Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 117 : Razzball Staff Picks Review

Transcript

Ep. 117 : Razzball Staff Picks Review · Cards & Categories

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome every body to episode one seventeen of
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Cards and Categories. I'm my Coolard from Rasball, joined once
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: again by my very good friend Jeremy Brewer from Rasball.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: You're back, buddy, after a couple of weeks off. How
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: you doing.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: I am refreshed, ready to go. You know, took a
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: little csta down in Florida, get some time away with
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: the kids. But I'm back and ready to talk some
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: good baseball. Big events today hit close to home for me,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: so I think we can get into some of the
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: news because the off season is starting to heat up
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: hot stove.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it sure is like it kind of fired up
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: out of nowhere, which I've kind of needed. It has
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: felt like as the days of Begging, Shorter and Gray
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: are here in the Midwest. I just want baseball, girl bad.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: It's even a couple weeks ago, I was just like
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I would kill for a Wednesday afternoon baseball game right now. So,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: especially with Arizona Fall League wrapped up. If you're looking
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: for any insights on that, check out last week's podcast.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: We had Dynasty Baseball pickups on. They were great, But
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: we're getting into the stage where we're pretty much out
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: of baseball unless you're looking to lead them or some
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: of those Caribbean leagues. So really turning our eye to
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the WBC as we've been getting some of those rosters
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: set recently. But the main portion of this show is
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: going to be is going to be looking back at
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: some of those rasball picks we had for twenty twenty five.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Thought it'd be a good time to round it up.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: And it is holiday week as we're speaking right now,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: on Tuesday at November twenty fifth, just before Thanksgiving. Figured
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: we give somebody, everybody out there is something to listen
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: to in terms of some look backs at twenty twenty
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: five as you're you know, maybe driving, traveling, flying, whatever
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: you're doing, maybe just also avoiding family in a bathroom
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: or something. I want to listen to something soothing. Hopefully
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: we can help you out. But before we do that,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: let's get into some of the news and notes, because
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: you alluded to it. We've had some of that hot
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: stove firing up here, and we've also had plenty of
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: movement on that baseball card calendar again, so we've got
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: plenty of stuff to discuss on both ends for both
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: the cards and the categories news and notes. Let's kick
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: it off a couple of trades you were talking about.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: This one. It hits you right through the middle of
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: your heart. Your favorite pitcher, Sonny Gray being traded from
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the Saint Louis Cardinals, or I guess has been traded already. Yep,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Boston in exchange for mister Dicky Fits and Brandon Clark.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: That is Richard Fits, not Dicky Fits. But I mean,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: but we have to I mean, yeah, I mean, the
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Suresey is sitting in the cart. I'm ready to order it.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: A Cardinals Fits Suresey. You've got to put it into
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: your collection if you're a Cardinals fan. Right, Yeah, But
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: let's focus on the fancy impacts of this trade, because
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: certainly a down grade here for Sunny Gray going from
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Saint Louis, one of the best, if not maybe like
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the best pitchers park just about in the league nowadays,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and Sundays going to Boston, which can be one of
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: the better hitters parks. But it's also coming off a
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: year in which he put up a four two eight
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: ERA over one hundred and eighty two thirds innings, but
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: he didn't get too much help behind him, as a
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: three twenty nine babbub and a three thirty nine FIPS,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: so he really didn't change too much from his prior years.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: But Sunny Gray just turned thirty six the other week,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: So happy birthday, Sonny Gray. And what are you doing
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: with him? Because this is one of your favorites going
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: to a dangerous division, dangerous ballpark, you still stick him
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: with Sunny Gray going to twenty twenty six.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I generally am on it. And I say this
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: knowing that you are well where I just traded him
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: in a dynasty league that you and I said in
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: But that makes mostly how to do with the age
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: and the pitching staff I had. But I honestly, as
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: I've been looking at some of the reactions from the
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: fan bases, I'm actually astounded how down the Red Sox
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: fan base is on what they're getting in Sonny Gray.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: They've been clamoring for a number two pitcher. They're saying
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Sonny Gray is nothing like that. He's just another run
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: in the mill arm. This is a guy that you know,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: had a four and a half ERA last year, like
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: the things are growing out, like man, this is this
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: is what Sonny Gray gets. The entire his entire career
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: is just like he's not he's not good enough and
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the peripherals. Last year they had his worst babe up
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: here of his career. You called that out from a
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: like leading runners on base perspective. He struggled with that.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: You know, he had some poor home run luck. And
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: the only really warning sign is he lost a little
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: velocity on the fastball and that that you know, and
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: we're talking like less than a mile per hour here,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: and that's gonna be expected. So he's gonna have to
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: adapt a little from a pitchability perspective. But I think
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: he I think this is going to swing further down
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: the pensulu the gray like early rankings is going next
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: year like he was, he's like forty to fifty on
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: a lot of people's pitching rankings and that to that
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: to me, he's he's thirty to forty, maybe even late twenties,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: depending where you want to want to go. And I
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: think this is gonna push him further down the list
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: because of the ballpark to your point there in Boston,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: you know, the Green Monster is you know, probably bottom
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: five ballparks for pitchers and leaving from probably a top
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: five ish ballpark in Saint Louis and so I think
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: that he's probably gonna just get all these extra double
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: dings going to you know, he was just a salary
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: dump all these kinds of things, And I think it's
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: gonna be an absolute buying opportunity for Sunny Gray, because
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: I I would I'd put money on Era under four
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: probably Pencilman for thirteen to fifteen wins and ten K
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: per nine and a solid whip in the one one
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: five arena, like, and that's that's who this guy is.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: And yeah, he's starting thirty six, but I still think
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: he's got another year or two before the age and
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: really really starts to take an impact.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's all very fair. I totally
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: agree with that assessment. I'm in on Sunny Gray. I
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: took him for my DC pick at f Paz as
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: one of my like he was my number two pitcher
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: behind de Gram out there. That solid innings. I mean,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: even though he is getting up there in age, it
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: hasn't really battled significant injuries in a while. And you
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: can also like you can see in his game log
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: from last year that you know, there are a few
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: duds that really led to that inflated era. You know,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: seven earned runs at home against the A's in early
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: September at Arizona, got tagged for eight earned runs in
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: just after the All Star break. Same thing with San
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Diego when he came back to Saint Louis right after
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: that start. So I also feel like I had a
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: memory this year when watching Sonny Gray that there are
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: multiple times and probably in those outings where you know
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the defense would let him down a little bit behind
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: him that you know, it was a pretty solid defense,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: its top five, but like it was a very mashed,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: like the top few of the cream of the crop
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: in the defensive game this year in MLB between Toronto
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: and Milwaukee, like were way ahead of everybody else, and
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: then it was a very amalgamous middle behind that. Yeah,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: And so on top of it, like the Cardinals, they
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: would fumble stuff here and there, just the young team
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and things, and Gray would get left out there to
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: bake in the heat of Saint Louis and it would
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: just melt down on him. So I think this is
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: a great picture to be targeting as like a fantasy
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: number two or three. Still, I think it's a solid arm.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I'm not too concerned that you can kind of take
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: almost like a Marcel projection here where you just average
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: the last three years out and I think you can
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: place that in is their sunny gray projection for twenty
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: twenty six.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. And so this buy
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: an opportunity for me. And this is one of those
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: weird trades where you move to a worse situation from
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: a ballpark perspective, but you have a better offense behind you,
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: and because the expectations that you were salaried up actually
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: helps your value because people are the market's going to
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: devalue him. So I'm in you already knew that I've
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: been in the sne grave for like a decade. Uh
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: So nothing changing here.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: And then I mean, let's look at the flip side
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: here for the Cardinals, because I think there is some
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: intrigue here, especially from the fancy perspective. You're looking at
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: somebody in Richard Fitz who just couldn't quite stick in
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the rotation and was up and down. Last year with Boston.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: It was a five RA over forty five innings in
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the big leagues for Richard fits but in a three
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: point sixty RA over thirty innings in across Double A
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: and triple A and it has always been a pretty
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: decent kind of mid rotation arm moving to like we
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: said earlier, great ballpark and a pretty solid defense in
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: front of him. And then you've also got Brandon Clark,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: who is a really wild left handy left hander, but
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: lots of intrigue, just lots of k's but also lots
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: of walks. I think what I also found funny with
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: this trade is you would think that heim Bloom would
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: be going back to Boston to dip into the old
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: crop of prospects that he maybe acquired there and had
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: like really good projections on or just really good sights on.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Both these guys are both post time Bloom acquisitions for Boston. Actually,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Richard Fitz, like heinm. Bloom was fired in September I think,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: and then Richard Fitz was immediately acquired like three months later,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: and then Clark was drafted under the new regime as well.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: So hem Bloom might have some familiar some familiarity with
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: these players, but not as much as you would think.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: So what do you think about the opportunities here for
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Fits and Clark in Saint Louis?
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Fits for me is kind of a
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: watch and see. I think at best, he's a mid
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: rotation arm workhorse kind of thing that's gonna he's not
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: gonna pile up enough k's he's control is not gonna
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: be perfect, but he's gonna probably give you some innings.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: And so like it's almost a comic because we're talking
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: about the Cardinals here, Like a lance Lynn type is
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: kind of what what I see, not not just the
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: how he throws, but also the body type. He's a
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: big guys six three, two thirty if I recall, and
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: so so I think, you know, fits is gonna be
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: a guy that gets an opportunity in Saint Louis to throw.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure if he's gonna start in the majors.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: He's gonna be a triple A because they are gonna
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: they have a kind of cavalry of these kind of
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: guys that have proven themselves in the minors and haven't
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: got full runs in the majors. And I think they're
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: gonna probably roll four or five of them out next
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: year and just see who sticks. And that's that's kind
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: of the rebuild model they're gonna go with. I'm actually
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: a little bit more in interested in Brendan Clark, probably
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: much wider outcomes with Clark, he he was one of
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: the top Juco arms coming out in his draft class,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: and he has a real nasty slider. I'm not gonna
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: call it an electric fastball. I think it's a pretty
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: flat fastball. And then he doesn't know what he's doing
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: the rest of his secondaries, but like, he throws real hard,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: especially for a lefty, and he he looked really really
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: good at the getting last season, then had some blister
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: things and had some other injuries. He had Tommy Johnathan
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: the year before, and so he's just kind of never
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: really found his footing. At one point, I think he
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: was the number five prospect for the Red Sox, and
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: I think the Cardinals he's slotting in in the top
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: ten somewhere, and so you know, they they're they're taking
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: a gamble on a guy with with high upside, but
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: also could end up being just a guy with throwing
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: throwing ninety nine out of the bullpen, not quite sure
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: where it's going. So, like I think of either of them,
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: I think fits you kind of know what you're getting with,
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: which is kind of like a you know, back end
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: fantasy arm. Uh that you might plug and play Clark,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: keep an eye on him because it could he could
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: he could flame out, no problem, or the Cardinals can
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: make some adjustments and you know, find a spot for him,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: and you better believe they're going to try to try
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: it to start and see if they get that control fixed.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I'm right there with you on both
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: those takes where fits. I especially like fits and maybe
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: like a draft and hold situation that you're doing right
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: now for fantasy, just because he is going to take
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: the ball every fifth day for the Cardinals. There's gonna
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: be great matchups at home against Pittsburgh, at home against
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Cincinnati at Pittsburgh that you can definitely throw Richard fits
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: in most fantasy leagues. And then Clark. Yeah, I'm right there.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Great if it works out as a starter, But I
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: think he's a better real life acquisition for the Cardinals
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: because you know that they're going to at least have
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: a very dependable lefty option on the pen with Clark
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: in the future. So all right, let's move on to
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: our next transaction. This would have led for the show
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: except for you know, that Sunny Gray transaction happened, you know,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: about six hours before we started recording here. On the
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: two day, we had another swap, which this is like
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: an intriguing trade I think, more fun than the Grayson
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Rodriguez Taylor Ward trade that we had last week and
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: I discussed. But this is a straight up challenge trade,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: as the Mets and Rangers swapped Brandon Nemo and Marcus
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Simeon straight up with a little bit of cash to
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: offset the Brandon Nemo contract because it is lengthier than
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: what Simeon has sets up a very fantastic double play
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: duo in New York for the Mets with Marcus Sion
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: and Francisco Lindor there. But it was a rough year
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: for the thirty four year old Simeon, who actually he
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: turned thirty five. It was its age thirty four season,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: but turned thirty five in September. A fifteen homer eleven
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: stolen based season over one hundred and twenty seven games,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: which was the fewest he had played since we'll throw
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty out since twenty seventeen. So and I think,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: if I remember, if I recall those either like a
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: broken wrist or a handmaid or something on an HBP
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: and so, so, I mean, this dude is a workhorse
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: this past year finally had a few injuries that caught
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: up to him one of the worst WRC pluses of
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: his career with an eighty nine two thirty three oh
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: five three sixty four slash line for Marcus Simeon. Brandon
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Nimo also didn't have exactly a stellar year for the Mets,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: and that's why he's leaving town. He and on top
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: of it too, I think it's very clear that the
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Mets are trying to clear out some space to make
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: a run at Kyle Tucker, to at least make the
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Dodgers shell out the top dollar for him. And so
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Nimo did hit career high twenty five homers but a
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: one fourteen WRC plus, which is a little slide back
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: from his peak two sixty two three twenty four four
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: to thirty six slash line. And the defense also just
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: like went into the crapper for brand Neimo. So actually,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: from a fantasy perspective, Nimo probably still a much better
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: choice here going forward. But we're also dealing with two
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: bad hitters parks, actually two of the worst, maybe between
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: City Field and whatever Globe Life Field slash costco in
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Doom meant that the Rangers play in. So what's your
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: take here? We've been talking about Simeon on and off
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: throughout the twenty twenty five season. Is he done? Is
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: he not done? And then Nimo, do you have trust
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: in him being able to rekindle someone of that fire
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: that he had a couple of years ago? So Simeon, Nimo,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: what'd you like here?
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think this is arrow up for Simeon,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: this is arrow down for Nimo. For me, like just
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: to be frank, like that ballpark for the Rangers is
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: just dreadful to hit in. And you know that definitely
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: held Simeon back. He and Simeon, I mean, he had
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: injury after injury last year. He had a footage issue,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: he had a wrist issue, and he just never looked
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: comfortable to plate. But if you look at the underlying
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: like quality of contact metrics and things like that, they're
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: not They weren't really that far off what the rest
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: of his career has been. And Simon has always been
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: a kind of hot, cold hitter, and when you're injured
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: and you're a streaky hitter, like these things happen. But
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: he's still you know, had a combined twenty six homers
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: and stolen bases. You know, he's still scored some runs.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Like he's he's absolutely dreadful for like an OBP league
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: and things like that, but I think he actually maintains
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: a decent value. It actually gets to bump up here
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: because I think we're gonna like what he's exposed to
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: there in New York. From a ballpark perspective, Nimo he's struggled.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: He's always been one of those guys the exact opposite,
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: much better in an OBP league, but doesn't seem like
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: he does anything remarkable enough to really make an impact.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: And I think that ballpark in Texas is just gonna
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: zap because Nimo is not a guy and I'm not
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: I'm not looking at the spray shark right now. Maybeuld
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: pull that up, but he's never been a guy that's
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: really like had this massive power that just leaves the ballpark.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: He's he's kind of the guy that just pulls it
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: out and barely gets those homers. And I think that
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: that Texas may zap a lot of his power. And
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: I think we might be looking at a guy that
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: caps like fifteen homers next year, and that's gonna be
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: a big big downfall for him from a production perspective.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: So I think Neimo's got a down arrow, Simon's got
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: a slight up arrow. But both guys are have fallen
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: down the overall draft board beyond the name value to
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: a degree.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Pretty impressive guessing of the Brandon Nemo sprays right there.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: There is a lot that goes right down the line,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: and then a lot that also kind of goes into
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: right center field, where I think there's almost when I
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: think about city field, it does feel like there's an
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: alleyway because of maybe like a wind tunnel or something too.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: But you called it out that he hit twenty five
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: homers in total on the season Nemo did. It'd only
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: be eighteen per stat cast at Texas. If he played
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: for San Francisco, that would have been the worst. But
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: I think that's pretty much every lefty team.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: What was he in Yankee Stadium? Like fifty seven No?
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Twenty three?
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: The only play he would have been better in sincey
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Milwaukee and.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Well the Sacramento, Yeah a Sacramento don't count.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Well, and uh, Atlanta and Philadelphia. I wonder how many
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: of those ones to right center in Atlanta and Philadelphia too,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: because that this power ally's there as well. Yeah, you
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: can just see that those ones that are going to
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: right center are also just barely scraping the wall for Nemo.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: So uh yeah, I think great takes on both here.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: It will be. I do think that this will invigorate
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: both of them though that like there's a little bit
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: like if there's a little bit of like an X
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: factor in whatever you're putting together from fantasy in your
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: ratings or your values. These guys I think would both
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: tick that box for me, where like a challenge trade
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: like this, it feels like it does light a fire
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: underneath the player.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Right, yeah, it does in like specif Simon he feels
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: like that kind of guy that would like be a
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: little jaded after this and then like the lights of
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: New York would actually just give him like this what
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: to prove you wrong type of thing, and I could
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: see him having a like a kind of comeback season
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: uh for two degrees. So, uh, he's never gonna be
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: what he was, you know, four or five years ago,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: But I think I think there's gonna be some uh
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: intangibles that play through in this this deal. So it's
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: gonna be fun to watch.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, Well, let's stick in Texas because we did. Also
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: since the last podcast, have like the non tender deadline,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: and so there's been some intrigue there. I would say
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: most of them are pretty fringy players in terms of
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: obviously MLB rosters, but same thing with Fantasy that nothing
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: that really has like shaken the boat. I think the
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: way when Kole Schwarber like got non tendered a couple
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: of years ago, like that was one where he's just like,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: what on earth is going on? Maybe the one that's
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: closest to that is the Rangers letting go of Adulas Garcia,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: who was just an All Star a couple of years
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: ago and really a fan favorite, but coming off a
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: miserable year with an eighty three WRC plus two twenty
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: seven two seventy one three ninety four slash line, nineteen homers,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: thirteen stolen bases, and five hundred and seventy four plate appearances.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: He is older than you would think, just because he
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: was in the Cardinal system forever before he found daylight
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: in Texas, and so he is turning thirty three at
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the beginning of March on my brother's birthday, So that's
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: kind of cool. And the question here for Garcia is
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: you look at the stat cast, it's still it's relatively
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: similar to what he put up in twenty twenty four,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: but it's not as stellar as that crazy twenty twenty
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: three season when he got MVP votes. Garcia also last
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: year battled some lower leg injuries between ankles and quads,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: and he always feels like a guy who's like on
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: the precipice of like ripping his oblique and half two
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: with how hardy swings. He doesn't have a job right
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: now now, but likely lands in a second division team
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: as a as a starter. You would think it is
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: draft and hold fantasy season. Is this the type of
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: player where you're willing to take a dart because and
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: throw it at him because he's shown the talent in
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: the past, Like I said that twenty twenty three season
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: thirty nine bombs one, twenty eight WRC plus not that
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: far in the preer review mirror, or do you see
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: the writing on the wall in terms of this was
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: very much a grip it and rip it approach. None
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: of these major league teams have liked him long term,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: and Garcia might be on just his way out of
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: MLB and going to Japan here soon.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, can both of those be true? I think
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: that might be where I land here. Is that like
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: from a draft and hold perspective, like, yeah, he's gonna
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: get a job. It's gonna be a second division team,
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: like it's I mean, I'm I'm gonna throw my dart now,
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: like he's gonna sign with Minnesota or somebody like that
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: that is in this odd rebuild scenario but needs a
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: kind of little bat to make it seem like they're trying,
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: like and so I think that's where he's gonna sign
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: in one of one of those types of scenarios. I
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: think the the interesting thing with him is it's pretty
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: gushnarn clear what's not working. He doesn't nobody's swinging at
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: Like if you look at the plate discipline, it's terrible,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Like it is absolutely dreadful. His zone swing percent is
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: down below seventy percent, which is well below his career average.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: He doesn't swing at things in the middle of the plate.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: He all of a sudden stops swing at the first
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: pitch like he's now chasing more than he's ever chased,
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Like he just does, like the pitch recognition is not there.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know, if he needs like a Max Bunze,
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: he can get some prescription glasses or something like. I'm
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: not quite quite sure, but like that's what's going on
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: here to your point, like the contact quality and qualities
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: maybe a funny word for Dallas Garcia. The quality is
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: not really changed. It's he's always hit the ball in
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: credibly hard is the quality, but you know, always been there. No,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: he's not always barel things as well as he should,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: and he's chased. But like I, he has a very
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: very volatile profile and he doubled down on it last
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: year because he just did not swing at the right things.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: And so if somebody can make an adjustment to that,
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: like there's something here, but I just don't. I don't.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: He's such a free swinger. I just don't know how
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: how long that's gonna Like, there's probably gonna be a
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: little hot streak next year, but I just I think
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: long term, you're right, he's gonna be like over the
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: KBO or something like that. Just lighten things up over
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: there and make it making a trying to make a
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: name for himself.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean I can see it both ways.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: You can tell yourself both stories, and I won't be surprised.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: It does feel like it's on a fifty to fifty
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: coin flip.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: Well I took both, so yeah, exactly.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: So uh yeah, that is the conundrum if you're in
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: a drafting hole, then you see a doulas s Garcia
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: sitting there, because there are plenty of corner outfield jobs
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: open out there, and he's got a cannon so he
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: can play right field anywhere. I'm also looking at like
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: he would fit on this Colorado Rockies team really well.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: So like there's lots of great landing spots and a
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: lot of bad landing spots at the same time. So
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: keep that in mind for Garcia as you get further
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: and further into twenty twenty six draft prep. All right,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: last transaction from MLB to talk about, and we're going
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: to talk about the biggest line team out there at
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: the Chicago Cubs said the one thing that they had
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: to say before they entered this offseason was they were
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: not going to be spending money on the bullpen. What
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: do they do? First free agent they signed? They signed
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: pilm Ayton to a pretty nice little deal there two
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: years for around fifteen million dollars with an option for
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: a third season. I'm just bringing this up because there's
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of open closer roles right now that that
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: was one of the one one thing that stood out
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: to me when I was at FPAZ and like watching
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: other drafts and doing my draft is the closer pool.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: You thought it was chaotic before, it might be worse
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: going into this draft season. We've got a lot of
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: closer jobs that are being shuffled. So Ryso Iglesia signed,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: but Edwin Diaz is out there floating around, Emilio Pegan
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: is floating around. You've also got Robert Suarez and so
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: many unseld situations and good teams, including the Chicago Cubs
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: who have Daniel Polincia, who was fantastic last year but
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: also battled a shoulder injury down the stretch and did
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: not look good in the playoffs. Enterfilm Mayton, who I mean,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: this dude was nails last year for the Cardinals and
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the Rangers. A two to seventy nine ear ra over
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: sixty and a third innings that was sixty three games
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: a career, almost a career high. Back in twenty twenty,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: he put up a better K nine than this, but
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: it was twenty twenty an eleven point nine K nine
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: for him with just a solid ground ball rate, and
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: it was nasty, Like he's just really turned himself helf
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: into one of those like classic two pitch relief arms
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: that just it's really hard to pick up in short stints.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: I'm placing this all out there because PHILM. Mayton would
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: not be surprised to see starting like may first. He's
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: the closer for Chicago Cubs, So keep that in mind.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: But I guess in general to revisit that closer pool.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: What are you doing? Because it's a mess, and is
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: somebody like PILM Maton on your radar because of that?
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: I think they have to, because like you listed off
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: guys and like I had five other guys, Like I
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: was like, well what Pete Fairbanks and Ryan Helsley, Brad Keller,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: Luke Luke Weaver, and like the list went on, like
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: there's all these Williams, yeah, like Devine Williams. Like there's
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: all these guys that have closing pedigree, and it's kind
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: of like who's going to take the lowest deal for
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: like a mid tiers club to just get on it
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: and like and that's kind of what this feels like.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Is that Mayton. First of all, I saw the number
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: in like a little shock because last year you signed
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: for like two million dollars on a one year day nothing,
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: and I don't. I mean, he had a good year
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: last year, but it was not magnificantly different than what
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: he's done the last the rest of his career, and
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden he's getting paid. Like it's just
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: I we've seen this before where it's like the early
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: mover advantage, Like I like this guy, I'm gonna pay
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: up for it so I don't have to overpay later,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: but then you overpay now trying to do that. So
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: it feels a little bit like that. But I think,
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: especially in like your draft from the hold leagues and
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: things like that, Mayton like they gave the money too.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: He's been solid. He's a guy that you would want
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: to look at as a potential dart throw. And I
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: think you're gonna be in a lot of drafts in
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: the spring. If you're especially in those early drafts, you're
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: gonna be like hitting the stake drafts or the reserve
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: rounds or whatever the end of your auctions, and you're
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: gonna be like braying like dollar mid middle relievers hoping
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: to run into a closer. I think that's gonna gonna
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: take place, and I think if it's gonna put a
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: premium out there, especially on five by five leagues, on
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: these saves, because you don't have thirty closers and gone
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: in the days there's thirty closures. Right now there's like
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: ten and you get the back back ten of that,
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: and you're like, is this really Like David Bednar is
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: like like a top ten closer right now by default,
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, and this guy was like in the
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: miners last year because of how rough he was for
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: the pirates. Like, I think it's gonna be really, really interesting.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: And so if you're in a dynasty league, like I'm
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: doing this in one of our leagues, I've got like
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: five or six relievers and I'm trying to pick up
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: more of them of guys that might just back into
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: a role and we'll see what happens. And if that
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: doesn't work, you have to invest in the big the
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: bigger names that are in setup roles because something's gonna change.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: So it closures are a landmine coming into this next year.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: And I think we'll, you know, let's we'll talk I'd
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: say about a month from now, after the winter meetings
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: and things like that, you're gonna start to see a
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: lot of movement in that closer market.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think so. But I think even when
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: we get into draft season, it's also just a reminded
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: of that. Like I think there's so many fluid and
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: chaotic situations that I know, you, especially in sharp leagues,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: you've got to spend up for the saves. But if
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: you're in a fab league, I don't. This might be
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: one of those years where you do really sit it
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: out and just try to play the waiver wire for
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: those saves. That it's easier said than done, I know,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: but like otherwise, you're just gonna end up with so
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: much dead money. If you run into guys who lose
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: closer jobs or you know, just cannot maintain what they
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: did the last year and have the weight of a
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: new contract, it's gonna be a mess.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: So this is the year to grab like Arice Muno's
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: or a Johan Duryan or something like that, like by
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: one guy that you know, and then like void the
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: CROs avoid it and then just throw some darts at
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: the end of the draft and play fab like you're
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: probably gonna come out just as good as everybody else
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: and spend half the money.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. Okay, Well, let's get into some BA card news,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: because we've got plenty of it. First, before we get
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: into that calendar, we did want to call out that
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: it's been a while since we've seen a pretty good
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: tops fanatics Panini goof where honestly, it's been two years
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: now at this point that we've gotten into the whole
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: like multiple super fractor situation where they just kept pumping
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: them out and you're just like, what on earth? Thankfully
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: that has been quelled, and you know, you get small
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: bits and bobs here in terms of things that have
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: happened in the baseball card universe that create a little
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: bit of controversy, But this one, I think is a
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: more fun variation. Maybe a little more frustrating if you're
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: on the receiving end of pulling this card. But the
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: fun thing is you can always go with the error route,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: and if it's got some notoriety behind it, it becomes
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: a little bit more famous and the infamous of a card.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Click on the show notes to check out the link
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: for this, because it'll just help explain it a lot better,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: but tops in the latest twenty twenty five update series,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: which has been looking pretty sharp, but I think maybe
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: not quite to the hype level that people probably put
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: it to, even with Nick Kurtz kind of carrying the product.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: But has been fun watching rips and seeing cards hit
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: the just streams in terms of Reddit and eBay and
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: everywhere else but came across. They mixed up some autos
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: and it's pretty funny because too Paul's got swapped Paul
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Skeens and Paul Goldschmidt. You can see it, especially you
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: know this one was done by an intern, right in
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: terms of the Paul Skeens auto does look like Paul Goldschman.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: If you told me and put them side by side
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: without my knowledge of baseball cards, I would swear that
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: the Paul Skeens is real auto is Paul Goldschmiz auto,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: and vice versa, where Paul Goldschmiz auto looks like it
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: could be Paul Skeens because it looks like Paul and
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: just chicken scratch as supposed to. Paul Skins looks like
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Paul and a lot of words, a lot more than Skins,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: that's for sure. So check out the show announce for this,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: look at it and Instagram. But if you ever run
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: into anything like this group where you've seen a card
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: with the wrong auto.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: Like, yeah, I've seen I've seen it before. I cannot
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: remember what which one it was, but I've seen it before,
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: and I think a lot of the debate I was
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: seen on this one specifically, was like what do you
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: do with this? Like what what do you what do
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: you play like it? Do you do you keep? Like
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: the Skeens auto itself is the most valuable piece, but right,
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: but you have a Paul Skeens and these are five
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: out of five cards, Like this is a five out
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: of five Schemes uhctor, these are the red refractors from
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: like the nineteen ninety Mojo silver packs. And so do
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: you keep the gold card with the Skeens auto on it?
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Do you keep the Schemes card with a Goldsman auto
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: or do you send the Skeens card in to try
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: to get it fixed? Because they should have a million
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: stickers with skins. There's peerless one. I'll put another one on, right,
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: what like what's the play like it? I feel like
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: if you have the Goldie card of the Skins auto,
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: like you get that thing graded and this is a
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: novelty that you're trying to sell the highest better because
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: it's probably we haven't seen another one, and so it's
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: probably just on those red refractors out of five and
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: so there's probably five of these, but it's gonna be,
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: you know, hard to justify holding onto a Paul Skeen's
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: card with Paul Goldschman auto or at least right now
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: with where his market is. So I think that the
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: only thing that I've actually experienced in so it was
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: actually ironic. I was sorting some cards just a few
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: days ago and I ran across it was Paul goldschmanth scenario,
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: a tops Heritage card of Mike Trout that had a
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: Paul gold Schman back, and it was a true and
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: this is the heritage set, which is everything's in air,
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: and this was a true error that heritage made. Hint.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: You know, it's those kind of things like it does
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: make kind of fun to find an actual err anymore
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: because those like yes, double super fres and things like that,
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: true true errors you don't really see anymore and than
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: ones they actually have to fix. This is this is
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: just a one, and to your point, TOPS has not
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: messed up for a while. This is a big eve
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: that you you didn't flip the the autos of two
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: like middle relievers. You took a potential Hall of Famer
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: and a cy young champion and you know again future
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: Hall of Famer potentially and flip them and one of
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: the hottest names in baseball from a pitching perspective. So yeah,
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: that in turn had a rough day, had a.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Rough day, Yeah, exactly. I think what's also cool, though,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: is that it gives you a little bit of an
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: insight to how TOPS organizes these things when they put
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: them out and collate them for between like printing production
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: and then sending them all out and getting the sort
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: of packs. Is because these cards, the Paul Goldschman and
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: the Paul Skins are right next to each other on
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: the on the checklist. So I I think the way
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: that TOPS print some of these things is they print
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: it in checklist order more or less and then collate
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: it from there. Because the Paul Goldschmidt auto is you
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: ninety c a dash PG, and then the schemes one
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: is you ninety c a dash PS and so we
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: talk about all the time that like some of the
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: more intriguing things that come out of like the errors
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: that Tops and Finax make, is that you get a
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: little bit of a glimpse into the behind the screens,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: the kind of I mean, this is right on, right
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: on theme for just the zeitgeist, considering wickeds out there
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: behind the curtain to see what's happening there with OZ
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: And so that's that's I think, what's funntle about this
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: little nugget that we got.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's fun. Like I like, first of all,
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: I'd love to have this problem myself and have to
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: decide what to do with it. But hey, this, uh
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: when I when I saw this, I'm like, you know,
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: it's been a while, it's been a while, but they
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: they earned a doozy and here the intern came again.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: Yes, it has been a while, and so let's get
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: into that baseball card release calendar because they are Tops
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: and fanatics are just stuffing December down our throats and
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: everything that got delayed just got thrown into the calendar
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: and Top said, Yep, we can definitely get that out
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: this month. Even though plenty of these sets have been
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: delayed for months at this point, they jammed them all
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: into December, so I'm gonna rattle them all off. We've
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: got a lot coming out twelve three, twenty twenty five
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Tops all in ginter. I guess I should say all
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: these are twenty twenty five. We've gotten past the point
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: where there are any twenty twenty four set releases, so
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: all these are twenty twenty five releases. The tenth of December,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: Tops Chrome Update finally coming out. No Cal Raleigh MVP.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Womp womp yep.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: Top's gonna be so mad on that one.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. December fourteenth, Tops Archives December seventeenth, the Tops
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Cosmic Chrome December seventeenth. Also Tops Heritage High Number, December eighteenth,
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Tops Black and White. And then we've got going into February.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: We've already got one on the schedule, and it's been
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: the MVP MLB MVP collection that Tops put together. It's
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: pretty much an Aaron Judge and Shohyotani just owed to
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: them set that immediately was sold out in pre order.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: These are the types of sets where Tops really makes
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: their bank because you're just pretty much buying a lottery
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: ticket for in auto from Judge or Otani when the
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: price will not match the secondary value, the secondary market
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: value of those base cards. I can tell you that
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: also twenty five Panini Select just in December some point.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: This one actually, I think was slated for an October release,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: and if you've been listening enough, it keeps just getting
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: like we'll say that it got released, and then it didn't,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: and then it gets pushed back. Just shows you how
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: much respect Panini Select has out there in the market.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: And then same thing with Panini Flawless. It's been in
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: the same sort of limbo. They finally placed it into
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: TBD status, didn't even give it a release month at
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: this point. So Brew, what do you think the odds
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: are that Tops fanatics actually pumps out all these December
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: releases and any of them you're actually kind of excited about.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, first of all, the odds is like zero,
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: Like I'm pretty confident to say zero, Like, and I
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: don't even want to hedge my bet. Like, if I've
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: got one hundred dollars to put on black here, we're
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: putting it on black grade. It's this is not gonna
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: gonna go well for Tops, especially especially like this that
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: second third week they're in December, when they're trying to
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: release four of them holidays. It ain't happening, you know.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: And as I look at this, first of all, I
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: just I one call out of the MVP collection. I
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: don't know if you've looked at the checklists. It's just
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: absolutely hilarious because it is Otani and Judge and that's
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: on everything. And then there's a few like cut signatures,
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: which I'm assuming are one of ones that bring in
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: like Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmid, like Trout, usual,
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: all kinds of crazy guys. But every but the checklist
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: is fifty cards is all Otani and Judge and one
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: card that has both of them on it, So like
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: that's that's yeah, that's just a funny one. But I
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: will not be playing in that. But otherwise, if I
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: look at this, it's kind of it's a tale of
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: two different dynamics for me. One that I'm actually excited about.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: I am excited about tops Chrome update. I do think
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: it's gonna be fun again, it's kind of that Nick
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: Kurtz of it all, But I think that would will
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: be a fun, fun set to go after. I think
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: heritage YE number has historically been in kind of a
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: big one or a flop, and I think it's gonna
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: be a bigger one this year because there was a
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: number of rookies that didn't make Heritage that I think
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: we'll make high number. I don't think we've got a
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: checklist on that one yet, but I expect it to
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: be pretty good. Cosmic Chrome has been fun in the past,
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: and then I kind of go to the exact opposite of
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: like black and white and archives. I'm like, I could
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: care less about those, Like Archives like one of the
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: bangs of my existence of sets. Because I see a card,
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: I'm like, I have never seen this card before, and
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: it looks funny, you know, like it's probably archives, and
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: it generally is, so it's fun both ways. Alan Ginter'
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: is probably the only one that kind of sits down
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: the middle for me, which like I can't decide if
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: I like it or not because it is a little
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: gimmicky at times. But hey, maybe they got some bitcoin
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: cards in there again and we can have fun with that,
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: or dinosaur tooth or who knows, right, there's always a
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: little fun Alan Ginter that you just don't quite know
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: what you're getting. So how about you, which what's the
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: one that has you the most excited on this full
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: full release calendar that TOPS will absolutely make happen.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I mean I think I'm with you in
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: terms of Chrome Update and Heritagehigh Number are probably the
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: two highlights Allen and Ginter I usually do like, but
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: especially given they kind of change the way that they're
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: doing the hits and the hobby boxes while raising the
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: hobby box prices, which it didn't, I don't think that
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: sits with what Alan Ginter is doing, especially considering some
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: of the hits quote unquote hits can be very very
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: gimmicky out of Alan Ginter. So like, if you're gonna
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: increase the whimsy there, you got to keep it at
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: a better price point, which is where it used to be.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: And I think it's starting to get to a point
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: where it's just starting to shade out of that. Obviously
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: you have cosmic chrome love. It is beautiful. I love
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: looking at it at shows. I love picking up singles
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: of my favorite players. Never ever gonna rip a box
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Like the one year that I might have was the
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: first year it came out a couple of years ago,
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: and it was actually reasonable. But I want to say
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: the hobby box that's like three through fifty, and it's
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: not there's no guaranteed auto in it, and so it's that.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: Is it's a fun set. It is an absolutely fun set,
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: but it is a secondary market set for sure at
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: this point exactly.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: And that is one where I mean it is short limited,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: short printed enough where honestly, some of those singles will
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: even go for like five bucks. The way that it
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: does remind me a lot more of like those really
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: high end ninety sets that we could never afford as kids,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: And so maybe that's why I enjoy Cosmochrome. But it's
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: going to be beautiful, but something that I can look
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: at from far away, I think. Okay, Well, that's going
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: to wrap up our news and notes on Baseball cards
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: and MLB transactions. If you want links to any of
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: that stuff, check out the show notes where we were
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: listening to this podcast. Also rate and review us there
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: while you're doing the looking at those show notes. We
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: appreciate any ratings of reviews we get. We're going to
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: dive right into those twenty twenty five RAS Ball staff picks.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: So we've picked a few of our favorites from what
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: we did personally before the year and some of our
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: losses too, to see if there's anything that we might
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: actually learn from that process, because this is a good
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: time between really when drafts start earnest. I know we've
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: been talking a little bit about like draft and hold
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: on some of these transactions, but that's for the the
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: most sick of the sickos out there. We still got
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: a couple months before drafts really start in prime time.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: So this is a good time to reflect on what
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: you've done in twenty twenty five, tweak any approaches that
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: you've had, to tweak any strategies, and maybe, like one
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: of the things I took away from First Pitch Arizona,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: and one of the benefits of it is some of
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: those discussions already happen, and so you can kind of
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: see what other big time players have done as well
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: as you're getting insights into fresh twenty twenty five data
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: that we'll get into that in some of the discussion points,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: especially the one that I whiffed on from my staff picks,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: I've got insights that if I could send current November
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: me back to when do we make these picks, probably February,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: like mid February. Yeah, if I could send them back
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: to mid February would certainly have made a different pick there.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: So again, if you want to link to these original picks,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: it includes all of the staff writers. It was a
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: post by Gray back at the beginning of the season
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: on March twenty fifth, But I've got the link very
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: conveniently in our show notes, so you can look at
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: it and see what everybody put up across the board.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: Because also it's much harder than looks. All of us
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: whiffed on Rookie of the Years, But like that just
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: shows you where Nick Kurtz came from there to the
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: beginning of the year.
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: That was the first thing I looked from, like, who
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: did anybody call out? Nick Kurtz was like, no, don't
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: even call like Jack Keglione or anything like that. Like
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: it was like that we whiffed majorly on on the
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: Rookie of the Years by about a mile.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: But we do every year. It's really hard, Like Rookie
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: of the Year is probably the hardest one to get
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: unless you have like somebody like you know, Tani coming
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: over or something like that, where it's very obvious, and
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: even with that, it doesn't always work, as we saw
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: with Rookie Sasaki so keep that like in mind when
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: you're kind of looking at these back I mean, we
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: did much better on Cy Young and MVP, and honestly, sometimes,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: especially this year, the chalk one across the board, so
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: like it's a little more fun to like stake your
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: claim on some buddy that.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely do that.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: I definitely like that.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: It's not gonna be this year like I think I
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: did to take Skeens, but like it, it's fun to
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: just go against the current a little bit. Why would
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: I take Scooble. It's just not like you won the
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: triple Crown of the pitching, like.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, like yeah, your picks were Skiens, crochet O,
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: Tani Bobby Wit. Mine were Skeens, Brace Miller, that's me
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: Ziggin and Ing and uh oh Tani Bobby Witt Junior.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: So it's like you got to go pretty chalk for those.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you do.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: But then you get into really the fantasy specific ones.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: So you've got a sleeper, a bust and infatuation, a
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: comeback pick, a fantasy most Valuable pitcher, which that and
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: most Valuable hitter are. You've got to kind of keep
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: it in context at the draft price. So It's really
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: like when we're trying to describe that player in the
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: preseason picks. Obviously you would put Otani as your most
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: valuable hitter or whatever. But what you're trying to do
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: is trying to find the right kind of balance of, Hey,
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: I'm picking this dude in the tenth round. I think
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: he's got a shot to be a top four round
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: sort of player, and so I think we've got a
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: few good picks across the board. I'm gonna pass this
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: over to you. What he goes into some of your
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: thoughts as you were making these picks too, Are you
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: trying to plant lots of flags to show these are
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: your players? Are you trying to, you know, look at
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: the broader system of all the players and really hone
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: in on the one of like, oh, everybody else has
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: got this guy down as a five dollar value. I
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: think he's more of a twenty dollars value.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's probably a little both. Like I
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: definitely like to plant my flags and be a little
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: bold and say like the market's way off on these
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: kind of guys, or the markets forgetting these kind of guys.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: But then when we're looking at like the most valuable Hitter,
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: most valuable pitcher, Like, there's so many guys like this
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: is my sunny great example because I think it was
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: two years ago when I two or three years ago
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: when I called that, when he was like top three
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: in the cy Young and I'm like, I think my
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: right up was like I don't understand this. This guy
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: is like unbelievable. He is going to you know, dominate
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: in the league, and you're gonna get him from a
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: ridiculously cheap draft price. And there's just some guys that
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: are just not exciting enough. I don't know what it is,
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: and people just aren't willing to give him the time
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: of day. And there's also this desire to find the
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: next big thing, and people tend to overdraft because of that.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: So I try to kind of be pragmatic with it
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: and make a few bold choices here and there as
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: we look through, like to your point, like cy Young MVP,
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: like you gotta go with the herd here because like
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: it is what it is. But you know, the most
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: valuable hitters and most valuable pitchers, you know, I was
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: actually is pretty happy with my most valuable pitcher, which
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: was Hunter Brown. I didn't call him out in our
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: show notes. But like guy like that, like he was
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: still getting drafted as probably a number two or three,
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: and he was absolutely number one, and you could see
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: it coming, and I think people just didn't want to
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: look at that. It's just like now, it's it's not fun,
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: it's not sexy enough, so let's look past it.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: Okay. Well, with allow that in mind, I'm going to
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: toss it over you. What do you consider your win
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: from your staff picks?
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so my biggest win is is definitely a flag
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: I planted in the preseason, and I got a lot
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: of shade for this one in posts and rankings. People
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: were not fans of this, and it might have something
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: to do with the city that it was from. And
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: so going to Queen's there in New York and going
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: with Mark Bientos and I called him my bust and
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: he absolutely was a bust. And I still don't understand
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: why people like I actually saw somebody with a bold
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: prediction that Pianto's is gonna go off again next year.
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: I don't understand it. I don't understand what people see.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: He you know, is twenty twenty four season. He had
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: major strikeout issues. He had a babe, like sixty seventy
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: points above his career average and didn't look out of line.
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: But he's a slow plotter, Like he is not a
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: quick cat by any means, and so he's gonna have
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: a lower babip. And he has terrible play discipline. It's
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: not just strikeouts. He chases, he doesn't make contact. He's
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: not picking the good pitches like most of like when
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: we talk about a lot of guys we were talking
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: about like Simeon and Nemo earlier and kind of the
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: way that you know their selection. Even a Dolla Garcia
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: where was like, well, he definitely chases things out of
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: the zone, but he was still like above the major
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: league average, and things like the Into's chase is four
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: points worse than MLB average. He's swinging outside the zone
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: three points worse. When he does, he doesn't make contact
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: like he's luckily he swings up pitches and the mill
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: of the zone, which is a good thing, but like
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: he's just all over the place and he he's just
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: he's so free swinging that unless you run into a
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: few things, it's just not gonna work. And so Vento's
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: to me, was like a stay away, stay away and
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: I'm still staying away. I just don't understand it. A
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: guy that doesn't walk, doesn't have any plate discipline, uh,
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: doesn't have any speed like that. I mean, we're are
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: we talking about Joey Gallo. That's basically what we're talking
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: about here. Maybe Adam Dunn if you want, just not
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: not quite big enough. And Mark Viento's uh to make
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: that happen. So I called him a bust. He was
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: absolutely busted, and I think he's gonna be a bust
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: again next year if people keep trying to invest in them.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I mean I think he's even worse than
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: those couple of names he brought up, especially than Joey Gallo,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: because like the other thing with Viento's is he is
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: an absolute butcher in the field, so like there's nothing
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: redeeming to keep him on the field and in the
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: lineup day in day out when the Mets are I
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: mean they didn't even make the playoffs, but they're right
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: on that precipice the entire time. So like that was
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: always Gallo's like redeeming quality is like, yes, he's going
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: to go through it. They're gonna be multiple direct of
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: weeks where he's gonna get like one hit a week,
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: but the defense plays, so you know that by the
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: end of the season in a roto format, Gala will
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: get to his home runs. You can't count on that
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: with Mark Fianto's because like he is so bad in
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: the field, there's nowhere to put him but d h
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: or first base. And I do think Peter A Lonzo
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: is going back there. It really kind of tanks any
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: of that floor that you're looking for in a power
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: slugger like this.
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, and you know it's it, don't get me
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: wrong there. He might run into one year here there,
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: but like I just he's he They're gonna pinch uh
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: pinch it for him. They're gonna they're gonna defensive replace
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: for him. He's gonna lose the bats too. Like it's
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: just not not good if he ever gets on there.
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: Or you're flogging a utility spot with a guy that's
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: got power and nothing else, like that's just not wise.
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: So how about you, well give me one, give me
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: one of your wins, which which was the or give
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: me multiple wins. I give me whatever you want. Where
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: where were you excited? Where were you gonna stake your claim?
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: On the top of the mountain here.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean I actually I we were going to
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: just go for one, but I went for two. I mean,
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: I'm just to toot my own horn a little bit.
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: But like, I mean, I also had some duds as well.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: But the two wins, it's just because like I wasn't
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: sure which one was better. One of them was pretty obvious,
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: and that is my buss was Shane McClanahan, mostly because
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: like when I made that pick, there were a lots
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: he was like a top one hundred pick, and people
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: were like drafting him as like a oh, if you
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: don't get an ace, maybe you could pick Shane McClanahan
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: and use him as a two bumps up to an ace.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: And it's like, this dude has not seen the field forever.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: He just underwent his second Tommy John surgery. He was
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: looked absolutely dreadful in spring training, and so like it
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: wasn't really that hard to really sell against Shane McClanahan.
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: I know you loved injured pitchers, but like it was
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: just such toin a degree of risk where it's just
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: like you see the track record of the multiple injuries
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: that McClanahan has had and still doesn't necessarily have a
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: great timeline for getting back on the field, and then
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: you just kind of put together like looked off on
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: spring training, not in terms of like a, oh, he's
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: working through a new pitch sore situation, and it's just
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: like ugh. And then you also add in like outside
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: that spring training, like he did not get close to
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: getting back on the mound in twenty twenty four before
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, like went through like the off season cycle,
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: and so it was just a lot of like flag
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: after flag after flag where it was just too much
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: to do anything with him. He was totally off my board.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: And so that one, like I said, I think it's
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: an easy bus to call out when you look back
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: in hindsight at Shane McClanahan. The real win I think
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: here is Nathany Valdi, who was my most valuable fantasy pitcher,
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: which probably was true considering he was getting drafted probably
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: as like a number five or six fantasy starter very
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: late in drafts, almost like five dollars below player and
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: any serve auctions. And what's kind of funny is it
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: worked out even though like the ultimate kind of season
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: that Avaldi put together was not quite the shape I
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: thought it would be. The reason I was in on
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: him is the previous four seasons he just kind of
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: posted like twenty twenty two was a little bit of
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: a down year, but it was I like the honestly,
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: it's this is my version of Sunny Gray. Like I'm
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: always in on Sunny Gray with you too, because like
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: I will always take the early thirties right handed pitcher
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: who just posts and like puts up sub four eras,
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: mid three eras, you know, a nine K nine where
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: it's just like you put that in your lineup and
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: you draft him as a five or six, but he
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: posts as a two or three. That's what wins fantasy
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: leagues every year. So I thought it would get more
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: innings out of ail Valdi. And then he showed up
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: and the Texas Rangers Stadium turned into like Polo grounds,
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: like all around. I was thinking, like, I mean, there
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: is no like polo grounds lines, but like it is
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: easily the best picture park in baseball that people are
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: going to be targeting it now. But a one seventy
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: three ERA and one hundred and thirty innings, he was, uh,
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: Jacob de Gram without the caves for you, it was
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: a total win on Nathany Valdi.
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a great call because I've owned
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: evology in the past the same exact, like, you don't
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: pay much for Valdi, like, and I still think next
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: year you're not gonna pay much for These are the
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: guys that just don't get any respected. You're absolutely right,
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: just target them because they're ei, they're boring, they're not
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: sexy picks. They win leagues. That's as simple as that.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: So okay, let's move on to those l's. So we've
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: we've got a few, even though we do to out
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: ourselves less these fancy experts, but it's tough not to
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: have l's in this type of game, and when you're
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: posting stuff early in season.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: So what was your l Yeah, so we talked about
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: the rookies the year earlier, so like we I think
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: we give ourselves some grace in that when when you miss,
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: but like I missed bad in this one. I was
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: so in on Alan roadin for at the time of
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: the Toronto Blue Jays going into the season. There's a
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: great story. This is the guy that walks as much
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: as he strikes out. He was stealing bases. He has
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: power like he really just made it so that the
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: Blue Jays couldn't keep him in the minor leagues, and
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: he had a outstanding in spring training, like it just
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: looked like this is a guy that was just comfortable, mature,
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: ready to go. And then he hit the majors and
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: like he stopped walking. He started striking out left and
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: right like he he had like when he the season
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: first started, he had some of the worst luck possible.
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: And I think that like torpedoed his season. Is that
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: like I think his baby and I have to go
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: back and look, but I think the splits, like the
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: first month was like one hundred, Like he just nothing
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: would work for him. And part of the reason I
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: want to call it the l was not just the
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: fact that he had a dreadful season where he hit
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: one ninety one with two homers in fifty five games,
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: which is pretty bad. He did so bad that they
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: trade at him and they just the guy that actually
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: had like they were touting is like maybe the replacement
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: for George Springer in the spring training, this might be
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: the guy that's gonna break camp and make a name
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: for himself. That they've soured so fast on him, and
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: they trained him to the Twins at the end of
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: the season, and he had as many homers with the
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: Twins as he in twelve games he did with the
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: Blue Jason forty three games, so maybe he turned it around.
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: But he did hit one fifty eight with the Twins,
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: So yeah, when your pick as WRC plus a fifty six,
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: that's pretty pretty rough. So I missed. I still have
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: hope for Alan Roaden, but the price is absolutely free
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: because he he was a big, big old bust and
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: uh uh when I take Alan Roaden over the Kurt's
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: Rookie of the Year, yep, I think I missed.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, just a little bit. But yeah, I mean
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: I was into Rodin too, and I think now that
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: I look back at his profile and maybe it's too
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: meant too many ground balls, and like, this is a
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: guy who the jump between Triple A and the majors
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: is huge, It's crazy huge, and this is a pretty
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: good example of that happening. But what do you think
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: is that is just too many ground balls in the profile?
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: Coming through the minor leagues, it was like consistently in
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: the mid to upper forties.
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it definitely is a little bit of that.
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: I also think there's a little aspect of there's guys
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: like Rodin and he might a still figure it out,
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: but that are much more mature hitters than talents. And
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: I think that is a little bit. What happened with
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: Rodin here is that he is a very smart guy.
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: He gets the most out of his tools, and so
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: when he's in the miners and he's doing that, he
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: is working in the counts, he's figuring things out, he's
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: taking the extra base, he's doing all the right things,
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: and he just looks great doing it because he's doing
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: it against talent that's the same level of him. But
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: then he gets up to that major league level and
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: he can't keep up. He just his talent levels out there,
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: even though he's the smartest player. He does everything well,
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: and so that's really really hard to differentiate. But I
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: kind of feel like that's too Drew. It was the
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: ground balls were not good either, and so but he's
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: still it just he looked very very much overmatched, and
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: that was more of a pure talent perspective and not
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: how he approaches things. The routes he takes, the approach,
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: he takes the plate, like those things weren't the problem.
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: It's just he was overmatched and he might work through that,
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: but he didn't hit the ground running like a Nick Kurtz.
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: I don't think he was necessarily like the most well rounded,
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: smartest like he is just extremely talented and the talent
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: carried and he's able to adjust to it and use
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: some of that to figure it out. Because he looks
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: dreadful to start, but the talent was able to come through,
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: whereas Rodin didn't have enough pure talent. Belie leave so
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: make it happen.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: I think that's all fair. All right, Well, for my
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: l I'm gonna have to take it on Louise Rinhifo.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: I had him as my most valuable fantasy hitter, and wow,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: what a dreadful season. It was a It was a
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: solid twenty twenty four that was looking up for Renhifo.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: I liked the playing time. He did go down eventually
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: with an injury that kind of shortened a season, but
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: in three hundred and four plate appearances to twenty twenty four,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: a three hundred and three forty seven four to seventeen
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: slash line with twenty four steals looked like a cheap
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: middle in field option and twenty twenty five was a
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: total stinker. Two thirty eight, two eighty seven, three thirty
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: five and five hundred and forty one played appearances, nine homers,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: ten stolen bases, So totally crapped the bed, and I
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: think there were a couple of factors that really went south.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: So one thing that I liked about Renhifo was just like, honestly,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: it's a great park out there for Los Angeles, especially
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: in the beginning of the season. We've talked about this.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: It plays a little warmer than other parks, I think,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: and so Anaheim especially, Like if you ever checked the
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: like single season leader boards for stat cast metrics, which
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: I know this is a little dangerous if you do
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: it like during the one season, about like halfway through
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: the season, usually the angel Stadium will rank pretty far
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: far up and will kind of fade a little bit
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: more down the stretches other parks warm up, I think,
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: and then it gets a little cooler in Orange County
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: and evens out. But the opportunity here for nifos what
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: I loved. I also loved that under Ron Washington, the
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: Angels were just like running stupid, like the non smart
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: base running with the stolen bases a little bit like
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: what the Washington National has been doing, just because they
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: were in total f at mode as an entire team,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: and Ron Washington wanted to get them running. That went
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: south because Ron Washington also got sick during the season
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: and had to miss a large trunk of it, and
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: I mean Rhinefo like was kind of washes one of
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: his dudes a little bit here and there, and so like,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: once that went away really hurt Renuifo. But if I
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: had to go back, the one thing that I've started
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: to learn, especially from First Pitch Arizona, you know, Sarah's
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: had a really good presentation on this is essentially when
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: you're looking at those stat Cast metrics nowadays, the big
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: one to really pay attention to is bat speed. That
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: bat speed is a very positive positive indicator towards barrels
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: and all sorts of other production metrics where he's got
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: fancier ones, but they're also kind of like still in development,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: and teams have fancier ones, but they're not necessarily like
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: one to one for stat Cast. If you want to
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: get a close relationship, bat speed will do it. And
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: actually some of these other guys that we've talked about
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: as bus Vinto's is a low bat speed rodin as
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: a low bat speed, and it's not necessarily a damning
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: thing because you can still be a good player and
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: have bad bat speed like Mookie Betts, Ernie Clement, Nico Horner,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: Brendan Donovan, Jacob Wilson, Stephen Kwan. But those are a
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: contact artists.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all those guys you listed are great contact, great
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: situational players, and they bring a very well rounded defensive game.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: They generally have speed these other things I mean, like
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: even when he fo from a speed perspective like not great,
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: actually not great and not efficient at ceiling bases at all.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: No, And so I think I found a little bit
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: of the line when I was looking at the stat
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: cast plot of like bat tracking for squared up versus
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: average bat speed. So I would say that if you're
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: actually below average bat speed on your slider, I need
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: your squared up percentage to be thirty percent or higher
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: because that means you're actually a good contact here, you're
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: a good hitter. You're selling that bat speed down most
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: likely also to make better decisions partly and can probably
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: on cork it a little bit, you know, the way
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: the mokey bets can open up when needs to. Hurldough
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: Perdomo is also another good example of this great bat
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: control well below bats average bat speed, but the squared
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: up percentage is above thirty percent. Rihn Hefo's down in
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: like twenty six, twenty seven. So this is something I'm
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: definitely caring forward next year. Is like that combination. I
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: needs you to have average bat speed, are better on
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: Baseball Savant, and if you don't, I need your squared
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: up percentage to be thirty percent or above. So that's
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: something that I'm just using as a tool. It's a
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: very rough and ready tool as we go forward, because
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: like the one guy who will break this is Freddy Freeman,
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: and you know called this out during his presentation that
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: Freddy Freeman's bat doesn't like fit anything and else's spies
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: and so you will have outliers like that. But for
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: the most part, I've had a hard time finding somebody
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: other than Freddy Freeman that has that below thirty percent
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: or like squared uprate with below average bat speed. That
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: is somebody where I'm like, eh, that is a good hitter,
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: because it's a pretty poor group and it's all those
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: like Goldfielders that are just volume plays at that point
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: that you're never gonna get anything special from them, nothing
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: that you can really kind of hang your hat as
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: being this guy can be a sleeper.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it's a really great call out because
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 2: I'm kind of looking at the data now and that's
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: that's the challenge is these guys that don't have these
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: fast swings, and there's some underlying metrics you can actually
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: get to that don't show up on the sadcast, like
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: the fast swing rate, Like Junior Caminaro eighty one percent
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: of the time swings faster than seventy five mile an hour,
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: and it's just it's just crazy. I mean, and that's
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: like that's ten mile hour. That's ten percent more than
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: air judge, Like, it's just unbelievable. That's where O New
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: Cruise is Jordan Walker there, but he doesn't square anything up.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: That's the anominally the other way.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, and so like that's that's that's that's it's
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 2: really interesting because that's where like Jordan Walker and Joe Adele,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: Matt Wallner, those kind of guys sit that they really
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: swing hard, but they really don't square the ball up.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 2: They're they're under it, their top of things like that,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: and that's where you start to see kind of some differentiators,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: but other names that kind of jump out in that
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: same leaderboard that swing fast and actually square things up.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 2: Addison Barger jumps out on that. You know you've got
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: Jesus Sanchez actually jumps out, Augustin Ramiroz, Drake Baldwin the
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: patron saying of this, yes, and those kind of guys
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: just really make things happen. So you know, I think
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 2: you're onto something that's where you should where you should
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 2: look next yearr Cayle Rally was there as well.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: So yeah, now that I've given weigh my entire twenty
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: twenty six draft strategy for hitters, let's get into some
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: of those other staff picks that have been our favorites.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: So we went through and we're not gonna we're not
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: gonna drag anybody here. We're too nice, We're too west nice.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: But we are going to call out some of the
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: big wins because I do use this list to kind
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: of like Rea value wait what I've been doing before
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: the season, just to kind of like, especially if some
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: of these players are undrafted. In some of my leagues
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: I start, you know, watching them or guys, if I've
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: got a late draft, I'm like, hey, I'll take a
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: fire on this because you know, Laura Holt is into them,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: or Trust is into them, or the Itches into them.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: So who are some of the best picks that you
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: saw when you were looking back at the grid.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm gonna call it two out ones A gimme,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: but you have to call it out. I'll give it
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: to Rudy because he called a manual class a out.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: I don't think that his logic had anything to do
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: with gambling issues, but I wouldn't put it past him.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: And so I'm just I had to call that one
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: out because as I was looking across the list, I'm like,
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 2: that one just that was just jumped out. I thought
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: it was funny. And the other one I'm gonna give
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: it goes to Max from a sleeper perspective, who called
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 2: out ben Rice. And I look at that one and
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: I and I remember you and I talking about ben
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: Rice the prior year, and both of us were very
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: high on him when he came out of the minors
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: and what he could do, and like, I don't know
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: what it was, but neither of us like really stuck
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: with him, is like he's gonna really do things, even
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: though it still looked good. I think part of it
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 2: for me was like, is he actually didn't get the
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 2: playing time was a big thing. And what actually intrigues
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: me with this one is that I think you could
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 2: call him a sleeper again next year or a breakout
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: or whatever wording you want to use, because as much
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: as he did deliver, all those underlying metrics look really
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: really good, even better than what he did. And I
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: think Ben Rice like took a big step this year
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 2: and could take a big step next year. And so
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: I think that Max calling that out him getting the
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: playing time, I think that was a great, great call.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 2: So giving kudos to Rudy Max here on class A
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 2: and Ben Rice.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that Ben Rice pick is it's gonna be.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: I think he's gonna be one of the players to
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: watch through twenty twenty six draft season because everybody can
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: see the Savant page page for Ben Rice. It looks like, yeah,
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: it looks like Aaron Judge, like You're like, who is this?
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: And it's just almost like I'm right there with it.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: I almost like the price for Ben Rice. I will
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: probably pay where it goes up to. Because he's also
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: catcher eligible in a two catcher league. This dude's gonna
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: be I think bananas valuable. So we'll see where it's.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 2: Yes, but he's catcher eligible.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: Which is what matters to us in fantasy, and so
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: I could see lots of people being in on him
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: and the price could get crazy, but it's warranted. Yeah, Okay,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna my two call outs. Max also had the
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: one of the better most valuable pitcher call outs and
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: ADYE Hamley was right there there with him, Christopher Sanchez.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: They both called him out as most valuable Fantasy pitcher,
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: which I mean, I think Sanchez is probably even the
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: better pick than Aovaldi for that category considering the sheer
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: volume that you got u Chez and especially if you
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: were taking him early in draft season. His price early
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: in draft season was dirt cheap. That like a great
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: pickup cy young candidate. By the end of the draft season,
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: it had really increased because it looked great in spring
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: training and people were picking up on that and it
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: carried all the way through. So great call there. The
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: other one I've just got called out our boy Marmo's dad,
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: Joe adel he put his He put the flag down
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: with the flag and it worked to thirty six batting average.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: Not that didn't kill you, which is huge to get
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: thirty seven homers in ninety eight RBI out of him
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: when the price was pretty cheap. And honestly, this is
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: what I was looking for in that Angels. This Angel
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: squad is gonna have the same sort of thing going
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: forward next year. The Rockies are great for this too.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: If you can find the guy who sticks in the
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: middle of that lineup boom thirty five homers. Hunter Goodman
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: would have been in this category. Two. You know, you
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: can really do some damage with Slim his bad teams
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: for your fantasy team.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 2: I think good call. I I still feel like a
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: little ick with Joe Adell, Like I feel like I
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 2: just there's something that feels wrong with with like relying
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: on him or trusting him or anything like that. And
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 2: it does very much feel like maybe in a Dollascarch year,
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 2: like we're we talking about Joe Dell two you and
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 2: be like, yeah, why why did I ever think this
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: would last? But we'll give it to mar Moost Like
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: he planted his flag, he knew it was a bold
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 2: move and it paid off, and uh, kudos kudos to him.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah it is. It was a wild year for Joe
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: Dell increased. He's almost got an eighty five percent zone
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: contact rate, which is pretty dang good. But the walks
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: have decreased. I wonder if he's also just like not
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: taking stuff down the middle anymore. He's just like, if
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: I see it down the middle, I'm swinging. And because
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: that was the one thing that I liked in the
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four season for Adell was he started walking,
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: and then this year he's just like, forget that, I'm swinging.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: So yeah, call out for Joel Infatuation Marmo's Dad. I'm
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: sure he's going to show up on Marmo's dad's picks
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: at some point in twenty twenty six as well. Okay,
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: well with that, let's wrap up for the podcast for
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: this week. Happy Thanksgiving to you, Brew, Happy Thanksgiving to
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: all the listeners out there. Let everybody know where they
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: can reach.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: You on socials yep, find me over on Twitter ex
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: Blue Sky Jabrewer one seven. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody, and
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 2: we'll be back in a week. Cooly where from folks
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 2: find you.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you can find me on blue Sky at mcool seven.
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: That's cool spelled co U I L L like my
• 1:12:33
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• 1:12:36
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• 1:12:40
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• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: your other kind of Rasball favorite staff picks that you
• 1:12:46
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• 1:12:49
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• 1:12:52
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• 1:12:55
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• 1:13:01
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• 1:13:07
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• 1:13:19
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• 1:13:22
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• 1:13:24
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• 1:13:27
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• 1:13:33
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• 1:13:38
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• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: twenty sixth season. Check it all out rasball. We're still
• 1:13:43
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• 1:13:46
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• 1:13:53
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• 1:13:56
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• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: Thank you,