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Hello everybody, Welcome into the cycle. I am Ryan Warmley, joined as always by Mike Mayer. We are talking a whole bunch of stuff around in the basis here in our first segment. We'll have a couple of other shows on both audio and video where we talk about some buys and seals and waiver picks and pitching streamers and our two star pitcher competition and all the usual stuff
that we do every single week. This is our first video of the cycle this week, however, where we are rounding the basis to talking about some of our favorite topics. We're going to be drafting some of our early favorite breakouts, and really the way we're framing it is breakouts that we most believe in and are buying into. We're going to talk about your early you know, you could say way too early. Really at this point is probably just early, not way too early, but your early risers and followers
in your rankings. You are one of our most accurate rankers here, Fantasy Pros and anywhere based on our tracking and our accuracy competition. So we'll see how your early rankings are looking. We'll talk about some injuries, all that fun stuff. How are you doing today, Mayor.
I'm doing all right. I don't know if you've ever given me a compliment like that before. You acknowledge my ranking success, so I'm doing even better now.
It felt gross coming out, but it's just it's just math. Like you finish high in the rankings, it's kind of undeniable, so I can't like twist it. You know, sometimes we can argue about like who won the two star pitcher contest? Or oh this is a terrible bi low pick, Like you can't argue with the success. You are a very accurate ranker, so everybody should be paying attention to your rankings and guys that you're rising and following in those rankings.
It's also, by the time this gets released, the first round at least of the draft will have happened. But it's also drafted, so we're That's kind of why I wanted to include some sort of draft version into this
when we're talking about those breakouts. But you know, we're excited that you and I are sitting pretty every draft night because we are the two teams Ravens and Eagles that every year it's a guarantee whoever gets drafted, everybody somebody is going to tweet the Jesse Pinkman breaking bad meme. They can't keep getting away with this when when one of Eric DeCosta Howie Roseman makes a draft pick, it is a lot. That's the best bet you can make tonight that that will happen.
Yeah, I was just tweeting, not tweeting. I was just texting with Debro before the show because he was and we'll get back to baseball in a second, but he was just he's submitting his mock draft for like the mock draft accuracy contest on Fantasy Pros and he was just kind of like, hey, does anything look off to you?
Like what do you think about the Eagles pick? And I was like, I don't see Walter Nolan in your first round, and if he falls to the Eagles, you're gonna get the you know, like the same thing like that, how do they keep getting away with this? Because I you know, I like Walter Nolan's going all over the place, like some people haven't like top ten, some people haven't fallen out the first round. But I was like, if he falls to the Eagles, people are going to be furious.
I'm not sure. I actually I almost had a kind of tongue in cheek. I don't think there are any two teams that have more benefit of the doubt, especially in the first round on draft day than like whoever the Raven Steak people are going to say, was this
steal was very good? And the same thing for the Eagles, Like, you know, the Rams are really good at drafting on Day three, you know, they often don't have first round picks, like there's other good gms, but in terms of those first round draft picks, like this is really our time to shine, so we will. Yeah, well, I mean nobody's perfect. Let's get back to baseball, what people actually care about
here on this show. We'll dive into ride in the bases. Uh. There weren't a ton of like overarching topics that I wanted to hit on, which is why we, like I said, we kind of did, like the draft, angle, r rises and followers, injuries, all kind of the general stuff. I did want to ask about one specific player, and it's James Wood. And the thing I wanted to ask you is he's obviously been very, very good this season. His profile is pretty unique. Given the stats we're seeing from him.
He is tied. Actually, I don't know if this changed, maybe late last night when I was putting this together on Wednesday evening, he was tied for the second most home runs in baseball with eight already here in April. But he has a very very high ground ball rate fifty six point four percent of bat at balls. Again, that's going into last night, so I'm not sure if that changed at all. And I do know this changed. He had a zero percent pulled fly ball percentage going
into Wednesday night. He did pull that eight home run last night, which I was watching because it was against the Orioles, So that is now like one point something percent, or I forget the exact number. It's no longer zero, but the point is, going into last night it was zero, and again over fifty percent of bad balls are on the ground. Are his power numbers sustainable when he is coupling both a ground ball rate and a fly ball rate going opposite field as high as he is.
I think it's kind of like a catch twenty two because on the one hand, you love seeing a young hitter going the other way, especially with power the other way. But on the other hand, you would love to see a little bit more like pull power and less of a ground ball rate. So I think he's still a developing hitter. I think he's still a really good hitter. I know we talked about before the season. He was someone we talked about could be a first round pick
next year. And I think it's probably going to be like up and down. You're you're probably going to see some streaks like this, and then you're probably going to see some streaks where he probably goes cold. At least, you know, from a power standpoint, but a lot of the other data looks pretty good stack cast is pretty red with all you know, expected stats like really high
with like exit velocity, barrel rate, hard hit percentage. They all look really really good, and so I just think we're seeing like a really good, young developing hitter who is taking balls the other way. One thing that I think is a little concerning in the profile is that he is right now, like kind of feasting on fastballs, where off speed and breaking pitches not so much. So there is a chance that that kind of comes back to bite him, especially if you're not pulling the ball.
You know, you want you want to see like, you know, pulling some of those like slower pitches. Because I was looking, you know, preparing for the show. He's batting three twenty seven against fastballs, against breaking pitches, he's batting one seventy nine, and against off speed pitches batting one hundred. So that's a pretty stark contrast, and so you would want to see those numbers improve.
It's even more stark if you just specifically look at four seam fastballs. It's four forty eight batting average right now on those, and if you look at the run value generated on stat cast, it's still early for this for seam fastballs, it's seven and nothing else is over two of any other type of pitch. So the forcing fastballs especially are like that's where he's doing a lot of his damage.
Yeah, but I still really like him as a a young hitter and a prospect. And you know, I have him in a couple of leagues. I like that I have in one of the ESPN leagues where like every time you need Homer's I get like a notification. I'm like, oh sweet, and there James would hum.
Though I have him in a few weeks as well. I wanted to highlight an article that came out a couple of days ago, so some of these numbers are now have been since updated, but on MLB dot com by Thomas Harrigan, where he kind of lays out that it's it's interesting that he's not pulling any fly balls, but it hasn't been a problem, and there's you know,
a couple of different leader boards he provides. One of the interesting ones was his barrel rate on fly balls is extremely high because typically hitters who hit a lot of ground balls aren't generating a lot of barrels, so when he does hit it in the air, he needs to barrel it at a high percentage. He's at fifty five point six percent of the time this season, ten out of eighteen fly balls. Again, this is a couple of days ago, so this might have gone down. I'm
just referencing the article right now. Nobody else says at that point was above fifty percent. You know, next sis was forty eight, then forty four, forty two, forty one, so he was in first by a wide margin on that range. He also has the fourth highest slugging percentage on non polled balls dating back to last season, behind only Aaron Judge, Shoheotani, and Ellie Daily Cruz. So those
are a couple numbers that I wanted to highlight. I just find his profile really fascinating because I think he's really really good. Like this is not me trying to say he's not a great player. I think he is.
I think he's a superstar, honestly, like in the very near future, I think he's already a fantasy stud And I think it's just really fascinating to see somebody who not only isn't pulling the ball in the air, but is also hitting a lot of ground balls like the ones that he does hit in the air he has to take full advantage of and so far this season he is. Where do you think, based on what we've seen in this first month, where would you imagine he kind of winds up for you going into next season.
Let's say I see somebody that you expect to finish as like a top ten outfielder and to be a first round pick next year. Based on these early returns, does the profile were you enough that you think if there's even a little litle bit of regression on that barrel rate, on flyballs or what have you, that maybe you're looking at more of like a you know, late second high third round pick next year. What are your expectations the rest of the way.
I think probably second third round consideration. I think a lot of it will also depend on how much he runs. You know, he has three stolen bases through twenty four games. If he keeps up that pace and we get kind of fifteen plus stolen bases, then that's another you know, kind of stat to kind of hang your hat on. That can can elevate him a little bit more. But I think we're still looking at probably a second round pick.
It's kind of interesting. It's like the inverse of what you think with Like a lot of young hitters that come up there, you know, especially ones that hit for power, they usually are good at pulling the ball, and like learning to hit the ball the other way, especially with power, is kind of a learned trait. So he's kind of doing it backwards, and there are worse problems to have than being really good at hitting the ball with power the opposite field.
Would you rather this will be the last question on him. Would you rather buy high or sell high?
I think bye high?
I think I agree because I think this stile and base. I mean, he had fourteen sole bases in like what three hundred and thirty played appearances last year. Like, I think that the stile and bases will rise, and you know if they stay a little low because he can't run because he's hitting homers, like, we'll take that trade off, right so exactly, So yeah, I would also look at
him as a bye high. I do want to let everybody know, as I've been mentioning all month long, that if you want a chance to win a signed Nico Horner Cubs jersey for free, courtesy of our friends at Pristinaneauction Dot com. All you have to do is subscribe to the Fantasy pros MLB YouTube channel right now, drop
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All right, let's get into our kind of draft here of early season breakouts. And this is, like I said, it's not who are the best players, because obviously there's different types of breakouts and some guys we would clearly have ranked ahead of others. But this is based on how real we believe these breakouts are, how much we are buying into these being legitimate breakouts. I think we're just gonna go let's say five players each, so ten total deep. I don't think we need to go any
further than that. We didn't discuss that ahead of time, but I think that's probably sufficient.
Tier.
Do you feel strongly about having the first pick or do you mind going second?
I'll let you pick, I'll go second. Are we doing snake or just linear? Does it not matter?
No?
Two mand drafts. I think snake is dumb. The way I the way I always want to do it, is you just snake that first round. So it's like somebody gets the first pick, then the other person gets the second and third, and then you just alternate back and forth rest of the way. But I don't think there's like one clear obvious I think there's a lot of really good breakouts. So I don't think it really matters. Since you don't mind going second, I'll just go first. We're thinking, will be fine.
Do you want to break him down as we go or just do the draft and then break him down.
No, let's let's break him down briefly ast week. I don't think we need to spend too much time at this. Like I said, I just wanted to kind of do have a little fun with the draft here given that it is the NFL draft tonight. So I have like a dozen names written down on my sort of quote
unquote big board that I really am believing in. Let me ask you this because because again, some of them, I don't know if you're going to count them, if you're going to say, oh that, because like I'm not just picking like guys that are sleepers, that are hitting, Like some of these could have been drafted inside. You know that top fifty to one hundred range, And I just think they've they're breaking out to another level.
So your first pick is Gunner Henderson is what you're saying.
No, not Gunner Henderson. I'm gonna go with Hunter Green as my first pick because I think I know he's coming off of a worse start, but he was picked inside the top one hundred, and he is doing a lot of what he did last year, just better. I think this elevation in his performance is better. I think if he's stays healthy, he is I would like call him a lock to be a top six to eight
starting pitcher at worst, assuming health the rest of the way. Like, I think it's extremely legitimate, and so I just assuming you're willing to count that. That was one of the names I had in mind of like was already good but taking it to another level. He's my number one pick in terms of the guy I'm most believe in.
Yeah, no, I'll accept it. I had him on my list too, and I had a feeling that's where you were going with the first pick. No, I agree that he's taking it to another level, and I think you know we talked about previously. My only real concern with him is injury, just because he's just throwing really hard
for a really long time. And I don't just say that like in general, Like he's throwing it really hard, like at an unprecedented rate late in games, and the only people to have ever done that, including himself, have had Tommy John surgery. And so that's what makes me nervous.
Yeah, it's a fair thing to be nervous about. But from what we've seen so far, I'm totally buying in as a very legitimate elevation of his performance. Who is your our first pick?
Let's see do I want to go? I'm also looking down because I put my on my phone, so I have to glance out at my phone to pick my name's Do I want to go with the Homer pick or the other one? I'll just go with the Homer pick. I think what Christian Campbell is doing is really exciting, and I think he is a legitimate breakout just with there was some concerns in spring training that he kind
of got off to a slow start. I know you don't care about spring training stats, but I just think his approach at the plate is, you know, really improving. He's like a violent swinger. I listened to a lot of the broadcast, and they talk about how even his takes look violent, like he's just like, you know, he's he has a good eye at the plate. But even when he's like when he's like taking it like a slider outside, he's like violently taking a slider outside because
he's like looking to attack the ball. And so we've seen him go the other way. We've seen him like lift with power a little bit of speed too, and I just think everything he's doing, you know, I think we're gonna see him in the middle of that Red Sox line line up sooner rather than later.
I was trying to guess who you were picking, because you kind of cut out for me when you were actually saying the name, and then I heard all of your description, and I was like trying to decide who I thought you were actually talking about, just in case our listeners also. I don't know if it was just cutting out on my internet or for everybody, just in case, can you say who you were picking again.
Christian Campbell, Red Sox second baseman, slash possibly outfielder.
Okay, that was what I assumed based on your description. And once I heard you say Red Sox. But like I said, because I hadn't heard for sure. I want to make sure everybody can hear that. So that's your first pick going the homer direction. I'm not going with any homer picks, by the way, mostly because there aren't really any good Orioles breakouts this year. I have a
couple of names that I really like here. I'm going to go with the guy that is coming off of the best start that any of these players have had
this year, and that's Max Meyer. This is somebody that we talked about, we heard discussed on fantasy fests on our live stream in March, somebody that a couple of analysts and specifically guys who really specialize on the pitching side of baseball really liked this spring that I bought into them, really liking the people who I think are smarter than that who not I think who I know are smarter than me when it comes to this stuff. So I have a lot of Max Meyer like that.
I took as late round picks or you know, cheap at the end of a salary cap draft, and he had already looked really good, and now he has this fourteen strikeout, five hits, no run gem against a Reds team that had just scored twenty four runs against the Orioles like the day before, so it was a hot lineup and he completely shut them down. He looks awesome.
The slider is as great as always, but he's really I think, kind of rounded out the the you know, pitch repertoire that he's been using this year in a better way than he's done in the past. He looks like a guy with top three pick pedigree who's put it all together. He needs a mid to late twenties. I am really excited about Meyer the rest of the way. I'm really curious actually to see if he's included when we're talking about I know he is included in your
way too early risers and followers as a riser. I'm really curious to hear when we get to that conversation how far he's risen for you, because I think he looks really, really awesome, and I'm really happy to kind of pair him in this fake draft with Hudger Green.
Yeah, that was the other name I was considering between Christian Campbell or Max Meyer, and I went with Campbell. I had a feeling you're going to go with Max Meyer just because of the recent success I don't have I don't think I have any shares of him this season, but I do have him in a couple of dynasty leagues, and so it's been very exciting to finally get a return on that investment because at one point I was like, look, just come back as a reliever, as a closer, let
me get some innings out of you. And so for him to come back and look like this, it's really exciting. And it looks pretty legit so far, really nasty stuff.
Yeah, I think it's I think it's super legit. I am buying in. Let's go to your second pick.
My second pick is Tyler Soderstrom for a lot of obvious reasons. Nine home runs looks really really good. Also not related to his breakout. But I don't know if you saw he started in left field yesterday, which is exciting for his you know, potential positional eligibility. That's probably more of a Nick Kurtz thing, you know, trying to find more ways to get him into the lineup and you know, starting at first base. But yeah, I think, just like everything about his profile, I think the power
is legit. That little teeny tiny ballpark or I guess it's not teeny tiny, but like the way the ball is flying out of that ballpark certainly helps. I just think we're seeing an emerging young power hitter that I'm really excited about, and I think it's it's a legit breakout.
Yeah, he was on my list, nothing to add. I think you hit all the reasons why he qualifies. I almost picked him up early on in the year in a league where I really could use the help at first base, and I decided to wait, and I regret it pretty much every day. Interestingly, that I've gone two pictures and you've gone two hitters, did you feel like it was easier to find one versus the other or do you think that's just, you know, it's just happened to be how it's gone.
I think it's just happened to be how it's gone because both of the pictures you named were high on my list, and it just kind of like alternated like where I went, Like, you know, I, if I went first, I may have gone Hunter Green, you know. I think it's just kind of like how it's gone.
Okay, Well, my third pick, if you'll allow it, will not be a picture I don't This one is I think probably the one where I could most anticipate getting pushback of he doesn't count. I think he does count because of the power breakout. We literally just talked about him, James Would, I think he's broken out from he was, because the thing is, he was going high in drafts, but he was like relative to what he had done last year, but that was because people were anticipating the breakout.
So I don't want to like count that against him. The fact that he has lived up to the anticipated breakout. It's not like he truly broke out last year, even though you know he did provide you know, nine home runs, fourteen stone bases and how the season. It wasn't like he was useless last year. But I think this is a new level. I think going from that like sixty pick range to like maybe inside the top twenty five
next year is a breakout. And I think the power is legitimate, even for even talking about all the reasons we just talked about at the start of this segment. So will you allow James Would?
Yeah, I think it's fine, Okay, I think he's taking it to another level. And you know, like you said, he's already got eight home runs in twenty four games that are hitting nine and seventy nine games last year. And like you said, he was being drafted with a decent amount of draft couple this year. But it was all projection. It wasn't like based on historical performance. It was like people projecting the breakout. And now we're seeing
the breakout. And so even you know, despite what we already talked about with you know, like not as much pull power, it looks like the breakout is legitimate.
Yeah, I'm feeling great. I got the first three names on my big board, so I feel like I'm sitting pretty here. I'm glad you went with the Homer. I have been the Eric DaCosta slash Howie Roseman of this draft so far, just getting value as it falls to me. Who's your third pick?
So I didn't have mine ranked. I just kind of put them in a glob and it was kind of just going to see how the draft played out and who I wanted to go with. And I'm not really sure who I want to go with now, if I want to go with my first picture or if you know what, I'll give it to someone that a lot of people had prospect fatigue about who was off to a really good start, and it looks like the numbers are legitimate, and I'll give it to Spencer. Spencer Torkulsen.
I think that he's actually finally breaking out if you'll allow it. You know, someone who wo'd been waiting to break out for a while now, and I just think it's finally happening. I think a lot of the underlying numbers are backing up what's happening, and we might finally see Spencer Torkulsen as a consistent fantasy contribut and real life baseball contributor after it looked like for a little while like it might be over in terms of his future in baseball.
He was on my list, totally legitimate, and I I'm really excited to see the breakout. Like he's somebody I really loved. I mean, obviously every he was a number one pick, like everybody loved him in that twenty twenty class. But I's it's very fun because it felt like he was such a sure thing with the bat and then he like you said, it looks like it might be done. Like I know you don't want to write off a guy too early, but like it was so so bad
that to see him now take this step forward. Like it's been one of the more enjoyable storylines for me earlier this season. I really liked watching him.
Yeah, it looked there and live up to it. Sorry, it looked at one point like the Tigers were like not even like guaranteeing a roster spot for him this this year. He had to kind of earn his way onto the team.
Yeah, so I like that. Pick a lot the fourth name on my board. Again, just just take this value as it comes to although, like I said, some of your guys were on my list as well. Bryce Terrang, I think it's legitimate what he's done. If you look at his stat cast page last year, you know stuff like average exit velocity, barrel rate, hard hit rate very very blue, fourteenth percentile, third percentile, ninth percentile, bat speed
second percentile. This is all very poor. It's all better this year, and some of those are a lot better. Average exit velocity is now ninetieth percentile. He's averaging ninety three miles per hour on the average exxit loss. Your hard hit rate is now seventy eighth percentile. His batting average is three fifty, but his expected batting average is three sixteen it's still over three hundred. He's been just
hitting a lot better. Again, looking at some of the numbers, Like compared to last year's exit velocity was eighty seven, that's six miles per hour better on average, his max exit velocity is much better, you know. Again, the expected numbers just are a lot improved over last year. The barrel rate is like three or four times what it was last year. I think it's a very legitimate breakout. The stolen bases, I think we were probably both confident we were gonna get a lot of those regardless. Also,
we just know the Brewers run so much. That's still continued. He has eight already here in the first month of the season, but he already has three home runs after hitting just seven last year. I don't know that he's gonna hit twenty, but I wouldn't be surprised if this breakout is legitimate, which I am saying that I think
it is. If it gets to like twelve to fifteen, and then if you throw that in with forty five steals and a three hundred batting average like that is a real elevation of his value, and I think it's legit, especially looking at the statcast data, So I know Terrang is somebody that you were kind of thinking of as like maybe a cell high early in the season. Do you still feel that way? Do you not buy into this breakout as much as I am?
Probably in between, like I probably don't buy into it as much as you do, but I do see the improvement. Like I felt like last year, I would he was like a very frequent cell high for me. I had to stop myself from writing him as a cell high like every week, and there were you know, you fell off the cli at one point. But he also stole fifty bases, so it's not like you had to remove
him from your line up at any point. You know, his batting average didn't hurt you to the point where I thought it would, and he stole fifty bases, so not really much you can say about that. It's also interesting he's hitting lefties better this year. He's he's batting average against lefties over three hundred, whereas like last year that was kind of a you know, a sore spot for him. He wasn't like the worst against lefties, but he battered like two thirty something against lefties. So yeah,
it's an interesting choice. You know, banking on a you know, calling a guy who stole fifty bases last year as a breakout I think is a little questionable. But you know, you did at least shy away from the stolen bases and focus more on the bat so I guess we have to allow it.
Yeah, I mean, you can break out if you were just a one category contributor last year, and I think are now contributing in multiple categories, And again, it looks so much more legitimate than last year. Like even even just looking like last year's batting averages two fifty four, so I like that was like a terrible anchor to your batting average category. But this year it's just been better. I mean again, just look at the look at the blue versus you know, on a stack gass page last
year versus the red list year. I think I want to highlight that I think he is legitimately a better hitter this year than last year. Even if the fantasy value, if you if you say that most of his value comes from the steals and therefore we're not expecting that to be a breakout, I can sort of see that argument against him. But like, again, his OPS is two hundred points higher than it was last year, Like the
batting average is like eighty points higher. I think this is a breakout across the board, not just a steals only contributor.
All Right, I guess we have to allow with them. So it's my turn again. Yeah, so I feel like, I mean, I thought Spencer Torklesin was kind of like the the tier, you know, the end of the tier, but then you kind of slipt Bryce terrang in there. But I feel like I'm much more confident, obviously in the names we already listed than the names that I'm going to list going forward.
I will say quickly to cut you off, like I had, like that top four that I really liked, my fifth choice on this board, like could go in eight different directions, Like I do think we're in like a club of you can make the case in a bunch of different ways.
Yeah, there's a name, there's one name on my list that I do want to talk about, but I think we're going to talk about him another segment, so I'll avoid it for now. I'll go with Mackenzie Gore as someone that I think is kind of taking that next step, and I think the breakout could be legitimate. I think
he may have finally figured it out. I think we're gonna still see some inconsistent stuff from him, but I think by and large the breakout is legit and that he's here to stay finally after like kind of like flirting with, you know, being a fantasy relevant contributor for a while, like on and off rosters, I think he might be here to stay now.
He was the next name on my list, So I am in firm agreement with you on Mackenzie Gore. The strikeouts have been awesome, Like it started off really well and his largely continued here through the first month of the season. I am in very strong agreement with him as somebody that I think is going to be a very good, you know, fantasy starter the rest of He's not an sp one, but I think he's gonna contribute in a lot of categories that you're gonna be really
happy with going forward. So I think that's a great pick, and it would have been my next pick for my fifth guy. Here. I'm looking at like the names on my list, it definitely feels like a drop off in terms of the belief I have or it's names that I wrote down that I didn't really expect you to count like I was, Like I wrote, I do think he's better than he was last year. I'm not gonna pick him because I don't think he really counts like Hunter Brown, he really broke out in the second half
last year. But like, I do think he is better this year. But like somebody like him is, Like I looked.
I couldn't include him, but I looked at him.
Yeah, yeah, I was running. Did you feel like Shane Boz counts.
He's another name I looked at. I didn't write it down. I feel like I didn't write it down for a different reason. It was more so they've kind of like slow played him a little bit this year, so like the sample size is much smaller for him than it is for some of these other pitches. So I think that's why I kind of leaned against it. But I do think what we're seeing from him is probably legit too.
He's only made four starts. I mean, what stands out about him if you're leaning, you know, kind of against him, is that his worst start was the most recent one.
So I mean, maybe, like I don't know if it's recent he buys because the first three starts were six innings, ten strikeouts, no runs, seven innings, six strikeouts, two runs, six innings, eleven strikeouts, one run, and then his most recent start was three and a third, five runs, three strikeouts, so it was his worst it was going up against the Akes. I like, I really, I said, I wrote him down like as a possible count. I do think
the overall breakouts legitimate. I'll I'll not pick him though, I'll just pick somebody that I believe in that I like less rest of the season then, but I still do believe in the breakout and that's Casey Myes. We've talked about him on the show already, so I won't
waste too much time talking about him. He's a lower level of breakout, but again, somebody with pedigree similar to Torko since a former first, you know, number one overall pick that I'm happy to see breakout because of kind of the early struggles in his career that he's had, and I just think he's going I think he's gonna
be a very viable fantasy starter going forward. Two twenty two ERA and four starts this season, just eighteen strikeouts in twenty four and third inning, so that's kind of The downside of him is not getting on the strikeouts, but his whips under one. Like I said, I don't think he's gonna be like a fantasy ace, but I think the breakout as a very viable fantasy starter, which he largely I mean pretty much, not largely, he pretty
much has not been throughout his career. I do think it's legitimate, So I'll have him as my fifth player.
I love it. Yeah, someone we talked about. He's someone who's on my list, as you know, maybe not as much as the hot start, but still, you know, it looks legitimate for my mister irrelevant pick. I believe in our draft, I'll go with Ben Rice, who I think. I don't know if he was on your list, but I think he's here to stay.
I didn't write him down, but I think I thought about him.
Yeah, he's going to be helped by that ballpark. You know, any lefty with power in that ballpark is going to have some staying power. I don't know that I was the biggest Ben Rice believer coming into the season, but I do. You know, he's off to a really strong start, and it looks pretty believable to me. You know, the Yankees obviously believing them. They're batting him at the top of their lineup, and he's doing really good things and
has really you know, good underlying numbers. Pate plate disipen looks really good. It's not just like hitting, you know, he's getting on base with walks and stuff, and I just think he looks like, you know, he is. He like a professional hitter who I think, you know, he's probably going to get forty home runs out of him, but I think, you know, as a Red Sox fan, he's going to be a pain in my side, probably for the foreseeable future.
The only other honorable mention that I wanted to throw out as somebody that I considered who was on my lists and didn't. There are other names on my list, but they were more just like down in case I had to get there.
I want to see the name that I have.
Well, well, I don't know if it will because I don't know if he'll count him as a breakout. I feel like we have maybe not talked enough about Wyatt Langford. I know he had the injury for like a week and a half in the middle of April there, but like even with that missed time, I mean He's only has fifty one at bats this season. He has six home runs and four stolen bases. He's batting just under
three hundred, his ops is over a thousand. There was so much hype for him last year and he still was being drafted somewhat aggressively, like similar to James Wood. I think people were anticipating a step forward. But I don't feel like I don't know that we've really mentioned his name so far, despite this really strong start to
the season. Like, I've been really impressed with year two Wyatt Langford, and I think this is a legitimate step foward, and he is like stepping into his era of being like a Shreue fantasy stud rather than a guy with hype that we're excited about.
Yeah, and he was hurt for a little while too, so he missed him time and kind of like disappeared from the spotlight. Yeah. I think a lot of this is just kind of like everyone's like, all right, finally, this is what we expected last year.
So like, but I don't want to like diminish it just because we were expecting it a year ago. Like it it's an impressive step forward.
Yeah, No, I think it's it's borderline because you know, you did see the flash last year, but not you know, it was late.
So yeah, so, and that's why I didn't include him, But I wanted to at least throw his name out there. Yeah, it was the guy that you wanted your honorable mention.
Yeah, I know we have to wrap up, but I wanted to mention someone I want to talk about. I don't necessarily believe in the breakout, which is why I didn't put him on my list, but Petrol Armstrong is someone that we probably need to mention just because of the run that he's on right now. I thought I have some concerns about, you know, the overall profile there, but you know, he's off off to like a really
fun start for the Cubs and for Cubs fans. I think some of the production is a little fluky, just based on like how hard he's hitting the ball, and like some of these home runs, like the one he hit the other day was like just it looked like a pop fly that like happened to get out like to left center. So I think you're going to see
some inconsistent production there. But I think I don't just because of how hot he is right now, I don't know that we can talk about breakouts without mentioning what he's doing, Otherwise the YouTube comments will get really mad at us. But I didn't include him because I don't necessarily believe as much in his breakout as I do with the other names on this list.
Please let us know in the comments, guys, breakouts that you believe are very legitimate that we that we should have given a shout out to in this segment if we forgot them, And let us know whose kind of a team of breakouts you like better. Reminder, I got Hunter Green, Max Meyer, James Wood, Bryce Terrang and Casey miz Mayor had Christian Campbell, Tyler Soderstrom, Spencerhtorical Sin, Mackenzie Gore and
Ben Rice. And remember, it's not who has the better group of players, it's whose breakouts are we most believing in. We went a little long on that segment, so we'll go quickly through our other two segments here. On rounding the bases, I just want to throw out some latest
injury updates. I thought it was hilarious. I pulled up I like to just pull up the ESPN like MLB headlines, and I do the same on MLB dot Com when prepping for the show, just to make sure there's so much baseball going on, we're also prepping for the NFL Draft. I just want to make sure there was nothing I forgot or like totally missed, And all the top headlines were about pitcher injuries. So I figured, let's just quickly run through these the top headlines. This was as of
last night. Blake Snell to pause throwing after discomfort, no MRI for Christians, Christopher Sanchez, o's Grayson Rodriguez is a lot injury, is weeks from throwing. Edwin Diaz is good after exiting Mets win with hip issue. The other are lesser important names, but then you also threw in a non pitcher, Corey Seeger injury as well. So just because we want to go quickly here, any of those standout
as surprising or impactful? I mean, obviously these are some Sanchez, Snell, Grayson when he's healthy, like, these are some quality names. Edwin Diaz RP one for a lot of people, Like, what are your kind of takeaways from these headlines?
My takeaway is what are we doing with Christopher Sanchez not getting an MRI here? Like, like, what's the downside and getting an MRI, like I left with.
I always laugh, Yeah, we know, it's probably not necessary. I'm like, you're rich, just do it, Like why not?
Look, yeah, I was listening to the CBS guys and they said, like maybe because he's on the road and they're just kind of like delaying until give him an MRI when he's back, which I hope, so because like why not. Like the guy left with like his velocity
was down. He left with fore arm soreness. As we all know from the last fever years, your forearm was connected to your Tommy John and so like like that's like the worst case scenario, like if you just like they're like, ah, he's fine running back out there, and then like now you need Tommy John surgery. Wild that they're not giving him an MRI.
Agreed, I'm considering this like something close to a lost season for Grayson Norriguez wasn't optimistic, you know, update rous recently, but like I mean, by the time he's actually assuming everything goes well, by the time he's actually able to contribute to your fantasy team, it's I'm assuming it's gonna be like July like that the raid. This is going so, and you know, Blake Snell, obviously you don't like to
see a guy pause throwing with discomfort. And then you wrote down Corey Seeger like I.
Said, yeah, that one happened late, and it's just like, well, there's another shortstop yeah in.
There too, all right, And then we'll wrap up here with your way too early risers and followers. Some of these names we've already hit on, so you can go quickly through them and maybe just spend a little more time on the names that we haven't already discussed. Let's start with the risers, and I will just read some of the names that you wrote down that we've already talked about, Spencer Torakles and Tyler Soderstrom, Max Meyer, Hunter Green,
Christian Campbell. We're all just drafted so we know you like them. If you want to quickly hit on maybe how far they've risen, you can. But those names we've already kind of dived into.
Yeah, I don't want to go through how far they've risen, just because it might take me a while to look back and forth because I didn't write down how far they've risen. But what I did beforehand was I took my draft rankings, and I put them next to my rest of season rankings, and I just kind of like ran you know, I ran it through trying TBT just to see all. I was like, how about who's moved the most here? Just kind of figured like that was
the fastest way to do it. There were some other names that like, you know, maybe they got hurt so they got they got you know, dropped off the list. So I didn't include guys like that, but I included the guys that you mentioned, like they've like you know, shot up my list. Tyler Schroderstrom for obvious reasons, Dorklesin for obvious reasons. Max Meyer. You know, we've all we've talked about these guys the tooth that weren't on my
that we didn't talk about. They're not really breakout candidates, which is why we didn't talk about him. Trevor's story was off to like an incredible start, someone that I grabbed late in a lot of drafts. But I've had to move up in my rankings just because he's off to a really good start. Obviously they concerned there, which Trevis story is always injury, but it is you know, encouraging to see him, you know, hitting in the middle of that lineup, hitting for power, stealing bases, going the
other way off to really you know, strong start. And then Nico Horner, who I kind of had buried in my rankings just because he was hurt coming into the year, and I was like, I don't know when we're gonna see Nico Horner. I don't know if he's gonna run as much when he comes back. And it was like boom, he's ready for the start a season and he looks like the Nico Horner of old. And so I've had to shoot him back up my rankings because he looks really good and he's producing, you know, better than a
lot of other second basement. But I had ranked ahead of him coming into the year.
How about your followers?
So followers, no breakouts on the followers list for obvious reasons, but I had Lane Thomas Spencer Steer, Mark Ventos, Tristan Cassas, Michael Tolia, Matt Shaw, and Rokie Sasaki. Rookie Sasaki is probably the most interesting name there just he's someone who, like throughout draft season who was like, you know, I had him ranked here, had him ranked here, like moving
him up and down. I didn't know what to expect, and then we got like a kind of a glimpse of him over in the Overseas series and I was like, all right, it looks pretty good. But now you know, it's like some things look good, some things look not so good, and so I've had to have to, Like I think right before the season, I like moved him up a little bit in my rankings, I've had to drop him down just based on like what I'm seeing. Lane Thomas is someone I wasn't really high on coming
into the year. I feel like, always felt like he was just kind of like a I've still had to drop him just because I've had to drop him into rankings and he's like borderline droppable and fantasy because of how bad he's been. Spencer Steer similar thing. He's someone I was high on, but I've had to drop because he's just off to like a horrible start. I tweeted abut him yesterday and I got a couple of replies of people saying, you know, I just don't think that
shoulder's right. I think he's still hurt. Maybe that's the case. I don't know. Mark Vandos is someone I was pretty interested in coming into the season. I've had to drop him off after his slow start, although he has been heating up a little bit more of late. Same thing for Tristan Kassas, I was hoping he would be like a value at first base. He got off to an atrocious start. He's changed his batting stance recently. It might
be a little bit better. But first base is kind of surprisingly deep now because of some of the names we've already talked about, like Toorkal San and Sworderstrom and Nick Kurtz coming up, that you just pretty much don't have to roster him in most leagues right now. Michael Tolia, I knew was a risk coming into the season, but I was hoping to get some power out of him not getting out there. Matt Shaw, obviously we talk about
on this show. Everyone's excited about him. He got up to such a slow star that he's already down in the minors, so he's an obvious follower on my rankings.
All right, we'll go ahead and wrap up. There be sure everybody to check out please our parts two and three. We'll be talking some buys and sells, some waiver pickups, and some streaming pictures as well. For Mayor, I'm Ron Warman. Thanks for tuning in to this part of the cycle, so we'll see you again for the other parts. Thanks
for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Baseball podcast. If you love the show, the best freeway to support us is by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Follow us on x, Instagram, and TikTok at Fantasy Pros, and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash Fantasy Pros MLB