Welcome in everybody to Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy Baseball Podcast and it's made Joey p Joe pe Zapia, and today we're gonna take a look at what you really want to know, league winners and probably Welsh's hair. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll look at the hair. You look at the league winners. Nothing else matters at the end of the day. So we're gonna be taking a look here. Welsh has a list of ten. I have a list of ten, and we're gonna go through
them here for you. Some of these players we've talked about before, some really not so much. And we've got a really interesting way of breaking this down. So all of my players are going to be post one fifty ADP and above. I'm talking about the guys that could win you a league that you really don't see coming. But Welsh is starting his somewhere around pick one hundred, but he's going even deeper than mine mine stopping about two seventy five. His are going well into the four hundreds.
So between the two of us, these are gonna be twenty names that you should be targeting in your drafts. Varying ADPs but really post one hundred, this is where you could potentially win your league. In Welsh what we always say, right, it's easy to draft, like the first ten rounds, it's pretty simple. It's when we get to the back end of the draft, the last six seven rounds, where you could really make a difference if you're willing to be patient, willing to put in the work, or
at the very least have us do the work for you. Yeah.
And also the idea behind league winners was very specific to me and how I order these players because we've done lots of varying degrees of these episodes of breakouts sleepers. I would say league winners in my mind probably is the close cousin to sleepers, but I have to be very distinctive about it. I'll give you a prime example, a player that I almost put on this when I was doing it, was like Michael Waka. But Michael Waka is not a league winner. I do think he can
be a sleeper based on his ADP. He's a player that I'm drafted. There's another episode, you know, the players that are on every player that's on our team. We're drafting a ton of shares up. That's different. Michael Waka is not a league winner, so you're going for really big upside. You're going for cost that can equate to this player absolutely going nuts, but it also could blow up in your face a little bit. The league winner is a do or die situation. And I will tell
you you said I have varying degrees. I probably have a three hundred eightyp difference between the number one guy, which we sorted this by ADP and the furthest back player. But a lot of these guys are younger players, and it's probably no shock that league winning players are going to be players that are just buried down there that, given the opportunity, without a big track record, could absolutely explode.
So lots of different names popped up on this list, but I tried to be very specific because this guy has to win me my league, So how do they win the league? Right, it's no expectation to absolute blow up.
And it's the absolute potential for blow up, which is why they're on the list now. And that we're not saying all these guys are going to blow up, because we've been around way too long to know that that's not going to be the case. But it's about the potential for that, which is really exciting. And again I want to thank everybody's watched all of our coverage and listen to all the shows and watch us over on YouTube if you haven't already subscribed to fans of ros
MLB Welsh. It's such a great audience we have that joins us all the time. I want to tell a quick story here at the top. I want to shout out a buddy of mine, Jim pal of mine, who was also the bus driver for my youngest daughter for a few years, who is a huge fan of the show and the day he put it together that I was the one waiting outside the bus stop with my daughter every morning, he shows me. He says, hey, is this you shows me you and me on an episode
of Leading Off. He says, I love this show. I watched the show every day. I ran to him in the gym today. Guess what. He was literally watching the draft between you, Me, Bogman and Kelly Kirby from the Fantasy Pest Wilson, You're the best and I know a lot of folks out there, and he said something to me. He says, like, you guys are the most fun there is in fantasy baseball, and we try to do that. We try to be fun but also informative. But we're trying to give you a little bit of fun because
the fun is important. It's fantasy baseball. It's supposed to be a good time. So that's what Welsh and I are here to give you. So shout out to my buddy Milsa Wilson, and shout out to all the folks, the Peanuts and the cracker Jacks. Because guess what. Leading Off Live starts Thursday the twenty eighth. We're gonna be wigging out. We cross seventeen thousand subscribers. So opening day,
you're getting the wigs, You're getting the mustaches. I know you keep saying, and you were really excited about the muskle.
I like the look of the mustache. I actually gotta be honest with you. I kind of like my mustache mustache, Like, lie here, this is causing strife in my house and this is being.
Saved looking sexy with the beard. Baby.
Ask my wife the same thing. I was like, isn't this a good look? She's like no, I don't know.
I think she's wrong, But then again, I do have to see your face in person. All right, let's get to the top ten league winners and Welsh. Let's start with ten through eight. The guys that made your list, the ADP and why they're on this list for you.
All right, So here are the three players at ten. Again, this is a descending ADP. This is the only player outside the four hundreds. I've got Matt Manning. Now, Matt Manning has increased his fastball velocity. He's finally healthy. That's kind of the big key has had a phenomenal spring. That's really the other thing. He's had a really great spring. His fastball usually sitting around ninety three, it's been up to ninety four. I think I've even seen the reports.
Maybe there's a splitter that's going on there. But we're we're hoping that we are going to get the return the thirty five percent fifth percentage slider player in twenty twenty two. Everything decreased last year, but the fastball is more effective. He looks more effective, and he is free. I think it's him or Casey Myz that are going to be the player that's going to break back out. And I'm getting Casey mis had a little bit of a rough spring. Ton of walks. That's not been Matt
Manning over eleven k per nine. He came in at number ten, number eight. As a player I have talked about a decent amount. It's Michael Busch with the Chicago Cubs, and Michael Busch has had a decent spring. The average has not been there, the strikeouts have been a little bit up, but he's got two homers and two stolen bases. And here's been the big key that I've been talking about. Would he be able to keep his spot? Pete ko Armstrong was sent down to me. That is Cody Bellinger
in centerfield. It's not gonna be Mike Talkman. They also don't have a bunch of lefties with Michael Busch. They have four lefties on the active hitting roster, so Michael Bush is even more valuable there between DH and first. He's going to continue to keep going. The homers are going to be there. I think you can get twenty five homers and is ADP eighty right now according to Fantasy Pros. And I will tell you this, we are doing descending order, but this player actually might be one
of the top league winners in all of baseball. If the best case scenario works out. Victor Scott the second with the Saint Louis Cardinals. Victor Scott having a great spring as we're recording this, still vying for an opportunity to break with the camp three point sixty seven in spring an only twelve percent k rate. He's already stolen four bases. Victor Scott could even lead baseball in stolen bases if he starts from day one with that batting average. So that's why I say you want to talk about
league winners. Victor Scott, if from at least day one and hits around two fifty two to sixty, is going to steal probably no less than fifty stolen bases. There's even some home run potential in there. Victor Scott one of the best league winning potential players you could draft. And his ADP I actually screwed it up. He is the second highest ADP three eighty seven of all players. Get him. On the back end, we talk about the bench player. What's the perfect bench player to take it's
Victor Scott especially. We all need some for stolen bases.
And Steve Gardner on the Fantasy Fest. You can go back and listen or watch. We have all the segments segmented out see what I did. They're over on YouTube, from Steve Gardner to Pinowski to Ino Saras, and Steve was talking about Victor Scott too for the same thing too, Hey, look for cheap steals the end of the draft. You don't want to go with a Sturry Ruiz or somebody like that and waste draft capital. There's Victor Scott ten through eight. For me, I'm gonna start with number two,
seventy four on the big board right now. He just got sent down, but I don't care. It's Paul Skeens, and I love the fact he just got sent down. I didn't think it was gonna make the team. But there's always that collective. Oh no, Paul Skeen's got sent down. The season is six months long, Folks went back to twenty ten because I think the only thing that we have in recent memory that reminds me of this Paul
Skean situation is Steven Strasbourg. Now, I hope that Skeens has a better path in his future than Steven Strasburg gat However, well hope he makes as much money. I that you go. But at the same point, he made his debut in June that year, right, he threw sixty eight innings a two ninety one era. He struck out ninety two guys and walked seventeen. Now, if you're talking about Layton drafts, in those you know, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen
rounds where people drafting Scherzer, people drafting Kershaw. Now just think about this. If Paul Skeenes comes up at the end of June and gives you these kind of numbers down the stretch here and then eventually gets shut down in September, So it might hurt you when you get
to playoff situations. But Welsh, those are some incredible stats to give you in a sixty seventy inning span, which I think he can give you elite level numbers there, and much cheaper ADP than the other guys that I mentioned, those veterans that are already hurt. So Skeens is a guy I just took him in our last draft we did live with Michael Goovier. You can watch out on the channel as well. Mason Miller at two fifty nine is number nine for me. I don't see why he
would not be the closer. It is the best way I've said this before, I'm going to say one last time for everybody to hear. This is what you want to do with Mason Miller. Give him a clean ninth inning budget his innings. Give him non stress. One, two, three, You sit back down. You're not getting up and down the bullpen a million times. You're not having this guy warm up. That's a recipe for disaster with Mason Miller. You figure the a's, you keep it simple, stupid, and
all you do is you make him the closer. You let him pitch no more than two days in a row. If it has to be a save for three days in a row and the Oakland Days are winning three games, you should dance a jig and be very happy Oakland. But somebody else can shut it down that day. Mason Miller is a guy you can get some saves and strikeouts later. And the only way to really make sure you put him in plastic is to make him the closer. Number two eighteen, Number eight for me, another guy just
drafted in the last draft. We just wrapped up Logan Ohapi, the catcher of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Love this guy. Last year. I know Frank Stamfle one of our guys again on fest talked about this guy. We talked about him last year, A love o Hoppy. I think he's got power. I think he's got the ability to hit somewhere in that two to fifty range. And for me, this is a player that I'm very excited to draft everywhere, and I think you should be too.
I think this is an opportunity here with Ohapi to make up some ground here in two catcher leagues. I think's extremely valuable. And he's going right now on that fringe of catcher one, if you will, in those two catcher leagues, which I think is just absurd. So ten schemes nine Mason Miller and at two eighteen Logan Ohoppy. Let's take a quick break in the action and tell you about underdog Fantasy. MLB draft season is here, and the easiest place to play fantasy baseball is it Underdog Fantasy.
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that promo code is fp MLB. And join the Underdog today and get drafting in the upcoming MLB season. And now back to the action Welsh seven through five for you on the league winners, who do you have?
I will tell you one thing. Had I gotten to this sheet first, you have about half of the players I would have put on.
That's good because agreeing on these guys, because we sometimes disagree on players, the fact that we agree on as many as we do on this list, I think that's worthy of note for the people watching and listening today.
Yeah, and Mason Miller was the one of that group that you just said that instantly was like, Oh, I got to put him on there because of where his draft value is. Also a sneaky starting pitcher that could
have closers. So I like that, all right. So going to mind seven, six, and five, these are all young guys and they're upside to varying degrees, Sinai, Rafaela is number seven on the list at three point thirty two, and I say, like the varying degrees of upside people are getting at, they're so cheap that the impact that I believe they're gonna get to, whether you agree or not, is why these guys can be league winners. In Rafaela really could be a uniquely special guy. He's a guy
that could go twenty twenty. He's had a solid spring three homers, two stolen bases, hitting two seventy nine. Strike up rate hasn't been a problem. He's actually walked more, which isn't crazy. But if he plays in the middle infield, there's some talk about him maybe playing some second, some short while also playing outfield.
Eight.
The batex projections have event nine homers with fourteen stolen bases in a two fifty six average in ninety nine games. You span that out you could be looking at a fifteen twenty five guy, and if you wanted to play the Steamer numbers, by the way, fourteen homers, seventeen stolen bases in one hundred and twenty games. You're closing in on a twenty twenty bat that could have in and outfield eligibility, Saidani Rafaela at three thirty two. I love coming in at number six with an ADP of two
ninety nine. Is the San Diego Padres new center fielder has to say short stop because.
He does qualify in some leagues. There, so's Jackson Merril.
I love Jackson Merrill. We talked about him on the fan Fest with Steve Gardner. I think he is a sneaky rookie of the year bet Now, his counting stats don't pop necessarily even projections. The bat X is eight and eight in ninety six games, so you're probably closing in on fifteen to fifteen. But at almost free with a high batting average, they've got him at two fifty seven. He legit might hit twot eighty for this team, score
decent amount of runs. The power is starting to go, and I think he could steal a little bit more than he had in the minor leagues in twenty twenty three, he did steal fifteen bases in around one hundred and ten games. On a full season, he can steal twenty. He can hit between ten and fifteen. I think he can score a bunch of runs, and he's got middle infield eligibility. Jackson Merrill could be one of those league
winning guys because of his flexibility in the numbers. And then coming in at number five is Colt Keith with the Detroit Tighs, who looks like he is locked into that middle endfield spot so much so that roster resource has moved him closer to the middle of the lineup where he can qualify at second and third base. He hit two eighty seven in triple A last year with thirteen homers in sixty seven games. Projections are pretty friendly. You've got steamer with fourteen homers with a two to
sixty one batting average a one hundred and seventeen. His power is being under sold right now, as long as the strikeouts don't become an issue, which by the way, he's only got a eighteen percent strikeout rate in spring training. He can hit twenty five plus. He is a guy that can push top one hundred value. All three of these players with the stolen base and power potential, they can be top one hundred fantasy bets that are almost free,
especially in like twelve man leagues. So I think Colt Keith has a chance, especially from the power department, to be a league winner.
I think there's a lot of value late in the middle infield especially, I mean anywhere from Zach Gehloff all the way down to what was it three eighty right, we're three thirty two for Rafaela, right. I mean there's there's a lot of value here late. So if you have to make up ground, you know, I mean, Volpi's been a guy that we've talked about before, you know, some of the guys that I'm gonna talk about next. Like, there's a lot of these guys that were floating out
there that have a lot of upsides. So if you're playing in those middle infield leagues, don't freak out if the board doesn't go your way. Early on, I.
Almost put Volpy on this and I didn't even I didn't even actually get my connection until you just said that that all three of those players that I just gave you are middle infield options. Because Rafaela looks like he's gonna get that qualification. You've already got Jackson Merrill who's got it, and Colt Keith has got it, and you're gonna get extra qualifications with all those players. That
is what is unique about those three players. But there's handfuls of middle infielders that you like to make bets on. These are the guys though, with sky high upside and I didn't even get that middle infield catch. All right, what do you got in your group?
Well, I'm sticking with the theme here starting at number seven for me, Junior kemen Aro. I've talked about them all the time. I'm gonna keep talking about them. Qualifies at third and shortstop. I don't think it's gonna be very long. I think this guy's ready go. And even if it's not till let's say Memorial Day, that still gives you two thirds of the season of Camonaro. And if he is as advertised, which I believe he is, he could make a huge impact. I like the bat.
I think the bat is a little bit more ready than Jackson Cherio, who's gonna start from day one. That's my opinion. Some people don't share that opinion, but I do from all the film I've been able to watch on camon Aro. He's somebody that I kept in my home league for a couple bucks. I can only keep eight guys, and I kept him because he was a buck. And you know what, I'm keeping that guy because the
upside is just far too much. So even though I have to be patient, I'm gonna practice what I'm preaching here when it comes to Camonaro. So I'm telling everybody again, I just drafted him in the last draft we just did on Fantasy Bros. I drafted Jackson Merril too much to Welsh's chagrin. I drafted Skeins, I drafted a hoppy. I'm showing you these are the guys that I'm targeting
late that I think could make a huge impact. And if Cameron Aro ends up hitting somewhere around like six in that order, which I think is very possible, that could be a great spot for him, and he could be exactly what they're missing trying to solve the problem with Wander Franco not being there anymore, and that's a big problem for this offense, and Campanio is the solution at number six, Ezekiel Tovar at two to oh one.
Tovar is a player Welsh and I have talked about, and I know Welsh is excited just the way I am. He's having a really good spring. Just to recap those numbers in the spring, he is slashing currently pretty well there, he's actually up to right now. I'm going to bring up those numbers in a second here, but in spring training he is a two ninety four, three twenty four, five eighty eight slugging. Again, spring doesn't mean everything, but Tovar looks a little stronger in the lower half. You
could see he's put some work in there. He is a very young player still. I mean keep that in mind too. These guys are only twenty one twenty two years old. So Tovar is a player. Great environment, the OBP probably gonna lag behind a little bit, but I think there's a lot of room to improve in banning average. I think there's a lot of room for him to improve as well in the power departments. At two oh one, I think Tovar is now more ready for year two,
whereas some guys tend to have that sophomore slump. I think Tovar came in uged a little bit as a rookie, and I think the second year for him is going to be much improved. At two hundred and one, he is a complete value. And then at one ninety four at number five, showed up Imanaga, pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. At one ninety four, Welsh, this is a guy that if he is right at that two spot for the Cubs behind Justin Steele, I think the Cubs can win
this division. I really do. I think they are right there. They're ready to compete. Bellinger coming back is huge. But while everybody's chasing Yamamoto up top, I'm looking at this guy going around two hundred, I'm saying, give me Imanaga. He's just a better return on my draft capital. I'm not saying he's the same pitcher as Yamamoto. He's not necessarily, but he handled major league hitters in the WBC a couple of years ago. His stats are impeccable. He's thirty
years old. I think he is ready for the major leagues, and I think, especially in the first half of the year, I think hitters are going to struggle to pick him up and figure out exactly what's going on there. Now, we'll see what the second half brings. But if he can give you great stats in the first half and then just kind of continue to build on that in the second, that is league win potential with the starting pitcher.
Now you likeke Minauga as well? Is that a guy you've been targeting and gotten any shares of.
One hundred thousand percent? I will tell you those three guys you just listed off to me are a murderer's row of players that can win your leagues. I've been a little bit less dern, but I have of Ezekiel tow Far. I'm sorry I have moved in a more positive direction. But Junia Camenero is at the tippy top of the list, and Chota Imanaga absolutely is that player. I mean the WBC stuff plus fastball was at the tippy top. His command has been on point this year.
His release point is going to screw up a whole lot of hitters, as it has done in spring. This is a guy that has probably been criminally underrated. And it's funny I've had like him and Brandon Fought moving up and up, and just recently on my ranks, I moved Imanaga quite a bit up. He is a absolute target you've got to have simply for the upside. And this isn't me, but I know a lot of people
like to do this. If what you're saying is is you'll see a lot of these guys that come over that will dominate for a month or two, and then when the league starts to catch up a little bit and teams have better game plans, maybe they can you know, get on with it.
Singa Like Singa came over and it was kind of the opposite. He kind of struggled a little bit with the controller early on, and then something really clicked. I don't know it was a confidence, I don't know what it was, but man, towards a lot of part of the year, he really settled.
In well the command, the command stuck in, and the k's came down.
I think Single was a player on this list last year for us, if memory serves, and it's that same logic. Now, I'm not saying he's got the same strikeout upside of you know, Senga, but think about how many leagues code I Single won people last year of being a guy that you drafted a fourth or a fifth starter who performed like a one for most of the season in terms of strikeouts especially.
And the thing I was gonna say is the thing I don't do that I think some people could look with him and IgA is if he dominates in that first month, you could move him until the league starts to catch up.
I mean that can win you're your league two because when somebody overpays, that's an opportunity for you to take more talent, more players and win your league. So there's more reasons why guys are on this list. And that's a great point that you just made. If this guy is above your expectations and you're worried about regression, guess what turn him into something else or more than he's worth. And next thing you know, you might be in a
really good spot there potentially spring training for him. So far, again a bit of a mixed bag. But the strikeout potential welsh for Imanaga. By the way, should we talk about that. Nineteen strikeouts to two walks so far. I mean, that's pretty good last time I checked in. Oh wait, how many innings up? Nine nine innings. It's a lot of us we get missed there for me and Naga. All right, let's get to three more guys on Welsh's list here, let's get to four to three and two
and then we'll announce our number ones after this. So who's number four. It's a favorite of Welsh's, a favorite of mine. A guy at one p seventy six.
His name is Jared Duran. As a matter of fact, you cannot be four to three or two on my list unless your first name starts with Jay. So this is triple J. Not any Jeff Jarrett stuff in here. It's Jared Duran coming in at four, who I love, and he is one of the big massive targets for me. Twenty four stolen bases, eight homers, and one hundred games last year, hitting two ninety five in spring, he's hitting three twenty. His strikeouts are under twenty percent in spring.
You don't take that for whatever it is, but you love to I love to see strikeout numbers, specifically, more than I care about like counting stats, like I love Boneo Cruz, but everyone's like seven homers in spring. I don't really care about that. I care about some of the intangibles. Strikeouts are those big hard hit number. Last year, I'm hoping the barrel percentage is going to increase like
his launch angle did. But this is a guy in a friendly ballpark who can be a fifteen to thirty twenty thirty five type of player with his EIGHTYP at one seventy six outside the top one fifty. If Duran becomes let's just say, on the high end, a twenty thirty player, he's gonna be like a top fifty player. And that is three hundred x you know on your value. That's huge on Jared Durant. So I think Jared Durant is one of the players you've got to target. He
could be a league winner. He's cheap stolen bases, getting you know, twenty to thirty stolen or plus stolen bases outside the top one fifty. He is key. I love Jaron Durant. Next up these two Jackson Holiday So this is the second of the Jays. Looks like he is locked in to be the second base slash shortstop. However, this team ends up wanting to move him around, but all indications are he is going to break camp with
this team. He's hit three hundred in spring, couple stolen bases, homers, We've also seen that warning track power start to commit. He just launched. I think it was a double against Spencer Strider the other day, so you could really see the contact skills. The strikeout numbers in spring don't matter. This is a guy walked one hundred times in the spring and his ADP is still far back one seventy two. You're not getting that with Jackson Cherio. You're not getting
that with White Langford. You're not getting with any of those rookies that have a locked in spot. People keep talking about I don't know about Jackson Holidays potential for power. Well guess what. The guy might steal thirty to forty bases this year, play all season long, hit for a high average score runs and there is twenty home run potential in that back. Now, it might not materialize this year,
but the guy might hit forty doubles. Jackson Holiday is the type of player that can be a league winner simply off of the eligibility and the return on value, and that leads to number two on the list. It should be a pretty obvious one. It's Jackson Churio. Now I mentioned you know the cost is different, but it's not astronomical. In some cases, we've seen Churio go inside the top one hundred, but the ADP across sites have them on average at one thirty four, and I think
you can understand why. Jackson Churio is a league winner. Forty three stolen bases, twenty two homers last year in Double A. He's hit two eighty three this spring. His strikeout rate has actually stayed around twenty percent in spring, which is phenomenal. Projections fourteen homers, eighteen stolen bases by the Batex, fifteen homers, twenty one stolen bases by ATC
with a two to fifty batting average. They don't project all the games as long as Pat Murphy doesn't do the old school thing like he mentioned, like he's still in the mix. We see Jackson Turio every day. Jackson Trio is a legit thirty thirty potential, probably more realistically in the twenties. He's gonna steal a bunch into the thirties or forties. I mean, I'm looking at Jaron Duran maybe putting up some of those numbers. Trio costs more,
but this is a superstar in the making. It's outside the top one hundred, and usually we are paying sky high prices. Corbyn Carroll went up into the top fifty last year. There's more risk, but Jackson Holiday and Jackson Turio are two of the most obvious league winning names that don't come at the costs that we're used to for some of the most hyped up prospects.
Thirty percent of the names in your listener named Jackson too, Jackson Merril as well, So pretty much just good guy Jackson's. You know you're in your draft too, and you look at search bar, you looking for somebody draft Danny Jackson.
It's like, you know, like there's like baby names like Aiden was super popular like five years ago, just like this year there it's Al.
Jackson's all Jackson's this year. I love Duran. I've tried to take as many shares as i can. Holiday is a player for me that I feel is going to be more valuable in head to head points and people realize too because of that doubles gap hitter that he is the contact you mentioned too, a guy that walked a lot in the minor leagues. I'm not concerned at all about the contact. I'm not concerned at all about the hit tool. The power I do think is going
to drag. But in points league specifically, which is where I prefer to play. He's more of I think, an appealing player early on than he would be necessarily in some of those rotal formats where you're looking for the power speed combination, although the speed's there as well for him.
But you know what's funny is like I kind of see him similar to Bobby Witt in his rookie year, and production wise, Bobby Wit like twenty homers, thirty stolen bases and he was going inside the top seventy five. I think Holiday is like a fifteen thirty stolen based guy with a bunch of runs. So it's like a tiny bit different but not much yet. It's like sixty to seventy spots lower in eightyp So that's how I'm approaching Jackson Holiday because I think his hit floor is
maybe as low as any of the players. I know we're going to talk about one of the most exciting rookies here shortly, but I mean from a pure batted ball skills and their approach at the play, Jackson Holliday might be the best beat of all of them, which I think gives him a floor of stolen bases and the power will be in question if he if he hits eight homers and steals thirty five bases, he's Nico Horner in the out and at short stops. I was
essentially the same player. But guess what sixteen to seventy spots lower than Nico Horner.
A lot different. Adp all right, number four through two on my list, starting at one eighty two at Twartal Rodriguez. Not every guy is, you know, youthful here on this list, But EDWARDO. Rodriguez is a player that last year's first twelve starts were incredible. Just a recap in case you forgot two sixty four ERA over seventy one innings, seventy four strikeouts, sixteen walks for the Tigers. He had a one point zero one whip over that span. Now I
understand second half wasn't as good. Things actualize a little bit to that three eighty nine mark, But Edward Rodriguez is as a track record of always being a solid strikeout picture when he was with Boston Red Sox and now he finds himself in Arizona, I think that he is going to be a guy that's going to give you a sub four er again. I don't anticipate it being as good as it was though the first twelve starts last year. But he's a guy that's going to
win I think thirteen to fifteen games for you. He's going to be competitive. He's going to give you somewhere on a strikeout per nine at least. And to get a player like that at an ADP somewhere around one eighty is nuts to me. Welsh Like, I just think that's an incredible value that people are just overlooking. So this is a player that's been around a while. He's also been very durable, which I think is something outside of last year where he did miss some time up
until then. You know, he did have an issue back in twenty twenty where he ended up not playing, and that was all fair. He had some issues there post COVID. But outside of that, he has given you innings before in the past, in fact that he had thrown two hundred innings in twenty nineteen, just one hundred and fifty two last year unfortunately. But you know, there is a track record of this guy going out there and giving you mornings than you realize. Also, I'd like to see
him get back to that this year. I think he Can with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and I think he's a great value, a great roll of the dice two where again, he's basically a free pitcher who I think would be more like a middle rotation starter, but he's being drafted. It's like a back end guy. Eloya men Is at number three at one seventy eight. This takes a lot of courage for me, Welsh, but there's money on the line. Whenever there's money on the line with a player, I'm listening,
I'm paying attention. It's not that Eloya Menez isn't a good player one hundred and twenty games last year, eighteen homers, sixty four RBI, two seventy. The problem is it's constant injury issues incomplete seasons. Only eighty four games in twenty twenty two, one hundred and twenty last year before that in twenty twenty one, fifty five games, so lots of issues there. However, projections for him are still relatively mild. I mean, twenty five homers eighty RBI right now on
Fantasy pros to the two seventy five batting average. If he gives you just that at an ADP again of one seventy eight, Welsh, that's a steal in when we're looking for outfielder, especially late in drafts, and if he ends up playing more like one hundred and fifty five games, he's gonna crush those numbers.
He's gonna almost put him on this list. By the way, I started typing him, and then I was like, ah, Joe has them so well.
Again, I'm glad we see eye to eye. And at one seventy five another guy too that I think I'm gonna give another shot to. I was very high on Hunter Brown last year, and Hunter Brown did not live up to my expectations and or any of our expectations for that matter, and that happens sometimes with young pitchers. But I think there's reasons to be excited about him because Brown is another player too having a good spring. That goes a long way, because the player like him
needs to have a good spring. The projections for him right now in Fantasy Pros one hundred and fifty three strikeouts, A three nine four, ERA one two seven, whip eleven wins. Pitch is on a great team. So just that alone. Welsh, again, if that's the baseline and he doesn't make any real
giant leaps forward past that, it's still a good value. However, it's hard not to get really excited right now for what the upside isn't a player who's pitching for the Houston Astros so far, in the seven innings so far in spring training, seven strikeouts, just one walk. It's nice to see him getting efficient again. That's important. The five ra is gonna scare people away. That's why he's buried in ADP. But Hunter Brown pitches for a great team.
He has a rotation spot, and to me, that is a huge win where you're looking for some starter pitching when you're getting past that group of Michael Kings and Bailey OBErs that we like so much. Brown's in that next grouping and I think he might be the best one of that lot. What do you think about Hunter Brown?
Yeah, I'm down with that one. He had a tremendous start to the year last year and then really fell off, kind of as you would expect with rookie pitchers, you know. I mean, it's gonna fall apart a little bit. It's outside the norm for these guys that can continuously maintain it. But so far the spring has been good. Strikeouts have been down, but he hasn't been walking at one point one to seven walk per nine, which is one, he's only walked one in seven and two thirds. He's also
strikeouts are back there. Era has been maintained. He's only given up two earned runs no homer so far this spring, and he's been out there three different times. I think Hunter Brown is a great bet, especially if he can find more consistency, because really it was just about I think everything catching up to him at the back end of last season and just throwing the out there too.
If the Astros do make a bid, if they were really truthfully after a guy like Blake Snell, and as we're recording this, god knows what can happen, but they beef up that rotation. Hunter Brown moving you know, to less, higher leverage situations is not the worst thing in the world because he might be the best pitcher going up against other fives out there. So I'm down with this one. Projections over nine k per nine. If he keeps those walks under two, watch out he'll make a huge jump this year.
All right, So all that's left is the number one for each one of us Welsh Let's start with you your number one potential league winner of twenty twenty four.
All Right, these are buzzy guys that we're both gonna mention to you, and I want to preface this that the varying degrees of where they are drafted could affect this, and because I don't want anyone to roll their eyes at these type of things. These guys we're both going to talk about have higher ADPs, but based on where some of the ADP is and where I continuously get
this player, Cole Reagan's maybe the league winner. Now if you listen to our friends of our pitcher, list of the people that love Cole Reagans, Cole Reagan's is getting pushed up. Our boy, Vlad saidther was talking about the NFBC main event and said, hey, don't be surprised when you see Cole Reagans go at three because buzz generates a whole lot of the crazy stuff third round, by the way, you see the buzz kind of generate a whole lot of the upside play that people want to do.
But in a lot of your guys' drafts out there, Cole Reagans is still going outside the top twenty sps. He's still going in the eighties or nineties, people aren't watching it. This spring, he has an almost eleven k per nine. He's gotten hit up a little bit, but really, who cares about the actual runs when his walks are at about two per nine right now, he's not giving up homers and he's gotten over an eleven k per nine. We've seen the fastball increase. Cole Reagan's has the stuff
to be one of the top pitchers in baseball. We saw Spencer Strider take the jump of jump. His situation is a little bit different because some people are worried about him being relieved. We're not worried about that with Reagans. But what we've seen is him carry over where he was one of the most elite pitchers in the second half of last year. He's carried that over into this
spring where we're seeing the stuff continue to go. Royals might be kind of a sneaky team run support and wins might be a kind of big key about how valuable he can be. But I don't think it's out of the realm with possibility to see that Cole Reagan's could be a top eight starting pitcher this year. So yes, this isn't a two hundred eight or three hundred overall player. This is a player as an ADP of ninety six according to Fantasy Pros consensus ADP across all the sites.
That doesn't dictate the one person that listens to a certain podcast or whatever. And Jen snags Cole Reagan's up. But Reagans could go from SP twenty five to five and getting him as your SP three or four could make him an absolute league winner this year. So he was my definitive number one league winner.
I love it and I love being aggressive on him, and I also agree with you about the Royals too. I just talked about them the Sunday TV show on Sports Greed. I said, you know, don't be surprised that the Royals are kind of like the Pirates of last year. They get out of the gate pretty quick and everyone's like, where are the Royals coming from? Top half of the lineup is good. Bottom half is still a little suspect
for me once you get past Renfro. But if the bottom half that lineup performs and you get Waka and Lugo looking like they did anything close to last year. On top of Brady Singer, who's made improvements, and Reagan's at the top of this rotation that's four starters deep. There's not a lot of teams right now they can go four starters deep in the American League and they can. I mean there's a few at the top of that board.
But with every day, another pitching injury gets us closer and closer to you know, that not being the case. So Reagan's is a guy you probably have to be a little bit more aggressive on. So if he's going as an average ADP of ninety six, i'd move that up in your brains. If you want him this year, Welsh, I feel like that's you know, if you're drafting this last weekend, you have to.
You have to reach, you know, get your guys Like I'm not I don't care about like what the ADP says. I'm placing him in that general space where I want those big strike up pictures, Like when I get to Bobby Miller world, I'm looking at Reagan's and Bobby Miller and that tends to get into the city, the your seventies overall and the great thing. Now obviously this.
Camply I would still say Miller over him. I'm more confident in the six months when I'm gonna get out of Bobby Miller better team, you know, all that stuff. But I get it. That's the range now.
And some of these things can blow up. But the thing about you know, putting league winners in here is I think the floor all the players we've talked about the floor versus the cost is different than us talking about breakouts. You know, the next breakout player blah blah blah. Now this is like Cole Reagans. Some things could fall apart, and guess what he could return back to his normal value. I think it's going to be hard, based on what we're seeing from his stuff in his strikeout numbers for
him to have a negative return. But the odds are so big for a positive return, and there's pretty solid odds, especially if you're looking from overall players near the top one hundred, for him to have a massive, massive return based on his stuff. So you know, it might be kind of eye rolly because oh, Cole Reagan's is buzzy, but.
He's a league winner, right, Sometimes it's right. Just because it's buzzy, he doesn't mean it's wrong. In this year. I don't think it's wrong either. Before I get to mind number one too. Just a reminder, make sure you sink your leagues for free of Fantasy Pros. Make sure you're using all the draft tools, use Draft Wizard, use the draft sing technologies, sinks up to your league. But also if you've already done all your drafts, then use
my playbook too to manage all year long. Again, it's free, seeing it's not gonna cost anything to find out how great the tools are here at Fantasy pro So go sink your leagues for free today. Get my playbook, download the app, go to fantasypros dot com, slash my playbook and use the tools to manage to get your lineups right, you could set all your lineups from there. Not to mention all of the trade analyzer tools you have, all of the waiver wire pickups, all the news personalized just
for all of your teams and your players. You know. Oh wait, I had this player on which two teams? They know? My playbook knows. So make sure you sink your league today for free. Okay, everybody, here we go. My number one league winner potentially in twenty twenty four. Another buzzy guy, but I don't care. It's wyat Langford, who's leading the planet in everything so far this spring, one sixty one overall ADP the outfielder for the Texas Rangers.
Who I mean, this guy has so much upside Welsh forty four minor league games, elite level, slash three sixty four eighty OBP six seventy seven slugging percentage. It's eleven fifty seven ops in case you can do with the math at home so far this spring. I'm looking at my notes. He is number one in the league in ops, RBI slugging percentage. He is number two, tied for number two in home runs as of us recording this today. He is third in batting average, third and hits. Wyatt
Langford is destroying baseballs everywhere. He's destroyed baseballs in college, he's destroyed baseballs in the minor leagues, and he's going to destroy baseball's at the major league level. I'm not saying he's a perfect player, but when you're getting a player of this magnitude at this stage, at one sixty or you know, in this range again, if you have to be more aggressive, and you know, I know in some spots he's already moved up to the one fifty range.
I think it's going to be even more than that. The Fantasy pros projections seventy one runs, twenty homers, seventy three RBI, fourteen stone bases, and a two to sixty batting average. Welsh. If that's the floor, I want to be walking on it because I think the upside is even more. But just that alone, a player of that kind of magnitude, of that kind of return on investment, You're gonna give me a twenty fourteen player with a two to sixty batting average at one point fifty even,
I'll take that to the bank. White Langford is special. He is my preference over Evan Carter. I said it way back in February, and I'm gonna say it again. White Langford is a guy I want. White Langford, I think is the impact player and I think White Langford can win people leagues. What do you think about Langford?
Yeah? I bet him months ago for Rookie of the Year over Evan Carter when he was six to one. I think it's moved up to like around three and a half or three to one or somewhere in there. I'm a little I mean, he's hit a lot of ground balls in spring, so it's gonna be something to watch. But when you were reading off those projections, I legit think he can beat at least four of those. I'm a little dicey on where the stolen bases are gonna go and how the Rangers approach massive stolen bases with him.
But here's the big positive. He's been hitting like three or four in that lineup all season long.
Of course is not there, so like when Seger comes in, I know it's gonna change the dynamic, but if he keeps hitting it might not.
But it changes the dynamic in Carter versus him because Seger is their number two and Simeon is their lead off guy. That's how they like to roll. So would they want to go, you know, maybe versus rightys they go Carter Adoles and then Langford, and then versus lefties. Carter hits three adulas, maybe the Doles hits three. I mean, he's got an opportunity to hit in the top five of the order all year long, worst case at six, but you're hitting behind guys like Garcia and Seeger. I
love the floor. He walks a ton, He's got a great presence at the plate. You do have to watch and make sure that he's got really good quality of contact at the major league level, and that's gonna be the thing. But I've been at Rangers camp a ton and he is always working with the starters at every point. He's locked in with Evan Carter and Garcia. He's gonna break camp. He's gonna be the guy, and he legit could be a league winner. And I think it's a
good bet. And guess what, like if you want to like an him to last year's guy in Corbyn Carroll in the cost, it's half as much. I mean, Carol was a top forty player. Langford is still going off around seventy or eighty in.
A lot of suns. I don't think it's got a lot less impactful as Carol. Carol was everything and more and we were aggressive and it still wasn't aggressive enough considering if you even more aggressive, you still got more than you asked for. So to recap here, Welsh's ten, Matt Manning, Michael Bush, Victor Scott, Rafaela Jackson, Merrill, Colt, Keith,
Jaron Duran, Jackson, Holiday Jackson, Curio and Cole Riggans. My top ten Paul Skeins, Mason Miller, Logan, o'happy Junior, Kemnarozekiel Tovar, Shota Imanaga, Eduardo Rodriguezeloja Menez, Hunter Brown, and Wyatt Langford. But we want to hear from you. Drop your comments below on the YouTube channel. Who are your league winners? These are ours. We love to hear from our people here. Don't forget Leading Off Live twelve thirty Eastern Ring the
belt to it goes Dang. For notifications on Fantasy Ros MLB, subscribe to the channel, join us live, comment, be there with us. We love our peanuts and cracker jacks. Be part of the show. We're part of the show. You're part of the show. That's how things work here Fantasy Pros MLB. We are all one big community and we love the big community here that we have grown. I want to thank everybody who's been with us here all
off season, and it'll just joined us too. Welcome to the show, baby, because this is the show, so leading off just around the corner. Don't forget. The draft kit on Fantasy Pros is free. Check that out, use my playbook, use draft Wizard, get ready, finish your draft strong and strap in folks because the baseball season starts in less than ten days. That'll do it for us, But the story of the game goes on for the Welsh. I'm Joey P. We'll see you next time. Kids, my friends,