Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 155 : 2027 Mock First Round Draft

Transcript

Ep. 155 : 2027 Mock First Round Draft · Cards & Categories

• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome everybody to episode 155 of Cards and Categories.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I am Mike Coulard from Baseball Perspectives, joined per usual
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: by my very good friend Jeremy Brewer from Razball. We
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: are getting into the last throws of the season. We're
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: getting into double digit territory of number of games left.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Playoffs are around the corner.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: How's your mood? I, you know, I, I almost didn't realize, like,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: I know we all know when the season ends, but like,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: I was just looking at the schedule. I'm like, wait,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: we're like a week and a half away from the season.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: And then like, it, it, it doesn't feel like that. Um,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: and there's just so many races still kind of like unsettled.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: So many questions out there that it feels like more
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: should have been, you know, clinched or decided. I know
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: the brewers and the rays have kind of clinched their births,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: but there's, you know, the AL East is still up
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: for grabs. The AL Central, who really knows what's happening there.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: You know, there's a number of wildcard spots like there's
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: so still so much going on. It feels like we
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: have a walk off for a playoff eligible team every
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: night right now. So there's a ton of intrigue at
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: this point in time. I think there's some some really
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: cool Cinderella stories I'm hoping happen here. I am rooting
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: for your White Sox.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: We'll see.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: If that if that comes to fruition. But yeah, it's
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: getting to the end of it pretty quick here. It's
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: always funny how a long season seems so short at
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: the end of it.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been talking about that a lot of my
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: recent pieces about fantasy baseball in general to how it
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: really does come down to the last week and a
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: lot of those fantasy leagues out there as well. But
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I think that has been. the sentiment from the baseball
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: community at large, where I'm at on, you know, Reddit
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: and discords and blue sky and baseball prospectus and Ras
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: ball and all the places. But, uh, I think one
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: of the themes that's also popped up is a little
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: bit of a twist on kind of what you were
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: talking about, where like, because of these third wild cards,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: we've been focused on very poor teams, like as good
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: as the drama between guardians and white socks this afternoon
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: has been and the, the night before. Not exactly the
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: most superb teams out there. So I figured what we
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: could do is we could fulfill the role in the
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: zeitgeist where people have been craving, I think, a little
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: bit out there. They've been chattering. We want to talk
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: about the best teams, the best teams that are out there.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: And obviously we have the Brewers. But let's talk about
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the best team in the AL. I crafted a little
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: bit of a quiz for you because just to show
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: people maybe why you might not want to be talking
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: about the Rays or why the Rays aren't being talked
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: about because this is such an under the radar 91
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and 59 team right now as we're speaking on the
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: 16th of September. And you did say that, yes, the
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Yankees have caught up a little bit, but the Rays
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: do seem to be chugging right along. They've got a
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: great little team that has really flown under the radar
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: and is about to just like walk to an AL
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: East title essentially. But like I said, let's, I'm going
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: to quiz you on some of the major stat leaders
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: for the Tampa Bay Rays. Oh God. Just to get
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: everybody the updates because you're going to need to learn
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: about this Rays squad before the playoffs. Cause I think
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: you're probably much, I mean, you're connected to the baseball.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, way more than the average fan. And I'm sure, uh,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Most of the average fan would also struggle to get
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: these questions the way you are about to, I believe.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: So maybe, maybe. Maybe I'm predicting, maybe I'm putting words
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: in your mouth, but.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: I just feel set up for failure right now. It's
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: only up to go from here. So, all right, quiz
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: me down.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: What do we got? Okay. Well, first, I mean, when
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I was sorting the leaderboards, there are only 10 players
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: on the Rays right now with more than 250 plate appearances.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: So that's kind of odd, but very Rays. Yep. I'll
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: start you off with an easy one. Who leads the
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Rays in home runs?
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Junior Caminero.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Correct. Junior Caminero.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Let's call the quiz off. Yeah, I tap out 100%
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: A +. Yes, you are correct. Junior Caminero has 41
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: homers as we are speaking. He also obviously leads the
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: team in RBIs and runs because of that. Who is
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: second on this team in runs? Is it Yandy? You're correct.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: You got it. Oh, look at that.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I kind of weirdly want to say Chandler Simpson just
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: because he runs so much. But Yandy's like an on-base machine.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: So I'll give it to Yandy.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: I'm feeling a little better about myself.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I'll give you like the 5x5 Roto
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: categories essentially. And then maybe a couple like add-on questions.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: It's going to fall apart real fast here.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Yes. Because then the next one is who's second on
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: this team in RBI behind Junior Caminero's 96th?
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, I want to say Yandy as well, but
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: he's been batting leadoff, so I'm going to go Aranda.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go Aranda. Correct. Yes, there you go.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Jonathan Aranda, 89 RBI. He's second on the team behind
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Junior Caminero. Okay. Here's another softball one. Chandler Simpson. Oh,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: I just ruined it. Steals Chandler Simpson. Maybe I'll flip it.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: How many steals does he have? Oh.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: I traded him in one of my fantasy leagues. I
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: feel like he's right around 40. It might be a
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: little high. I'm going to go 37.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay. It's 41. So you were pretty close with
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: your initial answer there.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: He got a little hot recently, and I haven't adjusted
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: to it.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Yes. I mean, he's running a 95 WRC plus, surprisingly.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: How many homers does he have? How many homers does
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Chandler Simpson have?
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: I don't think he's hit one this year, has he?
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Correct. He's got zero. He doesn't have any on his career.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: I was going to say, I think he has an
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: inside the Parker in the minor leagues, if I recall.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I wonder if he's ever gotten one out on
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: the fly. Let me look at his minor league stat record.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: He has one in total. So yeah, that probably is
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: an inside the Parker. Yeah. I wonder if he ever
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: hit one in college on the fly. He had one
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: at Georgia Tech. Maybe that was also an inside the Parker.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: So he might have never hit an actual home run.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: over the fence in like major competition that's kind of
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: insane all right the fifth the fifth category who leads
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: this team and in batting average.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Oh that's a tough one with this group um i'm
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: gonna go back to good old yandi who likes to
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: hit a good batting average.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Oh he's second it's chandler simpson Okay, okay. Who is
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: second in the AL behind Jordan Alvarez with a. 308
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: batting average, but Yandy is third in the AL with a. 299. Okay,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: you ready for fun now? You ready for pitching?
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Can I just answer Drew Rasmussen for the entire pitching?
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: It could work for you, but it might not. Okay. Okay, well,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: instead of Kays, I will ask you who leads this
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: team in innings pitched.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Is Seymour leading the team in innings pitched?
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Because I think.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Rasmussen got hurt. So I'm going to go with Seymour.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: No, it's Nick Martinez with 166 in the third innings.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Rasmussen second with 160 in the third. Seymour is third
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: with 122 in the third. Which, I mean, that does
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: maybe impact the next question. Who leaves this team and wins?
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: I want to say it's Rasmussen, but I... don't feel
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: any at all confident in that one because he's probably
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: got like 10 wins at most so.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: It's actually a tie between drew rasmussen and nick martinez
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: they're tied at 14 14 okay 14 and 5 for
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: drew rasmussen 14 4 for nick martinez okay who what
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: is the name of the raise closer uh i'm gonna
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: feel like an idiot um don't worry i had to
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: think about this earlier too I can see him too.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: That's the worst part. Crap.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: It's not coming to me.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Give me a clue here. With a B. Starts with
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: a B. Double B. Double B. Baker.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Brian Baker.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: There you go. You got it. Is he right-handed or left-handed?
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go with righty because you don't put
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: a lefty as a.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, you got it.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: You don't put a lefty as a closer. That's cheating.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Maybe the Rays do. Well, that's true.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: If there's a team that's going to pull it, it's
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: going to be the Rays.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, then last one. Who leads this team in ERA qualified?
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: There are only 10 dudes on this staff that have
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: 50 or more innings.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: I mean.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: With the qualification, I mean, even with the qualification, he
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: meets it. But yeah, if we were to lower it
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: to even 100, this guy would still be leading the
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: race in the ERA. I mean, it's got to be Rasmussen, right?
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: He's been the race.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Is his ERA above or below 2.9? I want to.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Say it's actually below. It's below, isn't it?
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: I got you. It's 292, which is maybe a little dirty.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: That is dirty.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: It's been better than people expected this year.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Yes. So, yeah, he has been certainly the staff ace
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: and has been pretty steady for them as well. But
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: that is your roundup of the Tampa Bay Rays from 2026.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Learn them, love them. So I didn't tally what your
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: final score. I'll give you a D. I'll let you
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: pass this.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm like, there definitely was one with flying colors,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: but this was like, You circle C on every quiz.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: It was just Yandy Diaz and Drew Rasmussen. That was
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: my answers.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: It would have done pretty well. It's like, yeah, that
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: seems like the most logical answer. But yeah, it's going
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: to be... I'm rooting for the Rays. I do hope
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: that they hold on for that AL East title and
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: they hang on for that number one seed in the
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: AL because... especially if it becomes like a Milwaukee Tampa
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Bay World Series.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'd love that.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to love it. It's going to be great.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: But there will be so much bemoaning of it just
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: in the greater blogosphere and chatter out there. But it
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: would be so entertaining because they've been great teams to watch.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I also I will give you a little
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: comfort that like if you had given me that same
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Tampa Bay Rays quiz before this afternoon when I was
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: studying up a little bit, I probably would have done
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: just as poorly. Cause yeah, I totally thought that Brian
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Baker was a left-handed closer. Yeah.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Well, you win some, you lose some. We'll just, we'll
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: just leave it at that.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: All right. Well, let's get into the rest of our
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: show here. So the main segment after we get through
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: our news and notes will be a, an early 2027
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: mock first round draft. So, I think it's going to
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: be fun last couple of years. It's been pretty chalky
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: this year. It's going to be pretty wide open. I
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: think so.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: A hundred percent. I feel, I feel like we're both
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: going to love who we draft.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: I think so too, because I think that's going to
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: be a lot of different ways that you can build teams.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: So that's going to be a little bit of the
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: factor when we get into the discussion later, but yeah,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: let's get into those news and notes first. I'm going
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: to start off with, they did announce this week, the
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Arizona fall league rosters, which is pretty awesome. If you're
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: going to first pitch Arizona, make sure you book your
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: stuff up. I booked up my flight this past week
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure the hotel is sold out, but
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: you can also find different accommodations. I know some folks
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: that have like stayed in some interesting Airbnbs around the
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: area and stuff too. So if you want a little
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: flavor of Arizona, certainly check that out. If you're going
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: to first pitch Arizona, going to be some fun teams
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: to watch. I will say though, that like, I think
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: per usual, The pitching is pretty weak, but honestly, it
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: might even be weaker this year than any crop that
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I've seen in in recent times. You're going to have
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: a little bit of fun with like Randy Rodriguez will
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: be out there making some rehab appearances and other guys
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: are getting stretched out. But otherwise, like Harley Susana is
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: probably like the biggest prospect arm and other after that,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: you're you're really stretched. So I think it's something to
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: call out if you are watching those fall league stats
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: and trying to look at who's been a good hitter
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: and stuff. it's going to be very, very, very skewed.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: So something to keep in mind that if somebody does
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: pop off, you know, you've got like Tate South, the
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: scene going, you've got Bryce or near going Zion Rose,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Dex Kilby. If any of these dudes have like an
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: crazy good Arizona fall league, just take it with a
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: grain of salt. The way that like, I'm going to
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: start writing about this a little bit of BP over
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: the next kind of month or two, is that like,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: we're going to have to really take all of the
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: minor league baseball results from 2026 with a grain of salt,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: because like, The ball was messed up. The offensive environment
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: was messed up. And it's really going to, I think,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: skew your understanding of players, especially when you're looking at
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: pitcher ERAs. It is a bloodbath when you're looking at
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: double and triple A guys. So keep that in mind.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: have you had a chance to look at these rosters
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: at all for the Arizona fall league? Any, any takeaways,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: anything else that you might want to put in people's
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: ears when they start kind of seeing these things unfold as,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, they're getting kicked off in just a couple
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: of weeks on October 3rd and 4th. Yeah.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think there's, there's a few guys in here.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: It'd be really interesting to see how they perform. Like they're,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: they're the guys that you're questioning.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: How real is it?
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: I think that that's part of why they're in Arizona
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: fall league. I'm like, Caleb Bonhamer, for example, playing the outfield.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: For the White Sox, with that big power, as he
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: gets a little different competition, how's that going to play?
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: We've talked about Nathan Flewelling a number of times on
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: this podcast, and I think it'll be fun to see
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: him there. I think the kind of trio of Eduardo
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Quintero and Zaire Hope, kind of the scooble sides of
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: that trade of who didn't, who did get traded, it'll
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: be interesting.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: To see how they play.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, it's always a
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: question of small sample size, who really just pops off
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: and what's going to happen. Uh, your Andy Rodriguez call
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: out was a really interesting one. Uh, uh, if you're,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: if you're in a keeper dynasty league and you're looking
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: for a cheap closer for next year, amazing, amazing talent.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: And you know, this is a perfect time to see how,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: how strong he looks, uh, and give them some game opportunity.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Cause if he looks strong, he's gotta be the closer
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: for the giants going next year, uh, considering how terrible
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: they have been at finding a closer since he got hurt. So, uh,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: There's a number of interesting storylines that I want to follow.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: But I think to your point, the hitting is going
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: to be strong. The pitching is going to be a
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: little weak. Balls kind of fly to a degree. So
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: I'm just looking to see who really establishes themselves against
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: kind of a full slate of talent here. And like
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: I said, Bonamer, Quintero, those are the kind of guys
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: I'm really watching.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think I'm right there with you. Okay,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: let's get into the news and notes that are impacting
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: your day-to-day fantasy rosters, as well as, I mean, there's
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: been a ton of injuries, but I think the ones
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: that we're going to focus on, I only took a
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: handful because we either need to check in on some
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: of these guys, or they might be a little bit
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: of an impact at the beginning of 2027, so something
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: that we would need to consider. Otherwise, like, you know,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: sprained ankle, strained hamstring, Little knick and knack injuries where
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't be worried about them in season. I'm not
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: worried about them going into the offseason unless there's murmurs
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: of something more significant. You got plenty of time now
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: for these folks to try to work on healing up
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: bumps and bruises and strains and sprains. So stuff that's
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: kind of more standard. Yeah, you can move on from
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: it in a in a fantasy league for redraft and
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: then probably not a huge impact going forward. So I've
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: pulled a handful where there's a little bit more questions.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: But before we get into that, let's focus on two
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: promotions that we've got. One does coincide with Shohei Otani
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: going on the IL, which is a little bit of
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: like what I was alluding to there, that I'm not
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: terribly worried about Otani long-term and we'll get into it
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: in our first round draft because I can guarantee you
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: he's not falling out of the top 12. Spoiler! So yeah,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: I think we'll talk about Otani there. Let's talk about
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: who's coming up for Otani. It's Josue DiPaola, outfielder, number
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: one prospect for the Dodgers. pretty much universal top 10
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: prospect across the board. Pretty much. It does stand out
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: that like, this is a guy when the Dodgers acquired
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: him in 2022 in the January signing period, it's been
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: lots of points where they could have traded him at
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: the deadline to be able to bring in other talent
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: and they haven't. So I think that speaks to how
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: the Dodgers view him. And he absolutely mashed double a
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: this year. 27 homers, 31 stolen bases, over 100 runs
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: in RBI in 124 games, a 303-401-574 slash line, 145
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: WRC plus, and was 21 most of that time in AA.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: So like I said, great offensive environment, but you're also
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: looking at a guy who only walked or walked about
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: just as much as he struck out. So 13.8% walk rate, 14.8%
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: K rate. has played five games, has already hit a
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: homer and stolen a base with the Dodgers and might
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: just be their leadoff hitter now. So this is a
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: pretty strong bat. The really the main knock on him
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: from a real life perspective is dude has got stone
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: hands in the field. So I don't know if he's
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: like Jordan Alvarez necessarily, but he could develop into that.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: I think maybe a little bit smaller, but It's that
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: level of bat to where the Dodgers are going to
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: try to find a way to squeeze it into the lineup.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: So what's your take here on DePaulo? Because I wasn't
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: actually sure he would make it up this year. He
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: played really well and he's made it to the big
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: leagues at the age of 21.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was a little surprised to see him called up.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: It's not because he doesn't deserve it and hasn't played well, but.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: The Dodgers have kind of liked to let these big
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: prospects marinate and then kind of decide what to do
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: with them later. But I think this means they believe.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: You almost pulled off a 30-30 season here in AA
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: this year. And really underneath the covers, there's nothing really
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: to be concerned about overall. I mean, if I'm going
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: to nitpick here, I mean, he's a 21-year-old. He's going
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: to probably have some adjustment period. And if you're looking
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: like long-term, I got my Corbin Carroll draft. uh, is
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: kind of my comp here, like not current Corbin Carroll,
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: like Corbin Carroll, what he got called up, uh, type
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: of type of version. And, uh, because what, what I
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: don't want people to think is that this is, you know,
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: going to be a 30 Homer bat, uh, type of guy.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: I think this is probably a low twenties Homer bat, uh,
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: long-term he he's a great hitter, but that's exactly what
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: he is as a hitter. He's not a power slugger.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: And so if you actually look under the covers, he
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: doesn't hit a ton of fly balls because he's hitting
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: a lot of light and drives. And he's shooting across
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: the field, doing a really good job using what he's
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: got and using his speed and his athleticism. So I'm
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: not projecting this massive breakout, 30 homers, 40 steals, anything.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: anything like that. But I think, you know, the talent's
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: there for an early career, 2020 decent batting average, maybe
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: a 265, 270, something like that. I think there's a
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: lot to like here. And I think the Dodgers are
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: just trying to see, does it translate enough to carry
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: him on that, that playoff roster and really make him
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: a part of a dynamic bench.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think he's up to stay.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: It's what, it reminds me a bit more of like
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: a left-handed guy, Jordan Walker, but in a complimentary way.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: So like, not like, not like up and down Jordan Walker,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: where DePaul has not necessarily had the ground ball issues that,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: that Walker had to overcome, but it looks like he
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: should swing the bat pretty hard. We're obviously still waiting
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: for some of those metrics to settle in savant. Cause
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: he was at double a didn't get that. Some of
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the triple eight stats, but the, the first readings have
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: been really good on DePaula. So yeah, I'm loving what
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I'm seeing. I was all over him when he was
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: coming up. I dealt a lot of those shares because
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I had cashed him to try to make moves in leagues.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: But I got good things back for him. So it
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: paid off. OK, the next call up we have is
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: in Minnesota. Emmanuel Rodriguez, another left handed bat here. Much
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: better fielder, though. So he should be playing center field
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: and is a little bit smaller. Tick under six foot
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: at 5'11, 23 years old. had a great season across
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: a few levels, but mostly in AAA because he's a
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: twins prospect. So he had some time injured. That's why
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: he had the time at single A and high A
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: this year is that he was recovering from injury stints.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: And just like everybody else, I mean, he's emblematic of
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: the twins kind of injury problems. He's had hamstring issues,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: I believe, and oblique issues and hands and wrists. And
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: so all sorts of stuff, despite it, Has still put
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: up a good line in the minors before the promotion. 262, 414, 500.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: That's a 138 WRC +. Over 220 plate appearances in
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: 49 games at AAA before his promotion. 11 homers, 7
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: stolen bases. A guy who's got more whiff, but also
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: more walk in his game than DePaulo. So strikeout rates
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: are hovering in the mid to upper 50s. 20s, so
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: he's probably going to be like a 30% strikeout guy
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: early in his career, but he's also walked at a
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: crazy clip where it's usually about a 20% walk rate,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: was a 19.1% walk rate at AAA before the promotion.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: For me, it's actually a little PCA-y, where obviously PCA
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: went to another level and was able to really refine
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: his approach and focus on making sure that pitchers came
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: into his zone in the majors. So I don't, I'm
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: not saying that Emmanuel Rodriguez is PCA like MVP, but
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: it reminds me of early career PCA. So there's a
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: lot of talent here in the bat for Rodriguez. What's
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: your take on what he can do with the twins? Yeah.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: I mean, I, I don't know if I'm going to
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: go with the PCA comp for you here. I have
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: him more on a scale of Joey Gallo to Kyle
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Schwarber is probably where, where I have him. I just,
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I believe him. Yeah, I don't
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: know that I believe in the speed as much from
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: this profile. He's not been a very effective, efficient base dealer.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: He's got almost towards the three true outcomes. I mean,
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: in 49 games at AAA this year, he hit 11
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: home runs. So if you want to pace that out
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: to the full 30 home run season, still something he's
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: growing into. He is not the biggest guy, so it's
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: That may be a little stretch there, but he's solid.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: He's listed at 5'11, 210. So I see him a
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: little bit more on the power side than I do
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: on the speed side. And really that almost true outcome
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: kind of guy. He's going to get on base a lot.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: He's going to strike out a lot. I think he's
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: going to have some pretty good power. I just don't
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: know that the speed is going to translate for me.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: I think that's the piece that I'm a little bit less.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: When I see a guy coming from minors, this year
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: he stole seven bases and 10 attempts across his almost
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: 50 games, almost 60 games actually the whole season. And
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: to me, if you're not at that level pulling off
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: 15 steals, getting caught two times type of thing, you've
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: got to be a lot more efficient for a team
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: to give you a chance to do that running at
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: the major league level. In the minor league, they're going
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: to let you– learn the skills and the majors things
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: matter a little bit more. So, um, I'm going a
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: little bit more on the power profile, um, three true outcome,
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: maybe a little lower batting average, but still like on
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: that range, there's, there's, those are good outcomes. Like, uh,
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: like I said, Gallo to Schwarber, I'm not giving you
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: the full Schwarber. Like you're like, you're giving full PCA,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: but I think between those two, um, there's some pretty
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: nice seasons in there.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I maybe found a better comp, which
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: is maybe like prime Adolis Garcia, uh, Yeah. I thought
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: that I would, I would take that one. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: And so maybe he, I think he's going to walk
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: more than Garcia, but probably a tick less power. So, um,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean, prime Adolis Garcia was pretty much
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: putting up like 30, 15 with like a two 40
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: ish batting average. Yeah.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: So I think that's, that feels like the, the, the,
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: the kind of ceiling target that we're looking for here. Yeah.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think, I think I can get on board
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: with that. Okay. Well, Let's start with injuries, and I mean,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about Adoles Garcia's teammate in Philadelphia,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Jesus Lizardo, who went on the shelf with a shoulder
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: injury this week. Sorry out there, I'm the one that
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: cursed him. I wrote about him at BP, and it
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: ran on Monday, right before he went on the IL,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: because it didn't sound like the shoulder injury was going
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: to be much, but Sounds like it was serious enough
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: that they wanted to shut down Lizardo for the last
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: two weeks of the season and make use of that
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: roster spot. What I wrote about at BP was Jesus
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Lizardo is an ace. So obviously the shoulder injury might
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: put a little bit of like a question mark on that.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: But over the past two seasons, well, I also cursed
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: him because I was like, This dude's going to throw
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: 180 innings. He is going to fall just short in 2026,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: 178 and two thirds. He was going to do it
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: pretty easy and was going to maybe notch 15 wins
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: for two straight years. But the ERA, it was not
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: great last year at 392, but the fifth was 290
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: and it pounced right back into place this year, 287
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: on the ERA. He's been pretty much a consistent, 20
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: high twenties, 30% K rate dude for two years, a
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: K minus BB that is averaged about 22% over two years.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: We're going to get into it a little bit with our, well,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: he's not going to be in our first round of
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: our mock draft, but in the one that I'm going
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: to link to, he was the sixth starting pitcher off
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: the board. I mean, all signs were pointing towards Jesus
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Lizardo being a pretty set it and forget it. SP
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: number one going to 2027. I went back to our
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: AL East. We both sold them. But this is part
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: of it is that like he's had shoulder issues. He's
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: had back issues. We just got two seasons smashed in
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: between them. So are you worried about that for Luzardo
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: or has the two years of health gotten him over
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the hump for you where, you know, He's 28 years old.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: I find this a lot with pitchers that, you know,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: the early 20s can be volatile, but then the late 20s,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: they can settle into some health and really find what
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Lozardo's found in the past few years. So where are
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: you at in terms of thinking about Lozardo going into 2027? Yeah,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: I think you're right.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: I think he has reached, I want to say, the
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: bottom end of acedom here. I'm probably not going to
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: own shares.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: when I'm looking at the guy at this, that threshold
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: of the top 10 starting pitchers, I really don't want
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: the injury risk. And I know Luzardo's pitched almost 180
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: innings through the last four years, and he's done with
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: great ratios outside of 24 was a little rough. Uh,
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: but there was some, some luck definitely in that one
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: to go in the wrong way for him. Um, I,
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: it's just, it feels like he's always on the edge
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: of having something fall apart from an, from a health perspective. Um,
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: And that scares me of vesting kind of my top
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: tier starter in that. So I think I'm probably going
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: to miss out on him. I don't have a problem
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: with the skill set. I don't have a problem with
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: investing them. And I know I'm a guy that likes
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: the injured pitcher. So it's kind of funny to hear
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: me say that. But truly, if you're buying your number one,
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: I want to know that this is going to be
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: a guy I can rely on day in, day out.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: It's going to stay on the field and going to
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: be kind of a workhorse. Also not a guy that's
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: going to go terribly deep into games either. And so
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: it depends on the kind of league you're playing in,
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: especially if you're playing like a weekly.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Type of league.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: You want the guys to go deep into games to
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: get you the innings to kind of stack up and
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: get better chances at wins and Ks. Again, he's won
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: 15 games last year, 14 this year. He has good
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: enough ratios that he's able to get you a decent
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: amount of those strikeouts. But there's a few things here
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: that I'm just a little uneasy with. So if he's
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: going number six starter off the board, I'm a little worried.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: Little hesitant there. If you tell me I'm paying in
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: the 10 to 15 range, I'm a lot more amenable
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: to it.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay. I think that makes sense. and i mean
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: i can square it up with your injured pitchers theory
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: as well too because it's like it's mostly that it's
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: it's the cost on yes ardo you know if he
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: was walking in i think this year he was walking
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: in as like 75th off the board or something like
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: that it was even that was still too rich for
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: us but like yeah if you paid that price kudos
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: to you because like, you definitely got more than that.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: I lose Ardo. Who's been a top five, I think
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: fantasy starting pitcher this year. So, but it's like when
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: you start having to pay the top five price for him,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: that's when it gets tougher that like, honestly, I might
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: even consider like Garrett Cole over him going into next year,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: just because like, you know, Garrett cold wasn't ever battling
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: small things before the Tommy John, he got the Tommy,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: it snapped, got the Tommy John came back. So like,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Lizardo's dealt with a lot of smaller things. It's a
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: higher risk profile than I think that a lot of
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: those other number one starters. So it's, it's totally fair. Okay.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Next injury. We're going to talk about, I mean, this
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: is a guy who honestly, before this surgery that he's
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: going to be undergoing, I might've considered in the back
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: end of our first round of the mock, because Rafael
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Devers is, caught fire and put up stats through 633
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: plate appearances. It was 37 homers, 88 runs, 98 RBI
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: with a 258, 340, 525 slash line. So especially if
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: you're in an OPS league, yeah, that's huge. But he
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: is going to be down with a core muscle injury,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: going to undergo surgery. Also, it does sound like he
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: was battling this issue for a while, which is insane
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: because since a month ago, he had played in 24 games,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: 108 plate appearances. You ready for this? 12 bombs, 29 RBI, 322, 435,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: 789 slash line. I ran into him in a head-to-head
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: league and just got bulldozed by that team. Like whoever,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: if you have Raphael Devers and made the playoffs, I
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: guarantee you that person is in the championship of your
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: head to head league right now because he was a
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: one man wrecking crew. So that is like the upper
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: level talent that Devers certainly has. It took him a
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: little while to untap it. Now you're mixing in this
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: injury and surgery going into next season and where were you,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: where are you feeling on Raphael Devers 2027 beyond?
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm still in on roughly Devers. I
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: know I got, I guess I'm griefing in some of
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: the columns this year because I had Devers pretty high
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: on the list. Cause I'm like, I think people thought
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: we were going to Oracle park. Um, he's not in
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: Boston personality wise. Like he, he was rubbing some people
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: the wrong way, whatever it may be. Everybody wanted to
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: see him not be successful, but even last year when I,
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: he did have like a really slow start, um, with,
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: with the giants, like, um, and He ended up with
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: a solid season overall last year. He had 35 homers,
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: almost 110 RBIs. Yeah, the batting average has dropped a
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: little bit, but he's continued to just be the same guy.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: I honestly think the surgery, still the hot streak coming
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: kind of at the end of the season here, I
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: still think there's going to be a decent discount on
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Devers next year. I'm not going to be surprised to
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: see him go in like the third, fourth round, and
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: I think that's a sneaky, sneaky value because I don't
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: see any reason he doesn't repeat– I mean the last
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: like six years, I basically averaged like a 30 Homer,
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: a hundred RBI, two 70 type of type of profile. So, um,
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: I don't care where you're doing it. He, he's making
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: it happen. I, I get the people, uh, maybe have
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: soured on him because of the way he left Boston.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: But I mean, we got to get over that. He,
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: the guy can produce.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I, it's going to be, I'm going to
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: be fascinated to see where his draft price is. Cause like,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: You know, in one of our leagues that I'm winning
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: right now, like part of it is because I lucked
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: into Devers at the draft table. I don't, I might
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: be able to do it again just because like people
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: are still pretty sour on some of the performances that
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: they've eaten from Devers over the years. So it's going
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: to be something where, yeah, I mean, he was on
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: the edge of getting to first round value with this run.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: And so it's going to, he's not terribly old either.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: You know, you're looking at a guy, who's going to
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: be turning 30. So there's still a little bit more
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: juice in that bat. And just look at the spray chart.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: The dude's got all fields power. It doesn't matter that
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: he's in San Francisco. Okay. Well, let's get into some
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: injured pitchers. It is the season, but let's focus on
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: three that I think the injuries are worth talking about
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: and the performances overall and how they mix with the injuries.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: First one is Kyle Bradish is being shut down with
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: a lower abdominal discomfort, so pretty much like a side
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: strain or a core muscle injury like what Rafael Devers
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: was dealing with. A very strange season from Kyle Bradish. Obviously,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: you probably couldn't have counted on a huge amount of
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: volume from him, but he still put up 155 innings
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: after only throwing 71 in the third innings in the
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: previous two years combined. But you were probably hoping that
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: you were going to get a little bit of that
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: end of 2025 Kyle Braddish when you stormed through 32
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: innings and put up a 29.4 K minus BB and
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: looked like ace Kyle Braddish again. That didn't happen. He
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: looked a lot more like pre-injury Kyle Braddish, like pre-breakout
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Kyle Braddish. It was a 412 ERA in the 155
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: innings with a 714 record. But you got a pretty
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: decent number of Ks, 140, 142 Ks in those 155 innings.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: And the whip was certainly leaving something to be desired
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: with the 146 clip. The thing that made it confounding
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: is like there were pockets where he was racking up
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: double digit strikeouts, but then he'd get blown up and
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: walk the world. And then he would do it again
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: and come back and look really sharp again, look like
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: an ace and then get blown up and then get
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: blown up and then be ace like So it was
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: very unsteady. And you saw these glimpses constantly of Kyle Braddish,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: like making that peak. And then he would just like
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: run into a rough ending and it would all unravel
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: on him. It was kind of like, it was Jack
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: lightery or like McKenzie gory for me when I was
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: watching his, his starts, because it's like, there are elements
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: of this dude being a really good pitcher. They just
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: aren't consistent. So I know you've been a long time
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: fan of Braddish. What are you doing with him in 2027?
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, this is going to come down to
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: cost for sure.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: Um, because.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: He, to your point, like there, there's not like one
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: piece here that really was a big struggle. He had
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: some luck issues going against him, but in general, the
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: stat line followed the skillset for the year. And, um, you,
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: it was hard because you'd see glimpses. You thought he
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: finally turned it around and then he, then he, he
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: put up a snowman on you or something like that.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: It just, it just wasn't, what you needed. And the
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: fact that he, this is what kills you is the
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: last three years, his whip. Uh, and I get some
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: small sample size, but 23, he had on Sunday, 68 innings,
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: he had a 1.04 whip. And I get between 24
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: and 25. He only pitched roughly 70 innings between the two,
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: but it's 1.07 and a 1.03. This year was a 1.46 whip. Um,
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: His walk rate was very, very high. High of his career.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: The K rate dropped dramatically. It really just felt like
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: he was having control issues and trying to figure out
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: where he's placed. But if you look at actually the
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: quality of the pitches, the spin rates, things like that.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: Things didn't really change from that perspective. His arm angle
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: did drop to the lowest of his career. So that
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: that's a little concerning. It is, is that that happens? Like,
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: is he having trouble getting on top of the ball,
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: keeping the control of it? So to me, I still
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: like the talent, but man, that, the regression we saw
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: this year and that up and down is going to
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: be really, really hard to invest in. So I I'm,
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: I'm on board with the flyer next year, but I'm
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: really not targeting Bradish next year. I just don't think
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: you can rely on it because between health concerns and
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: the kind of deviations we've seen from the control, I
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: think you're asking for, for a lot for all to
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: come together to really invest a higher or reasonable middle
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: round draft pick.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think the other thing to consider here too
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: is Adley Rutchman won't be there next year. Samuel Bosio
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: is not a good defensive catcher. I mean, he's not
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: like horrific. He's a bordering horrific, but like, he's not great.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Carlos Nervais was also there for a lot of time
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: with Baltimore and he's not great behind the plate anymore too.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: So that might be a consideration as well is do the,
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: Orioles bring in a more defensive forward catcher in the
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: offseason to pair with Samuel Basayo. Do they move Basayo
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: off of catcher to DH or first base role, which
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: I don't think they will given that Encarnacion, Strand, and
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Mayo are there now. So that is something I think
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: that stands out to me is that when things are
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: going right, Bradish looks good. And if he's not getting
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: the calls on the edges to be able to look
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: even better, it might not all come back together for
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: him in the end. Okay, next injury we have is
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: two pirates, right-hander Braxton Ashcraft, going on the IL with
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: right elbow discomfort. There's actually, he might make it back
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: before the end of the season. Cause it does sound
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: like it's minor inflammation. I mean, I can understand the
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: dude's thrown way more innings than he ever has in
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: his life. You know, he was drafted back in 2018
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: out of high school in the 165 and a third
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: innings that he put up this year by far the
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: most he's ever thrown in the season. Last year was
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: the next most at just a tick over like 110.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: So you're looking at a, they might just shut him
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: down in Pittsburgh because there's no reason to risk Ashcraft's
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: arm after, I mean, a brilliant season as a 26-year-old.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: 14-6 record, 365 ERA to go with a 109 whip, 25.9%
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: strikeout rate, a 20.7 K minus BB rate, The FIP
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: pretty much matched the ERA at 350 to 365. Braxton
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Ashcraft is leading me in a lot of spots that
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: like carried me in a lot of rotisserie leagues this
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: year because the draft price was towards the end of
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: the draft. And I wish I even had them in
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: more places where I didn't get them. Honestly, the places
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: I didn't get them, you were the one usually trying out. Yep.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: So I love this profile. I'm in on Braxton Ashcraft
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: as like a number two or number three for next year.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Everything looks great. It's a fantastic curve ball to stand out.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: Even if the fastball is poor, good for pitch mix.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: What do you think about Braxton Ashcraft going forward?
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm right there with you. I mean, I think
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: this is a very solid profile since the beginning of August.
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: And we talked about, you talked about like the, the
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: wear on that arm because he's told a ton more
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: innings than he ever has. And you can actually see
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: it in the middle of season. Like he had a
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: really rough stretch and, right when he was hitting kind
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: of like the most sensitive pitch. But then he kind
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: of settled back in. Since August 1st, he went 4-2
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: with a 2.51 ERA. His walk per nine was 1.05.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: He had some home run issues. He doesn't get a
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: lot of fly balls. He keeps it on the ground
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: quite a bit, but he had a little home run
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: issue in there that really kind of sunk him because
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: he crossed seven starts. He gave up six home runs,
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: which is not his cup of tea. But Six home runs,
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: you only get 12 earned runs total across that time frame.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: So he's just looked solid. He's not going to be
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: the guy that's going to go out there and give
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: you a 12K per nine or anything like that. But
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: he's also not a good guy that's going to really
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: blow up on you too bad either. Really, the issue is,
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: are the Pirates going to be good enough to give
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: him the wins? But this guy can go deep into games.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: You know, on August 13th, he threw a 4K, Full nine-inning, three-hit,
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: 10K game. It was against the Marlins, I'll give you that. But, man,
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: the guy.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: Can shove.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: He's been so strong, and he did not get the
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: appreciation he should have in the preseason. You and I,
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: we fought over him in a few spots, and I'm
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: very happy where I won. And he's paid off well. So, yeah,
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: a number three. And I don't think people are going
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: to– I think people are going to still not be
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: fully on it because he's going to be behind Skeens
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: and Jones and guys like that, even that Pittsburgh perspective,
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: because he's not, he doesn't blow people away. Fastball's fantastic
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: from like a speed perspective, but it's a little straight.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: So I think people just don't see him as this
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: big powerhouse, which kind of brings the overall aura down
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: to that profile. So I think he's still going to
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: be a good deal next year.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so too. I mean, you're also putting him,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: it's a nice ballpark, weak division. So there's a lot
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: of just kind of like, lots of floor that like,
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: that's what I think you'd need in a two or
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: three and should put up 180 innings next year. Now
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: that he's got 165 under his belt. Like I said,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: it is an elbow, but it, everything that you read,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: it seems pretty minor. And it seems much more like a,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: this dude's went out there and given it his all
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: for six months for us. We're giving him a respite
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: while we're falling out of the playoff race. Okay, last
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: pitcher that we've got to talk about is Gage Jump
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: from the Athletics. He went on to the IL with
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: a left shoulder impingement. A bit of a mixed bag
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: here because certainly you saw flashes of the upper level
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: abilities for Gage Jump. Pretty good upper 90s riding fastball,
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: but a wipeout slider, wipeout curve, little undersized at like
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: six foot tall. but gave you 98 and two thirds
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: innings with a 24.7 K percentage, a 10% walk rate,
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: which is not the best, but some of that is
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: also impacted by pitching on the moon there in Sacramento.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: Cause let me see if the walk rate was indeed
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: lower at home. or lower on the road than it was.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: It was like two ticks higher at home, 11.5% versus 9.4%
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: on the road. So not great, but better. It added
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: up to a 547 ERA, but the FIP was 401.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: So you can see the disparity there. Ground balls were
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: better in the minors than they were in the majors. But,
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: you know, first taste of the majors, I would say
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: an okay, like showing from gauge jump. showed that he
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: could be useful in places. So that's one question, is
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: what do you make about Gage Jump going forward? He's
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: only 23, so there's a lot of traits here for
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: him to reach another level and be a stalwart going forward, possibly.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: But on top of it, what are you doing with
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: A's pitchers in period? Because they do have a lot
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: coming through the system where they've kind of got a
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: new wave. They did lose... Wei and Lin, one of
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: my favorites to Tommy John surgery this year. They just lost.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: Jamie Arnold got smashed in a face with a liner
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: this week or last week and is out now pretty
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: indefinitely with a smashed up face. But he was looking
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: good for a while. They've got other talents in like
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: Brayden Nett and Kate Morris, who have not looked quite
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: as good, but certainly have the pedigree and could come along.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: But the double A staff with Stephen Hechevarria, he's been
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: one of the better pitchers in the minors the past
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: couple of months. It's a lot coming through, but is
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: they all getting the Colorado Rockies treatment from you going forward?
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, unfortunately that's kind of where I'm at. Jump himself,
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: he has a good, really strong fastball, but the secondary
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: stuff has some work to do. Control has some work
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: to do. The fielding there with the A's is kind
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: of hit or miss to a degree from my perspective.
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: They've gotten better, but Overall, long-term, I'm fading A's pitchers.
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: That Las Vegas environment, I just don't have high hopes for.
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: I think it's going to be a band box. I
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: think things are going to fly out there. We don't
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: have the evidence there besides what we've seen in the
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: minors from similar geography there, but it just, to me,
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: feels like it's going to be something that is going
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: to be a very high rum-producing environment, kind of like Colorado,
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: kind of like Arizona before Humidor. I think it's going
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: to be that, that kind of got a game out there.
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: So I'm in generally fading athletics pitchers. Um, unless you
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: have maybe a really strong ground ball pitcher or something
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: like that, which gauge is decent, but he's not like a,
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: you know, a ground ball artist by any means. So,
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: That's probably the only thing I'd be looking for, maybe
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: the sinker ball or something like that that's really going
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: to truly, truly make it work versus somebody like Jump
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: who's using a sinker ball about 5% of the time.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: I need to see that, you know, Mariano Rivera style
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: to the splitter style there. So, yep, I'm fading most
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: of the athletics pitchers over the next few years.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think it'll be... a situation too,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: where you'll have to know your league, but yeah, certainly
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: dynasty keeper situations. It's really tough to rely on them,
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: but if you're in leagues where, you know, you can
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: kind of mix and match daily stat starts where, uh,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: you know, auto news, a great example of this, where
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: I think you can still make use of those guys
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: on the road starts, but certainly it makes it tough
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: unless you've got the giant 40 man rosters, the way
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: you do an auto new, uh, or many, many bench
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: spots to be able to focus on road starts only.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: Cause again, It's very, very pronounced. When you hit any
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: A's pitcher, it's night and day when they're home and away.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: And they don't deal with the in and out of
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: the altitude now, right now, in Sacramento, the way that
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: they do in Colorado that then adds another layer of
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: bad performance from the Rockies. We might see that crop
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: up with Vegas, the altitude level, but yeah, it's just
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: something to keep in mind, even though There's a lot
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: of really enticing pitchers in this system. It's just going
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: to be really tough to rely on them. Okay, last
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: piece of news we have is posting or likely posting
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: from NPB coming up. We've got Kaima Tyra from the
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: Cebu Lions. It was reported that he will likely be
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: posted in the offseason. And this is a very interesting arm.
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: He's 26 years old and is right-handed, has been with
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: the Cebu Lions since he was 19 in 2019. Among
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: the better pitchers there, especially when you see the 136
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: ERA really pops with the. 97 whip in 139 innings
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: pitch there. A bit of a ground ball profile where,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: you know, you've got a pretty good fastball, but a
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: good splitter and cutter to work off of it. A
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: little bit of a lacking command here, though, because it
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: might not look like it because it's only an 8.1%
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: walk rate. But amongst qualified pitchers in NPB this year, 8.7%. Oh, no, wait,
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: what am I looking at last year? It's actually 8.1%. 8.1%
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: was seventh worst in NPB this year out of how
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: many qualified pitchers do we have? 39. But you can
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: see like that's on the worst end of control in Japan.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: So something that he's going to have to overcome as
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: well as the strikeouts are not like really otherworldly the
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: way that we sometimes see these pictures in Japan. Should
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: be a mid rotation to back end of the rotation piece.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: But what do you think about Tyra going forward? Going
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: to be an interesting card market because people will see
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: that he's getting posted. But we also might have some
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: gun-shy folks from both a fantasy and card perspective because
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: of Tatsu UMI. So did UMI poison the well here?
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: Or is it something that might be a learning lesson
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: going forward with pitchers coming over from Japan?
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you just have to be very careful
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: with the pitchers coming over from Japan. With the arsenal,
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: with the build, and with the kind of pitches that
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: they have, The thing with Tyra here is his numbers
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: look phenomenal because he's been running, this is the ERAs
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: over the last five years, 156, 24, 166, 171, 136. However,
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: he was a starter in only two of those years.
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: 23 and 26, he's in the bullpen for the other
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: years there. One year he's got a lockdown closer for
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: the Lions. The other thing is he doesn't look like
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: a major league pitcher. If you want to talk about
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: Tugboat there over in San Francisco, we've got him at 5'8, 220.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: But yet he can.
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: Actually touch upper 90s. which is just kind of a
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: mystery there. So I think he's going to be a really,
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: really intriguing piece here because I do think that he
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: can be a strong pitcher, but it's the translation, just
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: like he mides me a challenge. I think he uses
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: eight different pitches, which also is kind of like the
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: Hugh Darvish kind of, Example of figuring out throwing the
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: kitchen sink, which sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. So I'm a
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: little hesitant here on Tyra. I think that he's going
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: to be in demand because it's going to be a
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: really rough free agent pitching market. And if somebody thinks
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: there's a starter, he's going to get paid. And with
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: all these postings, they're going to happen early in the
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: offseason this time around. And with a looming lockout, I
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: think he's going to get paid because of that dynamic.
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: Because people are going to want to lock in a
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: signing and you know they're going to start that 30
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: all these guys know they got that 30 day timer
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: started early to your point from the card side he
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: doesn't have a whole lot of cards out there just
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: because he's a reliever a lot of the time and
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: so that that has hurt his card market there's just
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: not that as much out there if you want to
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: get into it they do exist they are out there
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: but he's I think a rookie in like the 2018
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: or 2019 set I can't remember exactly which one but
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: It's got to go a little bit further back, and
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: the supply is just not that heavy for the earlier
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: BBM sets from Japan.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: Okay. Well, there's your scouting report from the resident Japanese
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: bureau chief of this podcast. So, yeah, I think that
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: there's lots of things to consider. But, yeah, I mean,
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: even in fantasy, I think he's going to be kind
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: of fringy because of what you're talking about. But if
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: you are looking to play that card market, you've already
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: reached you've missed out on the first tier, which was
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: the posting on MLB trade rumors that like, if you're
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: looking to, to make money off of the Japanese card market,
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: you've got to have them in supply for when the
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: MLB trade rumors post goes up. And then you do get,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: but there's going to be another jump when he gets posted, posted,
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: and then another jump when he gets signed after posting. So,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: There's a couple of other jumps, but you missed the
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: first one, the first step stair up.
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: And what I will tell you is that generally you
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: see with those jumps with these guys, you're right, there's
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: those three jumps. Generally, the peak's about the same in
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: all of those. So just be wary of that. It's
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: not like it jumps up to a $ 50 card, then
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: he gets posted as a $ 70, then he signs as
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: a $ 90. It usually jumps up to the $ 50, peters
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: back down, jumps back up to the $ 50, peters back down,
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: jumps up. Just because the market size is constantly changing
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: within that. People are speculating, things like that. So if
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: you didn't already hear, I would be a little cautious
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: of jumping in on this boat.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, something to consider. I did make a couple of
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: updates to the baseball card release calendar that is in
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: the show notes. The biggest one is that we've got
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: a release date for 2026 Tops Update. So the pre-order
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: apparently did not go well, per usual on Tops.com. At
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: least the chatter from Reddit, that's what it was. I mean,
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: not necessarily like people are going to be running to
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: Reddit and praising that they got in on the pre-sale.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: But it seems like lots of bots continue to get
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: those pre-sale boxes online. And it is coming on October 14th.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: So we will be covering that in depth when it
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: comes out. Otherwise, we did get another semi-release date for
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: Panini 3.2, which crops up and then wanes back off.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: So nothing too crazy going on in the card release calendar.
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: We're going to take a short break and we'll be
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: back to discuss 2027 first round mock draft.
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: Welcome back, everybody. We're going to get into our main subject,
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: which is a 2027 mock first round draft. We're going
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: to do 12 picks back and forth. And we've done
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: this now the previous two years on this pod as well,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: where we were talking about a little bit in the
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: intro where it was pretty chalky the past couple of years.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: Lots of the same guys this year. We've talked about
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: it on and off throughout the pod, and I'm sure
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: you've written about it. I've written about it. It's been
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: a wonky year for first-round picks, high draft picks between injuries,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: number one, but underperformance as well for some folks. So
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: I think we're getting a re-scrambling a little bit of
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: the first round going into 2027. I mean, maybe. I
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: guess I'm not going to play my cards too much
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: in front of you as we get into this highly
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: important and well-tracked mock first-round draft. But we're also inspired
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: a little bit by Rob DiPietro and some of the
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: other folks within our industry who that they did this
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: even like a few weeks ago. So like they did
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: the too early meatball draft. We just maybe are doing
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: the early meatball draft because like you even said with
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: like the Rafi Dever stuff, like things have moved even
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: since they did their draft, I think. So with that,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: I think maybe we can save most of the analysis
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: for the backend so that we don't ruin each other's
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: strategies because I think we'll also see some themes that
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: come out like i've got a couple of talking points
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: when i was kind of looking at these players but
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: i i figured it'd be good for us to debrief
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: after we go through the the draft what do you
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: think yeah.
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: I think so i think that there are some clear
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: themes that that came out as i as i looked
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: at things here um to your point it's we've got
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: a it's a much more interesting draft i think this
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: time around than when we've done this in the past
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: where I think you and I have kind of gone
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: tit for tat as we went through, at least like
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: the top like six, seven, which is like maybe disagree
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: by one spot. I have a feeling that we're, we
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: both might be happy with what we get. We might
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: actually get like, I'm not going to say we both
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: get the top six guys on our list, but it's
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: going to be something where we both got guys that
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: we didn't expect to get as we go through here,
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: just because I'm looking at next year. I do think there,
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: there's a lot more variation that we're going to see
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: in the top probably.
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: Guys.
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: Um, if they want to go far. So the top
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: two rounds, I think it'll be a little more dicey
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: than they have been in the past.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Especially until we get 20, 27 projections and I'll
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: start flattening out a little bit, but yeah, I wouldn't
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: be surprised too. If when projections kick out, it was
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: always pretty easy in terms of like the ranking. It
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: was pretty tiered out that I think you're going to
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: get a lot of guys that are within a few
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: bucks of each other and people are going to have
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: their favorites here and there. Okay, well, we're going to
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: do this the way we do all official drafts on
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: this podcast, which is with a coin flip. I am
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: sharing my screen so you can't complain about impropriety. I'll
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: even let you take the call. Are you taking heads
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: or tails?
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: I feel like you always are supposed to go one way,
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: so I'm going to go the opposite. I'm going to
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: go with heads, which is not the popular pick.
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: Here we go. All right. Yeah, okay, Tails. I think
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: I've gotten the first pick on this for all three years.
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: It's funny.
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: I have a prediction of where you're going to go,
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: and if you go where I think you're going to go,
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be just fine with it, so we'll
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: see what plays.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, maybe, because I don't think so, because
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: I think I'm going to be taking the one you want.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: I'm taking Bobby Witt Jr. going number one overall. He's
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: my number one. Obviously, in this year, he's been a
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: little bit lower down in the Ras ball player Raider,
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: which is coming in, giving him 32nd overall, but do
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: remember he was also injured. So there's that factor. He's
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: missing a little bit of time. And on another factor,
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: the Royals sucked this year. Like all the dudes around
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: him were injured. Cags got hot late, but like Vinny
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: Pascantino did nothing. Michael Garcia did nothing. Sal Perez was
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: very hot and cold. Carter Jensen was hot and cold.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: you got to count on like maybe a little bit
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: of bounce back for the Royals, mostly for Vinny P
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: and Michael Garcia. And if those guys also like fall
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: out the gate again next year, I think the Royals
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: will start making moves to make the lineup better around
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: Bobby Witt Jr. I think you're looking at a guy
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: who you can pretty much set and forget as the
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: floor being 25 homers and 40 stolen bases and requisite
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: counting stats with a good batting average. I think that's
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: very underrated with Bobby Wood Jr., you can get like
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: a 290 plus batting average. And even the 280 he
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: put up this year, I think he was impacted by
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: that hamstring injury more than he was letting on before
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: he went on the IL. So you're getting a premium shortstop.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: He's done this for multiple years over. I'm not worried
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: about it being a one-year blip the way I think
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: I'm going to have to with some of our other
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: first round picks. I think he's just the most steady,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: like you're not going to feel bad taking bobby witt
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: jr at the end of the year that maybe he's
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: not going to be number one but he's not going
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: to be worse than like the 20th best player going
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: into going out of 2027 yeah.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: Okay i i was wrong you took with the guy
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: i wanted uh i'm right there with you i think
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: with he may not have the best stat profile from
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: this year The underlying stats actually got better year over year, arguably.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: He's also been a little bit unlucky this year on
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: a number of fronts. So I think that that kind
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: of brings him down. His expected batting average is actually,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: I believe it's actually over 300, if I'm correct. Yeah,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: it's 301. And he's hitting 280. So if I'm going
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: to pick a guy that I feel confident is going
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: to go 30, 30, 300, first of all, that's probably
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: a nobody for the most part. But Witt's the kind
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: of guy that can do that. And Yeah, I think
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: the biggest risk here is the run production. To your point,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: I think they're going to retool. I do think Cags
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: is going to take a step forward. I do think
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: we're going to see Vinny P kind of recover to
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: a degree. I think he's going to have a better
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: lineup around him. And we look at the season where
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: he stole 41 bases. He's played 20 less games, almost
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: 30 less games than he has the last few years.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: So there's a 50 steal season.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: In this guy.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: So 25, 50, 300. Yeah. I'm, I'm taking it all day.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: So Bobby Woods, he's, he's the, he's a pretty clear
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: number one for me.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that that is the other thing is
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: that like, I feel pretty good about pulling the trigger on,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: on Bobby Wood Jr. Being the number one guy that
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: he is just that tick above because of, uh, you know, youth, talent, floor, ceiling.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: It's all there to be able to mix for a
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: number one pick with that, who you take a number two.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is already where it starts to get a
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: little dicey for me. It was number two. Number one
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: is the one I felt good with, but I'm going
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: to have to go with Otani. I'm going to take
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: Shohei at number two. And it comes down to, he
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: is still one of the best hitters in the game.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: I know he's had some injury issues this year, but
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: I think even some of the ones he has right
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: now is truly not terribly injured. And sure, the steals
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: have come down, but this is still a guy that's
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: hit 30 homers, stole 11 bases at 277. Should be
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: able to be a 100-run, 100-RBI guy. The last few years,
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: he's scored 134 and 146 runs, so he's arguably had
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 2: a pretty down year by his standards. And oh, by
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: the way, if he pitches, he's an ace pitcher. And
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: so I think that that's the hard part with Otani here.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: I think people are going to look at him and
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: be like, man, he's not the 50-50 guy. That was unique.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: That was a unique season. Let's never expect that again.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: But he still had back-to-back 50 homer seasons. He's still
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: a guy that can hit 300. He's still going to
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: give you 10 to 20 steals. And by the way,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: you can plug him into the pitching spot and maybe
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: get 10 wins with some great ratios. So I think
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: it's pretty easy to put Otani here. It, it feels
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: like he's taking a big drop off. And I think wit,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: we could say the same thing. It feels like they
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: dropped off, but under the covers, like I, there's still
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: some of the best players in the game. So I'm
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: taking Otani here. And I'm not going to be too
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: disappointed about it. And hopefully I get a full year
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: of pitching Otani as well.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, the biggest ding that he's
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: going to walk into next year's draft with is they
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: turns 33 in July. So the age is starting to
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: creep up, but the talent hasn't dropped off. And, The
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: other consideration is, I mean, I think it's one of
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: the first off seasons. It's a non-zero chance that the
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: Dodgers say, all right, Shohei, you're done pitching, man. Like
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: maybe we, we save you so that like we ramp
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: you up in the second half and you can like
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: pitch and relief in the playoffs and be a secret
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: weapon for us, but you might be done as a
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: starting pitcher. And if that happens, then I think you
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: get the stolen bases back a little bit. And that
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: would be, that might actually boost him more into the
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: number one overall consideration. Cause if he was to focus
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: only on hitting, I think you could feel pretty comfortable
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: putting him as like a 40, 40 almost, but while
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: he's still pitching is more of like a 40, 20. So, uh, yeah, I, I,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: I think it's a good pick. He was my number
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: three though. Cause I, my, the guy that I'm going
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: to go with, it's PCA, it's peak crew. I do it.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: He was my number two. Part of it is, the
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: utility versus the outfield discussion. Like I'm never going to
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: fully shake like the ick of a util only as
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: high as you, Otani without the pitching. And if you're
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: going to put them head to head with a, with
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: a position player, especially when you're trying to fill out
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: an outfield of five dudes, PCA goes a long way.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't even know if I need to
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: kind of like explain it much further. He's like far
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: and away the number one player on the player radar
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: right now where he's, lapping the field. Like he's at $ 53.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: The next guy behind him is Mizorowski at $ 44. So, uh,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: I think you're locking in 30, 40 with, with PCA
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: at this point. Uh, the park is great for him.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: It's a great fit. He knows actually how to play
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: the park too. Like when you're watching Cubs games, part
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: of the reason I think he can outplay his power
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: is that you see on savant is because he's pretty
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: intuitive with the wind and stuff and so i think
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: he knows how to hit the ball within the ballpark
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: conditions because he's just a really savvy baseball player you
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: see it offensively and defensively the cubs offense is going
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: to be a behemoth again next year and so all
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: those factors i think you've got it not only like
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: a great ceiling like what we've seen this year from
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: pca but you've got a pretty good floor now running
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: to you that like the walks that he now puts
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: up has really shaken any of the concerns I had about,
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: you know, last year, I think you could have told
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: yourself PCA doesn't understand the strike zone. I think it's
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: very evident PCA understands the strike zone and he knows
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: when to be aggressive now. Yeah.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, I, I'm not going to argue here. Uh,
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: and you know, I've, I've been a little down PC
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 2: in the past, but I had him in my number three. Um, and, uh,
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 2: Part of it is I look at it and I go,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: if this guy goes 30-30-250, that's what he did in 25.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: And that's a down year. And if I get that
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: for a guy that I get at this point in
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: the draft... it's actually not that big of a deal
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 2: because you're overall going to be very happy with it.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: And he has definitely matured as a hitter way more
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: than I thought he was going to be. You know,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: if anything, he's one of those guys I get a
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: little leery just because of how he plays the outfield.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 2: He plays a little bit with his hair on fire.
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 2: And so, like, I feel like there's a little hidden
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: injury risk here, but, like, I'm mincing words here as
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 2: far as what we're actually– could run into because this
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: is a guy that's going to play 150 plus games
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: to your point uh 30 30 lock in every day
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: um and you you can't argue with.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: That all right you've got number four where are you going.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: All right number four um there there were a few
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: few choices here um but i'm going with the guy
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: that um if you actually compare their uh savant pages
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 2: uh looks uh i mean pretty much identical, and it's
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: going to be Elie Dela Cruz. I'm taking Elie Dela
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: Cruz at number four. This year, he's got 132 games,
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: 27 homers, 26 steals, 286 average, and I think that
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: average is an important thing because that's actually backed up
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: by expecting bad average of a 283 average. and I
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: don't think people realize he's actually matured significantly as a hitter,
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: and this is a guy that it's just going to
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 2: take one of those seasons for everything to fully click,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: and he's going to do what PCA is doing this year.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: So I'm playing a little bit of the upside here. Uh,
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: but I just, he, he doesn't give me the injury
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: risk concerns. He doesn't give me anything else. The batting
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: average is, is come through. Um, I think this is
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 2: a guy that could easily go 35, 35 hit two 90, um,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: and do it in a really great ballpark for it.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: So I'm taking a little bit of a leap here of,
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: of expecting the, the maturities to still come through, but
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: you have to remember, he's just going to be 25
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: going into next year. And he's got, uh, four full
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 2: seasons under, under his belt. So, uh, A lot to
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 2: like here for Elie de la Cruz.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: Okay. I like it. I was not expecting this out
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: of you. So I thought I was going to be
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: able to maybe like snag ellie at like seven or
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: something that like.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah i'm winning aggressive with ellie this year i i
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: just feel that he's he's on the verge.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: Oh no and i think you nailed it i hadn't
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: looked at savant page in a while and um he
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: is really matured it is uh It is a great
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: profile that like he whiffs a little bit, but like
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: you'll take it when he's swinging that hard.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: And it's kind of part and parcel with the power.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 2: So like look at that spray chart. If you want
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: to look at that, that's a beauty.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: And the other component here, too, is that like he's
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: turned into a really good switch hitter. Like he's really
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: he's gotten good from both sides of the plate where
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: I think he was better left handed previously. Right. Am I?
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I believe so. And so there was even
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: chatter that maybe Ellie just drops right-handed hitting, but he's
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: gotten way better on both sides of the plate. Like
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: you said, young, 24 years old, great ballpark. Yeah, I
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: think this is great. This is where I would be
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: with Ellie in terms of aggressiveness as well. So like
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: I said, I was hoping to be able to sneak
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: him a little bit later, but you are right on it.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: Where are you going to go with number five here?
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: We're going to start trying to steal each other's guys.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 2: Cause I snuck one on you didn't expect, or you
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 2: can do the same to me a little bit.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I have to, I have to go
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: James wood at number five then. Cause like, honestly, it's
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: the same. It's the exact same as the font page.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: It's it's the, it's the Pam Beasley. These are the
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: same picture meme. Like it, they're the exact same dude.
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: James wood is only left-handed, but also another great ballpark,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: pretty solid lineup that's growing around him. Also very young,
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: you know, he's 24 years old as well. 13th on
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: the player radar this year, currently right behind Ellie and
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: honestly would be ahead of him if he hadn't gone
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: down with that oblique strain for a month. I think
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: you're looking at a dude who's 40, 25 with, we
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: haven't seen the ceiling. So maybe the floor is a
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: little bit lower here, but if you want to start
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: really seeing who could be amongst like the number one
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: picks and for 2028 and take that next step forward
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: it would be James Wood like if James Wood whiffs
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: a little bit less and gets into the pole power
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: even more then look out like this is the type
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: of guy who I think he's probably well Ellie's probably
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: up there they're probably the only other two dudes that
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: will ever sniff Otani's 50 50 and that's what I'm
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: gambling on number five with James Wood All right.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: We said we were going to be a big difference here.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 2: I had James Wood number five. I was, I was
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 2: right there with you. Him, him and Ellie were, were,
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 2: were battling. The big difference between me is Ellie's been
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 2: on the upswing at the end of the season. Wood
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 2: started really hot and it's kind of cooled as the
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: season has gone along. The grain of that whole team
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 2: is kind of, kind of cooled as the season has
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 2: gone along. But yeah, this is the guy that makes
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: amazing quality contract. You know, the strikeouts are a little
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 2: bit stronger than the PCA or Ellie. And so I
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: think that's going to be a little bit of a concern,
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: but I mean, if there's a physical specimen here, it's
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 2: James Wood. And yeah, I don't have any problem with
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 2: him throwing some crazy expectation out there because he absolutely
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: could crush any expectation, just a little maturity. Again, he's
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 2: still really young for, for a ball player. So he's
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 2: still learning and he's still getting better. Yep.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: Yep. Okay. Who are you taking with number six? All right,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: number six.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 2: I was hoping this wasn't going to come to this
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 2: because I don't love this pick, but I think it's
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: the right time to do it, and it's got to
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 2: be Aaron Judge. And the reason I say that, the
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 2: injury risk with Aaron Judge, it's always like you're trying
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 2: to thread a needle. You're always playing chicken with the
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 2: injury with Aaron Judge because this is a guy with
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: two back-to-back 50-plus homer seasons, 320, 330 averages, 140. 30
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 2: 140 rbis it's just ridiculous and he got hurt this
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: year and that's the knock that's the knock i know
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: i know he's getting up there a little bit in
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 2: age and he's going to be 35 uh early early
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: in the season next year but i don't see any
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 2: skill degradation i just don't and um Maybe you can
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 2: argue the strikeouts were a little worse this year, but
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 2: his luck from a baby perspective was kind of the
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 2: worst of the last seven years. And so if anything,
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: he had a little poor luck based on where he's been.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: It's just been the injury.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: And so this is a guy that could be number
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: one on the player radar, no questions asked. It's just
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 2: you're playing a little chicken with the injury. And if
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 2: you're getting a guy in the middle of the first
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 2: round that could be the best player the whole, whole season,
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 2: if he is healthy, it to me, that's about the
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 2: right spot to take the risk. Um, and I feel
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 2: like that's where the, the first round really starts to
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 2: shift for me. So I'm taking Aaron judge. I don't
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 2: love it because it, I want the stability of that,
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 2: that first pick, but I, I, I just think the
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 2: upside is too, too enormous here.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, once you start like layering in the
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: batting averages that he was putting up when he was
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: in his like running hot and 25 and 24 and,
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: even before that, like it's just absurd. Cause it's so hard.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, the one worry is where are you going
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: to get stolen bases? If you take judge there, cause
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of stolen bases still on the board,
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: but yeah, this is around the right range, but like
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: I was, I was in the same boat. Whereas like
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: if I had to take judge next, I don't know
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: if I would have felt great, but it would have
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: felt like the right move. Yeah.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 2: That's where I'm at. Like, I don't, I don't love it.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 2: I honestly look at this, the, the draft, like, I
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 2: want to be at the beginning of the first round
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 2: or the end of the first round. I really don't
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 2: like the middle of the first round because there's a
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 2: number of guys there that I feel like I'm settling for,
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 2: but I have to take because they're the right move
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 2: where at the end of the first round, you can
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 2: kind of stack two profiles together to get the differing
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 2: pieces that you need to make a really, really solid team.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 2: I think the judge here does kind of lock you
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 2: in to having to chase speed and in that next round,
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 2: which I think you can definitely do looking at how
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 2: the first few rounds are going to roll out, but
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 2: it does, it does really limit your options.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: Yep. I think, yeah, I agree. Okay. Well with number seven,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: I would have taken this guy over judge for sure
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: is Juan Soto. So I think a lot of like
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: what you talked about with judge, you can almost copy
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: and paste to Soto where it was really the, the
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: calf injuries derailed him. He's going to be He turns
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: 28 in October. But otherwise, if you pace out what
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: he was doing, it was pretty much what he did
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: last year without the numerous 38 stolen bases. But I mean,
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: you're looking at a guy who is going to pop
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: 40 plus homers. He was going to hit 280. He
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: was going to put up 100 plus runs in RBI.
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: But I think he was going to steal probably 15
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: plus bags for you. I think that's who Juan Soto
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: is now going forward on the Mets. Also, the Mets
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: were a disaster around him. So, like, you know, you're
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: going to get a fully healthy Francisco Lindor next year.
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: You're going to get another developed year of Carson Benj. So, yeah,
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: Juan Soto, all the savant stuff still looks the same.
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: All of the underlying profile looks great. If anything, he's
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: striking out less. So, like, he's becoming an even better
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: batter that, like, you can definitely see the pathway to
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: a 300 batting average again. And the floor is just
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: maybe one of, if not the highest floor of any
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: player that we're talking about in this first round. The
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: injuries were really kind of a fluke this year. And
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: I think one cascaded into the other and a little
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: bit of like, he just felt the pressure to try
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: to put the Mets back on the radar, which I mean,
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: actually they kind of have, they look kind of like
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: it's going to, when it all is said and done,
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: it's not going to look like a absolutely terrible, crap
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: year out of the Mets. It's going to look like
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: just a normal bad year where things didn't go right.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: And Juan Soto is just we're still right in the
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: prime of this dude's Hall of Fame career. Number seven.
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: This is where, like, if you can get Juan Soto here,
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: I'm okay picking in the middle of the first round then. Yeah.
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I, I had Soto's number seven as well. Um,
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 2: and you can see, see, we've actually almost matched ourselves.
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 2: We're just flipping a few, few guys, which is hilarious.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 2: We didn't think we would, we would do that. Um,
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 2: so it'll be interesting here because I, I'm actually, I'm
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 2: changing my mind from what I've pre-ranked coming into this,
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: just looking at how this is going. Um, and I
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: feel like this is a little aggressive, um, But I'm
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 2: going to take Jordan Alvarez at number eight. And the
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 2: reason being, it's almost kind of what we looked at
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 2: with Aaron Judge. There is some injury risk here. But again,
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 2: that batting average is so massive.
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: This is a guy that.
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 2: Is a 300 career hitter. It's 299 technically.
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: I get it.
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 2: But I'm rounding up.
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: He's a 300 career hitter.
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 2: Um and he's gonna have 40 homers this year um
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 2: yeah the speed's not there but you're gonna have runs
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 2: you're gonna have rbis um and i i don't know
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 2: that you're gonna get that significant batting average with that
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 2: significant power almost anywhere else so i think that there's
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 2: value here i think that the houston lineup's going to
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 2: get better because it's been so bad. So I think
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 2: that the run production is going to improve and he's
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 2: going to get a little more protection around him. And
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 2: I think the other thing is just starting to look
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 2: around the draft around him. He has some injury risk,
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 2: but I feel like almost everybody else around at this
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 2: point in the draft is starting to have some type
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 2: of risk. And I do think you're going to have
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 2: a bigger drop-off in batting average than you do in
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 2: speed at this point in the draft. So I'm going
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 2: Jordan Alvarez, which was not what I had originally planned,
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 2: but as we were going through this, I just felt
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 2: like that's the piece that I needed. So maybe a
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 2: little aggressive, but it feels like it's the right move.
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. Honestly, from here on out, from the
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: rest of the first round, I think you can make
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: an argument like anybody else could have been eight. So
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: like it's a lot of kind of similar ish profiles
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: where they're a little bit skewed, maybe on, on a
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: lot of four of the five categories and you've got
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: to make it up somewhere else, but big on those categories.
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: And I think Jordan's right there. The other thing that
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: I feel good about Jordan being a first rounder going
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: into next year is the, the Astros have finally learned
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: like stop putting your Don Alvarez in the outfield at
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: any kind of frequency. This is the lowest ratio. I mean,
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: I was just eyeballing it. I didn't do the actual math,
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure it's the lowest ratio of like
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: innings in the outfield he's ever played in any of
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: his years. So they're doing a much better job of
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: keeping your Don Alvarez healthy. And so if, if he's
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: playing all the season, yeah, you're, pretty much, it's almost
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: like Aaron Judge. It's going to be a similar profile
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: to Aaron Judge and maybe even a little less health risk.
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: Is that weird to say?
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 2: It feels similar, but it feels a little less upside
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 2: because of the team around him. But to your point,
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 2: he will have outfield eligibility, which I think is a
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 2: big thing here, is that he's going to have that eligibility.
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 2: And it seems like Houston's willing enough to put him
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 2: in the field when they're in a pinch.
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: To get that.
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 2: And so I think that that carries through. Because if
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 2: he was only like the Otani utility, I think that
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 2: would be a little bit harder pull at this point
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 2: in the draft.
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: All right. Well, with number nine, I'm going to go
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: with Junior Kimonero. So he's currently on ninth, actually, in
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: the player rater for the season on the Reswell player rater.
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: So it's pretty easy to see why. Pretty much a
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: lock for mid-40s homers. 90 plus runs and a hundred
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: RBI to go. The batting average, I think will waver
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: a little bit around like somewhere between two 60 and
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: two 80, but you're also looking at a guy who
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: doesn't turn 24 until halfway through next year. So there's
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: still like another tick up, not really stolen bases, but
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: the big thing here is third base is absolute dog
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: shit going into 2077. It is awful. So if you're
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: looking at the, I linked to it in the show
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: notes that the two early meatball drafts results are in
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: there within the first three rounds or the first seven rounds,
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: there's only four third baseman that go came in arrow,
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: Jose Ramirez Vargas, and then Manny Machado at seven dash 13.
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: So it's a 15 team draft. Um, If you can
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: get a third baseman and his junior Cameron Arrow, that
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: is a big weight off of your shoulders for the
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: rest of the draft. I mean, I guess I overlooked
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: McGonigal and Sal Stewart, but it is not a good
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: position going into 2027. And it's going to be a
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: real big struggle to even fill out a CI because
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: first base has leveled off a little bit, but still
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: you're not looking at like huge mashers. I think the
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: way we were used to that you're going to be
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: looking at a lot more of like 280 and 20
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: to 25 home runs, like sort of corner guys. And
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: if you can get an absolute stud like junior can
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: narrow with the best power in the game, one of
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: my favorite spray charts and all the savant it's, I
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: think that's the big kind of leg up here for
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: came in arrow. He would have been number eight. I
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: would have had him over Alvarez mostly because of that
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: third base eligibility, much in the way that we've been
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: bumping up Jose Ramirez for the past few years.
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's kind of funny because I had him actually 11.
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 2: So we're starting to get a little deviation here. It's
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 2: just there's a little less batting average and no speed.
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 2: And so I was bumping him down a little bit
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 2: for that still young 22, like, Yeah, it's not hard.
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like my Ellie argument from earlier that
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 2: just project a little forward. And so you could see
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 2: even more. The raiseness of it all still, I think,
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 2: holds them back. No matter how good their team is
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 2: going to be, I don't think anybody can produce RBIs
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 2: on that team. I don't understand it. It's just going
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 2: to be kind of who they are. And so I
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 2: think there's a few things that hold me back from,
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 2: but to your point, I think at this point, there's
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 2: a really good arguments for all these guys. And I
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 2: think the, the latter portion of the first round is
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 2: just going to be all over the place to, for, for,
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 2: for the start.
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: Okay. Where are you going with 10?
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 2: All right. Well, I'm going to go back to my guy.
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 2: I originally had number eight, um, which is, um, Fernando
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 2: Tatis Jr.
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: Okay. And this is where I would have gone.
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 2: This is, it feels weird, but, uh, very similar argue
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 2: that you just made on came in, came in arrow. Um,
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 2: Second base, because he has second and outfield eligibility. And
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 2: second base, you're basically talking like Tatis, Terang, and then
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 2: you get to Weatherholt, Lau, Reyes, Maidroth, Chisholm, Stott. It
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 2: just drops off to a real interesting level where it
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 2: feels like number four through 12 in the rankings of
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 2: second base are the same value. And then Tatis is
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 2: just in another echelon there. His overall profile this year
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 2: has just come back. It has been so strong, better
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 2: than it was even last year. The thing that actually
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 2: kind of, I feel, almost tricks you is he's sold
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 2: 35 bases so far this year. He's been caught 13 times.
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 2: He has not been efficient, but the Padres don't seem
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 2: to care. And so I think you legitimately could get
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 2: a Almost 30, Homer. 40, Steele. 290-ish average. Out of
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 2: the Tatis, his actually expected batting average is 297. So again,
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 2: I'm going back to batting average. I think as you
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 2: get to the end of this, you'll see one of
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 2: the themes that I'm hitting the first round here is
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 2: batting average. Because I do think these kind of profiles
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 2: you can find later. It's just you're going to really
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 2: be hit there. And I've said it about a number
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 2: of these teams. Padres, I think they're going to have
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 2: to retool in the offseason. They're going to have to
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 2: give some protection to Tatis. I would expect that to happen.
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 2: So I love the multi-positional eligibility. I love at this
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 2: point the draft. I think another guy that could fill
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 2: the stat sheet. And I think has really been a
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 2: sneaky value this year, which is so funny to say
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 2: because he didn't do his 42-25 that he did in
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 2: 2021 draft. but he's actually not that far off. You know,
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 2: he's going to end up with a five plus four season.
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 2: So Tatis is the, is the, is the pick for me.
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah. I mean, he started just not hitting a
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: homer for so long that like, if you just kind
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: of self-correct that, that luck a little bit, like, yeah,
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: he's right there. So actually, yeah, he would have been like,
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: I had like Cameron arrow eight Tatis nine in front
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: of Alvarez. So yeah, it's the same reasons where the
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: second base is, And outfield eligibility is just going to
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: be– we haven't seen something like that in quite a while,
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: it feels like. And so unless you can– can you
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: think of anybody that's been that multi-positional knowledgeable where, like,
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: infield and outfield in quite a while?
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 2: Not at this point in the draft.
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 2: I think that's the big thing is that a guy
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 2: that has infield-outfield– in the first few rounds generally hasn't
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 2: been around. Maybe a Cattell Marte might've pulled that off
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 2: a few years ago. Um, but really it's a first
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 2: round wise. No, you really don't see that.
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: Okay. Now we're really getting into coin flip territory. Um,
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: where like, I feel pretty good about a lot of
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: these guys. And I think you can go a lot
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: of different directions. Part of it is like, obviously it's
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: going to be a 12 versus 15 team kind of consideration.
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: Cause I think, when you're at this kind of 10, 11,
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: 12 spot, if you're in a 15 team where you
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: need a little more floor than chasing ceiling, because if
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: you're in a 12 team and you're coming around the turn,
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: you can kind of already prep for like your double
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: tap because like there's only a few picks in between.
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: So you can get a little more aggressive with your
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: first round pick based on somebody you might be fond
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: of or somebody that is a little bit more of
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: like a lacking of a category. I'm going to get
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: a little bit more aggressive here. I am going to
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: go with somebody I'm a little bit more fond of.
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: I'm taking C.J. Abrams here at number 11 shortstop, but
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: this is actually going to be a fascinating watch. Maybe
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: the one thing to watch over the next week and
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: a half. C.J. Abrams is on the cusp of second
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: base eligibility. They've been moving him around second base and
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: shortstop for the Nationals, and in some leagues, like in Audinew,
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: he's eligible at second base right now, but He's got
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: to start just a few more games. He's up to
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: five games started at second base. If he starts five more,
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: I think in most leagues he will pick up second
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: base eligibility. But the other thing you can look at
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: is C.J. Abrams is a terrible defender at shortstop. Maybe
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: the Nationals already move him to second base early in
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: the season, so you pick up second base pretty quick.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: If that is the case, having a dual-eligible second base
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: shortstop guy that can go 30-30 for you and hit 270-ish,
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: that's a great outcome. He's going to be hitting right
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: around James Wood, so the counting stats will be there.
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: The Savant page is not as glowing as any of
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: the other guys we've talked about, but I feel... okay
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: with that because CJ Abrams is certainly a mistake hitter,
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: but like when he gets the mistake, he plants it
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: right in the right field bleachers. So, uh, he's got
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: the requisite power to be able to hit the 25
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: to 30 home runs that you need out of them
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: in the first round. Uh, honestly, this is, this is
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: what we were doing with Lindor at the past two
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: years that CJ Abrams is new age Francisco Lindor. He's
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: only going to be 25 turning 26 next year. So, um, yep.
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: That's why I'm going with Abrams as number 11 and
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: a 12 teamer. That's that's the key, because when it
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: wraps back around, I can get somebody that's a little
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: bit more steady than C.J. Abrams. But I don't want
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: to lose him on the turn in a 12 teamer.
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: If we're talking a 15 teamer, my my pick here
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: would probably lean actually more towards a Jordan Walker ish
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: type of player.
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 2: Alright, Abrams honestly wasn't really much on my board. He
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 2: was definitely further down there.
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: There's just the volatility.
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 2: In that profile just scares me, even though he's been
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 2: pretty consistent. He gets a ton of plate appearances. I
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 2: don't know if I trust the RBIs that I'm seeing
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 2: on this one, and there's just something about the general
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 2: approach that he has to, I'm just going to say,
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 2: everything that just feels risky. And so I think that
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 2: that's going to bring me away, but I probably would
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 2: have looked at him more early to mid-second round just
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 2: because I think that there is a wider range of
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 2: outcomes for him. But I'm not going to argue it
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 2: because it does have the first round stat line versus
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 2: maybe what you're getting at there.
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: So, all right. I'm going to close this out. This
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: is a tough one.
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be honest. As we get to the
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 2: very last of the first round here, I'm struggling. Uh,
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 2: because this is a tough spot. I, I can, I mean,
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 2: you get the, if you're in a 12 team where
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 2: you have the turn here, I actually love this spot because, um,
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 2: I think you can, you can make a few plays
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 2: with a kind of a, um, a safer guy with
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 2: an aggressive guy. I think you can do some things
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 2: like that. Um, and so I'm actually going to talk
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 2: through a few guys and then tell you who I
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 2: land on here. I think that the, the guys in
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 2: consideration for me, uh, you mentioned Jordan Walker. Uh, he's
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 2: right there. I think Ronald Acuna, um, is there.
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: Who dropped to the third in the meatball draft.
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think he's there from a talent perspective.
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 2: I honestly think Jose Ramirez is still in this conversation.
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: I was actually going to say that. I think if
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: you're on a turn of a 12-teamer, you've almost got
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: to double tap with one of them's got to be
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: Jose Ramirez.
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then there's the guy I'm actually going to take,
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 2: which is Jackson Churrio. And so I'm going to go
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 2: a little bit off there as well, but just from
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 2: an overall growth perspective. This is a guy that's going
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 2: to be turned 23 next March. He's got three full seasons,
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 2: really has had not much injury issues at all, continues
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 2: to mature, batting average is getting stronger, on a really
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 2: good team. mid-20s homers, about 20 steals. And I just
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 2: feel like he's the kind of guy from a talent
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 2: perspective that's so close to making another leap. And I
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 2: feel like the floor on him is really, really strong.
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 2: And so I feel like I'm getting a guy that
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 2: I'm confident in 2020 at 280, 285 average, but I
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 2: think could absolutely pull a 30, 30, 300 without a
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 2: huge change. And I think that lineup is going to
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 2: continue to get better. Again, I feel like I've said
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 2: this with every guy, but in Milwaukee, I feel like
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 2: that's going to take place. But the reason, again, is
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 2: I'm at the turn, and so I think I can
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 2: pair Churrio there with a Jose Ramirez, with a Jordan Walker,
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 2: something like that, that fills out a little bit more
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 2: of a risk profile, because Ramirez, he's had a really
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 2: rough season, but there's been a ton of bad luck,
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 2: ton of bad luck for him, a lot of injury
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 2: issues there, and so I think he bounces back, and
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 2: you can get... first-round value there right at the turn
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 2: as well. So there's a number of other guys, but
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 2: that was kind of the group that I was looking
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 2: at there. I'm going to go Churio just because I
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 2: feel a little bit more solid, less injury risk, things
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 2: like that with him. And I still think that with
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 2: the age, there's another level to go.
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think that's all very fair. I mean,
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: I think if I had, like, the 12, 13-ish turn,
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: it– if the board had played like this, it would
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: have been really hard for me to not go Connor Griffin,
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: Jose Ramirez that like, just like crush it on the infield.
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: Jose Ramirez. It's still there. He hasn't, I think he
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: hasn't like hit a barrel in the second half or
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: something because like the dude looks, he didn't, he needed
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: way more time off for that handmade injury, but the
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: guardians needed him. I have faith in Ramirez bouncing back
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: to where he's been. He also, he's got both handmaids gone.
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: So no more handmaids for Jose Ramirez, nothing to slow
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: him down. And the Connor Griffin profile is just too otherworldly.
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: I'm not worried about any flaws that he's kind of shown.
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: He's so young that like, dude, like it's Bobby Witt Jr.
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: But like, you just got to make sure that like
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: you're in on it when it starts taking off. So
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: I don't think he's going to get too far, but yeah,
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: that's where I think I would have gone on like
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: a 12, 13, just like really go hard there because
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: then when it comes back to the third, you can
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: then pick up hopefully like Matt Olson or Pete Alonzo
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: or Bryce Harper, or even a Shea Langeleers to be
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: able to get some power. And then from there you're golden,
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: you're caught up in every stat. And if not, maybe
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: even a head on some of them, because like if
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: Connor Griffin is Connor Griffin has the upwards ability to
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: steal the Ronald Acuna 70 stolen bases. I think he's
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: probably more of a 40, but you're talking some really
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: crazy ceilings if you build like that. But I can't
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: fault you for Churio, because it certainly gives you a
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: good foundation to build from too, because you're looking at
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: a guy who's going to be 25, 30, and great
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: batting average, great counting stats. outfield positional eligibility.
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I think it's at the turn, you have
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 2: to pick one solid guy and then one, one like upshot.
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 2: is going to do something crazy. Like, I think that's
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 2: the play. And I say that even like Jose Ramirez,
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 2: I could consider that because he had a rough year,
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 2: but he could be the top, a top three bat. Like,
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 2: and so Griffin, I think is a good argument there.
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 2: I still like Jordan Walker there. Like, I think there's
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 2: a number of guys that they could play that Acuna,
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 2: if you take him there and he's healthy, good winning
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 2: the league. There's a big if on that one for
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 2: me right now. So he's going to slide down a
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 2: decent amount, but this is interesting because you know who
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 2: we didn't mention at all.
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: I was just about to say it.
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: No Corbin Carroll, no Julio Rodriguez. And if that's what
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: you end up with as your second round pick, Oh,
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: what was you?
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 2: No Kyle Tucker, no Nick Kurtz, no Kyle Schwarber. No, like, yeah, there,
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 2: there's a robust second round here for, for sure. I
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 2: think the, and also how many pitchers do we talk
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 2: about outside of Otani, which I don't think is fair. It,
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 2: you're not touching pitchers until the third. Like I, I don't,
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, I wouldn't be touching until beyond, but I
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 2: think you're going to probably start to see in the
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 2: third ish round, somebody jumping and taking, taking a picture.
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 2: But Mizorowski, honestly, it's probably going to be, is going
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 2: to get that helium. I don't know if he should.
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. He's going to go in first rounds for sure,
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: but I'm not touching it. Partly because like there's, Honestly,
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: it does fall off from a batter perspective. It feels
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: like after like the fourth round, like I'm looking at,
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: especially it does help that like the meatball draft is
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: out there to kind of lay down what can happen.
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: But like the fourth round, when you're starting to like
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: dip into like Indy Pahes and Murakami, that is a
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: lot of risk to be holding Weatherholt. I mean, Weatherholt's great,
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: but like, Great real life player. I don't know if
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: I trust him as my fourth round pick in fantasy.
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 2: No.
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: Bryce Turing, I do. Like Bryce Turing, I would even
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: push higher than the fourth round. But it starts really
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: falling off after that third round. So I think you
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: really got to make sure you're taking a lot of
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: hitting talent early. And then you can come back to
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: the pitching later. Especially you're looking at some of the
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: guys that are going early. You know, Missarowski jumped up
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: from last year. Cam Schlittler jumped up. I was actually
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: really surprised by if Jacob deGrom goes in the sixth
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: round in my drafts, I'm going to have Jacob deGrom everywhere.
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: There's really nothing different from Jacob deGrom and some of
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: those top six starters, except for the age at this point.
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: And I'm actually going to write about him this week.
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: DeGrom's added a couple of wrinkles. He's in a great ballpark.
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of great pitching. Nolan McLean won the
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: seventh round. What? I'll wait for pitching. If I can
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: take Nolan McLean as my number one pitcher or Jacob
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: deGrom as my number one pitcher, I feel great. I
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: think it's going to.
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 2: Be very similar to last year where like the, the
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 2: Schlitlers and McLean's and Mizorowski's are in, there was a
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 2: group of them. You Savage was in there and he didn't,
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 2: he had some health issues, but I think they're all
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 2: going to sit in that kind of like, late single digit,
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 2: early double digit rounds in that, like, you just want
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 2: to take like five of those kinds of guys and
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 2: that's going to make, make your, your rotation and you
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 2: just load up on, on this hitting talent early like that.
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 2: I think that's going to be the strategy.
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And I mean, the other thing that kind of
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: stood out is that you, your batting average perspective was,
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: I think spot on batting average does, it feels like
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: it drops off pretty quick or especially like you start
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: getting just, lots of questions and a lot of hitters
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: really fast. And I think that is why, because the
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: batting average can be really up and down. I think
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: once you get out of the first few rounds. And
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: so if you aren't setting a good base there, you're
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: not going to be able to catch that up. And
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: I think that's actually, it's one of the first years
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: I started like paying attention to that. And I've been
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: having more success in snake drafts doing that because I
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: If you fall behind, you can't ever catch up in
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: a batting average category.
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, you and I are in a league together
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 2: that if I had the batting average figured out, I
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 2: think I would have won. And I'm second to last
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 2: and I'm second place in the league. Second to last
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 2: in batting average, second place in the league.
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: You probably have been since like May, right? Yes. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 2: Like I've been in the whole season because I had
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 2: Jose Ramirez, Gunnar Henderson, Nick Kurtz. Um, like I had
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 2: all these guys that we thought were going to do
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 2: better and they've really regressed, but they still kept the
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 2: power steel aspect of it. And so the batting average
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 2: just didn't play. And I actually planned for it and
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 2: was wrong. And I think that that's, that's part of
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 2: the problem here. Like if you aren't getting that, that anchor,
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 2: it's going to be really, really tough. And so if you,
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 2: and if you're in that first, second round, like if
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 2: you're not grabbing batting average, I feel like we talked
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 2: steals about this in the previous years. I feel like
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 2: that's spread out a little bit more over the first
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 2: few rounds, especially as you have a few of these guys, uh,
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 2: that are going later that, um, have a bigger profile.
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 2: Cause you can, you can consider the Chandler Simpsons and
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 2: things that aren't as, yeah, he's a zero in, in,
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 2: in power, but like you can play that card later
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 2: and kind of do a catch up. Um, I think
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 2: that there's a lot more of that that's out there
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 2: than there has been previous years. So, uh, yeah, I'm, I'm,
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 2: I'm leaning batting average heavy, uh, actually power heavy with
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 2: batting average. Like I want that early. And then if
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 2: I get some speed, I can, I can make that
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 2: work later and kind of fill in the gaps.
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm there with you on all
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: those points. So like you said, even though there were
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: a lot of different ways that we could have gone,
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: of course, here, the two of us hive minded together
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: pretty much like usual. So it's a it's a little
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: eerie that we we settled back into the grooves that
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: we thought we were going to avoid with this first round.
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: But it is fun to see new names, I think,
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: is the bigger thing, you know, that we've got guys
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: moving up. And I think a lot of it is because,
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: you know, Otani and judge are getting older. And so
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: you're seeing some of the new talent finally starting to
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: crack through from that second and third round level and
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: making it up to the first round level, which then
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: just kind of flattens everything out. So I think it's
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: going to make leagues much more competitive next year, as
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: opposed to I've noticed, especially like in RCLs and stuff
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: like that. Uh, if you were in a snake draft, uh,
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: the guy that got Otani, uh, probably doing pretty well
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: that like up until the last few weeks when things
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: have fallen apart that like it allows you to like
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: really take a a leap forward in front of everybody
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: else partly because everyone else in the first round was
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: terrible but like that is it was a huge advantage
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: as to where honestly i think you can win out
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: of any slot drafting this year more so than we've
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: seen the past couple okay with that we're gonna wrap
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: it up for this week Thanks, everybody, for checking out
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: the podcast. Rate and review us wherever you are listening
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: to us. And check out Cards and Categories on BlueSky
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: at CardsCategories or email the pod at CardsCategories at gmail.com. Brew,
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: let everybody know where they can read your work and
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: reach you on socials. Yep.
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 2: Find me, JBrewer17, Twitter, XBlueSky. Find me, Razzball, on the
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 2: weekends doing top 100 hitter rankings and hitter profiles. Cooley,
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 2: where can folks find you?
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you can find me on Blue Sky at mcool7,
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: spelled C-O-U-I-L-L on the cool, like my last name. Go
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: into the show notes. We've got all this linked out
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: so you don't have to be typing in random names
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: to Blue Sky and Twitter and whatever else. Also in
• 1:43:05
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• 1:43:09
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• 1:43:10
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• 1:43:14
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• 1:43:17
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• 1:43:19
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• 1:43:22
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• 1:43:29
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• 1:43:32
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• 1:43:36
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• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: same time, same place next week. Take care.