Feb. 15th, Hour 2: Fantasy baseball players we love, #LABR, and more...

listening to the Fantasy Sports Radio Network. Let me just become best friends. Fantasy best Friends Forever. Welcome back to our two of Fantasy best Friends Forever. Frank Stample joined live in studio by Andy Singleton. Make sure you give him a follow on Twitter at People's ten, People's to the Z right there in the middle. No, normally this is the time frame where you would come and watch

the Fantasy Football Frenzy. So for anyone tuning in who might be looking for the Fantasy Football Frenzy, that show is not gone for good. It is unfortunately just gone for now. I've already shared all my thoughts on quarter parts and the Fantasy executive early on in the show. You go back, you can watch that or you can listen. Um, I've I've spoken mc coorey. He's a good buddy of mine. We're friends. It's nothing but love. But you know, we we've we've got to move on here. Uh And unfortunately

we're gonna talk fantasy baseball for the next hour. We're gonna have fun. Um, That's that's really what it comes down to. You know. Look, we've been talking about some some players that we love for the upcoming season. Yesterday it was Valentine's Day, so we thought we'd work that in there a little bit. Just had Tim McLeod on. He drafted out of the two hole this week in the labor Mixed Draft. So we're gonna continue talking about

some of this stuff. I didn't want to get some random baseball news if that's cool you Andy, that I noticed over here, I pull up rotal World. See what's going on in the baseball world. With that right behind you there there are two silhouettes and two names, one of which is yours, none of which a mind. So whatever you want to do here is I'm a nice guy, Andy, you know I want to keep you in mind. I'm not just gonna you know, I'm I'm just a film BFF.

So whatever you want to do, I'll go with him. Man, you're a third BFF, you're you know, four or fourth outfield of fourth BFF, whatever you want to be. I see this report here. John Hayman of LB Network reports that the Angels are showing interest in Mike Mustock. Is pretty interesting here because Michael Mustocks, to me, strikes me as a guy who's undervalued every single season and you

can't land work. I mean, I understand that it's a slow moving free agent market right now, Like all right, if we're talking about not moving not finding work, you know, Bryce Harper and Manny Matado are are the head of that, and I don't think it's a case that they can't find work. It's just there's a lot of moving parts between those two guys trying to find context tracks right now. They want to make three million dollars. They want to get you know, they want ten year contracts, So it's tough.

Mike Mustock is to me, he's not looking for that. You know, the guy you know wants to get paid, whether it's a one on two year, three year, three year deal, and I think he deserves it. Andy Uh moving over too if he can sign on with the Angels here, I'm in um yeah. Like I know, it's not the greatest hitting environment out there in Los Angeles, but he's produced thirty plus home run seasons in Kaufman Stadium and in Kansas City, so that's not a great

better hitter's ballpark either. If he joins the lineup with Mike Trout and you know Otani whenever he's back, and justin Upton and all right, Albert Pools isn't the player that he once was, but I can get on board with that man. I like Moustaks. I don't dislike him. I'm just trying to wrap my head around where where does he play? Because I think the big achilles Heel for the Angels is having Albert pool Holes and your d H spot is gonna be locked up. So he

went and you got Zach Cozart last year. You still have Simmons there. So where does Moustakis exactly fit into the equation? I think he would probably move that Cosart the second base. As of right now, they have David Fletcher in there, okay, and he makes a lot of contacts.

You also got and they don't have the best farm system, but one of the more exciting guys in their system is Louis Regifo, who's coming up as a shortstop, who you know, you might be able to plug in the second and get some speed and some average out of that and and you know, juice up the the fan base if you will. Um. So you know, if you if you're gonna move now cos art the second you kind of you kind of stall that progress from happening

is basically ready to come to the majors. But like I said, you still got Simmons there, so he's he's probably not gonna supplant him a short I don't dislike Mustakas in any lineup. I mean, given what we've seen, it can be. But I just feel like he's kind of like what they already have there. Um, maybe better than what they have there, but not so much better that it's worth adding the headache of Okay, how do we how do we you know, how do we make

this line of work? Now? Well, it's better than him going back to Milwaukee, right, Like, that's the only thing that I've seen. If he goes back to Milwaukee, it's a great hitters park. But then what do we do? Are we really doing Travis Shaw at second base every day? Again, is that what they're gonna do? If they If if Milwaukee, then the San Diego Padres and the Angels are really the only three teams that I've actively heard come out and have interest in Michael Stokis. I don't really get

it because I think he's above average defender as well. Yeah, and and again, like I said, it could make the lineup better, But how much better are we talking? We're talking about it going from you know, like I'm looking at that thirty eight home run season with Kansas City, Yeah, two years removed from that though last year, right, and that was I think I think that I think that he could be a thirty home run bad he's a thirty home run guck. You're getting him at a pretty

good price right now. I mean, let's look at where you went in this. In the labor draft, he went in the eleventh round. He went at pick four. You know, he went behind I know, you like Raphael dead Verse. This year he also went after Justin Turner and match Having, but those guys went two rounds earlier. The next third basement that went after him was Eduardo Escobar and that was two rounds later, So I think I think you're

gonna have met a pretty good value right now. That's Michael stock Is, who's going in the eleventh round before we get before we get back into this labor draft. Well, we'll do that a little bit later on the show. I didn want to touch on a few more of these players Andy, that we had that we had touted as our Valentine's Day are are sweethearts, the guys that

we that we love heading into the season. If you watched the Fantasy Best Friends Forever or listened over the past couple of years, you know that I have been the front of the bandwagon when it comes to Joe Muskro. Joe Musgrow is my guy. We've chanted, We've hit him up to try and get him on the show. Unfortunately declined. He actually never answered, so I can't say that he

did that. He declined, but everyone's kind of buying in on Joe must Grow, and I just wanted to be known that I was one of the first ones there. But in Pittsburgh, I think that there was a lot that we saw last year to be excited about Andy. I know Matt Modica is also on Joe Muscrove. I know a lot of people are buying in here. He's always had elite control, elite command. He doesn't walk a lot of guys, and I think we saw in the second half last year he started to miss a few

bats as well. He started to miss some more bats and get that strikeout right up a little bit. I don't know that he's ever going to be a strikeout for any kind of guy, but I think that he could be between eight and nine case per nine and give you good to command and also get grabbing balls. He throws like three or four different types of fastballs. He also worked in He worked in a cutter last year. That was that was That was pretty awesome. He has

a changeup. So I'm I'm excited about Joe muscro Man. I think that you know, we spoke about Soroka. I think Joe Musgrove was another one of these guys that has top thirty starting pitcher upside yes, So I want to definitely want to get into must Grove, and we have to get into his teammate Josh Bell, who they're they're begging for us to touch on in the comments action, so we'll get to that as well. But one last point about mustakas before we put him to rest. One

thing that really adds to his his profile. Mustaka is going back to him instruction being the third basement is the left handed bat, which can help any lineup. So I think that that works in his favor as you're talking about anywhere and any team that signs was gonna be better for it. But how he fits into that lineup? Um, anyway, going back to must Growth, this guy is he's a big dude and he throws throw something like six pitches. I know he's you know, settled in on on you know,

his main arsenal and staple. But this is the guy was really excited about when the Pirates got him in the return for Derek Cole. I love him in Houston a couple of years ago. He's kind of that mid rotation bullpen kind of you know, the long the long role in Houston. Then moves to Pittsburgh and seemingly should have a spot in the rotation. The one question I have about Pittsburgh, and all my way over to the

studio today, tweeted this out. Everybody seems to be high on the Pirates rotation from Archer to Tay on too must Grove to Trevor Williams, to Kingdom to to niche Keller to I mean, I just named six pictures that the Pirates have that people are enamorate, and four or five of them are getting drafted the majority of draft. But where is the offense coming from. I'm really concerned about this. The run support for these Pirates pitchers. M I mentioned this when we covered Jamison tayan in in

our Baseball Show preview. I love what they can do individually, but I've a huge the Grand fan as people know, and I've just seen it too many times with Jacob to Graham that the guy goes out and throws the gym and then the team just doesn't give him any run support and lets him down. I'm not I'm not.

I mean, Yank, I know I'm wearing at colors, but anyway, um, that really that really has traumatized me when it comes to starting pitchers and seeing I don't you know tayan could go out and throw eight innings and give up nothing, but other Pirates gonna even score one run for him. Where You're getting great stuff from that picture, but is it enough? And and the margin for error is so slim that it's scaring me away from pirates pictures, and and it goes back to about must Grove. What's his uh,

what's his ADP right now? No, must Groves ADP right now is to nin nineteen. I mean at that at that price, like you, you have to. He's climbing draft boards. People are getting excited about Joe Musgrove. He's going how about this, he's going right after, He's going right around Forest Whitley. How many endings as Forest Whitley gonna give you this year? Wow? I mean he he's he's got to lead stuff. I can't deny that. Well, we're talking about hot but realistically, how how many endings is he

gonna give you? We're talking about sus Lazardo before and and wondering when he's gonna come up for ast Whitley's in that same range. Let's say they both come up May first. I think Whitley's gonna give you more than Lozardo, but I think Lozardo will likely get you more innings. I don't know that Whitley factors in. I mean, you look at the other guys the Astros have with Josh James and not to get off on a tangent here. I mean, look, they have Josh James, they signed Wade Miley,

they still have Colin mqugh. They're starting, They're they're trying to stretch out Brad Peacock as well. They have a lot of options in Houston. Yeah, so I I agree it. So when are you talking about the startable must Grove right? Um? Yeah to nineteen? How can you not? But again I worry about that pirate staff. My my logic with Musgrove would be these who draft him, hope he gets off to a good start and then try to move him and and cash. No, yes, no, we draft Joe must Grove.

We don't draft, trade Joe Mustgrove, draft in trade, not draft in all, draft and trade. It's not trade Joe mustgro Draft Joe muskgro and then trade him and then trade him. Look, if Pittsburgh is one of these organizations where I feel like their lineup ever looks that great, but they just kind of figure it out. No, if you didn't think they have Adam, this is what roster

Resource has. Adam Fraser, Starling, Marte, Corey Dickerson, Francisco Savelli, Colin Moran, Josh Bell, Lannie chose in't Hall Lannie Baseball and Eric Zalaz. It's not great. And they have Jungle Gan on the bench. And you know, actually, I'm really excited about Elias t S. I was hoping that they would trade away Francisco Savelli so that Elias T. S would would have the opportunity to start every day. See those those are words that should not be uttered in

the Fantasy Baseball preview show. I was excited about Elias d and two catcher leagues. It's it's a terrible position. You just mentioned, though you weren't who wants to walk the pirates lineup? Never really got you excited. If that was the case. Polanco will be back at some point, right, But if that was the case, this is even worse. This is even worse than what has been and and it didn't get you excited in the past. And we're talking about uh, you know, when McCutchen was there, and

and and Plancos. They find Bells there. They wanted us to talk about Bell. So let's get into Josh Bell. Let's he's actually uh, he's a favorite. He's the first base breakout candidate for our own Christmas venture. Your boy he loves Josh Bell because he he also plays in points leagues and he's looking at the plate discipline and look at look at Josh Bell, and in his major league career he is a twelve percent walk. Great, the guy has a great eye. He doesn't strike out all

that much for points leagues. I can get behind it, sure, Rodo. I mean, I don't know what the heck of the guy is gonna give you, to be honest, because he's gonna be a two sixty batting average guy. He gave you twenty six home runs in seventeen. He only gave you twelve last year. The twelve last year is actually a lot closer to what his minor league profile suggested that he was gonna be. Was that he was gonna

be a line drive hitter. He was gonna be doubles, he was gonna walk a lot, he was gonna give you good plate discipline, he whin was gonna strike out. The twenty six home runs in to me kind of stands out as an outlier because that didn't really mesh with his minor league profile very much. So if I were just projecting Josh Bell for this year, I would say two sixty to seventy batting average with a very good ov P, you know, three sixty three seventy ov P, Like I think it's ov P is gonna be upwards

of a hundred point higher than his batting average. But the counting stats home runs, seventy five runs scored, seventy five r bi. Is that a fair projection for Josh Bell? It is? And and the problem with Josh Ball is he mentioned the walk right. He has and multiple seasons walked more than he struck out, which is great. You love to see that, but it's almost like it works against him, like he's too patient. He's six four to thirty five. I want to see that guy swinging about

Joey vatdo for how many years now? But Joe Vaddo will put the ball in play as well. I mean, he had he disciplined. It seems like he wants to get a walk more than he wants to try to get wood on the ball, and and that goes against him. So I want to see him swinging bat more. I gladly take a few more strikeouts to see if he can get the bat on the ball and put it out of the park with that huge frame, he's got

that's it just makes no sense. He's in an enigma and with that plate discipline, you'd think the average would be higher. It was great in the minors, he was a three. It just hasn't translated. So uh he he, you know, he might be one of these late bloomers. We talked about Luke Voit yesterday at great length and how he kind of, you know, was a quad A guy where he's great a triple A and it wasn't

so great. Well, this guy's had the opportunity. Maybe maybe a little too young, maybe he's twenty six this year. I'm not totally off Josh Bell. I know Matt Moldiica a good friend of the show. You've mentioned him several times today. Uh, he's big on Josh Bell in the later rounds, just as a as a late stash guy. Uh thinks he you know, he's he's gonna put it together this season. I'm not totally off that because he's

not gonna kill he's not gonna hurt you. But um as on your betch he's not gonna hurt you on your beat as my starting c I like, I don't want him as my starting corner. Infielder. If there was ever an age where he can do something that we haven't really and if we can't really project, it would be twenty six. It would be like right now. Two

years ago he hit twenty six runs. He had a home run the ball ratio, and his other two uh seasons that he's been in the major leagues he's had a nine point four percent home run the flyball ratio and a nine point two percent home run to flyball race. Shoot. So you tell me which one is the outlier. Well, listen season when he hit six home runs. I'm gonna keep repeating it over and over and over again. First base is weak. He's the twenty six first basem being drafted.

He's going right around Tyler White. I'd rather have Tyler White. I'd rather have Josh Bell come on, playing time, playing time, playing times there. But talent always wins out too. I'll take the talent. I'll take. Look, you're bashing the Pirates line up. I'm taking the Astros lineup here, you're right there. I actually probably take Peter Alonso, who's going right after. He was the name that I saw. You've you've worked a lot with you know, trying to project prospects and stuff,

doing everything that they could to block Peter Alonso. Uh, is he gonna be up May one? I don't know who knows what the Mets are gonna do. I think he's I think Tim Tebow might be up before Peter Alonso. I think he's up May first. I think he's up May first, think Alonso. Yeah, but you mentioned projecting prospects and Josh Bell, wh who they started with. He's a miss. He's a clear miss. All signs pointed to Josh Bell.

Be somebody with that frame, that plate discipline, was gonna be somebody who's gonna get you twenty five homers at minimum in the two north average he did in seen. Is it impossible for him to get back to that. I don't think so. But you know, he's he's got to lift the ball a little bit more. He's gotta be a little bit more aggressive. He's gotta swing the back. So the average also dropped. He was we come back. We'll continue talking about some players for the upcoming fantasy

baseball season. It's the Fantasy Best Friends Forever. Fantasy Sports Radio Daily Rhodo dot Com learned from the game's best DFS players We don't just give you premier advice. We play every day, all major sports, all year round. We never stop. Industry leading DFS tools and custom projections, and now the Daily Rodo dot com optimize her in minutes, building optimized line up for cash games and turneys learned from the game's best DFS players. Joined Daily Rhodo dot com.

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And the tax Doctor worked with Uncle Sam's people. I think they're called the I R S. And they're able to work it out, so my mom and dad didn't have to pay Uncle Sam very much money at all. So now mom and dad are happy, and I'm happy to thanks Tax Doctor. If you owe ten thousand dollars or more to the I R S or state, call now and pay less eight hundred to one five one, seven to seven eight hundred to one five one seven to seven. That's eight hundred seventy seven scout Fantasy Sports.

A lot of the girls that I've dated are not bigger a social media either, but some are. Some put the life on the social media. It's disgusting. I don't need to know what you eat for breakfast. You know, people put like their entire meals they're all day long and what they do. Why are you documenting your whole life for and some people, Oh, I'm a vacation of away for week. Thanks, No, I'm gonna rob your house. I mean, what are you guys doing? Holy you would

think that way? Week days to the four pm Eastern on the Fantasy Sports Network and on your popular podcast providers joined the Experts live on the air every day by calling in at April four, six, seven nine to join the Fantasy Sports Network. Welcome back to the Fantasy best Friends Forever. Franks dam Will joined live and studio by Andy Singleton. Makes sure to give them a follow on Twitter at People's and keep with a z in there.

Greg Sus have been out this week. I would like to say that he's enjoying Florida, but at this point I don't really know. Got out to Greg's cousin, by the way, who responded, I posted this to read it yesterday and uh Beg's cousin feeted in. I can't believe my my cousin show, I said another standfull, He said no. Other host said another, yeah, so early different last name. How so how does the Fantasy Baseball read it? Because

I've always kind of wanted to join the community. I want to get in there, and the community is great. You post off and then they bash you for it. It sounds like everything else that I always do involving the BFS. Right, we hate your singing and we hate your dancing, but it's great. And what happened to do? Do do? Here's what, Here's what it comes out to you. I'm not gonna sing or dance with that without Greg.

Most of the time, I know, I did like the way, oh, I mean, you try to get me to singing dancer. You and I should kind of put on the spot there. And you know it's tradition. Every Friday we like to do we like to do the why oh, we like singing like dance. But I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go solo singing without Greg I can't do I mean, he's the he's got the raspiness, he's got like the yeah, I mean he you know, he carries the singing. I can't do it without him. And I'm a big Metallica guy.

So I'm just like Bavona, load up as much a Taica as you possibly can. I'll be good. Have you do you like Metallica? I mean you're kind of default have to like Metallica if you're a Yankees fan. Right, it's an answer saying man, Mariann Rivera. I think if you grew up in America, you can't have to go anywhere for that matter, you have to kind of like Metallica.

I mean, you know, you know I am envious of you for multiple reasons, but the main reason being that you grew up in the era that I'm most likely wanted to grow up in. Everyone will always ask, you know, if you could choose an era to grow up in or be this age, now, what error would you choose? A lot of people fifties, sixties, seventies. Yeah, that that's

what I would say. If I could choose any era, I would have been like my early twenties, in the late eighties, early nineties, like that would have been my time. To me, there was like so much going on. I'm sure it was a great time to party and be alive. And not only that, I mean there was just the inception of so many different things at that point in time, like you would have seen and I always go back

to these three things. You would have seen the inception of Metallica, you would have seen the inception of Fresh, Prince of bel Air, one of my favorite shows, and just Will Smith in general, I guess, and Michael Jordan's what more can you ask for? And I had tapes, had cassettes worn out, consetts of of of of everything you just made and what are cassettes? What's the what's the vhs? Right? Right? Like, who's going to know what a Blu ray was in a couple of years? Rights that?

That that's short lifespan? Well watch the Goldbergs. That's a that's a great show. And it makes me feel nostalgic every time I watch it because they just referenced everything from the eighties that was. You know, I clearly remember I remember that toy, I remember that TV show, I remember I remember this happening right, everything, everything that's on that show, so good Good Times of reminisce. If you're getting myself in trouble, get myself in trouble here, Andy,

Have you ever seen in Talk Alive? I have not. Would you be opposed to it? I would not. Do you have tickets? No? I don't. Are they going on tour? If they are, let's go. I'd love to get some tickets every time that they've gone on tour for the past right if you're watching, we know you're not doing anything right now. So it's Matthews Band. Let's be serious. Can you name a song by Dave Matthews Band. I

feel like I should be able to say yes. No. The answer is always no. With anything involving Dave Matthews Man, the answer is always no. Andy. You're gonna make me think by default now of Greg Susman. Every time I hear Dave Matthews I'm gonna confuse the tool. It's gonna be the Greg Susman. You have to guess how many times Greg has seen Dave Matthews Band live. What would you say? Seventy three? Why are you doing that? Andy? Way too high? He's seen them like over thirty times.

But to me, like it's not horrible. I've seen Metallica seven or eight times in my life, and to me, that seems like a lot. It seems like a lot to see a band. I'd see it. I don't know. I've seen them over thirty times. How many times can you hear the same? Oh? Good violin and whatever? The dude? I can't even name a song like tailgame though, being a season ticket holder, he's he's a Dave Matthew season tickets supposed to be t g I f thank god it's Friday. It's not supposed to be pissed frank off

Friday talking about Dave Matthews band. Here. You know what, Andy, I actually I got some reads I gotta do. I thought about this right now, the daily Rodo. No, that's the wrong one at the game. Just got a good feeling, no problem. Now you can bet from anywhere, anytime with the all new my Bookie Mobile betting platform. With the my Bookie Mobile platform, you enjoy the safety and convenience of at home betting when you're when you're on the go. I gotta rewrite this promo. Try it out today and

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Let's go to the chat. Let's answer the people. Let's help the people. Andy, Yeah, we happened to the Malex Smith question first because the second one. Uh, probably spend a little bit more time on that one. Malex Smith, I believe we got a question about him dealing with an injury. I actually have to look this up during the break because I don't even know it came out today.

At the Road of World Update February fift at eleven am per Ryan Devish on Twitter, Maleix Smithem will be held out of early defensive drills due to a right elbow injury. Andy, Malex Smith is one of these guys where if you want to attack speed later on in the draft in the middle rounds. He's a popular breakout candidate in the speed to I mean, someone that can give you a pretty good batting average. He's not gonna

tank you there, give you to eight plus. He has the legs to legitimately give you, you know, forty fifty plus stolen basis this year. But now he's dealing with the right elbow injury. How much is something like this were are you? It really doesn't because it has nothing really to do with his game, um from you know, you want to be on the field, of course, So if it's gonna prohibit him from doing that, from throwing a ball, etcetera. From swinging a bat, yeah, of course

you don't like it. But until more comes out and I hear more about what this injury is, I'm not overly concerned about it. Mentioned he's a left handed swinger, so uh, you know, I don't think it's affecting his swing or his power, which there's really none of to begin with. The thing I love about Malex Smith done this has been one of my favorite players, and hopefully hopefully he gets to stay in one city and for more than season, more than a couple of months, and

build a career this guy is a legit hitter. He's been a three hitter in his career in the minors, and then he comes up and he's now shown he could be that at the majors. He's a he's a free runner, if you will. We like to say some guys with the bat free swingers. He's a free swinger as well. He strikes out probably more than you want to above doesn't walk as much as you want. He's under temper cent in that category, but he does put the ball in play, and then he does use his

legs to get on base. So he's gonna get you that three average, and then he's a free runner in terms of that. He got great speed. He's gonna get caught a bunch of times, but the volume is going to be there that he's also going to finish as

we saw last year with forty. He's that's his baseline, and hopefully he gets every day at bats now being in Seattle, and he can be a hundred and sixty game player, get you fifty plus deals and give you a two nine or better batting average, which means that's happening. I'm I'm saying he's gonna be close to scoring a hundred runs. I'm not expecting anything in the power department r B I included. So if he can give me three out of five categories though at a week outfield position,

I'll take it every day. Yeah. Alex Smith one of these guys that's kind to bounce around a little bit. He's been looking for a place that he can call home. It seems like Seattle might be that opportunity. They finally gave him an opportunity last year to play a lot. You saw a career high five forty four played appearances, played in a career high one forty one games, and he mentioned that they're just gonna let him run. They're gonna let him run, run and run some more be called.

Last year at forty basis he had twelve caught stealing, So they let him run fifty two times on the base pass last year and as of right now, Rosster resource has n't projected to that first in the lineup. That's what they could do if they have Malex Smith Gordon back to back. That's pretty crazy. Man. We get a lot, we get a lot of double steals out there in Seattle this year. But this is definitely something that you do want to monitor the right elbow injury

for Malex Smith. Andy, I know you had another question, so I'll let you, uh, I'll let you prop that one up and also give your side of if your take on it. It's very simple. So one of the questions was Carlos Correa or Reese Hoskins points league, And I mentioned earlier if you've been listening to the whole time, I don't know what from the last segment of two segments ago, but I mentioned Carlos Carrey is my early bold prediction at the a L m v P for

I think he comes back fully healthy. I think he has a lot to prove and I think he's capable of proving it. So he's he's one of those guys you can get at a slight discount this year. I think he's going on around the third fourth round. Um, that's my early pick for m v P. So how can I go against that and take somebody else? So Carlos Correa over Reee Hoskins for me. Carlos Correy going to pick fifty one point six in NFPC ADP in the month of februinary. So you're getting him, You're getting

him in the fourth round of fifteen team leagues. Here, Andy, I love you, buddy, but you didn't watch last week when when when Dr A was on talk about Carlos Correa. Okay, he's very worried and very worried about Carlos Correa because Carlos Correa, this back injury, poor injuries. I know we're getting all the reports on say Carlos Correa, these are

things that could very quickly turn into chronic injuries. And just giving that the torque that Carl's corea swings the bat with, he's been right around a hundred and ten games played each of the past two seasons. Look, it's a bold prediction. So I'm not gonna I'm gonna kill you for you know your a l m v P pick as a bold prediction. But I'm worried, man, I'm worried about Carlos Correa. And I realize you're getting you're getting him at a discount because you know, when when

he's good, when he's healthy, everything's good to go. He's a borderline first round pick and that's where he was going last year. Now you're getting him in the fourth round. Yeah, And I totally get that, and it sound like a hypocrite if I didn't think the back played apart, especially when I've been saying for years now that it makes me stay away from Kershaw on any format, in addition to just not taking starting pitchers early. But the back would really worry me so for a batter, for an

everyday player, even more so. But he's twenty four, he'll be uh twenty five at the end of the season in September. He's the face of the organization. I mean, this guy's is legit superstar. Uh. I'm believing everything he's saying. I'm I'm buying into the offseason workout videos that I've seen posted of him lifting and working out. I I

think he's smart enough to realize, um, you know that. A. I think he's a little become a little mature being the first pick in the overall in the draft, everything that's gone on in the island of Puerto Rico and feeling like, you know, he's he's holding a nation, you know, playing for them. Everything, Like all the off field stories that contribute to who Carlos Korea is. I think he embraces them. I think he welcomes them. I think it's

at a level of maturity to him. So I say all that because it's a typical year old is gonna be trying to lift everything in sight and and you know, blow the roof off the gym. I think he's realizing and recognizing who he is. I'm not a bodybuilder. I'm a shortstop and I have to have that flexibility. And I don't need to try to hit fifty home runs. I can hit thirty and help my team. I miss being on the field last year. I feel like I let us down. I want to play every game this year.

I want to be back, and if I have to adjust my workouts, if I have to adjust my training, my diet, whatever it comes down to, and I'm really buying into that for Carlos Correas. So with all those things considered, I do think the health is back, and I do think he'll be back on the field. And if he's on the field every day and in that capacity, you know, maybe it's not gonna be the elite numbers that we wanted, but I think they're gonna be consistent.

He's gonna give you across the board five categories, maybe maybe four. We'll say four, because I'm not sure that the speed will be there, but I'm all in on Carlos Correa. And a lot has to do with this draft price. And I'll say this is upside is higher than a guy like Reese Hoskins. I'm not gonna deny that, but I think it's downside is also lower than a guy like Reese Hoskins in the Points League. I'm gonna

continue to hammer this home. I like durability. I like guys that are gonna play every single day, Guys that you don't have to worry about platoons. That's definitely not the case with Carlos Correa. But the durability, the injury concerns, that is something that you do have to worry about. And Reese Hoskins, I also really do like the fact that he walks a lot. You know, thirtcent walk great last year in twenty seventeen and fifty games, had a

seventeen percent walk great last year. Around this time, I was saying, Reese Hoskins, if you look at his minor league profile, really reminded me a lot of Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo was also a guy that walked a lot in the miners. He had some pop I see the same things in Reese Hoskins Double A. He had thirty eight home runs, twelve percent walk rate in seventeen Triple A before he was called up, twenty nine home runs, thirteen percent walk grate. So you're asking me in a points league,

am I taking Reese Hoskins or Carl's core. I'm taking Reese Hoskins because he's gonna walk a lot. He's gonna hit a lot of home runs, like he had thirty four home runs last year. I think he actually built on that. I think the Phillies line up is better. Imagine if to add a guy like Bryce Harper or Manny Matado, so that mix as well. They all they already traded for JT. Real Muto. They signed Andrew McCutcheon. Again, the upside for Korea is higher, downside for me is lower.

I'll go somewhere in between and I'll take Ree Hoskins. Well, here's here's a couple of negatives against Hoskins for me. Are we assuming that he projects to hit more home runs? I mean, you see the fifty games sample he hit the eight team. We know the power, we saw the batted ball profile, and I would he had thirty four home runs last year, I wouldn't project for him to hit more than that, Okay, I think he'll be in like the thirty two to thirty five range. Okay, so

thirty two to thirty five. He didn't even top seven Davis in batting average. He was at six. He's not stealing anything, so you think you could be better than two. He's literally just giving you power. And it's not even elite power. If you're telling me thirty thirty five, I mean it's great power, don't get me wrong. It's above

average power, but it's not it's not elite power. And for him to be getting drafted, where's he going, He's going on forty one overall, he's going, he's going a little bit ahead of Right now, you're paying for premium.

But if you're just asking me Corea versus Hoskins, which was the original question, right right, But I'll give you the negatives, I guess Hoskins, why I'm you're supposed to be for the back and up my my conviction in Carlos Correa, Uh, you're paying too much of a premium for above average You're you're paying paying premium dollars for above average production. I'm looking at the runs in the RBI production though too. I mean, eighty nine runs last year.

He's gonna get on base, so he's gonna score runs. He hits in a great hitters environment in Citizens Bank Park. I've already mentioned what they've done to the lineup. They added McCutcheon, So he's does that make his batting average it? I think that he's You don't think he's a better hitter than two six whatever he was that last year. I think he's better than that. Okay, So to sixty, which is what he hit his first year, and you look at the minor league numbers, the batting averages were

a lot better. I'm I'm there with you. But we were talking about eighty one. We're talking about Josh Bell being a three and the miners and then not translating. So my only concern with that is what would you say would be the high side of optimism for batting average. He's had to seventy if everything broke right, to see everything broke right for Korea. I hear what you're saying. He can hit, okay, so to seventy give you the thirty five to seventy, he's gonna come close to a

hundred runs in RBIs. Okay, he's gonna do that. Who's going gonna be in the lineup every single day? Okay? So eighty nine runs last year, ninety r BIS and the and the lineup only got better in Philadelphia. So now I'm looking Chris Davis is going after him. So we know we're getting to we know we're getting to forty seven, we know we're getting forty homers. Here's the problem, NFBC. Chris Davis with a K is utility. Only I see that.

I see that. I'm just looking another guy's Cody Balingers going after because outfield eligibility and he's gonna play first basis here, so he's gonna have dual Elgebild, So does Cody Balance helps, so does Cody baling Cody Balance is gonna give me the same number of homers and giving me speed. What Balinger is a tough one. He's tough to figure out. I take I take Balaner over Hoskins nine out of ten times. What are Balinger to me

is tough to figure out? I would just I don't know, man, I think I think there's a lot a lot more underlying numbers with Cody Balance, I think I'm gonna try and hit away from players who hit a lot of infield fly balls because those are guaranteed out. Booty Bellinger is the guy who has a lot of infield fly balls, and last year it was something that I was trying to overlook with Rathbael Devor's because I was all over Devors and he let me down. He has a lot

of infield flyball. They're gonna have to go first base overall in our draft with d Alright, I'll talk about Cody Bellinger. Fantasy Best Friends Forever, Fantasy Sports Radio Network. The Fantasy Sports Network is hitting you from all angles with the best fantasy sports and betting analysis. You can catch the latest programming on so many platforms. There's no way you'll miss out on any of the award winning

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all your athletic facial wipes and body cleansing needs. The morning after one of the very few guys that would have had the opportunity to prove everybody wrong or an opportunity to go. Well, I'll show you if another NFL tea to play Joe. You know that. Well, that's my point is that he's a bigger celebrity as he is now that he never would have been as a free loss to job paying. It's not about playing because if you and I game, we had to jump at that

opportunity to stick it right up. Roger Dedell's ass week Days Not Ammy, starting on F and T, s Y Radio and on your popular podcast providers. Welcome back to the Fantasy as Friends Forever. I am Frank Standfeld, joined in studio by any singleton you can follow on Twitter at People's Pen, People's with a Z talking a little bit about Cody Bellinger before the freak. I know you want to get to flyerty in Mankato will do that as well here in the final segment. But I can't

believe it's the final segment already. Yeah, man, two hours and flying. Is everybody enjoying the show? Anybody's watching the show? You guys enjoying this. I'm enjoying it. I don't know how much that that matters. I'm enjoying it. Chris ba Bone is enjoying it. Downstairs. I see I see Chris Ventra, the closer in the chat, timing in a little bit as well. I know he's a he's a big yo on Mankada guy, So maybe he'll chime in from from downstairs and give us some of his Mankata thoughts when

we get to him. But I wanted to get into Cody Bellinger a little bit here because for me, he's kind of tough to figure out this year Andy, And I don't know, maybe I'm making it tougher than it should be because look, it's a it's a twenty three year old who you know, he's gonna turn twenty four throughout the season. He already has the thirty nine home run season under his belt when he was a rookie, And what do he regrets last year he had twenty

five home runs. Um, the hard hit rate came down, the home run the flyball ratio came down, the flyball rate came down, his infield flyball rate again. Infield flyball rates is something I don't want to focus a little bit more on this year because they're guaranteed out. These are gonna hurt your batting average. They're gonna hurt you big time last year sixteen and a half percent in field fly ball rate. That was nearly double from the year before in his rookie year when he was amazing,

when it was eight point four percent. Something I'm also looking at with Cody Bellinger is he struggled against lefties big time last year. The year before he was much better. He he hit like two sixty seventy against lefties, and that kind of gave me confidence in him heading into the twenty eighteen season because I said, all right, you know he's not gonna platoon. He's gonna play every single day. He held his own against lefties. You look into his

minor league numbers two and they're very mixed. Some at some levels he was all right against lefties. In some levels, he was very bad against lefties last year to six o ps versus left handed pitching. I'm worried, man, I'm a little worried about Bellingers. I'm gonna tell you why he shouldn't be. So you look across the board at the profile. The one thing that jumps out and the big difference to me was the soft contact increase last year.

The nfield fly rate roughly been his whole career last year, not just I'm sorry two years ago seventeen was at a career low, was under ten percent for the first time on his career, going back to the minors and everything. So that's something that's been there, that's not something that was, you know, all of a sudden. He can you can look at and say that's an outlier. You can look at the goodness and say it was a positive outlier, whereas it's not really in line with his his career.

The soft contact, though, is what worries me a little bout last year. Now, let's go take it back to last segment when I was talking about Carlos Correa. Take it back to yesterday when I'm talking about the psychology of things and off the field and everything you mentioned. Cody Bellinger's is what twenty three, He'll be, uh, twenty four in July, same age roughly as Carlos Correa. And I talking about the maturity with Carlos Correa. Not to

say that Bellinger's immature. I think he's you know, pedigree comes from his father being a pro ballplayer, everything like that. The genes are there. Um, I think his mature he's there as well. I think last year he was never the big power guy throughout his come up. Through the minor leagues, he became the big power guy. He was part of the launch angle revolution and then jacked all these and the Dodgers are at the forefront of that revolution, right.

So he comes up, he come out, buys fully into it, has this immediate success. A season for the Ages, a rookie season for the Ages. I think about a little bit too much into that. I think he's gonna go back to his roots. I think he's gonna get back to being fundamental in his roots. He's not gonna be that forty guy. Maybe he will, because we see what's going on with the with the way the balls are flying out of park now. But I think thirty home runs is fine for me. I think he's back to

that to seventy average. He gives you speed at a position that doesn't really offer speed other really than engulgchment. He can give you double digit steels fifteen, maybe even flirt with twenty. He gives you the outfield eligibility as well. I am not worried at all. I think he's young enough to figure it out, and I think he will figure it out, just because of who he is and how you come up and and the pedigree and everything like that, so you put it all together. I think

the corrections to his game are there. I think he humbles himself and I think he gets back to being who he is and not what we wanted him to be. Andy. I like what you did there, because I like this a lot about you know, your breakdown of players is maybe sometimes I look too much just into the statistical evidence, and you look a lot at the personal side of things, the mental side of things, And I do want to try and factor that more into my analysis because I

think he made some good points last year. I I evaluated a player like Javier bay Is solely based on statistical evidence, and I hated him because he swung him in this too much and he struck out a lot and he didn't walk and I didn't see how, you know, his batting average was going to be sustainable, and then he went out and made me look completely foolish people.

And maybe when it comes to players that have this kind of prospect pedigree, they're this young, you just kind of buy into the fact that they're gonna progress and they're gonna be better, and Okay, Yeah, there was some statistical evidence that showed that, you know, they backtracked a little bit last season. But failure is a great motivator or anything in life, and especially you know in sports

at the at the at the major league level. You know, Cody Balinger, you mentioned he was humbled a little bit last year. So maybe that's something that I should look into. Here's what I have is my projection for toft home runs eighty runs scored, ninety RBI, tend stolen basis. Now that's that's conservativeative. My projection four to fifty thirty two home runs, eighty five runs, ninety rb I five stone basis. I take ballingers and in both of those scenarios, vatting

a marriage is not gonna be far off. I think Reece Hoskins is a little safer for the home runs. I think the runs will be close. I think the RBIs will be close. I might actually give a slight favor to actually Reee Hoskins. Uh, Cody Baling is probably

gonna give you a couple more stone basis. He's gonna give you, you you know, five to ten more stone bases at least at least, which is a big difference, especially though, I don't think the fact that they're going this close it's a it's a bad it's like a bad take by the fantasy baseball industry. I think they should be going this close. Absolutely, it should be. But I definitely think that my money would be on Bellinger over Hoskins if you're given the choice of the two and and

just one other player. I wanted to kind of point to in what you were saying about, you know, being young enough to figure out you know, penalized for the past season a kind Gary said, it's still being the first catcher taking off the board because the position is

is so depleted. Right, he had an awful His upside is to seventy to eighty hitter with thirty runs from the catcher position is the upside, right, But that's here where he was last year, saw his downside, but it didn't it didn't affect him in any way, shape or form and how people are drafting. So why would you do that for other players like Bellinger. I'm not saying you in particular, I'm saying hypothetically, why would you He's

going in the third round right now, right Bellinger? Last year he was going in the second That he hasn't he hasn't fallen that that was a bad example. But if if you know, if we're using the argument against Hoskins, you can relate what you're saying right now to a guy like Joann Mancada, who you wanted to talk about. Because for me, statistically, there's a lot of bad with Moncada because he strikes out a lot. He swings and misses thirty three percent strikeout right last year. I mean,

this isn't just bad, this is really bad. Like we're talking about one of the worst in all baseball. He has swinging miss issues. Like he he swings extremely hard. He made hard contact and that's why you see his batting average is too thirty. It would be even lower if if it weren't for the quality of contact that he makes. Because whenever he makes contact, you know he has high battis. He can sustain that because he hits the ball as hard as he does. But he has

a thirty three strikeout right and it worries me. There's nothing that I can look at statistically, Andy, that would allow me to project Joan Moncada to have anything higher than a two forty batting average. There's nothing there's nothing statistically because I looked at every single monthly breakdown. I looked at his splits by month. I looked at first half for a second half. It didn't get better. His

plate discipline. His plate discipline is not bad. Let me not say it that way, because he walks a lot, but in terms of strikeouts, it did not get better. So the only way that I could project for you know, if you are on the optimistic side of projecting you on Mancady, you might say he has the upside to hit two fifty two sixty with thirty home runs and twenty stone basis. Maybe that's like, is you know, his

top percentile outcome this year for you on Moncada. But the path to him getting there would be him doing something that we've never seen him do before Andy, which is which comes back to statistical evidence that I have from him versus a maybe what you're about to say, the fact that he has the prospect pedigree. It's not just the prospect pedigree. And I hear all the arguments against Mancada. I mean, he led the league last year and strike outs with to seventeen. The argument is already

strikes out too much. Yes, he does, but I'll get into that in a moment. The other argument is he can't get lefties. It splits are bad, but which is weird because you have a switch hitter. Yes, and and people say that he should just pick a side and stick to it. But here's the other thing with that. The sample size might be small prior to last year. You only have fifty four games in seventeen, just a handful at eight. You know when he when he was still a Boston in sixteen, So it's not what he

was last year with a undred forty nine. But if you're looking at the splits against lefties, that was really last year. It's not last year injected, I should say, um, career wise, it looks bad, But if you go back to seen he was pretty even split right these first lefties. I don't think last year was really true representation of what he is as a hitter. I think the handstring

issues plagued him as well. I think when you talk about a guy who has speed in his game and then you take that away, you're an unfamiliar territory, You're you're you're in uncharted waters, like where you don't have, you don't feel you have your full compliment. Think about when you wake up in the morning and you have a slight headache, it's not a pounding headache. I got a call out of you know, call sick out of work over I drink. I drank a couple of beers, right,

and you don't feel yourself. You feel like, as somebody asked me to do this, I can do it, but not how I feel comfortable doing it. I think when you take a speed guy like Moncada and you take away his hamstring and his ability to feel comfortable with that speed, I think it changes the outlook. And this was his first full season. Now we're talking about the strikeouts. He hit uh little put my number here? Um, where

were where is it? He had a strike at rate, but he batted three O nine over the final twenty five games of the season, and that was still striking out thirty percent of the time. Point of the quality of contact that he makes My point with that is the high average eggs of velocity. I don't care about the case as much. He can hit three hundred while striking out thirty percent of the time, He's probably he could do it. I know it's a short period of

games a month whatever. We're talking to a whole different thing. It's a D fifty games. Can you strike out thirty percent of the time and hit three d as? I think, no, you can't hit three. But he would be Aaron Judge, right, Aaron Judge who strikes out percent of the time but maintains a to eight batting average because he hits the ball as hard as he does. I could see Monk kind of getting to that point, but he still needs to drop it at least a little bit. It can't bet.

I'm glad you brought up Judge and and I'll say why. And we're talking about this with Bellinger, and it's about players making adjustments. I think the biggest adjustment Judge made to bring him to m v P levels was saying, I'm not a home run hitter. I'm I'm a gap to gap doubles hitter, like a Michael Confordo. And he stopped trying to hit the ball out of the park. And just because he's so big, he started making better contact and the ball would travel out of the park.

That's what changed for me and Aaron Judge's game. I'm hoping Mancata can makes similar changes and strides He's not a high average guy. He showed he could be in the minders, but this is this is an elite pedigree of player. He's still just twenty four years old. He's

got the power, he's got to speak combo. But I'm looking forty from him, not this year at least maybe maybe if he can put it together this year and give me and I think he can do that, and let's move out right, and if you're getting him where you're getting him, that is that is maybe arguably hands down the best value in drafts. If he turns in a two fifty two sixties season at second base, you're probably winning majority of your league's for for where you're

gonna draft him. He's going to pick one sixty three right now. The second baseman that are going just ahead of him, or I mean, i'll include you know what, they're actually pretty far ahead. Ryan Dozer is going thirty spots ahead of you a Mancata should they be that far apart. He is a starting second baseman for me, which means he'd be in the top twelve. We're looking at the standard twelve team league. He's he's currently the

fourteenth second baseman. Guys, right, in front of him, Brian Dojer, I can't stand um nothing personally, just you know, as far as let's say, what did he do? Did you like? As far as fantasy baseball player, I can't stand the guy. I think his two good seasons were the outliers for him. If you look at his career, he had two good seasons, one really good one. He's always like either a first or second half guy. To Dojer like, he goes on these amazing runs and like his end of season numbers

look pretty good. I'm with you, man, like I don't want anything to do with Brian Doeser. I don't think the second base position is very good Ryan Dozer than Scope. A lot of people are gonna look at these guys as bounce back Cane that it's I'm not really in Moncada. You know, you go back and forth because I drafted him last year and he burned me a little bit. But I mean, you gotta be able to erase that

from your mind. You gotta be able to say, all right, it's a new year prospect pedigree, Like I think you know he has league winning potential. I feel like a second base in that I am on is rugnett O Door, like, that's the guy that I'm gonna be on because he made conscious adjustments last year and we we saw but you get the same thing from Moncata and only thirty spots later, So that's a full two round. I've seen o Door hit thirty home runs, but you know what

I'm saying, he's done it twice. I hear you. But maybe okay, all right, So I mean like right now o'dor is going on and Mankad is going one sixty three. But again o'door, I've seen him hit thirty home runs and that. But with this new approach, if he's a little bit more patient, maybe he's not trying to just

hit home runs all the time. Even if Odor hit to fifty with twenty five home runs and fifteen stolen bases, I think he could get there because you know, we've already seen him hit the thirty home run park and he made you know, he made conscious adjustments last year.

So but the guy that I'm on at the average one from two seventy one to two oh four, two O four, I mean that was two years ago, right in twenty years seven second thirty home run season two oh four I mean, and though that's an outlier in Odoor's career, everything else is higher than that. But he's probably in that year, not in the lineup if the Rangers are doing anything. I mean, the fact of the matter is they weren't competitive. So yeah, we can afford to row this guy out and just let him swing

for the fences. We don't care if it's two oh four or one ninety six, like it didn't matter at that point. Um, you're right, though. The second base position is another one that I don't feel is particularly deep. It's why jose Al two of it for me is still you can argue first round there. I know he's kind of slipped out of the first round, but I have enough time knowing what he's giving. Yeah, I'm not

on all astros not named Tyler A Night or Alex Bregman. Well, I'm how to even even get into my my Flaherty uh Rant. Why he's my first picture of it. We'll have you on again before the seasons. We'll see what happened abut it real quick. We do have Stephen Massachusetts. I don't know if we have enough time. We have two minutes, Steve, can you make it quick? For us A four four three six seven nine, Stephen, Massachusetts. If you can make it quick, we will be able to

answer your question here. What's going on? Man? That was pretty fast, Steve, Uh, what what do you What do you guys think about him? Uh? In the two minutes that you have left? Who was that? We didn't We didn't Yo see Yo see Kukushi the guy from Seattle, the Japanese guy that just picked up. What do you guys think about him? We actually spoke about him earlier on in the show. You go back and you can get a more extensive breakdown of how we feel about him. Uh.

And he actually really likes him a lot. He's gonna have a one fifty one hundred sixty ennings cap this year. But we do think that in those endings pitched, he's gonna be a pretty serviceable pitcher. I don't know that I want him as one of my top three pitchers in fantasy right around that market. Anything after that, like is my sp four. I don't I don't hate it right around that mark. But Steak, thank you for the call, and and we are up against the time. But if

you go back, I forgot what segment is. Maybe the second segment. Go back to the beginning of second We sent a lot of great things today two hours. Really does I hope you had fun the past few days? Man? I did? I did? I think it was a little circumstances. Did I think we did not? Right? I walked into the gauntlet? But you know it was, it was? It was. Today was a little better. We have you on again too.

We'll have you on with Greg. I mean, Greg's probably not gonna listen to this, so between me and you, we can make fun of him for being a Dave Matthews band. So next time, double team. We're gonna double team Greg, Dave Matthews Tailgator. Want to thank Andy Singleton mom man follow m on Twitter at People's paying People's with a Z for joining me in studio the past few days. It's been a lot of fun man. Thanks so much for everybody at home, Thank you for watching

and listening. Remember, stay classy, fancy, honest,