Welcome in everybody to Fantasy Pros MLB. This is the Fantasy Baseball Podcast. It is me Joey p joe Pisapia with me of course is the Welsh. And it's time to hit the guides. That's right, it's time for the Ultimate infield Guide. We're gonna go through the positions, give you a little overview of the top guys at the position, give you our favorite sleepers, our busts, and our must
haves at those positions. And of course, if you're looking to check out the ranks for yourself, you can go to Fantasypros dot com to do so, and we encourage you to do that, of course all the time. And of course, if you're looking for the ultimate cheat sheet, that's right, you're looking for the ultimate opportunity, the cheat code of all cheat codes. We're talking about Draft Wizard. So right now you can go download Draft Wizard. The app is available for Draft Wizard MLB. Download that bad
boy today. You get live draft advice player recommendations. Every time you're on the clock, you can run a million draft simulations. What are you doing this weekend? I'll tell you what you're doing this weekend. You are running draft simulations. That's what you're doing. And don't forget to sink your leagues for free, because the draft software will go right to your league and help you make recommendations. It'll help
give you expert advice. You can use the pick predictor the cheat sheets, all kinds of amazing tools, but that only comes when you download the Draft Wizards, So do it right now. War head over to fantasypros dot com slash MLB Draft Wizard today. All right, Welsh, let's start at first base. I don't want to start a catcher. Catcher is a little me boring for me. I doubt right exactly. So first base it is today, and we're gonna run through the top guys at the position here
and give you a little overview. At the top, of course, Vlad Junior going at sixteen overall right now currently in adp Bryce Harper, Freddy Freeman, Matt Olsen, Pete Alonzo. Then I think there's a dip here. You have guys like Diazu. Again, I'd rather be a catcher than at first base. Josh Naylor, Christian Walker. Two guys that have moved locations here, Cody Bellinger, Spencer Steer, Tristan Cassis, Vinnie Pascuentino. So there's definitively a
group at the top of sluggers. After that a group where you think you can probably get some power out of guys like Nailer and guys like Christian Walker Cody Bellinger hopefully on a balance back. And then it's kind of a little bit of a leap of faith, maybe with costs in Pascalentino, but to me, first basis a little bit more of a priority. I like to hit it early.
How about you, Yeah, I think for the most part, I've got these clumps. Obviously, Vlad and Bryce Harper make a lot of sense. I'm a little bit faidie of maybe Freeman. I'm not super super interested in Olsen and Alonzo. So it's like, you know, I'm gonna have to essentially pick a second round for a first baseman or then
I'm skipping for a while. Then we go into that like third tier of first basement, which you talk about, which I think is gonna be my sweet spot and something I have to target, and then another just deep thing to think about. We're gonna talk about it here. Third base depth isn't fantastic. So if you have a corner infield spot. I'm personally trying to fill my corner infield spot from first base, and you can go deeper if you want, because I think there's some nice sleepers.
We're gonna talk about some of those guys. But even if you wanted to take away from that core top twelve, top fourteen a first baseman, you're just not going to hurt yourself if you invested in let's just say first basement number six and first basement number ten because the cost is a little depreciated with really great return. So yeah, I don't want to wait too too long in my investment on first base, but I'm going in tiers and little chunks of the guys that are my targets.
All right, let's talk about sleepers too, because obviously a lot of leagues have corner spots. And a guy that I like at the corner spot is Alec Burlson of the Saint Louis Cardinals. That was one of our favorite waiver wire pickups last year. He really took off. He's got position flexibility too, which is also a nice thing to have for a player when you're drafting them a little later, and if you look at what he did last year, Welsh, I mean across the board, incredibly productive
on a team that was really underwhelming. He cracked seventy runs and seventy rbi. He had nine steals, he had two sixty seven twenty one home runs. To me, he's kind of like the modern day version potentially of ben Zobris, like a guy who just kind of gives you a little to everything. Is he spectacular, No, but certainly a guy that can be productive. And I do expect some incremental improvements from Saint Louis year over a year, because I think last year was a little bit of an anomally.
I think some of these kids, hopefully we'll start to get it. Maybe this will be the Jordan Walker year, maybe Mason Wins and of the other guys really start to take the next step forward. Berlson's a guy for me who's a sleeper for you at first.
Basically, one thing I want to point out with Birlson I like this one too deeper league play, and the Cardinals have lost so many players into free agent. They're the only team as we record this that has not signed a single free agent then signed a single free agent of all MLB teams are just crazy, So Burlson's going to get an opportunity to move up in the lineup. It's kind of a.
All of what is it? All tides rise the boats?
That is that thing you are so close is born all A rising tide raises all shifts boats.
There you go, okay, and the tide here is all of these guys coming out and then moving up in the lineup. So that's my great analogy here. I'll do something better than analogies. I'll give you a sleeper that I really like instead.
I can tell you I can hear the analogies all day, but I'll take a sleep. Yeah.
Yeah, I couldn't handle the comments all day. But the guy I'm gonna go with because I like your Burlson here, I'm gonna go with Michael Tolia with the Colorado Rockies. I've talked about totallya a decent amount of this offseason that the overall like big hit profile is pretty enormous. He had a seventeen percent barrel rate with a fifty percent hard hit rate.
Those are monstrous numbers.
Now, he's got a strikeout problem, and he had a batting average problem. He only hit two eighteen last year, and he had a thirty two percent strikeout rate. Those stink the positives though, take that hitting profile. He had an expected batting average of close to two forty, which I really really like. And he hits in Colorado it's the most hit or friendly environment you can have. And one of my main points to this is his ADP's
around like one seventy or so. I don't believe you know he's in the top twelve of who you mentioned, or even top fifteen. Power is can be hard to come by. Like I think we all pick and choose these different things. Okay, I got to focus on stolen bases. No longer do we care about trying to find stolen
bases late. You can find it all the time. The two pieces that seem harder in the hitting world to find later in drafts are a batting average, which he doesn't help you with, but be elite power, not just power. Alec Burlson twenty homer is awesome, great, he has better batting average, but finding thirty five plus home run power outside the top one fifty, it's not one hundred percent there totally. It does provide that totally you could be a forty home run hitter. He can't hit two twenty again.
But I think the hitting profile works really well in Colorado, where he should be hitting again higher in a lineup, hopefully there's RBI opportunities.
Think he's a sleeper.
He fits for all teams, and I really think there's a possibility that that batting average doesn't become some big albatross to your team like a Joey Gallo.
So Tolia is a sleeper for me.
By the way, one more known on Burlson too before we move on to the bus. Looks like he's projected at number two in that order, two between Contreras and then Win at the top. So I also like that too. Lineup spot matters a lot, and that's what whils she's talking about his guy in Colorado. Two. Okay, so there's sleepers. There's also a bus at the position for me, Ryan
Mintcastle and Ryan Mountcastle. I know that's Mike Mayer's favorite player, and I know he's going to get very mad at me for saying this, But three years in a row, declining home runs and declining power, and you know, some of the games played the last couple years be a little limited to now he's still hitting that at two seventy range. But my old thing is I feel like
he's about to get squeezed out of Baltimore. Potentially Kobe Meyo eventually going to come up, and that's going to create some sort of logjam at the corners because you gotta have the DH spot kind of locked up. Me he could playm at DH two, But I don't know. I just feel like the new blood of the Baltimore Orioles is really pushing forward there and it's going to continue to push this year. And I feel like Mountcastle might be a guy that has dealt at some point
by the trade deadline. Potentially if some more of these young guys push him out or worse, he gets in this weird rotational thing where he's not like an everyday player, and that to me is also potentially bust worthy. So Maltcowsle is a guy that I'm personally avoiding in twenty twenty five, wells, who are you avoiding? In first base?
Ces Christian Incarnacion's strand And I could eat my words on this one because last year just wasn't great.
There's a ton of miss time. There really wasn't a ton of it bats.
The hitting profile was completely different. But I think in theory you could chalk that up to the.
Injury, and that's kind of the big thing.
There's a couple guys that I'm just not really buying bounce backs. We're going to talk about a guy in a little bit at third base. It's kind of the same thing because in this past year, barrel percentage dipped, expected batting average dipped strikeouts were still incredibly high, and he stopped walking whatsoever. But comparative to the year prior, Strand had an ten percent barrel rate, forty eight percent
hard hit rate, which was elite. He walked two percent more of the time, and he had an XBA of two seventy after he hit two seventy. So it was like, oh, this might be a power hitter with batting average. The injury depleted some of that, so it could be one of those two ways. I watched him in the Arizona Fall League. It doesn't it doesn't seem comfortable still. Positionally, they don't know where he's going.
They were talking about the outfield.
He doesn't want to be there, and the Reds are collecting players like its pokemon. There Austin Hayes are trying to trade for Police Robert. They're getting everybody, and it's looking like a situation where Strand is going to be put in at best maybe maybe a situational player. So I'm just not in on it. The profile what I saw on there is in a fall league was kind of athletically. I don't know if the Reds fully trust him. His cost is still kind of up there, so I am going to be busting Cees.
No thanks, all.
Right, must haves. I don't spend too much time on this guy, because we talked about him in some of our undervalue shows that we just did. The Undervalued Hitter Show should be up there on the YouTube channel. Go check that out. But Tristan Cassas, he's gonna have Durham and Devors hitting ahead of him. Think he's gonna see a lot of fastballs this year, and I think he's
in a really good spot. Projected hit third in that lineup right now over on Fangrafts and the roster resource there, and I think that when you look at some of the projections, you see zips As with twenty nine home runs. Steamer's got him a twenty eight if you somehow miss out on the Christian Walker Josh Naylor grouping right, you don't get the elite guys, and then man, that run happens, and you miss out the way to make up for it. Like, who's a guy that can hit two sixty and thirty
home runs? I think it's Tristan Cassas, and I think that's just an easy win for me. And you've seen I've drafted him in some of our mocks already because I feel like that's also a really good return on investment. If I can't get the elite power at the price that I want early on, then the pivot there is hoping that he can deliver that same promise. Who for you is a must have at first base in twenty twenty five? Welsh?
Yeah, remember I talked about these three buckets. There's like the number one, which is lad and Harper. You probably throw Freeman in there, and then two is kind of that Ulsen Alonzo range.
No thanks.
That third bucket starts in with I think Costas is the end of it. Naylor is in there. The guy that I want is in that bucket, and you mentioned him Christian Walker, So Christian Walker is the start of it. He's a must have for me. The cost isn't prohibitive really with whatever you've done. Obviously, if you went and drafted vlat it wouldn't make a ton of sense. But you know, Walker goes from a nice hitting environment in
Arizona to an even better hitting environment in Houston. He had twenty six homers last year with a two fifty one average, but you've got an even shorter porch, which looks like from a projected standpoint, Baseball Savant does the like, how many homers would they hit if they were here? He had twenty only in this one ballpark. He had twenty five homers in Arizona projected to be twenty eight, so a three homer in boost in Houston by virtue of that. But it's just such a great short porch.
Is an incredible offense around him as well. You're gonna have Altuve, you've got Jordan Alvarez. He should hit it a prominent spot in the lineup. He's one hundred RBI guy, gold Glove, He's always going to be out there. I just think Christian Walker just went into as good of a situation as you could possibly have in a ballpark. That is going to feed to how he hits the
ball in general. So for him to be going around you know, like seventy eighty or something like that, he's an absolute must have at first or you want to you want to be like the one percenters, You want to be Richie Rich. Get him at a quarer infield. Go and take one of the top guys and then take him off the board. Thirty one hundred with I think a boost in batting average is in play, maybe in the two seventy range for Walker this year.
Got to have him, all right.
Let's continue our trip around the diamond here to second base before we do a quick shout out to fan Tracks, the whole home of fantasy sports. Year round engagement, offseason trades, real time updates, and seamless player transactions keep the excitement alive at fan Tracks three hundred and sixty five days a year. They have the most incredible dense dynasty program you're ever gonna see. Automated salaries, contracts, you name it,
they've got it there. Multi team trades. You can customize your leagues, your rosters, your scoring, your playoffs, your consolations, all of it. Future draft picks can be traded, you can score however you want. They have the most extensive list and you can create your own even and massive league size two doesn't matter. If it's ten teams or
two hundred leagues, they can do it. You can duplicate players in those big giant leads as well, and of course the multidivision leagues are also available at fan Tracks, so many incredible options to make your fantasy baseball dreams come true. Bring your fantasy baseball leagues to fan Tracks for an unbeatable user experience and a chance to win. As signed Vladimir Guerrero Junior Jersey today, sign up at
fantracks dot com slash fantasy pros. That's fantracks dot com slash Fantasy pro Welsh on to second base and the sleeper might make people laugh for me, but it's Jackson Holiday. Why because last year everybody was falling all over themselves with Jackson Holiday. I of course pumped the brakes a little bit. Oh gee whiz, I wasn't quite ready for the big leagues. For those of you who watch Leading Off,
you know what that voice is. But this is a new year, it's a new time, and you don't go from being arguably the number one prospect in baseball typically to being a complete and utter boss. And he's being drafted right now in a situation where if you start to look at some of the second basement, I'm going to run down them here. Mookie Bets at the top again. Position flexibility there could tell Marte great, Jose al Tuove,
Ozzie Albi's, Marcus Simeon. The very solid group there some real veterans, but some health issues with I think all three of those guys Jordan Westberg, Matt McClain also health issue coming back, Bryce Terrang, Luis Garcia, Nico Horner, Xander Bogarts, Bryson Stott, Rafaela and Jmenez right on that peripheral. And then you have to go all the way down to the seventeenth guy overall at the position in Jackson Holiday, and I'm looking at I'm thinking to myself, can Jackson
Holiday potentially outperform Rafaela, Jimenez, guys like Bryson Stott. I think he absolutely can. So to me, that makes him a sleeper. This year he got rid of the big leg kick two going to that toe tap. I think that will help him a little bit. I think really it was just pushed a little bit too soon and unfortunately didn't go well. But I think twenty twenty five might be a different story. And this is when I'm buying the dip in the post hype. I think it's
the perfect situation. Give me a sleeper for you at second base and what you think of the position.
Yeah, I'm also gonna tell you this is probably the first one so far in this show where it's like, oh, you took a guy that I probably would have put, so sometime I'm trying to pivot off not give the mack Hines. Yeah, I would have put Jackson Holiday, great barrel, good hard hit, struggled against Slider's young young dude who got pushed up four levels in a year year prior. I think there's a pretty easy work like that.
You know.
It's like, like you said, you're changing and getting into the toe tap. You're gonna work on hitting some of that offspeed breaking stuff because he can hit fastballs. He's done it in the minors, and he has a really good underlying hit profile. So I'm there with I'm totally there with you on him as far as the position goes. In general, you know, second base always has this kind of weakness that it feels. I think it is deeper than some years prior, but I think that deepness more
speaks to middle infield. You know, getting your starter, I don't. I still don't want to wait and be like, all right, I'm the last guy that got a second basement, because now then you're going to be swimming in a pool that's just not going to feel great. You know, you're you're going to be playing from behind, and then you're probably gonna have to try to maybe up take a short step.
Now. The only reason maybe you could do.
It is if you double tap shortstop. Sometimes people will go shortstop early and then shortstop in middle, and maybe that middle infield shortstop can make up for some deficiencies that you might have had at second base. But you know, I'm not really sure that you want even as much as I love Luis ran Gifo, you want him as like your starter or even Bryce Terrain unless you're chasing stolen bases. So I'm trying to attack it a little bit early if I possibly can. If you don't, we'll
go to my sleeper. I think this is a solid deeper league middle infield player that I'm going to targeting former potential twenty twenty player. It's Jonathan India, who was traded over to the Kansas City Royals. India last year when it really wasn't a great year. Fifteen homers, thirteen stolen bases, hit just under two point fifty, had best OBP over the last couple of years. In fact, twelve point six percent walk rate, highest of his career, in top three.
Percentile of the league. Why does that matter. He's going to go potentially hit leadoff for the Royals.
You've got Bobby Witt Junior, You've got Salvador Perez hitting behind you. You have any pass Quintino that opens up a huge opportunity for runs. This team also runs on the base path, so you might see that uptick. Projections aren't really putting that in play. Atc projections are pretty light on him. Run a two to fifty batting average, homers and stolen bases are both under fifteen. I think there's a legit shot that Jonathan India can get into
that twenty twenty range. The profile in general is pretty solid, almost eight percent barrel. His expected batting average was close to two seventy, so it was higher than it was last year. He struck out under twenty percent of the time, and he walked a ton. Hey, you're at the top of that Royals lineup with a bunch of monsters behind you, you might jump into ninety RBI. You steal twenty plus bases,
you get some homers. All of a sudden, he goes from a guy that is going two fifty, two twenty or something like that into maybe being a top one fifty overall player. So I think India is a really nice second base sleeper.
All right, let's talk about bust at second base. Bryson Stott is one for me. He's in the nine hole in that Phillies lineup. The power is limited. I mean, I know he had fifteen homers in twenty throw and three but went back down to eleven last year. The strikeout rate went up last year or two. I get it. In rotal leagues, you cover at the stolen basis. So I totally understand why he's still in that top twelve range. But I keep going back to who's a superior hitter
in my opinion? Is it Bryson Stotta, which Jackson Holiday can be? You know or guys like that that are going after Bryson Stott. So for me, it's a no brainer. I thought that he's a bad player. I think also had some big moments in the postseason two which I think might little bit overinflate his value artificially, So I want to stay away from that. I don't like when that happens. Very small sample size. So Welsh, who's the guy you're avoiding at second base?
Man, I'm having a realization that, like, I'm picking on a lot of Reds players, and I'm gonna probably pick on.
Some, I mean, seems to be your guy. And now where you're gonna pick.
On, I'm gonna pick on Matt McClain. And I will tell you.
I like McLain. I'm buying back in AFL coming back from the injury. I think it's gonna take a little bit of time, but I think he'll be okay.
It's part of the problem.
So like I also like Matt McClain. Here's what I don't like. There's no discount he's being going. He's going inside the top one hundred right now. I don't like the discount. He did not play last year except in the aarson A fall league where I saw him personally every single day and he still had some of the warts. That was my hope if you're gone for an entire year. You know, he was during instructs. I actually caught him at Red's instructs. You know he had been out.
There working when instructs.
But well, it's the instructional league where there's nothing going on. Uh, you would have hoped during that time.
Maybe let's take a look at the year prior. Let's get some fixes.
Specifically, what I'm talking about is that strikeout rate. It looked as bad as ever in the Arizona Fallay. Now, maybe that's you know, you lost the whole season. You're trying to be hyper aggressive, anything super high on fastballs, attack, swing through, he's striking out. He was just eating low breaking stuff outside the zone. And my problem with that is he had a twenty eight and a half percent strikeout rate the year prior when he played. Now how
he got through that. He barreled the ball ten percent, forty two percent hard hit rate, and his expected batting average was there, Like he gets stuff done. He's kind of like Spencer Steer. In fact, if you look at it as a whole. I'm just worried that maybe it is the same thing like Steer. Can he get to twenty twenty, Absolutely, but I'm worried it's going to be like at a two twenty or two thirty batting average,
he's going to have big swings. He's coming off of this injury where he missed a year and he looked rusty in the Arizona Fall League. So for me to pay a top one hundred value or cost on that, I'm not super interested, especially by the way I just mentioned a guy like Jonathan India. Jonathan India could put up I don't know ninety percent of what Matt McClain is at like one hundred and fifty picks later. So
I'm going to be fading Matt McClain this year. I'm where the strikeout rate is going to have an ultimate effect on his total value.
And I don't know how.
Terry Francona is going to just sit around and just all right, let's let him get through it. Mcclan might be hitting lower in the lineups as well. They might start platuning, because again, it's Pokemon. For Terry Francona, it's Pokemon Go. He is out there and he sees mystery player, He signs them, picks them up, and he puts them in the rotation for the Reds. I am just personally going to be out on drafting Matt McCain inside the top one.
Hundred, all right. I'm still probably in right around there. But so far in the drafts i've seen, it's been a little bit of a discount the ones I've been in so far. You know this grouping too, and we're going to get to the must haves here, you know, wholesale. Two V is still going as a third guy. I still prefer Albi's probably Simon two. I mean, how two V's thirty four years old, and I think at certain point in time you got to start taking that into effect. That's going to be even more declined.
You say the third or first guy.
He's typically going as the third guy. Oh yeah, yeah, And I'm just saying, you know, I'd rather have Albi's or Simion probably over That's me. That's my rankings personally going into the season.
I think Simeon is a huge value because you didn't say Marquez, So it threw me off, like can tell Martes.
Because I said this one first too, the clear cuts Betts and it's Marte. It's a clear shelf there. But then I look at the stat line last year for Altub and I look at the stat line this year for Luis Garcia Junior, and I keep coming back to the same thing, and I know he's my guy this year, and I'm going to pound the table every show for him.
But eighteen homers, twenty two a stone bass, excuse me, seventy rbi last year, fifty eight runs scored, And I think, you know, this lineup for the Nationals is going to be far improved. You're gonna get a whole season of James Wood, You're hopefully going to get a productive season form Dylan Cruz. We can only hope that Nathaniel Lowe is going to add a little bit more presence of that lineup along with Bell. So I think he's in
a good, solid lineup. And it's funny because when we started hyping him up, he was about I would say, one hundred picks different than jose Al Tuve. That gap is closing about seventy five in an nfbcceed right now drafts it's even less. So clearly people are also starting to pick up on that same fact there with him. So who's your must have? Guy Garcias on who's yours at second base?
Interesting thing too, A couple of notes is just throw in there.
Altuve has apparently been working in the outfield the rumors that were to signed, so you could some more musician eligibility. And also want to point out Mooki bets I believe should only qualify second base in Yahoo he had I think it.
Was eighteen games at second bastion.
Yeah, excuse me, Ivery wont to ask you a question. Do you like that more? Because sometimes when guys move positions, especially all star like, it doesn't always go like Craig Bigio like where it's it's like, yeah, it's fine. You know some guys who they go and they move, they struggle in the transition from infield to outfield specifically.
Oh okay, So I thought you were gonna ask like the positions because like Tatist did this and he got outfield eligibility and he was still really good.
And much different body type, much different athlete, I think too.
Yeah, I mean I think it could be weird.
I'm not sure it's going to affect the game, but I'm also pretty open to like the external things like that can affect these players, Like you know, sometimes like a guy that was always a hitter going in D eight something to think about with like Mike Traut, like.
Eligibility could changing that mindset. Sometimes the confidence level gets shaken a little bit. I don't know. I'm just saying, like, it's not always sunshine roses when a guy changes position.
Sure, and it might not be, especially at.
This stage in his career he's an older player.
Yeah, and then again, just the Mookie Bets thing. Eighteen games.
I believe at second base, so yahoo, he will qualify. He shouldn't in some of the other spots. I also personally believe we should change the qualifications to not twenty, but not five, so make it ten or fifteen. But that's just me, all right, my guy, I'm gonna go go with a guy that have played a bunch of games at two different positions. I think people consider him on the other side because that will be his position, but he qualifies at second base, so I must have.
Is Jordan Westburg. I've talked a bunch about him.
He's going around like the I think it's like the seventh or eighth or maybe even sixth second baseman. The point is is you can draft him, and that's why he becomes a must have. This isn't like saying, guys, Kutolmarta, you've got to have no Jordan Westberg.
He's a must have.
Eighteen homer, six dolen bases, two sixty four batting average last year, great hitting profile. You know, I love over ten percent barrel and forty five percent.
Hard hit rate. He hits that lowered to strikeout yate rate the year prior.
Hits the ball really hard one point one average exon velocity and the orioles they're bringing in that left field. I've said to a bunch on shows to make it a little bit more hitter friendly. So you've already got this kind of like monster profile that hit the ball really well. By the way's expected batting average was around two eighty, so it was even better with this great profile, better expected batting average, lowering the strikeouts. He can run.
He can hit legitimate shot at twenty five to ten. Maybe it's going to go thirty fifteen somewhere in there. The ballpark's becoming better. He's going to hit in a prominent spot for the Orioles lineup, so I'm really into it. Jordan Westburg with third and second base qualification as man must have second basement all right over to the hot corner.
The third baseman looked like this over on Fantasy Pros Consensus ADP, which again you can find over fantasypros dot Com. Jose Ramirez over at the top top five player overall my opinion, still maybe even top three. I mean, if you want to get to that argument when you look at third base as a whole. Vlad Gurow Junior, Jazz Chisholm, Rafield Devers, Austin Reiley. This is interesting because I think
there's warts on all these guys. Although they all have incredible talent and have all been super productive at one time or another. You could pick each one apart and find a negative on each one. Know, Dever is coming off a down year, Jazz Chisholm's injury history last year, Austin Riley looking lost then getting hurt, and Vlad, who has struggled at times and maybe the pressure of a contract year does get to him, maybe it doesn't. Second half last year was brilliant after that, Manny Machado at
six mark Vientos at seven. Who is my favorite thing? In twenty twenty five? Jordan Westbrook Junior Caminaro, Royce lewis very risky in the top ten as a recording. This still winning for Bregman to sign somewhere. Jake Berger, Matt Chapman, U Haino Suarezho was awful in the first half and then all of a sudden a completely different human being at fourteen. So that's kind of like your your rough version there of the top twelve issue at the position.
One thing to add, like Mookie Vladd will only qualify at third base in Yahoo. He played twelve games at third base, which was I was shocked when I actually saw because I saw the qualification. I was like, would he play five? No, he played twelve at.
Thirty he looked at third base ones, so.
Only Yah, who should be the one that has the third base qualification anywhere else ESPN and FBC. I believe CBS are all twenty game eligibility, so he wouldn't be the top third baseman. But Yahoo, you'll get that extra little push.
Yeah, So look, looking at this again, I'm willing to let this market come to me because I think there is a very strong middle there, Riley Machado, Viento's those are all really strong guys, and for me, a sleeper as a corner guy to me once againstoc paraitis right, he's going to be hitting in a good spot potentially in this order. Now Bregman signing could maybe change a
little of this. We're still waiting to find that out, but as of right now, Meregman is not back with the Houston Astros, and there's a chance here that you could see Paritas hitting in that two spot, which I think is terrific for that run scored total. He is not that far removed from a big time power season. We know all the stats about well, if you dropped him in last year, all those home run totals have have been a lot higher year over a year. So
there's a lot of reasons to like Parretis. And he's a lot younger too than people realize, which I think you know people take for granted he's kind of been around a while. But if he is sandwich between al Tuove and Alvarez man Welsh, that's a really good spot to be. Who's a sleeper for you in twenty twenty five at the hot corner.
Chalk it up that this is one hundred percent going to be mine. This was mine.
Joey beat it to it. I completely co sign on this one. His draft stock is just low again like what he did in Tampa Bay. I think is in play here for Esach Praatus because it's a low porch.
He is a pole.
He doesn't have a good hitting profile, that's the thing, and that's why the Cubs he was exposed. It was just like, doesn't Barrel doesn't hit the ball hard, like what's going on? But what he does is he pulls fly balls twenty two percent launch angle, and now you're gonna go in one of the best places to do that in Houston. So like Bradiy's is just undervalued. I like that not picking pretis. I went with someone that
I have a high rank on. I will be frank this could change because there could be a wrinkle thrown into it, but I'm gonna go with Matt Shaw.
Matt Shaw.
Everyone trying to figure out position qualifications for him as far as like what he did in the Miners, but Shaw is coming off of a twenty homer thirty stolen based season in the Miners. He is perceivably set to be the third baseman for the Cubs this year, where he is not going to have to be like praide Is and he's not like a bad hitting profile guy that's just going to have wall scraping homers Like No, the guy can dominate. I mean, the stolen based numbers
have actually been pretty shocking. He finished up last minor league season by going and playing in the Premieer twelve USA Tournament where he was the best player and you had like Carson Williams playing there, Tamar Johnson, he was hands down the best player offensively, crushing more home runs. He is ready, and there's a reason why they moved off of Praideres to do it. But if Bregman were to sign there, it does really kind of throw a wrinkle into stuff because they'd have to trade Horner to
get Matt Shaw back in there. But his cost is really really efficient. I think, by the way, he's number two in NL Rookie of the Year voting, yet I believe his ADP is outside the top two hundred. So you know, if you think that he is going to play all season long, he's going to beat projections. He's going to be close to a twenty twenty guy, and he is a definite sleeper that you can get at like corner infield cost and he'd qualify I think infield in some spots a shortstop.
All right, let's talk about the busts here on the other side of the coin here. And look, I know Baltimore kind of had a glut of prospects, so they can afford to move a couple. But you know, when you love a prospect quote unquote, and then you move on from him, sometimes I think that's a bit of red flag. I also don't like the lineup where this player ended up either hitting in Miami. Now it's kind of norby. And it's not because I don't think he can be a productive player. I do. I think it's
far too early. He's only twenty five years old, you know, to think that he can't be a good, solid, everyday player for the Marlins. He can be. The thing is, you know, it's one thing to be an up and coming prospect in an organization and you end up in a lineup that's got a lot of protection, a lot of help, and you can easily be productive and make a transition. I think it's much harder in a place where the talent is a little less or in this case,
a lot less. You know, I just don't feel like Norby, despite the fact that he's probably hitting two, is going to deliver on the promise, at least not this year. I
think it's going to be a tough transition. And you know, I always go back to a great example of this is Jad Martinez early in his career, right with the Astros when they were so bad and there was nobody around him, and then he got traded to Detroit and he got dropped in a line up there with the protection of Miguel Cabrera, and his career because completely took off. And I'm just saying it's just much harder for young players to not have proper lineup production and reach their
ceiling quickly. So, wels, who are you out on potentially this year in twenty twenty five at third base?
By the way, that's an interesting one because I feel like his cost is so low it's hard.
For him to be a bust.
He also has some really good underlying profile metrics, but it's of one of the worst.
Tis still buzzy, like, oh kind of normy prospect guy like you know what I mean, Like, and we all know those dynasty circles that they run hot all the prospect names and people go, this guy's gonna be really useful. I just don't know if he's going to be useful. But you're right, it's not gonna cost you too much to find out. But also there is a name I just want to be dangerous of that.
Yeah, and there's not a ton there.
That was the other thing that's like on your side, it's like there's not a lot of support, there's not a lot of RBI opportunities, So I don't know what that's going to look like. There could be some k problems. So that's a really interesting Mine comes back similar to strand this is me and this is why, Like I don't think I can be right on all these guys that I'm picking on from this mentric, so one of them is going to be wrong, and I would counter
to my own point. This is kind of like what I just said with Norby that Josh Young who I'm picking as my bust here, he's kind of free is ADP is at like right around the two hundred range, So like how much can you really bust when you're outside the top two hundred. But I am picking on him because I will say I found this the hardest of the infield positions to pinpoint, like who is going to be my actual bus?
Royce Lewis came to mind.
I think the top guys they're so chalky, and then there's this big jump and it's like, I just don't feel like you're getting a lot of busts in there. Matt Chapman is like amazing value. So I picked Josh Young again. This is the twenty twenty three was great. Twenty twenty four absolutely atrocious, especially with especially with.
Some of the hitting profile. I'm maybe not.
Absolutely atrocious, but two sixty four seven homers, four stolen bases with Josh Young. Strikeout rate came down a tiny bit, but a lot of the actual hitting metrics came down. Barrel went down, hard, hit absolutely tanked. He had a two forty expected batting average. Don't like any of that. He was struggling with an injury, and I think he's
gonna get moved down the lineup. So I'm not a big Josh Young guy, but I really found this to be tough, and it might just be wrong because if he returns back to what he was in twenty twenty three, by the way, almost a fifty percent hard hit rate, twelve percent barrel. He had some strikeout problems, but he was absolutely crushing the ball in a really good environment.
So I might eat my words on this, but you know, like you had to go Norby, I had to go young because this was a tough spot to like pinpoint the bust.
All right, My must have at third base is simple. It's Mark Vientos of the New York Mets. You saw a star being born last year in twenty twenty five. That guy was unbelievable. And going back to last year's shows, we talked about his performance in spring training, and you know how an amord eye was of him in spring training. I said, he's finally ready. I think he's finally got it.
And then the Martinez thing happened. He took over at DH and he was very visibly upset about this, and he took it personally, and he went down and he raked, and he got called up and he did nothing but rake at the major league level and then had some huge moments of the postseason. Now you're putting him behind Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor, and I don't think there's any way if he stays healthy, he doesn't drive in one hundred runs this year, I think he's gonna hit
over thirty home runs. And if again, if Pete Alonzo comes back and you sandwich him between Pete Alonzo and Juan Soto in that third spot, oh my god, Mark Viento's is going to be an all star. Mark Viento's is gonna be a guy that is going to become a rock star in twenty twenty five. I mean he could even approach thirty five or forty home runs. That's how good I think Vientos is as a power hitter. And with all those fastballs you might see and all those guys on base ahead of him, it could be
an incredible year for Viento's. I'm going to be aggressive on him in twenty twenty five. Well, Foozier must have at third base.
Yeah, I like that one a lot. Mine is probably guy that's gonna play first base. He's on the other side. Hell, maybe he'll play third base and he'll play more third base this team and knock off Josh Young. It's Jake Berger some kind of staying in that same team where I don't seem to like a ton of the Reds. For whatever reason, I have been enamored with a lot of the Rangers players. Jake Berger is just going into a fantastic spot. We've talked about everybody's talked about it.
He's coming off a twenty nine homer season.
He's hit two fifty.
By the way, he's the new Chorris Davis K Chris with a K. He's hit two fifty three straight seasons. Jake Berger has He's a thirty homer lock and now he's going into one of the better hitting environments out there. He's coming off of hitting with the White Sox and the Marlins. He's now with the Rangers. As long as he doesn't hit in that eighth spot or seventh spot that like roster resources.
Putting twelve percent.
Barrel forty seven percent hard hit, he lowered his strikeout rate. He's got an expected average that's around almost two sixty. Jake Berger is in a phenomenal environment where, by the way, let's just for a minute pretend that he could hit four or five. You've got Marcus Simeon, Corey, Seeger Wyatt, Langford in your top three spot against righty's are probably gonna put Jock Peterson. We'll see what they do with guys like Adulies.
If he bounces back.
You do have Josh Young, but Berger is an opportunity to hit higher in the lineup. He's already hitting thirty homers. Now the RBIs boost up and he's going outside the top one hundred. Must have multi corner infield qualifications for Berger.
Got to have him. This is one of my favorite ones we've done so far.
I love this acquisition for the Rangers in the offseason. I thought it was really sharp on their point too. Just give them a little bit more insurance there for the Corey Seekers and Marcus Simeans if they miss more time again in twenty twenty five. Let's move on to short stuff. Before we do a quick reminder. Take these names we're giving you and put them on your cheat sheet. Well, how do you make a cheat sheet, I'll tell you.
Using the cheat sheet Creator, you can enhance your fantasy baseball strategies with the cheat sheet Creator seamlessly integrating and merging rankings from all the experts that you choose. That's right, the experts that you agree with, not just any expert, or you can take the consensus in with your own and you can organize players into tiers, personalized notes and
streamliner and decision making process. So when you hook up your Draft Wizard and sink it to you your league, you've got your cheat sheets right there with you in the draft. It's what you need right now. Fantasypros dot Com slash cheat Sheet. If you want to dominate your league's cheat sheets are a great way to do that. And you check him out today. The Fantasy Baseball Draft
Wizard app is available. I'll just remind you again, fanacypros dot com slash Mlbdraft Wizard, or wherever you get your apps, download that bad boy, because it's the ultimate cheat code. Let's get to the shortstops. Welsh and a guy that I just took in our most recent draft, a guy that I even mentioned in our Undervalued show, and he's gonna come up here again because he really is a sleeper. I think I don't hear anybody talking about Jeremy PanAm.
And when you start to look through this list here, you've got Bobby Witt at the top, You've got Ellie de la Cruz, you've got Gunner, Henderson, Mookie Bets, Francisco Lindor, huge names. I think that is the number one tier. Then you got the Trey Turner, Corey Seeger. Okay, we're starting to get into a little bit more shaky ground, but still big time talent. On'eal Cruz a guy once again, another guy moving positions, going to the outfield. But it's career.
That stuff doesn't worry me nearly as much as the veterans when they start to move off positions. CJ. Abrams, Williadomas, Matt McClain, who you already voiced some concern about, bobashett A twelve. Then right on that peripheral, you've got Nico Horner, Anthony Volpi, Tovar all in that group. Tovar was my favorite guys last year had a really good season. But what's so fascinating is I look at the production of
Jeremy Pania last year fifteen homers, seventy seventy. I think he could easily be a seventy five seventy five guy, maybe even push that home run total closer to twenty. Gave you twenty steals last year, hit to sixty six and I'm thinking Anthony Volpi hasn't given me anything quite like that. I'm thinking to myself, I'm looking around. Matt McClain's coming off a major injury, Nico Horner lots of stolen bases, but doesn't give me quite maybe the power
ceiling I think he might have. And then guys like Xander Bogart's Bryce and Stott Like, these guys are kind of, I think a little bit underwhelming to me. I know, some of them give you a little bit more stone bases, and I understand why that's coveted in the Rodos and the head to head Rodo Man. Well, Jeremy Pinia just seems like a guy at my middle infield spot that I think I could plug and play and be very happy with for one hundred and sixty two.
Yeah, there were two guys that came to mind when we did this, and by the way, I do think this floats between sleeper undervalued, however you want to look at it. Number one was Jeremy Pania and then I saw you had him, so I'm like, I can't put Jeremy Pene on there because I.
Used the advantages of making the sheet up.
Yeah, yeah, you got to it first, completely agree. It's just like somewhere between, you know, twenty stolen bases, fifteen homers. By the way, ATC projections on him, pretty good average at two sixty two fifteen homers, seventeen stolen bases with a sub twenty percent K percentage in Houston.
Love it.
And by the way, he's in some instance has been a lead off hitter. And now you got Tucker out of that lineup, so we'll see what happens. Number two on that list for me, though, was Mason Winn when I couldn't pick Jeremy Penia. Mason Winn is coming off of a solid season. He had two sixty seven, fifteen homers, eleven stolen bases. He sent he spent the off season working at a lot of those bat clinics, getting in some more body mass, adding muscle, working on bat speed
as they usually do. He's been working with Jordan Walker. And you know, Mason wins profile was sub eighteen percent K percentage, that's relatively elite. Gets the ball in the air, thirteen degree launch angle, that's solid.
He's walking a.
Bit, but he doesn't have that big explosive barrel, hard hit. So how does he get it done well. There's a lot of guys in baseball CJ. Abrams, Has and Kim I use them as always my examples Estock Brady's technically that have these low barrel like wind does low hard hit.
So what do they do.
They get under the ball and they get it in the air. Launch angle sweet spot as well as a metric that Baseball Savant does and that had a huge boost this past year twenty six to thirty three percent the launch angle. He hits it on the perfect spot to get the ball up in the air. Mookie Betts does that and now his launch angle went up. So my whole point of this is is that's where you're going to start optimizing and getting some home runs. And that's why you can project him in the fifteen. He's
also aggressive base stealer. He's got a really good hitting profile where he doesn't strike out and make contact. Projections are around fifteen to fifty teen and like a two fifty to sixty average on him. I think there's a legitimate opportunity that he can jump up. Average can go up into the two eighties. He could be a twenty twenty guy and he's going you know, one seventy five to two hundred right now. So Mason Win is a definite sleeper, kind of must target player at shortstop.
Yeah, it's funny, Welsh, because I took penny from you, but my second choice would have been Win. So we're seeing eye to eye on the sleepers here. Yeah, absolutely the bust. This one was easy for me. I could not wait to put this name in Trevor's story. When is enough enough for everybody? I don't. I don't get this, Welsh.
I don't understand it. I like it, And uh, well you're gonna tell me why, because I'm gonna give you all the reasons why I don't, and then you get to try to sell me as best you can't.
But yeah, go ahead.
Well, I mean he hasn't played one hundred games in three years since he's been a Red Sox. First of all, the top out was ninety three. Uh, his splits in Colorado were always massive. I was never a big fan of his in Colorado either. I find him to be
a very overrated player that would have some hot streaks. Sure, the numbers were always better because it was Colorado, But I hated this signing when the Red Sox did it, and it was so weird because it's like, you're gonna pay Trevor's story, but you're not gonna playing Mookie Betts. And it's turned out to be one of the worst
decisions this organization has ever made. And now they've got these kids coming, They've got the Roman Anthonis coming, They've got the Casses to come, and they've got Christian Campbell come, and they've got Rafaela, and they got all these kids. I think story is gonna get pushed out. I know he's only like thirty two years older. Whenever he's turning this year, I'm out on Trevor's story. It's this name brand thing like Chris Bryant was still relevant in every
draft for a couple of years. Like when do we learn, like just because a guy was good once upon a time doesn't make him good now or even investible. I think that's the problem. I don't think the guy's even investible at this stage. What are your I know he is still going late and I get that's probably what you're gonna say, but he's free. But at the same time, I Christian Campbell, Matt Shaw going after him, and I think you would agree I'd rather take a shot on those guys.
Yeah, I have them higher. So yeah, that's not right. Well for me, that's not a disagreement. I completely am with you.
But he's free.
He is the epitome of He literally doesn't get drafted in many twelve team leagues. There's I'm gonna say this, and it might be like someone might be able to answer it better, but I'm just.
Gonna say it with like, you know, authority.
There's no player that's not being drafted that has twenty twenty upside if they play the whole season than Trevor Story. Like, I can't think off the top of my head a guy that would be on the wire that would go out of your draft not being drafted.
That lockdown.
If I said, hey, you're getting one hundred and forty games at a Trevor Story, You're getting twenty twenty. That's what you're going to get out of him. There's just no other players. So that's why I'm in on it. But he can't stay healthy, So I don't disagree with that, but it's you know, I mean, there's just murderer's row after murderer's row of those guys, Like I still like the hitting profile.
He's young enough.
He's just absolutely free if he doesn't work out, cut him, see you. But there is twenty twenty tens.
I just I don't want to waste draft picks. I guess that's where I'm at. At Ah, who's your bust for this section?
My bus is a big name, and it's more about my disinterest Abrams. Everything is still in his favor. He came off of a twenty thirty season two forty six batting average. I mean, obviously insane. The hitting profile still has some you know, questions. He is barreling. He struck out a little bit more. He hit the ball harder. Like I said before, he optimizes it, gets the ball in the air. But he comes in an absolute premium cost. And he ended the season being suspended for staying out
all night gambling. And that is a clear issue that is going on. Maybe that doesn't carry over, maybe that's completely fixed. He's had two really good fantasy seasons. I just got to tell you, like it's the stage we've talked about the world of overpaying for like a lot of strikeouts.
It's just not there for me.
He's going around a guy like Corey Seeger, who I think is an elite four category player that does have some injury questions, but he doesn't have suspension questions. He also doesn't have a bad hitting profile. I'm just worried when things go wrong for Abrams, it'll go wrong bad. There's also some off the field stuff, and I just don't feel the need that I want to pay for extreme stolen bases. But still at the same time, like, hey, well shut up, was twenty thirty.
I get it. I'm just not into the cost. So that's why he's my bust.
Well, it's funny because he was a win for a sleeper last year on both of our lists, and now a look a year later, we're like, okay, you know, and that happens sometimes for us, Like we love a player, we love the value, we love the upside, and the next year sometimes the cost is a little bit too much. But it's amazing how much difference, you know, a year can make for a player. All right, I must have as a guy Welsh already hates at this position. I'm
gonna say, Matt McLain. I've been doing a lot of homework on Matt McClain to see where he's at reading all the articles, reading all the stuff coming out of his mouth. Arizona Fall League. He had four home runs. The slugging was there, the timing and the batting average wasn't there yet. But I assume that because he hasn't played baseball a long time. This is a guy that is very crucial what he does in spring for me. I want to make sure he has a good spring.
If he does, I feel really good about where he is despite the fact the ADP is Welsh pointed out, is still relatively high. And here's the big reason why I want to take shots on twenty five twenty four year old guys who are gonna hit potentially, you know, somewhere in the two eighty range. But more importantly, you go back and you look at the OBP around four hundred in his minor league track record and five hundred of this slugging. A guy that's got power in a
small ballpark with on bass skills. I want that guy on my team. So Matt McClain, that's your counterpoint for him. Welsh gave you the negatives, I give you the positives. Give me a must have for you in twenty twenty five at this position.
But if he If he hits two eighty, I will eat my word.
I do not believe there's a world where he's gonna hit two eighty, But if he does, I'm wrong as hell on Matt McClain.
My pick, well, he's gonna be HiT's two sixty and gives me a three eighty on bays than a five hundred slugging man. That's gonna be a good player. That's gonna be a real good player.
Well, the guy I'm gonna pick at shortstop is going after Matt McClain, and he used to be like a third round pick in drafts. He seems boring now because he's coming off of his literal worst season ever.
I'm saying Bobashett is the guy.
Bobashett is going massively late in drafts because he just hit two twenty six or two twenty five with four homers and five stolen bases in half of a year
with a bunch of misstime. But that's coming off of the season where he hit three hundred with twenty homers, and he was going in like the third round because what if he runs a little bit more And my main thesis across the board is more about like the anomaly is last season, compared to his career, he was nine percent nine percent, nine percent barrel just year after year forty four fifty, hard hit all of a sudden. Last year, hard hit absolutely tanks, barrels cut in half,
everything fell apart. Even so, his expected batting average was still around two fifty, but he's around our career two ninety guy. He didn't strike out more, he walked a little bit, and he just ended up underperforming specifically against some of that aw speed and breaking stuff. I think those things are going to change this year. I think that was the anomaly, and I think his cost is so depressed batting average is going to boost back up.
I really think he just helps your team. He can play more as a middle infielder if you need to. Projections have him hitting two seventy four with sixteen homers according to atc SO, I think Boba shed at his cost as a must buy position.
Here the catcher spot and the top twelve look like this. William Contreras at the top, Adlie Rutchman next, then Yander Diez sal Perez cal Rawley coming in at five. That's your top five, which is a pretty strong group. I would say, but for me, I'm still especially in single catcher leagues twelve team fifteen league, I don't care. I'm
waiting two catcher leagues. Obviously, the calculus changes. Logan o'happy, excuse me, Will Smith at six, then Wilson Contreras, Logan Ohappy at eight, Shay Langeliers at nine, J T Real Muto at ten, Tyler Stevenson at eleven, Francisco Alphaez at twelve, and then on the peripheral you got Austin Wells, Sean Murphy looking for a bounce back season with Atlanta, like the entire Atlanta Braves, Steve it seems like kybrit Ruiz at fifteen, and then Connor Wong at sixteen. As you
get a little deeper. So again, it's always the same with me. Number one, I hate two catcher leagues. I think they're stupid. I don't think there's any reason for him number two. Single catcher leagues twelve to fifteen. There's twelve to fifteen guys there that I can live with, and I just don't want to put the investment ahead of time in one of these bigger catchers unless somebody really dramatically falls. So that's the easy look for me
and the sleeper in this list. I can't believe I got two mets on the list I'm going to talk about. I mean, talk about a difference a year makes. But Francisco Alvarez, I don't think we've seen the best out of him yet. Francisco Alvarez is a big time power potential here, and he could easily pop twenty five to thirty home runs in twenty twenty five if everything broke right. I think a lot of last year for him was really getting acclimated to managing the pitching staff and understanding
what needed to happen there. And I think sometimes he also got frustrated with get into slumps and he was having a hard time turning things around. If you go back and look at the minor league rack record of this guy, this was a bat first catcher, right, you know. And it turns out the framing improved and all the other things improved. But everybody talked about Alvarez for the bat, not so much of the defense. And I think Alvarez in this lineup potentially could finally have that breakout season.
So he's my sleeper at the position. Who's yours Welsh.
Yeah, and I was looking.
By the way, I believe there's like nine on ATC catchers projected for twenty or more homers. Francisco Alvarez is the lowest cost of all of those projected catchers. I think this is a fantastic one, probably the one I would have picked as well, because it's low costs. I have my narrative here with catchers. I just play him late because I play single catcher leagues. I don't want to pay high costs at all. The catcher that I'm going to end up picking, though, is Austin Wells. Trevino
out of town. I think that opens up more opportunities.
For Wells to be out there.
ATC projections have him around eighteen homers. I was going to pick Ivan Herrera, who had a really nice underlying hitting profile, and he's going to be I don't know if he's going to be the guy though, because I got Pedro Pajas, because Wilson Gatrez is going to move over. But if he were to get like the primary amount, it might be Herrera. But Austin Wells I think is locked because I don't think there's enough competition there. I
think they want him to be the guy. There's a lot of power, it's a great hitting environment, and he's going outside the top twelve.
So give me a late catcher in Austin Wells to the Yankees, all right?
For me? The bust is j tirol Muto. I don't like investing in older catchers. I think I saw a lot of the client in him and just watched him last year, and he's a guy like he's played so many games at the position. I know he floats around sometimes in other spots too. You've seen the stolen bases drop off a cliff, you know, from twenty one to sixteen and then to just two last year. I know we only played ninety nine games. But again, he's gonna be thirty four years old. I know the Phillies are
still a really good team. I'm just out on real mewtwo. I think this is another one where you're paying for the past of name brand value. Welsh, Who is a catcher that you don't want? Or should I say what kind of catcher don't you want? On draft day?
Good way to phrase it, Joe, any catcher inside the top one hundred I don't want NFBC ADP listen. William Contreri's is a monster. I love him, smaller guy to catcher, lots of power. He's at top twenty five NFBC EIGHTYPECE in January first. But it's a two catcher I get it. But still, uh, in standard leagues, who are the guys that are going to be in there?
Adlely?
Maybe yanire Diaz William Contreras is going to be the number one. I'm not saying they can't come close to returning value. I just don't think the difference of the value on the guys you would invest in the top one hundred compared to the other hitters or pitches you could take, then moving down into taking the guy I'm gonna have as a must have or J two Ramuto or you know, I mean handfuls of guys. I just
don't think the production difference makes enough sense. So I think investing in the top one hundred in a single catcher league, I'm not there. I'd also say even in the two catcher league, investing in the top fifty is really not something I want to do, kind of like even in closers, I would just rather have a little
bit more value. You're gonna have to pay like closer seven or eight in the two catcher league is going to still go inside the top one hundred, but late I'd rather do that, But no inside the top one hundred catchers.
Please.
Sometimes I say clear.
Agree one thousand percent with everything you're saying. I must have guy. Actually, if I'm in Herrera is the everyday catcher like we come out of spring, that's the guy that I do want. But as Welsh said, that might be a little bit of a muddy situation there. So instead, once again, whatever's old as new again it's logan, OHSPI, he's gonna be twenty five years old. Look, I got my dudes, and you know what, like had my dudes last year. I'm like camon Aro's my Durans, Like those
are my guys. I'm just sticking to my guns. And I think that's important for everybody to do when they're going into a season. Identify the players you want, and then just drill it into yourself that those are the guys you want.
Uh.
Look, the same thing as a guy with power in the minor leagues hit for better average in the minor leagues, like I just think he had his finally as full season, first full major league season, he's gonna be twenty five years old. I think there's just a lot of upside there for him to outperform as ADP. He's not going to the top one hundred catcher, so I'm allowed to take him. But Welsh, is there somebody just outside the top one hundred that if you did want to take a catcher, who would it be?
Yeah, So I definitely want values, and I'm not sure if this guy's going to be a value because people are in on it. But he's right around those middle. And I know this is funny and me's saying I want Lake catchers. I do, But if I were taking and having a little bit more investment, is Wilson Contreras. Wilson Contrares with the Cardinals is moving off of catcher. He's going to be their first baseman for this year.
So that means you're gonna get all the games. We're not looking at, you know, four hundred at bats, which he had in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. He only had three hundred and actually three hundred and one at bats last year, and he still hit fifteen homers. So you're getting a guy that qualifies a catcher playing first base every day.
That's the type of guy that I'm willing to invest in. So Contreras would be the must have.
Okay, so who are your must haves? Who's your sleepers, who's your bust? What's the infield look like to you? Drop your comments below let us know what you're thinking. Don't forget to subscribe to Fantasy Pros MLB and of course ring the belt to the ghosting for notification so you never miss a moment of fantasy baseball talk here on the channel. That'll do it for us, But the story of the game goes on for the Welsh. I'm Joey P. We'll see you next time kids, Happy drafting.
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.
