Late round power. Let's talk to the pros. Welcome in everybody to Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy Baseball Podcast. It is be Joey p joe Pisapia, and today we're going to take a look at the late round sluggers. That's right. Everybody likes power on their teams, but sometimes you don't want to pay for it. You want a little bit of a discount, So we're going to give that to you today. Looking at some of the players outside the top two hundred ADP that fit that bill.
We've gone pretty deep on some of these names. Some will be familiar, maybe a few still we have to sell you on. But regardless, these are the top twenty guys. We've each made a list of ten. And joining me today on the show as always my good friend the Welsh Chris Welsh. He has got his sexy voice to today because he's a little under the weather, but to me, that makes the show all the more appealing.
Yeah, that's good if it's a little sexy voice. A little bit deeper everybody.
Hello, Yes, this is my co host Tom Waits. For the next hour. Now, it's not even going to be that long, folks. It will want to be an hour show.
Can we talk some sluggers though? Please?
Like the Snuggers and the ADP. I love Tom. Tom Waite should do a sports podcast now that I think about it, and maybe I'm dating myself with the.
Tom Wains, I didn't do it.
What do you think of JD. Martinez? He's classic. I think he's timeless. But anyway, let's get to some of these names on the list before we do. Just a quick reminder too, The Wizard is open for business. That's right. Your letter to Hogwarts is waiting around the corner and a trip to the championship. But it all starts now. You have to use the wizard. The twenty twenty three MLB Draft Wizard is open so you can get all your mock drafts on go to fantasypros dot com s
last Draft Wizard. We'll just get the Fantasy Pros app to and you can do all of your mock drafting till you're The cows come home and I don't know where they've been, but they've been out late. They've probably been drinking, but ten minutes, have some fun, run some mock drafts. Start your preparation now, start to see the board, because the board in January is going to evolve into February and you're gonna see some of these names start to change. So it's good to start preparing again an
idea of where some of those ADPs are. And speaking of those ADPs, let's kick off with Welsh's number ten. Outside the top two hundred, where you might find a little bit of pop.
You know, we talked about this guy, I think in the last couple episodes, and when you're looking outside the top two hundred ADP, there's some interesting names. There's some really good hitters. Overall. I'm not the biggest on this guy, but if we are going to make any definition of like sluggers looking for fifteen or more homers post two hundred, I do think it is still hard to deny kateell Marte Fantasy Pros ADP, which I just want to shout out there is not a lot of ADP out there.
There is NFBC ADP, which is a little bit of a different beast. ESPN just opened their product. It's a product. I guess, it's a thing. We just did a mock up, which, by the way, I want to point out something I wanted to add to your read. We hooked it up to the Draft Wizard and hilariously, I loved my own draft. You hated my draft. You hated my draft that I put together in a twelve team It was a twelve team one.
But that's one of the great things is you get all the insights, and if you're a Premium member, you get even more insights. And you can put your keepers in the Draft Wizard stuff, which is so cool. So if you like yeah, but round you have them in
like it. It's pretty sophisticated. I don't think people out there still realize just how sophisticated this product is, especially when you are upgraded your membership from free to something else, because especially in these baseball leagues, we have all these keepers and rounds attached to them that you can run these drafts with. With those players in there, that's invaluable. But continue on about my hatred. Yes, I'd like to hear more.
Yeah yeah, no, Well, and also, like these sites, projections are wild, so it was good to kind of stabilize it with Fantasy Pro. So I just wanted to throw that out there as well, but they don't have ADP, and so I just want to point out it is great that there is ADP information out there on Fantasy Pros. You can just type in A good thing to do is you know Fantasy Pros Baseball ADP, and it'll pop
up and you can start to take a look. And one of those that jumps out is kateel Marte, and Katel's offensive upside seems a little bit staggered right now. But what I would say this, it's always hard it. Bat X projections have him at eighteen homers. He's touched
thirty before. He's going to be the number three hitter for Arizona, which is going to be a little bit sneaky, and you're gonna get fifteen plus homer power from him with I think more potential upside and more RBI and it's post two hundred Fantasy Pros current ADP two twelve that you can get him right now. So you want to talk about some late sluggers, maybe this isn't the traditional slugger. This is a really good homer value of fifteen plus post two hundred.
At a really crappy position, by the way, and he just actually showed up on our previous list, which is kind of interesting. Where you are not a huge fan. Yet here we are, and it just goes to show you we're all about business here on the show. It's not about personal preference. It's about winning. That's it.
That guy that's my guy, by the way, on my team, like I want to vote for I want to root for him. His value is what makes him so exponentially interesting right now compared to where you ever had to pay for him.
Now, the next guy on my list, number ten, uh, maybe a guy who you want on your fantasy team, but you don't want inner fantasy league. It's Jock Peterson. That's right. You want Jack Peterson for that little bit of extra power that he provides. Last year twenty three homers. Right now, the current ADP of Jock Peterson is sitting around two twenty four to twenty five depending on the hour, and look left handed power bat, he is just thirty. I think people forget that. You know, it's been around
so long. Last year at two forty seven ISO. You look at his high water mark for home runs, it was thirty six just in twenty nineteen with the Dodgers, and you know, going back here with the San Francisco Giants last year. To me it's all about playing time for him. One hundred and thirty seven games in twenty twenty one combined with two teams one hundred and thirty four last year, there's no reason not to think that he is going to be, you know, somewhere around that
mark as well. The thing with Peterson is they do come in bunches, which makes him a tough sell in any head to head format. But in this roto season long you set it and forget it. I think it's at least a minimum of twenty five in that range, with upside for more, especially since you know, I think when you go out you bring in another bat like Canfordo, who we're going to talk about in the second I might as well just talk about because he's my number nine.
Confordo is another guy at two thirty three who I think also fits that bill. My concern is a slow start for Conforida, who did not play all of last season with injury for the New York Mets us with the shoulder surgery. Nobody signed him, so a year off is a little concerning. If he has a regular offseason at this point, and he was healthy at the end
of last year, some teams were considering signing him. This is a guy that you know some around twenty eight and a half home runs is kind of his average from twenty seventeen to twenty nineteen. Is a great opportunity. Both these guys left headed sluggers, so there might be some stretches where they're facing tough lefties and those head to head formats with daily transactions, you might want to
pull them out. But overall, I think if you draft these two guys in San Francisco, you have a good chance to probably get fifty plus homers between the two of them. And I do believe that even if Canforida is a slow starter, this is a player that if you don't draft him, you could certainly try four two. Give me your number nine guy Welsh on your list of late round sluggers.
Yeah, this is another guy I think is just a really good value right now. If you're looking at again another position that isn't great. Second base is in great, third base isn't great. He's got an ADP. This is in the higher two hundreds of two point fifteen, though on Fantasy pros it's Josh Young with the Texas Rangers. Josh Young hit five homers last year and around twenty six games, missed a ton of time. This is a big power bat, a big contact bat that gets into power.
It's kind of reminiscent of like I always use Goldie as a gold standard of players, no pun intended of like dudes that you know, tap into power that are not trying to. That's kind of how Josh Young is. Also a little bit faster current projections Steamers at nineteen, bad x is at seventeen. This is only over one hundred and twenty games if they're building an injury. If there's not, and you get a whole full one fifty out of him, you're looking at twenty plus across the
board at not a good position. One of the better young bats that still exist out there, and that would be vying for Rookie of the Year. You know, we're talking about Henderson and Corbyn, Carroll and all those guys, but don't forget Josh Young is still technically rookie eligible and he'll be one of those guys that gets full season run on probably a pretty good team. So I'm
not I'm not a big anti Josh Young guy. You know, the big outlier is he struck out thirty eight percent of the time in major leagues and twenty eight percent of the time in Triple A.
This year.
He had never gone twenty three percent of the time in his entire career, and we talked about it. He just missed so much time. There was so much time that was missed in there, so good contact bat tapping into power. Showed the power at the major leagues even with the strikeout rate. I think he's going to be twenty plus and he's post two hundred on Fantasy Pros ADP and.
Is a good thing. We like that. Next on my list, he is an ADP of two thirty five. So, as you can see, in this kind of two twenty to two forty range, there's some bats here that you get get some pretty good value on if you're looking for some utility bats or some outfield depth. This next guy is corner guy Tristan Cassis of the Boston Red Sox, now again just twenty three years old, so this is
a little bit of a reach. I think fifteen is in his grasp as long as he keeps his job and plays every day in the Boston Red Sox at this point have no reason not to do that. And continue to turn the page and look to the future because they are not quite a contender this year. In my opinion, I don't care where anybody's trying to sell me on this Mondesty trade, like all of a sudden, that's going to be the cure all for the Boston Red Sox.
Because that's not the guy.
And left handed power in Fenway Park traditionally a good thing. So you look at you know this Lugan percentage four eighty five in the minor leagues. But again a young player. This is a kid drafted out of high school, so you know this is a guy that will continuously grow into that power. So I think fifteen is a good baseline, but I do think twenty is possible if things break right, maybe a strong second half, maybe some strong work at home in those splits. That's something to pay attention to.
This is a player too, I think you pay a lot of attention to in those daily transaction formats where you're putting guys in out of lineups. If you think it's a good matchup or if he's on a hot strike, you play him. If he's not, you sit him. But regardless, I think this is a player of talent. This is
a player they're trying to build the future with. So even if he does struggle, kind of like Kansas City with Bobby Witt last year, just leave him alone, leave him alone, let him figure it out, give him the confidence to continue on, and I think if everything breaks right, he can get over that twenty mark. You think I'm reaching here, No, I would have had him on my list.
I would have had him on my list had you not put him on here, one hundred percent.
Look, see we do him higher too. We don't care what the draft wizard says.
I actually want to point out I would have had him higher than you have him on this list had you not picked him, I probably would have put him at like five or you know, four or five on this list.
Well, the only reason is, you know, with the young players, we do get that thing where we get excited they come up there and then they just flatline. And that is, as my friend Derek Brown likes to say, in the range of outcomes.
Yeah, but in the range of outcomes, we're also talking about guys that are post two hundred, post three hundred. These are players that are immense values. And this is what this round in these rounds sometimes consist of questionable playing time around young players, are un proven young players, and then kind of stinky veterans, you know what I mean, like the adom de All's of the world and stuff
like that. So you've got to take your shot. So, yes, there's a wide range of outcomes that exist with these guys, But if you're looking to hit a home run, these are the type of guys that get you there, especially these young bats that people are just you know, there's prospect fatigue, they're not quite sold on completely. Tristan Cassas is the prime example. I think of his conversation.
Love it all right, So Tristan Cassis, guy, we both endorsed two thirty five ADP number eight on my list. Let's go to number eight on your list? Who is it? Uh? This one?
It's not a cheat. I'm not trying to completely cheat here, though I was trying to cheat behind the scenes with Joe. I kept being like, can I get this guy who's not quite a slugger blah blah blah.
Guy and he's you know, he's one ninety nine or defined slugger.
Slugger was more of the question because I think there's there's some good value hitters, and one of them at a throw out to you is not a traditional classical slugger, but it is Oswald Perros with the New York Yankees. And there's a couple of reasons behind this. Ooswalt Parraza is, for all intentsive purpose, is going to be given the gig in New York. He has a chance to lose it. He has a chance. Obviously, he's been given the opportunity
to take it. What's interesting about him in the miners in twenty twenty two hit nineteen homers with thirty three stolen bases in ninety nine games, comes up to the majors. Hits a homer, a couple stolen bases, hits three hundred, No big deal set to play this year, projections if you go and look, he'll only be seven homers, ten stolen bases or eight homers ten stolen bases, depending what projection system you look at. But the games are in the sixties seventies, so if he is a full time
player this year, projections all but guarantee. He is a fifteen to twenty guy, little bit of a smaller build type of player, six foot two hundred at shortstop. But he's got a big power swing and I wouldn't be shocked if he tapped into twenty, especially in New York's environment. But if we can define sluggers at fifteen, you're also going to get a little bit of a sneak. You're gonna get the sneak, you get the stee sneak. And
maybe about batting average exactly. And guess what the biggest thing I didn't tell you on his ADP four forty four on NFBC. Yeah, and if no, I'm sorry, Fantasy pros ADP NFBC is probably way way lower. And this is the potential New York Yankees shortstop.
Yeah. Look, Yankees have some talent coming through. There's no doubt about that. I got to watch because now the local affiliate here fifteen minutes from my house turned over. Used to be the Independent League Summerset Patriots. Now they're the Double A Yankee. So I got to see Vulpi a few times playing personal.
You and I chatted about when you got to see Vulpe. He had home run the.
DAYO was there, Actually no, he hit a ball off the wall that should have been a home run the day I was there in a in a park that didn't have a wall that was five hundred feet high. But very impressive player too. This one is impressive. Also.
They've got the Jason Demingez. People are polarized on him what they think of him, But there's a lot of makings of another, you know, turnover into the Yankees, and that's going to be fascinting to see just how fast that happens and what the need is for that, because look, you could see some of these guys at major league level continuing to be okay or glaber Tours. Does he revert back to bad glabor tores this year? Like there's a lot of the trade him there.
There are a lot of trade rumors around here.
They could look. I give Cashman credit. How he's been GM this long in that organization is stunning to me. In New York in that city. Well, and without winning, that also matters, but you know, they put a good product on the field. It is all the matter. They haven't won the big one, but they do win a lot. That's the difference.
I guess, you know, what do they do convinced Baseball to give those cheat balls to Aaron Judge for the home runner. I mean, they've done some really good selling out there.
Jude, that's a good thing. I mean, heck, I could use some of those right now. All right, let's get to the next guy on my list. Number seven. It's Lane Thomas, outfielder of the Washington Nationals. Now, this is a volume play Boys and Girls. I don't love Lane Thomas. I'm not completely buying what I saw last year with the seventeen home runs. But can he get you fifteen to twenty again this year? I think the answer is yes.
Is it going to come with a two forty batting average? Probably, Like you know, that's probably what we're looking at here. But when you're looking at the guys who and roster resource has him hitting at the top of the lineup right now in Washington, when you have the extra at bats, when you have the extra moments, there sometimes that volume.
You know, just like in baseball and football, the same thing, volume can be king so getting more opportunities in those head in those season long rotal leagues where you're looking to compile a bit, players like this who are very cheap are worth a look at that. He is right now the ADP of two sixty one there's some players going after him that I think are better players that I'm going to talk about. But this is another one where I think it's more of a volume play than anything.
For me. I'm curious. What are your thoughts on Lane Thomas real quick?
Yeah, I've always liked I mean, Lane is one of those when he gets to lead off, you know, if he's put in that position again, it's just sneaky runs actually talk to when he needs to play with the Cardinals. Yeah, I think he's like a you know, a low end homer guy that's going to get I think he has the potential to be at up words of a solid three category player, maybe pushes four, and it just depends where you're going to step off from. I like this one.
I like that you did it because I think he fits more like my Oswealt Parrazza, where this is not a traditional slugger. This is a good hitter that my tap into fifteen homers later in rounds.
Yeah, and he is over at let's see three seventy seven where he's at right now. So I think that's that's a pretty darn good value there at that moment. All right, let's get to the next guy on your list who's number seven for some late round sluggin.
So I've got some trends here, and I'm gonna throw a lot of these younger guys out here because you're getting big adp values and this one isn't immense unless he's starting. And we're in this really weird space right now. It's funny enough. I'm gonna be doing a rookie panel more for twenty fourteen on our Friends of Our Pitcher list for Pitchcon.
Also be appearing on Pitchcon on Friday me and I'm doing a panel there. I'm the host between a fight between Nick Pop like an Ino Saris regarding pitchers, I've heard of those. I don't know if they're they're new to the baseball world, but there.
Should be a good time. They're blessed.
I believe it's two o'clock or three o'clock. I got a look Will starting over. Yours is a check show.
You can go.
Ba's why I'm treating.
To play Yours is what time is it at Friday?
Win It is two o'clock, two o'clock Eastern.
No gouy sh'll be top twenty four hours from we're recording this, but we're going to be talking about twenty twenty four rookies, and I've got a couple of people doing it. I'm hosting that. But my point is is we're in this space right now where we've got these rookies that we just are waiting for teams to make full commitments, and that's why their ADPs are too low. And that is why Miguel Vargas is too low right now. He has a two eighty one ADP. There's a couple
other guys we're going to talk about. If the team made the commitment, people would start going all in, but they haven't. Miguel Vargus has been working at second base. He's a guy that could play third, first, outfield. There are positions open. I have a hard time believing the Dodgers are going to start the season with Trey Thompson in the outfield. That's me though, And.
Are a lot of questions to answer to his luck's gonna be that guy, like they.
Have a lot there's a lot of doubtman.
I don't know, man, They've got a lot of explaining to do before we get to opening day, A lot of esplaining today exactly.
But Miguel Vargas is a very, very probably one of the most patient, better contact hitters here sub twenty K rate. Like his entire minor leagues, he came up in the majors, played a little bit, hit a homer. Projections around a hundred games ish are already at like the thirteen to fourteen marker. If he plays a full season, he is twenty plus. This will be one of those guys that's in the Rookie of the Year race if he's there,
and I think he's a really good value. This is one of those rookies I want to take a bet on because the Dodgers have positions open and they want to push. He is one of the reasons why Justin Turner is not back, why they didn't go make some big splashes, is because they've got Miguel Vargas and they want to get him out there. It'll be a testament if Trey Thompson and James Outman play over mcgl vargas and he sent to the miners. I don't believe that's
going to happen. And Miguel Vargas is an easy fifteen plus homer potential slugger and he's almost around three hundred on ADP.
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to win that official signed Vladimir Guerrero Junior Jersey. Fan Tracks the home of fantasy sports. And now back to the action. All right, next guy on my list for number six. I'm just a sucker for Trey Mancini to sixty nine ADP overall right now, and look, Trey Mancini is on the Cubs now, and I think a lock in a good ballpark once again to go over that twenty home run. Mark like to me, like you can. You can set your watch to Tray Mancinia. Is he going to go back to the thirty five days in
Baltimore and the height of Camden Yards? Probably not, But Chicago can be a really good hitters ballpark, a very good home run friendly ballpark, especially in the summertime. So there's a lot to like here. It's funny that the lineup itself Welsh. This is kind of a take as I was looking at it here on roster resources we're doing the show. The Cubs lineup looks like if you were in a salary cap draft and you set your auto to I only want to spend a moderate amount,
and that's exactly the roster of the Chicago Cubs. Do you do you agree with this this opening gay roster?
It kind of looks like it like, are you stuck around now? You stuck around to buy danceby Swanson, but then something happened and you had to leave, and then.
Other kid had a soccer game or something came up.
You're like, oh, I have Eric Costmer and Trainment.
Like it's like Nika Horner, Suzuki, you know, Cody Bellinger. You're like, you know, it's like okay, like Tucker Barney, like oh okay, Like these guys are all okay, but
nothing or or low or less than okay rosterable. But it totally has the feel of I said it, something happened and had to get auto picked, but not in a not in a snake draft, specifically a salary cap draft, because well, you know, we could see like people didn't want to bid up some of these guys, so you just got them at their regular price.
Let me throw this out to you because my number six is also a Chicago cub and it's the same vein of what we've been talking about, and it's Matt Nervis Matt Murvis there.
Okay, let's talk about Nervos because he's farther down the trophy or was he three something here?
Yeah? His ADP I just went away from it is a three ninety five way down there. But I almost had Tremancini on this as well, because those two are going to be the future. Hosmer is the great equalizer here. You know how much of a team leaders are going to be. They can jump off the commitment. Matt Mrvos has to have a great spring. But let's get back
to this conversation of sluggers with value pending. The format that you're playing in is probably dependent on like the risks and the shots you take and how many players and stuff like that. But Matt Murrays got a three ninety five ADP right now and for right reasons because he doesn't have a gig. But even projections that have not made any adjustments, maybe is fifteen plus homers in one hundred and eighteen games. So if he gets out there and gets games in, he's going to hit homers.
This team is going to have a very difficult time not letting him get a pats this year. The guy pushed up to Triple A. He played in the Fall League. He's a little bit older. It's time in some capacity, so he'll be there. When he's there. He will hit moonshots. It's what he does. I've got video of them on my Twitter at is it the Welsh if you want to see them. It's a beautiful home run swing. You know, all the same stuff. Again, he decreased the strike up
percentage at every level. He was increasing his batting average. His ISO is a big power hitter. Even if he gets eighty games in this year, he might push fifteen homers. So post four hundred if you're in a deep league, if you're in a draft and hold, yeah, he's a guy you look at for maybe Otherwise you just pay attention to him in season for waiver wire. If he doesn't make the roster he sent to Triple A. He
someone should be top priority on the April list. But he is a late slugger that is probably gonna put. I guarantee you he will push fifteen homers if he plays eighty plus games.
I was just gonna ask you, what's the number to get to fifteen homers. It's got to be like eighty five games. Is that your number? One hundred games?
Let's just go broke and let's say eighty eighty games. He's gonna get He's gonna hit fifteen homers.
Like it all right? So Matt Murvis on Welsh's list, Okay, next guy on my list, number five, who were in the top five out. Very exciting.
There we go.
This is a player that I was not excited about last year. I hated this trade last year. I was very vocal about it. I have zero shares last year of Jesse Winker. Not this year. Not this year. I am back on the Jesse Winker bandwagon. You know why because the ADP is now to eighty nine, that's why. And he's in Milwaukee, a very home run friendly ballpark. So you go to Seattle leaving Cincinnati. I did not like that at all. I thought there was a terrible
situation there. Now he's in the Milwaukee Brewer situation. Probably gonna hit third or maybe fifth in that lineup. Different projections, they'll show you different spots. I would not be shocked if he ended up hitting in the three spot. But this is a great opportunity to get back to the National League Central Division. He's familiar with travel patterns are familiar with. But you know, and I know, Milwaukee good place to hit home runs. That's why Christian Yelwich's last
two years are so depressing. But I will say this now, he is such a value Welsh. I will be back in. He has his deficits, There's no doubt about that. Winker is not a player that I loved, you know, and would always go, yeah, Jesse Winker. I want this guy on my team all these years. When he broke out a couple of years ago and was an All Star, look it seemed as though he had really changed a lot,
and then the second half not quite as much. But I gave him the benefit of doubt because you can't sustain the path he was on for an entire season. That's just something that's Ted williams Y kind of stuff where you're, you know, hitting three eighty first ce. That stuff's not gonna happen. But I was really down on where his ADP went to with the player he told us he was and showed us he was in the
minor leagues and in the Cincinnati red system. Barring that one great season, it was way too expensive last year. Now it might be way too cheap. That's my thoughts on Jesse Winker. And I think he's a lock to hit twenty. You know.
Also, there were so many questions around his work ethic, and I feel like that is going to be something a player like him is going to want to touch on. Like there's a lot of Padre's work ethic questions that were put out there that I'm kind of in. I'm kind of in. I think he's an outfield stinks And we just did a draft bean Bagman did, was itl And Jesse Winker was one of those guys when outfield gets away from you, there's a handful of players you start being like, I gotta get this, I gotta make
this work real quick. And Jesse Winker is one of those players. Because of the offensive potential in that line.
Well, ATC's got him at nineteen home runs projection right now. I'm not a big projection guy, but that's the highest of all the groupings. But nobody's got him less than sixteen. And I think that's absolutely right, like the twenty four and but I think fifteen to twenty is absolutely in his range. But because it's Milwaukee, and because if you look at some of the bottom feeding pitching teams, he's gonna be playing Cincinnati, he's going to be playing Pittsburgh,
he's gonna be playing somebody, say the Chicago Cubs. There's not a lot of great pitching in those organizations you're going against. Most of the great pitching happens to be on his own team of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Yeah.
So, just from the standpoint of looking at what he's got in terms of an everyday look when they're playing in Division, I think there's real opportunity for the higher end of this projection where ATC is the nineteen or twenty than necessarily the seventeen or sixteen that you see in other spots. Well, let's get to another one of your names in the top five, who is it.
This one is gonna another. It's it's along this line of list and it might get people a little bit scared. Spencer Torkelsen. I'm gonna go back to Spencer Torclsen.
Hall's coming from inside the house, Welsh.
I hear it to seventy nine EIGHTYP to seventy nine EIGHTYP. Spencer Turklsen had an atrocious year last year in the majors. We know that he hit two oh three the positive though he had a sub twenty five percent k rate. He almost had a double digit walk rate one hundred and ten games, just did not make the contact he needed eight homers. Now there's a lot of abated what's
gonna happen with Detroit. Now they're bringing in the walls, but they're also raising them, so they're raising them up like fifteen feet and they're bringing them a pretty significant amount. It's almost becoming softball range. So what is that going to do? And who's gonna benefit? I believe this is a benefit to Spencer Torkolsen. This is a guy that is going to be able to launch the ball in the air a season removed. I don't believe this is going to be a nothing guy. I really do believe
he can return. And you know what projections are kind of in that they see a batting average around two thirty five on the bat X, which is solid compared to two oh three, and ATC has got him at fifteen. Bat X has got him at sixteen and this is around one hundred and thirty games. He's gonna play the full season. He's committed. I think a year removed from that rookie year, you're going to see adjustments. I like Tony Homers out of Spencer Toorkosen. I like the bounce back.
This is not Jared Kelnick. And I know it's really easy to start pairing these guys up. If they're not good, they're Klnick in Adele, that's all that they can be. And if they're good at all, they're Julio. And it's not the case. There's a middle ground in there, and some of these guys are proving that middle ground. Alec Bohm is a really good example of a guy that has found a solid middle ground of being a decent player and not you know, black or white. There's a
gray area with it. And I think Torkosen is going to bounce back this year. It's almost three hundred and it's a twenty plus, twenty plus homer potential. So I'm gonna go with Torcosen at number five.
All right, next guy on my list is Boom or Bust. He's at three oh four, so he's even further than Jesse Winker at two to eighty nine. On the ADP. Right now, it's one Yapez of the Saint Louis Cardinals, and it's because he is post three hundred and because I think he can still give you fifteen. So in terms of what this show is about late rounds lugging value, like that's a huge value. If he hits fifteen home runs.
If of course, your guy Jordan Walker or anything else happens here, it pushes him out of down out of the everyday lineup. That's different than the calculus changes on you Pez. And the nice thing about you Pez is if it doesn't work out, you cut him, you move on to the next guy. Doesn't cost you anything. That's why I like him, Love the Cardinals lineup, love what they're doing here. From watching Ypez last year, I think he has got all the right stuff to be a good,
solid major league hitter. I think he got found out a little bit last year, There's no doubt about that. But he came up red hot, and I think we all saw, Okay, there's the upside. Let's see the adjustment. Now it's time to make adjustments back and I'm curious to see if he does post three hundred. He's got my attention. If he was two fifty, I would be drafting Tristan Kassis and trade Mancini like I would not
even be looking. But because he three hundred those deeper leagues, I think it's worth a shot because the return is maybe Walker stays in the minor leagues longer, or maybe he struggles if he comes to the major leagues. The trick is ken Yapez sticking that DH spot. And that's also a transition for a lot of players too. You know some guys who are not used to that having the transition to that. You only get up every you know, couple innings to take it at bat and then you
go sit down. That's a tough routine change, I think for a lot of people to handle. So we'll see how he adjusts to that as well. Hopefully he can do that this year quite a bit and understand that routine a little bit better in spring training. I don't want him play in the field so much I want I think he will because of spring training, but I want him to learn to adjust to what it means to be a DH because I think potentially as a DH or the Cardinals, it's a good situation here. Let's
get to number four on your list. As a player, I'm very high on again, all the at bats, all the opportunity. Let the kids sink or swim, and I think he's going to swim Welsh, So.
This is a cheat. But I have to talk about him because you agree cj Abrams. Cj Abrams on my list is going to be the toughest to hit this real marker to qualify as a slugger. And at the end of the day, you're not going to consider him a slugger. You're going to consider him a five tool player, which is really nice. At worst, four tools, I think you're going to get on him, but I do believe that cj Abrams can touch and just dance around that fifteen home run marker. But where I think you're really
going to also benefit is twenty plus stolen bases. Projections are not there with him and I think the projection systems on quite a few young guys that are at the very very top of sprint speed speed, and the entire major leagues are under selling the speed potential also with the new rules. So if you get a CJ. Abrams with twelve to fifteen homers and you get twenty plus stolen bases, you're probably looking at a guy that is going to be around a fourth or fifth round pick.
That is where I think we can go with CJ. Abrams this year. He's got an ADP of two point fifty eight RBIs might be difficult, but he might not be hitting in a spot. He's not gonna be like a leadoff hitter at least to start, unless he starts to really you know, swing and he really starts to go buck. But I'm a big CJ. Abrams guy, low K percentages, very first at bat in the pro ball at all I was there, it was the only person
in the stadium hits a home run. He can get into some of that power their speed, so he has I'm cheating, but we both really like this guy in Laila, especially when you're chasing speed, and I think he can just be more than a one category player.
I am shocked at his ADP. Is this slow to start? To be honest, I would have thought it was a minimum higher than two fifty. It's not. I think by the time we get to draft season, I could see it sneaking closer to two hundred, to be honest with you, because he's got the job, he's got the tools. What we're talking about, He's gonna be hitting probably in the two spot in his lineup. And I know the Nationals aren't very good, like we all know that, but it
doesn't matter. We're talking about volume and we're talking about talent. I like what I've seen from c. J. Abrams, even at the major league level. I think this guy, this is another player that I think needs to get every day at bats. I think the sporadicness of the way he was used with the padres at times hurt him a little bit in terms of what you saw last year. But I like C. J. Abrams a ton and I think as a keeper investment, this is a guy that, as he grows into his body, could be really good.
He's still on the smaller side physically, but all the tools are there. I mean, it's just a matter of how quickly the development comes and be nice to have a little bit more lineup protection, but then again, nice to have a lot of things. Next on my list, Top three here is av Silt of my now. Last year kind of a lost season for him, as we all know, But this is a player that I think we've seen in the past flashed that twenty home run power. It's not out of the realm of possibility. He gets
back to that realm twenty nine and twenty twenty one. Obviously, last year he only played ninety eight games, but still had eight home runs in that span. But he is hit twenty home runs multiple times in his career. He is a player that never lived up to I think the hype of what he could be. But at the same time, if we're looking for late power and we're looking at where he's being drafted, he is sub three hundred,
he is three twelve. Overall, it's just about every day at bats and health, and if Garcia hits both of those benchmarks, then we're in good shape. I think he can give you fifteen to twenty home runs, and that's kind of the range we keep saying here, and I know, like twenty might not be you know, super exciting, but you know, the steroid era is gone, so this is what we're left with now. So now we have to
be scratching and clawing from fifteen to twenty. But I do think Garcia again, as long as the health works out, I think at a good spot with him. Let's get to somebody in your top three. Who do you have at number three? Because it's a player that I have been high on for quite some time and I keep getting knocked down, but I'm ready to get up one more.
Time someday, and I'm hoping it's this year. This guy is gonna pop and it's Alex Kiroloff with the Minnesota Twins. Now, I will tell you this, I was actually going to maybe be a little bit lower this year because he's dealing with another risk injury and I think he had a risk surgery in which he had in two thousand and eight. In nineteen, it was like late twenty nineteen he had he had another risk surgeries, had consistent injury problems and especially with that risk overall.
But for the.
Minnesota Twins to move Louise Arise told me everything because they had said they think he'll be good for spring training. That should be good for the year Alex Kiloff, and I was like, man, I don't know about that. For them to move off of Luis a rise must tell them something about where they think Kilf is going to be and where he's going to be as a part of the team roster resource has him as the first baseman. I am where you going to miss a few games. But this is a super smart guy. His dad's a
hitting coach. He's a super smart hitter. He's got a beautiful swing. Health has been his problem. I am really hoping that we're going to be cured of this going over at first base, hopefully. You know, mitigates a few of it. Projections aren't nuts, but eleven homers over eighty seven games on bad X is not bad. You put
that over a season. You're looking at easy over twenty in a lineup that has been built around big homers and big offense, and the Minnesota Twins that even if k're lop is hitting like six, they do have him lower in the lineup right now. But if you were to move up to around six, hitting behind Bucks in Korea, a lot of RBI opportunities if he starts to pop, and I think you will because he's always been a
very advanced hitter. Health has just kept him apart, and the adjustment to the majors has really been an issue as well. But I'm just still a believer.
All right. The next one for me? Number two, I hate myself for I mean I hate it, like I don't like it.
Let me look at who it is.
You know, well it's gross. But look, I'm gonna leave if we I'd like you to stay on the show because we both got one more. Oh he's off the show, folks. Okay, but here's the thing. It's gross, it's terrible. But we're just talking about one thing here. Late round power Joey Gallo is late round power to eighty three. Even last year, as miserable as the season was, he still had eighteen home runs. Now he hit one fifty eight. So my hope is this a fresh start somewhere else, a clear
off season to clear his head. I'm not saying he's going to get back to that guy who was a forty home run guy and hitting two h six or whatever. Like. If he gets back to that, well that's great. It's great for the Minnesota Twins. I don't like the kind of player Joey gallow Is. I didn't like the kind of player he was, but he is basically free and if you're talking about power and the opportunity, look in twenty twenty one he had thirty eight home runs. This
is not a player. I mean, we've seen this before where we write off guys and then they come back a little bit. There has been an absolute fall off to the pitch recognition skills of Joey Gallo, which is why in the spot where we are, if the right hitting coach can get through to him, if the Minnesota group can figure out a way to fix some of those things, get some of those pitch recognition skills back on track, get him to drive the baseball again, not try so hard to hit home runs not you know,
a lot of this is mental, I think too. For Joey Gallo. Now he could be the next Chris Davis where he just completely falls apart again and we are all just sitting here looking at that. That is well within the possibility of what we could see from Joey Gallo. However, cheap power, he's the definition of it. It's at a cost, which I don't like. It's not a player I want to draft, But go ahead roast me.
You're like Harry Potter and he's like Baltimore, just like going just in the back, like I don't know why you would do this to yourself.
I've got horns for you, Joseph. You know what, Just like Voltimore, he could feel my pain, he could feel it. John Galla could put his finger on my forehead and it would just put.
Hay on there for strikeout, like instead of a lightning.
Actually, I go, do you want to put a backwards kay? Is he is he striking out? Looking? Yeah?
There you go, that's what it was, looking, swimming.
All of it? Move past. I hate myself, but it's true. Well you and I both know this look. Would it shock the hell out of you if he had twenty five home runs and hit two ten this year?
No, no, it wouldn't shock me. It was I won't I want to put him the experiencing it or enjoying it would shock me.
But he's on the list, all right, let's get away from Minnesota. I'm unhappy.
Yeah, this is going through the trend again of these just rookies that have really good value with big pop At two seventy one on adyp's Jordan Walker. You talked about Wannya Pez Jordan Walker. I think this is going to be I got to hate keep doing this, but it's going to be similar to Julio in the respect that in January and February of drafts of last year, we didn't know where Julio Rodriguez stood. I was critical.
I would laugh at people that took him inside the top two hundred cause I'm like, what are you talking about? They're not going to bring him up. And then they did. And then because we didn't know the extent of how if aggressive teams were going to be, and they did do it and they gave him the job. There's already been rumblings that Jordan Walker is going to be given the opportunity and is very likely to break camp with his team. I know we look at it and we're like,
how are they going to do that? Hell? Hell are they going to do that. I imagine they're going to make moves. I just don't think Wanniapez is going to hold him back. And Jordan Walker is dynamic across the board. If you played a full season, I think you're looking at thirty plus homers, even as a rookie projections around ninety games with nine homers. Steamer has him around twelve. Again, this is under one hundred games fifteen seems like a lock. Even if he comes up a little bit later in
the year. Strike up rates are not crazy. He can run and he'll play in the outfield. I really like Jordan Walker, and I think this is a guy that we can look back on this in about a month and a half and we're going to laugh at the ADP. Potentially, if this team makes a commitment to seventy one, he'll go closer to one hundred if he is given the job. Like, there's no reason that Jordan Walker shouldn't be in the same range as Gunner Henderson if he is starting the
full year. The only difference between those two besides, like you know, some logistics of their game, is that Jordan Walker has no guarantee and Gunner Henderson does, and he would push near the hundreds if the Cardinals moved Yepez or Carlson or said it's his job to lose.
I like where you're coming from here? All right, my number one guy and Welsh's number one guy. Now, well's cheated the whole show. So I'm gonna cheat one time, because technically it's really not cheating because he was two to oh one yesterday when we did the show sheet. Now he has cracked. He is one ninety eight. He is cheter new DH of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He's JD Martinez. JD Martinez to me, if he's going anywhere
around this two hundred or post you under range. And I could see this ADP starting to rise already because people are saying, what are we doing? Like we can't completely give up on Jady Martinez. He's going to be thirty five this year, so he's an older player. We saw the ISO drop precipitously last year from you know, two thirty two and twenty twenty one to one seventy four. But this is a player who's had down seasons and
come back from that as well. I think what we're looking for here once again, sometimes fresh starts are good. The environment for the Dodgers is a very good one too. He does not have to carry this team. He doesn't have to carry the load. He's got to be a contributor. He's can he hit the five spot most likely, So there's going to be lots of RBI potential too, But in terms of slugging, I don't see a realm where he does not get to the twenty home run platform.
I just I think he is going to hit that plateau of twenty most likely get closer to twenty five. And that's why as long as he hovers in this range, he's the number one guy in this late round slugger list, because this is I think a fantastic opportunity to buy a low in a player where people are afraid at this age that it's done, that it's over, and he's
just completely in decline. But we've seen this before with players we thought were like that, they get a first start a new team, all of a sudden, little bump, they get back to at least close to who they used to be. I am not saying this is a guy that's going to be contending for MVP, but in a way that Dodgers kind of need him to step up and be close. Can he be eighty percent of jad Martinez? I think he still got that in him. But outside of Freeman and outside of Bets, there's a
lot of questions in this Dodger lineup. I mean a ton of questions here, so they need JD. Martinez to be one of the answers for them. So he's my number one guy again. He was two oh one yesterday, he's one ninety eight today. We'll see what happens. But to me, he's the best late round slugger you're gonna find out there. Because all the other guys were talking about, I don't know if anybody else has the opportunity to get to thirty. I think if everything breaks right for JD,
thirty is possible as well. I like it.
I like it. My number one guy is a cheat code. He is a cheat code because no system knows where to put him, or rank him, or draft and right rightful reasons though ESPN, I've drafted on fantracks, I've drafted on everywhere I've drafted on. He doesn't exist on lists, so you can get him absolutely cheap, especially when outfield struggles and he's on a team that perpetually has players projected with higher numbers. Here's a funny thing, and I'll
tell you who the player is. I was just talking about this last night on another platform with Claver Torres. Glabor Torres is really interesting this year and if you go and look at his splits, the expected home runs in different ballparks. Clabor Torres, you know, cool homers here here. If claver Torres had hit all of his games in Cincinnati, labor Torres would have had a projected forty one homers
last year. Cincinnati is just a boon for offensive production and Will Myers is the cheat code this year until adp start to take advantage of it, where you can get twenty plus homers really late in your drafts. We're talking three twenty five Steamer projection in only one hundred and thirty games. Has twenty homers, six Dolen bases, the Batex sixteen atc is seventeen and those are around one hundred and twenty games. Cincinnati is just going to produce
more runs. That's yeah. Did he do anything great or spectacular last year? No, not particularly. He did hit two sixty. He can steal a little bit. We saw what happened with Brandon Drury when he was able to succeed there. This is similar.
Jel Suarez became a revelation in Cincinnati and this.
Is the same thing. I think you're looking at a two sixty to twenty plus home run hitter might be one of the better hitters in that entire lineup. He's going to get a get to hit probably between somewhere between three and five, and you're gonna get a lot of RBI, and he is just far down. I'm actually impressed that the ADP has him at three twenty five on Fantasy Pros because there are some places he is literally just buried down the list.
It's all about games played. For Will Myers, if he can play one hundred and fifty games, he's going to obliterate that twenty home run number. I agree, I'm with you one hundred percent. So risk and reward there certainly part of this list, but three twenty five again free power. Everybody likes it, so Welsh's list can tell Marte, Josh Young, Perrazza, Miguel Vargas, Matt Mrvis, Spencer Torkelsen, c j abrams Kirolof,
Jordan Walker, and Will Myers. For me my list Jock Peterson, Michael canford O, Tristy Cassis, Lane, Thomas Trey Mancy, Jesse Winker, jan Ya pez avisayel Le Garcia, Joey Gallo, and Jade Martinez. I'm contractually obligated by the way to say his name that way. I just I can tell you know you get a dollar dollar every time you do it. Also, I'm contractually obligated to remind you Fantasy rose dot com slash Draft Wizard open for business. So go get your
mock draft on. Go check it out today, run some mock drafts. Go download the app and again, premium membership you have access to a lot of really cool features. We'll be doing mock draft shows here on the show before you know it, So very exciting times there. I want to thank the sponsor of today's show, fan Tracks. Go get your signed vlad Guerrero Junior jersey by going to fantracks dot com slash Fantasy Pros and sign up
for fan Tracks today. Run your league on fan Tracks, the best site there is for fantasy baseball fantracks dot com slash Fantasy Pros, and you just might win that Vladdie Guerrero Junior jersey. 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. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Baseball Podcast. Follow us on Twitter at Fantasy Pros MLB and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com Slash Fantasy Pros MLB