Hello, everybody, Welcome into the cycle, a brand new Fantasy Pros Fantasy Baseball weekly podcast.
I am Ryan Warmley.
I am joined by Mike Mayer, who will be on every show with me, and by Kelly Kirby, who will be on many shows here and there throughout the year filling in as a guest lending her expertise to the show. You can find her at the Wonky Penguin on Twitter if you're not following her already. Kelly, thank you so much for coming on to the very first episode.
Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.
We are excited to have you.
Like I said, Kelly will be on throughout the season very regularly, so we figured let's bring her on for a large chunk.
Of the first episode.
We will also have Chris Welsh on a bit later in the show to talk about some prospects. He will also be a regular appearer on this show.
Mayor.
We did our preview episode last week. We are now here for the real thing. We're recording just one day before opening day.
How are you feeling, I'm feeling great.
Are we sure apeerer is a word? Can we look that up?
Actually was pretty sure it's not, but I had already committed to saying it when I started to say it. So we're off to a really excellent start.
Do you want to mention it?
If you enjoy those sorts of diatribes or this content in general.
The best freeway to show your support and encourage more.
Content like this is to leave a positive review at fantasypros dot com slash MLB review. And also, if you ever are leaving a review on any of our platforms that you're listening to the show on, go ahead and ask a question in there. Mayor and I will be sure to answer it in next week's episode. That's gonna be a great way to get your question on the show.
If you have question about trades or specific player, or really anything fantasy baseball related, Mayor and I will be happy to answer that if it appears in a review. Guys will start things off with rounding the bases. We'll hit on four major headlines here. There will be a lot of weeks where we kind of own in on
one major headline and do a deep dive. There hasn't been any baseball played outside of a couple of games in Korea, so we figured let's just hit on a bunch of different things here as we are, you know, on the eve, the precipice of opening Day, we're gonna start off with one of those performances from the Korea series.
That was Yamamoto, who I briefly mentioned in our preview episode with may Or how I almost wanted to recommend against drafting him where he was going, and then I was afraid that he would have an excellent first start and make me look bad before a first show even came out.
Turns out I should have just stuck with my guns.
He pitched one inning, about four hits, had one walk, five earned runs, did have two strikeouts. Mayor, what is your concern level on Yamamoto after his first ever major league start.
It's non zero, but I don't think it's high. But you know, his spring training numbers are not great either. His r's over eight in springtraining, and you know we always talk about how like, you know, spring training stats don't matter, but we all still look at them, and so I would like that does come with fourteen strikeouts against four walks, So it's they're not all terrible. So I'm a little concerned, but I'm not like very concerned because I did expect it would take.
Him a little a little while to get up and running.
And I was listening to the the CBS guys not too long ago, and they made a really good point about how last year Kodai Sanga actually skipped the World Baseball Classic just to start pitching in spring training, to get used to the American you know, the ball that they use in Major League Baseball. And so I think he's got a lot of things going on. You know, it was his first appearance as a Dodger in a real game. He wasn't even at Dodger Stadium. He was in Korea, and I'm sure there was a lot of
things going on there. And you know, I think it's going to take him a little bit of time to get his feet under eath them. But I am still confident that he's going to be.
A very good pitcher.
What do you think, Kelly, I mean, this is somebody who was, by the end of draft season, was like a top seven pitcher off the board, you know, top three round pick in a lot of leagues. His ADP on our Fantasy Pros consensus page was thirty fourth overall pitcher number seven.
I mean this is a guy.
That play, you know, managers are relying on to be nearly or an actual fantasy ace for them.
He certainly didn't look like that in his first start.
Yeah, I was kind of confused about the ADP. I thought it got too high, But then I also looked at pitcher injuries, and by that point I think like people who started in the hundreds probably ended up being the SP ten. But I'm with Mayor. Unfortunately I don't like to agree with him, but I am here. I feel like there was so much offense in the in those two games, and it's in create right like, so there's so many factors that it's really hard to get a feel for it for where he's going to be.
But yes, I also think the concern is higher than zero that he I mean, I don't know if he'll return that value this year.
But Kelly, did you find yourself like considering changing him in your draft rankings after that? Or he's kind of still wherever he was for you before, which I don't know where that was.
Yeah, I don't think I had him. I think I'm a little lower on him to start with, but I'd have to look at it for sure. But Yeah, I consider dropping him, maybe just one or two, but again, with the injuries, it's just a difficult. It's difficult to know where to put him at this point.
Yeah, same question, Mary, what about you?
It looks like in our ECR he was you know, forty two here overall, like I said, ADP is a you know, about eight spots higher than that. Where did you have him ranked and was that impacted at all in terms of an actual draft ranking?
Based on that first.
Start, I had him as a top ten sp and I think I still have him there. I may have dropped him like one spot, but I didn't like actively like, you know, go look to drop him after that start.
But you know, I did open my eyes a.
Little bit and try to hedge a little bit based on that performance.
Yes, let's go to his teammate for our second headline here. Not really a ton to spend on here, a ton of time, but show he o toddy gambling. I don't even know how to really describe what's going on. It's a wild story. Obviously, everybody listening to the show is probably very aware of what's gone with his interpreter, who was, you know, reportedly stealing money from him. And using that to make very you know, big gambling bets on a litany of sports, including baseball.
I saw it.
It's similar to, you know, after all the stuff came out with the Astros that you know a lot of these YouTube accounts would go back and find old highlights and be like, oh, look here, how like you know, Altuve wouldn't let them take his jersey off, or you
can hear the trash can in these moments. I've seen a couple of those similar types of stuff being put together with Otani, like, oh, his interpreter had like a million dollar bet placed in you know, an overseas account on this day for the Braves to you know, cover three and a half runs against the Dodgers or against the Angels rather and oh look Otani gave up six
runs and pitched terribly and struck out twice. You know, this stuff like that has started to come out as these sort of internet salute I've been looking into it. I mean, mayor what was your just like initial takeaway to all this happening. Again, it's not really like baseball relevant yet, but it just was such a major story with the biggest player in the sport that I felt like we had to at least address it.
Yeah, I think it's fascinating.
I feel like I've also changed my mind on what I think is the truth, like a dozen times already, like over the last week since this came out. I think the main thing so far that like you know, originally Baseball said they didn't you know, they weren't even investigating it, and then everyone's like, you have to, you have to investigate this, and so they are at least going to like.
Look into it now.
I did think it was interesting so far, like there's no betting on baseball that they know of, unless that's changed in the last like twenty four hours, which, like you know, according to like the baseball purists, like that's the big thing. The one thing my initial thought was like I can't there's no way this guy could be betting this much money without Charlie Ottwani like realizing it. But I have kind of changed my mind a little bit on that. Listening to the I forget the guy's name.
I want to say it was Daniel Kim, but I don't want to misspeak. But he was like a he was on the broadcast for the series in Korea, and he was like, look, these interpreters are more than just like the media presence and like helping them like talk to people on their team. He's like, these guys are like at the grocery market, grocery store with them. They're opening their bank accounts for them. So like he probably has access to Otani's bank information because he set up
the account. So I was like, Okay, that does make a little sense. There are still a lot of concerns in red flags here. I don't know that it'll be that relevant for Fantasy this season because I think even I think this is going to take a while for them to like dig into and so even if worst case scenario there's like some punishment coming from Otani, I think it's probably like next season that we see anything happen, But we'll see.
I think that's probably right. Kelly. What was going through your mind when every twisted turn to this story has you know, kind of dropped.
Yeah, I surprised myself with the first one was I was just like, look, if there's any player we should just shove this under the rug and ignore, it would be Otani because I love him and I think he's great for the game and all of that and then of course, you know, I got to the logic side of my brain where, yeah, the stories, it's it's kind of the Akam's Razor problem for me, where it's like, what's the most plausible with the least amount of complications explanation?
And so I'm just trying to wait and see, like how far off that does this go before it kind of like settles into this is what actually happened where. Yeah, So I don't know, I'm not worried about him for fantasy this year either, although it does kind of have that feel of when you know, like a rookie gets caught with PDS and then all of a sudden he's just gone for eighty games, Like like that's kind of where I put this, where that is always going to be hanging over his head this summer.
I think let's move to an actual, more relevant to this season baseball topic, hopefully more relevant, and the time of thing won't become relevant to fantasy baseball this season.
Jordan Montgomery, Yeah, our long national nightmare is over.
He finally signed one year deal with the Divingbacks, who have made an attempt here to kind of revamp the rotation.
You know, EDWARDO.
Rodriguez Montgomery obviously E rod is you know, dealing with injuries himself. Clearly Montgomery will not be ready by opening day, since by the time people are listening to this, it will already be opening day. Kelly, what kind of time whine do you think we're probably looking at for Montgomery
if you even have a sense of it. And on top of that, once he is kind of up and you know, up to speed and you know, arm strength built up, everything like that, what do you think, you know, what do you make of the fit really for fantasy with the Diamondbacks.
I think it's a decent fit for him. I'm not you know, he doesn't have to necessarily anchor the staff or really do anything larger than what he's capable of doing. However, like, yeah, I think it's going to cost him maybe I would say three starts at a minimum, possibly four before he's really ready to roll. So I wouldn't rely on him until maybe the third or fourth week of April at
this point for him to get stretched out. But yes, I too, am very glad that the nightmare is over and that all of the big named free agents signed in the off season is basically what we can say.
Right technically, just in under the buzzer.
His ADP was, you know, one sixty four obviously, you know, driven by the uncertainty of him not having signed until so late and the fact that it was pretty clear by the time we got into draft season that he was going to not be ready by the start of the season because of this delayed signing. Mayor if you had known from the beginning of draft season that he was with the Diamondbacks and he was starting the year early, where do you think he would have been going.
Where do you think you would have ranked him?
You know, how much of a value do you think people got, if anything, based.
On where he was going because of the uncertainty.
That's a good question.
I think a lot of people got like several round value because of the uncertainty. He actually signed last night while I was in the middle of that draft. I was telling you about last night that draft champions. So I actually got him in the eleventh round like one fifty four overall, which is pretty you know, pretty good value.
He didn't I thought it was interesting, like because he didn't sign while I was on the clock, I was up in like seven picks and I was like, oh, I'm not going to get him, and then like he just didn't go And I assume everyone saw in the news because I saw the news, so I just picked him up when he came there. I do think there's almost like this mystery like fact going on or like this mystery effect going on with him or like, and it's probably the same thing that like affected his free agency.
Like I think a lot of people think he's better than he is. I mean, he's good, he's very solid. He's not like an ACE and he's going to be like a really good innings Zeter, and he has a lot of value, but I think people are kind of valuing him similarly to like Blake Snell, who I also have concerns about, but he's at least more of like that ACE level.
But like I like Jordan Montgomery. He's very solid.
He can like help you in a lot of ways, but he's he doesn't strike out a batter per inning. You know, last year he threw one hundred and eighty eight and two thirds innings one hundred and sixty six strikeouts.
Like that's fine, that's good.
It was a good er three point two his expected numbers are all higher, you know, between three point five six and up over four, and like at that point, how fiable is he?
Well, he was also better with Texas, which I think prop might stick in people's minds, you know, maybe you know, two seventy nine ERA as opposed to three to twenty on the season, one oh nine whip as opposed to one point one nine on the season. So, uh, you know, he did seem to kind of level up a bit, you know with the Rangers, Kelly even with.
Them, though, even with them though two seven nine ERA with the Rangers four point zero whit Sierra.
I mean, I mean, I with you, I'm not like, I'm not really trying to play Devil's advocate because I do think he's become.
A bit overrated by being so I.
Think I think I think he's become a bit overrated by being, you know, the last guy available. And it's like all these teams that you're pitching, it's like, well, the Yankees should lookt him. Cauzan pitching, well, the Oriil shouldok at him, Caise AINI pitching, well, everybody who needs pitching should look at him, because he was the last guy there, you know, alongside Blake Snow for a while, so I see why people might have kind of put
put them together. I am with you on him maybe being a little overrated Kelly, Like if you had to put a rest of season ranking to it, like, are you know what kind of pitcher do you think we're looking at here? Are we're looking at like an SPO Do you think that's you know, maybe too aggressive?
What would you say?
Yeah? I mean, like right now, I think he's going to be like a very good SP three, which like I put him behind Meryl Kelly in that in that rotation just in terms of how much that are going
to help you. He has some SP two upside, but not enough where I'd be like beating down the door to trade for him or any or anything along those lines, because yeah, I feel like he he benefited from the scarcity issue right where he was the only one left and whether he was good or not, he was experienced in a veteran so everyone was like, we have to go get this guy. He was just the one out there at the time.
So let's wrap up the Round of the Bases sort of headline segment here with just a general like there's been a lot of pitching injuries. Early I had a listener of the show reached out to me and asked me my opinion on Hey, you know, pitching kind of got away from you my draft. Here's like five screenshots of all the pictures that are available.
Is anybody you like?
And I was like, every single player that I like here has an O next to their name, like they're just all injured. It's really I mean, the Diamondbacks themselves, Rodriguez s all like like already, and it's.
Across the board, it's everywhere.
Kelly, is there an injury, you know, rather than going through all of them individually because it's so so many of them, is there an injury that stands out that is creating an opportunity for somebody else, or that you think is going to be really impactful for the rest of the season. Any of these injuries really significant to you in any way?
I think you know, when Brian with Brian wu going down, I looked at Seattle as a very deep rotation that you could really count on when you were drafting, and I knew he had the elbow problem, but it seemed like he was doing okay. So with him going down, I don't know necessarily if that creates an opportunity somewhere, but it does. It caused me to reevaluate sort of the Mariners as a whole and to keep an eye on them because it seems like they sort of have
like what Tampa used to have. We're the next person up just kind of of shows up and does pretty well. And I suppose we could also talk about Tampa losing what three fifths of their rotation. But yeah, so that he was the first one or he was the biggest one where I thought, okay, this kind of swings a few things for me.
So yeah, a very popular draft target in you know, a lot of my leagues. He was people were going after from pretty aggressively. Mayor what do you think about just kind of the injuries in general? And is there one that stands out to you?
Well, there's a couple that stand up. Brian wu was one of them.
Dylan Carlson was another one because of what it means for Victor Scott. But I think, you know, the Welsh will be on a little bit later and he'll he'll break that one down. I had a similar situation to you where someone on our discord which everyone should join fantasypros dot Com slash chat you should join that reached out and he was like, I had a bunch of picture injuries. Which are these three guys should I pick up? And it was like Nathan Valde, Nick Pavetta or Brian Wu.
And I was like, well, not.
Brian Wu because he's also hurt, so don't pick him up unless you can also stash him. The good news for with the Brian Wu injury, you know, pooring out for Brian Wu, is that Emerson Hancock is getting called up. And so that's another name I'm sure we'll ask Welsh about later on in the show.
Yes, definitely, everybody will want to stick around for Welsh because we're gonna try and hit on all these rookies and prospects that got kept up and sent down and everything like that. Any other thought on the injuries, Kelly, I.
Had something and now it's gone because you know, I'm too old for this. Oh yeah, no, that was it on discord. I was I was mentioning with may Or where we try to get to everybody's questions and it's it's totally worth being in there, and it's worth being in the premium channels, which are great. I try to be like I always try to be democratic about it, like here's how I would look at it, but if
you look at it differently, e'ta, etcetera. But yeah, so many of those screenshots and I'm like, well, that's the only guy with a working arm, so I feel like that should be the guy. Or you know, it's a complete coin flip because we have no idea what to expect from them, so.
Everything harder to do advice.
Every time I get like DMed for advice or something, I'm always like, here's what I would do. I'm getting I'm gonna be very thoughtful and like give you my full here's what I would do and why.
But I'm probably wrong, so I would ignore me. Anyway. Let's move on to normally. This will be a section of the show where we do buy low sell Hi.
We kind of talked about it before the show because there hasn't really been any games yet, it makes more sense. We're gonna reference our bold Predictions article that you can find on fantasypros dot com. You know, we had a bunch of writers come together and kind of share their favorite bold predictions for the season. So we're gonna go through and pick our favorites there. Of course, Mayor and Kelly contributed to that article, so they'll be picking their own.
I'm just gonna pick my favorite from the others.
Like I said, typically this will be by low Sell High, but for this week only, we're gonna do our bold predictions ahead of the season.
Mayor, let's start with yours.
Sure, so, Mayor and Kelly contributed to the article. Worm famously did not contribute to the article, so we'll start with that. Welcome to though, whenever you'd like to help out contribute, you're welcome to join us.
I will I will contribute at my leisure.
As you as you will with everything.
So my bold prediction, there were there were a lot of why at Langford bold predictions which I wasn't going to go into anyway. I think Kelly we'll touch on that a little bit with her answer. I went into zach Eflin, and my bold prediction is that zach Eflin is a finalist for the al Say Young aboard. I'm
a big zach Eflin guy, always have been. I was sharing with Kelly earlier today that one of my favorite things to do several times a year is just like pull up Zach Eflin's stackcast page and just like, look at what crazy pitch mix he has going on this year, or even like this part of the year, because it changes so often. Like a couple of years ago, he was like, hey, I throw a cutter now. And last year his slider became a sweeper, which was probably more
of a classification thing. But I was really in on him last season when he went to the Rais and I was like, Oh, this is perfect. Zach Cuffen on the Rais is going to be fun. And it was fun. One hundred and seventy seven innings, one hundred and eighty six strikeouts. He won sixteen games. I know we can't really count wins, but we won sixteen games. You know, the cy young voters still care about that stuff. Three
point five VR. All of his expected numbers were about a half front lower than that, and that was even with a hard hit rate that was up a career high or not a career high, but his highest hard hit rate against in three years. And I just think there's so much more room to improve, and that if he can stay healthy, because he has been you know,
had some nagging injuries throughout his career. But like, if he can stay healthy, I think he takes another step forward and I think he's a finalist for the al Cy Young Award, and even with someone like Eric Cole being out, I think he's the dark horse to win it. And he's plus four thousand on Betting Bros.
Right away.
Well, you know Corbyn Burns is in the ale or now right it's a lock.
Yeah, but he's got to go to Fenway Park and play that play against that Red Sox lineup.
Oh yeah, how scary? Yeah, No, I know. I think you mentioned e Flynn on last.
Week's previews show as well as a player you were retargeting, targeting and drafts. So he's definitely a favorite of yours. What do you think, you know, a top three finish in the Cy Young voting. What do you think this means for fantasy? Is he somebody that you would even be trying to trade for early on in the year.
Because you're a big believer in him.
Do you think that's going to be more more of a real life Cy Young winner as opposed to like a fantasy league winner.
What do you make of him on the fantasy side.
I think he's going to be a high end SP two. I don't actually have a ton of shares of him this year because I think a lot of people that are you know, seem to you know, they saw what happened last year, and they're high on him too. I have a lot more of Aaron Savali, who's like this year is Zach Eflin. He's like this year's fun new toy, so he's much further down.
But I have Savali too.
But yeah, I think he's going to be valuable just because he's going to be on a good team.
I think the strikeouts are going to be there.
He's got really good ratios. But yeah, I think he's going to be really solid s P two SB one Upsete, Kelly.
I know you are loath to agree with Mayor, but are you siding with him on e Flyn or now? Yeah?
I am.
I actually have a lot of shares of him. So whether it's Hope or what, I'm on board.
Who's your bold prediction, Kelly?
So I think I've been working with Mayor for too long because even though I still think it's cute when adult adults catch fall balls and hand them to children as opposed to evil like he does, I do, I believe I've grown some sort of contrarian thing inside of my poor little brain. So my bold prediction was because I knew everyone was gonna pick why at Langford. My bold prediction is that Evan Carter's actually going to end up being more valuable than him in like five by
five leagues. And I think I'm basing it on a couple of things. One is definitely that Carter should have a higher opp and be on base just more in general with through hitting and and maybe not as much power, but more consistency. He's also right now, I think he's batting third in the lineup, so he gets to be behind Corey Seeger and Marcus Simmon and a head of a doulas Carsia and Langford. And to me that just means like count the runs count. The RBIs like here
it comes. So I feel like at the end of the day, well, Langford is, you know, the talk of the town, and everybody wants to already shower him with all of the gifts. I feel like Carter may just kind of sneak in there as more valuable. In fantasy, it's Langford will carry the storyline and probably get Rookie of the year, but I think Carter's gonna end up the guy you want for much cheaper.
I love Carter, and I mean the other thing that I don't think you mentioned is that we've seen him do it at the big league level before, which which I think everybody believes Langford will be very.
Successful, you know, hitting into the big league level.
It's not that I'm doubting that will happen, but we have actually seen Evan Carter be very successful, you know, hitting major league pitching already. And Carter is I think younger actually too, so theoretically you can build an even more upside that with Langford. It was funny, you know,
reading through these bull predictions. Every player got one mention except for Langford got four, So like, the hype is there, and it was a lot of like like our you know, friend and colleague Pat fitz Morris said, what Langford will hit three twenty or better and win the AL batting title as a rookie. Joey p said he was gonna be a top twenty overall player. We had a couple other contributors say top twenty five overall player, top two
round player. So the hype is very there for Langford, but I think it is deserved to give some of that hype to Carter as well. What do you think about Carter? Not necessarily versus Langford, but is Carter in general as a pick?
Well, I think first off, we're trying to get people to read the article, and you just read the whole thing on air.
I just read White Langford. There's still like eight or nine other players.
That's half the article. Half the article, that.
Is like half the article.
What was your question? I wasn't listening.
The you know, just even Carter in general, just Kelly's pick. What do you make of him?
And again not necessarily as he relates to Langford, but just in general as a guy who could be a you know something of a league winner.
Oh, I like him and and for reasons you said, we saw him do it last year. We saw him do it on the biggest stage last year. He should have pretty good placement in that order and it's going to be a very good order. And yeah, I think in some of that White Langford hype, he's kind of being like forgotten about and maybe you can get him like a round or two later, like he should be a top one hunter player.
But I've seen him go outside the top hundred.
I was going to list some of my choices that I liked in here that I didn't end up going with for my favorite Bowl prediction, but I rather than risk Mayor yelling at me again way too many players on this list, I will just list the one that I went with, which was Dylan ceased. And it's not that I think we're going to see a repeat of twenty twenty two now that he has the new home in San Diego. But I do think he was a value where he was going. He was like going in
the ninety to one hundred range in ADP. You know, the writer who mentions him in this article mentions that he got him in taut Wars for thirteen dollars. I think that's a value for a guy that, you know, assuming health, is going to strike out over two hundred guys. I think there's a lot more room for improvement in terms of wins this year. I think I know the
Padres didn't have the best season last year. I think I'm certainly expecting a bounce back from them in the wind department that will be reflected in ceases stat line. I think that the era while it won't be what it was in twenty twenty two, I think will be closer to that than it was last year.
It was at you know, four fifty eight.
Last year it was two twenty the year before. I think we're going to see something in the threes and in this pitching landscape. If you're giving me a guy with an er that starts a three and he's going to strike out over two other guys and he's probably going to win double digit games, I think that's a value where he was going. I know, the whip was like a lot higher last year. There's a lot of stuff that went into that. His walk rate was slightly lower last year than it was in twenty twenty two.
It's not like every number got way worse. It was kind of a multitude of things. He was playing on a bad team last year, and I do think that actually matters. Kelly, what do you make of Cease as a bold prediction to outperform his value?
Yeah, I mean I think that he's a good choice in that regard. He can't do anything that more than outperform my prediction for him, because I don't like him, so kind of anything higher than that is probably going to be okay, But that walk rate, I don't care that it went down point three percent. I'm not touching it. So it's yeah, he's the best two hundred plus strikeout guy who went the latest, I think, so there will definitely be value there.
And I think it's reasonable to be anti because that twenty twenty two season is the clear outlier if you look at his career, so I think where he was going again, given I mean, the strikeouts are just so intoxicating, right, It's so hard to look at those three straight years of two hundred plus strikeouts and not be really excited about it. I mean, I mentioned the walk rate went down, so did the strikeout, right, So that is worth you know, mentioning as well.
I was just gonna say it went down three percent, So I mean you know that.
Too, Mayor what do you think about cease where you know where he was going? Do you think that was too low in drafts?
Uh?
Yeah? And I like him for a lot of the reasons that you were laying out. I had.
I drafted him in a in an auction keeper league that Kelly is in, and it was a league where I ended up being able to keep a few like really cheap pitchers, and so I used my budget to kind of like load up on hitting, and then I was like, let me see where where I can get
some value on pitching. And the first pitcher I ended up drafting was Dylan Ceas for like ten bucks, and I was like, perfect, let me lock in two hundred strikeouts, like last year was a down year, and he struck got two hudred fourteen guys, Like, I'm fine with that.
You know, I obviously don't want a four point.
Five eight ERA and a whip almost at one point five, but I'm assuming it's gonna be a little bit better than that. And if it is two hundred strikeouts for my SB four, what's right.
Let me just say that in that same league, Mayor offered a contract extension to Zach Gallon and he drafted Xander Bullgart's and Dylan Sees and that's literally the anti Wonky Penguin team.
So I will be very curious to hear throughout the year who has proven right and who's proven wrong in that league. So be sure to keep breaking it up. Let's go to waivers Central. Each of you guys is going to give me your favorite hitter. And each of you guys is gonna give me your favorite pitcher that is available in a lot of leagues.
You know, for the purposes of this week.
You know, we'll be somewhat like, not overly reactionary, but we'll be looking at what's happened obviously during the season and saying, oh, this is a trend we think can continue. This is somebody that'd be willing to pick up or drop or what have you for this week. Since the season hasn't really started, it's more of who do we think is maybe begin to gain some value early that we want to get in before they become a very popular pickup that everybody's going to be trying to add.
Whose roster percentage do we think is going to be a lot higher a couple of weeks from now the mayor let's start with your favorite hitter to pick up before the season starts.
We're kind of as the season is starting.
Sure, So I'm so glad you asked me to keep bringing up that league, So I'm gonna bring it up again. In that league with Kelly, I massively overpaid for someone named Spencer Steere and that's not my waiver Central because he's rosters everywhere. But I massively overpaid for Spencer stear mostly because you can move him around to play him everywhere. Except I didn't draft another first baseman, so he's locked
as my first baseman. And so my first waiver move of the year was to pick up my waiver pickup the week, ty France, who's not rostered in a ton of places. You can get them all over the place, and for good reason. His numbers are not that great. He only plays first base. He's no longer second base eligible. I think last year is when he lost second base eligibility. That's when a lot of his value lost, or is a lot of his value kind of like you know, went away.
And he also only hit twelve runs one hundred fty eight games.
But he did go to a special place called drive Line this offseason and focus on his swing and focus on cutting down his swing. And I'm all in on a tie fans ty Franz bounce back, and not just because I need him to be my starting first basement so I can move Spencers Tear around, but I am a believer. And the other thing is he's really also devalued because of where he's going to hit in that Mariners lineup because they haven't protected to hit eighth right
now on roster resource. But I'm looking at the jabbronis above him in this order, and it's it's nobody's it's it's the ghost of Mitch Hanniger.
It's cal Raley.
Sorry, Wonky, I know you're a big cal Raley guy. It's Mitch Garber playing d H and Jorge Polongo. Ty France is going to be back in third by the end of this year, and you know you can book it. This is going to be a pickup that's going to win your league, I think, or at least I hope for my league.
Don't maybe, you know, maybe don't alienate us from the players too much calling them Jabebroni's I mean, take it, take it. He's he there there, ty Franz Kelly. Any thoughts on him, I mean, not a guy that was like you needed to go out and aggressively draft this year if you want to have a chance to ad him now obviously No.
In fact, this would be the first time I've thought about ty France this entire fantasy season, So I trust what Mayer said. I feel like he goes in strings as well. He's certainly no cal Raley, but I guess if you want someone else in that lineup, you can have him.
Kelly, who's your favorite hitter that you can pick up right now?
I just like watching Mayor's face when I talk. I had this guy last year and he frustrated me NonStop. So I'm going with MJ. Melndez. And the primary reason I'm going with him is basically that all of his like underlying numbers for sure for the second half of the season, were actually really good. His hard hit percentage went up like over six percent last year in general, so it is very confusing why he didn't hit more homers. Why, you know, aside from striking out a bunch, though some
of those hits should have fallen. Some are gonna leave ballperks, and I think they're gonna happen this year, much like I feel like lineup matters. He's projected to hit fifth, so he's behind the with Pascontino Perez. I could see him moving up in that if they would, if they decided to kind of flip a couple of people. So yeah, I'm I feel like he's been left out because he's lost catcher eligibility. Pretty much everywhere, but not in Yahoo leagues.
But I think I have catch your eligibility in Yahoo leagues, and so it is it's worth it, I think to go. I know well and I once drove by drive line, so does that count maybe? But anyway, I just think he's a good option and he's out there if you need an outfielder, especially in like five outfielder leagues. I think that there are a lot of guys that were drafted that I'm going to drop in favor of him.
So yeah, if you look on his page on Fantasy Pros at the roster percentage section, it's Yahoo fifty four percent, ESPN twelve percent. That is very much driven by the catcher eligibility. May any quick thoughts on Melendez.
I haven't really thought about him much this offseason until last night and that deep deep draft where I was you know, I went pitching heavy early, and outfield I did not. I locked in like two studoutfielders, and then I just kind of forgot that I had three more to fill. And so once we got started getting into like the teen rounds, I kind of had to fill
those outfield spots. So I did get m J. Melendez last night in the twentieth round, it picked two ninety seven, so I will also this is my first share, and it was because for the same reason, I was kind of like, well, he's not a catcher anymore.
What do I care? Now? I care? I care. I hope he's a good now.
Both Kelly and Mayor and on MJ. Melendez.
That's those are the guys that are planting their flag on this season. Mayor, who's your favorite pitcher that you can pick up right now?
My favorite pitcher maybe not my favorite picture, but a picture I'm picking up it was available is Michael Kopek. And it's also a picture I massively overpaid for at TGFBI buy a lot of money, which I was was talking to Kelly. You know, Waivers run at like ten pm Eastern on Sunday nights. I was like, I was slacking with Kelly. Like as it happened, I was like,
I'm about to massly overpay Michael go back. And I did by a lot, not as much as some other people who I saw overpay, but like I think the next closest bid to me was like one hundred dollars less. So I are overpaid by a lot and it's all. It's because I'm banking on him being the closer for the White Sox. And everyone wants the closer for the White Sox because they're going to win one hundred games.
No they're not, but.
He's going to be valuable in some leagues if s p rpligibility matters. I'm not in a ton of those, but you know that absolutely matters in some leagues. It matters if you're going to be in a safe ley, because I do think he's going to be the closer for the White Sox, and I think he could be a really good closer for the For the White Sox, the strikeout ability has always been there. He's been a
little inconsistently pretty much everywhere else, including staying healthy. But even a few years ago, I kind of thought, like, this guy is destined to like be a good closer and be in be in the bullpen. And maybe I'm just fulfilling my own prophecy by overpaying for him to make him, you know.
The best closer in baseball.
But he's available pretty much everywhere, and like saves are very viable, especially if you're in saves only leagues, and you also don't need to.
Be on a good team to get a lot of saves, because bad teams win games not by blowing them out. That if they're getting win, it's probably a save opportunity, so right, if anything, it's it might even be a point in his favor from that perspective.
Yeah, that is. It was kind of the double edged sword there.
Yeah, Kelly, what do you think about him?
Yeah, I'm a big fan of him. I think that he's gonna end up closing. I feel like he definitely fits the mold for a guy that you want to be a closer. And I'm also a big fan of closers on bad teams for that exact reason. That's in that they're all one run games or two run games. And if he's dominant, the White Sox might just be dumb enough to even flip him at the dead line to somebody who needs one, so even though he's young and under control. But yeah, I like Copec a lot.
And who's your pitcher pick up of the week?
Well, I was actually gonna I have one that's a little lesser known, But I just want to make a plug for Mason Miller for exactly all the same reasons that we just said everything about Kopec because if Oakland doesn't make him their closer, I don't really know for sure what they're doing with themselves. But I also it's Oakland. I don't ever know what they're doing with themselves. So the guy I picked is actually really kind of more of a deep deeper league. Look at is Chase still
seth for the for the Angels. I had him last year and he turned in a couple of performances that were fantastic before he got injured. I was actually riding him into the playoffs pretty well. So he has also has good underlying numbers. He struck out twenty five percent batters last year in spring training, which you know it matters gigantically. He's striking out thirty over thirty percent and walking only four So if he can settle in a little bit to kind of lower that walk rate, things
can I think go in his favor. But there's just a lot that I like about him most definitely that if he can strike out that twenty four percent batters, then he's free like he's he's not. He's not rostered anywhere for the most part, so I think he's worth going out, especially with pitcher injuries.
Definitely somebody flying under the radar.
When you entered him his name into the outline, I went to pull him up and just check his recent news and notes on our site, and the most recent player news Chase Silseth a place on concussion I l retroacted to August twenty seven, thirty weeks ago.
Was a ubdate. So definitely not reallybuddy that people are, you.
Know, clamoring about right and left marriage. Do you have any thoughts on Chase Silseth.
I'll tell you one thought because while Kelly was talking, I looked up where he went in that draft last night. He went in the twenty fifth round, three hundred and seventy first overall, and the person who drafted him used fifty four of their fifty five seconds on the clock, so they really thought long and hard about drafting him.
That's great sign.
Yep.
All right, that'll wrap up our time with Kelly. Kelly, thank you so much for coming on again. Obviously you will fill in for mayor me here and there. You will be on as a guest here and there, so you know you will certainly be back on the show plenty of times. But I appreciate you making the time. How'd you feel about episode one?
I loved it. I love what you guys are doing, and I'm very excited to participate whenever you'd like me to, or just have me sit here and stare mayor down for you whatever you need.
So we will be very excited to have you back. Everybody, stick around and we will be right back with Chris Welsh. We are back, joined now by Chris Welsh. Welsh, thank you so much for coming on to the first episode.
You are, of course.
Here to talk about prospects slash rookies because some of these guys are now on big league rosters.
First of all, thank you for coming on.
Hey, thank you guys for having me. I'm excited for the show. I get to hear it every single week, be a part of this awesome stuff with to my good buddies, two buddies I got to hang with. And you know, when you think of cycles, by the way you clearly think of me. You guys got to see my athletic skill in person. It was football, not baseball, but you definitely think of cycles.
Chris the cycle of Welsh as we started calling him recently.
Mayor.
You know we talked when we were first trying to plan out this show as we want to have sort of a prospect corner element to this show where we're talking about guys in the minors. Maybe it's a dynasty look, maybe it's a prospects to stash kind of look.
But I know you are also excited to have well, Shan.
Yeah, absolutely, and especially like you and I have both talked about wanting to do a lot of like dynasty stuff too, and so Welsh is a perfect you know, expert to have on for that. I'm more of like a numbers guy when it comes in when it comes to like evaluating prospects, I just look at like their history. I look at the metrics I'm looking for. But Welsh is out there actually like going to spring training games in Arizona, so he's seen these guys in person more than I definitely haven't, and.
Trying to talk to it and try to talk to some of them, you know, some of the guys we're going to talk about. I had one of these big names, one of the biggest names were well not the biggest name, but the most exciting recent one I've I did an interview with on my Prospect one show.
I was at the debut of a couple of these guys.
I was actually in an autograph signing a friend of mine, Dennis Siddler, has one of these guys we're gonna talk about in an exclusive client and I hung out with one of.
These guys for two hours. So yeah, I.
Definitely bring like in field experience, but I love the extracurricular weird stuff of like whether I'm a part of a debut or talking to a guy or being around them. And I do have a history with quite a few of these guys.
Let's jump into some of these names here. We'll start with the prospects.
And you know what I asked well Sh to do for this episode is, you know, in the future, he's gonna be on a lot this season. If one of these guys gets called up, we're gonna have him on and like dive deep if like a top prospect is coming up. For today, I wanted to hit on a bunch of names and include the guys who made opening day rosters and the guys who did.
So let's start with the guys who did.
We talked earlier in this episode about in our Bold Predictions article on the site. This week, four of the twelve or so submissions for bold Predictions. Where about why at Langford he is an extremely exciting hitter who did make the Rangers opening day roster, obviously was a one of the top picks you know, in that elite top five grouping in last year's draft class has done nothing to you know, keep expectations down since being drafted.
Obviously dominated at Florida.
So well, I mean, my main question with Langford is like, to what degree is this hype actually justified? Is he somebody that a year from now people will be drafting in the top two or three rounds in their redraft leagues?
Yeah?
I think so.
I h one way to equate it. I wouldn't be surprised if it went this path is I could see this going the Gunner Henderson path, because look at Gunner. How high were we drafted Gunner is about last year roughly white Langford costs. I would say his path was different than my bay Cormyn Carrol's a little bit different because Gunner was a real problem. At one point. Gunner was potential cut and then he completely bounced back. And then you go and look and you look at his
stats and you're like, like these are great. They remember, weren't like mine numbing stats and we also, you know, clearly had this big bump. I'm pretty critical by the way of how fantasy analysts like wipe away the bat. Now specifically, what I'm saying is like, oh, we love this guy, we love this guy, and then they stink to a cuttable level and then they bounce back and everyone's like, ah, I was right, and it's like, no, you weren't, because this guy stunk and was potentially cuttable.
And that just happened to me, by the way, So like you have to think about like not trying to be like accountable, but that's like the thing that goes along with some of these guys. So wrapping this all around and why I specifically picked on Gunner is that I do think there's the possibility that there could be a little bit of down for Whiteling for this year. I don't think that's al realma possibility. Early on, he's
still adjusting to MLB. I think he could get pitched to a level of like a lot of high fastballs which he might push into the ground. He had some ground ball stuff in spring. I just wouldn't be surprised if that happens. But here's what I do think. I think he's going to adjust. I think he is a generational hype talent because of the fast turned the guy gets on base. He doesn't strike out at crazy clips. He definitely shows some incredible ability to get the ball
in the air, he can run. It's a five tool player I actually like in it. I think it's kind of Mike Troutish. I think he looks kind of Mike Troutish as well in the game in general. But I think the possibility that he could struggle is there, So how do we wrap it and come back around that. I think the cost when you take him in the sixties or seventies, I think that's fine because it builds
the upside. I think him as a prospect uniquely unlike some of these other guys, don't have that floor, and I think push comes to shove by the end of the season. I think he's gonna have pretty wild RBI numbers, probably some good run numbers, probably eighty five plus on both twenty plus homers, Maybe he touches the twenty stolen bases. I think it'll all come together, but I don't think it'll be this linear path where everyone's.
Like, uh, look at me. I told you, yeah.
So you're penciling in twenty twenty, then no, I.
Actually think the stolen base are gonna be a little bit lower. Actually, the CBS guys had me come on and we created it's this very detailed system. It was called Chris Welsh or it was Chris the Welsh projections, where I just had to make up my projections for prospects and I had Wyatt under the twenty stolen bases. I don't think he's going to steal it a crazy clip.
If I remember correctly when I was doing the research, I think the Rangers stole the least amount of basses last season, So I don't think he's gonna be the guy that's gonna be running like crazy. I liken it more to like twenty five fifteen. That's where I think it's gonna sit.
Well.
The next guy I want to ask you about is another elite prospect and a guy who has the.
Speed to run quite a bit.
You know, he's been a true power speed threat in the miners, you know, since bursting out of the scene a couple of years ago. That's Jackson Curio, who got the big contract, So we knew there was a really good chance he was going to be on the opening day roster if he, you know, didn't completely fall on his flate face, which he did not in spring training. So he, you know, is going to be starting in the opening day lineup. They said, uh, just earlier today.
So Jackson Curio uber talented power speed guy. I've said, you know, I've liken him to like a very very very poor man's Akunya, but like that kind of can contribute in those types of categories. Super young, still super inexperience. What's your hype level for him?
Yeah, And this is the guy, by the way, that I hung out with for a little bit, and he's so funny. He's actually a really funny guy. Too energetic dude.
And that.
Comp that you gave, I remember Chris Blessing telling you that a couple of years ago. I've seen Cherio a whole bunch out here, but he had kind of thrown that comp out there as well. So Cheerio's in a unique situation. I do think of like the big big prospects, he's the one that has the most susceptibility to bad batting average, and it's like he's going to or anything
like that. And he has cut his strikeouts down, but it's been this gradual strikeout cut from the lower levels up to the higher When you get to the majors, it's gonna be a lot different. You're gonna be jid, you know. I mean there's a lot of great prospects pictures and the miners and stuff like that, but every picture is amazing. And whether they're throwing ninety seven with a bunch of ride or they're throwing ninety with elite command, like,
it's gonna be a different game. So the thing with sure you is I trying to build this in like I think he's gonna be good. I think these are generational type of prospects. I don't I'm trying to not trying to throw around all these like euphemisms of oh they're all amazing, but like, this is gonna be an elite class of guys that we're gonna end up seeing that last year Carolyn Gunner were as well. But will
there be struggles? Yeah, I think there can be. I think there could be a much higher strikeout rate than people are giving when they look at like, you know, a twenty percent.
Strike cut rate guy.
I think he could struggle with some RBI numbers because I think Pat Murphy is going to be a real pain, is gonna it's gonna take so much to push him up the lineup. It might take every player fracturing their wrist like Errett Mitchell for him to gradually move up. So it's like, I think the RBI numbers might be kind of black. I think he's gonna score decent amount
of runs. I think he's gonna steal exponentially more bases than power and I think I think my projection I put him around like there's like eighteen homers and like the thirty stolen base mark. Again, this is another player. Top seventy five is great, but there there there can
be some up and downs. I would bet more up and downs from a like ooh, this is getting bad with Churio where Langford's I think up and downs might be like does he really only have like one homer over the last like thirty games, Like that's the type of thing I think with Langford, I just don't think he's ever going to struggle. I think those two could have a twenty five to thirty point difference in their batting average when it's all said and done. But again,
I think they're worth it. They're both worth it for different reasons. If Langford's hitting, if he moves to three or is hitting five, his RBI totally he could have one hundred rbi. Was it Gunner that had what a Gunner have a one hundred run or a hundred RBI? I think whyatt can be the guy that could have like ninety something RBI, but his homerun totals might not be monstrous. Turio is the type of guy. I think
he could score ninety runs. He could steal close to forty bases, but there might be, you know, a few up and downs. But it's an amazing talent and I wouldn't be shocked if he was, you know, a thirty thirty guy.
Gunnar did have one hundred runs, but that's what was on the dot.
Mayor, did you find yourself this draft season in redraft getting a lot of Langford or Churio as the sort of the.
I have no Langford. I I do have some Cheerio though.
Did you get him when he was cheaper?
Yeah? Yeah, it was.
It was kind of before the helium hit, you know, like the last week or so, he's become more of a name. But there was a there was a while there where like it was again towards the end of draft, and I was like, I.
Guess I'll take Cheerio now, no one's gonna take him.
Yeah, it was a good I got him in a DC early and then I didn't really do any and then this is what I did.
I did like a collective.
Of those Dinger best balls over an underdog and I got I paired Cheerio and Langford together because outfield is monstrous in those leagues. It really stinks, and they go crazy high, and I pivoted away while getting elite picture because they do like infield, outfield and pitcher, and I did like elite infield and pitching. I would get one good outfielder and then I would go and grab Langford and Cheerio. And I did that in like three of
my Dinger drafts. I have a lot of shares in best ball of those guys, but you know there's some volatility.
I didn't get a lot of Cheerio and redraft because I have him in so many of my Dynasty leagues that I like, I'm already kind of you know covered if he's good, I'm in plenty of leads.
Ye, I'm really excited about that.
Another Jackson Jackson Merrill we've already seen actually make his debut because of that, you know, early Korea series.
What are your thoughts on him?
Yeah?
I love Jackson Merril. This was one. This is gonna be my Joe moment. Like I've been telling you guys about this a long time ago, Like this is one I've been saying, Joe.
I know I did it too. He's blue.
I have been saying this one for quite some time that like, watch out for Jackson Merrill. Uh being on the roster a lot this year and the outfield stuff was kind of looming around so much so that I did sprinkle a little tiny Rookie of the Year bet when he was plus like seventeen hundred. It's now moved to nine point fifty. You know, the only problem with him is gonna be like, what are the counting stats look like? I think there's some hidden power. I think
he can steal some bases. What will not work is if like Iyamamoto is decent and Churio is like pretty dang good, it's just gonna be tough. Where Merrill could be like a Rookie of the Year guy is if he's hitting five and he's able to move up the lineup and he's scoring a bunch of runs, and that kind of brings it back to fantasy, Like I think he's a great like post two hundred pick right around there, he'll be in field outfield qualified guys like him and
Saddana Rafaela. Those would be two Ruffeli specifically I'm drafting a lot. Those would be two guys I would be targeting. I just don't know which direction it'll go with Meryl. I just don't know. Also if he's gonna hit out of like ever eight or seven or something like that, but there could be some injuries. He's he's a nice bet at the end of the draft with really solid upside because you know, sky's the limit with him. He really could be a guy that ends up stealing thirty
plus bases or could hit twenty homers. And a lot of people don't believe that.
He's betting ninth ninth right now, but they only really have like one other legit left handed bat in that lineup, and it's cronin Worth betting third right now. So through his potential, if he does get up to a hot start, they might want to move that lefty bat up higher than I would love.
To see, like personally, Meryl leading off, then go into Bogarts, then go in Tatis Machado, and then try to throw another lefty that's a little too righty heavy, But like
you could do that with Bogart's Tatisa Machado. And I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility because like they embraced Merrill on this team, the Brewers, Pat Murphy's he's just old staunchy, just like you know, like he's not embracing Cheerio to that team has embraced Merrill to the point where it's like if they were having a little bit of lineup struggles, I could absolutely see if Merrill's hitting well, moving up in that lineup.
So that's a positive.
You talk about being in on a guy early. My very good buddy watched Jackson Merrill in high school play in the Maryland State championship game because his alma mater was going up against Saverna Park, and his alma mater one that one sure would.
So he's been he's been watching Jackson Merrill for.
Like three years, the best two, yeah, and then the last guy that's on the opening day roster. We've talked a lot about speed in this segment. Victor Scott the second. I mean over under fifty steals this year. I mean, what are we looking at here?
All right?
And this is a guy I have a great relationship with Victor. I interviewed him at the Arizona Fall League. We talked like a ton. It was actually me in Ineno Serris. If you ever listened to the interview, we're kind of doing a dual thing, and we were talking a lot about the stolen bases. Victor is, first off, just like a great guy, an incredible dude, and he is an immensely talented player all off season long, analytics, trying to improve his swing, trying to get more homer
and power. If people don't know, ninety four stolen bases in the minder. One got taken away from him by the way, which is crazy. With the Arizona folly, he stole over one hundred bases. Here's the tricky part. As much of a Victor Scott fan as I am, there is no guarantee because it took all these injuries to get him on the roster, there's no guarantee he sticks around. Why he can stick around, for any pessimist about it is he's a gold glove defender, one a minor league
gold glove. He's an incredible defender if the bat stays alive outside of just like veteran love, there's no reason to get like Carlson or Edmund like Victor Scott's the best of all those guys defensively. So does he steal fifty bases? If he plays one hundred games, he steals fifty bases. If he plays eighty games, he might still still fifty bases. You should my point, and I said this a couple of weeks prior, even when he got
like sent down and it kind of stunk. You should draft Victor Scott if this works out, If he makes a roster and then he didn't pray to God you didn't cut him, because then two days later Carlson slams into Walker out here in Phoenix, and then now he's out. Victor Scott is the type of guy that could never let go of this job. But there is a logjam of outfielders here. I would hold on to Victor right
now and see what happens over the next month. He could be sent down in two weeks, but when he gets on base, this everyone's like a Stury Ruiz or Victor Scott. Victor Scott is a contact hitter. He's got real power. He is exponentially better than as Sturry Ruiz, as Swy Ruiz. But it's just going to be about the playing time that they are gonna end up giving him. I would hold for a month to see what it
looks like. Even if he's sent down, I would hold on to it because I legit, think over one hundred and six games and even in his rookie year, Victor Scott could steal sixty plus bases, And as this guy grows, I would not be shocked to see him at the major league level stealing like eighty plus.
Especially seeing Stone bases Spike, you know, with the new rules in everything, Yeah, exactly setting up so well for him to do that.
Any thoughts on Scott mayor.
My only real thought is my only worry, and there's this is completely unjustified and not real analysis, but I feel like I have like Cardinals outfielder fatigue because we've just been doing this for like eight years where they've just been cycling. They always have like five good outfielders and then it turns out like none of them were good, and it.
Feels like we've just been doing that.
Forever, but none of them are like good defenders like Victor vic I've said this, Victor is like Mason win and Mason Wins deal was if you put him at short, the dude has to hit under one hundred to get him off because he's your best defender. He's the best defender on that team. On the infield. Victor's kind of the same way. He's the fastest guy, he's your best outfield defender, and he's your best runner. So give me
the reasons why he can't be on the roster. What was the reason, Well, we want to see Dylan Carlson and we got and you're gonna cut that out. Carlson's hurt. Yes, it could be like, well, we don't want him to lose his job because of injury, but it's gonna be a crazy justification for Victor to not stick around. But guess what if he hits like two ten and maybe has an error here or there, they can send him down.
Even if he's, by the way, hitting three p fifty.
They could send him. They sent Jordan Walker down last year after hitting two eighty and they sent him down. So don't think the Cardinals won't. And that's what's dangerous about getting into like. I would never bet like Victor Scott is going to lead the league in stolen bases because I don't know it. To your point, it's the fatigue. I don't know what the hell the Cardinals are going to do.
I uh, you know.
The whole time you're talking about Victor Scott, I keep wanting to ask about Henriy kue Bradfield with the Orioles, because he's describing a lot.
Of him, so he's a Instead.
Of that, since we don't have time, I'll ask about a different oriol who didn't make the opening day roster, who game close another Jackson Jackson holiday of course number one prospect in baseball consensus, you know, everywhere you look. I was highly disappointed, and make it they are, of course, you know, claiming it's not because of service time manipulation. I don't know what to believe. He clearly would be
the best second based option on the team. I feel strongly about considering they're rolling out like Tony Kemp and they had Colton Wong and I don't even know who else is playing second, assuming Westburg's at third, So we'll see kind of how long he's held down. I would hope he would come up soon. Is he at the top of your prospects to Stash list?
Absolutely?
I think the article is out by the way, the named prospects to stash for the opening week, It is absolutely Jackson Holiday. I feel, I can be honest with you, a gut feeling, this gut feeling that Jackson's gonna be up, like really really soon. Like we did this great show with Craig Mish on betting Pros talking about futures, and he just instantly was saying, Nah, it's still Jackson Holiday. I think Jackson Holiday he's my number one prospect. And I know that's crazy in a world of white length,
but I think his floor is low. I do think there's manipulation, and I just would be shocked if May first gets here and he's not on the roster. Another goofy thing. If you just want to pay attention to the markets, He's plus four fifty for Rookie of the Year. He's the third highest bet and he's not on the
roster right now. I mean like that also tells you something about where the market is sitting on a guy like this, that he is within, you know, a point of Evan Carter, two points of Whya at Langford, like they're still all in the same territory. He is the number one stash like Victor Scott, and that's a really tough one. Who would you rather stash Victor Scott in that it could be sent down or would you rather
stash to Jackson Holiday? I probably I trust them. When Holiday's up, he ain't going back down, and I think he's gonna I think he's just steal a ton of bases. I had Welsh projected thirty five stolen bases from him this year, and I still think he can do that. If he plays over one hundred and thirty one hundred and forty games, I think he will run like crazy. My interpretation of Jackson Holiday will be a better batting average Rookie of the Year Bobby Witt. That's how I
think Jackson Holiday like Bobby Witch rookie season. Bobby Witch rookie season. If you remember he was twenty thirty. That's how I think Jackson Holiday can go, but probably higher stolen bases, little bit lower power.
Well, you can't get me going like that on the show. I love Holiday, I love him, My gosh. He wasn't the only oriole set Dad, of course, I mean Kowser was up, but Kars Dad, Kobe Mayo, Connor Norby. They just have so many options that I don't know how they're going to find time for these guys. They're gonna have to make make moves the other names. We don't have to go through these each individually because we're running a long on time. But you know, Paul Skins Junior, Cameronaro,
Kyle Manzarro, Chased a louder. Any of these stand out as like, you know, prospects of sash that you're really, you know, excited to have on your roster.
If you have a spot at the end of your bench.
I think the only one that I'm in stash mode for is Cam and Arrow. That's another guy that I just don't know how long they're gonna hold him down like this is a classic raise also maybe manipulation thing, because you know, what's your number one thing to do as soon as a guy gets up, they're gonna trade him, or as soon as the contract is up, they're gonna trade them because they won't pay him. Is camon Aro
is gonna, I assume be up by like May. But they let Austin Shenton, who, by the way, is like actually a really good prospect, older guy, but he made the roster because Ronda was hurt. There's only so long that like Ronda and Estok paridies and stuff are going to hold him down. Kevin Aro's the.
Guy would hold But I will tell you all of those others.
I'm paying attention to. I've been screaming about de Lauter for a long time. I really like kle Manzardo. He was one of those guys I got to interview in the Arizona Fall League. Those guys I think can change the scope of what we know from the Guardians lineup. So those are two offensive bats. If they get the call up, or we get a month into the season and they haven't, there's nothing bruin. I would stash them. Paul Skeins is the unknown. I mean, if you can
stomach it, absolutely you should. But I think his timeline could be April fifteenth, to July fifteenth or longer. I mean, you just don't know what the pirates and what that team is going to look like. I really don't have good gauge. It's gonna be more determining of like how can you and what is your level of stash. Also, it's a pitching guy like pictures are kind of tough. So, I mean, Bryce Miller was one of the most uniquely great rookies last year, but Caminaro is the one I'm
stashing now. The other three are on my hot watch list, and as the weeks go by, we get into like I'm gonna pick them up like Manzarto in Skeins if it gets to May first, even if there's no rumblings, I am gonna pick them up because I do think we are starting to get into like weeks away territory.
We don't have time for you to go into detail, but just give me in order how you would rank these five prospects in ditey because we're talking about so many elite guys, So just give me the names. Why at Langford Jackson, Cheerio Jackson, Holliday, Paul Skeins, Junior, Camenaro.
Okay, I have it Holiday Langford, Cheerio Camonaro schemes. That's my that's actually my prospect rank, and that is also my Dynasty rank because uniquely, all of those guys will not prospects by the end of this year. That's what's so cool about that, and that's why there's not a lot of deviation.
All right, let's move to the end of the show.
We're going to wrap up the show each week with sort of our what are we most excited for this weekend and for this week since opening day? You can kind of be kind of a bigger picture, what are you most excited for for the season?
And Mayor I'll start with you.
So sure, So a guy we already talked about earlier in the show, I'm excited to see the Tampa Bay Rays version of Aaron Savali. So we're getting Zach Eflin on Thursday and Savally on Friday, and I'm ready to see the first glimpse of, you know, in a regular season game of the new Aaron Savali. And I promise every week I'm not going to only talk about raise pictures because I know I've done two weeks of Eflyn now, so no more Eflyn for a couple of weeks, but maybe another week of Savai.
We'll see how he does this week.
And then the bonus one is that you know, the main complaint everyone has in Fantasy every year is you know, we know all these guys are going.
On the IL this week, but none of them are on the IL yet.
But as of like tomorrow, and maybe you have to wait till Friday because we already have two games to postponed that as of tomorrow, a lot of those guys will officially be on the injured list and we'll be able to make pickups for our teams this weekend.
I missed out on picking up Victor Scott in a league because I was like, I have all these injured guys that I can't drop, but can we please get them on IL so I can go make other pickups.
So I am right there with you.
It is so frustrating to know, like, beyond a shadow of doubt, this guy's on IL and not be able to do anything with it. On your rosters, Welsh, I know that you were prepared for the prospects segment and not this, but anything in particular that you're super excited about.
Yeah, I mean, one thing is gonna be just crossing my fingers for my number one shared player. I mean, it's not gonna shock, but it also it's crazy. Corbyn Carrol is my number one shared player.
That's why. How do you do is that even have?
Well lucky, of course I love him, but I'm saying, that's a guy that's like a top four or five pick hog. And I did a Shares episode. Half of my leagues I have Gore mc carroll and and they're not keeper. I don't even know how it happened, but there's some best balls and stuff. I will tell you this opening day, this is the most excited I have ever in my life been for a Royals Twins game, to watch Paba Lopez and Cole Reagan's go go at each other. I'm I'm I don't think I'm betting it.
I kind of want to bet it. I'm absolutely going to be watching it because that is two frontline starters and really watching Reagans Reagan's and Trek Scouoble. Getting to see both of these guys with that are being put in like the Tyler Glass now and the Pablo Lopez ranged to get to see them kind of go and unleashed. I'm very very excited about that.
All concerned about the Cole Reagans spring training numbers, No.
I'm as concerned as I am Logan Web giving up twenty six earned runs but only walking three. By the way in spring train, I'm not at all.
I'm I'm exclusively concerned about spring training stats when they don't fit my narrative.
And yeah, no, my narrative is super important here, guys actually, Like so if they're really good and I'm talking positively, that's what we're going to focus on. But if it doesn't fit it, then no, no, no, no.
The most exciting thing for me, you guys went with specific players. Today was pretty much the greatest day of my life because the Orioles sale became official and the bad man John Angelis can't hurt us anymore. Our long national nightmare is indeed over. It's the start of the David Rubinstein era in Baltimore. New ownership, just kidneans so
many things, and I'm so very hopeful. Obviously the Oils are supposed to be great this season, like you know, regardless, but just having the new ownership, like it's it's going to be a very very very fun opening weekend in Baltimore with people just kind of feeling celebratory and really excited about this new era. The last thing I want to mention Mayor and I want to do some kind of competition, maybe a bed of some kind this season.
We have not landed on what that will be, so we wanted to sort of solicit the listeners.
Maybe Wels can think on.
It as well, since you're here while I'm bringing it up, But any ideas for how we want to separate it from the home run calls contest leading off that's their own thing, so something different than that.
But we want to do some sort of season long cycles here cycles predicted predicted hit for the cycle each week.
Yeah, you pick your cycles every single week. It'll be great because it'll be like four payoffs. Also every nine years will hit one. Oh no, I got I got a great idea for you. I have one for you. How about you pick four players and you have to complete a cycle.
Everyone get one single, one double, one triple. Hover that's a really good idea. I don't know how the triples are going to be really tough, but that's a really it's like a draft.
You guys should draft you could draft your players or just do straight picks for a second.
I think that's a really fun, contending option. We will strongly consider that. If anybody else has ideas, please send them in as well. But we I know this is a super sized episode. These will usually be shorter. We wanted to squeeze in both Welsh and Kelly for this episode because they're going to both be on the show so often this season.
We want to kind of introduce everything.
But I really appreciate everybody who stuck through for the full hour plus. Here to our first episode of the cycle four Mayor and Kelly and Welsh. I'm Ryan Wormley and we'll see again next week. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Baseball podcast.
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