Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 16 : World Series Picks To Click, Topps Tier One
Transcript
- 0:17Hello, and welcome everybody to episode sixteen of Cards and Categories. I am
- 0:23Mike Coolard here from Rasball, joined as always by my great friend Jeremy Brewer,
- 0:28also from ras Ball. How you doing this Wednesday evening? By doing
- 0:32very very well. Proud that you were able to count sixteen because I don't
- 0:36think I could have got there, But even more excited to talk about the
- 0:40World Series now that that is set. Despite what we may have predicted last
- 0:45week, and I think most of the industry predicted, looks like we have
- 0:50a fun matchup ahead of us, So very excited to see where that leads.
- 0:54Yeah, it's kind of the desert matchup of snakes versus Rangers, snakes
- 0:59versus boys, Like, it's gonna be lots of Western motifs during these Fox
- 1:03Highlight packages whatever they put together for us throughout the World Series. But really
- 1:08we lined it up kind of perfectly that we get to summarize all the playoffs
- 1:12and kind of get in on this World Series prediction action. So that is
- 1:18a lot of where we're going to take the show in the second half for
- 1:19the fantasy portion. But I wanted to just kind of put a quick cap
- 1:25on the last week of the playoffs that we've watched so far or like since
- 1:30we last talked, and so the things certainly escalated, right, Like the
- 1:34first few rounds escalated quickly. Yeah, the first few rounds were a little
- 1:38boring. And since we talked last week, we've had two game sevens.
- 1:44We had Craig kimberl that's another that's a good tongue twister there too. We
- 1:49can add that to the list, Craig Kimberrel blowing a couple of saves.
- 1:53We have the whole Adeleas Garcia situation in terms of him adventure Iany with adventure
- 2:00and adventure, I mean the and on top of that too, the Brian
- 2:06and Bray you suspension or non suspension or weird kind of beanball action that they
- 2:13had with the Dusty Baker being a petulant child on the bench well as well.
- 2:17So which route do you want to go first? I gave you lots
- 2:22of options to choose from, lots to choose from there. I think we
- 2:25should start with the Rangers Astros series, just because I think we go down
- 2:30the other route with the d Backs. We may ever finish the segment,
- 2:34but yeah, I think that that was you know, when we were last
- 2:39recording week ago, I think the Rangers were up two OHO in that series,
- 2:44and you know, we knew the Astros had the talent to compete there,
- 2:47so it wasn't like a you know, a sealed and done deal like
- 2:51we may have thought on the other side of the the league. But I
- 2:55really think the story there is all around a Dallas Garcia. There's multiple stories
- 3:01about around the Dollas Garcia, but maybe let's start with the whole. I
- 3:05don't call it beamball incident and what in the world was going on? My
- 3:13first question for you do you think it was intentional from Brian Rayu to being
- 3:17a Dollas Garcia in the playoffs? So I've been thinking about this and I
- 3:27think he didn't do it on purpose, but he was trying to bust him
- 3:30up and in real hard and so I think it just slipped away from him
- 3:34ever so slightly because Brian A. Brady is not exactly a guy. Even
- 3:38though he throws super hard and has a really crazy slider, isn't a huge
- 3:43walk machine like. He has really good control and that's what's allowed him to
- 3:46make the jump to honestly being Fantasy relevant as kind of like an Andrew Miller
- 3:53type guy with just his high k raid in his usage because he can control
- 3:58his pitches a Bray you, it surprises me that he beamed him because he
- 4:03just doesn't do that. But I do think a little bit of the emotion
- 4:06got to him. You know, you're trying to throw a little harder in
- 4:09the playoffs. You're two seemers cutting a little extra I think that's maybe what
- 4:14happened a little bit. But he certainly didn't regret it or seemed re worseful
- 4:18about it at all. Right, Like usually there would be a reaction from
- 4:21the picture. But Brandon Bray you also endorsed that pitch hitting a Doulas Garcia.
- 4:28What do you think? Yeah, I think I'm right there with you,
- 4:30just for the pure fact of this is the playoffs, you know what
- 4:36you especially as a relief ever, you have so few opportunities to impact a
- 4:41playoff series, and that was a big spot. It wasn't like the game
- 4:45was out of hand. It wasn't like it wouldn't have an impact. You
- 4:48do not want to put anybody on base. I think you're absolutely right that
- 4:51he was trying to bust him in. He was on adrenaline because clearly Dallas
- 4:57had had been taken him deep, so he didn't want to give him something
- 5:00to hit because you know, Adlas Garcia was on fire and continued to be
- 5:05on fire after that. So I see, you know, him being a
- 5:10guy trying to bust him in, trying to make it sure it's not something
- 5:14that he can hit. But to your point, like he's like a two
- 5:18walk FORER nine type guy this year, obray you is, he's not doesn't
- 5:23know where, he knows where the ball is going. And so I do
- 5:27think that adrenaline and trying to keep it out of the zone was it was
- 5:31part of a strategy and he was. It's one of those It was the
- 5:35unintentional, intentional walk likely in that scenario where they were not going to give
- 5:40him something to hit, and so they hit him and they ended up in
- 5:46a similar spot where they probably would have been if they were pitching around him.
- 5:48So I do agree with you, and I think Dallas Garcia took exception
- 5:55to something he probably shouldn't have taken exception to take his compliment put your bat
- 5:59down, go to first. I have a little old school me in that
- 6:01aspect of just take take your medicine and go to first be the be the
- 6:06bigger player back like you've been there before. Clearly that didn't happen. What
- 6:11I thought was most interesting was the fact that a Dolls didn't go after a
- 6:14break after Martin Maldonado, like what a Malda do to you so well?
- 6:19I think he knows that Maldonado is calling everything from behind the plate the way
- 6:24that Yadi used to. You know that Martin Maldonado is the field general there
- 6:29and he's the one that's yay or naying the hit by pitch call. But
- 6:34I can see what Adoles was angry about obviously, Like I think what's really
- 6:40terrible It would have been terrible if Adulices had broken a finger in his hand
- 6:44or just some sort of other bone. You know, there's so many bones
- 6:48in your little hand to to break that. Overall, that's I think why
- 6:55the suspension's a little been a little bit strange too, because like if you
- 6:59don't, I don't want him hurting people and busting people inside like that.
- 7:03And he got ejected, you know, like and you laid down in suspension,
- 7:06then why not serve it during the playoffs, because like you know what,
- 7:11like a Doli Scarcia could have missed Game seven from that and like that
- 7:15really could have crossed the Rangers. I don't think. I mean, in
- 7:17the end, obviously they cleaned up on JP France and all the other schmucks
- 7:23that kind of came out of that bullpen. But it's been a really strange
- 7:28thing to happen. And I can tell you that the first Rangers Astros play
- 7:33not playoff series regular season series of twenty twenty four is going to be electric
- 7:38that I'm sure it's gonna be. Actually, it's probably on this it's gonna
- 7:42be on the schedules because they're out at this point. But it'll be interesting
- 7:45to see how much coverage happens there. And I mean, I think the
- 7:48bench is going to clear a couple times during that first series wins you think,
- 7:51yeah, I would think so. And I mean, even though they're
- 7:56both Texas teams, I do I don't feel it. Maybe not being a
- 8:00Texas native, I have not felt that the Rangers and the Astros have really
- 8:03had a big beef over the years. Like, yeah, they're competitive,
- 8:07they're both Texas teams, but I haven't felt like there's a lot of bad
- 8:11Blood. I feel like this playoff series definitely changes that when you're both there,
- 8:16So I think you're right there. It's gonna be interesting next year to
- 8:20see them come in, you know. I think it'd be one thing if
- 8:24the Rangers go to the series and they get like swept out or something like
- 8:28that, I think the Bad Blood will not be the same. But let's
- 8:31just say the Rangers go in and win it all and the askers like that
- 8:33should have been us because they're gonna both do what you know, they're gonna
- 8:37do what everybody else did. The Diamonbacks say, well, it's just the
- 8:39Diamondbacks. Clearly, if we were there, we would win. So I
- 8:43think that that actually has an impact on on what it looks like next year.
- 8:46And I also think it depends on who's carried over from the team,
- 8:50like which the free agents do they retain, But they're gonna you know,
- 8:52Garcia's gonna be there, bro, He's gonna be there exactly the main the
- 8:56main guys will be there, so it'll it'll be entertaining the dollars. Garcia
- 9:00was entertaining though for the series, So what do you think about his performance
- 9:03during the series When fifteen runs driven in as a new postseason record for a
- 9:07single series. So he wasn't sure to fireworks, that's for sure. No,
- 9:13that's for sure. And it was very Randy like and it was hard
- 9:18to not watch it and think it was just Randy a Rose of Rena in
- 9:22repeat happening in front of our eyes. So as a Cardinals fan, obviously
- 9:26that hurts a lot. But I think the difference, especially for Doley Scarcia,
- 9:31is it's never stung quite as much just because he was cut and then
- 9:35the Rangers cut him again, Like the Rangers cut him as well. Every
- 9:37team had a chance at him, and so it's been crazy that they both
- 9:43kind of had the same meteoric ries and also interesting that both these players were
- 9:48really kind of let go. I mean, I don't think a Randy Rose
- 9:52Arena was necessarily like a very highly regarded prospect when the Cardinals gave him up.
- 10:00I'm sure other teams would have offered, you know, similar deals to
- 10:03get Randy Rose Arena. That like, it's not like he was involved for
- 10:07a huge package, and so it's been crazy to see them put it all
- 10:13together because I don't know when I do watch them, like do they just
- 10:16not look good in the miners or instructs or like what they can hit their
- 10:20both physical specimens, right, they're both very like and they've been that for
- 10:26day one to to a degree. So you're right, And what did they
- 10:30miss? They strike out a lot, But like when you can hit the
- 10:33ball that hard, like, how is it any like how is it any
- 10:37less sure than like a jazz Chisholm or something. You know that these guys
- 10:41are hitting the snaut on the ball and just have a really pretty swing for
- 10:46both of them that it's not even fully like an analytics miss or a scouting
- 10:50miss that if you watch ball, it doesn't take too long to figure out
- 10:54that these dudes can hit the ball. Yeah, I do kind of hurt
- 11:00me a little think back. You know, we had a segment a few
- 11:03weeks ago before when the playoffs were starting, like what players could really impact
- 11:07their card mark kid by really having a crazy, you know, playoff run,
- 11:13And when we kind of compared to Randy ros Arena, like who's who's
- 11:16in that mold? And here comes the dollars Garcia And I don't know how
- 11:20much you've looked at the card prices. I just got curious and I'm disappointed.
- 11:24I did not still have any old Cardinals Adulas Garcia autos. I think
- 11:30those long since gone. But his his card prices his just doing his you
- 11:35know, tops, Rookie Auto, Top Scrome rookie Auto was in that I
- 11:39say, fifteen dollars range somewhere in there pre playoffs, and I was just
- 11:45looking after the series there and they were in the seventy five to ninety dollars
- 11:48range. And so you know, he got a four or five X on
- 11:54that return for those cards, and you know, you could get them very
- 12:00plentiful. It's not like the season. You know, he can't he was
- 12:03a rookie, wasn't well printed or anything like that. So I think it
- 12:07was almost irony that we used a Rose Arena as the comparison and did not
- 12:11call out a Dolls Garcia, who is the closest comparison just from the journey
- 12:16that he's been on. Yeah, I think I honestly didn't want to do
- 12:20it because it was like too obvious, it was too easy, and so
- 12:22like, okay, well you can take credit for that. I didn't think
- 12:24of it. Well, I mean, maybe we should have just taken it
- 12:26like we whiffed on everything else that maybe we just gotta start, we gotta
- 12:30start kind of taking what's in front of us, because this is hard enough
- 12:33already, Why make it harder? And yeah, because I was just thinking
- 12:39about Rosaina. Honestly, look, if you look at his milest page,
- 12:45how do you ever get rid of him? Like he in twenty eighteen as
- 12:48a twenty three year old in Double A, he put up a two to
- 12:50eleven WRC plus. In twenty nineteen he put up a one fifty one WRC
- 12:56plus as a twenty four year old in Triple A, out only seventeen percent
- 13:01of the time and put up a three fifty eight four to thirty five five
- 13:05ninety three, which was obviously when they put that new ball into Triple A.
- 13:09But wow, like you just look at his numbers coming through the ranks
- 13:13for the Cardinals, and I don't know, I know in that respect,
- 13:16it's not like the ones that he played, you know, nineteen games for
- 13:20them and he hit three hundred, Yeah, and those It's not like he
- 13:22was a slouch body means, But I know they had an outfield glut with
- 13:28like Harrison Vader, so difficult calls smarter people than I maybe. But anyways,
- 13:37we actually had a good segue into the Diamondbacks a little bit ago until
- 13:41we got into the Randier Rosa Raino of rant there. But the we both
- 13:46overlooked the d Backs when we talked last week that they were down two oh
- 13:50and we had totally written them off that like we didn't even want to talk
- 13:52about the series because they had looked so poor out of the gate, and
- 13:56the vibes were immaculate in Philadelphia, that the crowd was buzzing, the offense
- 14:03was humming, and things really fell apart down the stretch. And not only
- 14:09was it Craig Kimberl giving up those kind of you could just see it from
- 14:11a mile away, some of those blown snaves. But I mean, how
- 14:15do you keep pitching Kimberl non safe situations too? Like, I mean,
- 14:18I feel like we've been here before with Craig Kimbrel, Like he thrives on
- 14:22pressure, Do not give him a miss in between spot. I'm not sure
- 14:26if I would say he thrives on pressure, but he's better, yeah,
- 14:31a little bit. Yeah, But the and then from there, Trey Turner
- 14:35turned back into Pumpkin trade Turner. That was really I think what sunk the
- 14:39Phillies more than anything else, because Schweiber continued to produce and cast Aelos went
- 14:43cold too down the stretch, but he does that, and having the loss
- 14:48of Trey Turner doing anything is really what I think buried the Phillies, even
- 14:54though they were getting a little bit of production from the bottom, like Boem
- 14:58came through in game seven and Johann Rojas was is coming into his own a
- 15:01little bit, and you know, stock Cut hit in game seven, and
- 15:07so like the bottom of the lineup was doing stuff. It's just when Trey
- 15:09Turner's out on base, you can't do too much with the rest of that
- 15:13lineup, you know. And so that really fell apart on them and the
- 15:18Dbacks grinding their way all the way through and thankfully put Mad Dog Chris Russo
- 15:22to bed for us, hopefully with his retirement. I sure hope so,
- 15:28but I can we can only dream. I do think, you know,
- 15:31we look at what, you know, why we wrote them off. I
- 15:33guess the things we should have considered, like they were going home for game
- 15:37three and you know, they got some of that that lift. But I
- 15:41think what was really interesting was I'm not gonna say they they stuck by and
- 15:46a few of those games, but they did right. The Phillies bulp and
- 15:48blew a few of those games, like they had the opportunity to close a
- 15:52series out. But then the the Dbacks actually decided to be the d Backs
- 16:00instead of trying to like play these safe games and like that, like we're
- 16:02going to do what we want to do. We're going to get you know,
- 16:04eighteen batters out of Brandon fat and we're going to run like that's we
- 16:11don't care if it makes sense, we don't care if it doesn't. That's
- 16:12how they've played all year. And so then it was exciting to watch the
- 16:17last few games. So they're like, oh, we're actually gonna play it
- 16:19and be the team that got here, and we don't care if it's not
- 16:22the bashers like everybody else. We don't care if our pitching doesn't blow everybody
- 16:26away. We're going to be good enough and we're going to put pressure on
- 16:30you and when you know, doing all the right little things. Yeah,
- 16:33and they really turned the tide when Catel Marte hit that walk off single that
- 16:38I think that really kind of brought a lot of momentum towards their way and
- 16:41showed that they could do it, and once they saw the pathway to winning
- 16:45in terms of honestly just playing more solid baseball. Is just a well rounded
- 16:51baseball team at this point that you know, if you're going into like a
- 16:55video game or something, they're the team that's like all bees and b minuses
- 16:59and will be pluses. And it doesn't look super sexy, but it always
- 17:03will work over a long season, and when you get into the playoffs,
- 17:07it's a little bit of a dice roll. But I do like the fortitude
- 17:11that Tory Lavello has really instituted in this team that you can tell that he's
- 17:17a really even keel but also just wise manager, and so you get the
- 17:23same sense of Rob Thompson, and these guys really looked comfortable that obviously,
- 17:30when you're winning, it's easy to give credit to a manager, but in
- 17:33some of the media, press conferences and just pre posts during game interviews,
- 17:41you can tell that these guys have a calming, steady presence to the clubhouse
- 17:45and it really helps just harness the energies of their rosters that you know,
- 17:49the Phillies were wild and the Deepacks are kind of young, and so taking
- 17:53that energy and harnessing and against the Phillies was really I think a masterful move
- 18:00by Troy Levello overall. Yeah, I think so. And I actually look
- 18:03back at the trade deadline from the d Backs and there might not be even
- 18:07more impactful trade than the Paul Seawall trade that brought him in and allowed that
- 18:14bullpen to you know, take one step back in the game and not be
- 18:18trying to figure out the ninth. They had guys that could pitch the seventh
- 18:22and eighth, and those guys are good at pitching the seventh and eighth.
- 18:23They really kind of extended what they could do from the bullpen there, so
- 18:27that couldn't have played any better for them, and it's you know, definitely
- 18:32paying off in the playoffs. Yeah, and maybe they even have the second
- 18:36best move too, because Tommy Fam really kept them above water down the stretch.
- 18:41That Tommy Fam provided that kind of extra kick in getting them into a
- 18:47higher gear and kept them afloat during some pretty rough series down to stretch in
- 18:51September. So it's kind of both of those moves are really deft from the
- 18:57front office overall that you don't I'm sure that they it was easy for them
- 19:03to jump at the policy wall trade just to be able to upgrade to an
- 19:06arm that good. But it takes some guy out to bring in somebody like
- 19:10Tommy Fam with the history that he has. And I know I've heard stories
- 19:15that the front office really like made sure that they tried to to ensure that
- 19:22Tommy Fam would fit into the clubhouse and you know, not be slapping people
- 19:26or starting fantasy football leagues or whatever else Tommy fan wants to do. But
- 19:30it was both those trades have paid off handsily for the d Backs. Yeah,
- 19:36absolutely so. I think the bigger piece though, is now that we
- 19:40talk about the d Backs running again, you have to connect this back to
- 19:45the card world and you know where I'm going Taco fractors exactly. So what's
- 19:51your prediction? And I guess maybe we should do a reminder for the group
- 19:55of well as you do the reminder of the Taco fractor and what that all
- 19:59means. Okay, yeah, I will give a quick overview if people recall
- 20:03from tops chrome and they're also in other products too. I know they're at
- 20:07least in Sonic, but who knows what other products are. There is a
- 20:11parallel called the Taco fractor. It's got pictures of hard shell tacos on it
- 20:17with a prism kind of refractor to it. They are of five. But
- 20:21Tops is running a promotion right now that just like steal base, steal a
- 20:26taco with Taco Bell. If whoever steals the first base in the World Series,
- 20:32if you have their Taco Fractor, you get a free lifetime supply of
- 20:36Taco Bell capped at fifteen k I think is what it is officially. So
- 20:41yeah, instead of I did the math, that is a taco every other
- 20:45day for thirty years. OK, so that's pretty legit. Yeah, legitimate.
- 20:48You know, it feels like that. I think they give you fifteen
- 20:52thousand dollars gift card, then they give you like five thousand dollars to pay
- 20:56for the taxes of the gift card. That is kind of them. I
- 21:00mean I wish it was index to inflation as well, like so that would
- 21:04have been really nice. Yeah, you're two fifty taco now is like five
- 21:08dollars and thirty years. But so because of that, obviously, who cares
- 21:15about World Series predictions. Let's get those tocour factor predictions in and I don't
- 21:21know, you want to flip a coin to see who gets to pick first,
- 21:22because I think the number one pick is probably, yeah, pretty obvious
- 21:27given that the Rangers of the home team. Yeah, I think I think
- 21:32there's an obvious pick here. And based on our comment earlier about Dollas Garcia
- 21:34and taking the leader of the club house type thing. So I will let
- 21:38you do the honors. You can go first, you can take him,
- 21:41and if it's this feels like the when we had a twenty twenty four Fantasy
- 21:45draft and we both were like, we know it's the same guy, and
- 21:48then we had a different guy. Yeah, I'll let you do the honors
- 21:52and we'll see see where we land on this one. So who you got
- 21:56for Sue in the first base of the twenty twenty three World Series. Okay,
- 22:00well I'm taking Corbyn Carroll. I'm shocked. I'm shocked. If you're
- 22:06gonna let me do this, then yeah, I will take Corbyn Carroll.
- 22:08And that I mean, oh, buddy, that's the heck of a rookie
- 22:11card, Taco Fractor rookie card. If that does come true, that he
- 22:15makes fifteen thousand dollars forever was holding that card. I'm sure it went for
- 22:19quite a bit because people were I don't trying to speculate what the prize would
- 22:26be, and some people were thinking all expenses paid, trip to the next
- 22:33MLB series outside of the country in Mexico next year, or some sort of
- 22:37other taco bonanza. But fifteen thousand dollars in taco bell is not a bad
- 22:42deal. So I will take Lorver Carroll. I'm gonna analyze the card market
- 22:47for you in a second, because I predicted you take Corbyn Carroll. Okay,
- 22:51you locked it up, Yeah, I did so. Corbyn Carroll's taco
- 22:53fractor again, there's only five of them. In August, before the d
- 22:57Backs were even guaranteed to make it into the to the playoffs, his taco
- 23:03fractor went for fourteen dollars on eBay. Whoa steal? Yep. Today a
- 23:11PSA nine taco fractor sold for five thousand dollars on eBay. And there is
- 23:17one other listed for the taco fractor, and I need to see I gotta
- 23:26see the number here because I have a feeling that's actually the one that sold
- 23:30previously. Yep, sure enough, it is so the one that sold for
- 23:33fourteen hundred dollars. Somebody senting the PSA got a graded and it's now listed
- 23:37for ten thousand. Yeah, so somebody made a very very wise investment and
- 23:44they are trying to recoup that they're grading cost. But I'm right there with
- 23:48you. I think Corbyn Carrol is the obvious pick because you took him first.
- 23:52Overall, there's only one other logical pick in my mind, that's taking
- 23:56Kettle Marte because my Marte is likely leading off before Carol. So there's only
- 24:02one guy that's going to have an opportunity to run before Carol. I'm taking
- 24:04Kettle Marte, but I'm gonna I'm not sure sure what the odds are here
- 24:10on talk to Fractor over on say FanDuel, but I'm guessing they favor Carol
- 24:15healthily. Yeah, I would have to think. So he's got to be
- 24:17the leader in the clubhouse and then from there I know that they have.
- 24:22Honestly, I guess maybe the best pick probably should have been to take the
- 24:26wild card one. There is wild card Taco factors of five out there to
- 24:30cover everybody else. So if it's somebody that's not in the set that gets
- 24:34the first deal, if you have the wild card, you get the fifteen
- 24:37thousand dollars, so Evan Carter would fall into that category, and I'm not
- 24:42exactly into that category. Yeah, but there's going to be quite a few
- 24:51that will not fully qualify. But for the most part, the top portions
- 24:57of both of the Backs and the Rangers lineups are in tops chrume. So
- 25:03yeah, the Diamondbacks are pretty well covered because you have Carol Marte, Thomas
- 25:10fam fan counts his Mets, Taco Fractor counts Guriel the vast majority of their
- 25:18Serene All. I don't if we give them a rate of the speed card,
- 25:22but I have it, so yeah, it's uh, that's a tough
- 25:26call. But yeah, I gotta say the money is on corporate Carrol there
- 25:30and as the mark card market says, I think that's where the money is
- 25:33as well, So okay, yeah, and then well I'm not even I
- 25:38don't even want to do world serious predictions. I just want the Taco Fractors
- 25:41on the books. So I don't think, yeah, I'm good with that.
- 25:45I mean, we're gonna stick with our Taco Fractor predictions and we'll come
- 25:48back, we'll visit those next week exactly like a real podcast does. And
- 25:52so the other thing that we wanted to cover was mostly because it's the biggest
- 25:57kind of there's always some sort of news or rumor or situation happening in Tops
- 26:04makes our lives very easy for podcast segments, by the way, Yeah,
- 26:08I will say for a weekly podcast, they provide a lot of fodder pretty
- 26:11quick as well as just the the hobby community overall is just sometimes whiny,
- 26:18and so it happens as well that they the news thing that they're whining about
- 26:25this week is Costco has packs of cards that have popped up recently, and
- 26:30so within these packs of cards, I think they're located in like the toys
- 26:34or Gifts section. They're i think mostly popping up in Arizona and California right
- 26:40now, but I'm sure they'll start spreading to all Costcos. But there's Tops
- 26:44packs there that are a big box that include one oversized jumbo card, some
- 26:51exclusive silver packs that are different from the silver packs that are traditionally coming with
- 26:56hobby boxes. If you rip hobby boxes, those of and Mojo refractors of
- 27:02usually the nineteen eighty whatever inserts that come with the thirty five year anniversary,
- 27:07but these in the Costco pack will be slightly thicker different cards called what are
- 27:14they called? They are flagship collection cards, and so they just have a
- 27:22little bit of a different design on them. They've got a thicker card stock.
- 27:25And then the box also comes with ten packs, two from series one,
- 27:30two from Series two, and then four from Update series. So it's
- 27:34kind of throwing people into a frenzy in the collecting community because really, the
- 27:40last time that you saw things like these be produced like boxes, box sets
- 27:45like this be produced in retail environment, it was in the eighties and nineties
- 27:48when all of the cards were over produced and prices really plummeted, and then
- 27:55things peaked before I won't say peaked, but you know they picked up steam
- 27:59again before the pandemic, and then since then things have gotten hot again as
- 28:03people have gotten into this hobby overall. And so I think I know what
- 28:11your take will be because it'll be similar to mine. But Brew I'll give
- 28:15the floor to you to see what your initial take is on these costco packs,
- 28:18and I will obviously link to them in the show notes so that people
- 28:22can see what I'm talking about. Yeah, I think it's an interesting situation
- 28:27to talk through all the speculation you can do to your point, there's a
- 28:30lot of speculation that this is just a mass produced card. We have too
- 28:34much quantities to junk x junk Wax era again, so that's what's happening I
- 28:40don't think that's what's happening here. This is pre packaged. This looks like
- 28:44it was planned all along. And yes, we have over production of cards,
- 28:48especially the Flagship series, there's no question about that. I don't think
- 28:53we are in the same realm of the junk Wax era, or we'll be.
- 29:00I don't think we are there. And now, if you look back
- 29:03at this point twenty years from now, it was like mini junk Wax era
- 29:08era to a degree. So I'm actually I'm excited for him. I think
- 29:11it's it's a fun product. I think the price point I think was low
- 29:17thirties, so you're think it's supposed to be thirty three ninety nine. Yeah,
- 29:22so I think you're a little over two dollars a pack, which is
- 29:25very accessible, and you do have kind of a unique flagship collection, which
- 29:33is sounds like there are some different parallels, number of parallels in there,
- 29:36so something kind of fun, fun and slightly different to collect. Yeah,
- 29:41is it watering down every parallel to ninety nine because there's ninety nine parallels in
- 29:47ninety nine. Yeah, sure it is, but I don't think it spells
- 29:51the ind of the card market because cards showed up at Costco, which is
- 29:56I think some people where they're taking it, But yeah, I don't know
- 30:00where. What were your thoughts? Where were you going? I think so
- 30:03too that I think it's it's very design for kids, I think, or
- 30:07just new collectors that I also wanted to bring it up because I know there
- 30:11are people that listen to this pod that either don't collect cards or maybe starting
- 30:17to think about collecting cards. And this is exactly the type of price point
- 30:21to get in on that you get the fun of opening cards and sure you're
- 30:26not going to be hitting big parallels or anything crazy, but when you're just
- 30:30kind of first getting into this, you don't need to be dropping two hundred
- 30:34and fifty dollars for a jumbo box, or even, for that matter,
- 30:38like twenty five bucks for a Jumpo pack. That like, if you can
- 30:42spend thirty five dollars at Costco to get a pretty cool pack of ten cards
- 30:48and some interesting parallels and inserts, and especially like you kind of if you're
- 30:55introducing somebody to this hobby, you want it to be something like that because
- 30:59like you don't want them really messing up nice cards or I think it would
- 31:04upset me more if like there were so many like high end cards like in
- 31:11some of these flagship products that they're just like we're getting dinged up or you
- 31:18know, just like really in bad shape because they're getting spread all over the
- 31:22place. That the way I think that the hobby's working is decent overall.
- 31:26Like I'm not gonna try to support breakers and stuff too much, but I
- 31:32think that this is a great place to go because it's got exactly what you
- 31:37need to kind of start things off, and then you can figure out what
- 31:40you run collect from there that you know, do you like rookies, do
- 31:42you like teams, do you like guys with mustaches? Do you like parallels?
- 31:47And so it really opens the door to everything. And having the smorgasboard
- 31:52of Series one, Series two and update gives an even bigger window into all
- 31:56that. I think with the with the exclusive flagship parallels that they have in
- 32:02there, there's also a little bit of a floor on that product as well.
- 32:06I think there's only a hundred cards and the exclusive flagship set, and
- 32:10from what I can tell, very sophisticated research here, which is zooming in
- 32:15on the one picture on Reddit that I could find, and it, you
- 32:21know, makes it seem like, you know, I'm guessing, and I
- 32:23haven't seen a checklist for this, I'm guessing. It's kind of like when
- 32:27any time where they narrow down, it's gonna be the bigger name rookies,
- 32:30the bigger name stars, things like that. So you're gonna go through those
- 32:32exclusive packs and you're gonna find Otani's and Trouts and ad Lis and Jordan Walker
- 32:38and Corbin Carroll and things like that, which from a resell perspective, they're
- 32:44gonna hold little value because not everybody. It's kind of like the Meyer parallels.
- 32:49Sorry talking very Midwest like here, but the purple Meyer Parallels. You
- 32:52know, you can't get them everywhere, and so it is kind of a
- 32:57card that always holds some value, but it's relatively accessible still. So I
- 33:02think that there is going to be a little bit of value in just those
- 33:07base pails because you can't I don't have a Costco anywhere near me, and
- 33:10so I'm not gonna be going out and grabbing these, and plus I don't
- 33:15have a membership, so it's the only way I'm going to get that flagship
- 33:22peril that may or may not look that interesting is to buy it on the
- 33:27secondary market. Yeah, and so I mean that's also a great way for
- 33:31people to just kind of like get into trading and eBay or however you want
- 33:37to do to be able to move cards around. That it's certainly part of
- 33:42the overall experience. And so that'll be fun to see those coming on the
- 33:46market. And I think they're going to be I think a little more collectible
- 33:50than people think, because especially like from what I've seen at card shows that
- 33:55we run together like kids love dopey parallel like insert cards, Like I don't
- 34:01know what it is, but I think it's maybe like a tactile thing and
- 34:05it's like they go nuts for them. Have you seen my collection? I
- 34:08feel like I just got called the kids maybe. Yeah. So okay,
- 34:15Well with that, we'll wrap up the first section here. We're going to
- 34:19get into the release of twenty twenty three Tops Tier one for our Cards category
- 34:23Cards section, and then for our Categories category, we're going to get into
- 34:30some world series breakouts that I know we covered for playoff breakouts like Picks to
- 34:36Click at the beginning of the of the playoffs, but now we're going to
- 34:38hone it in just on the World series because I think there's gonna be some
- 34:43pretty big impacts as people have their eyes glued to Texas versus Arizona. So
- 34:46stick around, we'll be right back. Okay, Welcome back, everybody to
- 35:12the card section of cards and Categories. Here we are going to discuss twenty
- 35:16twenty three Tops Tier one, which was released just today and you can find
- 35:22it at any hobby shop most likely if they're hinstock and if your hobby shop
- 35:27is getting stocked as well as right now, they're still on tops dot com,
- 35:30so we'll nope, they just sold out. They just sold out since
- 35:34we started the show. Wow. Okay, well that was as of like
- 35:37a half hour ago, they hadn't sold out. So they are not on
- 35:40tops dot com anymore. You can only find them on the secondary market on
- 35:45eBay or something like that if you can't find them in your stores, So
- 35:50I take that back from being available. I was hoping maybe we would have
- 35:53some people be able to go on and get some Tops Tier one after this,
- 35:57but it is one of the pretty standard releases now from the TOPS calendar,
- 36:02and it is more of a relic set. I would say from Tops
- 36:08tier that what they're doing is especially trying to get swatches of bats in jerseys.
- 36:15And what Tier one is overall is I think Tier one of the entry
- 36:20to kind of like high end cards. I don't know if that's what the
- 36:22name is evoking overall, but when you compare it to something like Museum Collection
- 36:28that comes out and at the end of November, now, yeah, I
- 36:34just got scheduled. Museum Collection comes out, and then you have things like
- 36:37Sterling and five Star that are just higher end cards that have really really exquisite
- 36:45art or really exquisite patches. That Tier one is a little bit more of
- 36:50an entry product to that that it's more limited and exclusive than your flagship product
- 36:55that we were talking about in the costco boxes in the first segment, but
- 37:00it's not quite as crazy as these thousand dollar boxes that get you only a
- 37:05few cards. That Tier one provides a little bit better bang for your buck
- 37:09and gives you a chance at some nice autographs, some Hall of Famers,
- 37:15some Stars, some nice one of one cut autographs, and different types of
- 37:20relics too, which I think is a big thing. That relics are cards
- 37:24produced out of you know, bats, jerseys, any type of material that
- 37:29most of the ones that you see are pretty blank jersey swatches, and so
- 37:34Tier one provides a little better experience with cooler patches or buttons or bat knobs
- 37:40or all sorts of cool stuff. So, Brew, I know this is
- 37:44one of your favorite releases of the year. I'll let you get into some
- 37:47details in terms of like what are your favorite aspects of Tier One, What
- 37:52sorts of sets has Tier One put out in the past that you really enjoyed,
- 37:57and things that maybe you're looking forward to out of twenty three three Tier
- 38:00one here this year. Yeah, No, you're absolutely right. It is
- 38:04one of my favorite products. It is a very clean product. Is a
- 38:07way to look at the designs year to year are relatively consistent, but they're
- 38:12always see a little bit of improvement. It feels like year over years are
- 38:16trying to tinker with the design. But from the basics Tier one it is
- 38:22two hundred and fifty dollars for a hobby box. You get three cards,
- 38:27You get two autographs and one relicate card. There might be variations. It
- 38:30might be an autograph, relic card, things like that, but you are
- 38:32paying two hundred and fifty dollars for three cards. Generally there are twelve boxes
- 38:37in a case, so you can do the math there. Your case is
- 38:40going to be a few grand, But so this if you're looking to rip
- 38:46this product, one of the few times I'm going to endorse breakers. If
- 38:50you're looking for like your team, probably the best way to really experience Tier
- 38:54one is like a pick your team break or something like that, where you
- 38:58can get a few cases, because you know, with that many cards,
- 39:02you might have one card per team in a case, so it's it's gonna
- 39:07be a little bit harder to find your guys that you're going after, but
- 39:13still from the high end market when a lot of times those high end boxes
- 39:15are five, six, seven hundred dollars, it is a little bit more
- 39:19accessible for me the you know you called it well earlier. As far as
- 39:27the different types of patches and autos in there, from a base perspective,
- 39:35they're all autos, all relics, but there's generally going to be a handful
- 39:39of different autos and auto parallels. Generally, your autos are going to be
- 39:46signed in either black or blue ink. But then from a parallel perspective,
- 39:53you have bronze out of twenty five, you have silver out of ten,
- 39:58and gold out of one of one. The autos, which those typically jump
- 40:02off the cards. They're very thick pinned autos. They're not the thin ones
- 40:07you see elsewhere, so those really jump off the cards. And generally the
- 40:13checklist names are much higher end, and so as you go through, kind
- 40:19of like there, I'll just throw out it. There's forty five cards and
- 40:22the Tier one relics checklist for twenty three, and you're talking about you know,
- 40:27Andre Dawson, Aaron Judge, Athlee Rutchman, Bobby Witt, Derek Jeter,
- 40:32Dale Murphy, Jeff Bagwell, each Hero Goldschmidt, Like, they are
- 40:37almost all big names. So rarely in this product do you kind of get
- 40:45a miss when you get one of those bigger cards. Now, when you
- 40:47get to just the base, I'm gonna call it the bass autos, which
- 40:50is gonna be like your breakout autos or some of your more basic relic then
- 41:00yeah, you're gonna start to risk it into your DL hauls, your Stuary
- 41:05ruizes. Uh, you're Franklin Germans, Graham Eshcroft's like, so those guys
- 41:09are still there, right, so there is still some some risk to to
- 41:14those cards. To me though, probably the most exciting parts of Tier one
- 41:19are the hard to find one of ones, because there are some very fun
- 41:24one of ones you mentioned earlier, your cut signature checklist, which is generally
- 41:30going to be retired or passed away players, say not just retired. I
- 41:38was trying to put up politely but dead dead players. So that's where you
- 41:42are getting your Lefty Groves, your your Tie Cobs, your Walter Johnson's.
- 41:51You know, Babe Ruth has has a cut signature, and those are typically
- 41:55a document that they had signed, whether it's a pay stuff or a letter
- 42:00that they sent to somebody that was verified to be their auto is cut out
- 42:05and put into the card, and so they have a number of those.
- 42:08They also have some relics in that area, some booklets where you have multiple
- 42:15players, such as the Chipper Jones and Ronald Lacuna booklet. But for me,
- 42:20the ones that you're really chasing in this area are your bat relics.
- 42:25And there's two bat relics that are I think far above everything else that is
- 42:32going to be your bat barrel, which is typically the actual part of the
- 42:36barrel that has the player's name on the bat is cut out and put kind
- 42:42of horizontally into the card. And then the other is going to be your
- 42:45bat knob relic, and so there's actually shaved off the very back of the
- 42:50bat knob generally where the player's name or number would be. And so you
- 42:55might get something for I'll say Albert Pooholes which has number five. You can
- 43:00clearly see his bats that was in game use. So those are very thick
- 43:06cards, but very very collectible and a very high end on the on the
- 43:09second market, secondary market. So so those to me are are great cards,
- 43:16hard to find. Once you get one, you generally don't want to
- 43:20let it go because of the quality in there. So that's kind of a
- 43:29quick overview of Tier One. Like I said, really do like with the
- 43:32what they bring to the table. Over the years, there's been a lot
- 43:37of different designs that they've had. Like I said, they've all kind of
- 43:42harkened back to a classic look and feel. But if I go and look
- 43:47at like, what's the what's my favorite design that Tier one has had over
- 43:53the years, it has goes back to be actually a pretty good year twenty
- 44:02nineteen tier tier one and if if you have a chance to and we'll put
- 44:08a link to one of these in the notes for the pod, but that
- 44:16was a you know, a good year for rookies and things like that.
- 44:20You know, Otani's just coming up, and specifically some of the like out
- 44:25of ten parallels, they have this just kind of beautiful black and gray white
- 44:35design that just makes the player pop coming out of that with generally with like
- 44:40that silver auto. It's just one of those very classic I want called an
- 44:45elegant card. I don't know how often I've used elegant with the with the
- 44:51term of a card looking at like the Otani out of ten just from from
- 44:57that year. There's one on eBay right now for or six thousand dollars and
- 45:01they are high high end. And that year particularly, most of the cards
- 45:07that were numbered, like I said, out of ten had this just I
- 45:13think it's ten to twenty five, and a few others just have this very
- 45:15intricate, like I said, elegant design to them. So every year there
- 45:21is some variations, but they do have a very very classic feel. So
- 45:28I have a big soft spot in my heart for Tier one. It's also
- 45:31a product that on the secondary market it does become a little bit more affordable
- 45:37for your lesser names players, but it's still going to be difficult to pick
- 45:45up your big names even years after us looking at the twenty nineteen set and
- 45:52not one of the harder to find, but like out of one hundred,
- 45:54Juan Soto is still seventy dollars for his auto. There is more accessible,
- 46:01but they still hold their value. Granted, like I said Otani, his
- 46:07numbers are still still through the roof, but great set. Love it.
- 46:14Recommend if you're going to try to rip any of it, probably go through
- 46:16a breaker on this product to get a chance to actually get something that you
- 46:22will want to add to your personal collection because it can be a lot harder
- 46:24to find that out of a box. Otherwise, give it a little bit
- 46:28of time jump on the secondary market. I love going back three, four
- 46:31or five years and Tier one and finding things that have kind of fallen out
- 46:36of favor or players have been traded that I enjoyed watching and picking those up
- 46:39for ten twenty dollars because they show very very well in a collection. Yeah,
- 46:45and I think one of the things I like about Tier one is it
- 46:49does and this is I think why the price point is a little bit of
- 46:52what it is compared to the museum collection or some of those other really high
- 46:57end boxes we're talking about, is that the roy lists onto your one is
- 47:02pretty substantial, and so that I think just causes the product to be diluted
- 47:09a little bit in terms of like the quality of the rookie auto because as
- 47:14you said, you know some of these guys like Derek Hall and other relievers
- 47:19for the pirates and stuff. When you're getting only three cards and two autos
- 47:22and one of them is you know, automatically a five dollars one, it
- 47:25really hurts. But because of that, if you're buying it on the secondary
- 47:30market, it makes a great purchase on the secondary market because you can get
- 47:34some of your favorite players you know that are part time players or role players
- 47:37or just have special spots in your heart from being on your favorite team as
- 47:44opposed to being really high end. That these guys aren't going to have cards
- 47:47in the really really nice sets that are out there. So this is probably
- 47:53you know, the best tier if you will, that they will have an
- 47:59auto on. So it's it's nice to pick those up and be able to
- 48:00get a really high end, really nice card stock card of one of your
- 48:07favorite players with a rookie auto, and especially, like you said, if
- 48:09you're able to revisit it after a couple of years and maybe that guy's career
- 48:14hasn't skyrocketed to where people thought it would be, then it should be a
- 48:19pretty reasonable price. Yeah. Ironically, I think I had a dollars Garcia
- 48:22Tier one rookie auto I sold a year or two back, and I'm regretting
- 48:29that currently. But yeah, I absolutely agree, and it is a very
- 48:35fun product. Makes me think of Inception, which is another product I think
- 48:37the Cops actually just continued this year. That's a little bit more accessible.
- 48:40But you're absolutely right. The deeper rookie checklist on kind of your more bass
- 48:45autos is what makes it dangerous because there's a good chance that you get one,
- 48:51I would say numbered harder to find card. There's some jumbo swatches and
- 48:55things like that there. But if you don't hit like the big name that
- 49:00one, and then you get dl Hall and Graham Ashcroft for your other cards,
- 49:05you're going to be pretty disappointed because you're tearing two hundred fifty dollars into
- 49:08thirty real real gushturing quick, Yeah, exactly. Okay, Well, we
- 49:14will get on to some of the other new sets coming out, so I'll
- 49:16give an overview of Top Tier one obviously coming out today. On October twenty
- 49:22fifth, we got Panini Chronicles Baseball still scheduled for November one, so that
- 49:28one should be in the hopper. Tops Holiday is officially coming out on the
- 49:31second now, so it's been kind of moving around, and they had a
- 49:36pre sale today on Tops dot Com that's sold out, but there's still plenty
- 49:39available on Walmart. So we've been and I've heard rumors that have actually been
- 49:43on shelves in Walmart ironically, so I haven't got mine that our pre ordered
- 49:49about a month ago, but there's I've seen a few popping it up here
- 49:52and there. So the consistency of that release is a little in questions right
- 49:57now. Yeah, that's all right. It's a fun one, so I
- 50:00nobody's gonna question that with Stops Holiday. No. Then on eleven three,
- 50:06we got Bowman Sterling eleven eight Tops Archives. Here's another new one on the
- 50:10schedule, eleven fifteen Tops chrumb Update, which really they turned around really fast
- 50:15after updates, so we'll see if that one actually comes out in a couple
- 50:20of weeks. We got Tops the Museum was set for eleven twenty two,
- 50:24and this one just got added this week. Is Bowman twenty twenty four on
- 50:30May eighth, So that seems a little late for a Bowman, it does.
- 50:36It does seem late. I have to go back and look at what
- 50:37this year was, but I feel like that's tripperically been like April release kind
- 50:43of coinciding with the beginning of the season. So yeah, maybe we'll find
- 50:45out why that. Maybe there's some difficulty getting some first and rookie autostracked down
- 50:52or maybe it could move up be moved out. So I'm going, I'm
- 50:54simply going, this is Manny being Manny, this is Tops being Tops.
- 50:58Yeah, or just give themselves lots of lead time. But anyway, that
- 51:04is the horizon of the TOPS releases coming up, and we will wrap up
- 51:08this categories or this card section. We'll back with the category section right after
- 51:14the break. Stay tuned, all right, Welcome back everybody to the Fantasy
- 51:38portion, the categories portion of today's show and looking into the world series.
- 51:45We're going to once again go through some picks to click of guys that have
- 51:50either you know, I think, taken into a different tier here during the
- 51:52playoffs and shown a different level that we can incorporate going forward. As we
- 51:58tried to do this a couple of weeks ago, like you said, and
- 52:00tried to predict the next Randy Rose Arena. Maybe missed it on a deal
- 52:06scarcia, but I think we're looking for slightly deeper cuts too, of guys
- 52:09who you know they're not going to be rising to maybe like the tops of
- 52:15drafts all the way, but can be sneaky picks in mid rounds and seeing
- 52:21where we're going to be taking the next year. And maybe guys that I
- 52:25mean, I guess if you're really tracking your dynasty like teams to the point
- 52:30where like one week of the World Series like boosts the value, then more
- 52:37respect to you these guys that might be a part of kind of like a
- 52:40cell high right after the playoffs if you can, just because you know,
- 52:44the narrative really does take over during the World Series and Randy Rose Arena,
- 52:47for example, like did keep it rolling, but obviously was not the greatest
- 52:52player of all time as he turned into during the playoff run the Rays had
- 52:57a couple of years ago. So we're going to start with Rangers in the
- 53:00AL A is first, it's over n so we will go with the American
- 53:05League. Here, Brew, I'll pass it over to you. We're going
- 53:07to pick one hitter and one pitcher from each team for our pick to click,
- 53:13and we'll go from there. Yeah. So starting with the Rangers.
- 53:17And first of all, I'm very proud of that analysis of the American League
- 53:21before the NL League, I was not quite sure which order to go in,
- 53:23but I like the alphabetical. So my my pick to click for next
- 53:30year from the Rangers and to your point, not picking the big first round
- 53:36type type names. I'm looking at Mitch Garver. Uh for the Rangers.
- 53:43Garver is going to be going into his thirty three year old season. That
- 53:49said, not as much wear and tear on that the the at bats there.
- 53:55He's unfortunately had a number of injuries. But Garver is one of those
- 54:00guys that continues to produce when he plays. You know, he is catcher
- 54:07eligible in the vast majority of leagues. This year. Out of the eighty
- 54:12seven games he had, I think he played twenty eight twenty nine at catcher,
- 54:15so he is retaining the eligibility. But Mitch Garver is generally the DH
- 54:22for the Rangers, and just you know this year, in the eighty seven
- 54:29games he played, he hit nineteen home runs. He hit two seventy forty
- 54:32five runs, fifty runs batted in. Extrapolate that to a full season and
- 54:37you've got a mid thirty home run guy. Garbi guy decent average, and
- 54:44he continues to show that potential whenever he's on the field. It was,
- 54:50you know, almost four years ago now that he had a kind of breakout
- 54:53for the Twins. He actually did have almost almost one hundred games in the
- 54:59seas gonna hit thirty one homers, hit two seventy three, so very very
- 55:04solid. I think the thing with Garver is he's going to continue to kind
- 55:07of go under the radar because he doesn't qualify with enough bats. He doesn't
- 55:13always make the field. He does DH, and so I think people discount
- 55:16him because they don't think they can rely on him for the full season,
- 55:20which is probably true. You probably can't fully rely on him, but when
- 55:23he is in there, I would say he's arguably providing number one level catcher
- 55:30production. I don't think it's that bold to say that you can probably put
- 55:34his numbers up against just about anybody. And I will say on my half,
- 55:38I know I had him on a team closing out the season this year,
- 55:43and I was playing Mitch Garver over Will Smith almost every day because of
- 55:49the way he was playing, Because on a per game basis, he is
- 55:52dynamite. So he's not gonna be number one catcher off the board next year
- 55:59because of the injury concerns. But I think he's arguably a top five fantasy
- 56:05catcher knowing that you can get some replacement value. If you've got us twenty
- 56:12home runs and seventy RBI's out of the catcher position, you're probably generally thrilled.
- 56:15And Mitch Garver can almost do that to half a season. So Mitch
- 56:20Garver, he's my pick to click on the hitter side for the Rangers.
- 56:22Yeah, And I will disclose that when we were lining this up originally,
- 56:28I was upset that you had taken Mitch from out underneath me because I might
- 56:32be the number one Mitch Garver fanboy at Rasball. I spent all summer having
- 56:37him in my waiver wire pickup articles. That he was available for free for
- 56:44so long, even less we're in a league together and I own him,
- 56:47Yeah, exactly that he was. I would just like be checking the Player
- 56:52Raider every week to see who did well. And it's just like, oh,
- 56:54Mitch Garver hit two home runs, Mitch Garver hit three home runs.
- 56:58Mitch Garver hit four home runs, and he was producing like a top five
- 57:01catcher throughout much of the summer. And even in Gray's recap for catchers on
- 57:08the year, he made the top twenty catcher breakdown, but he Gray noted
- 57:14in there that on a per game point basis or per game production basis,
- 57:19he was second only behind Yaniar Diaz from the Astros. So Mitch Garver can
- 57:24hit, and that is his claim to fame, that all that Scarver can
- 57:30do is hits. Yeah, but this year he even became a better hitter.
- 57:34I think that whatever injuries in terms of I think it's been knees and
- 57:37backs and all sorts of body parts have been banged up for Garver over the
- 57:43years, but he finally was able to put together a healthier stretch with the
- 57:47Rangers. And because of that, you can see it in just his overall
- 57:52production. He's got a career high in terms of his MAXIV that he just
- 57:58produced this year one hundred and thirteen zero point two miles per hour. He's
- 58:01got a great barrel rate at twelve point six this year, and the hard
- 58:06hit rates actually lower than it had been in Minnesota for a lot of years.
- 58:09In Minnesota he was had a hard hits rates that were above fifty percent.
- 58:15So he just smacks the ball. And the one caveat with Garber going
- 58:20forward is he is a free agent, so we'll see where he lands,
- 58:22and he's going to be I think a coveted bat because he's going to be
- 58:25usable as a catcher. I think in like a backup capacity. So I
- 58:30think he's even a great pickup for dynasty leagues because I think he's going to
- 58:35keep catch your eligibility for at least another year and then he'll probably play,
- 58:39you know, I would say, like, you know, fourish games at
- 58:45DH a week and then maybe catch one, and so that gives him really
- 58:50great production value out of the catcher spot. Yeah, I completely agree.
- 58:54I think, Yeah, I'm gonna be all over at to get garbvern next
- 58:58year. If there's gonna be some sleep post on him as well, so
- 59:00he's definitely an interesting one. And when you actually look at the Savant batters
- 59:08that are similar profile to him, you got Kyle Schwarber is the first one
- 59:14that comes up, and then Ronald Acune is also on the list minus the
- 59:20speed. So okay, we will go into my pick now. And we
- 59:27talked abou him a little bit last week as a mayor kobuk has. I
- 59:30think we both, along with Adola Scarcia, was a guy that we wanted
- 59:34to do a pick to click, but I honestly I just couldn't quite pull
- 59:37it in terms of going all the way in for him. And that's Evan
- 59:42Carter from the Rangers, the outfielder, just because he's so young, he's
- 59:45twenty one, but the stat line in the playoffs has been amazing. He's
- 59:52got a one AD WRC plus right now in the playoffs. I love,
- 59:57actually one seventy four. Sorry, it's one AD in the red season that
- 1:00:00I love. Fangrass now has the postseason stats, so it's really easy to
- 1:00:05rattle that off. And he's been slashing threeho eight four forty nine with five
- 1:00:08thirty eight slug. He's been moving up in the lineup that we have talked
- 1:00:15about Evan Carter here and there in terms of like, oh, you know,
- 1:00:17he could hang out hit seven, eight nine in this Rangers lineup,
- 1:00:20play some good defense, and you know, be able to hold his own
- 1:00:23during this playoff run. No, this dude's a star player right now.
- 1:00:28Bruce Bochie's got a lot of faith in him, moving him into typically the
- 1:00:32three spot in the order right now. So Evan Carter, I think,
- 1:00:37is that dude. And the thing that I'm almost having trouble with going into
- 1:00:44drafts for next year is trying to tamper my excitement that I think he's gonna
- 1:00:51outproduce any sort of projection system that comes out, because they just aren't gonna
- 1:00:57really lay on really fantastic numbers to a twenty one year old going in through
- 1:01:05the majors for like a first go round. But I think about how late
- 1:01:08Corbyn Carroll was drafted this year and how far down he was on lists,
- 1:01:14and like, I just that really leaves such a bad taste in my mouth
- 1:01:19because he was so free in some I mean in comparison to what he produced
- 1:01:23in value that like sure you had to use you know, fourth, fifth,
- 1:01:28sixth, round pick on him, but I think we should have seen
- 1:01:31like something more kin to take him in the second third. That I'm going
- 1:01:37to have a real shelf tough time like letting Carter get maybe out of like
- 1:01:42the fourth round in draft says year, because like the upside is tremendous in
- 1:01:47terms of I think he's not quite as fast as Corbyn Carroll, but I
- 1:01:52think he's going to produce a little more power and just a little more counting
- 1:01:57stats because the lineup that he plays in has Simeon and Seeger still next year,
- 1:02:01So Evan Carter is going to be flying up pretty high on my draft
- 1:02:06boards. Yeah, I think you're right on with with Carter there. I
- 1:02:09I honestly probably will not have share so Evan Carter next year, just because
- 1:02:15I'm relatively risk averse that early in the draft and I just won't the trigger
- 1:02:20when you have to pull the trigger. But that's not because I don't believe
- 1:02:22in him at that age what he's been able to do. And it's there's
- 1:02:27a difference to me between a guy at that age that comes up and just
- 1:02:30free swinging, you know, making a lot of noise, making hard contact.
- 1:02:35He's kind of flashy. Evan Carter's kind of done that, but with
- 1:02:38the right peripherals to support it. Like he's been patient at the plate,
- 1:02:44he's played solid defense, he's run well like, he's done all the little
- 1:02:47things too, which tells me that there's a good floor. So I do
- 1:02:52think Evan Carter is going to get helium going into next year. And also
- 1:02:55the lineup he's in is going to be a very strong lineup. So it's
- 1:03:00I think it's gonna be who's gonna jump first and draft is really what's gonna
- 1:03:04come down to. And I think you're right, there's gonna be a Corb
- 1:03:07and Carroll effect where people are gonna look at that and go, well,
- 1:03:09he's the next Corpn Carrol. I don't. Is he the next Corpan Carroll.
- 1:03:12I don't know if we can go that far, but I think he
- 1:03:15definitely can return some good value next year. It's just it's always a risk.
- 1:03:20There's always a little bit more risk with somebody that young. No.
- 1:03:24Will the league adjust, Yeah, absolutely, And I think one reason he's
- 1:03:30a great pick to click here is the lefties in the Diamondbacks bullpen are not
- 1:03:37great. You know, Saul Frank has been getting a lot of work,
- 1:03:39but I don't get it, like it must be in the box that that
- 1:03:45curveball looks exactly like a fastball coming out sal Frank's hand, but he can't
- 1:03:50put it in the strike zone ever, So I don't know how people are
- 1:03:54going to keep swinging at it. But otherwise, the Diamondbacks are very right
- 1:03:58handed, and so that's gonna be a huge advantage I think for Avan Carter
- 1:04:01and can really set the table for him, and so I really like him
- 1:04:05to break out here in the World Series and make a name for himself.
- 1:04:10But brew, let's move over to the pitching side. Who you got for
- 1:04:12your picture from the Rangers? Yeah, for my picture for the Rangers,
- 1:04:15I've got Nathan Yvaldi. Not the springs of chickens. We're talking about thirty
- 1:04:21three year old that's been around for a while and been on some pretty good
- 1:04:25teams over the years. Of all, he had a solid, solid season,
- 1:04:31nothing unremarkable, which has been like his calling card over the last four
- 1:04:36years. His ERA has ranged from three point sixty three to three point eight
- 1:04:41seven over four seasons, so he's been like a measure of consistency. But
- 1:04:46in the playoffs he's he's ticked that up even more. He's he's driking almost
- 1:04:51ten guys per nine, he's walking just over one per nine. He you
- 1:04:58know, he had a fifty percent on ball rate in the regular season,
- 1:05:00has been a little lower over the playoffs. But he has looked great and
- 1:05:05he's just not let himself get hurt. He has not put the guys on
- 1:05:09base, putting a spot where he could be hurt. So I think he's
- 1:05:15he's in a position to do great and in the World Series and put himself
- 1:05:19on the map because I think he's gonna be relied on heavily by by Texas.
- 1:05:25But I also really like him for next year because I think based on
- 1:05:30his age, he's not going to be getting a really heavy view because there's
- 1:05:35gonna be this concern to a degree about regression. And he's not a guy
- 1:05:42that puts, you know, threatens to get in the two's for an e
- 1:05:45ra. He doesn't strike out ten or eleven guys for nine he does.
- 1:05:49He's just falls. He's just above average and a lot of things. And
- 1:05:55he also, uh, if you've owned him before, well he will put
- 1:05:59a sour mouth taste in your mouth because he will blow up at least twice
- 1:06:01during the season, and he will be unbelievable the rest of the year.
- 1:06:05So if you can figure out how to figure out what blow ups those will
- 1:06:09be, you have an absolute ace on your hands. Unfortunately, I have
- 1:06:13yet to see what predictive value I can find in those blow ups. So
- 1:06:17I love something Levaldi and I think he's gonna be a I think he's gonna
- 1:06:21do well in the World Series, and I think he's gonna have a lot
- 1:06:24of value in drafts next year. I think he could could sniff top twenty
- 1:06:30fifteen pitcher do with just a little luck, and I don't think I think
- 1:06:35he drafted more top thirty. Yeah, I totally agree, and I think
- 1:06:42honestly he came in thirty sixth on our plate Player Raider for starting pitchers this
- 1:06:46year, which was even with him missing time for that strained forum, which
- 1:06:51I thought it was a death now for him that like it looked bad,
- 1:06:56and when he came back from that down the stretch, he was brutal in
- 1:07:00terms of like he couldn't make it, you know, more than a couple
- 1:07:03of innings in an outing and the villa wasn't quite topping back out to where
- 1:07:06it was, And I was big on Aovaldi this year because Inosarus from The
- 1:07:13Athletic was in on him at the beginning of the year and just saw like
- 1:07:15the prices of people going around him and knew that Aovaldi had the best strikeout
- 1:07:21potential and best strikeout stuff just with his arsenal overall. And it worked out
- 1:07:27for a long time until he hit that injury patch this year. But I
- 1:07:30think he's back, and like I think it was a legit just forearm strain
- 1:07:34maybe and not like the dreaded UCL turned into forearm strained sort of kinetic breakdown
- 1:07:43we always see. So I'm also in on Aovaldy and I think because of
- 1:07:47the age again, like he's gonna probably be towards the back end of the
- 1:07:55top forty in terms of starters, but if he pitches an entire season,
- 1:08:00I mean he's going to produce twenty to twenty five top twenty twenty five pitcher
- 1:08:04value. So it's just like he actually goes and gets wins unlike a lot
- 1:08:10of guys around him, and Bruce Bochi lets him gets wins. So it's
- 1:08:15a really nice combination for him to be down there in Texas and as long
- 1:08:20as he's looking healthy and has the ability to pitch, like, I'm going
- 1:08:28to roll with him and be taking him over. Like, I think some
- 1:08:31other names that will be going kind of around him that are going to be
- 1:08:35I think a little flashy, are going to be, you know, like
- 1:08:40well Jesus Lozardo was just in front of him, Jose Barrios, Mitch Keller,
- 1:08:45Aaron Nola. Depends on where he falls. My next guy that we're
- 1:08:48going to talk about was right next to him in the rankings, and so
- 1:08:51some of these guys I think will be going much higher than Aovaldi, and
- 1:08:56he should be able to provide some pretty decent value where he goes that.
- 1:09:00Oh and actually, this is the guy I was gonna say he reminds me
- 1:09:02of right now, is Charlie Morton. Charlie Morton is kind of mophed into
- 1:09:05this that like it's just a guy that gets nine k's per nine and has
- 1:09:13like a high threes EARRA and this is it's a huge volume game to just
- 1:09:17like get those k's cheaper when you're missing out, you know on some of
- 1:09:24the really really high end talented pitchers. Yeah, absolutely, so I think
- 1:09:28you are nailed with it, and I think he's gonna he's He's the kind
- 1:09:31of guy that wins wins championships, but people don't realize it, okay,
- 1:09:35And so his teammate that I've picked to talk about is somebody who already is
- 1:09:41on a heater and next Jordan Montgomery. He finished near Aovaldi in our overall
- 1:09:46Player Raider at the end of the year. He ended up being thirty three
- 1:09:54to Aovaldi's thirty six, And this is actually a pic to cical where I
- 1:10:00think he's going to do well, But I don't know if I want him
- 1:10:03at all for next year because wherever he ends up, I'm just not sure
- 1:10:09it's going to be quite as cushy as this Texas situation that we covered the
- 1:10:14other week when we were talking about Evan Carter's breakout. That the outfield in
- 1:10:17Texas is really premier defensively, and that infield defense is not shabby either,
- 1:10:26and you put together that with a pretty I think the globalife field shades a
- 1:10:31little bit picture friendly, and they just have a good ball club around him
- 1:10:35that I don't know if the mix gets better than Texas for Jordan Montgomery overall,
- 1:10:41that like his command and his sinker allowed him to play up I think
- 1:10:46a little bit more and whatever he learned from the Cardinals in terms of being
- 1:10:51able to I think he turned into a better picture with the Cardinals that,
- 1:10:56like the Yankees were like too much into his head, and the Rangers is
- 1:11:00kind of like a nice sweet spot between too much analytics, too little analytics,
- 1:11:05and just like a really good baseball club that the Rangers have gotten the
- 1:11:10best out of Joinn Montgomery. So I think because that I want to be
- 1:11:14drafting him. If I was able to draft him like the back end of
- 1:11:16the top forty, like where he really probably will end up, that would
- 1:11:21be awesome. But I think given this playoff run, and especially if he
- 1:11:26has another good start in the World Series, it will remind me a little
- 1:11:29bit of kind of when Iovaldi had that great run with the Red Sox and
- 1:11:33shot up people's lists, and that's when I was starting to get out in
- 1:11:36Alevaldi that I think Montgomery will do the same thing. And then, especially
- 1:11:41if he signed the flashy contract somewhere, I think lots of people are going
- 1:11:45to be taking him higher than he needs to be because he's another one of
- 1:11:49these sort of steady Eddy guys that like, there isn't another notch I think
- 1:11:54in Montgomery's belt to be able to produce more value. Yeah, I think
- 1:11:58you're right. I think there's an interesting thing with pitchers who leave the Yankees
- 1:12:04that I know we've seen it. Gonna say, Sonny Gray is another one
- 1:12:08that kind of falls into this bucket where the Yankees had their thing that they
- 1:12:13wanted to do and they kind of forced it on that player and then they
- 1:12:16left and they're like, oh, I can actually pitch differently, I can
- 1:12:20lay into some things. And they like, they didn't have to change much.
- 1:12:24They just changed the pitch mix, they changed a little approach, and
- 1:12:29it really seems to have paid off. And I'm the thing that I think
- 1:12:32worries me with Montgomery is that big contract. I think he's gonna be a
- 1:12:36headlines. I think he's gonna be get be the talk of the winter to
- 1:12:40a degree because he's gonna he's gonna have like a complete game shutout somewhere in
- 1:12:43the World Series and he's just gonna be the talk of the town for what
- 1:12:46kind of contract he gets, and he's gonna get overpaid, and because of
- 1:12:50that, people are going to over assess what he can actually do, so
- 1:12:56I would not be shocked that people see Jordan Montgomery he's a top twenty pitcher
- 1:12:59next year going in and I'm I'm I'm probably mid thirties on him without doing
- 1:13:04any rankings, just you know, back of napkin, I think he's probably
- 1:13:08mid thirties as far as where you would actually want to be taking him,
- 1:13:14because I don't think he he's not as good as what he's shown right now.
- 1:13:17He is a good picture, he's just not as good as what he
- 1:13:20is appearing to be. No, I agree, And so yeah, it's
- 1:13:27a it's a weird place to be because it's not like I don't have faith
- 1:13:29in Jordan Montgomery to be a good picture. And I think he will have
- 1:13:32a good world series that this Dbacks team. I think he will present problems
- 1:13:36to But it's strange to like thread the needle of like him getting too good
- 1:13:42to be really like a fantasy value, because like if everybody's on board and
- 1:13:46knows what he's doing, it just isn't the right price, you know.
- 1:13:50Yeah, absolutely all right, So let's jump over to the Dbacks. I'm
- 1:13:56gonna I'm gonna let you go first. This time, Okay, with with
- 1:14:00with your hitter who you taking up from the d backs as your pick to
- 1:14:03click? Okay, So this is uh maybe getting a little bit to our
- 1:14:09outa lease Garcia talk of like maybe it's too obvious, but kateel Marte,
- 1:14:13I just want to tell, like, I'm going to pick katel Marte because
- 1:14:16he's been on one this entire playoff run. He's got a three fifty eight
- 1:14:21three eighty two six oh four slash line right now in the playoffs, good
- 1:14:27for one sixty four WRC plus his k to walk rate's great. It's he's
- 1:14:30got a twenty nine point one k rate to three point six walk rate and
- 1:14:35he's just swinging and everything. And he looks great in the box too.
- 1:14:41As part of it that like watching these games, he's hitting the snot out
- 1:14:45of the ball, and even with that three fifty eight batting average, like
- 1:14:47there's some that just aren't going to the right spot in terms of like he's
- 1:14:53squaring the ball up and it's not getting all the way through and you can
- 1:14:57just see him hitting rocket after rocket after rocket, and so this is a
- 1:15:01guy that actually is even though I think he's gonna create some helium with this
- 1:15:09playoff run, unlike the helium that Jordan Montgommer is creating. I think I
- 1:15:13might be in on this could tell Marte because it does seem like he I
- 1:15:18know, this is totally just back ris of everything I just said for Tourna
- 1:15:21Montgomery, but it does seem like he's unlocking a different level of could tell
- 1:15:26Marte. I think people knew this was in there and always wanted it to
- 1:15:30be there, especially when he was back stealing bases at a clip of you
- 1:15:35know what he was in his really early days in terms of like the low
- 1:15:43teams issue in like projecting onto that. But I think what could tell Marte
- 1:15:47is is actually more of what he's morph come to this year, which is
- 1:15:51a power hitting second baseman, and so he is statline, it was really
- 1:15:58kind of a breakout that had and a little bit under the radar, I
- 1:16:00think until this World series run with the DBAs that the twenty five homers with
- 1:16:05the two seventy six, three fifty eight, forty five line ont of your
- 1:16:09second basement, that's fantastic. The steals are a little light, but when
- 1:16:14you can get that sort of power production out of your second basement, it
- 1:16:17ended up giving him fifty eighth overall in our Player Raider. So he's like
- 1:16:21right around Gunner Henderson, Max Muncy, c j Abrams, just In Turner,
- 1:16:28which is a different, different story, but like, this is a
- 1:16:31guy that I'm trying to think, look at guys at second base, I'm
- 1:16:35going to be taking over him next year and it might just be Azzi,
- 1:16:44Albi's and Simeon right, am I missing some Oh well, Mookie will qualify
- 1:16:48at second, but he's gonna probably be the third second basement quote unquote,
- 1:16:55I mean with Mookie sitting right there, so third or fourth second basement off
- 1:16:58the board next year, And I think I like it because after him it
- 1:17:02dives off a cliff a little bit. Then you're kind of counting on dudes
- 1:17:05like Sony and Kim Spencer, Steer, Nico Horner. Like that is,
- 1:17:12I want to get in on that upper tier second base when it comes to
- 1:17:15drafting next year because it starts to fall off pretty fast. Yeah. The
- 1:17:19only concern I have with kettl Marte is that I feel like we've seen this
- 1:17:24version of them before, and I think what was that back in what year
- 1:17:30was that I would say twenty Yeah, twenty nineteen. We talked about twenty
- 1:17:34nineteen a lot today nineteen when he hit thirty two home runs, hit three
- 1:17:40twenty nine and all of a sudden he had broken out. And I think
- 1:17:46I think his power cap is about what we saw this year, So I
- 1:17:50think there's a little regression coming in that power. I think the power is
- 1:17:56more than that mid teens, but I'm thinking low twenties is probablyably where he
- 1:18:00settles. He will only toss on a handful of bases, but he's going
- 1:18:04to be a great volume play for all your accounting stats. His average is
- 1:18:09going to be very respectable. Uh So I think he's a very solid player.
- 1:18:17I don't think that the power has much more growth to come, So
- 1:18:20I I do like l Marte. He looks fabulous this postseason, and he
- 1:18:28can just keep some of that going. Uh then you know he's he's got
- 1:18:32a lot to give next year. And I do think that the fantasy market
- 1:18:35is going to be lower on him, because it feels like the fantasy market
- 1:18:39for like three or four years thought Marte was going to be like the next
- 1:18:44thing and just got burned year after year after year, And now he's showing
- 1:18:47like a little bit more growth, and everybody's like, yeah, it's not
- 1:18:50quite there. So I think that I don't think the market's gonna go completely
- 1:18:56crazy on him, and he'll he'll still be quite valuab because he forget,
- 1:19:02he's just thirty years old. He's still still still kicking pretty well. Yeah,
- 1:19:08and what do you think. I mean, I think this is something
- 1:19:11that we'll have to track a little bit maybe over the winter. Is second
- 1:19:14base is terrible, and so the drop off there, I really just kind
- 1:19:19of like noticed it now that like that is something I think I'm gonna have
- 1:19:24to start preparing for. And so that is something I will keep in the
- 1:19:28back of my head of like watching where Marte goes, because it might be
- 1:19:30worth actually jumping him a little early in Like let's see, I'm guessing he'll
- 1:19:36probably end up going somewhere around like third fourth round. But if it really
- 1:19:41does fall off and you need to lock in a second basement, you can
- 1:19:45certainly do worse than that. I think it's a little akin to people this
- 1:19:49year we're using that strategy at third base because third base fell off a lot,
- 1:19:54and even there, like I know it got me into some Machado shares,
- 1:20:00but like at the end of the day, ma Chao got his numbers,
- 1:20:02and Marte I feel is kind of the same way that it might be
- 1:20:05a little up and down, but it's real hard to not think that Marte
- 1:20:11is gonna be the top five or six second basement when it's all kind of
- 1:20:14setting down. Yeah, as I look at the second basement, I think
- 1:20:17it's there's like three tiers of second basement. There's like that top like five
- 1:20:21or six. Right, we got that's Simeon. Uh, I'm actually really
- 1:20:27high on hass On, kim Okay Albi's Marte Hornery. You can probably argue
- 1:20:32and then it just like drops off a cliff. Oh yeah, and you
- 1:20:34don't want to touch it at all until the very end, when you might
- 1:20:39you know, be you know, picking up a few guys like I like
- 1:20:42Whip Marrorfield further down there, Uh, there's gonna be some other guys that
- 1:20:47didn't qualify for have enough of bats this year that, like Spencer Steer I
- 1:20:53think would probably be second base eligible if I recall. So, I think
- 1:20:57that there's good there's some like breakout potential much further down the line, but
- 1:21:01there's like this really ugly middle a second base that you just want to have
- 1:21:05no part of. Yeah, and I guess I looking at the player A
- 1:21:10two, I'm underrating al t V because he was out for a little bit.
- 1:21:13But I mean he's been banged up here and there, so he might
- 1:21:15move up there. But it is like it's a very boomer bust for second
- 1:21:21base. So that'll be interesting to watch that market as it kind of forms
- 1:21:26over the winter. Here, all right, we'll move on to your dbacksitter.
- 1:21:30Hit us with your pick. Yeah, I think I'm gonna, you
- 1:21:34know, stick to the catcher position here and go with Gabriel Moreno. I'm
- 1:21:39not as high on Moreno as I am on on Garver, but I think
- 1:21:43Moreno was kind of a top prospect and he's really shown growth, i'd say,
- 1:21:49even just in these playoffs. You know, he only hit seven home
- 1:21:55runs in the regular season. He has three in the playoffs. He but
- 1:22:00the thing about him is, you know, he has a very patient plate
- 1:22:06approach. He's not going to strike out a ton. He is going to
- 1:22:10walk some for you. He hits the ball relatively relatively hard, you know,
- 1:22:16for a catcher. He's low thirties hard hit rate, but a medium
- 1:22:21hit rate in the mid to high fifties, and so I think there's a
- 1:22:27lot to like him because of the position he's at and the age. He's
- 1:22:30only twenty three, so we'll be going to his twenty four year old season
- 1:22:33next year. So I think there's a lot to like it his plate approach
- 1:22:36and the way he is developing as a hitter. I think a lot of
- 1:22:41people know catchers tend to develop glove first, and moreno is one of the
- 1:22:45best catchers glove catchers out there, and I think that's going to keep him
- 1:22:53in the lineup. I think I see to give him a lot of opportunities,
- 1:22:55and it seems like that bat is slowly coming around. And you know
- 1:23:00he from a like expected staff perspective. You know, his XBA was two
- 1:23:05sixty three this year, and get him from a catcher position that's like golden
- 1:23:11to have a high batting average. He was kind of middle of the line
- 1:23:15as far as power statistics. But then also, like I said, played
- 1:23:17approach fantastic, and then from a defensive perspective, top ten percent and almost
- 1:23:24every metric behind the plate. So I think he's growing. We're seeing it
- 1:23:30during the playoffs. I think he is one of those though, he could
- 1:23:32really make a name for himself in the World Series by having a few really
- 1:23:36big games, and I think his price of all the guys we've talked about,
- 1:23:41will probably fluctuate the most with that postseason performance because he just doesn't have
- 1:23:45as many regular season games. He is still young, and the if you
- 1:23:49show that potential, people just are going to grasp onto it. So I
- 1:23:54do think there's a lot to like about Gabriel Moreno. I think he has
- 1:23:59a lot of potential to be a valuable play pick in twenty four. But
- 1:24:03I am a little worried that he's gonna price himself on the market in the
- 1:24:09World Series year if he keeps up what he's been doing the playoffs. I
- 1:24:13absolutely agree that, like I'm worried too. I'm kind of strangely hoping that
- 1:24:18he doesn't have like the greatest World Series because it will send his price skyrocketing.
- 1:24:26That he came in pretty lowly rated on the year and our player Raider,
- 1:24:30he came in twenty second at catcher, even behind Jake Rogers and Shaye
- 1:24:35Langleiars and some pretty groady names there at the catcher position. But what gabrielle
- 1:24:42Mareno does is he hits like the batting average He hit two eighty one this
- 1:24:47year and he was given a seventy grade from Fangrafts when he was coming up
- 1:24:51through the minor leagues that it's and I was actually mistaken it's a two eighty
- 1:24:57four batting after not two eighty one. I misread that that he swings a
- 1:25:01great stick, and I think as he matures there in Arizona, I heard
- 1:25:09today that he's the youngest starting catcher in the World Series since Buster Posey,
- 1:25:13and he carries a lot of that weight in terms of just taking the team
- 1:25:21like on his shoulders and just being a leader the way the Puster Posey does,
- 1:25:25and reminds me a lot of Evan Carter, where there's just guys that
- 1:25:29are built to be ballplayers, and you can see it blooming kind of in
- 1:25:33front of you during these playoffs and Moreno is one of those guys that,
- 1:25:38even though he don't, I'm surprised he was the twenty second rateed catcher honestly
- 1:25:42on roto value, considering he hit two eighty four, gave you thirteen homers
- 1:25:46and stolen bases, that he's not a non zero in stolen bases, which
- 1:25:50is nice. Maybe the runs hurt only thirty three runs, but fifty ribs.
- 1:25:55That what that actually kind of reminds me a little bit of is like
- 1:26:00when YACHTI originally like eventually figured out how to hit a little bit. That
- 1:26:05he provided a pretty decent batting average while also going in picking up you know,
- 1:26:13handfuls of steals in homers and just providing other counting stats. That that's
- 1:26:16where I see Moreno going And so I love him as being a second catcher
- 1:26:23if you can get him that cheap. But I love him in dynasties going
- 1:26:27forward too that I don't buy many catchers, if any, but from what
- 1:26:30I've seen on the field from Gabby Moreno with this playoff season and just that
- 1:26:38two eighty four batting average is just like whoa like that is so nice at
- 1:26:42catcher. Yeah, I was looking as his zone contract rate is I think
- 1:26:45was eighty eight percent this year, which is just unbelievable. So he can
- 1:26:51control that bad He's just still growing into being a hitter. It kind of
- 1:26:56I hate to say, this is not fair comparison with a young, young
- 1:26:59ya Yati Molina guy that was still trying to figure out the hitting and then
- 1:27:02grew into being a better hitter. I think he's got a little bit of
- 1:27:05that in him. Yeah, and came up with a much better bat than
- 1:27:09YACHTI. So there's that, okay, And we will move into the pictures
- 1:27:15now for the Diamondbacks. So I'll get started. I'll get started with our
- 1:27:19first picture here, and it is going to be Paul Seawald from the Diamondbacks.
- 1:27:26And really, what Paul Seawald has shown during this playoff run has been
- 1:27:30incredible. That he's been lights out for the Diamondbacks after being honestly a little
- 1:27:36bit shaky down the stretch that he only put up a three fifty seven ERA
- 1:27:41and really struggled with walks with the Diamondbacks after being traded over from the Mariners.
- 1:27:45He averaged over five walks per nine as he came into Arizona, but
- 1:27:51that didn't hold him back. He still picked up it looks like thirteen saves
- 1:27:56down the stretch. So that's maybe why if you had Paul seawall there down
- 1:28:00the stretch, you weren't hurting too much because the thirteen saves more than made
- 1:28:04up for any walks that he was allowing. And Paul Sewald has been a
- 1:28:10really great closer for the Mariners now for few years. But now that he
- 1:28:15assumes the job, I think in Arizona it was always a little bit kind
- 1:28:20of shaky in terms of the bullpen coming down the stretch there. But Seawald
- 1:28:26should be the full closer there next year, which is going to send his
- 1:28:30value through the roof at the end of the day. Honestly, that he
- 1:28:36came in on our Player Raider at let me look it up real fast,
- 1:28:41Paul Sewald was ultimately, oh no, I forgot how to type when I'm
- 1:28:46looking for wall Seywald here. But Sewald came in as the eleventh closer on
- 1:28:55our Player Raider, so he was right behind Ryce Iglesias and Josh Hater.
- 1:29:00But I think, like is Paul, you won't going to be drafted maybe
- 1:29:05as like a top three closer at the end of the day for next year,
- 1:29:10like with this performance and with Arizona looking good the top three this year
- 1:29:15at the end of the year, where Felix Bautista so gone, yep,
- 1:29:20Devin Williams, Alexis Diaz and then the next one down would be Camilo Dovall
- 1:29:26with Bednar right behind him. Scott Scott right there class a Romano hater Iglesias
- 1:29:34Seawald. So I think it depends a little where hater signs. But I
- 1:29:39think you're you're you think he's right out of five to seven is probably where
- 1:29:43I would be paying him right now is probably I don't know how many shares
- 1:29:48you'll have. I think he's going to be four. I think so I
- 1:29:51got Devin Well, Devin uh ahead of him. I got Hater ahead of
- 1:29:55him. I don't think I'm devall ahead of him. No, Diaz I
- 1:30:00think would be ahead of him. I'm not sure. What what do you
- 1:30:02think about Edwin? Edwin Diaz would be in the super Bowl? Oh okay,
- 1:30:05coming coming back. So yeah, like I said, I'm going that
- 1:30:10five to seven, but I'm not I'm not disappointed to have him at five
- 1:30:15or even before it. So I think I there's a lot to like there.
- 1:30:18Yeah. I think what it reminds me a little bit of was where
- 1:30:21Liam Hendricks was being drafted at this year that I don't like. No ways,
- 1:30:27the planting Paul Seawald. I don't think unless there's an injury and he's
- 1:30:30been really solid that he just like, yeah, he produces saves. He
- 1:30:38produces pretty good ratios, and I think that the Arizona pitching staff will know
- 1:30:45how to handle him well, and they seem to get a lot out of
- 1:30:47pictures. And I trust Brent Stram a lot. Yeah, there's there's something
- 1:30:51to be said for Strom there. I think he is one of the best
- 1:30:56in the business in getting what he can out out of those players. So,
- 1:31:01uh, yeah, I love some Seawald there. Again, I think
- 1:31:04we mentioned the opening. He's probably one of the biggest pickups and has been
- 1:31:09a lot to this this this Diamondbacks team, and he's gonna he's gonna be
- 1:31:14a highly sought after, uh fantasy fixture next year, especially where in any
- 1:31:19saves league which is seeming harder, seemingly harder and harder to get anymore.
- 1:31:26Yeah, I agree, And so I mean I do. Guess I did
- 1:31:30forget about Edwin Diaz. So Edwin Diaz will definitely be my number one closer
- 1:31:33and probably in like his own tier, but that next tier down with with
- 1:31:39Devin Williams and Alexis Diaz and Bednar and maybe even Scott Class. A Romano
- 1:31:45hater like I would take Seawald in that group, and like I will pay
- 1:31:51that price, honestly, because when it comes to closers, like, I
- 1:31:55think he's amongst that elite group. And I mean it depends on kind of
- 1:32:00how your first couple of picks go and like what ends up shaking out to
- 1:32:03you. But honestly, I might even personally want Seawald over like Alexis Diz,
- 1:32:11just because Alexis Diaz is not as steady as Seawald is at the end
- 1:32:14of the day. Yeah, And I and the Diamondbacks aren't a team that's
- 1:32:17gonna blow everybody out, and so I think he's gonna get plenty of opportunities
- 1:32:23and they're gonna still be a good team, uh next year. And so
- 1:32:27I think there's lots to there, you know, an interesting uh and I
- 1:32:30hate to take a sidetrack here, but interesting. I think consideration dynasty leagues,
- 1:32:34especially if you're playing five by five Rodo next year, is you know,
- 1:32:39what are you doing for keeping closers if you're if you can only keep
- 1:32:43a handful of guys. I think there's a really interesting strategy around keeping high
- 1:32:47end closers because of how hard they are to find. And I know what
- 1:32:54the leagues were in I'm planning to do just that. I'm planning to carry
- 1:32:59like three high end closers in the next year, just locking that completely down
- 1:33:03and making the rest of the market pretty much unreasonable. Maybe that's just because
- 1:33:10I'm a little conniving and I just want to see the chaos, But I
- 1:33:14think there's a legitimate strategy beyond what I'm trying to cause. As far as
- 1:33:18league chaos, No, I don't think it's a bad idea because honestly,
- 1:33:23it's gotten really tiered in terms of the way that closers are set up.
- 1:33:28I think across the league that the I would say that there's like twelve to
- 1:33:32fifteen that I like and I would trust, and then the rest is just
- 1:33:38honestly a total crapshoot of like closer committees and injuries and performance issues and bad
- 1:33:45teams, and so if you can get all your darts into that upper tank,
- 1:33:51like closes are already chaotic enough that, like you, if you can
- 1:33:57get a little more stability and just kind of hope that the injury bug doesn't
- 1:34:01bite you, that's not a bad way to go, because especially when you're
- 1:34:06also dealing with some of these like real elite teams like the Dodgers and the
- 1:34:13Yankees kind of like toying around and playing matchups and stuff. It really concentrates
- 1:34:17the saves in just a few really crucial closers, and it just makes them
- 1:34:25even more valuable in my mind. Yeah, it absolutely does. So I
- 1:34:29took us off the track, but I was thinking as a strategy that I
- 1:34:31planned to employ next year. And like I said, I actually have a
- 1:34:34league where we you know, we keep I think six guys. I plan
- 1:34:38to keep three of probably what I would say is arguably top seven closers,
- 1:34:43just because the chaos it can cause and what it can do from a ratio
- 1:34:46perspective in a keeper league, so very interesting. But anyway, I took
- 1:34:53us off track. Let's bring us bring it back, close us out,
- 1:34:58and I'm going to stay very close to you you on this one. I
- 1:35:00think Seawall is a great pick. I'm gonna go with his setup man and
- 1:35:03Kevin Ginkle. I've from this postseason. He has been lights out. He
- 1:35:11has nine innings, thirteen k's two walks over that time period, has not
- 1:35:16given up a run and so he has just been nothing short of fantastic for
- 1:35:25the Diamondbacks. I think in the world series, they are going to write
- 1:35:29him hard. I think they are going to pretty much any chance that they
- 1:35:32get, they are going to roll through that back in of they're both salth
- 1:35:36Frank Ginkle and then Seawaald. They're just gonna try to shorten games the best
- 1:35:43they can and they're to get their starter to the fifth, maybe the sixth,
- 1:35:45and then they're gonna run those same three guys out. Anytime they have
- 1:35:48any symptoms of a leader, it's high. And so what really interests me
- 1:35:54Ginkle is that, yes he is backing up Seawall going into the next year,
- 1:36:00but he is one of those handcuffs that helps you substantially even if he's
- 1:36:05just being a handcuff. You know, he actually had nine wins this year
- 1:36:13in that kind of mop up role, set up role, and because the
- 1:36:18Divondbacks aren't a team that blows you out, they you know, he was
- 1:36:21coming in in a lot of high ball games making a difference before handing it
- 1:36:27over to the closer. So I actually like him as a very sneaky value
- 1:36:30next year. I think if you have Paul Seaweld, you have to have
- 1:36:34Kevin Ginkel on your team, and you're going to be thrilled because of what
- 1:36:41he does to your ratios. But then if anything does happen is what we
- 1:36:44just talked about with the closer landscape, you got your built in closer,
- 1:36:46Like you know, he's the next guy online and they're going to rely on
- 1:36:51him. So I think he's going to have a big world series because he's
- 1:36:56going to be a guy that the fireman they rely on to get to Seawald,
- 1:37:00and then I think I'm taking him in a lot of spots next year
- 1:37:04from kind of a ratio guy and I don't wish Ill will on all Seawald
- 1:37:10there, but if anything does happen to him, like there's very few situations
- 1:37:15I feel like in the majors you can look and go this is the next
- 1:37:16guy and be very confidence, and I think this is one of them.
- 1:37:19So I like Kevin Ginkel and that's not really talking too much about the numbers,
- 1:37:25But go out to Baseball Savant. Look at his his percentile ranks.
- 1:37:29It is read as can be almost as give as Paul Seawald's. But he's
- 1:37:33in the top ten percent of xcra x bat and average. He's right right
- 1:37:39there in the top fifteen percent of whiff ground ball, his ex of velocities,
- 1:37:45he just looks unhittable. And you know he's still got a lot of
- 1:37:51a lot of life left in that arm at just twenty nine years old.
- 1:37:56So in and out with the back end of the of the Diamondbacks bullpit.
- 1:38:01Yeah, no, I think that's a great pick. And I think also
- 1:38:04another just kind of great talking point to off season strategy again, because Kevin
- 1:38:11Ginkle was super useful this year. Not I mean the wins certainly helped that
- 1:38:15I can see. It was driving like four point five point four dollars in
- 1:38:20his value on our player Raider, but he was worth five point nine dollars,
- 1:38:26so that was mostly wins. But the ratios were still great in terms
- 1:38:29of the strikeouts, and that whip, like a sub one whip, is
- 1:38:32amazing. And he did it for sixty innings, which as the gap between
- 1:38:39relievers and starters, their innings gap just closes more and more and more.
- 1:38:45I would much rather have somebody like Kevin Ginkle than most of your kind of
- 1:38:50like back in starting pitchers that you would get late in drafts, because that
- 1:38:56will provide better production than you know, whenever you're I think at one point
- 1:39:00during the summer in my Waiver Wire columns, like I just like I was
- 1:39:06straight up like, I can't ever recommend any Rockies player for like and I
- 1:39:10know only because, like you, once you get like a league that deep
- 1:39:15as well, it hurts so bad when you get somebody blowing up on you
- 1:39:19and just wrecking your ratios for months and months and months. Somebody like Ginkle
- 1:39:26makes sure that that doesn't happen, that he keeps things down. He's not
- 1:39:29going to walk into a start and get blown up for five six runs and
- 1:39:32being forced to eat it for eighty pitches. That Ginkle can help you maintain
- 1:39:39ratios and still keep up with strikeouts when you're using him in lieu of a
- 1:39:44starting pitcher. So I think this is a strategy I'm going to be using
- 1:39:47a lot more coming up next year, of finding ace relievers and kind of
- 1:39:53bringing back that Andrew Miller like role to fantasy. Yeah, I agree,
- 1:39:58And I know I see a lot of folks posting about using that strategy and
- 1:40:01saying, well, if you only you'd owned this guy, if only you'd
- 1:40:04owned this guy, And the problem with that is the reliever market's not hindsight.
- 1:40:10Tell twenty you can't come back and say, if only you've owned the
- 1:40:13guy nobody's ever heard of for the last twenty you know innings, he would
- 1:40:16have given you a one o er and you know, a twelve k aper
- 1:40:21nine. Like you have to see the guys going in, and I think
- 1:40:25Ginkle's one of those guys that you look at and go, I feel comfortable
- 1:40:29that he can do that and he's not gonna blow up versus you're not.
- 1:40:32You're not gonna just go out and get the fifth guy in the braves bullpen
- 1:40:35and go, I think it's gonna be his year to break out, Right,
- 1:40:39That's not what it is. Those are the guys that end up hurting
- 1:40:42that strategy because they are lights out until all of a sudden the league figures
- 1:40:45them out and they're like, wait a second, and then they have five
- 1:40:47terrible outings and all the games are gone. And so when you're looking for
- 1:40:53those middle relievers, you have to look at the at the floor as well
- 1:40:57as the ceiling on him, and I think Ginkle fits in there. There's
- 1:41:00a number of other ones that fit, they're well that you can rely on
- 1:41:04when you're using that strategy. Yeah, I think that's a great point because
- 1:41:08there is the element of wanting it to be set and forget and like other
- 1:41:12players in kind of like like I said, like Andrew Miller or Chad Green
- 1:41:15used to be this for the Yankees, where you know, this dude is
- 1:41:18a setup pitcher on a great team. He's got a solidified role. He's
- 1:41:24gonna get some wins, he's gonna get some saves, and he's just gonna
- 1:41:27be used and be a little bit of a known entity that like, this
- 1:41:30is not the place to be trying to like a guy like Joel Piamps from
- 1:41:38the Brewers had a great year this year, but like, that's not a
- 1:41:41guy that you're going to find at the draft table like Ginkle. You know
- 1:41:44what you're getting, Yeah, you know, you know, I think Ginkle
- 1:41:46got like Robert Stevenson out of Tampa Bay is gonna kind of follow that where's
- 1:41:50like, yeah, I feel like I feel confident what I'm getting. The
- 1:41:55most important point on Ginkolo's is there a more middle reliever name than Kevin Kinkle.
- 1:42:00I feel like he is that guy like your high school baseball team,
- 1:42:03who is the you know, awkward reliever in the back of the bullpen that
- 1:42:10you're just like I'm not quite sure if he even belongs on the team.
- 1:42:14And then it's just and then here he is always like delivering, and you're
- 1:42:17still a Ginkle really just there for vibes in the bullpen, mostly so that
- 1:42:21people don't get bored exactly. I'm completely stereotyping Kevin Ginkle's name at this point,
- 1:42:30but it had to be said, Uh, that's some point here.
- 1:42:33Okay, well, yeah we're gonna I'm gonna bury this yere at the end.
- 1:42:35What are your what is your World Series prediction? Oh? This is
- 1:42:40this is tough. I am going to go out on a limb and I'm
- 1:42:44going to say I'm taking the Diamondbacks. I Am going to take the Diamondbacks.
- 1:42:48I it's it's what they did the last two games, where they seem
- 1:42:54to go back to their aggressive style of play, and I think that's going
- 1:43:00to catch the Rangers a little off guard. They didn't the Diamondbacks don't seem
- 1:43:05to be scared to lose, and I think the Rangers are going to go
- 1:43:11in. I think they're the top the top dog. I think they're coming
- 1:43:15off of an unbelievable ALCS and I'm a little worried for a letdown for them
- 1:43:21and their bullpen. The the Arrangers bullpen seems to be shown some some kinks
- 1:43:26in the armors, Like there's a few things here that I'm not like.
- 1:43:29So yeah, yeah, I can see why people are gonna take Texas.
- 1:43:32Uh, I'm gonna go to I'm gonna take the Diamondbacks. I'm gonna take
- 1:43:35them. It's gonna be probably six or seven games. But I think they're
- 1:43:40going to win it with small ball. They're gonna put pressure on, They're
- 1:43:43gonna steal bases. Let's be fun to watch. How about you? What's
- 1:43:47uh? So I went out of the limb first. Are you coming with
- 1:43:50me and tearing that limb down? Or are you staying far away with tim
- 1:43:54football? No? I mean, but I will take Rangers in seven,
- 1:43:58Like, I think it's gonna be a good back four. But I do
- 1:44:00think that, like there's only so many times that Brandon fat can get away
- 1:44:05with this, I think, and like the just the depth of the Rangers
- 1:44:11lineup and Corey Seeger didn't really make too much of an appearance yet, and
- 1:44:15so I'm waiting for that cracking to be unleashed. And yeah, I think
- 1:44:19just more health from Max Scherzer like he's getting there, like he essentially like
- 1:44:26he's rehab starting in the playoffs. And so if the Rangers can get a
- 1:44:31good performance out Surezer, that's a really good rallying point, and I think
- 1:44:35that they'll pull it off. And just having Bruce Bochci there too, Bruce
- 1:44:39Bochi just kind of provides a salve to go in and really heal any sort
- 1:44:45of ills that have that are on this team that he provides just a great
- 1:44:49presence. So I'm going to do Rangers in seven. I don't think there's
- 1:44:54any question though we're all winners. This is gonna be a fun series to
- 1:44:56watch. I'm so thankful, and I hate to say this against the large
- 1:45:00market teams, I'm so thankful we're not watching like Dodgers Astros in this one
- 1:45:05or something like that. It is fun to see two teams going at it.
- 1:45:11And I don't think anybody in the preseason thought these would be the two
- 1:45:15teams now, you know, hashing out and maybe the Rangers will finally get
- 1:45:20over that hump and get that that series win, or as I'm predicting,
- 1:45:27I feel like there's gonna be a Nelson Cruz, a miss Flat ball somewhere
- 1:45:31in this and uh, they're just going to toil in the pain, so
- 1:45:38we'll see it comes either way, it's gonna be fun to watch. I
- 1:45:42agree. So brew remind everybody where they can find you. Yep, find
- 1:45:45me over on x Twitter at Jay Brewer one seven, find me on hit
- 1:45:51her profiles, hit her top one hundred rankings on rasball during the regular season,
- 1:45:57and hitting your breakouts and early sleepers here probably come late December and early
- 1:46:03January, so how about you. Yeah, you can also find me at
- 1:46:09rasball and you can email the podcasts at cards Categories at gmail dot com.
- 1:46:15You can find me on Twitter slash x at mcool seven, also the same
- 1:46:18handle for blue Sky. We're already kind of prepping to move over there as
- 1:46:23Twitter is getting closer and closer to charging maybe and cards Categories is currently on
- 1:46:29Twitter slack x at cards Categories, so the we'll be making that transition over
- 1:46:34to blue Sky here pretty soon too, But until then, you can find
- 1:46:39us all on Twitter and obviously wherever you found us to listen to this podcast,
- 1:46:43so Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or just the ras ball website. We
- 1:46:46appreciate you listening and if you can rate, review, comment, do whatever
- 1:46:51you can to spread the word of this pod. We appreciate it greatly,
- 1:46:56so thanks again everybody for tuning in this week and enjoined the World series.
- 1:47:00We'll see you next week.