2020 Fantasy Baseball: 5 Interesting Pitchers, 5 Interesting Catchers

Friends Forever show. Start listening to us or suffer the consequences. Yeah, all right, now, welcome your host by Roman God, Rob Sat Francis practice stand ball ladies and gentlemen. Your pictures and catchers are reporting the Red Sox might have a new manager and we perhaps could have a new MLB playoff format. Welcome to the Fantasy BFS live on the Sports Grade TV Network. I am Frank Stanfeld, joined as always by gregs Bank. Gregory, what's going on over in

the FANDUL Sports Book? How's it going? Greg pray Age, Dude, I'm doing fantastically, man. I'm happy to be here, happy to be inside the FanDuel Sports Book. I didn't want to be next to you, of course. In success I'm not. That's okay, I'm good, all right. Right, you're looking a little short in that chair, so we might have to raise you up a little bit, or you might have to grow up a little bit. I don't know if we can make that happen, but maybe window Wilkins kind

of the same size. Frank, Yeah, but I didn't look that small. I don't know. You might have sunk the chair down a little bit. Here's saying a fat. No, I would never say that. Come on, Greg, Come on, man, it feels like it feels like you're saying a fat I would never say anything like that. Greg. We have a lot of interesting pictures and catchers. You're taged. I didn't even prompt him to do that either. He just did it on his own. He just went out there. Fantastic. Yeah, great,

not much, man. I just sleep last night, buddy, you know what. I stlefed all right, I had some James. I was up early. This might not really having to be up early. My phone was buzzing. I just I don't know, I have Okay, I did you sleep, man?

I slept all right, not bad, of course. I stayed up too late as usual, But I'll try and rectify that tonight pitcherton catchers coming up after this news update that you will hear from alex Fasana Sports Grade News upda, I am alex Fasana with your sports grid news update here on the fantasy b f f's in Major League Baseball. The Boston Red Sox will name Ron Rennicky interim general manager a day before the first scheduled workout for pitchers

and catchers, sources tell ESPN. Boston entered spring training without a skipper following the abrupt and shocking departure in January of Alex Cora following Major League Baseball's investigation into the astro's sign stealing scandal, leaving new Chief Baseball Officer hium Bloom to conduct an abbreviated job search a month before spring training. Boston is expected to hold a press conference

tonight to announce Rennicky as interim manager. The move was first reported by The Boston Globe the sixty three World. Rennicky arrived in Boston with alex Cora before the two thousand seventeen season, serving as bench coach. Sticking with Major League Baseball, officials are mulling significant changes to its postseason, including increasing number of teams from ten to fourteen, and adding a reality TV type format to determine which teams play each other in an an expanded wild card round.

Major League Baseball it's considering a move in which each league would have three division winners and four wild card teams. Here's how it would work. Once the team's clinched the regular season ends, the division winner with the second best record would select its wild card opponent from three winners.

The division winner with the worst record would then choose its opponent from the remaining two teams, and the final matchup would be the wild card winner with the best record taking on the wild card team not yet chosen. All of the selection source, it said, would be unveiled live on television the Sunday night of the final regular season games. You have a full slate of NBA, NHL, and college basketball. Some you may want to consider. The

Chicago Bulls take on the Washington Wizards. Wizards are your three point favorites. The total is two thirty. The Los Angeles Clippers visit the Philadelphia seventy six Clippers are your point and a half favorites. Total is two five and a half, and the San Antonio Spurs visit the Oklahoma City Thunder. Thunder are your eight and a half point favorites? The total is to eight. I'm sorry, what's that? Oh? We have some breaking news ladies and gentlemen and your

bffsh it. Apparently seems that Greg Sussman turns fifty three today. Happy birthday, Greg Sussman from your BF Frankie Stamfull alright, gonna send it back to the BFFs. What do you have to say about this? Greg Sussman is turning fifty three? Greg, how does it feel to be running around at that age? Well, frank when I saw you earlier said now, I'm game ten more years in the two hours since I last saw you. Uh so, it does not feel great to be three years old. It does feel better to be

slightly younger. Happy birthday, of course to Greg Sousman. Fun fact, he has never invited me to his birthday party, and because of that, I had our producer downstairs, Sandro, create this fantastic video montage highlighting the life of Greg Susman here now on the BFS. That's a great one. That was Halloween. Greg didn't fight me there either, You were inviting you in your own party didn't come. That's the last time Greg Sustman did push ups. He likes pizza,

he likes there's no doubt about that. Oh, how can we forget the Sun Games last year? That was That was last year. Greck Susman was left home alone once and there you go, the Grand Final. That's my wedding. There you go. That's right, celebrating the life of Greg Susten here on the Fantasy BFS. But no, honestly, heppy birthday, buddy? Are you doing? Can we say how it is? Frank? Can we can we say it how it is? What? What's what's really happening here? Because last Saturday you were

next door to my apartment. He said, Hey, I'm coming by, and I'm like, cool, let me know when you're around. You did it. I also would like to note yesterday on this very show, you mentioned the fact that Hey, tomorrow's dands be Swanson's birthday, not realizing, knowing, noticing that it's your bf's burthday. What the hell? Man? Well, to be fair, on Saturday, I was very inebriated, so I apologize for that. I definitely should have hit you up when I got to the city. So that is my

bad um. And then look, I can give you a little bit of not just in the city, not just in the city next door to my apartment, Greg, I thought I would give you a taste of your own us in by shouting out Dan's by Swanson, but not shouting out your birthday considering I've never been invited to your birthday party. Uh. You I threw you a massive birthday party on your birthday on November nine this year, did I not? And that's why I'm throwing you a

massive birthday party right now. Did you see that video montage? That was amazing? It was a fantastic video montage, There's no doubt about it. I will say, however, Frankie uh that this morning, when you realized it was my birthday, you felt bad and that was good enough for me. I have no idea what you're talking about. Time to move over to the new MLB playoff for Matt Greg Uh tell us when you think about this. Obviously, We're not gonna spend too much time talking about this today.

I really do want to get into some of the pictures and catchers that are very interesting and fantasy baseball for the season, But I think we would be remissed not to at least mentioned talk about this at the top of the show. Here, Greg, expanding the playoff format to potentially fourteen teams with four with four wild card team is potentially making it uh. And then they would have a reality TV show, which I'm sure you would love, where they get to choose their opponents in the wild

card round. It would be a two out of three game playoff in the wild card round as well, and if you finish as the number one seed, you get a first round wild card by into the divisional round. So let us know what you think about this proposed MLB playoff format, because Trevor Bauer is somebody who frankly hates it. Craig, you have to at least like the reality show part of it, right, So what do you What do you think I think of this? That's my question.

I think that you are somebody who's usually up for change. Uh. If we if we can find ways to innovate the game and make the things better. I don't know if this necessarily makes it better. Um, but the reality show thing actually sounds kind of interesting to me. I think all along the wild card round should be two out of three games. Anyway, I don't think that one game should control whether or not you make it to the playoffs. After playing one sixty two games of baseball, I think

that you would. I think there are parts of it that you would like and then there are other parts that you wouldn't like. Does that sound accurate? It does, Frank, However, I got me honest with you. I kept seeing all these these tweets and whatnot about us just killing the game of baseball, that half the teams are gonna make it, no one's gonna try. My initial reaction was to be against change. I like it, man. I think it's super,

super fun. I think the reality show aspects was choosing your opponent, and then nobody who believes in this theory like I think there's something to be said for that. I think it's fun, and I'm all about fun. I am in I'll tell you what, these rules are better than the NBA All Star rules. I can assure you that, Yeah, that's exactly what I brought up on FFC earlier today

with Craig mish uh. The I understand trying to honor Kobe, which is great, but the way that they went about it is so like convoluted and random and not really necessary. Um there are you know, there are things that I do like about this at and I like the wild Card round being two out of three games. I don't think that it should just come down to a one game playoff. I understand why they do that is because they want to drive up ratings for that one specific game,

so they're trying to help baseball in that regard. But at the same time, like they do that in the NFL, and they only play a sixteen game season, you can't have a one game playoff for a one hundred and sixty two game MLB season. As for all the other stuff, it's pretty wacky. I don't know that we should have fourteen teams. I don't know that we should have a reality show either, But I do like the three game

playoff in the wild Card round. All right, we come back five pitchers and five catchers that are interesting in fantasy Baseball. In twenty Greg Sussman takes over his rightful role as the host of BFS once again. We come back here on the Sportscrede TV network. I want to

be the next Daily Fantasy millionaire. Dunk on your NBA DFS competition with Daily Rotal dot Com and Dominated and DraftKings this season, compete with the pros with Daily dot Com Optimizer and the most accurate projections in NBA DFS, plus line up alerts, breaking news, lake swap support and much more safe ten on winning NBA DFS advice with promo code Dunk. Visit Daily road dot Com backslash Dunk to learn more. Welcome back. It's a VVFS my birthday

edition of the program. Frank stamfle gregg saucemen hanging out with you. I am in Jersey at the Vanduel Sports Book wasting my birthday presents away and gambling. Uh. Frank Stample is not, but he wishes he was. Frankie has a hanging I'm doing very well, Greggy. Kind of wish you were here in studios so that we can have a little fun here birthday celebration. Blow up some balloons or something, but you know what you were in here, so I wasn't gonna blow up the balloons for myself,

you know, just didn't make sense. It didn't feel I knew there was no way you would go out of your right in low balloons for a studio without me in it. You'd think that window Will or Brian would do it, but they haven't. That's okay, no big deal. They're new, they're they're still being trained on the party aspects over the job. But today, other than my birthday and other than Dance by Swanson's birthday, today is pictures and Catchers. So here on the BFFs, we thought, well,

what should we talk about? We decided on on Pictures and Catchers because they thought it made sense. We're not just any pictures. We talked a lot about Garrett Cole,

Justin very Lander, Max Scherzer, and Jacob de Graham. But today here on the program, we wanted to get into some of the I don't know, the the hotter names, right, some of these guys that you're getting a little bit later, but people are really interested in talking about and we haven't exactly gotten that opportunity to talk about that quite yet. So we wanted to start with some of these bigger names, and Franks like, oh, I like this guy, like this guy,

like this guy, like this guy. Well, I want to know which which guy I'm supposed to like? And until Frank tells me, I simply don't know. So let me start with I would to call him a hype guy necessarily, but he came out last year a little bit of aura around him. It was Griffin Canning all of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim up and down. Hear he

was a fine streamer in most locations this year. While there's a little bit more hype in general, What do you, sir think, Frank Standfeld, I mean boy Griffin Door Canning. I like Griffin Canning, Greg and I think a lot of these pictures have something in common where they have some prospect pedigree. They didn't necessarily pan out the first time they came up to the MLB, but we have seen some flashes, and I think that is the case

from Griffin Canning. He has the pedigree, as I mentioned, a former second round pick for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. And he has a four pitch mix right A lot of these A lot of times we'll see these prospects come up and they'll only have two pitches that they've really, you know, mastered, and they're still working on a third pitch. He has four pitches that he uses a decent amount of the time. He has a fastball,

a curve, a slider, and a change. All four of those pitches he uses at least twelve percent of the time, or at least that was the case last year. We saw some warning signs in the second half, Greg, but I think that he can, you know, kind of rectify that this upcoming season, and he's a name to watch throughout spring training and kind of see if he's worked on some of these issues. He had some struggles with walks in the second half. We saw the string swinging

strike create come back a little bit. It dropped about two percent in the second half here, Greg, but overall still finishes the season his first rookie campaign ninety innings pitched with over a strikeout per ending with a nearly fourteen percent strikeout right. So the swinging misses there, it's exciting, and I think the strikeouts could be there as well. He's got to work on some of that command, as I mentioned, but that's something that you should be paying

attention to throughout spring training. I like Griffin Canning and where he's going right now in in the month of February to twenty three and NFPC drafts. He's you know, you can get him as your back end of your rotation guy SP five, s P six, And I think there's some upside there with Griffin from Canning. You know, what have you seen so far when looking into him?

Have I said anything that entices you when it comes to rim Canning in Greg, I think the strike guts are nice, frank Um, as you mentioned, but you look at the walks, you know about three walks per nine mediocre.

I think the X fit right around where he was, uh just a few just last year, right, four point five eight e r a four point seven to five X fit, so kind of kind of right around the same number of the homeboard in the football ratio wasn't all that different for it wasn't all that below average or above average. It was, you know, lee average. I think grimmy cannon kind of is what it is. I don't know if I see the potential for him to explode all of a sudden. It's the swing and miss stuff, right.

So you see that rate that he had thirteen point eight percent, and again I do worry about it's dropping about two percent in the second half, so he does have to kind of get that swinging miss back up. The fact that he has four pitches that he can use at least twelve percent of the time is very interesting to me because he has that repertoire. He has a pitch mix that he can you know, kind of keep hitters off balance here, uh, and go to four

different pitches this upcoming season. Remember when he first came up, we were all excited about him because you know, you could see it when he was on the mound. He has the stuff, Greg. He kind of just has to learn how to put it all together and pitch at the major league level. But I think when you see that near fourteen percent swinging strike rate, that kind of, you know, raises some light bulbs and gets your attention here.

So I think that, you know, again, if he can just kind of bring those walks back a little bit, swinging strikes bounce back, uh, someone to pay attention to throughout spring training again. But I I like the pitch mix here. And you know, he's not the player that I'm most excited about that we're going to talk about today, but he is somebody that is on my radar. I'll probably have ten teams this year, Greg, I'm probably gonna want him on let's say two or three of them.

That's too many teams in general. Frank, You're right, But nevertheless, here I think that Griffin Canning. Yeah, the repertoires fair. I think he does star with four pitches, which is great. I do wonder how it will translateually as respective will strike more guys out, we'll have more success. I don't know, but I'm kind of mediocre right now when it comes to Griffin Canning like that last year started off this season really really well. Was your boy Caleb Smith bring

Yankee prospect Caleb Smith? And I know you were upset last year. Uh, they didn't have more of Caleb Smith, and in fact, at the time you ended up more of the Marlin's rotation who were all pitching pretty well. Caleb Smith didn't drop off in the second half, but Caleb Smith someone that's at least we're talking about that strikeout rates awesome, Yeah, absolutely, Greg, and the first eleven starts, I mean, that's what that's what really catches your attention.

Three point one oh e r A and a whip under one a zero point nine seven whip his first eleven starts of the season, thirty four percent strike out rate, fueled by a fifteen percent swinging strike rate. So we mentioned that Griffin Canny is someone that gets swinging strikes that in your fourteen percent clip and league averages right around UH ten ten and a half percent. To put that in perspective for you, Caleb Smith was even better

than that. UH and he had a you know, a thirty five percent chase rate, which is higher than the league average average right around thirty. So he gets opposing batters to swing and miss, he gets him to chase pitches outside of the zone. He's got a solid fastball, he's got a slider uh and he's got a change. He's he's got a three pitch mix, not like Griffin Canny has a four pitch mix, but his three pitches

are really really solid. Reminds me a lot of Patrick Corbyn, right Like, if he can just continue to use that slider even more this upcoming season, I think that we can really see Caleb Smith kind of take off. Second half was was a disaster. Once he got hurt, he dealt with like a hip injury, everything really went downhill

for him. But I mentioned this to you, Greg, if he ended the season with that eleven star stretch that we saw in in the first half of the season, then he would be going about fifty six, fifty or sixty picks earlier than where he is going right now. So people kind of forgot what he did in that first half and they get scared off by what he did in the second half. But I really do believe

he was pitching through injury. Caleb Smith is somebody who I'm definitely going to be in on that I want shares of the season, even more so than Griffin Canning. In you sold Cayles smiths really really well. But the problem for me, Frank, is when you look at the numbers and you have to include the second half here, Like the photos, first level starts were awesome, but when it was all said and done, that x fit was over five, right the strikeouts for nine right around with

Griffin Canning. Was he watched for nine or more than Griffin Canning was at When you look at these numbers overall, yeah, pitched more innings over a hundred fifty innings last year for Caleb Smith. Yes, sween strike rate is excellent, but those overall numbers are just not what you need. And you do wonder if the second half Caleb Smith is the real Caleb Smith. Yeah, I guess that's fair to

worry to wonder for sure. And he really struggled with home runs last year one point nine four home runs per nine That is a massive amount, so he's gonna have to bring that back as well. Reminds me a lot of Matt Boyd. Right, Matt Boyd gets a lot of strikeouts but struggles with home runs. Same thing with someone like Robbie Ray. I think Caleb Smith is in that mold. The problem. You know, what good about him is you're getting him much later than pictures like that. Yes,

Robbie Ray is more proven. Uh And I guess you could say the same thing about Matt Boyd, but you know, they were going at a level like Caleb Smith is going at right now at some point in the past as well. So I think Caleb Smith can get to that point. I really like what I saw in the first eleven starts, and you know, look, there's a reason why he's going as late as he is right like

he was bad in the second half. I'm not gonna make excuses for him, but I'm gonna make an excuse for him Greg he was pitching through a hip injury. I don't think that he was healthy last year. I think the player that we saw in those first eleven starts was closer to the player that he could be went healthy. So that is pretty much what I'm trusting. And you're getting him super late in drafts again in the month of February is n abc A DP is

two eight point eight. He's basically free at that point, Craig. That fifty two and a half percent fly ball percentage, Frankie, that's what scares me. Man, he's a fly ball pitcher. I know Marlins Park, he's a big park, but that's a really big number. The groundball percent basically half that. I don't think I'm in on Caleb Smith either. Again, these guys are late run guys. Maybe I should have more faith. I don't when it comes to Caleb Smith and when it comes to Griffin Canny. So let me

try it again. Let me go with the third player and we gotta get the break in a few moments. But let me get to a guy that a lot of people are high on this season, including you, and that's Mitch Keller, forward top prospect for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and somebody that came up and stunt class year. Why do you have hope that he won't sink again. Yeah, he was got off the last year. He had a seven point one three e r A. But again, the underlying numbers tell a different story. He had a three

four seven x FIT. His left on base percentage was under sixty percent, so you know runners are getting on base and they're scoring nearly forty percent of the time. League average left on base rate is around seventy. He also had a four seventy five batting average on balls and play league average is three hundred. He was incredibly unlucky last year. There's just no way around it. And like we've said with these other guys, he does have

swinging miss stuff. A mid nineties fastball has, the curveball has the slider, has two breaking pitches there that he can rely on. Comes with the pedigree of being a second round pick from the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. Uh, and look at what he did in the minors as well. Thirty nine and the third endings pitched a three one two year A in a one one six whip. Greg. Hopefully I could talk to you into one of these players,

and I think it's gonna be Mitch Keller. I am a feeling Miss Keller is gonna be the guy that you talked me into, because that prospect pedigree is gonna get me man. So we'll see if I can buy into Miss Keller will come back a whole lot. More pictures and and he just talking about pictures of catchers are here. We'll break it down for you next. I want to be the next Daily Fantasy Millionaire. Dunk on your NBA DFS competition with Daily rodal dot com and

dominate on fandel and DraftKings this season. Compete with the pros with Daily rod docom optimizer and the most accurate projections in NBA DFS, plus line up alerts, breaking news, lake swap support and much more. Safe ten on winning NBA DFS advice with promo code dunk. Visit Daily rodo dot com backslash dunk to learn more. Al Right back here from the Fat Nule Sports Book, Greg Sausman, Frank Stamford, it's you be a fast pictures and catchers today, So

let's continue to talk about pictures and catchers. Frank. We left off on Mitch Hella, a top prospect for the Pittsburgh Pirates, came out last year and stunk. You're in the midst of trying to explain to me why it's gonna be different. Yeah, So I spoke about this a little bit before the break. It reminds me a lot of someone like Blake Snell, right, Greg who comes up, gets his first taste of the MLB uh and does not pitch well, gets she lacked, comes back the next

year and starts to put it together. And we've seen this before with all different types of prospects, not just pitching prospects. Let's talk about Mike Trout right. Mike Trout came up and was not Mike Trout right away. He actually struggled quite a bit in his first season. So I think that's what we're looking at here. With Mitch Keller. There were underlying signs that were uh, you know, encouraging.

The swingey strike create again was higher than league average for Mitch Keller, the average over twelve case per nine. And when he came back to the Major's last year, if you remember, he came up like late May, made like three starts into June, uh, and then got sent back down because that's how bad he was. And and then when he came back in August, his final eight starts, we saw the walks really go down to about two

and a half walks per nine. The case per nine, we're still over twelve per game, So you know, you'd like to see those things. A bounce back there from Mitch Keller and the swinging strike create, the chase rate, the first pitch strike percentage, all of those numbers went up when he came back his second time around. Those final eight starts for Mitch Keller last year, and I think that's something that he could build on heading into

this year. The Pirates are not going anywhere this upcoming season, Greg, so I think that they're gonna give Mitch Keller every opportunity to stay in that rotation and try and figure things out at the major league level. Reminds me a little bit about Blake's now when he first got sent down and then came back and pitched better after that.

I don't know that miss Keller has Blake Snell type upside, but I think based on where he's going uh and the prospect pedigree that he has, he's someone that I'm going to have on a lot of my teams as well. Yeah, I think Mitch Keller the more I look at him, he looked at the top prosper pedigree. And I think you mentioned Blake Snell there and and Snell was very similar. It was he couldn't get deep into games, he didn't have an opportunity to grow, and then all of a sudden,

as Mike Florio called it, he did. And Mitch Keller he's going later then he would have had to draft Blake Snell two years ago. He doesn't. He doesn't cost you all that much in draft. I think the upside is simply higher than it is for a Groof and Canning or at Caleb Smith go around the same spot. I think there's a lot to like with Mitch Keller. I'm most intrigued by Keller than the other two players you mentioned thus far. Yeah, I think that's fair. And

again he's going in a similar rain show. You want to pick and choose who you want out of these prospects, these players who have upside. Mitch Keller again going around the same range as these guys, like the two twenty to forty range right now in NFBC A d P. I'll have a few of all of these players, but Mitch Keller is probably the one that I like most that we've talked about thus far. And you have ten teams, Frank, Yeah, I have ten teams, so I can kind of diversify.

I could get all the prospects I want. Greg, it is worth mentioning that the draft campions that I'm doing right now, Mitch Keller is on that team. Yeah. And also it's worth mentioning you look at the r A over seven, the X fit just three and a half, right. You look at the case per nine over twelve. That's way more than Kayleb Smith and Griffin Canning. The walks right around the same number. I like Mitch Keller heck and a lot more than like Kayleb Smith and Griffin Kenny.

All Right, a couple more pitchers. I want to get to, Frank before we move on to the Casher Porsche in the program. And it's player that we want to make sure fantasy owners do not forget about as a head toward their draft. It's Michael kopeck O, the Chicago White Sox, first on the scene two seasons ago. Then that time he John missed all of last year, but he should be close to ready to rock come March and April. Michael Kopeck how to do what he did when he

came up the first time of the White Sox. I think it can right it. Look, this is a flamethrower, a guy that throws mid too high, upper nineties. He has the strikeout potential, and he was absolutely ridiculous at the minor league level. To like, throughout all the numbers I mentioned when it comes to like Mitch Keller and Griffin Canning and all these guys, Copeck was even better

than that when he was in the minor leagues. So he pitched, you know, right around four hundred innings in his minor league career, a three oh five e r, A, a one to one whip, five hundred and fourteen strikeouts in three hundred and ninety five innings pitched. He might not have a role in the rotation right out of the gate for the Chicago Whites box. Again, he's working his way back from Tommy John. But it is worth reminding people that the Tommy John surgery he had was

back in September of eighteen. So everything that I've read is that he's going to have no restrictions in uh spring training. He's gonna have an opportunity to make the rotation. They did sign Geo Gonzalez, and they have Dylan Seized penciled penciled in as their uh fifth starter in their rotation.

He does come with some prospect pedigree as well. We saw a little bit of him last year and he really really struggled in the Major So all it takes his Geo Gonzalez to basically be Geo Gonzalez or Dylan Cease to struggle early on in the season, and then I think we see Michael Kopeck back in the rotation. Honestly, Greg, his upside might be the highest of all of the

pictures we're going to talk about today. Uh. And he's actually going later than these names, about forty fifty picks later than some of these guys that we're talking about. And the only reason I think so is because he doesn't have a solidified spot in the rotation right out of the gate here in it's Michael Kopeck the top pitching prospect that you're drafting this year. I think he is in the mix, him and Forest Whitley. We spoke

about this yesterday off air. I think people are, you know, kind of going way too far the other way when it comes to Forest Whitley right now, and he could have an opportunity in that Astro's rotation as well. They do like Jose or Kety, They're gonna give him a spot. He's the fourth starter there. And then Brad Peacock, who we've kind of seen as like a swingman in his career. Sometimes he's in the bullpen, sometimes he's in the rotation.

He doesn't really go deep into games either. I think that if Forest Whitley is pitching well early on this season in the minor leagues, then he's gonna get a shot to be that fourth or fifth starter in the Astros organization. He struggled mightily last year. There's no defending Forest Whitley, but I still think the upside is there, and he was someone who pitched incredibly, incredibly well in

at the Arizona Fall League as well. Greg. So it's Michael Colpeck and Forest Whitley are the two pitching prospects that I'm really looking at here in that can make an impact. Where does Brendan McKay fall in that conversation? Obviously, he is both a hitter and a picture for the Rays. Where we talked yesterday that they never are very sure what they're doing where just Brenda McKay fall in that conversation.

So I would rank him behind both of those guys, both Forest Whitley and Michael Kopeck, even though Brendan McKay has a spot in the rotation from day one, or at least that's what we assume as of now heading into spring training with the Tampa Bay Rays. I think that he got rushed last year. Greg. If you remember, he really climbed through every level of the miners really quickly.

Where he started off in double A, he tore it up there with a one point three zero e ar A. Then they promoted him to Triple A. He made about six seven starts there and he had a zero point eight four e r A. And I guess at that point the Rays organization is looking at him and saying, look, how can we defend keeping him down? He's just dominating at every level. But I think he almost got rushed a little bit too much to the major league too

quickly here last year. And he doesn't have the same type of swinging miss stuff as some of these other starting pitch as we spoke about so far today, I don't even think he has the same type of upside. I think he kind of pens out somewhere as like an SP three or an SP four from a major league level, from a major league standpoint, like real life baseball.

So I don't think he has as much upside. He might be a little bit safer in the long term, but even heading into the season, I think some of these other names on this list, in fact, every other name on this list probably has more upside than someone like Brendan McKay, and where you're taking him, you kind of want some of that upside. Obviously, Kellery Man, he's my number one guy. I think Brenda McKay is fun, right, you want that switch pitcher, hitter type of player I

like Rennie. I might have McKay honestly second after Um because I think the upside might be a little bit higher than for Brenda McKay, who is still twenty four years old, than Caleb Smith, who was approaching thirty UM, So I might Brendan McKay above Caleb Smith kind of closer to to Griffin Canning. There's a go about it. Mitch Keller is my guy here this year. Yeah, that's fair. I think I like Mitch Keller the most out of this group as well. If I were ranking it right now,

I would go Mitch Keller at the top. I would go Caleb Smith, then Griffin Canning UH, and then I would probably have both Michael Copeck and Forest Whitley ahead of Brendan McKay as well, just because I think that the upside UH is higher this upcoming season. But I could definitely be proved wrong Brendan McKay pitches anywhere close to how he did in the minor leagues last season. Greg, alright,

there you go, Brendan McKay. Let's see him explode in the full major league season that he's going to have. All right, Frank, are there any pictures you want to talk about? It? Just pictures and catcher's day. We're gonna be want to the catchers, But there any other picture

you want to make sure we mentioned now. I think we've got to a lot there, even through a little curb ball with Forest Whitley in there as well, I think it's worth mentioning both him and Michael Kopeck as the prospects starting pitchers that you want to target late in your draft this upcoming season or even in keeper leagues right where you want to take a shot on these guys, maybe in the middle to later rounds. I think Forest Whitley is a name to pay attended to

as well. But we've got about twenty minutes left here on the show, Greg, so I would like to get to some catchers. It is pictures and catchers week here on the Fantasy BFS. I would say week week week, stretching pictures and catchers day long. You know, Greg, sure that that that's fair. But it's not my birthday all week long. It's a dual celebration. I make sure we have time to celebrate me to the catchers. Yeah, I

actually the video the guy I was. I was proud of that video, Frank, I'm sure Sandro is downstairs as well. Yeah he should be. Scandro working his ass off on that. And it was a beautiful video. See Sean, Like Sean is proud, Sandro is proud, Alex is doing a great job. Everyone's doing a great job today. I'm in a great mood, fantastic mood. So I will stop just speaking randomly on the Catcher's NOWT like that one minute to go. It wasted all this time, Frank, I have two catches on

my fantasy team right now that I could keep. One is Wilson Contraires in the eleventh round. The other is Will Smith and tenth round. What do I do? I would go with Wilson Contraires personally, just be called Is. We've seen him do it for longer, Greg, and we're gonna talk about Will Smith when we come back after

the break. I like him. I think that he showed a lot of uh interesting talent from last year based on what he did in the Majors and the Miners combined thirty five home runs from the catcher position between the Miners and the major leagues last season here, Greg, but we will stick Trais is someone that we've seen do it for much longer, Greg, and he's been so

consistent at the catcher position. So if you are deciding between one of these two guys, I would lean with Wilson Trais we come back, I'll tell you why you actually should like Will smithy as well, because he's awesome. That's that was easy. He's getting jiggy with it. Also a great answer, But Frank will have better ask here is in a moment, we'll talk more catchers here in the BFS. I want to be the next Daily Fantasy Millionaire. Dunk on your NBA DFS competition with Daily Rotal dot

Com and dominate on fandel and DraftKings this season. Compete with the pros with Daily dot Com Optimizer and the most accurate projections in NBA DFS plus line of alerts, breaking news, lake swap support and much more safe ten percent on winning NBA DFS advice with promo code Dunk. Visit Daily road dot Com backslash Dunk to learn more by DMB. For my birthday, Frank, this is fantastic. This is the show should be Who I know how to throw a birthday party? Or one? Greg? Let's go? You

really do? Man? Do you want? Do you know what I'm doing for my birthday? I told Sonder this um a few months ago. I know he doesn't remember because it's not important, but you know what I'm doing tonight? Uh, You're gonna go out to dinner with my Cardono obviously for your birthday. I am not. I had lunch with my Cardano, so I don't have to go out to dinner with him now for um. So for Judy's birthday back in November. I bought her tickets to see Hamilton's

the Broadway Show for her birthday. But I bought those tickets to see the show on my birthday, so we're set. Hamilton's tonight. Is that a good thing? Are you excited about that? Yeah? How old? This is awesome, man, it would be great Boozy Gray going to see Hamilton's on his birthday. No surprises there. It was a present for Judy's birthday. Man. They would come on like it was a president for her birthday. It was a nice thing to do. The only thing I screwed up on was

I didn't check the Maryland schedule. They play at home against Nebraska tonight, and Sean, I'll trow this to you, man, because because you're in touch with this, seventeen and a half points is way too many points for Maryland to ever be favorite. That is correct, But Nebraska stinks. They lost by eleven at home to Michigan without their point guards, so it's possible. I don't think Maryland has been anybody by seventeen points. Maybe Marquette in in Orlando. Great, great, dude.

I love the braw especially the rask in the first half. I'm just saying, all right, we want to catch yours because no many cares anymore. Alright, Franks just like staring off, be like, I move on now, all right, let's get back to will Smith. You like Will Smith, but you're telling me yesterday you don't like him at this value? Why is that? Because Wilsmith was great? Way he came up last year about I believe why don't you like Will Smith where he's going? But you do like him

as the player? Yeah? I like the player Will Smith. The problem is he's going ahead of Salvador Perez right now, Greg, and I don't think that that should be the case. And we're gonna talk about Salvador Perez uh in just a little bit. I like what I saw from Will Smith last year. Again, he had thirty five home runs combined between the miners and the major leagues. He actually

struggled against left handed pitching. Is weird because he's a right handed batter and he actually crushed left handed pitching in the minor leagues last season. He had two eighty one with an ops over a thousand against left handed pitching in the miners last year, so I would expect him to improve against left handed pitching in the majors in two in One of the problems we see here Greg is he hit to fifty three. His expected batting average was twenty five, and the reason for that is

his launch angle was actually just way too high. Like we want people to hit fly balls, we want them to hit line drives and raise their launch angle, especially if they've you know, hit too many groundballs in the past. The problem is his average launch angle was twenty three point seven degrees and he had a a flyball percentage over fifty three per cent, So he was basically going up there swinging for the fences every single time uh he was at the disc. So I think he has

to bring that down a little bit this season. He actually has good plate discipline. He had right around a ten percent walk great Greig twenty six and a half percent strikeout rate. You don't like that. I think that could actually come down a little bit. Based on his swinging strike rate. He actually didn't swing and miss all that much, so I think his strikeout rate is gonna come back a little bit. And overall, the player that I'm expecting this upcoming season around a two forty batting

average twenty two, twenty five home runs. Uh, you know, seventy seventy five r B. I s. I think that that's a good player, but I think that Salvador Perez can actually be better than that. So I just don't agree with Will Smith going ahead of Salvador Perez right now, Greg, I'm glad you brought it up. That's exactly the question I was gonna ask you, would you rather have Will Smith or Salvador Perez? Of course, Perez obvious the entire

season last year with an injury. Uh, this year, he'll come back and not just play casher, which is something that as you excited. Yeah, he's gonna play a little d H. He's gonna play a little first base as well. Greg, and I was reading an article on The Athletic last night about the Royals projected opening day roster, and I came across this quote from Salvador Perez to miss a year, I know it's bad for the first time, but it helped me a lot healing. It helped me heal my body.

So this is someone who played so much. If you remember, you know, he was like indestructible. He's basically playing every single day. He had four hundred and seventy one or more at bats in sixth straight seasons, so you know that takes its toll on your body. He's coming off Tommy John surgery. We've seen a lot of hitters actually come back from Tommy John and it hasn't affected them all that much, like Labor Torres for example, has been perfectly fine. And I think that could be the case

for Salvador Perez this upcoming season. I think the year off is actually gonna do him a ton of help, Greg, because again, this is someone that was beat up catching every single day for the Royals. You'll get some extra at bats at d h at first base as well. He has twenty one plus home runs in four straight seasons a career to sixty five hitter as well. I think he personally that he's just gonna be better than Will Smith. So I don't really agree with Will Smith

going ahead of him right now. Salvador Perez is actually one of my main catcher targets his upcoming season. Greg. Yeah, Perez healthier now rested, as you said, and always pretty good, and the fact that he plays every freaking day at catcher. He's so much um, so much more than so many other catchers give you and it just kills you. You get that too forty batting average, not enough home runs, too many couch and then you don't get the guy to play every day. At least Prez will be out there.

Whether it's at catcher first phase, we don't care. He's catcher eligible, which is the most important thing. Let's move all do some of these. I guess not top five, six, seven guys, the catchers that you're getting a little bit later, but maybe you're considering as second catchers in two catcher leagues. Maybe just somebody that you have a good feeling on. And last year for many fantasy owners, Frank, that guy was Omar Nevayez for the Seattle Managers. But he's not

Seattle anymore. He's in Milwaukee. We know what Yasmani Grandal did yet last season four at the Milwaukee burs Why can't Navarre's study yet. So I was looking into Omar Nurvayas and I already owned him on one of my Draft Champions leagues. I kind of will regret the pick right now and I want to go back and change it. And here's why. Right So I looked into Omar Narvayez.

As a left handed batter, he really struggled against lefties last year, a two seven batting average at six o p s. Against right handed pitching, he was a two eighty nine hitter with an eight thirty six o p s. So there's a chance that we could see him a platoon from the catcher position as well. He wound up hitting two seventy eight last year with an expected batting average GREG of just two fifty four. His average eggit velocity was not very exciting, and he wounded up hitting

twenty two home runs. He had a great season. You know that I was on Revilla's last year. I had him basically everywhere. He hit twenty two on runs last year, and the year before that he hit nine home runs. The year before that he hit two home runs. He kind of strikes me as someone that was helped out by the juiced ball last year, which is something you know, we're gonna try and have to figure out how to quantify this upcoming season. Greg but Omar revised his profile.

Strikes me as somebody who was helped by the juice ball last season. I think he could still have a fine year, maybe like a two sixty two seventy hitter fifteen sixteen home runs, which is fine from a catcher too, But if you're expecting him to come close to what he did last year, I don't think that that's going to happen. Are we so sure you're going to have the juice ball? How it affected over to bas Omar Devias his game? Are you so sure that the juice

ball is going anywhere? No, we're not sure. I mean that's something to pay attention to throughout spring training. You know a lot of people Greg say, uh, spring training is meaningless. I think this is actually one of the storylines we have to pay attention to throughout spring training. If you remember during the playoffs last year, I went to a few Yankee postseason games and there were a few balls that died on the warning track, where in the regular season those balls would have been way out

in Yankee Stadium. So I think we saw them already go back to the regular ball that they were using in your year's past in the postseason last year. So I think that the assumption is they're probably gonna use that same ball heading into But you're right, there's no way for us to know exactly I like everybody. Honest, man, I think he's a guy that you you don't really have to spend anything on. And I think you're getting

him cheap enough. Those home runs maybe if they were inflated the average man two seventy eight for a catcher. You have to like that that that bit wasn't crazy at three oh six. I think the hard hit percentage you wanted to be hired. It's a big bugaboo for me. Under thirty for hard hit percentage. For Devaiyaz, I assume a home run, a fly ball ratio is high. Sixty percent wasn't crazy. So I like Devas. I think he doesn't costume about and I think you should be happy

that you owned on the few teams that you do already. Frankie, Yeah, like he's fine as a catcher too. I don't know that I would want him to be in the catcher one. And you know, here's what I will say, touching on you know what you said, I think it's okay. I think it's okay. It's a catcher one. And what you said about the batting average and the babbit, he is someone who always hits a lot of line drives a twenty seven and a half percent line drive right for

his career, and last year that was a scent. Again, he is someone that year in and year out makes hits a ton of line drive. So obviously that's gonna help with the babbit, that's going to help with the batting average. I just want to see him play better against left handed pitching this upcoming season. If that's the case, then he probably can maintain this to seventy five maybe

a two eighty batting average. The catcher that I pushed on us as our second catcher and all the leaves we were together is Frank was Francisco but Here, and he didn't do very very well in his first season San Diego to play enough this year he is projected to be the starting catcher. Is that enough for you to invest? Yeah, I'm interested in Francisco ma Here, especially in these two catcher leagues and in these fifteen team rotal leagues where you know you're gonna be deep diving,

scraping the bottom of the barrel. Anyway, when it comes to the catcher position, assuming you spend up, assuming you don't spend up on someone like a JT. Real Muto or a Gary Stinchez. But you're looking at upside for at the position, and he's still just twenty four years old. He doesn't turn twenty five until October, so in his age twenty four season, and he's someone that I still believe does have upside. Greg last year in seventy nine games, he hit two sixty five and we saw what he

did at the minor league level as well. He was someone who hit at every single level. Of the miners was Francisco Mahe had eight home runs, is twenty seven runs scored, twenty two r b I s. But it was hard for him to get into a flow last year because he was constantly splitting time with Austin Hedges, and Hedges is still there. He's probably going to just

be mainly the backup catcher this upcoming season. But I think this is the year that the Padres kind of unleash Francisco Mihia and everyone wants a piece of the Padre's lineup right now, Manny Machado and you know, with Fernando Tatis Jr. And all the other names in that lineup, everyone wants a piece of the Padre's lineup. It seems like we almost have like prospect fatigue when it comes to Francisco Mihia, and I think because of that, you're

getting him at a discount. I believe this is the first year that he is going to start and play full time regularly for the Padres. It wouldn't surprise me if he hits like two seventy with close to twenty home runs this upcoming season, which might actually working work out to be better than Omar Nervaiez in ten second Carson Kelly. The power potential is real. He comes with prospect pedigree as well. Just please, Diamondbacks give him the

opportunity to play every day. Get Steven vote out of here. Greg, He's Franks NFL. My name is Greg sas Thank you so much for watching, listening to be f f sin Se Shawan and Alex in our control room for Real Coast the Coast comes your way. Next, You're fris to have Greg Sousman. We'll do it all again tomorrow. We hope, we hope that I want to be the next Daily Fantasy Millionaire. Dunk on your NBA DFS competition with Daily Rodal dot Com and dominate on FANDEL and DraftKings this season.

Compete with the pros with Daily rodal dot com optimizer and the most accurate projections in NBA DFS, plus line up alerts, breaking news, lake swap support, and much more. Save ten percent on winning NBA DFS advice with promo code dunk. Visit Daily Rodo dot com backslash dunk to learn more.