Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 26 : AL Central Preview With Keelin Billue

Transcript

Ep. 26 : AL Central Preview With Keelin Billue · Cards & Categories

• 0:16
  All right, hello and welcome everybody to episode twenty six of Cards and Categories.
• 0:22
  I am Mike Coolard from Rasball. Join here as always by my very
• 0:26
  good friend Jeremie Brewer, also from Rasball. Brew How are you doing tonight?
• 0:30
  Oh, doing fantastic, trying to stay warm and all these snowy weather
• 0:34
  of central Illinois. I'm sure you have it just as nice in that Chicago
• 0:39
  area, but doing fantastic fun news news going on in baseball world to get
• 0:45
  into. And I know we got a fun show ahead of us, Yeah,
• 0:48
  we absolutely do. And so we're gonna be joined by a guest for
• 0:53
  our fantasy portion coming up after we get into some news here, and that
• 0:57
  is going to be with Keelan Blue from She does our Ambulance Chasers Slash Injury
• 1:03
  report for us on the weekends. So we're going to discuss Ale Central preview
• 1:07
  that we figured Al Central would be a good place to start because these teams
• 1:11
  aren't making any moves, well except for maybe the Royals, I guess have
• 1:15
  made a few, but I don't see many more moves coming from this division.
• 1:18
  So it's going to be a great place to start as we over the
• 1:22
  next six weeks do a division by division preview and we'll have other guests on
• 1:26
  as well. So it's going to be a fun little preview season here as
• 1:30
  we're getting into prime fantasy baseball drafting season. As you know, it's the
• 1:34
  tenth of January here in twenty twenty four that brew, have you done any
• 1:38
  drafts yet or when is your first one kind of planned? I'm slacking.
• 1:44
  I have not done any drafts yet, and I haven't looked to the counter
• 1:47
  to seen my first one's planned. So I am completely slacking at this point.
• 1:52
  I need to get in. It's probably gonna be early early February before
• 1:56
  me before I start really really jumping into things. But with the slower off
• 2:00
  season, I'm trying to push as many drafts I can a little bit more
• 2:05
  into March now that guys are coming off the board, but there's still a
• 2:07
  lot of dust to settle. Yeah, and it'll be a compressed season two
• 2:12
  because there's the Korea Series that opens on March twentieth. So if you're listening
• 2:16
  to this and our commission on commissioning a league, you're gonna have to make
• 2:21
  the decision if you want to draft after that or draft before and how you're
• 2:23
  gonna get all the schedules together, because I know for the leagues I'm commissioning,
• 2:29
  it's been quite a little circus trying to get it together before that Korea
• 2:35
  series happens. But yeah, let's just get right into the news here.
• 2:38
  And so, like I said, we're recording here on January tenth, and
• 2:42
  we just got news that shutta Imanaga or I think that's how you pronounce Itanaga.
• 2:49
  I believe. I believe, so Emanaga is what I've been going with.
• 2:51
  So that's what I'm gonna go with. And so he's signing with the
• 2:53
  Chicago Cubs, gonna be just down the road from me, playing at Wrigley
• 2:58
  Field, and it's gonna would really be the first move that the Cubs have
• 3:01
  made here this offseason. They had to make it before the deadline for signing
• 3:07
  imanagav was the eleventh out of Japan. That was like his posting windows.
• 3:12
  So got it in just underneath the wire and Brew, what do you think
• 3:15
  about the Cubs being the winner here? Did you foresee him ending up in
• 3:20
  Chicago? And what do you think this portends for him? Yeah? Did
• 3:24
  I foresee it? I'm going to say, no, Am I surprised.
• 3:27
  Also, no, you know, I was thinking, you know, he
• 3:30
  with all the Giants have been going after just trying to like land somebody.
• 3:37
  It felt like they were throwing the money around. I just felt like that
• 3:38
  the fit was was going to be more maybe in San Francisco, But I
• 3:43
  mean, the Cubs have money to spend, and they had literally done nothing
• 3:47
  all off season and I have, but they seemed like they'd been in the
• 3:51
  running for everybody to a certain degree, So it does make sense for him
• 3:55
  laying with the Cubs now. I think, I hate through a little cold
• 4:00
  water on it. I don't know that this is big of a signing as
• 4:03
  really any of the other big news pieces we have. We're talking to a
• 4:08
  guy that, you know, might not translate as well as code. I
• 4:11
  singa from a year ago, a somewhat similar profile, But you know,
• 4:15
  I don't know if the comp is the same, maybe more of a number
• 4:18
  three starter. So I think that he's an interesting pitcher. I really think
• 4:26
  that there's more money to spend this year, so folks are spending it,
• 4:30
  and I still trying to figure out the actual contract itself. Seems like we
• 4:33
  have reports all over the place from a two year deal to a four year
• 4:36
  deal. I think it's finally starting to settle that. Really we end up
• 4:41
  with a four year deal with a fifty three million dollar guarantee, with a
• 4:46
  fifth year option that could take it to eighty But where the two year deal
• 4:49
  details were coming from was that they have to make a decision after twenty twenty
• 4:56
  five and maybe twenty six to exercise the option for the fifth year, and
• 5:00
  if they don't exercise it, then he becomes a free agent. So it's
• 5:03
  like it's a very convoluted kind of contract that couldn't get him that overall escalation.
• 5:10
  So not surprised at the end of the day, but it wasn't necessarily
• 5:13
  what I was predicting. So I don't know, did you have a better
• 5:15
  crystal ball than I did? No, I was just looking up when we
• 5:18
  did those free agency picks at the beginning, because I didn't remember where we
• 5:23
  had him going. You had him going to the Dodgers. I had him
• 5:25
  going to the Mets, and so neither of us did see him going to
• 5:30
  Chicago. And I do agree that I think that, like overall, he's
• 5:34
  certainly less exciting than Yamamoto. That's pretty well known but he is I think
• 5:40
  a tick below Senga as well, because Senga just posted better numbers and MPB
• 5:46
  and yam or Ima Naga. Sorry, when I even saw him pitching the
• 5:51
  World Baseball Plastic this past spring in twenty twenty three, it just wasn't quite
• 5:58
  as electric as some of these other guys that we've been really clamoring for from
• 6:00
  Japan. So I know that his NFBC draft positions just all over the place
• 6:06
  right now because he's just signing, and so people didn't know where he was
• 6:10
  going, and you know, some people were probably speculating that he would go
• 6:15
  to somewhere really awesome like La even, but some not thinking, you know,
• 6:20
  he would end up in a great situation. I think the Cubs is
• 6:24
  going to be a pretty neutral ish fantasy spot for him. That like,
• 6:29
  it's a pretty good division to pitch in rigally, I mean, as long
• 6:32
  as the you have to watch to make sure that the wind's not blowing out,
• 6:35
  but it's it's a pretty neutral ish park when the wind isn't swirling.
• 6:42
  And overall, I think that it's going to be a good place for him
• 6:46
  to settle with Saya Sizzuki being there and being able to show him maybe a
• 6:49
  little bit of the ropes. But I think that the price will probably rise
• 6:53
  pretty quickly as I think it's going to look like Yamamoto is going to be
• 6:58
  pushing for maybe like a top five or six pitcher in drafts. I wouldn't
• 7:02
  be surprised, And so maybe people are gonna transfer some of this love for
• 7:09
  Yamamoto onto Imanaga and boost his value as well. Yeah, I definitely could
• 7:14
  see that, you know, especially with it's almost like, what what have
• 7:17
  you showed me lately from these guys coming over from Japan. If there's been
• 7:20
  success, you assume the next guy can be successful. If there hasn't,
• 7:24
  assumed the next guy won't. It kind of seems to translate that way.
• 7:29
  You know, Imanaga's you know, he's he's does actually kind of feel like
• 7:32
  he fits into the almost Kyle Hendrick's mode. He's not doesn't have the you
• 7:36
  know, great fastball. There seems to be a little bit more about the
• 7:40
  control, trying to pick his places, and you know he's he's not the
• 7:45
  spring chicken that Yamamoto is. He's you know, thirty year old pitcher.
• 7:48
  So you know, look at that mid rotation. So again, He's not
• 7:53
  necessarily be a bad pick in drafts from a fancy perspective, but there's probably
• 7:59
  a lot other operson's out there, and you just there's a lot of i'd
• 8:01
  say uncertainty, uh with with him coming over, so uh, definitely interesting.
• 8:07
  It was was kind of fun to see him stretch the signing window that
• 8:11
  he had really all the way down to the wire, and the reports at
• 8:15
  the end were kind of fun. It like he's going to the Red Sox.
• 8:18
  He's not going to the Red Sox and going to the Giants. Maybe
• 8:20
  he is to go to the Red Sox. The Giants are out there,
• 8:22
  and all of a sudden the cub signed him, like it Uh, I
• 8:24
  don't know if that was posturing. I don't know what it was, but
• 8:28
  it you know, it definitely seemed like kind of things kind of flew together
• 8:31
  the last minute to get that that signing worked out. Yeah, what it
• 8:35
  was. It was a little bit of a mess that, Like, yeah,
• 8:37
  I don't even know how all that works that obviously, we're just a
• 8:41
  couple of fantasy baseball bloggers. Like hard hard hard journalism like that is is
• 8:48
  outside by purview, So I don't even know how that happens. But yeah,
• 8:52
  we'll move on to the other big signing that happened this week, and
• 8:54
  that's the Dodgers signing Taoscar Hernandez to a one year deal that is most of
• 9:01
  it's actually deferred to twenty thirty through twenty thirty nine. So it's another chance
• 9:09
  here for the Dodgers to be able to make some astute investments to be able
• 9:15
  to pay for their future salaries. And I'm guessing Taoskar Hernandez also what's in
• 9:20
  on some of that sweet tax avoidance that Odhani is picking up, so he's
• 9:24
  not paying the California taxes. But this is a great landing spot. I
• 9:28
  think for Taskar Hernandez that if you've got him in a dynasty situation, maybe
• 9:33
  he's not going to get the same full set of plate appearances that he might
• 9:37
  have gotten going somewhere else and certainly saw in Toronto and Seattle previously, But
• 9:45
  you got to like the lineup around him and what it could do to boost
• 9:50
  his value. As like, the Dodgers are really good at just taking guys
• 9:52
  like this and putting them in spots where they can succeed. You can just
• 9:58
  look at what they did with old man J D. Martinez last year that
• 10:01
  I really like this spot for Tasker Hernandez and brew what do you think it's
• 10:05
  gonna mean for his fancy value? Yeah, I really this is about the
• 10:09
  best possibility for ta Oscar. I generally have been out on Tasker Hernandez,
• 10:16
  the swinging mess profile, the volatility that he brings, was concerning this is
• 10:22
  a I don't I'm still probably not in on Taskar Hernandez, but from a
• 10:26
  you know, volume perspective, you know, he's probably a bat lower in
• 10:30
  that light up to them he would in a lot of other lineups, but
• 10:33
  he's gonna have a lot of opportunities to drive in runs. You know,
• 10:35
  he's gonna get a chance to score a lot of runs, and he's gonna
• 10:39
  have some pretty good protection. Now, he still has a volatile profile that
• 10:46
  you can find a lot of places. But if you're looking for those counting
• 10:50
  stats a little bit later in the draft, I think he's a guy that
• 10:54
  with just being on the Dodgers, can give you those counting stats that that
• 11:00
  you you wouldn't have got elsewhere. And you know, he's still going i'd
• 11:03
  say higher in drafts that I would expect to think he's going around picked like
• 11:07
  one fifty. Uh So that's still a little higher than I would be comfortable
• 11:13
  with. But that's the point, like, it's still got a better landing
• 11:16
  spot that he could have had. Yeah, And it kind of comes down
• 11:20
  to that's a fun spot for outfielders. As I'm looking at it in the
• 11:24
  NFBC data that we have from drafts from I'm looking at the beginning of December
• 11:30
  through today as we record, and I mean, here's the cluster of outfielders
• 11:35
  going from one thirty eight to one fifty five, and that is Jackson Curio,
• 11:43
  Cedric Mullens, Anthony Santander, tay Oscar, TJ. Friedel Jorg Hilaire,
• 11:50
  Ian Hap, Marcelo Zuna. So you kind of got like some it's
• 11:56
  a mix of like I think, depending on what you're doing earlier in the
• 11:58
  draft. You know, if you're taking looking dart throws at Elie de la
• 12:01
  Cruz in earlier in the draft, you're probably leaning more towards drafting as Santander
• 12:07
  or ta Oscar around this area. But if you played safer at being in
• 12:11
  the draft, maybe you are deciding to take Jackson Curio. We're counting on
• 12:15
  as Cedric Bollans bounce back. So it's a it's an interesting group, but
• 12:20
  I think it's like exactly the right tier for taoscar that. Like, I
• 12:22
  don't think he's going to be climbing too much more, maybe creeping up closer
• 12:28
  to above Jackson Curio. But I think that's a fair price for him.
• 12:33
  Yeah, I think it's it's fair. I do worry that he is going
• 12:35
  to start to climb just a little bit like that just Dodger Shine, if
• 12:39
  you may, what could happen He's going to be, you know, in
• 12:43
  that powerful lineup. Things like that. I think that could raise the draft
• 12:48
  price a little bit more as we get into the spring, especially, it'd
• 12:52
  be interesting to see where he lands in that in that lineup. I think,
• 12:56
  you know, Russer Resource had him in like the seventh spot in the
• 13:00
  lineup, and I don't know if that's if that's right, or if he's
• 13:03
  going to get an opportunity to try to work his way further further up that
• 13:07
  lineup to a degree think himself, maybe a few more bats. I think
• 13:13
  that'd be interesting to see in spring training what happens there if he's moving up
• 13:16
  you know above like Outman and munth See and getting in the middle of that
• 13:20
  lineup behind the top four there that are pretty fearsome. Yeah, and that's
• 13:26
  going to be great, I think, especially when you're talking about RBI,
• 13:30
  like the runs might be a little bit more limited. But I mean,
• 13:33
  I think you're going to be seeing his I was gonna ask you if he's
• 13:37
  gonna set a career high. I guess he said a career high in twenty
• 13:39
  twenty one with the one hundred and sixteen ribs, But I don't think he's
• 13:43
  going to be pushing that. But it could be pretty maybe like a pretty
• 13:46
  easy one hundred RBI here for taoscar As he's just kind of poking all those
• 13:52
  dudes home from the six seven hole, you know. Yeah, as long
• 13:56
  as he keeps his strikingouts in check, like that's that's the thing. Is
• 13:58
  a lot he keeps strikeouts and checks, then yeah, he's gonna he's gonna
• 14:03
  pad those those counting stats pretty well. Like it's I'm thinking a season of
• 14:07
  twenty five homers, one hundred RBIs two fifty average is very much, you
• 14:13
  know, right in the medium for him. Yeah, I totally agree.
• 14:16
  And the other set of moves that we had happened since we last talked.
• 14:22
  Was Jerry Depoto just going crazy that we had the Mitch Garber signing that we
• 14:30
  discussed as Depoto pulled that one off on Christmas Eve, I believe. And
• 14:35
  Depoto does not sleep ever, He's still going strong. And that involved two
• 14:41
  trades that broke kind of right next to each other last week in terms of
• 14:46
  the bigger one was trading Robbie ray to San Francisco for Mitch Hanneger and Anthony
• 14:52
  desk Alfani. And then the second, more minor trade was trading infielder jose
• 15:00
  Cape Arrow to Seattle for outfielder Luke Rayley. And for the first trade,
• 15:07
  I think we'll start there, just because we're talking to the resident Mitch Hanniger
• 15:11
  lover here, I have to think that this really kind of excited you.
• 15:16
  I was trying to think, like a I don't know, I was trying
• 15:20
  to think of like a better as simile for that or something, but trying
• 15:24
  to keep it pg A share. So what do you think this does for
• 15:28
  your boy, Mitch Haniger moving to Seattle? Yeah, I get you're right,
• 15:33
  Like I don't think there's a better spot for him, Like I hate
• 15:37
  say going back home to a degree, and maybe home was really Arizona where
• 15:41
  he first started. But you know, I think that this, you know,
• 15:46
  gives Hanneger a real chance to go rEFInd himself, get healthy, and
• 15:54
  be in a better ballpark than he would have been in San Francisco like that.
• 15:58
  Last year was just a lost year for him, and he's I've said
• 16:02
  this time and time again against Hannager. Every time he's playing, he is
• 16:06
  worth it. The problem is he just doesn't seem to be playing enough.
• 16:10
  And when he was playing in San Francisco, yeah, that ballpark was definitely
• 16:14
  hurting him. So I really like this for Hanneger. You know, I
• 16:17
  think he's gonna have a good chance to slot in the middle of that lineup.
• 16:21
  You know, that top half of that lineup's pretty interesting, so I
• 16:22
  think that's gonna give him some pretty good run producing opportunities. And you're comparing
• 16:30
  him to who we just talked about with ta Oscar. You know, I'm
• 16:33
  I'm all, you know, you know me, I'm just I love Hanneger.
• 16:37
  But Hanniger is basically free and I would not be shocked to see him
• 16:42
  swat twenty five Homers School. You know, knock ninety in but hit two
• 16:47
  seventy to eighty, like, but he's free now. Maybe the trade to
• 16:53
  see how it gets him a little bump, but I don't think it's gonna
• 16:56
  be that. So if you're lating for the drafts, just look and we're
• 17:00
  guy that could you know, jumped out. Its health is holding them back.
• 17:03
  So yeah, you're right. I love Hanneger, and this has got
• 17:07
  me slightly back on the path where San Francisco had me just a little bit
• 17:11
  scared. Yeah, I think I agree that, Like I was totally out
• 17:17
  on Hanneger compared to you, but now that he's got a path to somewhere
• 17:22
  where he's played before, even though I think he like celebrated on Twitter when
• 17:26
  he got to leave Seattle, so it was like very hopefully he's okay going
• 17:32
  there and playing, But it's just a better playing time opportunity. And hitting
• 17:36
  in San Francisco is just woof. It's brutal. So I know Seattle's tough,
• 17:40
  but the way that Mitch Cheneger approaches the game with trying to hit it
• 17:45
  just hard and into the alleys, it's gonna play a little bit better in
• 17:49
  Seattle than it did in San Francisco. What do you think about Robbie Ray.
• 17:55
  I think I'm gonna skip any Antheon desk Afani analysis here because I think
• 18:00
  he's going to be on the outside looking in at the Mariner's rotation and maybe
• 18:03
  he is a good pickup if that breaks differently in the spring. But Robbie
• 18:10
  Ray is gonna be coming back maybe mid season. He's coming off of Tommy
• 18:14
  John surgery that he underwent at the end of twenty twenty two, and so
• 18:19
  he's going to be pitching in San Francisco hopefully like in July, but it's
• 18:25
  kind of unknown with the Tommy John surgery. Do you think you're going to
• 18:30
  be acquiring Robbie Ray maybe in like Dynasty leagues, trying to move in and
• 18:34
  take advantage of that San Francisco fog for this picture. Yeah, this is
• 18:40
  a really tough one for me. I historically have really been out on Robbie
• 18:44
  Ray for a number of years. Really a guy that had control issues and
• 18:49
  you know, couldn't you know, flyball pitcher pitching in the wrong places,
• 18:56
  you know, Arizona for example, Like those things were were really hurting him,
• 19:00
  and he you know, had a season or two of a lot of
• 19:03
  luck and he turned that into a pretty guy sharing good contract, and I
• 19:08
  think that was definitely had me scared away. I'm not interested in him at
• 19:12
  all for twenty twenty four, No interest at all. I think he's gonna
• 19:18
  it's gonna be hard for him to get back. I think the last few
• 19:19
  years have really told us like, don't don't rely on these guys to get
• 19:23
  back. Even if they do, they're pitching shorter innings, they gotta get
• 19:26
  worked up, like any little stepback that's just completely wasted your bench spot or
• 19:30
  il spot or whatever it is for the for the whole season. But dynasty
• 19:36
  leagues, I do think he's interesting as a flyer because his achilles heel has
• 19:41
  always been the home run. It's always been the home run. He's gotten
• 19:45
  a little better in controls the last few years, and if San Francisco can
• 19:48
  reduce that home run for him, then you know, that really really helps
• 19:55
  a Robbie Ray. So I do like him from a dynasty perspective, just
• 19:57
  picking him up. If you you have the spot, it's not going to
• 20:00
  hurt you in twenty twenty four, just to see what happens if you know,
• 20:03
  hopefully gets back to me, the last month can show you a little
• 20:07
  bit of something and then you've got, you know, a guy that you
• 20:10
  can hopefully rely on for the next year. So I'm intrigued. I'm not
• 20:15
  necessarily buying shares daily at this point. So what about you. Are you
• 20:19
  a Robbie Ray believer for twenty four and beyond? I don't think so.
• 20:26
  I've historically liked him more than you, just because the strikeout upside is just
• 20:30
  so. I mean, it's been some of the best of in the league,
• 20:36
  and I will take that like I had historically taken that chance because it
• 20:41
  was cheap. Other people are obviously scared about what it could do to your
• 20:45
  whip. And you know there was some leagues where actually had that great season
• 20:51
  they put together for that cy Young So but going forward, I don't think
• 20:56
  so, just because I want to see him get back to health, and
• 20:59
  especially with a guy who has struggled with his control, like Robbie Ray.
• 21:07
  When you're coming back from Tommy John surgery, the last thing that comes back
• 21:11
  is your command on all your pitches and being able to put them where you
• 21:15
  want. Not a great mix when you're already walking a lot of guys,
• 21:18
  So Robbie ray I think is somebody where even in dynasties, I'm not sure
• 21:22
  I'm going to be really looking to buy because at this point I would rather
• 21:29
  try to focus on a younger pitcher, somebody who's coming through the miners that
• 21:33
  might be able to provide some sort of upside there. And then I really
• 21:38
  like the other trade that was made here. I think it's more interesting from
• 21:44
  a fantasy perspective, not because of Jose Cabairo, because I think Jose Caviio
• 21:48
  we can kind of set aside for ale only leagues. He's a glove first,
• 21:52
  some stolen bases sort of guy that really in most of the leagues that
• 21:56
  exist out there that aren't Mono league. The only reason you're gonna be using
• 22:02
  Cabairo is if you have a gaping hole at middle infield and need a couple
• 22:06
  of stolen bases. He should get a decent amount of playing time in Tampa.
• 22:08
  But I really like this move for Luke Rayley. That Luke Rayley was
• 22:14
  kind of stuck in the Tampa Bay depth chart in a pretty strict platoon and
• 22:19
  they were really limiting his exposure. But wow, Luke Rayley, I don't
• 22:25
  know if you've seen his Baseball spont page, but it's so much red in
• 22:29
  terms of barrel percentage, exit philosophy, and my favorite game of looking at
• 22:33
  this sprint speed percent tiles. He's eighty seventh percent tile. He's got wheels.
• 22:38
  He stole fourteen bases, hit nineteen homers last year in only three hundred
• 22:42
  and fifty seven at bats four hundred and six played appearances. I mean you
• 22:47
  just kind of like add fifty percent to that. You're looking at a twenty
• 22:51
  five to twenty guy with like a two fifty average going super late in drafts.
• 22:56
  I think he's going to be a pretty sneaky pick for an outfielder.
• 22:57
  What do you think, Brew? Yeah, I think that the speeds what
• 23:02
  intrigues me because I don't know why, but he doesn't He's like the Jake
• 23:06
  Berger type of mold here, Like he just doesn't. Yeah, I mean
• 23:11
  that, you know, give me a few few inches and a few pounds
• 23:14
  and I'm right there, right. But I think he's one of those guys
• 23:18
  that you just don't expect to be fast and coming from Tampa, which was
• 23:23
  I hate to say it was a team that they they don't care about your
• 23:27
  fantasy stats right that they're running, like they seem to always move guys around,
• 23:33
  like it was just not reliable. You felt like they were always doing
• 23:37
  a little bit less on some of those things and what you hope for your
• 23:41
  your fantasy team. Seattle seems to be to a degree a little bit better
• 23:48
  for that. Like I feel like they were more willing to let people run,
• 23:52
  more willing to let people the team. You know, players get the
• 23:53
  most out of the their their skills, and so I think really is a
• 23:57
  really sneaky speed source. I think people are looking to go man, he
• 24:02
  somehow eked out fourteen steals or whatever, and it's just the it was that
• 24:06
  twenty twenty three season where everybody's figuring out these new rules and that's why he
• 24:11
  ran so much. And I'll give it, Tampa Bay did run a lot
• 24:15
  last year, but he I don't think they were relying on him for that.
• 24:19
  I think in Seattle he might get a chance to just kind of go
• 24:22
  wild. And is it out of the question for him to steal thirty bases.
• 24:26
  I don't think it is now. I'm not predicting it by any means,
• 24:30
  but like for a guy that you're gonna get really late in drafts and
• 24:33
  where speed's gonna be hard to find, there are a lot of worse options
• 24:37
  than than Luke Rayley. Yeah, and he should qualify at first base pretty
• 24:41
  much all leagues as he played let me look it up here live. He
• 24:48
  put in, you think I'd be able to find this quicker considering how much
• 24:53
  of an onfangass dot com every day. But he started twenty five games at
• 24:57
  first space for Tampa, so so he's locked at first base all season as
• 25:03
  well as outfield. That it's really sneaky to get those type of stolen bases
• 25:07
  from your corner infield or honestly, when you're kind of playing at the back
• 25:12
  end of the first base pool. I think Luke Rayley's going to be in
• 25:17
  consideration there too. That you know, when you're in a fifteen team league,
• 25:22
  first base can dry up pretty quick, and I wouldn't be surprised if
• 25:26
  there's a really good use case for Luke Rayley being starting first basement in lots
• 25:30
  of leagues. He's going to be I think a very intriguing player here as
• 25:33
  we get deeper into deeper into draft season, because even his Steamer projection I
• 25:38
  think is maybe shading him a little bit low. I mean, I guess
• 25:44
  roster resource still puts him in a platoon right now. But the lineup in
• 25:52
  Seattle is not very deep, and that they're going to have to find some
• 25:55
  way to get power and speed and generate runs. And I think they're chance
• 26:00
  to do that is to play Luke rally as much as they can. Yeah,
• 26:03
  and I think you look at the Steamer projections like they're just abusing Lucreley.
• 26:07
  They've got it hitting two thirty one. The guys never hit hit that
• 26:11
  low in his life. They got him seeing nine bases over one hundred games.
• 26:17
  The guy sold fourteen last year in one hundred and eighteen games, Like
• 26:19
  that was the low mark, right, he could do more. So I
• 26:22
  think he's one of those guys that, yeah, you're gonna pick up really
• 26:26
  easily. I love the corner and field for Luc really. I think that's
• 26:29
  where he's gonna help win some leagues potentially, especially if he starts off well
• 26:33
  and can make sure he's not in a platoon, then he's really really interesting.
• 26:37
  Weekly league might be the one area that I'm a little hesitant, just
• 26:41
  you don't know how that platoon situation might work. Out. Yeah, I
• 26:45
  think that's totally fair. And then we've got one more signing that happened over
• 26:52
  the past week, and that is Harrison Bader signing with the New York Mets.
• 26:56
  Currently should slot in as their starting center fielder for twenty twenty far and
• 27:02
  roster resource has him hitting in the nine hole, but the bottom of the
• 27:06
  Mets lineup has kind of been flux is. You've got you know, Starling
• 27:10
  Marte, DJ Stewart, Francisco Alvarez, Brett Bady in front of them currently,
• 27:14
  So I think there's potential here for Harrison Bader to move up the lineup
• 27:18
  in New York a little bit. And as the Mets have missed out on
• 27:25
  every big free agent everybody, it looks like it's probably going to be a
• 27:29
  little bit of like a reset year. And I think they're just gonna as
• 27:33
  long as Bater is healthy, he's probably going to run with this job all
• 27:36
  year, maybe be traded at the end of the season at the at the
• 27:41
  trade deadline because he is on only a one year deal. But what do
• 27:45
  you think about Harrison Bader landing in New York and what are your expectations for
• 27:48
  him? This is very simple I don't care Harrison Bader and maybe this is
• 27:55
  the cardinal fan of me for too long that Vader's a low average, low
• 28:00
  counting stats, slow power guy. He can run amazing to watch, fun
• 28:06
  defense, but he just from a fantasy perspective. He's the kind of guy
• 28:10
  that likes to just tease you, Like you go really in a hot streak
• 28:11
  for like two maybe three weeks and you think maybe he figures something out,
• 28:15
  and then just goes ice cold for like two months straight. He is not
• 28:19
  the kind of guy you want to invest in. And I'm not too excited
• 28:23
  by the Mets. I just don't see like a big supporting cast around,
• 28:26
  and like the point the reason that he's getting the playing time is because of
• 28:30
  the supporting cast around is not not too exciting. So I am not in
• 28:33
  on Harrison Vader. I see no interests here. He's fun, fun to
• 28:40
  watch, that's about it. You know, hopefully grows out the hair.
• 28:42
  Yeah, I was trying to tee you up because I wasn't actually expecting that
• 28:45
  to be your answer, because as a Cardinals fan. Two, I have
• 28:52
  a soft spot for him. I like him. I have a soft spot
• 28:53
  for the guy, but his profile mistakes, yeah, And I mean,
• 28:57
  I think this is gonna be a decent dart throw if you're looking. I
• 29:03
  like him in like best ball leagues and you know, only leagues like super
• 29:06
  deep leagues, just because of that volume. And I don't think that he
• 29:11
  still kind of put it all together. That he does show these during these
• 29:18
  streaks, his ability sometimes to hit for extra power and to be able to
• 29:22
  focus on just like putting the ball in play. I think if he stays
• 29:26
  healthy, I just I don't maybe sometimes fully get why he gets so streaky,
• 29:33
  and you just kind of like tried and envision and project on those hotter
• 29:37
  streaks and say, man, maybe he can put some of these plate skills
• 29:41
  together and put it together for a nice season where you know, he hits
• 29:47
  low teens homers and maybe all I need is like a two forty two fifty
• 29:52
  average and then you know twenty five ish steals that I think he can really
• 29:56
  be a great backstop at the back end of really deep drafts where you know
• 30:02
  some people are taking like he's actually like he's four hundred and twentieth in in
• 30:07
  drafts right now and in the NFBC like down by Jacob de Gram's going in
• 30:14
  front of him, so like he's super free. And if you remember kind
• 30:18
  of earlier in our podcast his three when we were doing super late draft picks,
• 30:26
  that I think Bader could be one of these guys that when we're coming
• 30:30
  back to review twenty twenty four, that he creeps up just because it's just
• 30:34
  a peer playing volume thing that I just don't see who's taking his job in
• 30:41
  New York anytime soon other than his hamstring. Yeah, that's a very very
• 30:45
  good point. That's where he unfortunately could could fall about figuratively in literally,
• 30:55
  but yeah, I see. I see your point, Like the romal volume
• 30:59
  play, and this one of the first times of his career where he's actually
• 31:02
  going to get that playing time. Yeah, so maybe that maybe there's a
• 31:04
  consistency thing that could pop out there. I'm just I'm not seeing it.
• 31:08
  I'm not sure I'm there, but there probably are worst start throws. But
• 31:14
  at that point the drafts, I'll take Jacob to Groamd to play the outfield.
• 31:19
  That'll be great. Yeah, I can't throw the ball back in and
• 31:23
  yeah, this is going to be just a fantasy focused podcast this week,
• 31:27
  as the card world has been pretty slow this week. That you know,
• 31:32
  no major news knock on wood in terms of any sorts of super fractor problems
• 31:37
  or any other issues. And this is really especially the time of year when
• 31:42
  things are slow for Cards because we're transitioning out of twenty twenty three Cards into
• 31:48
  twenty twenty four. So we'll get more news coming in in the future weeks,
• 31:53
  but we want to also explain what we're going to be running here over
• 31:56
  the next six weeks. For that fancy portion, we are going to do
• 32:01
  divisional previews. We figured that's kind of the best way to approach it.
• 32:05
  As you know, we still have some major free agents hanging out there,
• 32:07
  like Blake Snell and the likes Josh Hater is still out there, So we
• 32:13
  figured if we approach it from a team by team view right now, of
• 32:17
  we're going to go through and pick one player from each team that we would
• 32:22
  like to buy at the current value and think that, you know, there's
• 32:24
  some upside there, and then one guy that we're going to sell, you
• 32:28
  know, we don't like the draft price, we think that the skills aren't
• 32:32
  there, et cetera, et cetera. So we're going to go through and
• 32:36
  do every division. It's going to be a little haphazard because a part of
• 32:39
  this segment over the next six weeks is we're going to have a guest each
• 32:44
  week. So this week's guest is Keelan Bullou from ras Ball, where we
• 32:50
  also write. She does the Ambulance Chasers, and she's going to be covering
• 32:53
  the Al Central with us as a Socks fan. So we're trying to get
• 32:58
  some cross pollination in terms of finding divisions where some of the analysts we're going
• 33:05
  to bring on have teams within those divisions, and so that'll provide a little
• 33:09
  extra insight, I think, And so Brew, I'm really looking forward to
• 33:14
  this Foray as we go into having other people on this podcast and branching out
• 33:20
  into our first year of scoping what the fantasy season has in store for us.
• 33:25
  So what are you going to be excited for as we get into these
• 33:29
  divisional previews? Yeah, I think it's gonna be fun to bring in some
• 33:32
  of different perspectives. You know, you and I have played in leagues together
• 33:37
  and you know, have some similar perspectives on things. We're different at times,
• 33:40
  and we definitely go down there, but it'll be fun to go through
• 33:45
  and really look at teams and say Okay. You know, for example,
• 33:47
  we're going to talk about a team here that has I believe, four guys
• 33:52
  being drafted in standard leagues, and we're going to try to go buy sell
• 33:55
  with three different folks, and you better believe there's gonna be some overlap and
• 34:01
  some and some interesting discussion. So I think I think that's gonna be fun.
• 34:05
  Uh, there's probably gonna be some I'm gonna say, arguments, heated
• 34:07
  discussions, disagreements, however you want to, you want to see it.
• 34:10
  So I think it's gonna be fun for us to kind of go through,
• 34:15
  and it's gonna give us a chance to avoid trying to project where Blake Snell
• 34:19
  is gonna sign or what those impacttions, because they're gonna be different. And
• 34:22
  ultimately a lot of it does come down to where these guys lay in and
• 34:24
  what's the situation. Uh. And you know, we just covered Taoscar and
• 34:29
  couldn't be better for him, but we probably wouldn't have talked about him otherwise.
• 34:32
  So it'll be fun to go through. Starting with the the Al Central.
• 34:37
  I don't know that there's a more uh solidified division at this point as
• 34:42
  far as signings, not much activity seeming to happen in that division. I'm
• 34:46
  not sure much activity happening at all, and so it'll be fun to get
• 34:51
  started and over the next few weeks here really kind of get a good cross
• 34:54
  section preview going into the season of what who are looking for and where we're
• 35:00
  trying to steer away as as the ADP start to solidify. Excellent recap there.
• 35:06
  I think that's a great lead in and we will be back right after
• 35:09
  the great right after the break with Keelan Blue from ras Ball to cover the
• 35:14
  AL Central stick around. All right, hello and welcome back everybody as we
• 35:39
  get into this Ale Central preview now with Keelan Blue from ras Ball joining us
• 35:45
  here for the first time on the podcast. Kilan, how you doing.
• 35:49
  I'm good, Thanks for having me here. I'm excited, I guess,
• 35:52
  even though this topic is depressing. Yes, if you are not familiar with
• 35:59
  Keilan's work, she is on Rasball, she does the Ambulance Chaser's column for
• 36:02
  us, the Injury Report, if you will, and she is also on
• 36:07
  the Casual Diehard podcast, which you can find anywhere you find podcast. And
• 36:12
  so she's also from Chicago and is a Socks fan. So we thought this
• 36:16
  would be a great segment to bring her on and wallow in whatever Jerry's Rhindorf
• 36:22
  is zooing to ruin our lives this week, you know a lot constantly.
• 36:30
  Yeah, it's a never ending So I like to organize divisions from and everybody
• 36:37
  gets tripped out by this when they come to my box at card shows that
• 36:42
  brew and I do is I organize everything in my head in baseball by division
• 36:46
  and then by team name alphabetically, but the city name first. So that
• 36:52
  leaves us with the White Sox first and the Ale Central. They're always like
• 36:54
  number one in the Ale Central in my mind with Chicago, so the only
• 36:59
  time the number one of the Al Central definitely for the next few years at
• 37:05
  least. Yeah, the great foreseeable feature until they move to Tampo or Montreal
• 37:12
  or Nashville. Nashville. Yeah, but okay, well, who wants to
• 37:16
  start with the White Sox? Quillan, I think maybe this is a good
• 37:21
  spot for you. And just to also let everybody know from the intro,
• 37:25
  obviously we explain this a little bit, but we'll explain again for our purposes
• 37:29
  in case we've forgotten that we're going to go through each team here in the
• 37:32
  division and do one buy if you will, and one cell if you will
• 37:37
  from a player that we currently like on that team at either draft price or
• 37:44
  thinking that he's not getting enough press or whatever. So it's a pretty loose
• 37:47
  format and essentially like, yeah, buy, sell, up, down,
• 37:52
  sleep or bust if you will. So Keilan, who's your first pick from
• 37:54
  the White Sox for a buye that you're going to do? Oh my god.
• 38:00
  Normally, I feel like I would have the obvious answer here that I'm
• 38:05
  honestly still a little afraid of is Louise Robert because I what support does he
• 38:12
  have? Really? In just the past few seasons with the injuries, it's
• 38:16
  been kind of hard to watch, So I feel like he may not be
• 38:21
  as good understandably, but we'll still carry the team. So I think that's
• 38:27
  like the most obvious buye. And then, oh my god, sell is
• 38:34
  such a hard question, like everyone I don't even like, I don't know,
• 38:43
  I mean definitely the whole no pitching staff, people I do remember,
• 38:52
  So I think that I feel like this is kind of a cheat answer.
• 38:54
  But I remember last season Moncata started to have sort of a little renaissance and
• 39:00
  it was like, oh, maybe this is it and it wasn't, so
• 39:05
  I'm curious to see if people get tricked by that again this season. But
• 39:10
  my god, I honestly wouldn't get like pretty much anybody on the White Sox
• 39:15
  right now. Maybe there is some some change of scenery upside, I guess
• 39:22
  with some of the pitching. I am kind of curious, and I don't
• 39:29
  think this is going to turn out well. I'm kind of curious to see
• 39:30
  how like Mike Soroca will do. I don't know how it will go.
• 39:36
  I would like to see good things from him, obviously, especially after all
• 39:39
  of his injuries and stuff. But yeah, I don't really feel good anybody
• 39:46
  that's okay, I can go next, Bruin. Let you kind of simmer
• 39:50
  on what we've got here going. But just because I have the same in
• 39:54
  terms of Luis Robert or no one was my bye, just to let everybody
• 39:59
  know, and I was in the same boat that like ELOI I think is
• 40:04
  probably the guy that I'm selling here, just because yeah, I guess I'll
• 40:07
  go back to Luis Robert a little bit in terms of when you're looking at
• 40:10
  his draft price overall. And I'm excited for this brew because like we've actually
• 40:15
  got real draft data to work with now that it's not just a couple drafts.
• 40:21
  But the Louis Probert price I think is okay, and he just hired
• 40:24
  Scott Bis. I think he's trying to play his way out of Chicago.
• 40:28
  Yeah, and if you can get a decent amount of production from him like
• 40:32
  last year, then I think you can see a repeat. Just because he
• 40:37
  hits the snow on the ball. We saw that during the home run derby.
• 40:39
  And then yeah, mysell is eloy just because I'm tired with an Eloi
• 40:45
  Menez experience and his lack of stretching. And I just don't see how you
• 40:50
  ever do get that healthy season where Louise Robert has put up the health and
• 40:53
  showed it this past year. Brew, what do you think about any of
• 40:58
  those collections there and come in, come on in and rain in our career
• 41:01
  for Louis property Like, yeah, well, I think it's hard when you
• 41:05
  only have four players typically being drafted in the standard league to really have the
• 41:10
  conversation. I think you just talked about three of the four, and I'll
• 41:15
  uh be a sell on the fourth. We haven't talked about when we get
• 41:17
  there, but I do think Louis Roberts has some decent value because you know,
• 41:23
  a lot of the guys that were trying to take really in the first
• 41:25
  in early second round, like the combo power speed guys and Robert as that.
• 41:31
  But he's not being drafted with some of his potential. I think part
• 41:36
  of is there's some injury concerned with him. He just always seems to to
• 41:38
  to be missing some time. So being in that mid third round kind of
• 41:43
  around like that Pete Alonzo, Marcus Simeon, Gunner Henderson type range feels pretty
• 41:49
  good for like the speed that you can get because if you did, you
• 41:52
  know, zig when everybody else was zagging at the beginning of the draft and
• 41:54
  you didn't get that speed, you're gonna have to pick it up very very
• 41:58
  soon. So I do like that Louise Robert call there yeah so then but
• 42:04
  yes, yeah, so so that's not my boy. I'm just I'm just
• 42:07
  kind of hoping you guys on I wonder for pick I'm gonna be very simple
• 42:10
  with my with my buy. I like Gregory Santos at the back of the
• 42:14
  BULLPENKA. I think he's a you know, he's basically free his ADP is
• 42:19
  like five fifty or something like that. But he really improved his his I
• 42:23
  believe it was this his slider at the end of between twenty two and twenty
• 42:29
  three, you know, his his spin rate jumped substantially and he was getting
• 42:31
  you know, strike out rate nearly forty percent of the time on that and
• 42:35
  he was Really it's just a question of the health. And but when it's
• 42:37
  free and probably the best most talents of relieving the bullpen cheap saves, it's
• 42:43
  where it's worth a gamble. And I don't think he's gonna hurt you terribly
• 42:45
  bad like you would somebody else. Late in the draft, I was actually
• 42:50
  just uh looking him up because I remember as we were talking last year it
• 42:55
  was like he was actually a pretty bright spot, which is the same Chino.
• 43:00
  But yeah, the only question is going to make it to the season
• 43:02
  still in the White Sox. Yeah that's a good point. Yeah. So
• 43:07
  but then for me, Mysell Andrew Baughn, I think I just picked up
• 43:13
  guy that we haven't talked about. The guy is being drafted. It really
• 43:15
  just comes down to I've loved Von for a few years now. At beautiful
• 43:20
  swaying, great pedigree and at the end of the day, he's just is
• 43:25
  gonna be that guy that hits like two sixty barely squeaks twenty home runs at
• 43:29
  first base, and there's so many other guys I'd rather have, Like just
• 43:32
  give me a Justin Turner or like a Jose O Breu, which like,
• 43:36
  give me the old veteran that can do just the same thing. I can
• 43:39
  get it for way cheaper. So I think, you know, Andrew Bond's
• 43:43
  time to put up her shut up, And unfortunately I think he's put up
• 43:45
  at this point. Yeah, I totally agree there, And just in watching
• 43:52
  Andrew Bond too, he's a guy that if he did make a change of
• 43:54
  scenery and moved on from the White Sox and went to an organization that actually
• 44:00
  had some sort of semblance of progression in the way that they train players and
• 44:06
  aren't using whatever corpse of a manager that can find to like try to teach
• 44:12
  these guys how to play like Andrew Vaughn would be great for just a swing
• 44:16
  change in terms of an approach, because he's spraying everything opposite field usually like
• 44:21
  he's trying to hit it in the right center, and he can hit like
• 44:24
  he hits it hard and if he can get to his pole power more so
• 44:29
  and has an organization that teaches that, that becomes intriguing. But I agree
• 44:32
  with you that he's kind of in the same boat as like Eloy for me,
• 44:37
  where I just don't see Andrew Vaughn ever getting to that next level with
• 44:40
  the socks. So I think it was established. There's like two guys where
• 44:45
  they even considered drafting on the white socks. Like guys like at the beginning
• 44:49
  of the draft and the other like in the last few rounds and call the
• 44:52
  day. Yeah, and then Dylan sees for as long as he's on the
• 44:54
  socks. Oh, sorry, I forgot he was still I'm completely He's not
• 44:58
  at the socks as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, all right, let's
• 45:02
  move on to the next one. Alphabetically is the Cleveland Guardians. So,
• 45:07
  Kilan, who are you gonna buy here? From the Guardians? I think
• 45:14
  typically I would probably go with Shane Bieber, but I've also I like Tristan
• 45:25
  McKenzie. But I'm also worried he'll get injured again because he was quite a
• 45:30
  bit last year. And you'll see that as a common theme in what I'm
• 45:34
  gonna say about injuries because that's mostly what I look at. So I think
• 45:37
  that's who i'd probably buy in terms of sell. Jeez, these guys have
• 45:46
  really gone downhill, I guess a lot. I think we can say that
• 45:51
  about every team that I know. They al centrals like no child Left behind
• 45:57
  policy. It's like, oh, you're gonna do bad, then I guess
• 46:04
  we can also do bad. So yeah, I know. And they haven't
• 46:09
  really done a lot either in this off season. So yeah, I mean,
• 46:15
  I think i'd keep shaneper even though he's not he's not really what he
• 46:19
  used to be. Maybe maybe Austin Hedges and then sell. Geez, maybe
• 46:32
  this is because I've gotten I guess Scott Barlow, I don't know. Okay,
• 46:40
  there's a lot of guys on here that I'm just like, yeah,
• 46:46
  I'll go with that. Nice. We're getting into set up, dudes,
• 46:52
  it will be this will be uh pretty deep. I think. Then let's
• 46:57
  right up our alley. So Brew, what do you what do you have
• 47:01
  from the Guardians here? Well? I actually I love to call on Baber.
• 47:06
  That was that was my second I thought. On the by side,
• 47:09
  I think the price has just fallen so far that it's oddly a bye at
• 47:14
  this point. But I'm gonna go a little bit further down the list.
• 47:17
  I'm gonna go with at least one of my uh infatuations that always kills me,
• 47:22
  Ramon Loriano. Uh going down there at ADP like six hundred plus and
• 47:29
  uh Loriano getting out of Oakland. I think is gonna is good for him.
• 47:34
  You know, he's he was batting fifth most of the time last year
• 47:37
  for Cleveland, and you know that's a team that was top five and stolen
• 47:40
  bases, and so again, matter of health. If he can stay healthy,
• 47:45
  he's got a really good shot at a twenty twenty season with a passable
• 47:51
  batting average for you know, for pennies. And so I think he's the
• 47:55
  kind of guy that I'm gonna be picking up late in drafts, hoping that
• 47:59
  he catches fire, stays healthy for a few months, and when it doesn't,
• 48:01
  we'll cast him off. But I think when I look at that lot,
• 48:07
  I know he's at least going to have good all around counting stats.
• 48:12
  So yeah, give me, give me Loreano. And then from a bust
• 48:14
  perspective, I'm out on Gavin Williams. I look at kind of where he's
• 48:17
  going to draft walking four guys for nine. There's only I think five guys
• 48:22
  that qualified last year for the you know eer a title that walked that many.
• 48:27
  Blake Snell actually was it was one of them. But that shows you
• 48:29
  the volatility and those types of guys, and so I just that's not the
• 48:32
  kind of profile that I really want to invest him at the point in the
• 48:37
  draft he's going. I mean, I'd rather have Shane Bieber, who's going
• 48:38
  twenty picks later than them. At that point. There's other guys, Michael
• 48:42
  King right in that same range. There's so much more upside. I feel
• 48:45
  like Gavin Williams is kind of captives and he's never been a control guy,
• 48:49
  and he didn't show it last year. He just had some luck. So
• 48:51
  I'm I'm out in Gavin Williams. Oh right, yeah, hooly, what
• 48:55
  about you? We I'm impressed right off the bat here, I guess with
• 49:02
  I'm not right off the bat, second off the bat with the second team,
• 49:06
  We've got all different ones because I had different buys and cells. So
• 49:09
  for me, my buye is at his current price. We touched on a
• 49:14
  little bit last week when Mitch Garver signed with the Mariners and that's bow Naylor
• 49:17
  who's going in consideration for like a twelfth catcher, And a lot of it
• 49:23
  is just because, like if you're looking at bo Naylor's total season line from
• 49:28
  last year, it was a slash line of two thirty seven, three thirty
• 49:31
  nine, four seventy, which really hides the fact that he tore the cover
• 49:37
  off the ball for the second half, that his first half of the season
• 49:42
  was extremely poor, and you could tell that he just wasn't comfortable getting into
• 49:45
  the league. The first half WRC plus came in at fifty eight and the
• 49:51
  second half came in at one forty five, and you can just see across
• 49:54
  the board he got better at walking, he got better at striking out less,
• 49:58
  he got better at hitting the all hard. And so I think bon
• 50:01
  Naylor could be a very sneaky pick if you're looking for a catcher in just
• 50:07
  a one catcher league, or especially I love him in two catcher leagues to
• 50:12
  be able to sneak him maybe as like the tenth catcher off the board,
• 50:15
  just to capture a little that upside and then come back maybe with a more
• 50:20
  solid veteran for my second catcher. And for the cell side, I'm going
• 50:27
  with Emmanuel class A. The strikeout rate really dropped off a cliff last year
• 50:34
  that he's below eight k per nine. He blew so many saves down the
• 50:38
  stretch that like he he had ultimately forty plus saves and gave you what you
• 50:46
  were looking for from that perspective, But the blown saves were brutal and really
• 50:52
  cost the Guardians along with all of Gilito's gopher balls that he gave up.
• 50:58
  That's what costs the Guardians at chance at a playoff spot. Was a mean
• 51:00
  class A blowing those saves. And so he's going right now as a top
• 51:05
  five closer, and you just wonder how long that can last because he's maybe
• 51:10
  lost a slight tick on his fastball, but I think it's also just become
• 51:15
  really predictable. Last year he was throwing, you know, over sixty five
• 51:19
  percent of those like cutter fastballs, and I think people have timed it up
• 51:23
  now and can kind of see it. Yeah. I was definitely class s.
• 51:29
  He was my initial just off the cuff, without looking anything. He
• 51:31
  was my my cell for certain. I looked at him and I'm like,
• 51:37
  he still looks like he's gonna be realptively in the closer landscape still interesting enough.
• 51:42
  I probably can be buying him at that point, but he still looks
• 51:44
  like not the wheels aren't going to copletely fall off. But I'm right there
• 51:49
  with you, he's not. If I'm investing in that top tier, He's
• 51:52
  probably the one I'm steering away from. Yeah, I agree, and I
• 51:55
  mean this is a little bit better situation than the Whites, So I think
• 52:00
  we have a little bit more of a chance to discuss about you know,
• 52:02
  other guys we were considering, so Keelan Brew, anybody that you were also
• 52:07
  considering here, Keelan, we'll start with you maybe. Yeah, I also
• 52:13
  was looking Wait, are we talking about for seller buyer? Either one?
• 52:15
  Either one? I guess if I was thinking more by but you can pick
• 52:19
  either one. Yeah, so let me see. I have to look at
• 52:24
  everybody's I do. I agree with the bow Naylor pick. I remember,
• 52:30
  specifically for the White Sox last year he was a bit of a terror,
• 52:35
  which was terrible for us, but for buying, and I kind of agree
• 52:43
  also with the manual class that you picked for selling as well. Yeah,
• 52:47
  I think the only other place that I look in I know, Mike am
• 52:52
  I conceal yours one of your other buys that we talked about just last week.
• 52:57
  I'll let you do that one, yeah, but the other one that
• 52:59
  kind of worries me. I think Stephen Kwan just gets a little too much
• 53:01
  love just because he's fun to watch, and he just he doesn't fill the
• 53:07
  statue. I mean, he's fun, he's a good ball player. He's
• 53:09
  one of those those you official, better real world ballplayers than fantasy players,
• 53:15
  and there's nothing wrong with that. He just he gets a lot of extra
• 53:19
  helium because of that, and so generally I'm just out on Kwan. He
• 53:22
  heard two more than he helps. I agree, Yeah, Cooley, what
• 53:27
  about you. Let's let's hear it now. I know I don't know where
• 53:29
  you're going for one of your other potential buys. I had to get him
• 53:31
  Estevan flori All we talked about last week getting traded here, and he put
• 53:37
  up really bonkers triple A numbers, and he put up a twenty twenty season
• 53:39
  there last year in Scranton, Wilkes Barr or Bari. I don't know how
• 53:45
  to pronounce that. I'm not from the East coast. Is the silent,
• 53:49
  it's either super pronounced or very silent. Our Midwest here is not helping them
• 53:58
  at all. And if we've offended the East coast at this point. Yeah,
• 54:02
  I was impressed that Kilan, you had a little bit of a tongue
• 54:05
  roll there. I can't do that just making exciting for them. Yeah,
• 54:09
  and so a Stefan Florial, I think is a guy to watch here as
• 54:14
  things develop in Cleveland that I'm gonna keep bringing him up, I think all
• 54:17
  draft season, and it'll be great because I also have him holstered for the
• 54:22
  first few waiver wires. You know. Okay, we're going to go onto
• 54:27
  the Detroit Tigers now, who are starting to maybe turn a corner and finding
• 54:31
  a little bit more footing. I think they're going to be a bit of
• 54:36
  like a sexy wild card pick and maybe even ale central pick for some people
• 54:39
  as the pitchings really rounding into form and they're adding a few bats like Mark
• 54:45
  Kanah and stuff this off season. So, Kilan, where are you going
• 54:49
  to go and buy from this Tiger's team for your fantasy team? Yeah?
• 54:53
  Hopefully I'm not stealing everybody else's. But I really like the green I at
• 55:01
  first didn't like or was mad last season that I didn't get him, but
• 55:06
  then uh, you know, he got injured, so that was I think
• 55:10
  he'll he'll be on the upswing after that, So I think that's like a
• 55:15
  pretty obvious bright spot in their roster. So definitely a big buye for me
• 55:19
  there. Would you like me to go on to my still Yeah, sure,
• 55:24
  we'll just do it all in one chunk again. Cool, even though
• 55:30
  he just got there, I still I I want Jack Fulerty to do well,
• 55:36
  but I'm just I don't see it, which sucks because I as a
• 55:39
  person I like him, but I don't feel good about it. So yeah,
• 55:46
  we'll we'll see and I guess a backup bye. I also want to
• 55:50
  mention last year that was kind of interesting was Will vest I think he you
• 55:57
  know, he got kind of nobody, he really knows his name, so
• 56:00
  I feel like he'll probably be available. I mean, fantasyrs will probably a
• 56:05
  little bit more than other people. But he was interesting to watch last year,
• 56:08
  and you know, ended up finishing pretty strong, so I think,
• 56:14
  you know, those wire some good ones. And yeah, no, I
• 56:16
  think that's a great call, especially given that the closer situation in Detroit should
• 56:22
  be pretty fluid. As Alex Lange gets a little shaky here and there,
• 56:25
  and Jason Foley was always stepping in and out of that role. So I
• 56:30
  think that's a great call with wil vest Brew. What are you buying and
• 56:35
  selling here in Detroit? Well, I actually, I actually like I mean,
• 56:37
  there's a lot of buys for me in the Detroit lineup, which I
• 56:39
  was surprised as I was looking at them, like, yeah, I like
• 56:42
  this guy, like that guy. So there's a lot to talk about.
• 56:44
  But probably one of my favorite buys just in general this year is Carry Carpenter.
• 56:51
  I really like Carry Carpenter, great profile, looks to continue to be
• 56:55
  the cleanup hitter at least in the middle of that lineup. From a production
• 57:00
  standpoint, twenty five Homers is really not out of the question. To sixty
• 57:04
  maybe a little more on the on the hitter perspective, and all it's going
• 57:07
  to take is a little bit more adjustment launch angle to unlock a little bit
• 57:10
  more power. And I think I think it's potentially there still trying to figure
• 57:15
  things out. But for a guy that's going in like the John Nathan India
• 57:19
  Dalton Bar Show, Stephen Klan type area that has kind of breakout potential.
• 57:23
  I mean, that's all day. Give me a guy like that when we're
• 57:27
  getting in the mid teens rounds for drafting. So love Carrie Carpenter at the
• 57:31
  price I'm going to have a ton of shares of Carrie Carpenter where it's not
• 57:36
  already a keeper league I've already tried to acquire and failed in most of those
• 57:38
  attempts. So from a bust perspective, rees Oulsen Reesulsen is going way too
• 57:45
  high for my liking control concerns. He had baby pluck, you know,
• 57:51
  he had another other things you got generally not the wins aren't necessarily going to
• 57:57
  come necessarily in Detroit as easily as others. And there's just a lot of
• 58:00
  other good arms going to that same range. He's got an ADP in the
• 58:04
  two seventies right now, And I like guys like I look like Nick Lodolo
• 58:07
  at that range, slightly interesting, like TODs Bradley in Sheehan. I think
• 58:13
  there's a lot of other guys that just have more upside and a higher floor
• 58:17
  than than Resulsen. So I'm I'm staying away from Reese Olsen, but pretty
• 58:23
  much everybody else on the Tigers for me, is generally gonna be a bye.
• 58:29
  All right, Well, I'm excited for this because I was hoping this
• 58:30
  would happen. We're gonna go ahead, had to head because Resoulson's my bye.
• 58:36
  I love Reesulsen. Oh you're wrong, but it's okay. Yeah,
• 58:40
  I know. I know. The control is an issue, as he like
• 58:45
  he walked five point four per nine down in Triple A last year, but
• 58:50
  he reduced that to two point eight walks per nine when he was up with
• 58:53
  the Tigers. And a little bit is that it's tough to evaluate Olsen right
• 59:00
  off the numbers because you got to watch him pitch. His stuff moves so
• 59:07
  much, and he's got this really great slot where he's throwing his sinker and
• 59:12
  his slider out of it. And maybe again this is I was just like
• 59:15
  watching him pitch against the White Sox and it was like, you know,
• 59:19
  putting him against a double a squad or something. But they break so much
• 59:23
  and they look so good out of the hand that it reminds me a little
• 59:28
  bit of like a right handed Blake Snell, where Blake Snell never throws it
• 59:31
  in the strike zones. Blake Snell relies on guys swinging over the top of
• 59:37
  his change ups and sliders because the break is so nasty you can't quite read
• 59:42
  it out of the hand. That rees Olsen has that potential, and so
• 59:46
  it's a little bit of like me trying to project on his arsenal in what
• 59:51
  he's got and saying that, you know, this is a really great just
• 59:57
  set of pitches that he's working with that I think that's why I'm buying him.
• 1:00:01
  And a little bit of it is that all of the group of the
• 1:00:04
  guys that you were talking about, like Lodolo and some of those others,
• 1:00:07
  like I would prefer Resultson because I just like these aspects of him. He's
• 1:00:12
  been healthy. He just he's got a huge track record of strikeouts throughout the
• 1:00:17
  minor leagues because I think those guys were chasing his stuff. And so it's
• 1:00:22
  just trying to hone that he's young and this is an organization that is up
• 1:00:27
  and coming, and hopefully he can learn something from those people around him in
• 1:00:30
  Detroit and be able to put together. Yeah, I think there's the greag
• 1:00:35
  Madis in me. You just can't can't stomach the worry of the control and
• 1:00:39
  that. But I actually like your Blake Snell argument because that it's kind of
• 1:00:44
  the reason I'm a little worried about him is that Snell has the upside,
• 1:00:46
  but the downside. I think a lot of folks are probably gonna be scared
• 1:00:50
  of what he brings next year. Can he maintain what he did? So
• 1:00:53
  it's Resoulson's gonna be a dynamic discussion for a lot of folks at the draft
• 1:00:59
  table this year. It looks like yeah, And I think especially with the
• 1:01:01
  guys that you were comparing him to, like this is the one guy that
• 1:01:06
  if there was a collection, he's going like two sixty fourth right now in
• 1:01:09
  drafts from NFBC since the beginning of December. He's the one guy from like
• 1:01:15
  that collection of pictures around there that you could see popping a ten or eleven
• 1:01:21
  K nine and being able to put up just like a solid amount of strikeouts
• 1:01:25
  for you that it's a hard group to shop for. Strikeouts done here.
• 1:01:30
  And then my cell is it's actually kind of the opposite end. It's streaked
• 1:01:36
  Schoble just I love him. I do love him. He's a great picture
• 1:01:40
  and he was really fun to watch, But that is a lot of risk
• 1:01:45
  to be throwing a third round pick at that. I think I learned a
• 1:01:51
  lot of lessons from Jacob de Gram last year, and chasing guys like this
• 1:01:54
  is it's so tantalizing, and I'm sure there's gonna be leagues that, like
• 1:02:01
  I just don't do well in because maybe there is a world where Tweak school
• 1:02:05
  puts up one hundred and sixty innings, but it's hard to envision that that.
• 1:02:08
  I would rather go with something a little more solid around three schoobuls price,
• 1:02:13
  and I just can't get behind someone with this short of a track record
• 1:02:16
  as schoobl has at that price. Okay, uh. We will move on
• 1:02:25
  to the Kansas City Royals then, which, honestly, there's another dark horse
• 1:02:30
  here for the division that like they've been actually making moves. So that's actually
• 1:02:37
  brought some excitement to the Al Central as they've added pictures like Michael Waka and
• 1:02:42
  Seth Lugo and the hitters are coming around, so Keelan, I mean,
• 1:02:47
  usually I'm bummed to watch the Royals at SOCCs games, but I'll be excited
• 1:02:52
  this year. Yeah. No, it is. It's kind of like upside
• 1:02:54
  down world this year. I feel like, maybe not so much with Detroit,
• 1:03:00
  but with Kansas City. It is a bit like oh no, for
• 1:03:04
  as a White Sox fan, but in general for baseball it's super interesting.
• 1:03:10
  Yeah, So I think I think in terms of sorry I forgot or all
• 1:03:17
  this Chapman was on here and I was like, oh yeah, and even
• 1:03:23
  going to consider him. So I think for in terms of buying, maybe
• 1:03:35
  like I don't but I'm gonna say Bobby with Junior is the obvious answer.
• 1:03:39
  But I don't know that I would even get him. Uh. Maybe it
• 1:03:45
  looks like Freddie Fairman might be somebody that I would go with. And then
• 1:03:52
  I think in terms of my cell I, how has Zach Greenke not retired
• 1:04:01
  yet? When's he gonna go? Blessed? He still hasn't re signed either,
• 1:04:08
  but I wouldn't be surprised if he does. Yeah, I won't either,
• 1:04:12
  but I'm like, good god, man, go it's time to go.
• 1:04:15
  Okay, that's not my real pick, though. I just saw his
• 1:04:17
  name on here too and I was like, oh my god. Maybe,
• 1:04:21
  And I think I spoke a little bit about him last year sometimes in the
• 1:04:25
  injuries is maybe like oh you could pick him up, but I don't think
• 1:04:29
  I would this year. And that's Ryan yarbrill. Yeah, and so I
• 1:04:36
  want to revisit the Bobby Wait Junior a little bit. I guess with that,
• 1:04:40
  I mean, he's gonna be going super high in drafts, probably what
• 1:04:45
  third fourth off the board. I mean, are you considering maybe taking him
• 1:04:49
  second, right behind a Kunya in drafts? I don't think I would,
• 1:04:54
  honestly, Yeah, no, I don't think so. I mean, I
• 1:05:02
  think there's probably going to be a little more upside for him this year,
• 1:05:08
  but I still don't think. I think there's other people I would pick before
• 1:05:11
  him. And actually I should have refreshed my priors on this because Bobby Wood
• 1:05:15
  Junior is now going second on the FSBBC data since December. I thought it
• 1:05:20
  was still Julio and Corbin and Mookie kind of in there. So I wasn't
• 1:05:26
  even asking that bull of a question. So I don't think I'm going to
• 1:05:30
  ask you if you're going to take Bobby Wit Junior first. But if you
• 1:05:32
  want to make that stance here, I will let you. I still want
• 1:05:35
  to know because I'm looking at at the n FBC data and somebody did take
• 1:05:39
  him number one. Yeah, I don't draft I don't think so. I'mun
• 1:05:45
  still still better there. Yeah, yeah, I feel like that would be
• 1:05:47
  a little too high, but still like if it's still a pretty safe choice.
• 1:05:55
  I also forgot too about Cole. I never know how to say his
• 1:05:58
  last name if it's Ragons or Reagan's. Last year, I've been going with
• 1:06:02
  Reagans, but I'm also on this podcast not touriusly terrible with names, and
• 1:06:09
  so whatever Cooley says is right, Yeah, we'll go along with that.
• 1:06:14
  He was also one last year that I quite frequently went to as a suggestion
• 1:06:20
  to replace all the pictures that are constantly injured. Yes, he did pre
• 1:06:27
  good. I agree, Yeah, he was great, and I know brew
• 1:06:30
  that, Like, he's one of your guys. So is he going to
• 1:06:33
  be involved in the mix here for you? Well I do. I do
• 1:06:36
  love me some cool Reagans, but but there's somebody I liked more and talking
• 1:06:41
  about tongue twister names. Benny Pasquentino is is where I'm going with this one.
• 1:06:46
  He was a hot named last year. Injuries kind of derailed him,
• 1:06:51
  but I think that's holding the price down. Uh, you know, he's
• 1:06:56
  he's a guy that walks as much as he strikes out. He's got already
• 1:07:00
  homer power should be in the you know, right behind Wit in that lineup
• 1:07:03
  for the most part, and he's gonna d h on the days when he's
• 1:07:06
  not in the in the field, so he's gonna get plenty of at bats
• 1:07:11
  and I'm gonna I'm gonna stretch on my comp here that I feel like Vinnie's
• 1:07:15
  a young Joey Vodo comp to a degree with the patients at the plate,
• 1:07:19
  you know, that left handed swing. I kind of like that view and
• 1:07:24
  he blossom into what Vodo was. I I don't know, but he seems
• 1:07:28
  that he has a lot of the tools uh to make that possible. And
• 1:07:32
  you know, really the thing that's can I think hold him back is are
• 1:07:36
  the Royals gonna give enough times through the lineup to give enough bats to stack
• 1:07:41
  up the runs and the RBIs. But I really really like Vinnie uh for
• 1:07:45
  for this year, and I think his draft price is gonna be held down.
• 1:07:47
  I mean, he's going, you know off the board after like Gandhi
• 1:07:50
  Diaz, Josh Naylor, Alec Bohm, like there's there's there's a lot of
• 1:07:56
  upside at that point for for him and the you know late I think he's
• 1:08:00
  like one seventy one eighty EIGHTYP Wow. Yeah, he's going down by Riley
• 1:08:05
  Green so by kind of going right next to each other right now in NFBC
• 1:08:09
  data. Wow. Yeah, So I love you from some Benny And I'm
• 1:08:14
  potentially not trying to pronounce his last name because I'm terrible with those. But
• 1:08:17
  for my cell, I'm just literally taking the entire bullpen for the Royals,
• 1:08:24
  Will Smith, James MacArthur, Like, it doesn't really matter. I don't
• 1:08:28
  think there's anybody that you should be buying in that bullpen, even though as
• 1:08:33
  we topped this off, I think there were some you know, potential wins
• 1:08:38
  out there and should be some save chances. I just don't have any solace
• 1:08:41
  that even if you get the saves, it's worth the pain to obtain them.
• 1:08:46
  Yeah. No, I think I think that's a great like point that
• 1:08:51
  James McArthur has been with solid down the stretch, but he's like a twenty
• 1:08:56
  seven year old rookie that you just don't know how long that's gonna work.
• 1:09:02
  Yeah. For me, for the Royals, my buye is a guy who
• 1:09:08
  I think a little bit like bow Naylor, who I was talking about earlier.
• 1:09:13
  He down the stretch put up some really great numbers throughout September and August.
• 1:09:17
  And that's Nelson Velasquez. Outfielders slash dh that this is the type of
• 1:09:25
  guy that I fall for a lot, where he just swings from his heels
• 1:09:30
  and is just out there having a great time. You know, he only
• 1:09:32
  hit two thirty five and but he popped seventeen homers in the fifty three games
• 1:09:38
  they played last year, So that's pretty easy Breezy like forty home run power
• 1:09:44
  when he's getting the ball in the strike zone. So let me see where
• 1:09:47
  he's going right now and drafts. But I mean, when you're looking for
• 1:09:51
  a late power option, it doesn't get much better than velaskaz And yeah,
• 1:09:56
  other outfielders going around him are this is Max Kepler, Chris Bryant. He's
• 1:10:00
  going in front of Chris Bryant actually, which is kind of bananas. I
• 1:10:04
  don't think that's anything about Alaska's Yeah, and Brian De la Cruz South Frelich.
• 1:10:12
  So you're talking about guys with like warts and playing time issues down here
• 1:10:17
  that I like, Nelson flaskaz as like just a sneaky maybe like thirty five
• 1:10:23
  home runs there at the end of draft if you can, if you've especially
• 1:10:27
  set yourself up where you can take a little bit that batting average risk.
• 1:10:30
  I don't know if you're going to find a better power option late in the
• 1:10:33
  outfield than Nelson Flaskaz this year. Then for my cell, yeah, this
• 1:10:41
  is it's just like schoobl Actually it's called Reagan's. That the price Reagan's I
• 1:10:49
  do. I do too, But he's had two Tommy John surgeries. He
• 1:10:55
  faded down the stretch last year that it just it starred, falling apart a
• 1:10:59
  little bit the end of the season. And he's going one hundred and tenth
• 1:11:03
  right now, like he's going right next to say a Suzuki in drafts.
• 1:11:08
  But other pitchers in his range are Justin Steele, Walker Buehler, Dylan Ceese,
• 1:11:15
  Joe Musgrove. I'm gonna take those other guys around Cole Reagan's just because,
• 1:11:19
  honestly, it'll probably give me more wins and I just want that extra
• 1:11:25
  assurance of somebody who's kind of shown it for more than a two month stretch.
• 1:11:30
  Yeah, I think the argument I'm gonna make here is exact same one
• 1:11:34
  that you just made for the prior discussion. I'm forgetting who were just talking
• 1:11:42
  about second ago for Velaskas No, not for Velaska's for results and I want
• 1:11:47
  to could think of Results's name the eye test. As you watch Reagan's pitch
• 1:11:54
  again, things are moving besides like the one start he had in Toronto where
• 1:11:58
  we fell off the mountain like three times. Yeah, he he like his
• 1:12:01
  stuff was absolutely nasty. It was and it wasn't like you could you knew
• 1:12:06
  he was throwing and it still wasn't impossible to hit. Like he really unleashed
• 1:12:11
  a new level when he came over to Kansas City. So I think it's
• 1:12:15
  that to me, is that against that eye test, which is the same
• 1:12:17
  thing you were seeing with Olsen. It looks like he just has some amazing
• 1:12:21
  stuff that he's now really figured out. So we'll battle at this one at
• 1:12:26
  the draft. Yeah, let's fight. Yeah, Yeah, this conversation,
• 1:12:32
  this is probably good. We probably agree too much anyway, so it's good
• 1:12:35
  to get a little conflict going, you know, it's what that's what brings
• 1:12:39
  in the listeners. Okay, we're gonna move on to the Minnesota Twins,
• 1:12:45
  so champions, I know, yeah, alphabetically last with the m which is
• 1:12:51
  really weird, but Minnesota Twins Kielan, who's your bye? Who's yourself?
• 1:13:00
  I buy? I think is And I had to think about it a little
• 1:13:03
  bit because I was like, I got so excited last year about edwored It
• 1:13:11
  was it, Julian, I need to look up a pronunciasue guy before we
• 1:13:15
  come here. Obviously I was super excited and I still am excited about him,
• 1:13:17
  but I think a lot of people are, so I would probably look
• 1:13:20
  more at Ryan Jeffers a little bit this season. I think he has.
• 1:13:27
  He's gone up a little since last season because I kind of broke out.
• 1:13:30
  But I'm hopeful maybe this is like this is what happens. I'm like excited
• 1:13:36
  about one guy and then I'm like, no, this one here. So
• 1:13:41
  yeah, I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what he does if that does
• 1:13:45
  carry over his performance at the end of the year last year carries over.
• 1:13:49
  I actually don't know how I feel. Well, I do know how I
• 1:13:56
  feel, because I'm gonna tell you how I feel. I feel like in
• 1:13:58
  terms of a cell I don't. I don't feel good about Carlos Korea.
• 1:14:05
  I think he's kind of gonna be on the downswing here even more. He
• 1:14:11
  hasn't done that much since he's been there in general, so I would,
• 1:14:15
  honestly, I would just avoid him completely unless it was like way deep in
• 1:14:19
  a draft. Maybe that's my bias though for the Houston Astros, but yeah,
• 1:14:26
  him specifically, I would sell. Yeah. No, I think that's
• 1:14:31
  very much fair. And I think those I love your Ryan Jeffers pick that
• 1:14:36
  that's a great like catcher where I mean, it's tough to find that kind
• 1:14:41
  of power. And he he's almost like a mini Mitch Garver and Brew and
• 1:14:45
  I love us some Mitch Garver, absolutely love Mitch Carver, but I can't
• 1:14:50
  pick him for the Twins. So I think, Mike, you probably know
• 1:14:57
  where I'm going here. And it hurts me because I have to replace one
• 1:15:00
  of my fantasy infatuations of the Twins, who has been Sunny Gray for for
• 1:15:05
  some time. So my new Sonny Gray on the Twins is Bailey Over.
• 1:15:11
  I love Bailey Over guy that the last three years, like he hasn't walked
• 1:15:15
  more than two for nine. He's like a incredible control artist. The Twins
• 1:15:20
  have just shuttled him between Triple A and Minnesota like needlessly. I have no
• 1:15:26
  idea why he's pitching better than like half that staff. But that's keeping like
• 1:15:29
  the price down to a degree. So he should be striking out. You
• 1:15:32
  know, you know a guy per inning and his stuff has gotten better each
• 1:15:38
  each year. And if you look at his Baseball Savant page, it's like
• 1:15:41
  blood red. It's like his stuff is good. And then you know,
• 1:15:45
  I'm over exaggerating because I just love Bailey over but I think he's gonna be
• 1:15:50
  one of those guys I think going off the board, like the in the
• 1:15:54
  mid forties for starting pitchers, there seems to be a lot that a lot
• 1:15:59
  that you can have and the value at that point in time. So I
• 1:16:02
  like Bailey over here, all right, me on the cells, So the
• 1:16:08
  cell side, we talked about it, Julian, Julia, I'm not sure
• 1:16:15
  should have looked that up earlier, but didn't. I'm getting Keston hero vibes
• 1:16:19
  from the Brewers. Uh, high strikeount rate, good babeip, terrible defense.
• 1:16:26
  I'm just getting those those those vibes. And so that's more gut than
• 1:16:30
  numbers then, really, But that's what I think that he got so much
• 1:16:34
  cheaty and people like are looking at the potential, and that's what happened with
• 1:16:38
  Hira, and you kind of ignored some of the red flags, and so
• 1:16:40
  I think he's gonna Like, I think he's still interesting, but where he's
• 1:16:44
  gonna go, Like you've taken the profit out in early two. Yeah,
• 1:16:49
  I feel like he's not. I've seen so much hype about him, and
• 1:16:55
  I feel like you're exactly right because i'd like to be watched the same games
• 1:17:00
  last season, and I mean, he was awesome and I want him to
• 1:17:03
  do well. But yeah, I'm also kind of like, I don't really
• 1:17:06
  see what others are seeing in terms of buying at some level for him right
• 1:17:15
  now. When I see everybody else looking at him, Yeah, everybody's talking
• 1:17:18
  about him, I'm just like, well, he's gonna get if he keeps
• 1:17:21
  going up draft forwards. I'm like, I'm scared where he's at. So
• 1:17:25
  yeah, that'll be an easy pass for me. So yeah, how about
• 1:17:29
  you. I think that's totally fair. Yeah, And so from my buy,
• 1:17:31
  I'm going to go with Willie Castro utility players, so especially just for
• 1:17:36
  his price. It's great stolen bases late, but it's also non zero power.
• 1:17:43
  You know, he hit for one fifty four io last year, which
• 1:17:47
  shows that he's got a little bit of pop compared to you know, some
• 1:17:50
  of the guys that you're looking at lighton drafts. But in his four hundred
• 1:17:54
  and nine played appearances, he had nine homers last year, So I know,
• 1:18:00
  brew we've lamented over the past few pods about not having like a Raiji
• 1:18:03
  Davis guy, and I think that's what Willy Casker can bring while also giving
• 1:18:09
  you eligibilities that shortstop, third base, outfield. And even though he's currently
• 1:18:14
  on the bench on the Twins depth chart right now, I'm not counting on
• 1:18:17
  Buyern Buxton getting you know, one hundred and fifty games in. And you
• 1:18:23
  know, Willi Castro's got the skill set to be able to plug in anywhere
• 1:18:28
  anytime, or if Julian struggles, they can slot him and right it at
• 1:18:30
  second base. So I'm buying Willy Katt Willie Castro for where he's going at
• 1:18:34
  in drafts. I really thought you were gonna say you were gonna get a
• 1:18:39
  hundred fifty innings on Buckston. You might, that's Yeah's that's where the over
• 1:18:45
  unders innings. It's not a games thing here, It's like, yeah,
• 1:18:48
  what twenty games, just under twenty games? Sixteen games, So yeah,
• 1:18:53
  I maybe those right. I'm curious what you guys think about Royce Lewis this
• 1:18:59
  year. I'm torn because I was considering him here for my cell but I
• 1:19:05
  do like him, like he's his power is legit. I think he's a
• 1:19:12
  legit hitter. It is, like I just don't. It is a little
• 1:19:15
  scary when somebody's had to ACL's injuries and has been out it that long.
• 1:19:19
  But I know the guy can hit, and so if they can give him
• 1:19:23
  days off, especially when maybe Buxton's on the IL and they can DH him,
• 1:19:28
  that's great. But I don't know. In drafts, I think I
• 1:19:30
  probably won't end up with me Shar's just because he's going so high. Yeah,
• 1:19:35
  I was so mad last year when he went on his tear like you
• 1:19:39
  could see all the signs there that he was going to just be an absolute
• 1:19:43
  beast. I'm like, yep, I'm owning him everywhere twenty twenty four.
• 1:19:45
  I'm loving this. And then he went on his like Grand Slam tour and
• 1:19:49
  just decided to make everybody aware of what he could do. So I think
• 1:19:54
  it's the same thing that the ADP is. Just like man is the profit?
• 1:19:58
  Is there much profit left for a guy that just like likes a slug
• 1:20:01
  and doesn't run. Yeah, that's a good point. I also saw people,
• 1:20:08
  yeah buying him quite a bit, and I was like, I don't
• 1:20:10
  trust it. Yeah not that level. Yeah wait like another thirty picks,
• 1:20:15
  I'll be all over it. Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah, but
• 1:20:20
  yeah, my actual cell guy was Joe Ryan, just because it's I just
• 1:20:27
  don't see it in the Steamer projections. They've gotten him for so many strikeouts
• 1:20:30
  and he's a solid pitcher, but he's also got a very slow fastball and
• 1:20:36
  it's very straight, and you just worry with guys like that and brew to
• 1:20:41
  your point, Joe Ryan is not a ground ball pitcher that like, it
• 1:20:45
  really shocked me when I was doing looking into his page for this pod that
• 1:20:50
  I was just blown away by the fact that he is giving up so many
• 1:20:56
  ground balls and fangrafs is stolen out for me a little bit. But I'll
• 1:21:00
  give it to you. He's only a thirty one percent ground ball rate,
• 1:21:03
  So that's dangerous when you're talking about having a bad fastball and just what people
• 1:21:10
  can do with that and tee off on it. So career high, career
• 1:21:14
  high for him. If if I recall it was that was actually approving on
• 1:21:18
  the ground ball rate there. So yeah, so we'll see where Joe Ryan
• 1:21:23
  ends up, because it's sad. I do like watching him pitch, but
• 1:21:26
  it's it's tough to pull the trigger on investing in him. So yeah,
• 1:21:31
  I guess overall, we'll give our picks here too, who we think is
• 1:21:34
  going to actually win this division that this is going to be. I think
• 1:21:39
  when we get through all of these kind of previews here over the next month
• 1:21:44
  or so, this might be the one division where every team kind of has
• 1:21:47
  a chance that like even the White Sox have a very very outside chance,
• 1:21:51
  just because I'll be more optimistic than I am about it. Oh, I'm
• 1:21:56
  just mostly down on the other teams, but you can there's a path,
• 1:22:00
  you know. Yeah, So, Keilan, who are you picking to win
• 1:22:03
  this division? I think if they can stay healthy, specifically the pictures,
• 1:22:10
  I think Detroit has a really good chance. That may be wishful thinking just
• 1:22:15
  because I'm like something different, but I think, you know, they've actually
• 1:22:18
  made some moves and have some legitimate some legitimate books they've added, So yeah,
• 1:22:27
  I think as long as you know they've had the kind of a series
• 1:22:29
  of pictures in and out with Tommy John So I think if they can avoid
• 1:22:32
  that more, then yeah, maybe they'll be all right. Yeah, I
• 1:22:40
  think that's a great pick. Brew. Who are you going to take?
• 1:22:43
  Yeah, I I was. I was between Detroit and the Minnesota Twins.
• 1:22:47
  I'm going to go with the Twins. I just think that their depth is
• 1:22:51
  going to carry them. I like that that they're pitching a little bit more,
• 1:22:57
  But it's kind of like one of those like picking the the best of
• 1:23:00
  the work type things, like all the bottom up and be like, well,
• 1:23:03
  the White Socks aren't gonna do it. I don't think the Royals are
• 1:23:05
  gonna do like like they were the process of limination. They were. They
• 1:23:09
  were the one left at the end of the assessment here. So I do
• 1:23:12
  think anybody except for the White Sox could win this division. And I'll go
• 1:23:17
  with the Twins, but it's it's with reservations for sure. Yeah, I
• 1:23:23
  think I'm actually gonna pick Cleveland here that I think that the pitching rounds into
• 1:23:27
  form that you know they have Bieber. If they get a solid season out
• 1:23:30
  of Bieber, you know you've got Bybee there. Gavin Williams. Even if
• 1:23:35
  we're down on him for fantasy reasons, like that's a solid real life pitcher,
• 1:23:41
  and you know, I think if they can especially find one guy from
• 1:23:45
  their system to kind of pop in terms of maybe I don't think it's gonna
• 1:23:48
  be George Valeria, but like you know, juan Z noel Is, I
• 1:23:53
  think that's how you pronounce it, but I'm not totally sure it's He's got
• 1:23:57
  a huge amount of power that you know, you can see an MVP season
• 1:24:00
  of Jose Ramirez that I'm going to go with Cleveland here, Well, we
• 1:24:06
  all pick different ones. I don't think that's for the rest the rest of
• 1:24:11
  the series. I don't think that's gonna happen, but start starting with the
• 1:24:15
  al Central was bound to make this interesting exactly. So Kilan, thanks again
• 1:24:21
  for joining us here that we really appreciate you joining the first of this series
• 1:24:26
  and also being like the first guinea pig for like a having three people on
• 1:24:30
  this panel. So it's great to have you on. And so can you
• 1:24:34
  remind everybody where they can find you if they want to reach out and connect
• 1:24:38
  with you on socials or connect with you on rasball. Yeah, so I
• 1:24:44
  actually am forgetting all of my social handles right now because I had to restart
• 1:24:47
  my Twitter. I am on Blue Sky at Keelan one two ft, Keeland
• 1:24:55
  twelve foot, and then you will see me very soon. I think star
• 1:25:00
  next week, well the week of January fifteenth, depending on when you're listening
• 1:25:03
  to this, I'll start up the Ambulance Chasers, the Injury Report. I
• 1:25:09
  think it'll come out next not this upcoming Saturday, but the next Saturday.
• 1:25:13
  And then, yes, I am a part of Casual Diehard. You can
• 1:25:15
  just probably search the name and it will come up where I talk about college
• 1:25:19
  football right now, but sometimes I'll talk about NFL and baseball. Thank you
• 1:25:26
  guys for having me. This was fun, even though it was also kind
• 1:25:28
  of depressing. That's what we're here for. That's what this pod wants support.
• 1:25:33
  Really, I think we're referencing the division right, not just the pod.
• 1:25:39
  But no, no, yeah, this look was fun and I'm sure
• 1:25:43
  I'm sure I'll have fun of games. Just don't have any hopes. Yes,
• 1:25:49
  exactly, And brew remind everybody where they can find you. Yep,
• 1:25:54
  find me over at Twitter Jay Brewer one seven and you can also find me
• 1:25:59
  just trailer and Keelan here on the weekends find me on Sundays and ras ball.
• 1:26:02
  You know, just about a week and a half from kicking up on
• 1:26:05
  the hitter profiles getting to the top one hitters hitters as we get close to
• 1:26:09
  the season. So I'm sure there's a few names that we've just talked about
• 1:26:13
  that we'll be making appearances early, early in the off season as we get
• 1:26:16
  going here, So feel free to reach out excited to be back. Yeah,
• 1:26:20
  exactly. And then you can find the podcast on Twitter slash x Cards
• 1:26:27
  Categories and you can email the pod at Cards Categories at gmail dot com.
• 1:26:30
  Another reminder that we still have swag going. So I'm actually talking right here
• 1:26:35
  to two of the of the merchandise owners from our shop, where you can
• 1:26:41
  find the link in the pod details. Keilan, what do you have to
• 1:26:45
  say about the Cards and Categories merchandise? Oh, it's great. I just
• 1:26:50
  used my coffee cup for the first time the other day. It's very solid
• 1:26:54
  coffee cup and it went through the wash just fine. The colors on the
• 1:26:58
  hat are awesome. I actually need a new beanie, so it looks great
• 1:27:01
  and I love that it's like different because nobody else, not many people are
• 1:27:05
  gonna have your hat yet, hopefully a lot of people will soon. But
• 1:27:10
  it's super comfortable. Kept my head warm, so good job. Did nice.
• 1:27:15
  Yeah, that's the ringing endorsement that my dad had for the dad hat
• 1:27:18
  is that it's pretty comfortable. So Jeremy, yeah exactly, Jeremy, I
• 1:27:24
  now I hooked you up with one. What did you think of the dad
• 1:27:26
  hat? Yeah? Loving the dad hat, like leaning right into being the
• 1:27:31
  dad. My three kids already enjoy it. And it's also been stolen already,
• 1:27:38
  so wow, it will It will find its way back. I'm sure
• 1:27:43
  to the pod soon. Granted you don't really get to see us in the
• 1:27:45
  pod, so just trust that I'm wearing it now and we'll be good.
• 1:27:50
  Exactly. And yeah, you can find me on Twitter slash at m cool
• 1:27:56
  seven. Same thing for Blue Sky you can find me at cool set.
• 1:28:00
  And yeah, I will be doing the Waiver Wires again on rasball, but
• 1:28:04
  obviously need the season to start for that, so I'm still a few months
• 1:28:09
  off. And then I'll be running right after Kilan on Saturday, so it'll
• 1:28:13
  be a great weekend hanging out with us on ras ball if you want to
• 1:28:16
  all season long. You can also check out the website that we've got subscriptions
• 1:28:20
  up and going now, so all the draft tools are up and running from
• 1:28:25
  Rudy and including draft rooms, p projections, all sorts of different information as
• 1:28:31
  we've got rankings, prospect reviews. It's really prime time for fantasy baseball.
• 1:28:38
  So we look forward to getting through this twenty twenty four season with everybody and
• 1:28:44
  Keilan, once again, thanks for joining us and hopefully we can have you
• 1:28:47
  on again sometime in the future. Absolutely, thank you so much. I
• 1:28:51
  appreciate it. And that's going to wrap us up this week for the pod,
• 1:28:55
  so we'll catch you here next time, same place, same time next
• 1:29:00
  week. Take care, everybody,