sure for many many shows to come, we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about this. Let's talk about the rest of the guys
Speaker 1: eleven through twenty. In the next tier, we've got after
Speaker 1: Otani eleven, Freddie Freeman at twelve, Bobby Wood Junior, What
Speaker 1: a great season he had. We were right to be
Speaker 1: as bullish as we were. Did it get off to
Speaker 1: a dubious start? Yes? Did my boy close? You sure? Did?
Speaker 2: You?
Speaker 1: Sure? Did? Bobby Wood Junior looking fantastic. Corbyn Burns at fourteen,
Speaker 1: great spot there, followed by Garrett Cole at fifteen, by
Speaker 1: Trout at sixteen. Bobash had seventeen many Mischado at eighteen,
Speaker 1: Raphaeld Devers staying put in Boston. That's at nineteen, at
Speaker 1: Pete a Lonzo at twenty. Again love this. I liked
Speaker 1: that Burns is ahead. I think that's all the guy
Speaker 1: that could possibly be on the move this year Burns
Speaker 1: and Cole makes sense to me? Is top fifteen? You
Speaker 1: know me, I don't love these top pitchers going early
Speaker 1: for them. That's not where I am with well Fantasy
Speaker 1: baseball right now. But what are your thoughts on those
Speaker 1: guys there? And what are your thoughts also about Bobby
Speaker 1: Witt being a top fifteen player this year already in
Speaker 1: the ranks.
Speaker 2: Well, here's a couple things I want to point out.
Speaker 2: First off, how insane is it that this is maybe
Speaker 2: one of the first years we've ever seen that you
Speaker 2: don't see in the consistent rank there's not a pitcher
Speaker 2: inside the top ten or for twelve. Well, but it's
Speaker 2: always the thing that happens. I think Roto is going
Speaker 2: to push these guys up. I have that same order.
Speaker 2: I've got Burns and Cole, and I've got them not
Speaker 2: inside the top twelve. I might have. I mean, I
Speaker 2: guess technically in a fifteen team, Roto both of them
Speaker 2: do touch the first round if you're not looking at twelve.
Speaker 2: But I think that's the general range. I will probably
Speaker 2: have zero point zero shares of those guys at that cost.
Speaker 2: I'm going to be predominantly hit or hitter in my drafts,
Speaker 2: and Bobby Witt at this cost would be someone I'm
Speaker 2: one hundred percent taking a look at. The funny thing
Speaker 2: about it is Wit is going at an insanely different
Speaker 2: costs than NFBC drafts in the Draft Champions seven, So
Speaker 2: draft and rank is going to be something really interesting
Speaker 2: to follow. NFBC drafts also are a lot more upside
Speaker 2: you're chasing stolen bases, so I'm not I'm not a
Speaker 2: surprised to see him there, but I got a hard
Speaker 2: time looking at like Bobby Witt over you know some
Speaker 2: really key veterans. So seven is way too high over
Speaker 2: right now?
Speaker 1: Do you think that's wrong?
Speaker 2: See don't. I don't know if I agree with that
Speaker 2: right now. Like I'm into Bobby WIT's progression, but I
Speaker 2: think Bobaschett is underrated right now, and I think that's
Speaker 2: a really tough pill to swallow, taking Wit over Boshett.
Speaker 2: If you're looking for consistency, but you got to take
Speaker 2: your shots in some places either way. Man, I think
Speaker 2: this is a great spot for when you're looking for
Speaker 2: twenty five plus stolen bases with an uptick in power,
Speaker 2: which Bobby Witt can do. It's just a team context
Speaker 2: sucks and if you look at where can I get
Speaker 2: more runs in RBI, if you compare Baschett and Bobby Witt,
Speaker 2: maybe you get more stolen bases with Bobby. You could
Speaker 2: easily get more homers with Bishett. But you also have
Speaker 2: a better run and RBI opportunity with the Blue Jays
Speaker 2: than you do with the Royals. So I think they're
Speaker 2: really close. But I'm in with Bobby Witt. No would
Speaker 2: one hundred percent taken? Would you say it was seventeen sixteen?
Speaker 1: He is at thirteen right now?
Speaker 2: Or at thirteen okay?
Speaker 1: Yes, which I think there's a chance that he might
Speaker 1: crack top ten at some point because I do think
Speaker 1: they're gonna look at the stone bases and look at
Speaker 1: the deficit in that category, and people like you said
Speaker 1: was gonna push And I don't know if it's wrong,
Speaker 1: but I love him right where he is right now.
Speaker 1: I think that's perfect. I'm concerned it's gonna move up.
Speaker 1: We'll see, we'll see what happened.
Speaker 2: Well in the NFBC drafts. His his high pick was
Speaker 2: five and his low pick was ten, so he never
Speaker 2: went below ten.
Speaker 1: And that's why I believe when people start seeing that
Speaker 1: that will push up because of the stone bases. And
Speaker 1: I think that early indicator is one that look, if
Speaker 1: you're doing early best ball drafts right now, you're getting
Speaker 1: a value on Bobby wid do it take it now
Speaker 1: because it ain't gonna be there in six weeks. It's
Speaker 1: is not going to be there the rest of these guys.
Speaker 1: Like I said, another no problems here. I think he
Speaker 1: did a tremendous value here with these corner guys, with Machado, Devers,
Speaker 1: and Alonzo at the end of this tier and the
Speaker 1: tops one in eighteen nineteen to twenty Mike Trout at sixteen.
Speaker 1: Does that feel right to you?
Speaker 2: I mean it feels right in that like I'm gonna
Speaker 2: take him. I'm going to think in general range one
Speaker 2: hundred percent. So yeah, I think it's about the general spot.
Speaker 2: I actually think the like mid second round is pretty sweet.
Speaker 2: You said those three corner in I mean I think
Speaker 2: you said Machado Endeavors, but you gotta throw Austin Riley
Speaker 2: in there as well. You throw him those guys in there.
Speaker 2: You have Mike Trout, you've got some of those pitchers.
Speaker 2: I think the mid second round is really nice. That's
Speaker 2: also why remember I said I like that fourth pick,
Speaker 2: maybe even if you want to go five, because then
Speaker 2: that turnaround, you've got a legit shot at one of
Speaker 2: those pitchers. You've got a legit shot at one of
Speaker 2: those corner infielders. Third base is not deep this year.
Speaker 2: You could theoretically get a Kune at five and then
Speaker 2: Rafael Devers in the second round. That's a bonker start.
Speaker 2: That's a bonker start to your draft. And then you
Speaker 2: can touch pitching a little bit later.
Speaker 1: Well, I think in the season long formats, look, you
Speaker 1: take whatever one hundred games you can get out of
Speaker 1: Mike Trout. It's great. You know, you had forty bombs
Speaker 1: last year and one hundred and eighteen games whatever it was.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, those head to head formats,
Speaker 1: you got to really think long and hard about that
Speaker 1: because one hundred and eighteen games, thirty six games, fifty
Speaker 1: three games, one hundred and thirty four games, one hundred
Speaker 1: and forty games, one hundred and fourteen game, Like I'm
Speaker 1: literally giving just going backwards here, like those head to
Speaker 1: head matches where we don't have that premium player. It's
Speaker 1: a tough investment. It is a great point though, too,
Speaker 1: to make as you go into the second tier, these
Speaker 1: eleven through twenty guys, it's a really good year for
Speaker 1: salary cap draft formats because there's some really good value
Speaker 1: here where you don't have to pay for the very
Speaker 1: top of the board guys. We can get some real
Speaker 1: premium talent here in this next tier and get like
Speaker 1: two or three guys supposed to just maybe one of
Speaker 1: the big guys there. Next grouping twenty one through thirty,
Speaker 1: we start with Sandy al Contrac coming off a fantastic season,
Speaker 1: Cy young Worthy, then Fernando Tettis Junior starting point this
Speaker 1: year twenty two. Remember that, because it ain't going to
Speaker 1: be there in a month from now. It's not going
Speaker 1: to be there. Fernando Tettis Junior at twenty two, Austin Riley,
Speaker 1: who you mentioned before, at twenty three, Paul Goldschman at
Speaker 1: twenty four, then Edwin Diaz at twenty five, going ahead
Speaker 1: of Jacob de Gram at twenty six, Francisco Lindor twenty seven,
Speaker 1: who I personally think is being undervalued here at this ranking,
Speaker 1: Jose Altuve at twenty eight, Michael Harris who had himself
Speaker 1: a heck of a season at twenty nine, and Dylan
Speaker 1: Season at thirty. So this is where things start to
Speaker 1: open up for interpretation. We gotta start with Tatis junior
Speaker 1: because this is the wildcard guy. He could be a
Speaker 1: league winner for you or he could be another year
Speaker 1: of massive disappointment. I know you are the dice rolland
Speaker 1: wheeling and deal in high flying Byron Buckston drafting kind
Speaker 1: of guy. So how do you feel about Fernando Tetis
Speaker 1: Junior this year?
Speaker 2: You know what's a surprise you is I'm probably not
Speaker 2: gonna have a lot of Tatis, And you are right.
Speaker 2: I'm a limousine riding jeff Lyon jet Lyon son of
Speaker 2: a Gun that'll draft the Buckston's and I listen, Tatis's
Speaker 2: projections are nuts. There are still nuts, and he's gonna
Speaker 2: miss a month. He's gonna miss a month of the season,
Speaker 2: and he's still got you know, I think it's like
Speaker 2: close to forty homers twenty plus stolen bases. Actually, as
Speaker 2: we're doing this, fan grafts is down, so I can't
Speaker 2: look at the Steamer projections or it's down for me
Speaker 2: and I can't look at it. But he's got really
Speaker 2: crazy numbers. But I would say something I don't love
Speaker 2: is miss games off the top of the year. I
Speaker 2: don't like coming out the gates bad, especially with this
Speaker 2: Hiven investment. Tatisa is already moving up and those draft
Speaker 2: champions that I'm citing. His ADP is now eighteen, so
Speaker 2: he's now inside the top twenty. His high pick is
Speaker 2: twelve and his low pick is twenty eight.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you there's twenty two again.
Speaker 2: No, I agree with you.
Speaker 1: We are not going to see that number when we
Speaker 1: come back into a show next week. I even guarantee you.
Speaker 2: Well, you want to know what's crazy about it is
Speaker 2: I'm pretty he should have no issue with this. He's
Speaker 2: be able to play spring training and then he'll just
Speaker 2: be suspended after the fact. You know what.
Speaker 1: I know he had like a game surgery left on
Speaker 1: there too.
Speaker 2: I think it's twenty. I think it's like twenty something
Speaker 2: games left, so he's gonna miss April. He's gonna miss
Speaker 2: essentially April, but he also had this potentially.
Speaker 1: D L stint. You know, like that's what you're missing.
Speaker 2: But it's significant enough. I don't like coming out the
Speaker 2: gates missing that, and that's just something I'm a little against,
Speaker 2: especially with the high cost when you get if he's
Speaker 2: out in spring training in less than a month, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be on the backfield the first day. My plan
Speaker 2: is to go to San Diego because I've also got
Speaker 2: Soto and everybody there now, and i want to see
Speaker 2: what's going on when he's there and he's looking healthy
Speaker 2: and he's hitting with Soto and he's crushing on the backfields.
Speaker 2: It's going to start to tick up when he's in
Speaker 2: spring training. Hims, it's gonna tick up. It's going to
Speaker 2: push first round LEGiT's gonna push the first round, and
Speaker 2: we're all gonna put blinders on for the first month.
Speaker 2: This is not going to surprise anybody. The guy that
Speaker 2: I'm going to probably have more shares of that's in
Speaker 2: this round and it is my jet flying limousine ride
Speaker 2: and who is Jacob de grom No, it's crazy, I
Speaker 2: know it's crazy.
Speaker 1: It's gonna make you feel like we should have an
Speaker 1: intervention right now.
Speaker 2: I can't listen to this.
Speaker 1: Friends don't let friends draft Jacob de Grom anymore.
Speaker 2: Here's my big thing, here's my big thing with him.
Speaker 2: He is And I'm not saying I'm gonna take because
Speaker 2: this would have to be like a lad I knew.
Speaker 1: You were going to say, I know you held it
Speaker 1: inside my bones. I knew it.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to I'm gonna preface this. We're gonna
Speaker 2: talk next round. I'm not going to probably have the
Speaker 2: shares of him in this range because of the cost
Speaker 2: of my draft strategy, but I'm more likely to take
Speaker 2: the risk this year because Jacob deGrom win healthy, and
Speaker 2: that is the caveat. Is the best picture in baseball,
Speaker 2: the projections through the roof on him, but you can't
Speaker 2: trust it's a whole new organization, it's a whole new place.
Speaker 2: You can put a million questions into that as well.
Speaker 2: What offensive support does he have versus what he had
Speaker 2: with the Mets, What defensive support? I think there's a
Speaker 2: lot in that. But he is statistically the best pitcher
Speaker 2: in baseball when he's out there, and that's a risk
Speaker 2: that I'm interested in. Though the caveat is this third round,
Speaker 2: even though I said it, I'm probably not taking him,
Speaker 2: probably not taking Tatis or him. And I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: with a hitter in another.
Speaker 1: Sit hasn't thrown a hundred. Look, I don't know. Look,
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty season was what it was. But I mean,
Speaker 1: ninety two innings, sixty four innings. We can't. I can't
Speaker 1: do that. You don't want to know where I have
Speaker 1: in y rankings. I've got an I bet it's twenty something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I'm just it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. It's a terrible. Look.
Speaker 1: Everything you said is right in theory, But I live
Speaker 1: in a place called the real world. And in that place,
Speaker 1: Jacob de Grom does not throw one hundred innings ever.
Speaker 1: And and uh, not to be fooled of my old
Speaker 1: pal Nathan Bush, God Rest his soul from West Virginia
Speaker 1: used to say, don't get fooled by a new paint
Speaker 1: of coat. Uh yeah, that's right, pain of coat. Because
Speaker 1: just because now he's wearing a different uniform and he's
Speaker 1: signed for money and so he made an investment doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you should. And it's really not be on this
Speaker 1: train and it's not me hating him for leaving. I
Speaker 1: could care less about it. This is business. It's never personal.
Speaker 1: This is just about I get de Gram as an investment.
Speaker 1: I told you last year he terrified the heck out
Speaker 1: of me, and I wasn't wrong.
Speaker 2: It's it's it's something you're gonna have to stomach. It's
Speaker 2: just here's here's the things I have a problem with.
Speaker 2: Top one percent of k percentage, also top one percent
Speaker 2: of walk percentage. His expected era was in the top
Speaker 2: two percent of best in the league.
Speaker 1: Ex.
Speaker 2: wOBA and Whoba both were in the best three percent
Speaker 2: of the league. As far as pictures go, he's the
Speaker 2: best picture out there. So it's a risk best picture
Speaker 2: not out there when you know what that's and that's
Speaker 2: a worry right into it.
Speaker 1: Pa, Pal, there it was.
Speaker 2: I gave you the I think you and I are
Speaker 2: going to disagreeing a lot of pictures because we're about
Speaker 2: someone in the round as well. I think we're kind
Speaker 2: of disagree a lot this year.
Speaker 1: I can't wait. This is why I love you, and
Speaker 1: that's why I love this show so excited. Leading off
Speaker 1: is how many days away we ninety days away were
Speaker 1: even there? Probably less now I don't even know. All right,
Speaker 1: let's get to the next grouping here, thirty one through forty.
Speaker 1: Randy arose a Rain at thirty one. What a season
Speaker 1: he had. I remember when he started slow and people
Speaker 1: wanted to like another guy.
Speaker 2: That people wanted to.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, people losing their mind. Just relax. Nolan
Speaker 1: Aeronauto at thirty two. Nice value there again. How can
Speaker 1: I not take Nolan Aeronaudo over Jcob Grom Like those
Speaker 1: are things I just can't physically do at this point
Speaker 1: in my life. Aaron Nola at thirty three, Brandon Woodrif,
Speaker 1: who I do like a lot at thirty four. Are
Speaker 1: good friend. Eric Cross has some great stats on him
Speaker 1: recently too, he was thrown out there. Luis Robert at
Speaker 1: thirty five, my boy on a huge value, Emmanuel Casse
Speaker 1: at thirty six, Spencer Striyder thirty seven, who you'll be
Speaker 1: very proud of me. I am higher on than anybody
Speaker 1: else ooh even me rankings No, I believe, even because
Speaker 1: he knows getting that warning whenever I publish my ranking
Speaker 1: says you are very very high on these on Christian Hobby,
Speaker 1: aer and Spencers.
Speaker 2: I didn't get a warning on my Strader. I have Strider,
Speaker 2: I believe at sp six.
Speaker 1: Let's see where I have him. Okay, maybe you I
Speaker 1: have Oh my god, I am at six two.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, look at us. We're in the state.
Speaker 1: We're friends again. So Strider right where he should be
Speaker 1: a great value on Luis Robert if he becomes that dude,
Speaker 1: which I think he can be. Thirty eighth A McClanahan
Speaker 1: thirty nine hater Marcus Simian at forty. Now, I like
Speaker 1: mcclanahan's resk more than de Gram's ten picks later, but
Speaker 1: I just think this is the guy. This is the
Speaker 1: next guy headed for the next arm surgery. You know,
Speaker 1: I sat there on the show and leading off last
Speaker 1: summer and I told everybody ran as soon as he
Speaker 1: went past, justin Verlander. What did I tell? I said,
Speaker 1: everybody go reinvest in Verlander because mcclanahan's not going to
Speaker 1: make it to finish line. He didn't, and he didn't.
Speaker 1: But I love the player, I love the talent. The
Speaker 1: investment's tougher, ten spots less than de Gram. I'm in,
Speaker 1: but I'm also still very loathing consensus. So sell me
Speaker 1: on Shane mcclatahan.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean this is one of my guys. This
Speaker 2: is one of my big guys this year. And monster
Speaker 2: reds across the board again, there's another one of those
Speaker 2: guys you get on a Baseball Savant page and it's
Speaker 2: just it's the red Sea. There's literally nothing blew across
Speaker 2: the board from with percentage to walks and everything like
Speaker 2: that made a big change last year. This is one
Speaker 2: of the big things that you love to see and
Speaker 2: you love to see the success. And really this type
Speaker 2: of pitch is when you can maintain it, and I'm
Speaker 2: talking about his change up that he adjusted to is
Speaker 2: something that's very sustainable. So he lowered his slider usage
Speaker 2: from the previous year, increased his change up usage this
Speaker 2: past year, and he started throwing around twenty five percent.
Speaker 2: What's amazing about it is he upped in this usage
Speaker 2: change and he predominantly threw the change up. I believe
Speaker 2: it was to righties and he like never threw it
Speaker 2: against lefties. But he had a forty percent with percentage
Speaker 2: on the change up and the slider, and that upticked
Speaker 2: his slider percentage when he started using the change up more,
Speaker 2: which equated to over forty percent of his pitches between
Speaker 2: change ups. And sliders forty percent with freight on it.
Speaker 2: His fastball. He also added some horizontal movement so he
Speaker 2: was able to you know, dink and dunk on the
Speaker 2: sides of the zone a little bit more. And he's
Speaker 2: got close to a thirty percent withfth percentage on that.
Speaker 2: This is a guy that pounds the zone. The curveball
Speaker 2: is an what's so amazing about it is like the
Speaker 2: curveball would seem like the big strikeout pitch, and it
Speaker 2: gets strikeouts, but it's a great setup pitch. The curveball
Speaker 2: I absolutely loved to set up. The fastball got better,
Speaker 2: the change up became elite, and he's got a slider.
Speaker 2: He's got four four I don't want to call them
Speaker 2: four plus plus pitches, but these are four pitches that
Speaker 2: he can pound the zone. He can get big strikeouts
Speaker 2: on big wif percentages. And he only put up one
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty innings last year. So how I look
Speaker 2: at it is like I think he would for the
Speaker 2: first half of the year, he was the best pitcher
Speaker 2: in baseball, and then he tapered off on the second half.
Speaker 2: It's also like, I mean, he's a young pitcher. His belt,
Speaker 2: so I think there's progression on board here. With a
Speaker 2: great pitch mix, he's getting strikeouts, he also pounds the zone,
Speaker 2: doesn't have the command issues that some of these other
Speaker 2: guys do, and every bit of underlining stats work in
Speaker 2: his favor. Though He's not like Jacob Durrahm in the
Speaker 2: one percent or anything like that. But he had a
Speaker 2: five percent walk rate with a thirty percent k rate,
Speaker 2: and I think there is more progression on the board
Speaker 2: for him to be potentially become the number one pitcher
Speaker 2: in baseball, maybe not this year, but over the next year,
Speaker 2: three years.
Speaker 1: See, you're right. For the first half he was arguably
Speaker 1: the best pitcher in baseball, if not the best ten
Speaker 1: and three one seven one ERA. Second half for twenty ERA, yeah,
Speaker 1: second half certainly far more hittable than he was. The
Speaker 1: strikeout rate also declined significantly from twelve to seven point six.
Speaker 1: The K per nine, that's k P nine. And my
Speaker 1: concern with McClanahan is this, Now, what we saw last
Speaker 1: year was that fatigue? Was that an injury that happened
Speaker 1: that we can get past, or is that the beginning
Speaker 1: of what could be the next bomb of up Shane
Speaker 1: mcclanaham arm surgery, and that's why he's outside my top twenty.
Speaker 1: And I get it why people want to say.
Speaker 2: That's your top, not twenty. Of SP's to ground.
Speaker 1: Both because I can't get enough out of them. The
Speaker 1: quality is great I need. I'd rather have slightly lesser
Speaker 1: quality and get more quantity. That's where I'm at with pitching,
Speaker 1: and we'll get more about that and we get to
Speaker 1: our New Year's resolutions for twenty twenty three and talk
Speaker 1: more about that. But guys like Woodriff I feel more
Speaker 1: confident in which I know he's missed some time too,
Speaker 1: you know Nola for his warts. At times in his
Speaker 1: career he shows up. You know, if I'm gonna spend
Speaker 1: on the lead pitcher, col and Burns are those two guys.
Speaker 1: I do agree with that there's a lot of age
Speaker 1: and that other tier two when you start to get
Speaker 1: to the Verlander guys and the Schurzers of the world,
Speaker 1: like the older group. But boor to come on some
Speaker 1: of these guys because.
Speaker 2: It's interesting and we won't get into it here, but
Speaker 2: it's interesting to hear you go, you go. You give
Speaker 2: Woodruff the past, but a young guy who really hasn't
Speaker 2: had a track record of Klanahan doesn't like.
Speaker 1: What I'm worried about was that the precursor, the drop
Speaker 1: off and the mistime the injury. And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: Like are we getting to a point with him? Like
Speaker 1: because he's so young in this a lot we've seen
Speaker 1: these young pitchers come up tease, they look great, and
Speaker 1: then they have the arm surgery, they have the arm issues,
Speaker 1: and then it kind of declines. Look, Woodroff is probably
Speaker 1: a bad example of some of those guys, but even
Speaker 1: like ahead of those guys, and look, I know I'm
Speaker 1: going to be much lower than consensus. Like I look
Speaker 1: at the Kevin Gosmin's and the Minoa's and the Joe
Speaker 1: musk Groves of the world and Zach Allens and like,
Speaker 1: I just feel like they're better investments for where they
Speaker 1: are and in drafts rather than me draft early pitching.
Speaker 1: I'd rather be locking in these hitters that are in
Speaker 1: the same I'd rather be having Nolan Aronado, I'd rather
Speaker 1: be having the guys like who else with Austin Reiley
Speaker 1: type like those guys that right.
Speaker 2: That's where I one hundred percent agree with you. Like
Speaker 2: I talked up to Grom and hopefully everybody got it
Speaker 2: in a I would rather probably de Grom in that
Speaker 2: late third round or late second round, late third round
Speaker 2: or whatever it was compared to the early top twenty
Speaker 2: one pick of datis. But I'm not gonna take them.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna take pictures most likely in the top
Speaker 2: three rounds. So what's what's unique about it is Strider
Speaker 2: and Clanahan are probably gonna be my number one pitching
Speaker 2: targets in that late third to fourth round. If you're
Speaker 2: in head to head, I'm gonna target on those guys.
Speaker 2: Then I'm gonna wait again, and then I love exactly
Speaker 2: what you said. Give me deals on Minoa, give me
Speaker 2: deals on Kevin Gosman, give me Luis Castillo, Zach Gallan. No,
Speaker 2: that's how I'm gonna.
Speaker 1: Build memation Javier this year too. And you know, I'm
Speaker 1: Harder's guy from a couple of years ago, like this is.
Speaker 1: So this has been a long time coming here. All right,
Speaker 1: let's close out the rankings of the top fifty, which
Speaker 1: is what we came here to do today. Max Schurz
Speaker 1: are at forty one, Matt Olsen at forty two, Verlander
Speaker 1: forty three, Cedric mallin steady issue goes at forty four.
Speaker 1: Liam Hendrix, who again this is gonna change now because
Speaker 1: of the non Hodgkins lymphoma diagnosis, so obviously that ranking
Speaker 1: is going to change. I came just twenty four hours ago.
Speaker 1: Carlos Ordan forty six, Shane Bieber forty seven, Kyeg Schwarber
Speaker 1: forty eight, Zach Wieler forty nine, and at least Garcia
Speaker 1: at fifty. Let's talk about Garcia, another guy who had
Speaker 1: a fantastic season last year, another guy that's got swinging
Speaker 1: miss batting average. Obviously can fluctuate, but what he gave
Speaker 1: you last year was phenomenal from a fantasy perspective, especially
Speaker 1: the value he gave you. Is he still a value
Speaker 1: in this top fifty right now for you?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think that's the great question that you're asking,
Speaker 2: is is he still the value? Because the one thing
Speaker 2: that he did that's so unique was what were we doing,
Speaker 2: Like in pre twenty twenty two were like he can't repeat,
Speaker 2: Like he had this great season in two thousand, we
Speaker 2: all thought the.
Speaker 1: Power was real. It's just we wondered could he make
Speaker 1: enough contact to really readelivery exactly?
Speaker 2: That wasn't going to maintain well, like it kind of did.
Speaker 2: He had two fifty.
Speaker 1: He was.
Speaker 2: He was one of the few twenty five guys in
Speaker 2: year twenty seven to twenty five better well dude. On
Speaker 2: the underlining stats, he improved his EV his barrel percentage
Speaker 2: just hard hit percentage went up by two percent this
Speaker 2: past year. His XBA went up. His XBA is still
Speaker 2: not great, but here was. Here's one of the big
Speaker 2: things why I think you can't pass on a dolls
Speaker 2: at this point. Adulas had an expected XBA expected batting
Speaker 2: average in twenty twenty one of two twenty so like
Speaker 2: he you know, way overperformed them this past year and
Speaker 2: XBF two forty four, which was almost in line exactly
Speaker 2: his batting average. So he's starting to stabilize a little bit,
Speaker 2: and he's stealing bases and he's hitting home.
Speaker 1: That's the difference to man I don't like, is huge different.
Speaker 2: I don't like the cost, but I do like a
Speaker 2: Doulas Garcia, and he belongs in the generator. I gotta
Speaker 2: tell you, I don't like a lot of these players
Speaker 2: in this forty through fifty that you listed off. There's
Speaker 2: not many targets in here for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think this is the danger zone, and for me, KYLEE.
Speaker 1: Schwarber is the biggest one of the danger zone because
Speaker 1: I think falling into that trap of him repeating what
Speaker 1: he did last year from a Powers perspective is is difficult.
Speaker 1: I know it's a good ballpark for Power. I get that.
Speaker 1: I think this is the guy that missus Bryce Harper
Speaker 1: hitting behind him and did it hit directly behind him? No,
Speaker 1: But you have to understand if you're a pro, you're
Speaker 1: setting up approach as a picture right and you got
Speaker 1: Kyleeg Schwarber at the top of the lineup. We also
Speaker 1: have to see how that Philly line is going to
Speaker 1: shake out now with Trey Turner too, Like, how does
Speaker 1: that all work out?
Speaker 2: Where is he going to hit three a schwar We're
Speaker 2: gonna lead off, lead off?
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So there's a lot of unknown there for
Speaker 1: me with Schwarber right now. Yeah, great season, love the player,
Speaker 1: love the guy personality for days, big fan, But I
Speaker 1: don't think people will respect enough that what a difference
Speaker 1: Bryce Harper makes in the lineup when he's in it
Speaker 1: ways out and it's not a knock on Trey Turner
Speaker 1: or Reez Hoskins or anybody else in that lineup, But
Speaker 1: you pitch differently to the top of the order. When
Speaker 1: you've got Bryce Harper waiting in the three or four spot,
Speaker 1: you just do. And I think that's he's gonna see
Speaker 1: less fast balls this year. He's going to see a
Speaker 1: little bit different and look, he could very well have
Speaker 1: overcome that. Schwerro is always a high prospect, high profile
Speaker 1: guy that were struggles there for many years. He bounced
Speaker 1: around a little and he had a phenomenal season And
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he can't repeat it. I'm saying I'm
Speaker 1: not investing as though he's going to. I think that's.
Speaker 2: An interesting point. Looking over at the NFBC info that
Speaker 2: they've got he has, I would say of the top
Speaker 2: sixty five players I'm looking at, no one has a
Speaker 2: bigger top and bottom than Calshold Right now, he's got
Speaker 2: the thirty nine, a thirty nine high with an a
Speaker 2: eighty six low. So here's some perspective. Some other guys
Speaker 2: that are in this generating sures Er has a high
Speaker 2: of thirty nine and a low of sixty three. Completely
Speaker 2: different players, sure, but I'm giving you Cedric Mullins high
Speaker 2: a forty one low of fifty seven. Jazz chishem high
Speaker 2: a thirty four to fifty five. No one in that
Speaker 2: top sixty has remotely is close of a bigger gap
Speaker 2: between the high and low that they go than Kyle Schwarber.
Speaker 2: And he is tough. He's a monster in points league,
Speaker 2: which is going to want to make people push up
Speaker 2: head to head in rodo you know the batting average
Speaker 2: stunk and is that going to stabilize? But can the
Speaker 2: power maintain? There's so I agree with you. There's so
Speaker 2: many questions on him that it's a little divisive. He's
Speaker 2: not the type of player that I want to invest in.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's a crazy cost right now, but
Speaker 2: between thirty nine and mid eighties is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: I think the cost is also because of what outfield
Speaker 1: looks like right now, which is rough. Let's be honest,
Speaker 1: like it is a Once you get past that twenty
Speaker 1: five thirty, it's becomes a lot of question marks and
Speaker 1: a lot of guys. So I get it, and I
Speaker 1: understand why still, you know, in especially the deeper outfield leagues,
Speaker 1: where you got to make that kind of call and
Speaker 1: you got to take the god with the bed. If
Speaker 1: he hits two to fifteen and then he hits two fifteen,
Speaker 1: you hope that he hits thirty five bombs or something
Speaker 1: like that. To expect him to hit forty again, I
Speaker 1: think is foolish. I think that's not a good practice.
Speaker 1: But this is just the first look we're doing here.
Speaker 1: I'm sure we're gonna do many more. This is the
Speaker 1: top fifteen, a nutshell, our first glance at what the
Speaker 1: ECR is at Fantasy pros. And you can see that
Speaker 1: too fantacybros dot Com slash rankings. Go check them out
Speaker 1: over on the MLB page. They're there for you. They're
Speaker 1: up and they're going to be moving all over the place,
Speaker 1: especially with the Trevor story news that broke right before
Speaker 1: the show too, about him missing what four to six months?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no big deal, no big really. Well, that's
Speaker 1: close things out here. On a better note, though, it's
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, it's a fresh start, so it's time
Speaker 1: for some New Year's resolutions. Welsh, what do you have
Speaker 1: for us?
Speaker 2: Well, this is a I've actually talked about this, you
Speaker 2: just mentioned it, and my this is a Fantasy Baseball
Speaker 2: resolution right not.
Speaker 1: To let Yeah, enough to do, but I think it's
Speaker 1: probably better for this shit if you do baseball.
Speaker 2: So yeah, we could. We could do some workout videos
Speaker 2: with Welsh. That'll be fun.
Speaker 1: Let's see that. I mean a videos. Let's go, baby, let's.
Speaker 2: Go, let's go. I mean from a fantasy baseball perspective,
Speaker 2: you just mentioned it. My biggest resolution is to not
Speaker 2: let outfield get away from me. I can't say it enough.
Speaker 2: I said this actually on CBS not too long ago,
Speaker 2: like this, I think in my early runs of fantasy
Speaker 2: baseball drafts and mox and basketball and all of this
Speaker 2: stuff that I've been doing, is outfield.
Speaker 1: Is fool's gold.
Speaker 2: It will fool you because you're like, oh, there's so
Speaker 2: many more players than third base. Everyone's gonna focus on
Speaker 2: how a stinky second basis, which it is, how third
Speaker 2: base lacks some depth, which it does. Which starting pitching
Speaker 2: is gonna get nuts because people are gonna wait, it'll happen.
Speaker 2: But nothing becomes more of a problem than outfield when
Speaker 2: you get too confident and you move past it. I've
Speaker 2: even had drafts already where I've taken two early outfielders
Speaker 2: and it still can get kind of bad later. You
Speaker 2: really have to be cognizant and know where you are
Speaker 2: in a draft based on outfield, because if you start five,
Speaker 2: it can get real bad. If you start three. Don't
Speaker 2: get too confident that, hey, I only start three. It
Speaker 2: gets away from you quick. And the tier jumps are
Speaker 2: so big this year that everyone talks about that. Those
Speaker 2: middle the same positions we talk about every year. Oh,
Speaker 2: second base, third base. Outfield is not as deep as
Speaker 2: you want it to be. You're gonna have to hit
Speaker 2: on some guys late and just make sure you don't
Speaker 2: get two behind early.
Speaker 1: I would say this too. I think we know this
Speaker 1: every year. Whenever we think is the deficit ends up
Speaker 1: being something better than we thought of. This is just
Speaker 1: the nature of the beast. But it's definitely a deficit
Speaker 1: early on. You got to look for some of these
Speaker 1: young players to step up to some of these young prospects.
Speaker 1: So the guys in Arizona step up. You gotta look
Speaker 1: for some of the other guys. We're gonna have opportunities
Speaker 1: or some bounce back guys too, Like does a Michael
Speaker 1: Gonfordo bounce back? Do you get guys like Riley Green
Speaker 1: bouncing guys? I think if those guys you know, play
Speaker 1: up to their abilities, and all of a sudden the
Speaker 1: outfield is better. But I will say I could not
Speaker 1: agree more. Address it early, and address it late, and
Speaker 1: take some shots on a lot of guys who have
Speaker 1: potential because you're gonna need that, because it is definitely thin,
Speaker 1: and for me, you already kind of heard it. I'm
Speaker 1: fading some of those early big pictures again this year.
Speaker 1: I did it last year, it worked out, but I'm
Speaker 1: doing even more this year. I'm going for those guys
Speaker 1: that I think are just good return on investments. The
Speaker 1: guys in Toronto, some of the guys in Seattle, like
Speaker 1: those pitching staffs, to me, offer some really good rois
Speaker 1: because they're playing in the lesser markets. Let's be honest,
Speaker 1: you play for the Yankees, You're Garrett Cole. Everyone's gonna
Speaker 1: want drafted early. People still don't give Sandy Alcantra enough credit,
Speaker 1: or Pablo Lopez for that standpoint, or anybody really, so
Speaker 1: you start to look around at guys that don't get
Speaker 1: enough credit. I'm looking for some of those pictures, those
Speaker 1: workhorse guys, and some of the smaller market teams too,
Speaker 1: because they get less attention. They deserve a lot more,
Speaker 1: but I'll tell you right now. Alec Manoa, Joe Musgrove,
Speaker 1: Zach Gallon. That is the sweet spot for me. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be fascinating to see, you know what happens to
Speaker 1: the top twenty pitchers this year, because last year talk
Speaker 1: about a complete reshuffling of the board, and this year
Speaker 1: I think it could be very similar where some of
Speaker 1: these other names that were used to seeing continue to
Speaker 1: fade away and make room for more guys like the
Speaker 1: Striders and Christian Hobviers.
Speaker 2: Of the world.
Speaker 1: So it's great to be back, Welsh. It's great to
Speaker 1: see you talk baseball, hang out a little bit. It's
Speaker 1: good times. Don't forget everybody. Good times. Also waits you
Speaker 1: over fantasypros dot Com slash Draft Wizard. Go use the
Speaker 1: draft Wizards. Start prepping right now. Go pick up your
Speaker 1: Fantasy Black Book twenty twenty three too. It's on Amazon.
Speaker 1: Welsh wrote a ton of stuff, all the draft strategy
Speaker 1: for this guy right over here. I love this guy.
Speaker 2: You got the book?
Speaker 1: The book? Oh yeah, the book is there, my big
Speaker 1: bald head. But all the great work that Welsh passport,
Speaker 1: Eric Cross, Mike mayor your own esteemed Mike Mahyor and
Speaker 1: a host of others all put into it. Great stuff
Speaker 1: there as always, so that'll do it for us. But
Speaker 1: the story of the game goes on. We're just getting
Speaker 1: started here for the Welsh. I'm Joey P. We'll see
Speaker 1: you next time. Kids, The do