Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 84 : Spring Training Standouts

Transcript

Ep. 84 : Spring Training Standouts · Cards & Categories

• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Hellowin.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Welcome everybody to episode eighty four of Cards and Categories.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: I'm Mike Coulard from Rasball, joined as always by my
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: very good friend Jeremy Burr, also from ras Ball. We
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: are speaking on March nineteenth, Wednesday night. So we have
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: concluded the Japanese series between the Cubs and the Dodgers
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: as we are speaking. How great does it feel to
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: actually see some standings go live in those leagues that
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: you've drafted.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: It's fantastic. It's like that that redemption of First of all,
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: I drafted Tommy. I had been in a few leagues
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: and so like, I'm winning the league just because he
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: had a homer and literally nobody else's stats. I got
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: a kick out of looking at one of our leagues
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: where I had Tanner Scott, I have only save for
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: a day, and I'm like, nice, I'm winning this, and
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: that I looked at, like, how do these other guys
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: have points and saves? It was because they had zero
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: because they had a starter go and they got it,
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: gave them a zero and save versus nol and they
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: got points for it because the algorithm didn't know what
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: to do with that. And so it's it's great, We're there.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you watched anything. I snuck in
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: a little bit myself in the mornings, just watching just
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: a little bit of baseball because I had to, and
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: it was definitely it's time. I'm ready.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't catch any of it live either of
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: the games, but I was able to catch it through
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: you know, social media, seeing kind of like the posts
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: and the pictures and a little bit of the rebroadcast
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: from the first game last night in terms of just
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: kind of getting a feel for it, which it was
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: a very strange like broadcast because they were doing a
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: remote play by play with Benetti and aj Pierzinski, and
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: you could kind of tell that, like they just didn't
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: quite have the energy that matched what was going on
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: in the Tokyo Dome, which it might be like my
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: favorite stadium right now on Earth that like, I love
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: when they play in the Tokyo Dome for these Japanese
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: games that I don't know, but it's like the aura
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: of it is fantastic. Obviously, the crowds killer because it's
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: in Tokyo and we had all these Japanese stars on
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: both sides of the ball for Chicago and Los Angeles,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: but just the fervor and just the overall aesthetic I
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: think of the Tokyo Dome reminds me a lot of
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: when I played a lot and it will be the
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: show I used to play in the Hubert H. Humphrey
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Metro Dome, and a Little Big League is like my
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: favorite baseball movie. So like all those kinds of esthetics
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: as well as like the Astrodome was just kind of
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: cool to me all the time, and like a lot
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: of the modern day American stadiums just don't have kind
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: of that like retro dome vibe the way that the
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Tokyo Dome does, and it kind of gives me warm
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: feelings seeing games played there.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just it's fun. It's fantastic. I love the
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: fact that MLB does this. It's it's almost like a
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: nod to the Japanese leagues being willing to share the
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: wealth that they have of amazing talent. It's great to
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: see you great players like Otani, iman Aga, Sasaki, all
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: those kind of guys Yeao Moto being back on their
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: home turf, Like it's got to be so fun for them,
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: and it's just so fun for us to watch so
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: great way to start the season a little confusing as
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: we have spring training and real baseball at the same time,
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: but we're not too far off. We are almost almost there.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and speaking of spring training, that is what are
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: the focus of our main topic is going to be
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: here in the megan segment after we get through some
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: news and notes and maybe a little more Japanese Series
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: discussion here, But we're gonna look at some of the
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: hot starts that we've seen in spring training and kind
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: of determine whether or not we're believers and what that
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: stat line might provide going into twenty twenty five. So
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: we've got a mix of players from upper level stars
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: to back of the end guys, prospects, and even players
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: who look like it's just finally all coming together. So
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: I guess I let's get a little bit more into
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: the Japanese series because what we're maybe in of your
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: big takeaways from stat lines that you saw, what you
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: watched in terms of the game action, anything that like
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: is going to really stand out to you in your
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: memories from this twenty twenty five Japanese series.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think a few things jump out to me,
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: you know, I think, well, first of all, the Dodgers
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: seem like they're going to be just unbelievable, unbelievably hard
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: to beat. But part of that is the role players
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: like And it feels odd to say, but when when
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: I was watching the games kind of paying attention, like
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: the some of the big things were happening from like
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: I said, Tommy Edmund, Iky Hernandez Alex got the saved
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: today instead of Tanner Scott like they've you know, we
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: always focus on the big names they have here. And
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: don't get me wrong, that tiny guy's pretty good, you know,
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: but they they're deep, not just all stars. They have
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: great eight guys that can fill and carry the team
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: even when the stars aren't doing what they what they
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: want to do. I was also really excited to see
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Will Smith walk a lot. He just seemed very comfortable
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: with to play, So I think that was another thing
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: that stood out for me. So yeah, I think really
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: what stuck stuck out with the Dodgers and the death
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: that they had and how how that's going to carry through. Also,
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: it was excited to see Matt Shaw looks very very
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: comfortable and not necessarily just at the play, but even
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: in the field. I mean a few really really nice plays,
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: and so you know, if there's any lingering thoughts of
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: like is he gonna stick? Like, well, first of all,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: they gave him the job right out of spring training,
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: but he definitely looked like right at home uh In
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: in the Tokyo Dome. So that's kind of what jumps
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: to me. What about you? Is anything special that I'm
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: that I'm missing here?
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: I mean I will reiterate what you said about Shaw
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: there that it reminds me a little bit of like
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: when we saw White Langford debut last year and you
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: could just see him in the box. You're like, oh,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: this guy is a ballplayer, and so like there's that
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: factor with Shaw. So I think it is going to
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: be a very solid season for him. Great that to
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: see that he went to Japan and broke camp with
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: the Cubs, so they have all the faith in him.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Obviously you got to talk Brokei Sasaki where the stuff
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: looked electric, But I think the moment was a little
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: bit big for him, and it was wild those five
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: walks in the three innings. So just a reminder too
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: that that is there are gonna be ups and downs
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: with Sasaki the way there were last year at Yamamoto
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: in terms of getting used to MLB and getting used
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: to pitching on that schedule and just kind of the
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: different bright lights in the travel schedule, so on, so forth.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: So I mean, I love Sasaki for long term keeper
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: dynasty leagues. But that's why, like this year, the price
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: was a little bit too rich for me. But on
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: the other hand, too Yamamoto. I think it's gonna be
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: a regret of a lot of people that he slipped
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: in drafts the way he did, considering how highly picked
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: he was in twenty twenty four, and now like he
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: got that first season under his belt, he got through
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: some injuries, he got through some adversity in twenty twenty four,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: and he looked really good in that opener, and so
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: I think that there's a really good chance that we
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: see like a number one type season of Yama Moti
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: if he keeps going the way that he did in
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: that opening day game.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're right there. There's a lot of
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: a lot of talent there and it's a matter of
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: how's it going to come together. But yeah, Motave being
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: on the second season, you have to feel like he's healthy.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: He had a few scares the first season there. Yeah,
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: that's gonna be fun to watch.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: All right, Well let's go from the Tokyo Dome to
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: a former dome down in Tampa. As we've got some
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: news from the Rays that the ballpark that they had
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: lined up last fall that was supposed to be going
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: to Saint Petersburg and replacing Trapic Cannafield, has totally dissolved,
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: So that deal is no longer on the table. It's
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: turned into quite the just wrestling within Major League Baseball
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: because it sounds like the owners are not pleased with
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Stu Sternberg in terms of how he is handled that
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: situation down there. So it's gonna be a chaotic time
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: I think for the Tampa Bay Rays overall. But I
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: also kind of want to call it out because as
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: we discuss spring training, what I've also been noticing too
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: is like you can see it in terms of if
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: you watch a lot of spring training games, and I'll
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: highlight this I think when we get into some of
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: the stats discussion a little bit, is like just the
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: different fields and playing environments in those Florida Spring training
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: outdoor games is crazy in terms of the wind. We've
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: already heard from some of the players who have been
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: on the Rays and have been commenting on them moving
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: to drivers Steinberner Field that there's just almost like a
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: jet stream to right field there. And so like in
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: the past week in drafts, I have been just hoarding
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Rays on every roster I can, because you also have
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: to keep in mind they're front loaded for home games
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: down in Tampa just slightly. I was looking at the
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: schedule and you can kind of tell by the like
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: blue and whites for home in a way that it's
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: just like more home games, not maybe not as many
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: as I was expecting, but I think it's also a
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: good kind of gamble in terms of like putting your
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: chips in that Tampa Bay Ray's batting basket, because if
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: it doesn't work out in the beginning, I don't think
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: it'll work out in the end, and so but if
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: it does, I think it's gonna pay off pretty handsomely.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: What do you think do you think I'm going in
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: too far on this raised stadium stuff and trying to
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: get onto this jet stream.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: I I don't know where the jet stream is gonna go.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: I think it's kind of a question that the other
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: factor that I have, because I have been down to
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: Florida for spring training, and you're right like that the
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: winds seem to change constantly, so I think it's it's
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: an interesting theory, and it's kind of like, you know,
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: clubs players and Wrigley, like if the wind's blown out,
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: start them all day. Maybe this is just me getting
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: lazy in my old age. But like, I don't know
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: if I have the fantasy baseball stamina to try to
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: predict the wins for every game to be picking the players.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: So maybe go a little far if it's for my liking,
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: because I just, like I said, I think it could
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: go the other way at times. But hey, if you
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: can find a niche and you can find an opportunity,
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: squeeze it. Squeeze it and take all all the things
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: you can find from it.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: So good low key endorsement for a rasball subscription there.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Because those dfs daily projections that Rudy pumps out on
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: the website do take weather into into considerations, so I
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: think that's something to look at that. I'll have to
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: ask him if he has it like set for a
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: wind direction too, you know, if like, yeah, it's just.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: Like rain or things like that.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: But but like I If he's going to go that
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: far to put weather into that projection, why not put
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: direction of wind and stadium to to be able to
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: predict if it's going to be more of like a
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: pitching friendly or hitting friendly game.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: That certainly something to look into.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: But either way, like you're gonna know if it's also
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: a hot day in Sacramento, that'll be right in those
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: DFS projections from Rudy because that's going to be another
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: factor that we have to kind of toy with going
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: to twenty twenty five with the Athletics playing in Sacramento
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: and that heat, I think it's going to really make
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: a huge difference throughout the summer for the Athletics.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think Sacramento is going to be really interesting
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: see outplays. Like I know we've heard all the talk,
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: but the ballparks a similar shape and size. I don't
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: think it's going to play as hit or friendlies as
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: folks expect compared to the Coliseum. So, like, I think
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: it'll be fun to watch because it'll probably just be
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: a few weeks in and we'll start to see how's
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: the ball flying out there. It'll still be you know,
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: I guess early, but out in California, it's not that cold.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Actually. On the other side, I think it is going
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: to be a significant change.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: You also have to factor in the foul territory that
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: the coliseum used to have that proves a lot of
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: outs just if you don't have that space to make
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: those catches. Gives you a lot of second chances, new
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: life for the batters.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: And I think it.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: Will maybe play pretty neutral in the beginning, but once
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: it starts heating up in Sacramento, it is significantly warmer
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: in Sacramento than it is in Oakland, And like, I
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: think it's gonna make a really big difference. That it
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: also makes sense maybe that like you could almost like
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: stack it with Rays and a's where the Rays have
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: so many early home games, roster them. If the Athletics
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Sacramento doesn't play quite as hitter friendly as people might think,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: maybe they start hitting your free agent pool. You pick
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: them up later in the season when it starts heating up,
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: and you might find yourself a nice little kind of
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: like combination player there.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: That's the most interesting platoon we played in ballpark platoons.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: Now not in already left you. This is ballpark platoons.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: I'm just gearing up for my first piece of this week.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: It is waiver wire season. You're hitty gritty, Okay, Well,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: let's get into some roster MLB transactions with individual players.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: We'll start with what I think are some pretty fascinating
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: developments in terms of starting rotation spots that I've really
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: honed in on this past week. First is my boy
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Michael McGreevy has been pitching so well he might be
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: forcing the Saintless Cardinals to go to a six man rotation,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: which this is so long overdue in terms of getting
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: McGreevy into the big leagues and getting him a steady spot.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: I've been banging this drum since late twenty thirteen, when
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: McGreevy has clearly been like one of the best five
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: pitchers in the Cardinals organization since probably mid twenty twenty three,
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: and it looks like he's been so good in the
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: spring that he's forcing the Cardinal's hand here as it's
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: been a really great stretch of eleven and two thirds
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: innings a one fifty four era. It has been a
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: lower k rate, but I mean, he's not a big
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: strikeout guy.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: He's gonna be.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Just great for ratios, great for getting outs, great for
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: quality start leagues too, that like that's gonna be this
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: is a guy who can go six innings. What do
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: you think did the Cardinals actually commit to this? Does
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Michael McGreevy force the into a six man rotation?
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna say yes and no. I think they're gonna
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: start there then quickly go back to a five man's rotation.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: But it has nothing to do with Michael McGreevy. I
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: just think that we look at Stephen, Mattz, Miles, Mike
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: Cliss and I just even Fetty has been a little
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: bit questionable. I just don't know that those guys actually
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: hold up. I have a lot of faith in Sunny
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: Grace as we as we know. I think, actually, Andrea Plante,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: this is gonna be steaky good. So I think that
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: that's what you can rely on. But I think the
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: rest of them, you're gonna run to a situation where
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: somebody's can get hurt or the performance is just gonna
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: be there, so you have to end up in a
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: five man rotation.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think it's gonna be a situation too
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: where you gotta love in terms of what the.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Rates can be out of McGreevy.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: He's been a huge ground ball pitcher, and maybe that
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: infield's a little weaker than you would like, but it
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: does look like we're gonna get Victor Scott prowling center
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: field here for the Cardinals and providing that great defense,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: that great speed. So so I'm picking up McGreevy. Honestly,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: if you've got like just a random bench spot in
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: twelve teamers, it's not a bad dart to throw fifteen
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: teamers a must And I'll only like budget money for
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: Michael McGreevy going to twenty twenty five. It's it's happening.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: It's great. Uh okay, the next one we've got And
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: I can't even believe this. When I saw this, there
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: was a line in the itches recent kind of news
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: and Notes where I was like, no way, this guy
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: is not on a major league roster. What is he
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: talking about? Because he was making a bold prediction about
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Sean Newcomb. This man has come back from the dead,
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: and I think he's gonna win a position or a
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: roster spot and a rotation spot for the Boston Red Sox.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: He's been absolutely incredible in the spring.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Roster.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Resource doesn't have him in that starting five because he
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: isn't anri but I don't see how the Red Sox
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: don't think he deserves it, And Alex Cora has even
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: really praised what Newcomb has done in the spring. He's
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: put up a point nine three rora over nine and
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: two thirds with nine K nine just over nine K nine.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: So it's been a long time coming. As Newcombe debuted
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: for the Braves back in twenty seventeen, was a first
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: round pick of the Angels back in twenty fourteen. But
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: it reminds me a little bit of like the rich
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: Hill arc here that if if he's finally up and
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: running healthy and has all the pitch mits, pitch mix working,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: the peedibigree has been there for Sean Nukam, so what
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: do you think you're gonna do with him? And maybe
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: what do you do with other players? Kind of in
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: this archetype where been a star pitcher, been a big prospect,
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: it really comes together late for them.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I it kind of depends on what
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: their profile was coming up and what it was that
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: they I would say fixed or changed. A guy like Newcomb,
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: like his his biggest issue, he just didn't know where
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: the ball was going like he could throw he had
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: some stuff, but he can control it, and to me,
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: that's all one of the hardest things to overcome and fix.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: And so I'm watching what he's doing right here, I'm like,
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: do I believe the control? Do I believe that if
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: that really has improved, then yeah, Like the sky's the
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: limit for a guy that has really good stuff. I
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: have a hard time believing that that, you know, age
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: age thirty one, going, you know, be mostly a thirty
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: two year old season. I'm much more interesting guys that
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: make maybe a picks pitch mixed change or maybe it's
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: just a health thing or something like that. So I'm
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: probably not too into newcom here, but it's it's hard
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: not to wonder and watch and see, like some if
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: he does some good things here, you know, somebody's gonna
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: get you know, gonna take the leap and grab him.
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: But that's gonna be really hard to know, is it?
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: Is it truly real?
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Uh?
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: So I'm probably staying away from him because I just
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: the way he struggled. I'm probably the last five years,
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: it's be hard to see that he makes that big
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: of an improvement from a control perspective. But hey, maybe
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: Boston figures something out. I don't necessarily think of them
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: as a pitching factory, but hey, I could be wrong.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: I mean they were a little bit last year. Remember
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: when they came out the gates and everybody was going
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: slighter first and they were just striking everybody out. It
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: caught up with them in the end because then other
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: teams started just sitting slighter first, and also injuries kind
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: of hit them. But I'm intrigued by newcom that I
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: think if he makes the rotation, I think he can
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: be a good speculative ad especially how cold Boston plays
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: at the beginning of the season. That like, of course,
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: a lefty in Boston is not exactly always the best idea,
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: but I think it can go and be somebody who
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: can be useful. I think in fifteen teamers for sure,
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: and we'll have to see a little bit to see
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: if twelve team is possible. All right, Well, and unfortunately,
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: we've got a couple of injuries to highlight too, both
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: a third baseman this week. The first one we have
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: is Royce Lewis of the Minnesota Twins going down with
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: another hamstring strain at this point, just pretty quick in.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Or out on Royce Lewis just ever.
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: I have to be out Like I was rank I
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: was doing the top one hundred hitters, was doing the rankings,
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: and I put Lewis in there. I'm like, I'm benefit
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: the doubt, like he's had a few rough years, like
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: he's gotta made it through winter healthy and like it
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: was no more in the day after I published, and
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: there he goes like I'm just sitting here and going
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: like why, Like how did I think that he is
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: all magically improved and healthy. It's kind of like I
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: worried about Maooney with his knees at this point, kind
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: of a similar similar way. And so I just look
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: at Lewis here and I go, you know what, there's
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: so so much potential, but like there's just I don't
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: even think it's the way he plays. It just has
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: to be something just with his physical makeup that is
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: just injury prone with that of the guy doesn't stretch.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: I don't know what it is, but clearly it's it's
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: not working. And so yeah, I think you have to
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: be out in Lewis unless he's basically free, like if
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: you're taking a flyer or a corner infielder or something
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: like that. Yeah, I'll take that with Lewis. And you know,
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: it's kind of maybe kind of like Mike trout esking
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: a little right now, Like if I'm if I'm buying
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: him for like seventy or eighty games and I'm getting
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: that price, then I'm willing to take that gamble and
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: play the replacement level free agent. But otherwise, like you
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: gotta be done right.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, unless he's like super cheap in your Dynasty Keeper
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: or something like that, where just like the price is
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: just too good to be true.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: But it gets to what you're saying.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: That, like it's got to be such a dirt cheap
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: price that it's just it kills you in terms of
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: if you're in a snake draft and you spent any
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: capital on Royce Lewis to already have him be out.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: And the other problem is it's chronic soft tissue injuries
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: between hamstrings squads. That's not great. That's not a great
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: sign in terms of like it's not something where he
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: swim weird and tweaks something even where it's like an
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: oblique but it's like quads and hammies, which is like
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: if you can't keep those healthy, it's just not really
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: gonna ever come together, so, especially given how shallow third
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: base and kind of corner can get. And if you're
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: in a situation looking for a replacement for Royce Lewis,
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: it's it's tough sledding out there. Okay, Well, the other
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: one we have is third baseman, well right now, I
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: guess he's been playing a decent amount of shortstop here
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: in spring training. Two is Josh Rojas for the Chicago
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: White Sox. Has a hairline fracture in his right big toe.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: They're being a little mum on what it's gonna do
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: for his start of the season, but you have to
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: think he's gonna get on the ail for a little bit,
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: and even if he tries to play through it, any
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: sort of like hope you were you were you had
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: in Josh Rojas in terms of the volume that gave
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: you maybe like twelve twelve homers and stolen bases and
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: just a little bit of like that classic kind of
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: playing time isn't gonna be there. So, I mean, this
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: is brutal for the White Sox, But like, is there
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: anybody in that roster where like you could see stepping
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: up in that sort of mold of like Josh Rojas
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: where we harped on Tommy fam a lot about this
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: last year, where there is value even in kind of
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: like back end of twelve teamers, and it's certainly in
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: fifteen teamers of guys who just play every day at
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: the top of lineups. Is there anybody maybe on the
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: White Sox that does stand out to you because it's grody,
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: but like it does get the job done if you're
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: looking for runs and RBI.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: I I want to say yes, but I'm having trouble
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: like if I'm if I'm if I'm try, if I'm
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: like I'm pushing the boundaries here. There's a prospects guys
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: like a Colston Montgommery or something like that, you might
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: be willing to say, but just I'm not sure that
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: he's ready. If I'm ag grasping at straws, Michael Taylor
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: on the bench there has has that history of being
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: one of those guys that like gets a spot all
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: of a sudden, has like a ten ten season, like
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: half a season, and then it's just useless the rest
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: of the year. And so like, if there's a guy
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: I'm looking out there because they got drewy kind of
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: planned to be maybe the DH he can play infield like,
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: and then you might end up with Michael Taylor getting
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: that maybe Drewy again. It might be interesting, like those
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: are the kind of guys, like the kind of guys
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: that are now in their mid thirties kind of forgotten
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: about again. It's the Tommy fan scenario that might just
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: get some volume because drewlier Taylor probably hit like five
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: or six in that lineup, if not for four, because
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: Andrew Bond doesn't look like he's gotten anything going on either.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean Drury has been hot too. He's
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: hit four, ten, four, nine, eight, twenty one in spring.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: That's a two eighteen WRC.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Plus.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: I didn't put him on the list to discuss, but
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: maybe I should have. But it is also hitting in Arizona,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: playing for a job. But that's a good call that,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: like Brandon Jury might have some value out there, considering
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: he just back in twenty twenty three we hit twenty
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: six bombs and batted two sixty two for the Angels.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Was really really banged up last year, not super old
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: thirty two that you could see it happening for him
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: in Chicago. Hey, the barslow exactly I did enjoy seeing
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: the horror in your eyes that I could tell you
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: hadn't looked at that White Sox lineup in a.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Hot minute, and the horror washing over you. Oh Dear're
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: just like, I can't believe this.
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: I like, I look at the Russian resource, I'm like,
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: we are grasping a straw at here, folks.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: It's gonna be a rough season in the South Side Chicago.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: So all right, we do have one piece of I
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: would say relatively significant card news in terms of new
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: developments going into twenty twenty five. So we have a
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: new program akin to the MLB debut patches that have
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: gone on all rookies. And I know you've got some
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: further details on this, So how about you let all
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: of our listeners know what's going on with TOPS here
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five.
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so TOPS like give everyone's well they figure one out, right,
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: And so the rookie debut patches clearly have gone over,
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: you know, amazingly. That's one of the most sought after
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: the things they have. And they're kind of doubling down
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: on this with an even more exclusive gold logo patch,
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: and they're doing it for each of the award winners
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: from last year for the major awards from your MVP,
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: you're Cy Young and your Rookie of the Year, and
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: so you have a gold logo patch auto card one
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: of one for Aaron Judge, Shoheotani, Paul Skins, Luis Heel,
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: Terry Scoogle, and Chris Sale coming out in twenty twenty five.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: I don't know that we actually know what product those
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: are going to be in. That's one thing I haven't
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: really seen, and I would have to think that they're
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: going to be in like the twenty twenty five season.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: They'll get on the jersey, So I'm guessing like this
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: might be an update type thing where they added in
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: over the debut patches, or maybe as a way they're
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: and tries to spice up series two. But it does
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: feel like from a production timeline standpoint that's getting a
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: little tight, So it'll it'll be interesting to see what
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: actually takes place there, because there's no way they actually
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: got these game warns somehow before they won the awards,
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: but they probably I know they're just player warrens game
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: war and we might just be fine because they just
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: put them on a Winter Meetings and call the call
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: of the day.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean Otani was wearing his maybe it's
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: just like for opening day or something, but he certainly
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: was during the Tokyo series, and so there's that consideration.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I think it is.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: I don't think it hurts that like Otani, Judge and
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Paul's skeins are involved in this kind of scheme, you know,
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: in terms of like I guess I shouldn't call this scheme,
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: but in terms of this promotion, But like that doesn't
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: kind of hurt in terms of creating more and more
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: hype and seeing that the it looks like the Paul
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: skins are started off in auction this week to at
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: like six hundred and fifty K, So like this is
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: kind of like the big golden ticket that they've realized
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: they can kind of keep going forward with. And you
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: do wonder like what they'll do if there are any
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: kind of goofy winners going forward. But I guess maybe
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: wease Heal might end up being that one's history reflex.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but like to your point, like these are gonna
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: be extremely highly sought after the fact that tops is
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: as fanatics have really figured out this way to kind
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: of get truly within the game and then capitalize on
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: it is great.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: For the hobby.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: So I I don't see this gimmicky at all. I
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: absolutely love it.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you can also check out the show notes
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: for the calendar updates. In terms of upcoming baseball card releases,
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: the Panini releases that we've been discussing the past few
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: pods have shuffled around a little bit as not sure
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: what's going on with Patini, but they keep delaying things
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: and so on and so forth. But next week, on
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: March twenty sixth, we have a big release in twenty
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: twenty four Heritage High Number from that will include some
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: of those Jackson's, Paul Schiens, lots of those big rookies,
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: so that's gonna be a pretty major product. We'll probably
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: have more details on that next week. So we're going
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: to take a short break and when we return, we
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: are going to talk spring training standout stats. So stick around,
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: all right, Welcome back everybody. We are going to talk
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: some of the hottest spring training players. So if you
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: want some takes on what we are looking for in
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: spring training stats. I think we went into a much
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: larger discussion of this back last year in episode thirty six,
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: where we did kind of this same exercise, and I think,
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe highlighting a few of the things that
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: we're looking for are certainly rate stats and looking at
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: you know, strikeout rate, walk rate control, especially for pitchers.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: And then I look a lot at level faced on
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: Baseball Reference, which is really great. In the spring training
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: stats that come from Baseball Reference, they have a little
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: like score on it for each player, a opponent quality
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: score that kind of aligns to show you who has
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: faced kind of like the best competition and stuff, which
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: is it's really nice because you can manually do it
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: by going through box scores and kind of lighting it up.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: What really reminds me of this is just the other day,
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: Griffin Canning had a crazy outing where I think he
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: had like nine k's and five innings, and you look
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: at the box score and he was facing a split
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: squad team that was had one major leaguer in it,
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: and like you look at Gryffin Canning's kind of spring,
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: it's been really good, but he's been facing like the
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: equivalent of like Double A players, And so that's something
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: really big to take into consideration because I've looked at
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: that for a lot of these dudes we're talking about,
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: most of them have been playing against like it's really
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: hard to get much above like an eight and a half,
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: which is like just above triple A according to Baseball Reference,
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: And so that pretty much means that, like you are
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: facing mostly starters, but like I said, you're playing enough
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: split squad games that you're running into just weak competition
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: here and there. And then on top of it, we
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: talked about a little bit in the beginning with the
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: Tampa Bay Ray Stadium, and if you watch enough spring
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: training games, the weather conditions in both Arizona and Florida
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: are wild that you've got to take all these stats
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: with a grain of salt, especially some of the power
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: stats from hitters, and obviously pitchers are working on pitches
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: and working on new approaches, and so take that with
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: a grain of AsSalt, but grain of salt. But in
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: Arizona you've also got the high altitude. Florida you've got
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: the wind, which can be bananas one way or the other.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: So with all those considerations, like I said, I've got
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: a twelve pack here of players I think I want
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: to get especially your opinions on because I want to
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: be tempered on whether or not my takes on their
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: springs is correct. So any other considerations you are looking for,
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: maybe scouring through spring training stats now that we are
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: speaking on March nineteenth and have lots of data.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you hit the right things. And the other
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: other thing I'm looking for is is there some aberration
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: that kind of aligns the stats. So a guy that's
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: always has strikeout numbers and he basically didn't strike out
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: at all, Like, I'm looking at that and saying, like,
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: what does he actually improve that skill? Is what we
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: were talking about was Sean newcom here. He always walks
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: the guys and he's walked over at all, and he
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: pitched nine innings like and so those kind of things
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: I'm taking, like, Hey, drastic changes that drove good performance,
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: I'm generally throwing out pretty signifitely Versus slight changes that
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: drove good results I'm much more interested in because it's
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: kind of like baba pluck or things like that. You
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: need to be very very careful with some of these
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: small samples, because a guy like, oh, he's going off
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: and he hit three homers, I'm like, yeah, that's just
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: like a nice you know, April start for some guys.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: So you have to be very careful with those small
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: sample sizes and not yet too overly excited because it
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: could to your point, it could have been just off
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: a single I picture where you get to two bombs
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: and the rest of the spring training was nothing. So yeah,
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: small sample size, just gotta be careful.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, Well let's kick it off with hitters first,
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: and our first one. We're going to go one of
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: my favorite places to try to find fantasy players, that
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: is Colorado. We're gonna look at an outfielder. And I
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: almost did pick my boy yan Keel for this because
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: looking pretty good at spring training, I must say, But
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: we've got to go with the other young prospect outfielder.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's a lot of them in the Colorado system,
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: but one is really standing out this spring. And it's
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: actually kind of funny that like just a few days
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: of stats can really degrade a line, because I think
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: when I was looking at this the other day, it
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: was much better, but still pretty good. We've got Zach Vien,
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: first rounder from twenty twenty, slashing three eighteen, four hundred
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: and five ninety one with a ten percent walk grate
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: in spring over fifty plate appearances, two bombs, seven soul
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: in bases, one insane batflip. I don't know if you
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: saw the clip of him bat flipping where it's almost
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: like a natural reaction. He hit a tater and then
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: like bat flipped it all the way towards the pitcher,
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: just like flung it at him and apologized. But Zach
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: Vine has been the talk of Colorado camp, especially given
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: that there's not much competition in front of him.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Jordan Beck has not been great. The strikeouts are still there.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: Sam Hilliard struck out fifty percent of the time, and
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: Ving has an easy pathway to playing time in Colorado.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: He's on the forty man roster. Hit triple A last year.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: Does Van break camp with the Rockies and do you
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: think he can actually be a fantasy asset for twenty
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: twenty five?
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think Van does break camp with
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: the Rockies here like the and the funny thing is
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: the Rocky whenever we talk prospects like they just again
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: always a team that never feels figures out what to
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: do with prospects and give them their due. The only
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: prospects they seem willing to give their due are the
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: ones that seemed to like fallen on hard times and
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: being hasn't been that guy.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Like he has.
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: Struggled over the years to really, you know, make his way.
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: Triple A last year he hit two twenty in twenty
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: one games, and he really did look like he really
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: knew he was doing. Strikeouts were rising throughout his time
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: in the minors, and so that's the kind of guy.
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: They're like, well, he doesn't really need more development. They
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: were kind of past it. We'll let him on the
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: ruster and see what happens. That's that's kind of like Colorado.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: But when I'm looking at prospects and trying to tie
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: a side, you know, is it worth it. I'm looking
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: at pedigree, which is usually a draft position. You know,
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: sometimes you know scouting reports, but generally, yeah, he was
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: a he was a first round high draft pick. There
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: was a ton of potential there. I'm also looking at
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: the plane situation. To your point, he's got free playing
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: and it's Colorado. There's nothing more that you can like
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: there and can't make a difference. And I don't know
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: if I fully buy into like what he's doing this spring,
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: but I can buy in enough to say if he
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: can get a job, and if he can do eighty
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: percent of what he's doing right now, seventy percent of
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: what he's doing right now, he could be really, really valuable.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: And I think that's the key piece here, because he's
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: the We're always chasing these speed guys like since Billy
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: Hamilton and Scott Pasidic back in the day. Right, Can
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: I find a speed guy and get enough power and
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: get on base enough to like steal fifty to seventy
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: bases and not cost me l Dela Crew's money and
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: veen he could do that Miners. Last year's across sixty
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: five games, he's still twenty one bases. So this is
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: fifty speeds fifty steel speed without really much question. And
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: it's not like he's doing it because he's inefficient. He's
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: relatively efficient at stealing bases as well. So I think
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: there's a lot to like here. Do I actually believe
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: that he has broken out and done this? I don't
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: think so, But I think he is matured enough that
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: he's gonna be a potentially valuable fantasy asset towards the
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: back of your outfield.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: And I think this is also like if it wasn't
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: for the Rockies. I don't even think this would be
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: a debate, Like Zach Vin would be rising up draft
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: boards and he would be breaking camp, and like it
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: would be a guarantee that, like, given the talent in
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: front of him, there's no reason why Veen shouldn't get
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: a shot. He hit triple A last year, Like he's
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: ready for major league baseball in twenty twenty five. That
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: I think if he gets a full season, you're looking
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: at something maybe like twelve to fifteen homers, but maybe
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: an up arrow there because it is Colorado with thirty
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: thirty five stolen bases and maybe like a two to
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: fifty average, it's a really solid profile. I would imagine
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: he can hit at the top of the lineup with
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: that too huge up arrow in dynasties though, because like
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: this is a guy who's also been battling like thumb
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: and wrist injuries over the past couple of years, and
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: I think given that, I mean he's only twenty three,
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: the power could It's a great swing and it's a
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: lot It reminds me a lot of Cody Bellinger, honestly,
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: where like I think the up arrow here you could
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: see like a mid thirties homer homer season out of
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: Zach Feene, you know, late in his twenties, as as
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: a little more power develops, a little more muscle develops,
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: I might.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: Not go thirties, but you know, I'll give you the
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: mid twenties.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great if you compare it with thirty stone bases.
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is. And when you look at guys like this,
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: you're looking at the upside.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: I got a discussion on the one of my hitter
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: profile articles and somebody's calling out, like why is this
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: guy here? Like it doesn't it doesn't feel right. He
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: hasn't done enough, and compared to guys around him, Like, well,
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: the guys around him, we know what they we know
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: their ceilings, we know what they can do. And this guy,
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: I could, I could easily see it breaking that he's
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: a second first rounder next year, that that type of thing.
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: So I'm willing to pay the same price for a
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: guy that's gonna have somewhat more production. But I feel
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: the ceiling has not been potentially reached and there's maybe
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: a little more risk with that. And that's I think
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: what Veen is in. Like I said, I don't I'm
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: not certain he's really figured everything out versus just a
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: little bit of hot hot time here. But I'm willing
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: to take the gamble because if he truly has or
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: if you've just figured out a lot of it out,
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: is really valuable.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, And eight point zero rating on Baseball
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: Reference pretty high, So that's like triple A already right there.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: So he's playing plenty in terms of like getting early
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: into games and seeing major league starting pitching. The next
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: guy we have is going to make that Zach Vien
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: line that I recited look scrawny because Curtis may I
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: had to do it. He's Australian and it just like
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: it rolls off the tongue. That was a terrible Australian accent.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: But Curtis Meade Tampa Bay Rays currently a second basement,
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: but honestly should qualify at second and third pretty early
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: into the season as he's in a platoon situation with
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: Jonathan Ronda and Brandon Low there to be able to
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: kind of spell both of them. Spring has been very
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: kind to Curtis Mead. He in thirty nine played appearances
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: that set five seventy six six p forty one six
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: ninety seven. That's a two sixty WRC plus twelve point
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: eight percent walk rate, seven point seven percent k rate.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: That like, this is somebody who had some buzz.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: Coming into twenty twenty four, went back to Triple A,
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: repeated it and looked pretty solid. Didn't shine in his
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: time in the major leagues. But this is the type
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: of player I really like when he gets a second
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: look at the major leagues, especially given that played approach
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: with the walk rate k rate, gonna be playing outside
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: at George Steinberner Field. What are you doing with Curtis
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: Mead going into twenty twenty five?
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: I am not interested? No, okay, and I it goes
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: back to the comment I med at the very end
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: we're talking about uh them. There is the overall upside
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: of Curtis Mead. I think is relatively capped. I don't
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: think he's much more beyond a maybe fifteen homer ten
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: steel kind of guy on average. Maybe he might have
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: his better years, might eclipse that if if all goes right.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: He's also not one of those guys that's gonna hit
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: for an incredibly high average. He's he's a useful ballplayer.
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: Is the kind of the way I look at it,
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: and I'm gonna if you can get my comp, I'll
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: be impressed. But there's a very very great comp I
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: believe for for Curtis Mead. So I'm gonna let you
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: take a guess at it, and then when when you're
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: wrong and I say it, you're gonna go yes, that's it.
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: So who's the comp that you would call for Curtis Mead.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: I won't even get any clues. I just have to
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: do this totally blind.
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: Okay, I'll give it one came up with the same organization,
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: came up in the same organization. That's a good cluez
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: Jake Bowers. And so let's let's go back to twenty
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: seventeen for Jake Bowers. He had the year before in
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: Double A. He hit across one hundred and thirty five games.
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: He hit fourteen homers, stole ten bases, hit two seventy four,
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: twelve percent walk rate, fifteen percent k rate. Let's look
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: at Curtis Mead in twenty four at Triple A nine
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: one games, thirteen homers, eleven steals, a little bit more
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: ks than the fifteen to sixty percent range, little less
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: walk seven percent to eighty eight pretty identical lines. Spring
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: training the next year for Bowers, he hit three seventy one,
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: four sixty five, eight fifty seven, hit four homers in
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: seventeen games. His walk rate was through the roof, his
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: k's were dropping, and Jake Bowers has never really done
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: done anything. He had a hot spring training and I
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: feel like the same thing with Mead is he's like
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: a good ballplayer. He's gonna give you a little everything,
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: and then you're best from a fancy perspective, You're like, yeah,
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: this might be a plugin guy from a utility spot
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: like that's that's kind of where I am with Curtis Meads.
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: So maybe I'm too too low on him. I just
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: feel like I've seen this before and if and I
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: feel like there's so many other guys that have much
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: higher upside i'd be interested in, then I feel like
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: I know what the best outcome with Meat is and
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: it's just okay.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think that's all fair.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: I think this is kind of like a great guy
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: to put in kind of that Josh Rojas Bucket I
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: was talking about where.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: Yep, I think it's possible.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: The bigger upside here is if Mead can get a
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: full time job on the Rays again.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: This is another.
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: The opponent quality on baseball offense a seven point six,
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: so it is a little bit lower like you were saying.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: And on top of it all is like if he
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: can get that second third base eligibility, great great bench
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: piece for.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Deep, deep leagues, and then if he.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: Starts getting a full time job, then he moves up
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: to twelve teamers for me, But certainly it's a more
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: of a roster spackle to be able to fill in
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: make sure that you're getting all the volume you can
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: out of CI and m I throughout the season.
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: Maybe a really interesting beastball player that's that's that might
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: be intriguing there if he has a spot and you
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: know he can got hot here and there have some
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: positional eligibility. But I'm grasping strass, uh.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, I think all Tampa Bay Rays players
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: are great basketball players this year.
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: That's what I talked about at that stadium that like,
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: I think there's gonna be weeks where it's this game
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: or something like that. It's gonna get bananas. I think, Okay,
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: let's get on to our next player, and that is
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: outfielder from the Toronto Blue Jays twenty five year old
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: Alan Roden, who has been hot, hot, hot this spring,
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: just like all these other players. And oh my gosh,
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: this actually got better since I pulled his name the
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: other day. Now, slashing three ninety one five point forty
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: five seven thirty nine in spring good for a two
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: twenty three WRC plus, came with two homers, eighteen point
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: two percent walk right nine point one k rate. That
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: is right, his walk rate is twice of his strikeout
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: rate right now. Currently not projected for an opening day
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: spot on Ruster Resource, but certainly lots of chatter that
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: he is in the running only a seven point one
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: opponent quality on Baseball Reference. But I know this is
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: one of your guys. We've talked about him in the
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: Ale East preview. What do you love about Alan Roaden
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: and how soon do you think he does break into
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: that Blue Jays team?
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: Well, I just I love that you put him here,
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: because I just I'm gonna give a teaser for future
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: rasball article. But our editor trust free shout for a
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: bold prediction, and this was the guy I went with
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: for my bold prediction. I'll give it to you to
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: a second here. But what I absolutely love about him
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: is he is a hard nosed player that has hit everywhere.
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: Every single level he has hit and at his hit
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: with remark consistency. He has hit basically three hundred to
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: every level he is. His walk rate has vary between
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: twelve and thirteen percent, and his k rate has been
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: relatively twelve to fourteen percent at every level. There's a
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: little variation, but overall he's he's run. He's a smart
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: base runner. He last year he stole fourteen bases and
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: got thrown out once. In twenty three he sold twenty
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: four got thrown out four times. He is a smart guy.
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: Also a guy with an astrophysics degree. He had wanted
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: to go work for NASA. He is a smart dude
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: and I love small smart ball players. So throughout throughout
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: the miners, he has just mashed every part. He plays
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: good defense, and he's hit all spring and I don't
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: see what's in the way. And so back to my
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: bold prediction. My old prediction is he he is in
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: the starting spot at the expense of George Springer coming
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: out of spring training, and he's gonna win the Rookie.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: Of the Year.
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: That is what my bold prediction is. And he's gonna
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: hit twenty homer steal, fifteen bases, hit two seventy five,
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: and people are gonna be like, where did this come from?
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: And then you go back and look at his profile
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: and kind of how he came with the Miners, and
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: you're going, how did I not see this coming? Because
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: it is clear as day that this guy can hit.
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I it is bold for sure, and
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: I do think that he I love Alan Rodon.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: I love this profile. It's very balanced.
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: I do worry that he doesn't have the forty man
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: spot right now. They also played him in that like
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: spring breakout game, which is generally like for the guys
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: who aren't gonna make.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: The roster out of camp.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: But my hope here is Joey Liperfido isn't good, Like
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: talked about him a lot, but like, I just don't
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: see Loperfido getting more than a couple of weeks into
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: the season. He's batting below the Mendoza line again, and
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: the Blue Jays are like, you know what, We've got
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: to really go for it to try to convince lad
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: Junior to resign here, we've got to bring Allen up.
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: So I think you maybe miss a couple of weeks
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: to beginning the season. But even with that like a
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: absolute must and like Ale only's just to be able
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: to stash him away fifteen teamers still stashing away twelve
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: teamers more of like a watch list. But when he
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: comes up, look out. I think Alan Roden's an easy
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: fifteen to fifteen, like two sixty type of bat.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think you'll go wrong here, and I
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: don't think I think he's relatively still an uknown quantity.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree.
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: Okay, next guy is more of a veteran for sure,
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: has been around the league quite a bit. That is
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: thirty year old first baseman Ty Frantz, who has already
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: been anointed as the starting first baseman now in the
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: Minnesota Twins after signing with them halfway through camp or
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: at the beginning of camp kind of, and it's been
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: a great ride for him.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: In his thirty eight played.
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: Appearances with those Twinky, he's batting four fifty seven five
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: hundred seven seven WRC plus.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: These are fun lines to read. I'm not gonna lie.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: The blast has hit two homers and like I said,
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: is pencils penned into that first base job in Minnesota
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: over My pick for the pick to click there Jose Miranda,
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: who I thought was going to be pretty solid, but
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: he just had ty France come up and snatch that
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: job from him. What are you doing with ty France?
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: Because I think this is a pretty intriguing name. Eight
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: point four opponent quality on Baseball Reference, So he's getting
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: in there at the beginning of games, seeing plenty of
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: major league pitching, and on top of it all, first
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: base is awful this year. It is so thin that, like,
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: this is a guy who I think could make a
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: pretty big difference to our playerpool.
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I really struggle with ty France. First of all,
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: his line this spring had a nice five hundred babit
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: on it, So it's good. Let's keep that one in mind.
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: If I had a five hundred baby, if I could
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: hit that well, well not actually I couldn't, probably like
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: two hundred, but six point seven percent line drive rate.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: He's just squaring everything up. It's smoking it.
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: That's great, Yes, it is. And then you look at
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: his historical lines because he's he's been an everyday player
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: for the last four years between one hundred he's at
• 49:22
  Speaker 3: least one hundred and forty games for four street years
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: and he's you know, hit decently thirteen to twenty homers,
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: you know, a two fifty to two seventy average, and
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: it's gone up and down. Uh probably his career year
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: back in uh probably twenty twenty one. But that's all
• 49:42
  Speaker 3: happened for the most part in Seattle, where that ballpark
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: is just with that Marine layer is just brutal and
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: so not that Minnesota is terribly better. Minnesota is still
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: not the best place to hit, But I'm cautiously optimistic
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: here that he he can be a serviceable player. Like
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: I think it's an interesting potential corner infield type guy.
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: I'm more on a watch list for me, more of
• 50:08
  Speaker 3: a guy. I'm just kind of paying attention to the season.
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: He get off to the heart hot start, is I
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: guess he's off to a start and spring train here, Yeah,
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: but like does it settle to a degree. So I'm
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: I'm slightly intrigued when we when you first threw him
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: on the rundown here of like ask probably five france
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: fully once fully twice. I've I've been down this before.
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: But as I start to look in the being out
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: of Seattle is just man, how much did that really
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: hold him down? Is what I'm I'm questioning.
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you remember last year too, he had
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: that like hairline fracture and his heel too that like
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: I love the zips line here of in five hundred
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: and sixty player appearances, they have him at fifteen homers,
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: mid sixties runs in RBI with a two sixty average.
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: That's gonna play at corner this year even in probably
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: twelve teamers. Honestly that you also boost that because is
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: like it's projecting ty France to hit towards the bottom
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: of that Minnesota lineup.
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: But if he keeps.
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: Producing like that and can kind of show, you know,
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: even get close back to his kind of one twenty
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: WRC plus days that he put up with Seattle, He's
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: going to move up that lineup, I think pretty quickly,
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: especially given Ryce Lewis isn't going to be in the
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: middle of it. Byron Buxton's not going to be in
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: the middle of it probably the entire season. So there's
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: I think lots of opportunity here for ty France. It's
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: going to be a great person to really add to
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: benches now before you kind of are desperate and he's
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: disappeared from you on the wave Wire.
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, it'll be fun to watch.
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, we're going to stick at first base and
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: go with another veteran as we're going to cover Milwaukee
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins. Who is I mean, they're
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: all to hot starts in spring That's why we're talking
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: about them in this segment. His spring training line is
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: a little more muted. On the batting average, It's only
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: a three to ten batting average to go with a
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: four to twelve opp but a nine thirty one slug
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: This man has launched six home runs.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: In spring training.
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: That's good for a two to twenty one WRC plus. Again,
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: just like ty France, rees Hoskins, Oh, I mean, the
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: opponent quality is a little bit lower at seven point seven,
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: but still getting plenty of at bats against major league pitching.
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: The one thing that I've really started with Reez Hoskins
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: two is remember the twenty twenty three is when he
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: missed the year.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: At the ACL.
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: Last year looked a little bit off, you know, hit
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: a career low two fourteen and really worked his way
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: back into shape. I do wonder if this is like
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: the second year after that ACL injury and Reee Hoskins
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: is ready to go. So what do you think is
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: Hoskins looking to maybe get back to what he used
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: to do in Philadelphia and hit you know, two forty
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: five ish with thirty bombs and eighty plus RBIs and runs.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he.
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: Is, Like I think at this point like he's fallen
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: off of radars to a degree. But to your point,
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: we've had kind of like two lost seasons for him.
• 53:09
  Speaker 3: And even in his lost season last year, he had
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: a two to fifty babe, which held down that average,
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: and he still had twenty six bombs and that a
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: two RBI. It's just it was kind of like hidden
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: the Milwaukee and so and then the spring like his
• 53:22
  Speaker 3: baby was actually won seventy six. Again we're talking eleven games,
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: but like it's probably actually held him down to a degree.
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: And so I'm actually really really intrigued that I actually
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: had him targeted in a draft that we just did
• 53:33
  Speaker 3: and I just missed out on him as a guy
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: to kind of sneak into that kind of late first
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: base corner infield discussion. And I think there's a lot
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: to like about Hoskins here. I think I would say
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: at the game's like his his game. When he first
• 53:48
  Speaker 3: started doing his thing back in you know, twenty eighteen,
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: twenty nineteen, like low average, tons of homers, like it
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: was just like not as good for our fantasy game.
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: And now it seems like as the league's regret from
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: a batting average perspective, and he's still doing the same
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: guy darn thing. His value is increasing because it's now
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: actually a really useful line. It's not like you're getting
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: penalized with a two forty five batting average. So I
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: see a pretty simple year for him. Two forty two,
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: forty five, thirty homers, eighty five RBI. I just don't
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: see anyway that doesn't happen.
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think if we did our Inner Central preview
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: right now, he would probably almost sweep the board as the.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: Buye from the Milwaukee Brewers.
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: I'm looking at NFBC ADP data across all leagues over
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: the last month. He is the seventeenth true first baseman
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: off of the board because it's twenty first overall. But
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: you got to kind of pull back Spencer Steer, Luisa
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: Rise sal Prez, and Cody Bellinger, and yeah, that's found money.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: I think this is a guy who if you're in
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: a twelve teamer, probably like the last guy that you
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: want a roster as you're starting first space and can
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: actually be sneaky because like it gets it thins out
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: real fast after like the Vinnie Pass Quintino, like ten
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: fish overall first baseman that trying to get into that
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: corner infield or find your starting first baseman if you
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: miss out on any of those waves. Reese Hoskins, I
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: think is a great, great target and you can kind
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: of push him up draft boards based on everything we
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: just covered. Okay, next guy we have is a Saint
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: Louis Cardinal. Couldn't get out of this segment without covering
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: one because honestly, I'm starting to kind of like this team.
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: It's starting to gel as I look at the lineup,
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: and especially we're talking about Victor Scott if he can
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: bounce back.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: I think it's kind of setting up to be a.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: Team that will contend for the National League Central more
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: than I think they wanted to initially. That it's gonna
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: be a surprising season in Saint Louis, I think, and
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of it's gonna be driven by
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: the catcher. Ivon Herrera, twenty four year old who has
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: been on fire in spring, hitting three sixty four seventy
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: one seven to just a measly one ninety WRC plus
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: compared to these other guys we've talked about, but equal
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: K and walk rates at twenty point six percent. That's
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: pretty much right in line with what his K rate
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: was last year. And I'm loving Yvon Herrera going into
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five just based on age opportunity. He's a
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: great bat first catcher who's gonna stick, I think a catcher,
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: especially given where Wilson contraris going to first base. I mean,
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: the more and more I dig into Yvon Herrera, I'm
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: loving what I'm seeing and like trying to pick him
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: up everywhere I can. What do you think that Herrera
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: can do? And going into twenty twenty.
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: Five, Yeah, I mean he's a catcher and a second
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: catcher and a two catcher league type of thing for sure.
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: But I think that there is there's sneaky value here.
• 56:47
  Speaker 3: He's He's never a guy that's had a substantial power.
• 56:51
  Speaker 3: He's never gonna drive in a MASSI amount of runs.
• 56:54
  Speaker 3: He's gonna sneak in a few soul bases here and there,
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: but he's gonna hit a decent average, and so like
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: when you're talking to two catcher leagues, you're and you're
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: kind of like say it sometimes looking for a warm
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: body like Yvon Herrera is an intriguing warm body. I
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: think he's gonna lose a little playing time throughout the season,
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: just because I think the Cardinals are gonna try to
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: keep things fresh and keep a guy like him fresh.
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: But they've stated they want to let the young guys play,
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: and I think that they're gonna try to him and
• 57:20
  Speaker 3: Pedro Payes both play to a degree, but I think
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: Herrera is the better player all around, and they've kind
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: of hailed him as like the replacement for Yadra Malina
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: over the years, and so I think they want to
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: see if that truly is something that he can do.
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: So I'm intrigued. He looks like he's more comfortable. He's
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: he hasn't really got great playing him last few years.
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: If he does get the full run, you know, we're
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: probably talking ten to fifteen homers, maybe a two seventy average,
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: you know, some okay counting stats. It's again, it's not
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: gonna break the bank. It's not gonna be amazing but
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: it's valuable, and I think that's that's what we can
• 57:56
  Speaker 3: you can say is you're kind of trying to figure
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: out what to do. This is kind of that maybe
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: Joey Bart type area in the draft. I think that
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: he's definitely in that conversation.
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, actually, I think I'm higher than you
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: on him because partly he's not gonna kick out very
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: well in projections and in player raiders, because if you're
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: looking at those kind of like auction values and calculators,
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: every outlet has him for like a two fifty five
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: to two sixty average. He hit three oh one in
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: the Majors across two hundred and fifty nine plate appearances
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: last year, still hit two eighty in Triple A last year.
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: Hit two ninety seven and forty four play appearances in
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: the Majors in twenty twenty four, but also hit two
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: ninety seven in the in the Triple A. There, I
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: think he's gonna hit two eighty. Like, I think that's
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: where you can kind of pencil in her era. You know,
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: ten homers actually non zero speed too, like he's gonna
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: swipe five ish bags that it's gonna sneak up on
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: you that I that's a lot of what I love here.
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: And here's I know you love the similar batters feature
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: on Baseball Svita.
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: Well actually should have pulled it up here.
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: It is Jaron Duran, Emmanuel Rivera, which eh, but then
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: the next three William Canterreris Tyler Stevenson, Christian Yelich. I mean,
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: Herrera is a great bat and honestly the gloves pretty
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: solid too. That this is going to be a pretty
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: foundational piece, I think for the Cardinals into twenty twenty
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: five and beyond that. He's only twenty four, and I
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: think you've got a lot of growth that can come
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: in this profile too. So honestly, I think he can
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: be a catcher one.
• 59:30
  Speaker 3: We will see. I will be thrilled if he is.
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think lots of people will considering his draft price. Okay, well,
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: let's talk some pictures now, because we've gotten all of
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: this cool WRC pluses and stat lines that we've been
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: rattling off. But let's dive into some of these guys
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: who have looked really good. And you covered this a
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: little bit when we were kind of getting into the intro,
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: and we both kind of hinted at this is that,
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: especially with pictures, I find them really really difficult to
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: evaluate in spring because of one a little bit of
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: what I was talking about with Griffin Canning. You never know,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: like when they've run into a split squad team and
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: of just like shredding a bunch of Double A players too,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: you don't know who's kind of tinkering with what during spring,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: because especially pitching, it's like a chess match and a
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: tennis match where because there's such an adversarial relationship, you
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: don't want to show like your entire deck of cards
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: and what everything you've got in your arsenal is. So
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: there's a little bit of that. So you're trying to
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: look for players who have something to prove, who are
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: or you've read news about them developing a new pitch,
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: and so I've tried to find a few of those
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: here where it's like there is something to be able
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: to kind of provide a little kick in their pants
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: to push them to a next level. In twenty twenty five,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: first one I have is Brady Singer of the Cincinnati Reds,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: obviously traded in the off season for Jonathan India. He
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: has been electric in his twelve innings in the spring
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: with a two twenty five ray to go with a
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: thirteen point five K nine and things have been looking
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: really good. The ground ball rates may be a little
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: bit lower than you would like for this type of approach,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: but it is Arizona, and certainly I think this was
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: a pretty.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: Big year for Brady Singer, as I believe he's Is
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: he a free agent after these year? No, he's a
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: freegent next No, twenty twenty seven, actually.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: So they really manipulated the heck out of that that service.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: Time in Kansas City. But he is twenty eight.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: He's coming off of a year when he had a
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: three seventy one ray over one hundred and seventy nine
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: two thirds innings. That's a career high last year. What
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: do you think this could mean for Brady Singer going
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: into twenty twenty five.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's it's interesting because to your point,
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 3: like point changes. He does have a new cutter that
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 3: he's been working on this spring. And I've always been
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 3: a bit of a Brady Singer fan. He just sees
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: that he's able to kind of keep the ball on
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 3: the ground. He always just seemed to get like caught
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: in a random blow up games here and there, which
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: was he just couldn't string it fully together. I'd be
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: much more excited if he was still in Kansas City
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 3: doing this and it'd all have been new pitch then
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 3: in Cincinnati, but like the penciled him in probably is
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 3: the number two starter there in Cincinnati, and like he
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 3: goes deep, reastly deep into games, you know, he he
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 3: he has that profile that could work there if he
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 3: truly is going to keep the ball on the ground
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 3: and he does have a cutter that is gonna pair
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 3: with the sinker and the slider kind of work he has,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 3: and he can really move away from the fastball, because
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 3: that's really been his thruggle across his career is he
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 3: is frankly, his fastball is bad. Like it's a bad fastball,
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 3: and he's kind of become a two pitch slider, sinker guy,
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 3: and that just doesn't play if you don't have a
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 3: fastball ish type pitch. And if you can be able
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 3: to bring this cutter in and that could be his
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 3: kind of fastball is pitch, he could be really really interesting.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 3: So I'm slightly intrigued by Singer here. I'm not like
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 3: rushing out to pick him up or anything like that.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 3: But I'm kind of watching to see, like how those
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 3: first few games go, or if I have an extra
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 3: spot in the bench, like I might throw throw a
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: bone to Brady Singer here because we've seen flashes of
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 3: it before. If he's made a true change and that's
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 3: then sustainable and kind of makes it go from kind
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 3: of a two start to a three start kind of pitcher,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: two pitch pitcher to three pitch picture not start. Sorry,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: I'm in weekly leagues right now.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: Where are you getting these magical three start pitchers?
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 3: They're very valuable. You talk about six man rotations, I'm
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 3: talking about three man rotations. So yeah, I'm intrigued by Singer.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 3: I think it's gonna be fun to see if if
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: this new, what the metrics say when this with this
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 3: new cutter, and if it really you know, pops kind
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 3: of like his his other off speed kind of fast
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 3: his fast off speed if you want to call it
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 3: that with the slider of the sinker.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think I'm right there with you.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: Where honestly, he was pretty much like someone I wouldn't
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: ever roster given the draft price to I'm intrigued now
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: that like I would take a chance on him in
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: a fifteen team league at his price and more of
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: like a watchless guy I think for twelve teamers. But
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: if you see it pop in in that first start,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: I would believe in it and start kind of pushing
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: him towards rosters. Okay, next guy we have up is
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: a it's gonna be a pretty crucial free agent acquisition
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: for the New York Mets. When's all a sudden dumb
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: Clay Holmes, who's converting from a reliever to a starter
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: with the Mets and also going to be their opening
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: day starter at this point too because of the Shamanyah injury,
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: and they anointed him over code. I sang based a
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: lot on what he's shown the spring. In fourteen innings,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: Clay Holmes has put up a one to twenty nine
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: ERA to go with a nine point six K nine
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: over fourteen innings. Like I said, and it's coming. It's
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: relatively stiff competition for a pitcher. He's got an eight
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: point zero rating quality opponent quality on Baseball Reference. And
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: I'm surprised here that the Cays are still kind of
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: maintaining as a starter, and obviously these are shorter outings
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 2: still for Holmes, but it's maintained as he's been getting
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: deeper and deeper into spring. I think this might be
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: a little bit of a sleeper, kind of wide of
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: wake sleeper that I know that we've talked about him
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: a little bit and you've been intrigued by him, but
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: I'm sure that all this data is just kind of
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: pointing you to being more and more into Clay Holmes
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: for twenty twenty five.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, I mean we go back to our previous series.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 3: He was my bye for the Mets, and it really
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 3: came down to, like, he's excelled in a bullpen role
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 3: with a starter's arsenal. Like I think that's the key
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 3: is that he has a I think it's really considered
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 3: a six pitch mix, not six start mix, but six
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 3: pitch mix, and and he's really kind of figured out
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 3: a way to make that the play. And he wasn't
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 3: a guy in the bullpen that was like blowing you
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 3: away with you know power. He was kind of pitch.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 3: He was pitching, and so that makes a lot of
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 3: sense to translate to a starter and he used to
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 3: be a starter and when he's coming up, so I
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 3: was really intrigued with it. Before and now that he's
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 3: kind of showing that he might have the stamina. I
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 3: think that's the one question that's still probably out there
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 3: is like, you know, how much build up can he
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 3: get and you know, second, third time in the lineups,
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 3: like how well these things play? But if you have
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 3: that depth of pitchies, I think there's a lot a
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 3: lot to like here. I'm just disappointed that, even though
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 3: I liked himself, I didn't end up with any shares
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 3: of him really this this spring. But I think it's
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 3: just my pitching staffs filled out and things like that,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 3: and I look back and like, gosh, dang it, why
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 3: didn't I get Clay Holmes. So I think he's gonna
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 3: be a really a big surprise for folks.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I totally agree. And you put him in great
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: home ballpark and city field, great team behind him that
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: this guy. I mean, there's a chance where we're talking
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: about Clay Holmes being a pretty top end starter because
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: he just kind of like sleep walks his way into
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: fifteen plus wins with this New York Mets team and
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: something like a low three Zra and just kind of
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: it all comes together and almost like a seth lugo
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: ish like like fashion, where you know he's going to
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 2: be getting say young votes that, Yeah, I think this
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: is a great buy. I would be pushing to get
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 2: homes wherever you could get him.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: Next guy we have is another free agent acquisition from
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: the offseason, a little bit on the other end of
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: the spectrum from Clay Holmes, although I mean Holmes had
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: some intrigue, but this was the number one starter on
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: the market other than Roki Sasaki. It is Arizona Diamondbacks.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: Is Corbyn Burns, who has looked like ace level twenty
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty twenty one. Corbyn Burns here in spring so
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: far with the d Backs over thirteen and the third innings,
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: he's put up a one to thirty five ERA and
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 2: i'll eleven and a half K nine and it's all
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 2: working the ground ball rates in a pretty good spot.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: Let me look at his opponent quality. It's seven point nine,
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: so it's right in line with Clay Holmes. And I think,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 2: like I wonder one of the reasons that Burns signed
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: with the Dbacks is that he's from Arizona.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: He's got a family there.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 2: I wonder if he just feels really comfortable and this
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 2: is gonna be like another elite Corbyn Burns season where
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: we're all gonna be kicking ourselves. We're not drafting him
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 2: as like the number two pitcher right behind Paul Skins
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: all season.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: What do you think?
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I Burns has concerned me for a
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 3: few years now. It feels like he's been slowly, slowly
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 3: taking a step back, but like his pitch ability has
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 3: been increasing, Like skills coming back, but sparks going up.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 3: Type of thing is always nice to see when the
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 3: skills degrade and the smart's takeover, it's just a matter
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 3: of the rate of each of those. And I think
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 3: that's where Burns has been. Like you just could see it,
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 3: like these strikeouts were slowly dropping off, the velocity of
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 3: slowly dropping off off, but he was still making it work.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 3: And so that was my biggest concern with Burns, like
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 3: how long can this can this hold out? And then
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 3: like this spring, his fastball velocity is is right there
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: at the best of his career in the spring, and yeah,
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 3: the control looks good. He just seems rejuvenated, And so
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 3: it's kind of assuaged those fears for me that Burns
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 3: like is just going to keep this kind of slow
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 3: decline and instead of being a top tier pitcher, maybe
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 3: he's like that, you know, into the top tier. I
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 3: think this locks like what we're seeing right here is
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 3: locking them in for hey, another ace level season, Like
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 3: we could be talking about a guy in the discussion
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 3: for cy Young, I don't think there's any question about that.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 3: So yeah, it's it's actually helped to see that. He
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 3: seems like fresh and ready to go, So I'm I'm
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 3: all in on corporate burns. I think there's a lot
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 3: to like.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 2: Okay, I like it, and speaking of maybe cy Young candidates, honestly,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: I think this one might be a dark horse we're
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 2: about to talk about because it's really started to come together.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: For Christopher Sanchez of the Philadelphia Phillies. Spring has been
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: absolutely incredible sixteen and two thirds innings, which I mean
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 2: compared to some of these other guys we've talked about.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 2: That's also quite the workload for Spring, so it's not
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 2: like he's just kind of doing this in a small bursts.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: He has put up a one sixty two year ARRA
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: backed up.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: With a one eighty five FIP an almost sixty percent
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 2: ground ball rate, ten point three K nine an opponent
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 2: quality on a Baseball Reference of seven point seven, so
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 2: just a tick below triple A. But that's about where
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 2: most starters are. And I was just reading Jeff Zimmerman's
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: kind of bold predictions on protographs today. He actually predicted
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 2: Sanchez would be a top three overall fantasy pitcher for
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. Is his bold prediction because you see
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: a lot of the hallmarks here that fran Barvaldez has
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 2: kind of put together over time in terms of being
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: a lefty with a really heavy sinker, a great change up,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: great slider can give you lots of volume, crazy ground
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: ball rates.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: And do you think that that's possible?
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 2: Do you see the upside for Christopher Sanchez is in
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 2: the running for an AlSi Young Maybe not top three
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 2: overall fantasy pitcher, because that's quite the high bar, but maybe,
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 2: like what do you think about top twenty or top
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: twenty five.
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's it's possible, Like I he The
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 3: big question for me is where does he lay in
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 3: from a strikeout perspective, Like does does he you know,
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 3: he is kind of a ground ball artist, He's you know,
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 3: probably top five percentile in a league for ground balls,
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 3: which is great, but then there's a trade off with
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 3: that with the strikeout stuff. And you know, he compares
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 3: very well to those types of pictures, but from a
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 3: top fantasy perspective, you need the ks to go with it.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 3: And he also is a guy that hasn't gone always
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 3: terribly deep into games. And so you know, the number
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 3: of innings that he has on his arm is still
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 3: one hundred and eighty one last year, but you know
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 3: before that, you know, he was more in the one
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 3: like one forties ninety like he's he's added a lot
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 3: of innings, and so I feel like they're still kind
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 3: of protecting him to a degree. So for him to
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 3: really break out and be a top tier picture, he's
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 3: got to go deeper into games. He's got to get
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 3: more strikeouts. That said, to your point, top twenty, top
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 3: twenty five pitcher, like, you can clearly see where where
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 3: that would would come from. And he's just got, you know,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 3: one of the best change ups in the game, and
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 3: that's what he's relying on. If he can keep making
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 3: that work, then yeah, there's a lot a lot to
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 3: like here. So I think saying all these guys were
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 3: talking about here, there's there's a lot of upside, and
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 3: I think Sanchez is kind of a dark horse in
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 3: the starting picture ranks.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I do too, honestly, Well, I drafted him in
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 2: that league that we've kind of been hinting at, uh
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: that we're in together on Sunday, and I didn't realize
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: that this was his spring training line.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 3: I'm, oh, yeah, I was the same thing. I was
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 3: watching him. I'm like, I don't know, I just I
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 3: haven't seen enough of it from Sanchez. And then we're
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 3: talking about here, I'm looking at these numbers like, gosh,
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 3: dang it, I missed out of that one.
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 2: The other thing, too, is the team I think is
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 2: telling us something here that if you go to roster resource,
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 2: he's slotted in as a number two starter, which really
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 2: pops out on the Phillies because that's over Nola and Luzardo.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 2: That's actually how they're cycling through spring training right now.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 2: Zach Wheeler pitches then Sanchez, then Nola in order, so
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 2: the Phillies already consider Sanchez their number two starter. I
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 2: think that there's a really huge breakout season probably coming
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 2: for Christopher Sanchez, because Philadelphia has already noted this and
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: even the strikeouts that you know you were talking about.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 2: He's showing it here in the spring that if he
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: can get that K nine up to like nine nine
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 2: and a half, look out, this is a.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: Frame Bravaldez clone.
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 2: Then uh okay, let's get on to the next guy,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 2: as we're gonna stay in the NL East and go
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 2: back to I mean, it breaks my heart a little
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 2: bit because he's stomping on my pick to click or
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 2: my my buy from the team when we did the
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 2: preview of Ian Anderson.
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: But A. J.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 2: Smith Shover is absolutely shoving here in the Spring. Over
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 2: twelve innings, he's put up a three seventy five RA,
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 2: but that's backed up with a one point fifty two
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: whip thirteen and a half K nine two point two
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 2: five walk or k or walk per nine, which has
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 2: really been a little bit of his bugaboo in terms
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 2: of that walk rate. So he's honed it in. The
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 2: reports have been absolutely glowing and it is looking like
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 2: Smith Shover is lining up to win that fifth starter
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 2: job in Atlanta. Obviously a fantastic team. He debuted back
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three as a twenty year old and
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: is still really really young. Atlanta knows how to find
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 2: these types of pictures and develop them.
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: What do you think a J. Smith Shov can do
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: going into twenty twenty five.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think smith Shov is still to a degree unpolished.
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 3: I think he's still got a lot of growth to go.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 3: But it feels like that's been the mo for a
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 3: lot of these Atlanta pictures. They've moved quickly through the
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 3: system and then they get him up there and they
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 3: just they shove, They just they they kind of have
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 3: and they've really kind of aimed in on these pure
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 3: stuff pictures and they're like, we'll figure the rest out.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 3: And I think that's you know, you look at the
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 3: profile for Shav here, like he can blow guys away,
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 3: he can pump at ninety nine. He has the worst
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 3: flyball profiles out there. He doesn't can't keep it on
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 3: the ground to save his life. He's a little erratic,
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 3: but he seems to make it work. And so I
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 3: don't think I think there's two problems with Smiths Shav
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 3: is that one, this guy called Spencer Strider is gonna
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 3: be back sooner than I think a lot of folks
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 3: were expecting, including ourselves, And that's gonna, you know, kind
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 3: of potentially kick Chavre out of the rotation. And two
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 3: like he he is a little bit erratic up and down,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 3: and so he could easily have a few rough games
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 3: and be like, I don't do this. But on the
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 3: other side, he could have a few brilliant games, uh
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 3: and force force Atlanta's hand. So I think he's a
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 3: wise you know, I'm gonna say wild card here to
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 3: take just because of the track word of Atlanta. I
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 3: look at somebody like Smiths Shavar in other places like
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 3: you put him in I say, Detroit or you know,
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 3: Philly or any places like there aren't these pitching factories,
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 3: and you go, well, it's it's interesting, but he's gonna
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 3: be Homer prone all these other things, which, don't get
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 3: me wrong, Shavre is homer prone, so watch out. But
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 3: there's this Atlanta shine to it that we've seen with
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 3: like Tampa Bay and Houston, even Pittsburgh to a degree
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 3: that it just gives me a little extra confidence. So
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 3: I'm I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued. Shaver to Drake Baldwin connection here,
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 3: like both making the opening day roster. That could be
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 3: fun to watch.
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the baby Braves, And I mean, I don't
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 2: know if I'm necessarily quite as concerned about that rotation spot,
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: because I wouldn't be surprised to see Atlanta go to
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 2: a six man assuming they have everybody healthy, because I mean,
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, let's just run through it. Spencer Strider coming
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 2: back off of internal brace, Chris Sale and Auto Lopez
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 2: put up a crazy career high in innings last year
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: and even was kind of battling shoulder fatigue down the
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 2: stretch and that conversion from reliever to starter. Spencer Schwellenbach
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 2: had a TJ already and was a closer in college,
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 2: has not really pitched a huge volume of innings. Grant
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: Holmes has bounced back and forth from the bullpen. Smith
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 2: Shaver's year guy who they're trying to protect. I think
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: it's a really perfect situation for Atlanta to go to
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 2: a six man rotation to try to keep the mileage
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 2: off these arms. That like, if smith Shov's pitching this well,
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 2: I think he's going to possibly keep that spot and
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 2: not have to worry abust Rider on top of like,
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 2: I'm not always terribly that worried that, Like, if you
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 2: start with a rotation spot and somebody else is coming back.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 2: There's a pretty good chance somebody else gets hurt along
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 2: the way. The other thing I wanted to highlight was
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 2: because you were talking about the lack of the ground ball.
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 2: I've also figured out this is why you and I
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 2: differ so much on Bryce Miller. But it's the approach
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 2: that Shaver has. You can see it in his heat map.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 2: He throws a very high fastball up in the zone.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 2: Bryce Miller does this too, and so like the ground
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 2: ball rate is kind of by purpose because like they're
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 2: working the high fastball up in the zone and it
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 2: creates more pop outs, more flyballs, obviously more homers when
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 2: it misses too. But like I do lean on ground
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 2: ball rate a lot, but like when it's a profile
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: that doesn't try to induce ground balls, I'm less worried
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 2: about it.
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, you're Craig because his career throughout the minors,
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 3: his infield fly ball rates in the mid twenties.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: Ye, which is it's just crazy. Yeah. So yeah, So
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: I mean I love a J. Smith Shaver.
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 2: I think this is a guy where you've got to
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 2: go pick him up wherever he's available, because he's going
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 2: to be gone fast that Like I was looking back
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 2: at my first like waiver wire piece from last year.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, Garrett Crochet was only like half owned in
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 2: lots of leagues out there that I could see Smith
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 2: Shavor kind of going that same route where comes out
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 2: with a great start to begin the season and he's
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 2: immediately owned in all leagues. Okay, let's go on to
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 2: our next picture that we have, and we're going to
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 2: go back to Minnesota for this one. This is another
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 2: one of your favorites, My favorites too. We talked about
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 2: him last year a lot when he came up and
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 2: made his debut, and that is he's actually on the
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 2: outside of the rotation looking in right now. But it
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 2: is Zebbie Matthews who has been fantastic this spring over
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 2: nine and a third innings, no runs allowed, an eleven
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 2: and a half CA nine And let me look up
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 2: that he's easy to search for en lists because there's
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 2: no other Zebbies to look for where he's at on
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 2: that opponent quality actually the highest one that we've talked
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 2: about eight point one, So he's facing some pretty high
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 2: quality opponents. If it wasn't for those top five starters
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 2: in Minnesota being relatively healthy and like them giving some
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 2: deference to Chris Paddock before he falls apart. Matthews would
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 2: probably be the fourth starter in this rotation behind Lopez,
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 2: Ride and Ober. But even though he doesn't have a
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 2: rotation spot, are you still looking to rosters Rebbie Matthews
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 2: and whole him in hopes that he breaks into the
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 2: rotation soon.
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 3: I'm still mad you convinced me to trade him to
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 3: you in the off season, and I just don't know
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 3: what I was what was on at that point at
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 3: that point in time. But yeah, like I I'm very
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 3: much in Zebbie Matthews, like the things that you know,
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 3: he's one of those guys that he's a big guy.
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 3: Like it's this this this rotation with between Bailey, Ober
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 3: and Zebi Matthews, Like they're think it's some big guys.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 3: H Zebbi's six five, Bailey's six nine sixty. So Bailey
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 3: makes a Zebi look like a little little boy. But
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 3: you know the fact that Zebby still can bring it
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 3: in the mid nineties. Uh, he's got enough pitch ability
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 3: that he's using uh really a three to five pitch
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 3: mix like his his change up kervebal. He doesn't use
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 3: all the time, but it's not like he's not using
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 3: it at all. Between the two of them, they're used fifty
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 3: percent of the time. He relies on his fastball a lot,
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 3: which is because he's a control artist and so he
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 3: can make make that happen. So I really like him.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 3: He his walk rate last year in Minnesota when he's
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 3: up for nine games was the was like double the
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 3: worst season he ever had in the miners because he
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 3: was still trying to figure the majors out. And the
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 3: spring training is back down like it's under one, which
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 3: is like who he is, and he keeps the ball
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 3: down on the zone. It's kind of the opposite that
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 3: we were just talking about, uh with the Shavre is
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 3: that he uses this curve balls, change a sliders, cutter,
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 3: all keeping the ball down the zone when he's using
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 3: the fastball to set all those things up and he
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 3: just induces weak ground ball contact. That's that's who he is,
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 3: and so I think that's a really attractive profile, and
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 3: I think that that's gonna play gonna play up. So
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 3: I'm in on Zebby. If anything, it's great that he's
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 3: not making the rotation out of the spring training here
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 3: because to your point, paddockt and wood Richardson are not
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 3: going to keep him down, and they've already promote him
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 3: him the last year, So I think it's just a
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 3: matter of time injury or performance from one of those
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 3: two guys brings Zebby up here next month, month and
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 3: a half.
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, if not sooner.
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 2: And I mean I think it's not like Chris pack
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 2: has always been super healthy and then the other It
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 2: would be great if he gets up soon because the
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 2: first like six weeks of that Minnesota schedule are just
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 2: like Chef's kiss, perfect for streaming pitching because it's a
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 2: whole bunch of AL Central and NL Central opponents and
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 2: then or games.
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: In Minnesota in April, so like that is.
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 3: Games in Minnesota and April are brutal.
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 2: Exactly, so like it is a great spot to I mean,
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 2: I've been adding woods Richardson in places because of that,
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 2: just to like use him for a month and then
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 2: let him go after that.
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, and it's pretty easy.
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 2: To see why we love Zebbi because essentially it's like
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 2: a sunny gray skill set in Garrett Cole's body and
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 2: he's only twenty four. So like I do think like
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 2: especially if you're going forward in dynasty keeper leagues. Zebbi's
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 2: a pretty big target in terms of, like you're looking
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 2: for somebody who can handle pitching for long stretches the
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 2: time and just be able to withstand it and keep
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 2: the volume going. I mean, Matthews is right up there,
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 2: given just his overall profile.
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I kind of like him as a Shane Bieber
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 3: type comp Maybe not the same from like a body
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 3: type com by any means, but definitely the way they pitch,
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 3: the way they attack, and I think that plays much
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 3: better in the in the majors than people realize. So yep,
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 3: right right there with you. I'm a big Zebbie fan.
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 2: All right, Well, let's wrap up our pod here for
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 2: this week. If there's anybody that we've missed from standout
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 2: spring training performances that you might want us to cover
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 2: or discuss, hit us up in the comments on this
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 2: post that's related to the pod on rasball dot com,
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 2: or you can email us at cards categories at email
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 2: dot com, hit us up on socials at cards categories
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 2: on blue Sky, and you can find me on blue
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 2: Sky at mcool MCU mc I don't want to spell
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 2: my own name mc U I l L at the
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 2: beginning of my name, mCOL seven on Blue Sky and
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 2: then I'm coming back on rasball. My first piece will
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 2: be up this weekend to talk about strategies for waiver
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 2: wire pickups throughout the season.
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: Hit you with a few quick guys to.
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 2: Just roster right away because they've got great opportunities and
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 2: have fallen through the cracks during draft season.
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: So check it out on Saturday. Brew Let everybody know
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: where they can find you on socials and read your work.
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 3: Yep, find me over on Twitter x Blue Sky J
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 3: Brewer one seven. You can find me on the weekends
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 3: rasball doing your top one hundred hitters for the rest
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 3: of the fantasy season. We up to those every two weeks.
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 3: In the off weeks, we're doing hitter profiles, looking at
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 3: those guys to see what's changing, when it's working, and
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 3: who's the kind of guys that you should be picking up.
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 3: So I will be releasing this weekend most likely the
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 3: full first full top one hundred lists of the season,
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 3: kind of just going in full force into opening day
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 3: and time frame here. So come over, interact, call me
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 3: out and tell me where I'm right, tell me where
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 3: I'm wrong. It is always fun over on rasball all.
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 2: Right, Well, yeah, this is going to be our last
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 2: stretch before we don't have any real baseball when you're
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 2: listening to us, because our next pod is going to
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 2: be coming out on opening day, March twenty seventh, will
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 2: be recording the night before. It'll be like two kids
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 2: on Christmas Eve. It's going to be quite the exciting
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 2: adventure next week. So come check us out again when
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 2: we record that pod and drop it on the same time,
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 2: same place next week.
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: Thanks everybody. E