Welcome in everybody to Fantasy pros. This is the Fantasy Baseball Podcast. It is me Joey p joe.
Pisapia, and today we've got another all star team for you today it's the All Sleeper Team for twenty twenty four. Get excited, everybody, It's me, it's the Welsh, it's you, and everybody has a different definition of sleeper. And to me, Welsh, when I think about sleepers, I just think about guys who.
Are being undervalued.
And sometimes it's young players, but sometimes it's also veterans who continue to produce and yet still nobody wants them because they're another year older. But sometimes these veterans can continue to be steady productive players in your fantasy lineup. Do you have a definition of sleeper before we kick things off with our All Sleeper Team of twenty twenty four.
Yeah, it's it's kind of like, uh, because there's breakouts and there's sleepers and rebounds and blah blah blah. They're they're all in the same family. So sleepers, in my mind are players that are being taught about less than Because we just did the Breakouts episode and that episode is designed these players are ready to take this next step, and they're usially not like in the higher level, I do think sleepers can still be Like there could be a guy that's ranked like fifty if I think he
can be the first overall player. Michael Harris. Michael Harris isn't a sleeper technically.
No, but in the depth be a sleeper of the first No.
No, but in my definition of like, if that's a guy that's like a third rounder, that I can be a first rounder, Like, that's kind of that undervat. So it comes back to your undervalued conversation. My definition in this episode is players that get talked about less because the community is so much bigger, there's so many more people in voices, it's hard to find sleepers and deeper. So I'm playing these deeper names because I do believe there's handfuls of players that are still in the top
one hundred that are sleepers by being undervalued. But these are much further down. These are further down guys we're sleeping on that in some cases aren't really being drafted, could then end up jumping in and being valuable starters across the board. So I will kind of join you in all all that stupid crap. I just said in that it's like it's undervalued. These are undervalued players discussed.
Sleep is the key for you.
I like it when you said under discussed because I think you know, there's certain guys we've talked about so much. You know, we've talked about the Reagans and the Michael Kings and the Kaminaro, like, we've.
Talked about those guys, and we love those guys.
But I think it's important to start to give some love to some players that nobody's talking about, or maybe people are tired of talking about, or even worse. Take for granted, and I'm looking at just so happens. All of mine are ADP's outside of the top two hundred save one who's at one ninety nine currently, So I'm talking about guys that are buried. I'm talking about this is towards the end of your drafts. So again for sleepers,
it's a mixture. For me, and I'm gonna start here with our catcher, and for me, it's Mitch Garver, who I don't think people are paying enough attention to now when you look at fangrafts, he is slated to hit four in this lineup. He qualifies at catcher, but he's also going to DA so you're gonna get more at bats out of Mitch Garver. Mitch Garver last year had a pretty solid season. He's still going to give you power, which I think that's something that is forgotten too much.
If you're in deeper leagues and you're looking for somebody with RBI potential, somebody with power potential, or in the two catcher league, Mitch.
Garver becomes really intriguing.
He is right now currently the fifteenth catcher going off the board and Welsh I don't think we're taking enough into account his position in the batting order, which means so much. He's got Horidy Polanco and Julio Rodriguez hitting in front of him. Those guys are going to be on base. He's gonna have RBI opportunities. I think Mitch Garver is one of these guys that you could take as a deeper league utility guy. I think he's a great bench bat. I think he's a great deeper league
catcher or in a two catcher league. Mitch Garver is somebody you should pay attention to because, like I said, he is going to qualify there and He's going to get at bats in the middle of that Seattle order, and I think Seattle is going to be challenging for that West this year.
They're my pick to win it.
I know that's not always the popular pick, but I think from the board right now on the betting side, it's a really intriguing one. Who is your catcher that you think is in your all sleeper team this year?
Yeah, I want to point out I probably would have picked Garver here of all the position I was also say, all the positions that we're gonna talk about. I do think the line between breakout and sleeper and like favorite player to draft, they're really close in this because, as I've said to a lot of people, I like late catchers. I don't want any of the guys on the top end.
So could I have picked Gabby Moreno here, Yeah, I put him in the all breakout team because I think he's going to take a next step one of your guys Logan, Ohoppy, I could have put him here as well. Garb.
I think I'd breakout because I think he showed you enough last year where you're like, Okay, you give this guy one hundred and you know twenty five games, he's gonna hit thirty home runs, like that's a breakout.
But he's also a sleeper at catcher.
Fourteen he can be You're right at sleeper at catcher. He's still technically a sleeper as well. But you got another name.
On this, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was just kind of lining all those up because I think the line is very thin. The guy that I picked is the ninth adyp catcher, so it's not too too far down there. It's Wilson Catreras. And one of the reasons behind putting Wilson Contreras there is constant twenty three straight seasons now, he has put up at least twenty homers, gets a handful of stolen bases. Batting average is actually ticked up
over the last three years. I think that Cardinal team is gonna kind of rock back out this year this coming year. His XBA was the highest of his career this past year, two seventy nine versus his two sixty four batting average. Hard hit numbers are pretty solid, almost
forty seven percent hard hit Baseball Savant. You go and look outside of his chase rate, you're kind of top twenty percentile and ex wOBA X slugging in a really good offensive lineup that I think, like I said, Aeronaudo Goldie are going to have a bounce back and at catcher nine. Really the sleeper aspect of this is I don't think anybody talks about him. People talk more about
his brother. People focus on the top end. I think Catres can easily be a top five closer or catcher, So I think he definitely defines the high end offensive upside that I want from catcher. So Gabby Marino breaks out, Ohapi breaks out, Garver is killer, but Contreris can be a top five catcher easy with those offensive stats, and that is why we are sleeping on him and he's my all catcher sleeper.
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Welsh?
Because your name is somebody that I just took in our Underdog draft. I think with all the new rookies, were kind of leaving him out of a lot of discussions.
So let's talk about your selection.
Yeah, so you were saying like all your sleepers are outside the top two hundred. Contrast is technically because of the NFPC, I have two other players that are inside the top two hundred that I'm designing as sleepers. This is one of them Christian incarnacion strand huge hard hit numbers this past year average one to eleven almost essentially
one to twelve ev, which is killer. Over ten percent barrel rate, which is great, almost a fifty percent hard hit rate which is phenomenal, forty eight point four percent. And let's go back to the batting average stuff. His expected batting average XBA it was the same as his batting average which was two seventy. So their strikeout issues. But what does he do in my book, hits the ball really hard. He also barrels the ball, he gets
it in the air. And now he's got more opportunity with the Nuelvie Marte situation in the best hitting ballpark in baseball, best ballpark factors, So now we're less worried about any weird playing time stuff. He's going to be handed this first base job. So why is he a sleeper? Because he is being massively undervalued, which could have been a big piece because of this weird situation with too
many players, and this might start to change. But at one fifty seven and ADP the nineteenth first baseman on the Fantasy pros, ADP, he's a sleeper he's the top one hundred bat Christian and Carnelcion Strand. I love Tristan Kassis. He's my all breakout team. I all whatever, I want, every share of him. Strand could put up top ten catcher numbers this year and he's almost going into the first base numbers.
You mean first base?
Oh yeah, yeah, first base. I'm catcher closer.
You tried to have a catcher close and now you're like catcher.
Closer is as an enunciation thing between it. I screwed up all the time. I don't know how I turned him into a catcher. The good thing is he's got a position. It's first base. Those power numbers are real and there's a thirty home run potential, uh with Cincinnati with all of that playing time. So I think Strand we have been sleeping on him, and we might not be so sleepy anymore because of the Nouelvie Marte situation. But he's my pick for the all sleeper first baseman.
I've got one from Cincinnati.
And also, you know, if you watch the show last week, we did the breakout Team and I was talking about Michael Garcia Thurbe. I was also talking about Nuevee Marte.
That was my main guy.
And of course the pd suspension came like hours later after we finished that show, of course, but because of that same suspension, I've got another guy in Cincinnati who he's gonna get more playing time for sure. Now it's
johnmer Candelario of the Cincinnati Rights. Last year, coming off a season where he had twenty two homers the RBI seventy runs, he say, okay, well, that's not really exciting, but you know what, it's exciting enough when you're hitting in the middle of his order in a good offensive ballpark, on a good offensive team, and in those mixed leagues, those deeper leagues where you're looking for help in your corner spots. He qualifies at first, he qualifies a third.
The dual eligibility is great. I'm putting him here at first base on this team because, again, middle of the order. I keep coming back to how important lineup placement is in fantasy and right now, Strand is looking like he could be hitting eighth according to Fangrafts. That's where he's projected. Candelario hitting cleanup right now. Now, that could flip flop by May. But at the same time. I think you have to pay attention to Candelaria. He is a player
that I don't think gets enough credit. Another guy too, He qualifies at second base. He qualifies a couple of places as a Brandon Drury of the Los Angeles Angels. He is the twenty second second baseman going off the board two twenty and ADP currently and this is another one Welsh. I just don't get it. I keep looking around and I keep saying to myself, why does no one want Brandon Drury qualifies at first qualifies a second two straight of twenty six or more homers, twenty eight
homers in twenty twenty two, twenty six last year. Again, I understand the runs and RBI fell short a little bit, maybe have expectations, especially the runs last year, down from eighty seven to sixty seven, but he's still at two
sixty in both of those. I'm looking at just the profile of this player, and I think, because people are so sour on the Angels, and rightfully so, that his ADP has been suppressed further than it should be, because if you're just talking about a projectability of a twenty eighty eighty player, and that's what he is with a two to sixty batting average. I think that's better than two twenty at eightp I just think that's far more valuable.
You know who the player is. I understand that first year, maybe you weren't buying all the power, you weren't buying everything. But when he basically repeated it year over year, what do you have to lose with this player?
Nothing.
I don't think we've done one show where we talked about him. I've started drafting him. I drafted him in the raz Slam. I drafted him in a couple other best ball situations. We just did the Underdog Draft. I drafted him there too. He's going late, he's got pop, he's got at bats. To me, this is another player that I'm going to lock in terms of batting order. Also, that's another thing where okay, where's he gonna hit in
the order. We know Trout's gonna be, you know, towards the top of the order, but right now he is slated to hit sixth in this batting order.
That's a good situation there.
Anthony Rendome is never healthy, so he could easily flip into that four or five spot without a doubt.
So that's my guy's second. Okay, so Drury is the guy for me.
Welsh, You've got another guy at second base on your list, also on the same Angel squad.
I'm gonna stay with it. It was funny. I actually had a Bill smile when you when you put dry on here and you said Drury because I'm going on that other side with Luis Ringifo as a super super deep sleeper here two sixty six ADP right now, as far as second base goes, he's ranked twenty eighth on the Fantasy pros ADP when you look at it now, numbers last year pretty solid. He's he increased his barrel percentage career high barrel percentage into the sevens. His hard hit
rate continues to tick up. It was actually a career high thirty six point nine percent. But the guy at LEAs sits around that two fifty batting average marker does not strike out a whole bunch. We've seen some power seventeen and sixteen homers respectively. He's also hit the same batting average two straight years. But the talking about him leading off, and that's something that I really know pun
intended to our show. That's something that I really like if he's going to be able to lead off, even if it's in a split situation, if it's like him and then Shan, well, if they're going to go back between that, it's going to create run opportunities. Everything that you just said about Brandon Drury lives with Rin Gifo as well. He's probably going to score more runs than he is RBI batting average anywhere from the two fifty
to two seventy range. He's going to steal some bases, we might get into double digits with more opportunities, and he qualifies at a lot of different spots. So he's kind of one of those super utility markers. So Luis ring Guifo is going to be my sleeper second baseman.
Now I mentioned this name on the Breakout Show, and you've carried him over to the sleeper list because I think it's a great spot. So with third base, as a guy in Kansas City who who might be flying to the top of the batting order because he's having such a good spring. We talked about him last week, Michael Garcia, So Walsha, I want you to talk about him some more because this is a player that I kind of, you know, was alluding to maybe there's a breakout there.
Not the biggest slugger.
You look at the minor league numbers, you know, not a lot of power there, but maybe there's a little bit more pop. Maybe again the run score, the stolen bases, maybe all that is enough here if he makes enough contact to go from the nine hole to the one hole, and that would be huge for his fantasy value coming out of the gate and opening day.
Yeah, and I want to point out too that one hundred percent was putting Candelari on this list. You got Candelario, this was my third base guy. You already talked about him, but he is a one thousand percent all sleeper team guy. But the other guy that was floating around, like you said, was Michael Garcia. It's not a big power play and
sometimes playing like out of traditional stats. Bagman and I did this episode on ITL about a month or month and a half ago where it was like what do you need out of your positions, Like what are the average stats of the starters you need? And third base, Harry's a lot of big power. So if you're gonna take perceivably if he was gonna be like your starter, you're missing a lot of power and you're gonna have
to make up in other spots. That marker goes down when you start to look at a player that you can put for your middle or corneringfield. And that's a cool thing about Michael Garcia is he could qualify at third and short in some places. ADP's around two point fifty big hard hit number last year fifty point six percent, and he had over four hundred and sixty at bats, So that's nothing to just scoff at. Problem is he hasn't gotten the ball in the air. It was around
a four percent barrel percentage. But he doesn't strike out. He walks some and he steals tons of bases. He's stole twenty three this past year. I've seen him a bunch in camp. Looks like he's gotten bigger over at Royals camp. If he is leading off, there's run arby run opportunities. There are tons of stolen base opportunities that you're getting out of position. If that power can come up, kel Garcia could be a low key CJ. Abrams this year.
If he can get to twelve to fifteen homers, Yeah, and he could push thirty stolen bases and you could have that at third. Michael Garcia is one of my big sleepers, and we're putting him here at third base.
He's projected already on fangrafts to lead off. Now that was not the case last week when we talked about him. So there's you look at some of the spring training lineups, keep looking at where Garcia is hitting when you get into the next week or so spring training, as Welsh alluded to, as a player who's making a step up. And he is so cheap right now, I mean two forty seven, Welsh, that's just absurd.
And it's it's late stolen bases, and it's late stolen bases just to throw out. So it's like you, you know, he qualifies in a couple of different spots.
He's cheap.
You're trying to chase your stolen bases. This is the guy to chase. My guy is somebody that's been around forever. Literally, he's one hundred and forty two years old. He's being drafted outside the top two hundred. He's at two to two. He's a twenty first third baseman being selected. And I get it, you're not excited about drafting Justin Turner.
I get it. Okay, last year, what did he do?
He at two seventy six, eighty six runs, ninety six twenty three homers. He played one hundred and forty six games, which is great. I know in twenty two he only played one hundred and twenty eight, but he did play one hundred and fifty one and twenty twenty one. So when you're drafting Justin Turner, you have to realize you're probably at best getting some around one hundred and thirty games,
like that's kind of what your peak is. But he continues to show you that he's still gonna probably drop twenty bombs and there he's gonna drive in runs.
And guess what.
Guess where he's hitting Welsh in the order for the Blue Jays this year. He's slated to hit cleanup. Now, I've just given you four straight guys being drafted outside the top two hundred who are hitting clean up for their respective teams. Mitch Garver, Candelario, Drury and Turner. Are they the most exciting guys on the planet? No? Are they going to be productive if they stay in that cleanup spot? Yeah, they are outside the top two hundred. To me, Welsh, it's a win. People are just bored.
They're concerned with the age, and I get it, but he is still a live bat. You look at the second half of the year, the stats are still there. All he does is hit the baseball. That's basically all he's done his entire career. After being a utility player for the Mets, and of course only the Mets. Could I get a guy so wrong, like Justin Turner, and then he goes on to have a great career and hits twenty home runs and hits two eighty five every year,
only the Mets. Let's switch gears to shortstop. Here Welsh and my guy shortstop. I'm excited about. He's turning just twenty two. His exit velo this spring has been unbelievable. He's had a couple balls over one hundred. Ezekiel Tovar, who had some great numbers in the minor leagues, very young players. Still, he got exposed last year at the major league level too much swing and miss. He has
worked his butt off. You could see also physically a little different this year, a little bigger in the lower half in terms of the leg size, so you see like he's getting more drive on the baseball.
So far, he looks really good. He is crushed minor league pitching.
He got exposed a little bit, and that happens sometimes with young players. But as excited as I was about Tovar last year, I'm still excited about him this year. And I feel like the bloom is off the rows. Everybody's moved on to the next thing and the next thing, and I have not. I'm gonna give this guy a little bit more time. Why because he also plays in Colorado. Folks, At any point, you know, Colorado is a great place to play. So if he can get right trim down
the strikeouts a little bit. So far the spring things have gone really well for him. I had an eighth keeper in my home league. He was the last guy I kept because it was a good price, and I was like, you know what, let me see what age twenty two season brings for a guy who's playing shortstop for the Rockies. And again, you look back at the minor league track record, this was a player that showed
you some elite offensive potential. So to me, this is a player that we've forgotten about and we shouldn't have. And til Var should be a guy on your radar going at two oh five, the twenty first shortstop Welsh, where are you going for shortstop for your all sleeper team?
Yeah, I love yours. I think like if you were literally drafting, if we were like drafting the all sleepers, like he would be the quintessential sleeper shortstop. This year, I'm going deeper and I don't remember. Let me take a look at it. This might be one of the deepest guys here.
Yeah, this is outside of three hundred baby.
Three seventeen shortstop thirty really one of my favorite guys, especially in deeper leagues. To take zach Netto, we're going back to the Angels. You're just looking for opportunities. Now. Where he's hitting in the lineup might be a problem. There was a time where they even talked about maybe hitting him higher in and leading off. Currently he's setting at nine, So those are going to kind of backtrack a little bit. But let me read off this ATC
projections on zach Netto. So remember this is the number nine hitter outside of the three hundreds ATC two forty eight eighteen homers, nine stolen bases in five hundred and thirty four played appearances. It's one hundred and thirty games. So if you want to push that up to one hundred and fifty games in a full season, that's a twenty ten guy probably into the seventies and runs bat x has. I'm hitting two point fifty one, eighteen homers,
seven stolen bases. Playing time is still down. Neto's one of those guys forty percent hard hit rate, barrel percentage almost into the double digits at eight point eight. That's a great thing to see for like a young shortstop, and we've seen this power grow. I think Nedo is one of the most undervalued shortstops, especially for the counting stats. Twenty ten isn't just something we throw away. We're talking about that earlier twenty ten out of that middle infield.
He's more of a traditional middle infielder. You're not gonna draft him as a shortstop, but at the end of the day, he might be able to put up top fifteen shortstop numbers, maybe even a little bit higher, especially if he moves higher in that lineup. But the power is becoming real. It's all about contact. He's kind of like an Anthony Volpi. He just doesn't steal as much. Netto's trending up. He's one of my sleepers, trying to draft him wherever I can.
Yeah, well, these are two guys in Neto and Tovar that we were all excited about last year, young players coming up, and just because it didn't hit the ground running right away does not mean that you throw them away, not at this age, not the opportunity, and not the fact that they're both gonna be starters and really no ways good well.
Especially you know, it's a weird thing too, and I know this, like we always do this thing, but like there's guys at Carlos Korea that are sitting out there. We know exactly what we're getting from Carlos Kre and I'm not trying to down talk it.
Seventy five games, Yeah, well you're.
Gonna get twenty homers, you know, seventy five, seventy five blah blah blah. But it's like there's no stolen base upside. Neto can outperform Carlos Korea just by playing throughout the year.
Like there's many games.
Yeah, yeah, there's a toll.
Faver opportunity that Tovar can do the same thing.
Yeah, Jeremy Payannia, other ones these are guy Jeremy Paynea Carlos career. Going ahead of both of these guys, I think Nedo can easily overpass them statistically. Tovar is already kind of like designed to be there.
There.
These shortstops I think were the big easy ones for us to pick.
All right, My outfielders might have been a little easy here. In fact, my guy was at one ninety nine. The first one gonna talk about is Jared Durant, who I know Welsh has talked about him a lot.
I would have talked about him today.
Outside of but he was already a your breakouts. Yeah, so like you can't be the breakout in the sleeper like I mean that maybe it can be.
I don't know, but I'm with you. I'm I'm holding hands with you.
On the Jared Duran thing because over one hundred and two games last year, Duran showed you that if he plays a full season, he is a potential fifteen thirty guy. And he hit for two to ninety five batting average, So the batting average is going to be there. So this is potentially a five category player that you're getting around pick two hundred in the outfield and outfield is tough.
It is not great. It's funny Welsh. As I'm looking at this, we just did our underdog draft right If you want to see that, go check it out.
We're doing a best Ball draft on Underdog on one of the shows.
We just record him, Tovar Drury, and Jared Durant all on that roster, all being undervalued and best Ball undervalued in regular drafts too.
If you tell me, this is.
A player that's gonna score one hundred runs and is going to hit at the top of the order for the Red Sox and is going to be a potential player that's gonna give you a fifteen thirty and a high batting average. Why the hell is he being drafted so late? I just don't understand it. So for me, this is another player that I'm all in on, and another guy too, especially in points leagues, Jung Hulee of
the San Francisco Giants at two twelve. To me, this is a guy who could challenge for the batting title again, just like Duran hitting at the top of the order. So this is a player that you want pieces of, you want to be in on Lee.
He's going to be hitting at the very top of the San Francisco order.
He's gonna have run potential, batting average potential, he's got some pop.
Is that the greatest home ballpark?
No?
But I think it offsets a little bit. At the same time, I think the unknown factor with Lee is scaring some people off, and I don't think it should. When you watch this guy play and you watch him in spring, he's flashing some power in the spring so far. This is one of these guys where spring training matters as well as we always say this, like spring training doesn't matter except for the guys that it matters for, and Lee's one of these guys. For me, I wanted
to see how he's hitting some major league pitching. What does he look like here?
Is he overmatched? And the answer is no, He's not overmatched at all.
So Lee and Duran are two guys that are going late in the outfield that I love. Now you've picked two guys that are going even later, which I love, one of which I need you to sell me on because I'm almost there with the first one. And the second one I think is one that's gonna blow a lot of people's minds. So let's talk about your two sleeper outfielders for twenty four.
Yeah, so there have been two late outfielders. I'm targeting every drought. There's lots of outfielders I like this year. We've talked to of done videos like Riley Green and stuff. When we go later. There's two guys, Jared Durant, who you mentioned, and Jared Kelnick. So double Jay's Double j not Jeff Jared, but Jared Durant.
And joy Le bad country music.
But Jared Kelnick. Jared Kelnick is the guy. So last season, Kelnick was kind of off to a you know, we had this whole big thing. Eleven homers, threw three hundred at bats, hit around two point fifty. He was stealing a bunch eleven stolen bases in that first run. Then he gets hurt, comes back power Zapp stops stealing. He was hitting for contact. He had two eighty eight posts all Star break in around sixty at bats, which I
think then he got hurt after that. Actually maybe because maybe I mix that up, but either way, that power kind of zapped. Batting average went away. We saw who Jared Kelnick was, and you're now going into a ballpark where left handed hitters thrive way more. I mean he was in Seattle, one of the worst ballpark factors out there. I think he's a top ten ballpark factor for left handed hitters. For Jared Klnick, who has been bareling the
ball better, he's been stealing bases. The strikeouts are a problem. That's always something that we've got to consider. But a two sixty four expected batting average overall is great, one twelve MAXIV solid, double digit barrel percentage. Good, he's getting the ball in the air. It was in the tens. These are things that you can build off of into a huge, big offensive lineup in Atlanta that is going to support him overall. Hitting six or seven in Atlanta is like that Dodger situation.
Is that point?
Yeah, Like you drop him into the Braves offense, like you gotta be real, JABRONI not to be good in the Braves offense, like you're gonna produce something, Just just make some contact for goodness sake. But this is a really interesting move. Keep talking about Kelnick.
Yeah, and also, I mean he destroyed fastballs last year ninety two. EV hit two ninety two with a two eighty two expected batting average. Though the batting average wasn't great against breaking an off speed. The expected batting average thirty nine and two sixty seven was good. He's becoming a better hitter. I think he's going twenty twenty this year.
That's where I think Kelnick is gonna go. You're gonna get more offensive opportunities, even hitting six, seven or eight in Atlanta because that offense turns over even more and you're out of the platoon stuff. So I love Jared Kelnick. He's one of my main targets sole and bases power. The other guy is a guy that might get some leadoff opportunity or hitting high in the in the lineup as well. One of the deepest guys in here, well out outside the top three hundred. And it's not Riley
Green with the Tigers, it's Parker Meadows. This is another twenty twenty guy. I say a lot of some of the same stats. Sometimes that could be annoying to people, but it's things you're looking for, big breakouts, nine percent barrel percentage, you're closing into the double digit percentage gets the ball in the air. Last year he had an
eighteen degree launch angle. It's one of the highest, probably for any outfielder but one of the highers in the league expected batting average two point fifty part hit percentage moving up a little bit. This is a solid bat and he is a power speed threat. I actually think he could steal more bases than hit homers. But if you get fifteen to twenty five out of a full season, I think that is in the cards. I think if he plays a full season, he's gonna put up twenty
stolen bases. And I'm going to take a look here over on We'll do ATC or do our buddy Ario Cohen where we've got a great episode here if you guys want to check out. And for Parker Meadows in one hundred and twenty three games, they have fifteen stolen bases and thirteen homers with a low batting average of two thirty. So you can start to project out if he plays one hundred and fifty, you're gonna close in
on a twenty twenty. So both of the guys I picked here are twenty twenty potential players, and that's what I'm looking out of a lot of my depth in the outfield. I'm trying to get big power bats early on as much as i can, and then Jared and Durant, Jared Kelnick, Parker, Meadows. These are some of my favorite outfielders in those five outfielder formats to target.
Things starting to turn around for the Tigers a little bit Welsh after all these years, we'll see, all right, the starting pitcher as Welsh. Who are the two names that you're targeting as sleepers in twenty four.
So number one, I've got Nick Pavetta, who I think I've talked a little bit about. Thirty one. Yeah, thirty one point two percent K percentage from July first on Paveta had I think it was the number one K percentage and he had the highest on the season, highest on the season with increase of a starting pitcher overall. With increase and Paveta has had a good spring, we're seeing vlo upticks bodies there making that team even better. He went a full mile per hour up on the fastball.
I think what they're going to be doing with pitchers overall has been phenomenal. Paveta could hurt us, I suppose in the long term, but the K percentage was like elite without any crazy walk issues, and it might have actually even been the K minus walk percentage. Which was really high from July first on. He was an elite strikeout option and now he's going to get the full throes of it. Hopefully he stays healthy. I think he's a big sleeper pick, and his ADP at one seventy
five has actually been moving up. But he's pitcher fifty one. It's top thirty SP upside with the strikeouts. My other one we've talked, we've talked to actually a decent amount. I think in the underdog draft was TOADJ. Bradley and
Taj Bradley. With that confidence back, some uptick in spring with the cutter working again, I think Taj Bradley is in line for all the innings that he can have this year, and I think he's he might be the best pitcher, like overall pitcher, especially from a stuff perspective, in that rotation and given the full confidence and without many restrictions, I think Taj Bradley is going to have a big breakout this year. So Taj and Paveta are my two sp sleepers, two.
Really good ones definitely there. And Bradley that's another one too. I'm buying back in. You know, he was an elite prospect last year we're all excited about. We were telling everybody run to the waiver wire. Spengers need to get him. It didn't work out. Okay, that doesn't mean he's a bad pitcher. It means he's a young pitcher that still has to learn. And it seems like he's been humbled a little bit. Seems like he's put the work in the off season so far the spring showing you some
much better versions of himself. The velocity, but I don't know if you saw this Welsh he was sitting at ninety six ninety six point four.
And he was ninety six point one last year, so he's upticking a little bit. I mean, he got hit hard last year, but I think that's something that decreased. Like every single pitch he threw had a ninety or higher exit velocity against. But that's rookie. That's rookie pitching. I think with the tutelage, I'll be very curious to see what changes happened. The cutter was the big, like weird thing. I'll be curious to see if the split finger comes up, because last year had the highest fifth
percentage over forty percent. If we see the split finger trend, that's going on. If we see maybe that overtake the cutter a little bit more. I think the Rays are going to turn him into a bigger strikeout pitcher this season, and that's going to be the focus, and I think that's what's going to make him exceptionally better.
I do too. I'm excited about TODs.
I'm also excited about my two pictures on the list at two three and two twenty two. The first one is Brian Wu of the Seattle Mariners, a picture with a live arm who had a spotty record I think at times in some of the college baseball, but you've seen what Seattle's been able to do out of him, and in eighteen games last year, eighty seven innings, ninety three strikeouts for him, he's got to trim the walk rate just a little bit.
If he can do that, that's great.
A four to two to one era, Okay, you know it's again rookie stuff, as we were alluding to before, but a one two one whip.
And I think that Wu is.
One of these pictures you start to see what kind of competitor he is. He's in the back end of this rotation. It's a deep rotation. There's no pressure on the kid. All he's got to do is just go out the every fifth day. Give the Seattle Mariners a chance to win. And I told you already in the beginning of the show. I like the Mariners, So I
like the Mariners. I'm in on the Mariners. I want the Mariners to, you know, continue to use this rotation to get not even into the playoffs, but I think they can go all the world, all the way to the World Series and maybe even win it this year.
I really do.
And Aaron Savaldi's the other guy in Tampa going at two twenty two. If you look at Aaron Savally, it's eerily similar of some of the earmarks of what we've seen time and time again in Tampa, where they take a guy who's kind of feels like a middling pitcher who at time shows you better versions of himself. He comes to Tampa and all of a sudden you get
the best version of him. If you look at Savally's recent seasons, you see a guy who is, you know, kind of under nine k per nine, somewhe around that eight and a half range eight range nothing blown away era floating round four. Go back and look at Zach Eflin before last year. It's pretty much the same guy.
Statistically speaking, Can the.
Rays be the team that gets the most out of Aaron Savali? I think the answer is one hundred percent yes. Every year we've started to get smarter and smarter to this Welsh where we say, oh, who are the Rays signing this offseason?
That guy?
Yeah, let me put him on the sleeper list, because Zach Efflin was on this list last year, I believe, or one of these lists we talked about, Hey sleeper pitchers. Take a shot on Effln? Why because Tampa signed him? And I'm gonna go back down to this well again with Savally.
What's kind of funny about it is like these three pit elementthropep there too, Pepio, Savally and Bradley. They're all just cheap. I don't hate the idea of like taking them all and figuring out because it is kind of weird that you can't just throw all the raised pitchers in and be like, hey, they're going to do this in this But the Rays have a system of picking, like Pepio had some big stuff plus numbers, fastball you have. You've seen Savally and what he can do with some
of his off speed stuff. And then it's like you get one of the best organizations that manipulate some of these players and has their hand into pitching development, and they've taken these pieces in. All of these guys could be great in different ways. Savally from a command perspective, Pepio looks like a big strikeout guy. Bradley might be the best combination between them. It's just not bad to bet on the same thing you did with the Mariners
as well. You can't get a Mariner's pitcher really for cheap, except for Wu and Bryce Miller, and I wouldn't hate you for taking both of them Rays Mariners. The cheap options that are going to be out there, I think those are great just bets. Now, it's tough if you're going to do a big capital on drafting a bunch
of them. But let's just arguably say, somehow you were able to get two of these Race pitchers and two of those Mariner pitchers, you're probably giving yourself at least a fifty percent chance for a player that is going to blow past the cost of what you put into them.
It's it's you know again, it's like buying more tickets to the fifty to fifty raffle. You know he's just like it's going to be there.
Well, I'm not sure that's the Have you ever known a.
More than ones now happened? I've got proof.
I got that at a minor No, you'd at a minor league game you did not win at like a.
Well, you know who's winning in life, Welsh.
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Let's get to our relief pitchers. That's all that's left here on our list. So for me, this one's easy sometimes, you know me, I don't like to pay for saves. So if SAMs just get away from me, Jose Leclerk is the guy in Texas that got the boat on them last year, Texas is still gonna be a very competitive team.
And if Leaclerk isn't the guy.
And as the manager said, well, we haven't put names and we don't want to put labels on guys right now, we're not gonna.
Label anybody anything.
Okay, fine, Well Robertson's there too, so it's gonna be one of these guys. So you think Robertson, well your very last pick, and you take Laclerk late, and you've got all the saves in Texas, Welsh, I think it's a very easy equation.
Where are you going here for your saves?
Because the name on your list is the one I was gonna put on mine.
But this one you nab before me.
Yeah, So, like I agree with it you said about closers in general, I like the cheap save guys. Laclerk would be a player. But you know, if we're talking like sleepers, and we're talking upside. Matt Brash would have been a player I would have picked if he didn't have this arm.
INNG.
The other obvious one is a guy that's qualifying as a starting pitcher right now, and it's Mason Miller. So that's who you were alluding to because of this insanely big fastball and the team said they want to commit to him being like a reliever this year. They don't want to hand him the job to be the closer from day one. I think they want him to kind of prove and work it. But this is a guy they kind of keep telling us these things with Mason Miller,
and then it just bam, it explodes. I mean, we're talking about a triple digits fastball pitcher who really I mean, he throws a cutter, cutter and sliders can kind of be the same. It's kind of a slider fastball guy, quintessential classic closer that they've already said they want to put him in. Here's the only problem. How many opportunities are the a's actually going to have to say that's a bigger question. But when given those opportunities, Mason Miller
is going to thrive with it. He's going to strike out guys. He might have a couple of blow ups. He is the closer of closers, and if the opportunity happens early, Mason Miller might save twenty five to thirty games and he would be a top ten closer. So you want to talk about a closer sleeper. I think he is the number one quintessential player. But there is risk in this pick because he could just be a middle relief.
You know what, I don't think he's going to be a middle relief. I think to keep him healthy, the best thing to do is give him that clean ninth inning. And if the A's were a competitive team, might be more concerned because I don't want Mason Miller working three or four days in a row closing out games. And the A's are three or four games in a row, that's not gonna be a problem. So in a lot of ways, it's kind of the best case scenario. Make
him the closer. He's not a bad team. One or two appearances a week, Okay, great, it's a great opportunity for Mason Miller to be healthy, be productive. I think it's the best case scenario for him. So just to recap here. Here's our all sleeper teams. Welsh has Wilson contraresat catcher, Christian and Carnascio Strand at first, Luis Rangifo at second, Michael Garcia at third base, Zach Netto at third,
excuse me at shortstop. The outfielders Jared Kellennick Parker Meadows then Paveta and Bradley the pitchers, and Mason Miller at c I've got Mitch Garver clean up catcher. I'm Rick Candelario clean up at first base, Brandon Jury clean up at second base, Justin Turner clean up hitter at third base.
See I love a theme, Ezekiel Tavard's short.
Jaron Duran and the outfit along with Jung hu Lee, Brian Wu, Aaron Savali, jose Leclerk aka anybody in Texas.
So take David Roberts at the last pick and again you get all the.
Saves and you don't have to worry about spending any free agent budget as long as your bench is big enough. But we want to hear from you who are your sleepers in twenty twenty four. Drop your comments below and you just might win yourself an incredible trophy smack Ultimate Fantasy Baseball Championship Belt, which.
Looks pretty cool.
And don't forget to join us for Fantasy Fest Wednesday the thirteenth right here on Fantasy Bros MLB. Subscribe like the video and have a great day. Everybody 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. Peace,