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Friends that welcome in too. Fantasy Pros the Fantasy Baseball podcast aka Cleaning Up. This is the live show that we do on our Fantasy Pros discord, which you can be a part of our live audio. It's a live audience that's hanging out with us with the ability to dictate what we do with the show. You can raise your hand, you can be a part of the podcast, or you can come in and drop some questions and we will answer it. That's what we are here for.
You guys can check out the Fantasy Pros Discord, which we'll mention again here in a little bit at Fantasypros dot com slash chat. It is me and Joey. Oh, it's Joe Aurico in the house, and we had some breaking news just before the show covered, so we're gonna hit that as well. But Joe, what's up?
I'm doing well? Man. It's good because these shows were kind of thinking about what are we going to talk with today, what are gonna be the hot topics, and we got a beautiful one right before we started going on today, so should be fun to talk Roman Anthony.
Yeah, one of those things too. We did the Prospect with the Welsh segment, and I just always feel like when there are when there's big prospects, because I obviously don't want to retread information every week, super important not to do that. But when there are just in your face players that everyone is just like not patiently waiting for dying to come up, I feel like we have to mention. I have to have some mention of it. And I think there's only two players that really truly
qualify in that range. One is Bubba Chandler, who, you know, God knows if if the moon aligns correctly at some point, you know he will get called up. The other is Roman Anthony. So we kind of did at the very top of that segment like hey, here's your top three. These are the no brainers. If they come up, you
just pick them up. And then we went into like some deeper prospects that you know, one guy might actually be one of the best pitchers in baseball who just got moved up a triple A. So go and check it out on the YouTube. It was un leading off, but it'll also be on the shorts. We have like a short form video on Fantasy Pro's YouTube channel YouTube
dot com. Slash Fantasy pros mL BE don't want you to miss any of it, but we did kind of do a quick ish gloss through of it and with it, and I actually didn't see this, So career kick is giving me some information that I'm gonna need to actually fix today as well. Is will your Brady apparently is going to the IEL, which I did not see, and I think I picked him for the home run contest. But Roman Anthony as mentioned on the show, Hey, he could come up anytime soon. You have to roster him.
And then like three hours after leading off airs, bam, Roman Anthony is officially getting called up. And it looks like Willier is kind of the piece. Can you look or I mean, I guess I could look too if that Willier news is official, because I didn't even see that. That does make sense though, because there was no like there's no corresponding move. Yeah, I do see it right here. Willier is headed to the IL with an issue with
his side. Roman's coming up. He's going to play tonight as we're recording this batting fifth, what's your level of aggression for yourself when you look a guy like Roman Anthony knowing that you know cag leone just came up. I want you to think about it in a NFBC sense of course, so everyone's gonna have actually, weirdly NFBC people might be fighting for CAGs and Roman Anthony this coming weekend because Caags came up. What was it like Sunday night or not. I guess that was last week.
So that was last week and they just did that. But I want you to think of it from the long term perspective of like NFBC for the week, but also a short term What level of hold are you wanting on Roman Anthony? What is your expectations and how he's been built up, Like what what do you think he aligns for like an outfielder three and outfielder two. Do you think there's more upside? Do you think he's overrated?
Oh? Man, I think that he's probably an outfielder. If we're talking like a twelve team kind of thing, he's probably like in the three to four range. Like he's probably somewhere in that thirty six to forty eight type of ranking range. But I'm pretty excited just considering the
lineup context. Boston hasn't been amazing, but if I'm looking over the last month, they ranked twelfth in the league in WRC plus at one hundred and three, So it's a solid lineup that he's going to be entering right into the middle of with that replacement with a bray. You we've been talking the whole season with the Red Sox, whereas whether it's the infield of the outfield about how they're going to make all the pieces work, and things generally do kind of figure themselves out. So will you're
on the ten day. That'll give Anthony at the very minimum a week and a half the show what he can do. But even if he struggles a little bit, I think they would still keep him up. He's just a data darling. Roman Anthony has been fantastic this season in TRIPAA. He almost has walked as much as he's struck out on nineteen percent. Walk rate is ridiculous. He doesn't chase, he makes good contact in the zone. The swinging strike rate is really low. He looks like a stud.
He looks like an absolute superstar. You are much more data or excuse me, much more prospect driven, So you're going to be probably the better person to turn to for the specifics of Roman Anthony's development and everything. But I'm thinking that he is worth an ad even in ten team leagues. In terms of NFBC fab he's going to go for a lot. I mean, it kind of depends on what he does this week. But JACKI Leone was going for two to four hundred dollars, so twenty to forty percent of overall budgets.
Yes, one thousand dollars budget, mind you, because if that was a five hundred dollars budget, two fifty would be fifty percent. So percentiles are going to be really high. Roman Anthony shouldn't have been available, And I understand the frustration because people are they're kind of throwing it out with Bubba right now. It's like, why the hell isn't
Bubba Chandler up agreed. I think everybody kind of agrees, like, outside of the Pirates are kind of stank, why would you not bring up one of the best pitchers in baseball, let him kind of develop and at the major league level.
Like do that?
Why not do it? There's control, there's manipulation and stuff like that. But at the same time, is as frustrating as it is Bubba and Roman Anthony. That were the ones where we just kind of continuously would just keep saying, just get them. Just be the guy that has them. If he's sitting out there, regardless of the format, just have Roman Anthony. If you had to pick one rest of season, Roman Anthony or Jack Cagle, on what side are you on?
I would probably go slightly to Roman Anthony just because I think he's gonna provide some speed and might be actually decent speed. Twenty one steals in the miners last year. He's got only three so far this year, which is an amazing but he's attempted six of them, where with Jack maybe we get a couple, maybe he's in the two or three range, but the speed is definitely the separator.
With Roman Anthony. He is not going to hit for as much power probably as Jack is, but still somebody that could go for about fifteen rest of season, and he's also in a much better lineup. Kansas City's lineup has been atrocious the entire year. I mentioned Boston just over the last month as the twelfth ranked offense in the league. Kansas City is twenty seventh. The only teams worse in that span are San Francisco, Texas and the
lowly Rockies. So from a lineup standpoint from a well rounded fantasy aspect point of view, I think Anthony is the one who's gonna provide more in terms ofcounting stats, steals, batting average. I think he is the guy.
I think there's definitely the possibility. The only thing he wonder is if he can ever like move up the lineup, you know, because like Bregman's gonna come back, and William's going to come back, and if there's a right hand or Willie's going to go higher. So it kind of feels like Anthony might be destined to be hitting somewhere between five and seven across the board. How much wiggle
room are they willing to give? You know, he had some stuff on him coming into this year where you know, there were questions about change ups and off speed, like how is he going to adjust to that? From a major league perspective, looks like in Triple A, he's really kind of, you know, answered the call. He had an incredible May June was a little it's very short sample size, but a little but you know, really great exo velocities he strikes. It just hit like almost five hundred footer
this weekend. So it's exciting to see and the ballpark is a really big advantage. The thing with cagleone that jumps out to me is that, like even I know it's like short sample sides like a week now, but sixteen percent k percentage, he's finding his own big hardhit. I mean of one thirteen's left and right. I know his average isn't quite there yet, but like he just said, was at four for four night, I really feel like he's coming into his own. He's gonna hit the ball
really hard. I'm actually not sure that Roman Anthony beats him in a five category if you look at it from that perspective, like a five category breakdown, but Roman Anthony might be really really well rounded in that ballpark might help. So I'm a little bit worried about maybe some chase and miss stuff. But like the only reason I'm asking this is, do you think this is a prime time to try to go and trade Roman Anthony? Right now? He's up, he's hot, people are excited. He's
going to revamp this offense. Like, do you think the production will warrant not moving him for let's say say like a SP thirty or twenty even twenty five, twenty five to thirty five sp in that market, do you think his production will outweigh making a move.
Like that, I could get the SP twenty five for Anthony or for Jack. I would be willing to do it, just because we know the struggles that rookies go through, whether it's immediately with like a Matt Shaw situation, or maybe they hit the ground running and then they struggle a little bit like Christian Campbell, I think if you're taking something that is more of a sure thing like the SP twenty five this year is Freddy Peralta to date and the guys in that range are Sonny Gray,
Mackenzie Gore, Clay Holmes, Jack Flaherty. If I could move off of one of these guys based on the hype and get somebody like that back, Spencer Schwellenbach also in that range, like I would be looking to do that. There is always the hype. It doesn't usually match up to the production when it comes to these rookies, and it comes to stashers in general. You're holding a guy
you're expecting the moon. And then I had a question last week about after like three days, should I drop Jack in a shallow league people just don't have the patience for the ups and downs of these rookies a lot of the time. So if you're able to capitalize on the hype and you're able to move one of these guys for a top twenty five or thirty sp it depends on the roster a little bit, but I would be absolutely willing to do that.
Also, there's no necessary guarantees at this moment, which is something're gonna have to watch for. You know, they only did this because William went on the IL. Is this going to be a stop gap thing? Or is this going to be like, you know, they get to they're getting a cheap look and then a move is gonna have to you know, like, what's gonna happen William comes off the IL. Are they going to make room like, oh,
Anthony's here, He's got to do it. Or are they going to have to move off of a of a Duran? You know, are they gonna have to send down a Christian Campbell who has just kind of had his struggles. So those are It's all interesting questions. At the end of the day, I don't want to take away from like it's super exciting. It's super exciting when the top
prospects come up. I think it's hard to judge positively or negatively after one week on any of these guys, So just make sure you're in the market to manage it, you know what I mean. We have questions from the audience. Some it looks like there might be a Roman Anthony one or two in there that I want to get to. I want to finish up this last first topic. Then we'll get to some questions, and we got a couple
other things to hit. Here's here's what I was very curious about in this same vein how how many prospects do you currently think I'm gonna use the must own term? Let's think in like twelve team must own to like you should own, and then that's gonna tell us who's expendable. Obviously, there are players that like league pending and stuff. You know, you're not gonna cut this guy, cut this guy. But I'm curious that, like, how many we really think are
no doubters? Jacob Wilson no doubter, absolute, no doubt, Rookie of the Year al minus five hundred. Right now he's hitting the world even though he doesn't counting stats. Absolute, no doubt or correct.
Yeah, Jacob Wilson's fantastic. He's brilliant.
Jason Dimingez relative no doubt. I'm not sure he's like must must must own, but I mean, I guess I I should probably pull up the stuff. But what is your initial reaction to Jason Dimingez. He's hitting two thirty six, six homers, eight stolen bases. We know this sky high potential. Is he in that twelve team must own territory? Yeah?
Yeah, he's like on the on the cusp. For me, I don't think if we're talking redraft that he is somebody that I'm really hugging in the super shallow leagues. If it's a ten or at twelve team league where you start three outfielders, let's see.
Field twelve team. I want to think in those terms because I think we could justify almost anybody could be cutting those ten teams. So let's go five outfield twelve team. We're keeping.
Right, probably, probably, but I don't know that. It's the thing that I like. He has six home runs all year, three of them came in that one game in that stadium in Sacramento. Strikeout rate is thirty plus percent. You know, the speed has been okay, he's got eight steals, but it's not been like game changing speed. He hasn't been He hasn't done a ton, even in a great offense, he hasn't really been amazing. So is he a top
sixty outfielder. He probably is. But if there is a guy sitting on the waiver wire, that is a really really solid option for you. Like if you had Roman Anthony sitting on the waiver wire, I wouldn't mind dropping to Mangas for him. That might be a hot take, but that's kind of where I'm at with them.
I think that's fine. All right, Roman Anthony, we're gonna say, you know, at this moment, he is cag leone, right, We're gonna throw CAGs into like that must own ish territory you need to own, right, Yeah, Okay, now some bigger questions. I think this is an interesting one, Nick Kurtz, he started to pick up before he got hurt. He's rehabbing. It looks like he's really close, Nick Kurtz. Is he in that must own territory?
I think he is. Yeah. I believe he's gonna be back this week based on what I've seen. The strikeout rates still a little bit concerning, but we're talking twenty eight games. He, like you mentioned, he had started to pick things up before he got hurt. So I would be holding Kurts, especially as we enter into the summer months in Sacramento, like we might see see some serious power production out of Nick Kurtz.
Okay, so we've got five guys right now, and it's not that expensive. Marcelo, yeah, your name Phil.
I like him. I like Marcelo Mayor. I don't like the way that the Red Sox are kind of doing this with pinch hitting him and playing him at a position and all this stuff. I don't really love it so much. But yeah, he is worth holding for now for sure.
Oh yeah, so you think he belongs in that territory for now? I mean, I just understand this. This You don't we don't have to have everybody. That's fine if he is, but I don't want you. I'm not goading you into making all these players in there. But we can put him in the mustone twelve team category right.
Now, for now, for now. But I wouldn't hesitate to drop him if we're two weeks from now and he has two hits in that timeframe or something, like that he's not somebody that I'm just holding and holding and hoping out for while he's in the middle of the Red Sox lineup, playing pretty much every day. Then yeah, but I'm not married.
To him cam Smith.
I need to take a quick peek at cam Smith because I think.
I want to blow through the rest of these ones.
But initially three homers, I don't think he's mustone. No, I wouldn't say Stone and a twelve.
Teamer Chandler Simpson, even though he's in triple A right now, those stolen bases, but he's not here.
If you can afford to hold him, then I don't mind holding him. But I don't think that he is somebody like if you're in eighth place fighting for your life, that he's a mustache. If you're in first or second or third and you're a team that could still use a little bit of speed, I think he'll be back up at some point. But I think it's kind of a situational thing with Chandler Simpson. I'd try to hold if you can.
I don't think like the new guys like Kyle Teal, Ryan River, Auto Camp, is there anybody else in forgetting in the rookie space that's kind of like here that you like. I don't think Jackson job. Is there anybody else that warrants the question that you can think of that I'm forgetting, no.
But I really like Kyle Teal. I think that he's going to be really, really cool.
Do you think he belongs in this conversation.
Depends on who you're rolling out as your catcher, But I think I think he's on the cusp of of twelve team viability just given that he's going to play a lot the on bas skills, the speed from behind the play. I think he's I'm going to redo rankings in the next week, but he's probably around that twelve or thirteen mark for me. So I think it's dependent on who you got right now, But I think he's
worth picking up in a lot of plays. So certainly, if you're in a two catcher league, go pick him up right away.
What about like Cad Horton, Zebbi Matthews, do any of those belonging there? And Ha, Zebbie just got hurt.
Zebbie just got hurt. So him, I think it would be a little bit tougher depending on your team. Cad Horton, I've been kind of impressed with I think that there are some things he needs to work on. Still he's not a fully finished product, but he's holding his own to this point. I think that I would prefer to hold Horton over Matthews, especially with the injury.
Okay, and there was some content and it wasn't even about neither one of them. My main point of this is like, how many prospects are really worth rostering as of someone that liked prospects and talking. That's all this experiment was. I feel like we maybe put more in. I think some people might be a little bit more discerning, but we put Wilson, Domingez, CAGs, Anthony Kurtz, Marcelo, and Horton. There's seven and one pitcher, So is that what painter?
But he's not here. I don't think he's a must own. We don't know when the hell he's coming up, and that's you know, I would probably throw Bubba into this.
I guess if we're having the deeper conversation of like, you just got to try to have him, so you got two pictures, you've got whatever the hell that ended up being five six hitters, that there's a decent amount but then if you know, if you start pushing the envelope here, if you really pushed it, like I think Jacob Wilson, CAGs and Anthony are the three that like would be at the very tippy top, and CAGs and Anthony because of the sky high potential and not enough
time to tell us a story. Jacob Wilson has only really been the only service one Christian Campbell I could have put in there. Christian Campbell doesn't belong in it. It's a bigger discussion just for people to remember when you're making your moves of how many are really panning out and hold that like you can't come off of them range. Jacob Wilson's about it, truly about it, Like Caggs and Anthony are super fun. The rest of the
guys have unfortunately kind of been failures or gets. You know, Logan Henderson comes up and he's gone and he's back down that you don't want to know site of your roster to me, yeah lol or exactly. I mean, the Dineback should blow it up soon. But there's only so many that really belong And I think if we push the envelope and we're a little bit more Picky. I think this would have been Wilson Cag's Anthony, maybe Kertz, and I'm not sure if anybody else would have really
fallen in that range. But you know, everyone listening can kind of decide and let us know. You could also let us decide and help us figure it out by coming in and hang out with us on discord fantasypros dot com slash chat. Put that in takes you to the discord. You have access to y'all have access to the show, by the way when we do it, and a whole bunch of other really great stuff. There's also a premium side where you can have access to all
in any locked rooms. You've got complete control, which is great. Because we've got an amazing community. You can hang out in that community. You can be a part of this show. We're here Mondays at five pm Eastern. Come in, drop your questions. We just got a lot of great stuff going on, happens throughout the year, other sports. It's an amazing community. Check it out today Fantasypros dot com slash Chat to join in the discord and be a part of this show. You can do that, all right, Let's
go to some listener questions we've got here? Gamova said, what do we do with Bubba? He just by himself in DOUBLEA. Now, yeah, he's the last of those guys. I think I've kind of answered it. I think he's just so at the tippy top of like what the strikeout value and stuff can be that I want to hold. But I also think he's vulnerable offense sucks. He's had walk problems this year, you know, the must hold category. I really didn't even put him into that, like really
really hardcore, like ten team one. But you should be paying attention to him. Do you have any other feelings about it? I know you've been You're not you're not a prospect guy, and all you've probably been hearing is Bubba Chandler, Bubba Chandler. He never comes up. Is he someone that you actually think you need to stash or if you've been stashing, could you possibly dump him for a pseudo hot arm.
I don't think so, so, I think especially if you've been holding. Yeah, I try to avoid the whole sunk cost thing, but you've been holding him. If you drop him right now, he's gonna get called up next week. It's just the way that these things tend to work. But at the same time, the wins are not going to be there. I mean even in Triple A, they're
not even there. Twelve game twelve starts, two wins. But look look at Paul Skins, right every time out, he's going seven innings, six to two thirds, seven and two thirds, whatever, and he never gets any run support. He never gets any wins. And I worry a little bit that Bubba's gonna come up and they're gonna have some kid gloves
with him. Initially, maybe we don't see him going six to seven innings, and the win potential is going to be the same, if not even a little bit worse, because he'll have less control over his own destiny, having to rely probably more on the pen than Skins is. At this point, I don't see them bringing up Chandler and having him go seven innings every time, So the
wins are probably not going to be there. But other than that, just based on the profile we've seen at Triple A, he seems like the kind of guy who can come up and have immediate success. And even Paul Skans and we're looking at what he did last year, I mean one ninety six era point nine to five whip are not going to happen. Probably that was a charmed rookie season. But I think that Bubba can be somewhere in the three type of ra with a one to ten or so whip and that's valuable even if
it's not coming with victories. Those ratios are so hard to find, so hard to come by on the waiver wire. So I'm holding Chandler. I think it's only a matter of time. I know we've been saying that for a long long time, but every day that goes by, it means we're one day closer to Bubba Chandler. At the end of the day, they're not going to keep him down the entirety of the season. He will come up at some point. And now we're pushing the halfway point of the year. It's got to be any week now.
And I think if you're holding, you still got to continue to hold unless you see some crazy name sitting on the wire, But I think you got to hold them.
If you've held this long, what are you doing, Like, this is not the time to now you don't make the cut. I think he could also go the way of like Jared Jones and Jared Jones had an incredible first half, things did come back down to earth. Also kind of a fastball slidery guy, but one of the best graded fastballs in all the minor league. I'm I'm here for it. I think you need to hold and try to make do, especially because you've done so so far. And if he's out there, go pick him up. A
game said what, No, this is how sorry? Would you rather trade away Machado or Camonaro, both using up third base and util so I think we would probably both quickly answer, don't do either regardless. But if you had to trade one, who you're trading Machado or Camonaro.
Yeah, you struck gold with these two. I wouldn't trade either unless you got blown away. I guess I would maybe move Machado just because he's older and more things can pop up. But I think you're just holding unless somebody really knocks your socks off.
I feel like I'm moving camon Aro in this one. I think Camanaro might have as much value as Machado, and maybe even a tiny bit more in some circles for redraft. This is not a dynasty thing in redraft, and I know exactly what I'm getting out of Machado, especially when they're going to start getting into like a really tight Pennant race and stuff like, I think I
want to bank on Machada. The ballpark does favor Cam and Arrow more, but I'm I'm gonna say I keep Machado and try to get a haul for Cameron Arow. You're on the other side, and that's so cool.
The only thing that worries me is just that he has a little bit of an injury history at this point and he's like ten years older. But what you're saying makes sense, Yeah.
A career kick had. This is kind of that Roman Anthony stuff and we'd already talked about it, but mentions Willier, thinking is Roman up for good or is this dependent on how he does while Williers on the shelf. I think it's a little bit of that. I don't think. Yeah, Williams's not gonna be the expense of his playing time. Williams is not gonna go away unless they did decide to move him or trade him, which I kind of just don't think they will, even though I know he's
popped up as well. But like, if Roman is awesome, they're gonna have to make a serious decision. I would lie. I at this point think I know it's dangerous to have lots of prospects. You gotta you gotta get rid of Trevor's story. Like Trevor story is, he's falling down. Let me go be your third baseman or i'm sorry, your shortstop, and let Campbell be your second baseman. And then you've got Anthony and wrote right field you're golden, and will You can be your DH and you can
just play between those things. That's what i'd like to see. I don't know if they'll do it, but if Roman Anthony struggles, guess what built an excuse? When Will You's back? If he's awesome, then they're gonna have to make a tough decision somewhere, whether it's maybe they know they have a trade looming, or you know, DFA a Trevor story
or what the hell ever? You know, Abraham Torro has been playing well, but maybe you cut bait on one of Roman or a Rome I'm sorry, Romy Gonzales or Toro, and then you move Trevor story over to be in some first base platoon. So they'll find a way they want to find a way. They'll they'll find it, and I think that's been the most frustrating thing of why he's not up. Do you have anything else outside of that?
I think if I was running the team, I'm giving Devers a first base club and I'm saying, you're playing first base. Toro's done, and then you'll do that. He's already he refuses, what are they gonna do? What does he get to do?
Like or maybe they've lightly I don't mean to cut off. They have said he's not interested in it, and I think he had mentioned in the past if they were, like if they forced him to, he would, But they've come to him and he's like, nope, So that's the problem. Like they they obviously do not want to be the team that forces a player to do it, especially when you have someone so unwilling to be helpful for your team.
It's just so baffling to me, Like that would solve all the problems pretty much, you know, and then you can rotate those four outfielders around with the age spot. It just makes so much sense. Story as well, I mean, Story hasn't done really. I think he's had a couple of decent games lately, but for the season as a whole. He has a sixty nine WRC plus. He's thirty one percent worse than league average. He's not a plus defender anymore. I don't know what we're doing. I don't know what
they're doing. I don't either.
M grabs says, does Bubba Roman have a better shot at being keeper worthy in a five cat head to head league twelve team? Four keepers?
Though?
I think both of those guys are pretty tough to keep in a fore keeper unless your team stinks.
Yeah, totally agreed. I think that it would be a stretch for either of them. Is one of them more likely? I guess the fact that Anthony is up now, if he does, you know, if he knocks our socks off and goes twenty twenty the rest of the way, maybe you'd give you a tough decision. But yeah, I think, like well said, it would have to be a pretty bad roster for him to be one of the four, for either to be one of the four.
But you know, there are plenty of times I've seen rosters where it's like three keepers are just so they're like, oh I got a Kunya Tatis and you know, whatever the hell, Ellie, and then their fourth keeper is like they're trying to figure out if they should keep you know, an aging Matt Olsen, Luis Robert or Roman Anthony. And let's say that's the case. That actually is a scenario where Anthony could be viable. Olsen's added down this year, he's getting older. If Anthony kind of pops off, By
the way, I totally understand that scenario. I already said two outfielders, but you get what I'm doing. I do think there is the possibility that Roman anthe could be that. I do not think Bubba is going to be thrown into that the Pirates. Bubba would have to be like Paul Skeins, which is a definite I guess, I guess possibility. But I would say Roman Anthony has he has an out. He has the better shot of that question. Dexter says, is Barger a must add in ten team? What do
I think? What do the advanced metrics say about him? He absolutely pops off as far as expected stats go. Baseball Savant page is beautiful. That's why I've been talking about him for a couple months. Two sixty two seven homers, fifty two percent hard hit rate, ridiculous, tops of the league, and average and max exit velocity expect a batting average is thirty points higher than he has barrel rates good, It all looks sexy. Is he good enough to hold in a ten team? Is he a muscle or must
pick up? I guess if he's available.
But my home league is a ten team league, and he was my Alex Bragman replacement. The timing worked out beautifully for Barger's little run here, but I think that it's beyond I shouldn't even minimize it. It's more than just a little run. There are serious improvements. I'm a Blue Jay fan and I've watched him throughout the last few years, and he is a different player than last year. He was striking out a lot, a lot more, he was chasing more, he was making less contact in the zone.
He is a different player this year, and the power metrics really backed that up. His barrel rate went from eight percent to fifteen, hard hit from thirty eight to fifty two. The average exit velocity went from eighty eight to ninety four, and the max exit velocity last year was one ten. This year it's already at one sixteen. He is a different player the Blue Jays as a whole. I talked a little bit about how team has been
performing over the last month. The Blue Jays have the third best WRC plus over the last month, one point behind the Yankees and the Dodgers. It's been an unbelievable thing to see Toronto turn things around offensively, and I think Barger has been a huge part of it. So long story short, I think he's worth adding everywhere, even if you're using him in a utility spot. I think the power's legit, the lineups jit his defense is very
legit as well. Not a ton of reps so far this year, but he's already plus two defensive run saved and outs above average at third in just two hundred and thirty innings. He's gonna stick in this lineup, and this lineup right now is very very good. So I'd add him wherever you can.
Yeah, I think for the most part, I'm kind of in that same space with you that in a ten team, he is so hot, the metrics look good. I think you should do it. But what if I ask you you can only add one Barger or Roman Anthony.
I'm gonna get called a homer, but I think it's probably Barger just because he's already gone through the ups and downs of the miners. He's had a bad stretch of major league play last season, and I think that that's an important piece of the puzzle of guys having to kind of go through the lows and figure things out. And he's already rolling right now. There's a chance that Anthony comes up and he does kind of something similar.
But I think just considering the state of the Blue Jays offense and the fact that Barger is pretty much guaranteed an everyday roll, there's no chance that he's leaving the lineup at this point, where with Anthony, two cold weeks and I'll break you back could mean he's back in triple A. So I think Barger is the safer call. Anthony has the more upside, but I think Barger is is the way I would go in a lot of so.
I kind of think that is the right answer. I'm gonna say Anthony, though, because I think the upside is really tremendous in that offense. You and I completely agree something I would have made as a statement if you told me after one hundred and fifty at bats that Anthony could be hitting two sixty with seven Homers, you know at three twenty five or three forty, let's say obp like, I'd be ecstatic. I'd be like, oh, yeah, it's working out. That's where Barger is right now, So
definitely possibility. I'm gonna go with the upside though. Let's do a little burn and turn on some of these so we can get through them and we'll get to our last topics.
Here.
Would you guys accept or decline? This trade got offered Lindor Devers and Chandler Simpson for Hunter Brown, Mookie and Matt Shaw. This is a ten team keeper, so they're getting Lindor, Devers and Simpson but having to give away Brown, Bets and Matt Shaw. I instantly want to say no, but you're getting two top thirty hitters. Lindor is a little bit older for a top pitcher and then a top hitter, and then the differentiating factor is Simpson versus Shaw,
which is kind of tough. I don't know that, and it's in team keeper. I think I'm leaning Bets and Brown here, but Lindor and Devers is a pretty damn good offer. What do you think?
Yeah, the thing with Lindor getting older, that's kind of is on the other side too.
That's is as well, so you're kind of if you figure swapping those two. You can look at this as like Devors for Brown, and.
I would almost always take the hitter over the pitcher, just in a vacuum, given the injury risks. I My initial lean is the Lindor and Dever side, but I think I think it's fair. I don't think anybody's getting ripped off here, but I think that the Lindor side, for me, is a little more is a little more interesting.
I think as long as they're all keepers too, I guess I'm gonna still lean the bets Brown, but more i'm thinking about it, Lindor Devers might be the better haul. Simpson and Shot probably don't come into equation unless this is like a deep key. Joseph said, keep your trade question. Would you trade Ivan Herrera, jung Hu, Lee, Clay Holmes and a fifth rounder to get Cal Raley, Seth Lugo and a twelfth rounder? So you're trading Herrera, Lee, Holmes and a fifth to get Lugo and RALEI.
I think you're giving up too much. Lugo is we're running out of time where Lugo can still be productive. He is he thirty seven now, thirty six, thirty seven, I don't know how many more years you're going to have out of him. Raleigh has been brilliant, but I also don't really expect this pace to continue. He's pacing for like a sixty home run twenty steel season with a three hundred batting average. I'm not saying he's like a big cell high, but I think he's playing over
his skis a little bit. I really like Ivan Herrera, I really like Jung Hu Lee. The Dodgers have been linked to him, and Clay Holmes is doing really good things this season, So I would personally want more if I'm going to move off of Herrera and Jung Hu Lee and Holmes.
Yeah, I think so too. Like there's also an element of if you're like, well, I want Raleigh and Lugo because I'm play for now, it's like, well, I'd rather have Clay Holmes and Lugo and Herrera's not that far off from Raleigh. Is that worth the upgrade to also get rid of Lee in the fifth rounder? Maybe? Yeah, maybe cal Rally has been incredible, but I really do love Ivan Herrera. I'd like to do this as like I trade Herrera in a fifth for cal Raley, or you know, maybe I upgrade the pick to a fourth
Herrera in cal Raley. I might work something like that the Big Dance Autokemp, or let's do Lightning round on these Auto Kemp or Ronnie Mauricio.
It would have to be Mauricio for me. I think Kemp is just a short term guy. I think Mauricio could stick, especially with what you've seen recently. Camp.
I don't know if Harper is too short term here. I'll say Ronnie Mauricio, but I don't think we should sleep on Kemp. How would you guys rank Torklsen, Kurtz, Ben Rice rest of season in the Daily Lineup League? What's your rank?
Probably in the order you have it laid out there, Torkles and Kurtz and Rice.
That's interesting. I am inverse order, Rice, Kurtz, Torkelsen. Rice has expected numbers that are I think we're going to get back to where we saw early. His averages definitely dip back down, but I think he's going to bounce back still a really great profile. Kurtz was starting to find it Sortson's fine but I'm going to go reverse order rest of season, and the answer might be Kurtz, by the way, who we had in the middle on both of those, Joseph, what do we like rest of
season in a category league? Westburg or Mikel Garcia.
I'm not really married to either, but Mikel Garcia has been one of the low and bright spots in Kansas City. He's been really good, so I think i'd probably lean with him, although I think that's probably gonna be an unpopular choice.
I think his production is impossible to drop. But I also think Jordan Westburg from moving forward could be the more valuable player, so kind of take that, like, I guess I'm gonna say Jordan Westburg, but like, how do you cut Michael Garcia right now? I don't even know how you end up doing that. Who is up first? Christian Moore or Bubba Chandler? And and then the secondary question is who is a better keeper value, Bubba or Christian? More so, who's up and who has better value?
I would imagine the answer to both is probably Bubba, but the Angels are pretty aggressive with how they promote prospects, so more could be up first, but I would prefer to have Bubba.
I agree, I'm going to go on both. And then finally Joe Hulee, is he droppable for barger.
If you need a third basement. Third basement are a lot harder to come by than outfielders. I'd prefer to hold Lee, but I would understand the move.
Yeah, I think you can. I think you can make that move. I want to remind everybody whos we're answering questions. If you're listening and you're like, oh man, I got a question, well guess what. Wednesdays on our YouTube YouTube dot com Slash Fantasy Pros MLB at four pm Easter Eastern, not Easter, we are live for you for a full hour answering questions. It is usually Joe Pizza Pia and myself. It will not be this week. It will actually be
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Joe and Joe Show.
Weeni in the Butt a couple of things I want to get your take on, and then we're going to get out of here. Two rest of season pitcher questions, Uri Perez. We are playing a very dangerous game right now because we are recording this before Uri Perez makes his debut. He's going up against the Pirates, which is very nice. We love that. Probably going to be capped to some capacity. He's coming off with this injury. He's
had a very long, extended rehabitantst of season. What do you think Euri PRES's value is as far as an sp goes and do you think it is better to trade Uri right now in inherent value when where things could go or you should hold on because of what the return will look like.
So I think, and I got this question the other day, and I thought about it for a long time, and I think a reasonable expectation is probably a top fifty or sixty starting pitcher just because you've got a factor in Miami is going to win Nada. They are not going to be a lot of win opportunities coming for him. But the actual production is where I really struggle, because
I'm not sure what to make of his command. What we've seen from a lot of from pretty much everybody coming back from Tommy John is that the command is the last thing to come back. And what we saw in his rehabs in the minors was an increased walk rate that was well over ten percent. So I worry a little bit. Like in single A he was at seven percent walk rate, whatever he went up to triple A the thirteen percent, And if the command doesn't come back the way we're hoping for, then it might be
a little bit of a tough road for him. But at the same time, the talent is absolutely through the roof that I feel like even if his command isn't quite up to par, he could still get by just because he's going to have something like a thirty percent strikeout rate. That's where he's been in his rehab twenty eight percent. So I think that he can get by if you're at a twenty eight twenty nine percent strikeout rate, even if you're walking eleven percent, we can see success
with that. It just makes it a little bit harder. So if you can trade him, it really depends on what you're trading him for. If it's a keeper league, I wouldn't do it.
Yeah, we're not talking keeper at all, but just.
For redraft purposes. If somebody is going to offer you, I guess the bar would have to be for me, like a top one hundred and fifty overall player or maybe even one hundred and twenty five or so.
I feel like you're talking like down when you said top like fifty SP. I think expectations are a little bit higher. I think market is like a higher cost. So you actually might personally benefit if you're not as high on him from trading him, because I think I think a reasonable reasonable in like the Fantasy Baseball trademinder, is that like, hey, Ury can come in and be like a top thirty SP, he can come back and
be a similar. Think of like, now, I know it didn't work out, but think of like Strider, Streider and McClanahan, like, oh they're back, they're pitching d Dad, this is what they can be. I think that's the relative expectation because, like I wanted to ask you this rest of season, Uri pez Orjesus Lozardo, oh Man and LAZARDA has just gotten smacked around his last couple.
The worry for me with Blizardo is that you don't usually see a picture of that caliber get absolutely lit on fire twice in a row. You will Steve everybody get blown up here and there. But twelve and eight earned runs and consecutive outings leads me to think there's something injury related going on potentially, and I've been waiting for some kind of move. He's still scheduled to start against the Cubs on Wednesday, and waiting for some kind of move, But it looks like they're going to send
him out there so they think he's healthy. Then I'm willing to buy into that. Afhillies are kind of an interesting team with health sometimes, but I'm willing to buy into it, and I think I would take Lozardo still, he's been so so good. I mean, this wouldn't have even been a question a week ago. We would have
all taken Lozardo pretty easily. And I think the two starts are concerning, But there are also concerns, like I laid out with Perez, the wins are not going to be there, the command might be kind of shaky, you might be looking at some rough whips. So I think it would be Lozardo. I wouldn't fault anybody for wanting to take a chance on Uri, but I don't think we should give up on Lazardo after what we've seen either.
I do think Lozardo has the advantage, like the team context. You know, there's a lot of there's gonna be run support. There's wins support there that's not going to be there with the Marlins. We also think there's probably gonna be some type of a cap. But I do think that Uri Perez can toe the line of a top thirty sp So with that question, I think you inherently kind of have to say Lizarda right now, but I think
it's a very thin line. I think one more, I think public sentiment deteriorates if Lozardo gets lit up again and if Ury does go out and he goes let's say five inning, six strikeouts, gives up one in and run and eighty two pitches, I think like people are gonna be like, hey, we're back, We're back on Uri Prez.
The thing with Uri too, is that the matchups this week are at Pittsburgh and at Washington, So you couldn't get more of a cupcake to start in your return. So if he really does well in these two matchups, then I would I would look to see what people are willing to offer you, all right.
Final one, George Kirby absolutely lit it up this weekend. Fourteen strikeouts after coming off of the IL and some questionable results, just look dominant, really kind of lowered his splitter percentage. It was just to me, I've been liking it as like he just got back to basics basketball sinker slider, got it done, got his whiffs, bunch of strikes. The first question, really quick is do you think Kirby is all the way back or roughly all the way back?
Did that outing give you the confirmation you needed to say, oh, we're back in the George Kirby business.
It did, especially because the Angels have been good offensively lately. They've been like a top five or seven team over the last three weeks. With Trout coming back, Joe Dell's been doing good things. So it's not like this came against the Rockies when you'd have to maybe give it a little bit more of a second thought. But I think Kirby is all the way back. That game against Washington where he allowed three home runs is the big stinker. Other than that, I've liked what I've seen from him.
Okay. Then this leads to the question George Kirby or Spencer Streider rest of season? As Stryder hit a second all time low on his fastball, his average v low is down. He's fastball slider stuff plus numbers kind of famously. Now if you go over to Fangrafts you can check out the stuff plus numbers are down. It's very short sample sizes and whatnot. But Spencer trying to find himself. Who would you rather rest of season? George Kirby or Spencer Strider.
I think I would go with Kirby at this point, I'm pretty worried about Strider. He's been really bad. The numbers below the surface are bad too. It's not like he has a huge era and all the estimators are good and everything like, No, there are a lot of concerns. He's not striking guys out. The velocity is not where it once was. The team is a joke. The Braves are absolutely miserable this season. There's not a lot going for Strider right now. I think that he is somebody
that you should look into trading. I'm kind of concerned here. Five game started, five losses, strikeouts aren't there, tons of walks? Nothing good, at least with Kirby. I have been even before this start a little bit encouraged, like the home run to fly ball rate. The homer per nine was really out of kewe just because of that one start. But the strikeouts are up for Kirby twenty eight percent strikeout right. The command has been there, the team has been very good. He has a better home park to
pitch in. I think Kirby is the same for play at this point. I do too.
I'm super torn on where and how I want to feel about Strider. I don't want to be I don't want to be a massive alarmist where it's like, oh my god, he's got to get out of here, like he's too talented. We've seen him be, you know, one of the premier strikeout pitchroll, freaking bulldog on the mound. But there's something off. And it's not just the vlos down,
it's the stuff doesn't look as good. And then on top of it, you're just this like two pitch pitcher, you know, you don't have anything else really to rely on, you know. And interesting enough, we saw what did de Grom do earlier in the year. He leaned more what was it on his change up, you know, more than he had in quite some time, and maybe that kind of helped him kind of get right reset the fastball. Strider just doesn't do that, really, and I worry about that.
I do think he's so talented that if the sentiment is so low, you could buy on him. But if we are in a world where you can still compare Strider and Kirby, I'm going to take Kirby like hands down. It's a big command guy. I think that's the way I want to go, and I would consolidate. So I think there's a b in a cell argument on both sides of Strider. But I also feel that I think Kirby's back. I don't like that he tinkers too much. I hope he doesn't tinker go crazy, Tinker, Taylor whatever, Soldier.
But I want George Kirby to be the Kirby that we know, and I'm going to bank on it, and we're both gonna take Kirby over Strider. There you go, didn ex.
Yeah, I think with Strider. For me, I think I'm just gonna buy the dip next year. I think this year is kind of I wouldn't call it a lost season. There's still a lot of games left to play, but I feel like the production is gonna end up even if he really writes the ship. Rest of season. Projections at Fangrafts have him going like the bat projection rest of the season as a three eighty seven era. You
tack that onto his five forty. Right now, we're ending up in the fours, and I think next year will be a good chance to buy the dip on him, more so than he's a great by low opportunity in redraft right now.
Yeah, I think if you're in a dynasty league, like you're saying, go buying him right now, you can buy in him my dynasty for next year. If you're out of it because you're going to be buying low on him. So I think I'm in agreen on that side. Friends, there you go. That is the show. Thank you to everybody that hung out with us in the Fantasypros discord, Fantasypros dot Com, slash chat. Take your right to the discord.
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You can find me at is It the Welsh and you can catch over on Leading Off because Leading Off is live Monday through Friday twelve pm Eastern on our twitch Twitch dot tv slash Fantasy Pros. You can watch Piece of PM myself live every single day and if you can't make it, it jumps up on the YouTube within the hour. So lots of good offerings, lots of good stuff. Catch me there and catch mister Joe Rico with Piez of Pa on Wednesday on our live YouTube.
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