Episode 51: A Hot Start and a Small Sample

Welcome back to Join the Ranks, a podcast of the Dynasty Guru network where we're helping dynasty managers win your league's one player at a time. For more great content, be sure to listen to the Dynasty's Child podcast. Check out our rankings and articles on the Dynasty Guru website. We also have a lively discord channel with news updates, early releases of our articles, and it's also

a great place to post questions about trade offers. Later in this episode, we're going to be talking about one or two of the trade questions posted this week. If you want to join us there, there's a small donation and information about that's on the website. I'm Drew Klein, a senior writer at the Dynasty Guru and with me as my co host and brands of the operation Chris Knock Chris, how's your week? Emphasize brains and that beauty. I

get it. The week has been pretty crazy. I've been spending a lot of time outside manicuring my backyard, manicuring how suburban yuppie of you you know, well, yeah, I mean manicuring in the sense of, you know that scene in Dumb and Dumber when they're headed to Aspen and they're getting their nails done right with the metal grinder. I've been using a chainsaw cutting down trees. So kind of a kind of a wonder one analogy there. That's heck of a heck of a line. Well, hey, I'm excited to

say we had another correct answer in the randomly inserted obscure song title. Last week's song, which I thought was an easy one kind of a game, was blinded by the Light. I prefer the Manford Man version. The reason I did that is because that should have been the song of the eclipse. Last time we recorded is right after the eclipse, and everybody was singing total Eclipse of the Heart, which has nothing to do about the eclipse of the

sun. But blinded by the Light has the great line that Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun, but Mama, that's where the fun is, and that that should have been the song of the eclipse. And that's why I ensured it last week. But thank you for everybody for playing. The season long contest is still going on. Still time to get in there and see if you can overtake the lead for the big prize of the twenty twenty five TDG Discord subscription. That's I always say the

twenty dollars value. You know, I gotta enerject real quick. You say the Manfred Mann version. I would not have guessed that there was another version until there was all that Hubba balloon and the discord about it. Yeah, I believe Springsteen did it first. Actually too, and nothing against Springsteen in general. I really liked his music, but I think the mid for Man really put a little more energy into into that song. So I like that

one better. That's when the couple play in the radio back in the day. Yeah, so rocking. Well. What we've decided to do for our in season episodes is to look at the ranking by positions. We can cover two positions each episode, so tonight we'll look at the corner infielders, first baseman, then third baseman, next time the midland fielders, then the outfielders and catchers, and then the pitchers. We'll repeat that cycle three times, which, believe it or not, will bring us to the end of the

season, where as we call it the beginning of ranking season. Each week we'll talk about players moving moving up and down the ranks, with keeping with our focus on prospects, look at who's about to join the ranks, and sprinkled in the schedule throughout the year, we'll be dropping in a special episode

once a month, updating our JTR thirty overlook prospect from each organization. Like I said last time, a quick note, although the samples are getting large, we're still dealing with small sample sizes, so we are talking about first impressions, but the impressions we have right now, and I think we're starting to see some trends from a few of the players. But speaking of first impressions, Chris, what do you think of the season so far? And

actually I got a question for you. You probably know Marcelo Zuna is leading the matrix and RBIs. Do you know who's second? Mike Trump, No, it doesn't get anyone on base who is second with RBIs? Is it a Detroit Tiger? It is? Okay, no, I am, but I'm still going to be gloating. I wanted to see you every week. It is Sal Perez. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, he's had a heck of a start. Yeah, I see how this is going to go,

and I like it. And actually Taylor Ward is tied with him, and he was somebody I've targeted in a lot of redrafts this year, so the other angel. But what do you think of the season so far? Anything that was standing up for you? I mean it's not a first base third base conversation that much, but I mean, obviously the arm injuries are

more than an elephant or a gorilla in the room. I think, you know, they'd have kind of seemingly plateaued from that first week or two in those couple of really bad days, or maybe I've just been a little bit too busy manicuring and I haven't caught everything, but there's there have been some

surprises also with performances. I don't think, Josh. I mean, I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but there's definitely some names that that we'll be talking about that I have caught everyone's attention, not just at first place, but specifically our first and third base And where's these rookies at that we're looking for. You know, everyone's excited for a bunch of rookies to start the year, and I don't think anyone's really jumped out as those early those first

names of Langford. They haven't been bad, you know, Walker just got demoted, but they haven't been outright bad. But at the same time, no one is just running away dominating the MLB as a fresh face rookie. Yeah, I mean Jackson Holiday, you can't quite get his seat under himself yet. But and this will come over time. I mean, I think we all wanted it to happen quickly, but we've got to be realistically. There they're facing is unlike anything they've seen before. Yeah, I mean we

get we got spoiled. What was at eighteen seventeen eighteen with that crop. It's the Comunia, Soto and Tatis of just taking the league by storm. I don't. Everyone always says that they're not the norm, and it just shows how far outside of the norm, what kind of outliers they truly were. And of course there's still a lot of games to be played, so you know, Holiday could be making us e crow pretty quickly. Hear any

of them. Yeah, and even people talking lately about Corbyn Carroll, who's had an amazing year last year and he's just not making the kind of contact so far this year that they made last year. But you know, I think we can chalk a lot of this up to small sample size. The talent is there. You know. It's almost like the people who in the off season were just saying, boy, we were too high in Elie de

la Cruz, and I kept thinking, I don't think we were. And you know, he was a number one prospect for like two years in a row for a reason, and I think he's showing us the reason right now. So yeah, be patient, everybody. The stars are going to start and I think they'll be there. But yeah, you're right, Chris, nobody's wowing us and gonna win the MVP as a rookie right now. But yeah, other than that, a few of the teams are surprising me.

I thought I didn't think Chicago was going to win it, but I didn't think they were going to be this bad, that being the White Sox, you know. And then the other end of it, I thought Cleveland was gonna struggle, you know, with the moves they made or didn't make over the off season. But you know, they're getting off to a great start. So hey, that's why we love the game. Yeah, and Yankees have completely reversed what the trend they were looking like at the end of last

year. Mm hmm, coming on strong to start early makings of what should be a really good season. I think some really good pennt races, and you know, Tani will Otani, he's putting up some amazing numbers, you know at the bat over there. Discussion for another day. But I just wonder how much he's going to pitch in the future. I know he loves doing it. I know he's great at it, but it's also great at

hitting. And yeah, I could see a future of the Dodgers really really limit his innings to minimize the risk of keeping the bat out of the lineup. It'll be interesting to see, I agree with you. But how they could use him in a unique you know, they're not quite on the raised level of openers and all that sort of stuff. Open every third game or something like that, you know, for two that'll be pretty interesting. That'd be crazy. Or do what you Pan did in the last game of the

WBC last year and have Atani clothes twice a week. That's a start for another day. Yeah, there you go. Hey, let's talk about let's talk about the first baseman first, and we'll first talk about the top of the rankings of our major league first baseman. Looking back at where we were individually preseason, and who we thinking is going to move down probably truly actually make moves, although I got a couple who may move down pretty quickly.

And who's outside your top ten, outside your top fifteen, who you think is most likely to be in the top fifteen overall. Yeah, yeah, I'm happy to go first with that if you want to. Yeah, I think in my top four or Harper, Olsen, Freeman, and Alonso, and I don't think they're going anywhere. But then I had Vlad at number

five and Torque at number eight, and I'll tell you what I don't mean. They're both having just horrible years. For instance, Torklesen right now zero home runs and he's hitting two twenty one. Guerrero right now three home runs, he's hitting two nineteen. Each has twenty one hits total. Torque has thirteen singles and eight doubles, and Vlad has fifteen singles and three doubles in

the three home runs. So unless you put a lot of value in those three home runs, you're just looking at those two guys and going, we're not getting anything we thought we'd get out of top ten. First, Baseman, I trust, actually trust Flat to turn it around more than Torklesen. I mean, I think a lot of us in the industry, so to speak, got excited about the thirty one home runs and the way Torque finished

the year. Last year. I watched a lot of his games. He's hitting the ball hard, he's got some clutch hits, he's got paramount RBIs for those numbers, but he's not playing like a top ten first base in right now. And I think that he ranking a number eight is going to be really aggressive. I don't see him hanging there anymore. I mean, Pascuentino at seven, he's going to be moving up this season. I've got

to believe, just seeing the way he's getting off to know he's back in the lineup, and then outside the group ed Reee Hoskins at sixteen, and I think I was higher than a lot of people even there. And right now I'm seeing that he's coming back. To me. It looks like when he was healthy in Philadelphia. You know, he's playing equally as well.

So I had Naylor. I don't know who's moving down, but you know, Pasconcino and Hoskins got to be moving back up back in you know, hiring, hiring the top ten for Pascentino and and into the top ten for Hoskins the way things are looking now, So how are your rankings looking? Yeah, I mean I had the same well, no, I'm sorry, I had a lad at number two, so I was obviously a little much

higher on him coming in. I agree with what you were saying about him, you know that probably having some regression to the positive aggression to the mean. Here it is early, these things are not ironclad as far as opening statistics. But he is still walking at a solid rate with a three point thirty OVP. You know, it's over one hundred points higher than his average. If you look at his stat cast page, you're gonna see that he

is underperforming substantially across the board. His batting average is two nineteen, but his expected average is two seventy two, So that's you know, fifty points lower. He's one hundred and twenty points below his expected slugging. And then his ex wOBA is a good fifty or sixty points higher than his actual wOBA. So in summary that you know, that's I'm not a firm believer that you're gonna, you know, get back to those everyone underperforms or overperforms every

year in those regards, but those are pretty extreme discrepancies. So I think the biggest thing I noticed is that his launch angles decreased, it seems, and he was known for that. You know, last year he finally got into the double digits of putting it up into the air on average. This year, he said it seeming laid back in the ground more. So if he can correct that, I'm hoping that he'll be getting those numbers. He's not pulling the ball, and you know those kind of those sort of things

are looking to be more correlated as positive for the power outcomes. So on the other hand, Vinnie, I'm not Vinnie as he said, but Torque, he's like he's actually producing less than is worse than his expected stats, which doesn't bode well for the long term outcomes for him. You know, everyone was jumping back on the Torklesen train at the end of last year. He had a great second half, but he's maybe he's a slow starter. Let's just say, I am not looking to buy Spencer Torkleson right now.

Even if he had another strong second half, I'm still going to be wary and he'll definitely be dropping down my ranks and I had him where did I have torkles? And I hit him at seven last year or entering the year, so he'll, yeah, probably be falling down substantially. Vinnie I had right at ten, he'll be jumping up. He's you know, he took a maybe a week behind everyone else, but then he's been hitting well. I think he's at four or five home runs right now. Steers had a

solid year, and then yeah, Naylor is gonna I think skyrocket. I kind of spilled the beans a little bit about how much I've been gushing on Josh Naylor, but he is just firing on all cylinders right now, and it is impressed. I had a buddy ask me if he thinks if I

think he's gonna lose time when Manzardo gets the call, I personally don't think you will. I don't know if you have thoughts on this, Droe. I know you're not a huge Cleveland guy by any means, But at the same time, you know, they moved him around a lot in the outfield even last year a little bit, you know, I shouldn't say moved him around, but then he got some time in the outfield last year and of course there's the DH, so I'm not too concerned about Naylor's playing time when

Manzarto finally gets the call, I don't know. Yeah, I'm not either. I think as much as you want to pull Manzarto up and we'll talk about more about him, I'm sure you gotta keep Naylor's bat in the lineup. So between the two of them, I see a first base DH thing going on with the two of them. I think Naylor is he's capable of playing the outfield, like and then we played some right field the past few year. I think he's selling him down at first pace is kind of let

him focus on his hitting. But they've got gaps in the outfield, so if they need to get them both in and somebody else needs to DH, I could see him doing it when they needed to. You're right about that. But I think I think the two of them will split first base DH and they'll find a way to get at bass for both of them. He came on so he's always been a big power guy Naylor has, and he had a really good I think his whole year last year, but the second

half was really strong last year. Getting off to great start this year, they're not going to sit him. A couple of other names in that that area there are surprising me. I don't know what to do long term in

terms of ranking, but I thought cronin Worth was. I'm really surprised to what he's doing this year. That two fifty three and he's got the three home runs, so he's not He's doing better than I anticipated. I wrote him up a year ago and his stats had had gone down each each year, so I don't think this start he has is sustainable. I think he'll kind of regreest to his norm and not be a top fifteen to twenty first baseman, but right now he's playing like one, So I don't know,

what do you think about that? And then ty Franz is another one who's not hitting for power, but he's hitting the ball hard and he's hitting to sixty seven. So it two guys. I am quite sure they're doing well

now, but I'm not going to move him up in the rankings yet. Yeah, I mean France, I don't know. I used to really be all in on him, always waiting for him to pop, and last year was kind of a bummer, I'll be honest. Although he got his first career steal last year, so that was a big deal in my eyes. I made a joke to it was a bad joke. It wasn't well done. I was really off and my jokes in our co patting with friends over there at the Dynasty's child. And I don't think Sam recognized when I was

making fun of him type France, never never stealing the base. Yeah, I just coronin wars actually have picked up in my fourteen team home league, and yeah, he's been he's been great. I'm not expecting to put him at slade him as my primary first basement, but he's definitely a utility guy for me to rely on for a while here. And we'll see what happens France. And no particular hopes for anything long term with him, unfortunately.

Maybe some batting average in those leagues, but that's about it. And then, Uh, one more major league that I wanted to ask you about before we move talked about some of the prospects, is where do you we're in the top ten or fifteen. Do you see yourself sliding? Michael bush Man.

Yeah, that was quite a hot streak, wasn't it. Was it five games or six games? Did we end up hitting I don't know, however many that's a lot of home runs in a row. Yeah, I mean, did we rank him at first place this year? No? I think we ranked him at third base. That's why I'm looking at my ranking. Where am I going to put him? Yeah, we'll see. That's a really interesting predicament that they have going on, with Bellinger getting injured,

calling up Mash Nervous, who I think. I know he's a prospect here, but that's it was Bush, I guess, But I think this is going to be Nervs's last chance. Really. I was surprised when they traded for Bush basically and did not pull mervs up the second half of last year. I pretty much saw that as the ORG not believing in Nervous, and

so I kind of see this as the right, here's your chance. But hated mcgreery in the system is another name that a lot of people like more than Nervous, so in a fantasy sense, so I could see this as being, you know, the last chance before they relegate him to a quad A type. So back to Bush. That's a little off topic, but Bush, you know, if he can maintain this production at first base, I see no reason he wouldn't be considered a fifteen top fifteen at the position

next year. I definitely as seem as it should be a starting your number one first basement on any of the fifteeneen lenks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. Yeah, I was just looking real quick. We actually ranked him at second base last year. So when we're looking at in season rankings, now, yeah, that twelve to fifteen range looks like where he's

gonna slide in on my rankings as well. He's gonna have I mean, I can't imagine having this good of a year that he's had for the first month, but so I imagine some cool cold water is gonna fall down. But yeah, I think even with that regression, top fifteen is very reasonable. All right, let's look at the prospect list of minor leaguers. I

had Mansarto. It's my top prospect for his basement. Did you as well? I am switching over and checking out, Yes, I did. The man's alien no reason to move him off of that Other than Hesson Kirstad is first base eligible. I kind of I consider or more of an outfielder. I'm not quite sure. I don't just in general, I don't know where Baltimore is gonna fit everybody, but uh so, I don't know where your stat's gonna end up or all positions he's going to qualify at. But let's

put in the outfield for now and talk about Colin Manzardo. I mean, you and I talked about him. We both thought he was gonna blossom this year. And boy has he ever. Yeah. I mean, he's doing what he does, which has hit the ball and regularly and get on base. He's not hitting a lot of home runs. I'm trying to find him. I don't have his stats pulled up specifically, so I'm sorry, Okay, he's got he's got five homers. I'm sorry I have that. Yeah.

Yeah, so he's got five. That's actually more than I thought he had. Oh, he's been hitting him recently, last couple of days. Has any last week or so? Yeah, But he's I knew he'd been, you know, hitting and getting his his otherwise extra base hits in addition to those. So it's just a matter of time, you know. I think the odds are at Cleveland he's just playing service time manipulation here, they do. I mean, and the fact that as Josh Taylor plays first base

his position. I mean that's also another reason coming into play here. Why we haven't seen him, I don't think, but yeah, he's doing what we're asking or what we expect out of him. A couple others looking at those, What I did was I went into fangraphs and selected who listened first base there. I don't know what the number is there, so some of these names may not be eligible in different fan traction. Yeahoo formats right now, but Kobe Mayo was listed as a first base prospect. He's getting off

to a good start as well. He's in three twenty seven, three seventy four, six twenty two. And then Mark Fientos, who I've always been fairly high on and I've seen mixed about four home runs a three twenty one,

four four, five thirty eight slash line. You know, I had him ranked ninth at first base coming into the season. He's someone I see moving up the list, either as people graduate, but also maybe even jumping over a couple of guys who are in front of him. Anybody in the top of your list you see moving one way or the other. I really like what Abby Bombs is doing a double A this year. He hasn't been

hitting many Abby bombs so far heally has one, but he's getting on base and more importantly to me, and yes, i'll sample size still in my opinion because he doesn't even have one hundred plate appearances yet, but his k rate is in the upper teens as opposed to the upper twenties, and that was a big knock on him. So if he's working on making contact right now, you know, we can let that sixty great game sixty grade game power come into play later, so he'll be I had him, where did

I put him? I had him at number eight, which looks like a lot of us. Yeah, so, oh you were the high one on six. But I would say, yeah, he's nching up the line for me and for people who haven't bought your nickname notebook yet. That's Abby mali Ortiz in Texas. Yeah. Sorry, and I and I didn't come up with that one that is stolen off of Twitter by Duke's was my guy. I think it's this handle. I think it's the first coined that one.

One name that I looks like he's going to be moving up lists pretty quickly is a Spencer Horwitz and playing trip lay in Toronto. Only one home run so far, but he's in three fifty two four four ninety three, so getting on base, getting a basically very high rate, strikeout percentage low down thirteen percent h and walking at a twenty two percent rate. So again, I don't think Toronto's going to move Laddie off, but he's going to be

a useful piece depending what they do. And I'm just going to go off track for a second. But Toronto calls up Addison Barger, who pretty decent infielder and a really good hitter, and put him in left field. Yeah, I misplayed a flyball terribly and the other thing I said, well, fortunately, but he's getting mad at Toronto and not at Addison because it just wasn't fair. Yeah, you've got of a play dh the guy. But

anyhow, we're not talking about that position yet. We will, so who knows what they'll do with Horwitz. But you know, if he doesn't get called up, he's definitely gonna move up, you know my ranking list over the course of the season. You know, if he keeps up this kind of pace, and given his track record, and I thought highly of him beforehand, anyway, you know, I don't see why he wouldn't just one more name to throw it at you. In terms of Keston Hira from Detroit,

old Milwaukee prospect who always put up great trip A numbers and just couldn't do in the majors, is starting to do it again. He's got a three twelve, three point fifty four four ninety four slash line. I don't know if the Tigers are going to call him up or not. Probably take an injury or two for them to do that, but the way they've been handling the roster, he put him up there in a position to succeed.

I always pull for the guy because I think he's got the talent and I never could understand why, you know, he wasn't able to do it at the major league level. Still not walking. He didn't walk into majors, you're not walking now. The strikeout rate to twenty four percent, So I'm not seeing that to be a superstar by any means. But it's just interesting to see him still hanging around and still producing a triple A and maybe he'll just be a triple A lifer. But if you had any insight from his

Milwaukee days, or if he's cut your eye at all. No, I actually and when you mentioned his name, I completely had forgot he was now on the Tigers. Yeah, I've he's in the back recesses, that's for sure. He's been had a successful Triple A career, so I think, unfortunately, that's probably where he'll continue to perform, with an occasional call up here and there. But yeah, I don't have any expectations of him bouncing up and being a regular to any extent at this point. But I could

be wrong, and I'm not trying to talk smack about the guy. But it's interesting that you mentioned him because someone who I'm kind of reminded of with him is actually performing well in Double A this year, and that was Rule

five draft pick by the Cleveland Guardians Division Dalo Santos, who is now back with his former club, the Arizona Diamondbacks. So they took him in the Rule five when we weren't going to give him the roster space, so they paid money to Arizona and gave him back. I think that's all works. But anyway, he's back with Arizona, he's performing well his k raids right where he is always in the mid twenties. He's himself has five home runs.

He's looking like he can handle a double A and is ready probably for the next level. He's a home run machine. He's got some raw power in that tank for being a relatively small guy, but he swings that bad hard. So I was hoping he would break camp with the Guardians. You know, we've already talked about how that first basi is kind of clogged.

He had formerly played third base too. I don't think he's played there yet this year, but at least Arizona and now has a chance to let him fully develop in the miners to really hopefully eliminate as many of those holes in his swing as he's shown so far. Yeah, I think so too. I thought he was an interesting Rule five pick, and he's probably not.

Probably he's He's definitely sitting on a few best ball rosters that I drafted before he gets in back to Arizona, thinking that, you know what, if if he is a good week, he'll he'll help me here and there. But as a twenty one year old, I think doubles where he belongs.

I think for his long term development, he's in the right place. But I agree it would have been the interesting to see if you go, if you got a chance in Cleveland. But I think sitting on the bench behind the first base log jam or j ram at third, it wasn't going to help him any So he's probably where he needs to be. But I'm really you know, I think it's becoming quite clear to me that Cleveland they can develop pictures, it seems effectively, but I'm really from a fantasy perspective.

They tend to draft those hit first bats without a lot of tools, and then they make this rule five selection that doesn't really make sense for their roster construction, which has to be taken into account when you're doing the rule five draft. Right. Yeah, it's really really puts a level of concern for me. If I see a player in a batter in the Cleveland organize station,

I think I'm trying to think who they developed as lately. I mean, Stephen Kwan and he's not a power guy Batton, you know, contact average speed. Jose Ramirez is the first is the is the to me, is like the first Sorry I could completely cut you off, but is like, is like the player that wasn't a highly touted prospect that they developed and turned into a you know, a star MVP candidate. You know, as

best as you could ever expect out of any prospect. All right, so we throw out a couple of sneaky deeps and before we move on to a third base. Yeah, all right. Mine is a twenty twenty three pick in the fifteenth round by the somewhere in California Athletics name Will Simpson. Will

is six foot three two twenty five so pretty much built for first base, twenty two years old, and so far this year he's hitting a three fifty four five point fifteen five sixty three slash line, two home runs and the stolen base. Last year he had six home runs, same kind of batting average, hit over three hundred. Last year his OVP was around three point fifty and slugging average over five hundred as well. So young guy coming up

in the system. We don't love what they do at the major league level, but if you really think about it, some good guys have come up through the system. They've got some scouting and some development going on there as well. So if I'm looking really deep, somebody want to put on a deep watch list or put a star next to on my spreadsheet? And see where it goes. Will Simpson is my sneaky deep for first base. Who you got? I like it? Mine may not be as sneaky deep.

I know he's definitely started to get some Twitter hype, but he's only I think it was like one percent owned when I looked earlier on fan tracks, maybe three percent still single low, single digits. And that is Annoiitus Mordn of the Baltimore Orioles. He's a right handed first baseman, so there could be you know, some issues there. But and again he's also in the Orioles organization. If you weren't aware, they have quite a few good corner

baseball prospects here, corner position prospects. But he seems to just be the next one. So who knows how long he'll stay in the Baltimore system, but hopefully long enough to continue to develop. He's at low way as a twenty year old. I think he just turned twenty. No, he's not even twenty, but Fangrass is rounding them up and it's early on, but

he's got a near twenty percent walker rate, which is gorgeous, upper twenties k rate, which obviously is somewhat concerned but you know that might come with some of that high walk, right, he's watching a lot of us come go buy the guy. He's got power much like everyone else, and he's pulling the ball well, he's putting it in the air decently. So the

future could be pretty bright for yet another Baltimore Oriole prospect. Yeah. I was watching TV last night and next week on Hoarders they're covering the Orioles minor league system. I like that. All right, let's talk about third basement, you know, same thing. We'll start talking about our our major league

ranks for a little bit and then take a deeper dive into the prospects. I know, looking at my preseason rankings and Jose Ramirez number one, and like I said, he's going to be number one until he's not on my list. Not getting off to an amazing start. He's had a couple of good games, but overall kind of sea wre ends up at Elie de la Cruz at third. I know I qualified there last year, but he's really a short stop now so and then can I see him with Gunner Henderson.

It's kind of funny with what's going on there. Then Austin Riley Raffie Devers, who I don't know what's going on. They're not saying what if it's his leg or the concussion or what, but he hasn't been playing very much lately. It's an interesting position right nowt at the at the top, and I think that there's a lot of guys who can move up or down. But the one I wanted to talk about was Alex Boem who after years of

like loving the guy I just had, you know, it's it's been too long. I have to really take the rose color off and look at him, and he's just not a top ten third baseman. And right now, maybe I'm amazed, but he is really playing the top five, top three third base level so far in this early season. So maybe I was right all along. I should not have talked myself out of him over the summer.

But he's a guy. Yeah, he's a guy I've always had, I think, probably somewhat similar opinion like this is going to be it, this is gonna be it, you know. And I've traded him and for him and traded him away, you know, and traded back and all in the same league. I currently do roster him in my home league, but

yeah, I mean three home runs. This is probably this will probably be the first year the quickest year he's at, you know, two hands of home runs in his career, although he did know hit twenty last year, so I don't think, you know, it could have started last year. I think if we were to look at a rolling average here see some changes. I mean his bat to ball is he's always been you know, great great k rates, great batting or solid batting average. So yeah, I

mean he's only twenty seven. It's not as if he's you know, in his upper thirties or anything and should have been considered cooked. So you know, it could just be he's entering that prime window. Yeah, it's it's great to see. Yeah, yeah, I think shooting like three thirty seven right now, and then Jordan Westburg's got be in the conversation of top ten. H if he can keep it up. I know that they're some people kind of worried about the what's under the hood, But he's shitting three ten

with five home runs already and hard, hard contact rate. I don't I don't see why, you know, he's not going to stay up there as well, So you know, what's your uh, what's your top of years look like. Yeah, my third base was Ellie and Gunner, which you've touched on there. Uh, and then Austin Riley, who was doing Austin Riley things right now. So I think if we were to rely just eliminate the top two, I think Austin Riley should be number one right now.

And then I have Devers, Ramirez, h Cam and Arrow, and then I have my injury row of Josh Young or I should say not playing row of Josh Young, Nouelvee Marte, and then Royce. Yeah, that's you

know. I was really excited for Young this year that hip I pitch broken

wrist. It really sucks because even when he does come back, he comes back at the end of May, like they're saying, I mean, wrist injuries are power sapping, and so I could as a fan perspective, it could be really painful and people will probably be dropping him, and I think that actually will be a great time to pounce and probably just ignore twenty twenty four unfortunately it's probably mostly last year statistic wise, and then get excited for

next year with Josh Young. So I'll probably I think I'll see I think we'll see Young drop collectively based on what I anticipate his rest of season to look like. But I think that'll be quickly for Gotton into twenty twenty five next year. So Josh Young, get ready to buy. Yeah, I think I think you're right about that. I just I worry. It seems like I know they're different injuries every time, and it's not soft tissue injuries.

So I'm not going to label him injury prone or anything, but yeah, I mean just worry about it. Yeah, And I think, as you just mentioned, it's this was not a soft tissue. This was not him hustling down. You know, he's not Royce Lewis. I think Royce h. Everyone should have some definite caution at this point after two a cls in the same knee and now quad. I believe his squad, Royce, you should have hesitation with And yeah, he could be a top thirty type,

but he's gotta be healthy for that. I think Young just got the short end of the stick here. And if your league made is considering him as an injury risk, you know, maybe you could start being that birdie on the shoulder whispering that to him now and then a month or two after he's back and not hitting home runs, then jumping jumping that by that, by opportunity. You know, I just you know, keep running different sorts on the current third basement in the majors, and it just it's a weird

group at the top, like easak paradas keeps coming up. Yeah, you

may be, you know all around, you know, one of the better third basement out there at the moment. Six home runs and hitting two eighty four, and aside from a couple of guys we mentioned it, batting averages dropped down in a hurry. It's kind of like, but first base used to be years ago, where you get your power and forget about any kind

of batting average. And right now there's just a lot of third basement hitting in the low two hundreds and but with three, four or five home runs right now, so early to tell, and maybe we're talking about him again in a month or so, we'll have a totally different conversation to have. But I have no idea what the rankings are going to look like when you do like mid season rankings and knixt year's rankings. Aside from let's say a couple of guys who we know are going to be near the top, and

then it's going to be whole lot of jumble. I think this is a position where there's the opportunity for some of the prospects we talked about coming in and kind of debuting or getting to the top ten to top fifteen in the o R rankings pretty quickly because I think the openings are there, which is probably something we talk about it every year and draft season and ranking season, but it's really kind of playing out. Yeah, I mean you mentioned the

prospects. I guess that's a good segue, right, Yeah, let's go

there. Yeah, I'm excited for Brady House. He could be one that could even get to the majors of things tumble in the right direction. I'm trying to find. I have too many tabs open, unfortunately, but he's I mean, other than Kobe Mayo, who we've already talked about, who I think ultimately will bouncing between third base and first, but I think Brady House has a chance to be the next next in line. His top third base prospectly and Cam and Arrow I forgot about him. I guess that guy

matters too. He'll be up. He'll probably his eligibility though at some point this year assumably. But yeah, Brady House, I think his next up he's he's he started off well, he's taking walks early. You know, his k rates hovering right where it always is, and the guy is gonna start mashing soon. He's already hit two, but he's gonna. I think he's gonna at least touch trip away this year and we'll see what those those Nationals do, and hopefully it'll be his turn to shine in short order,

jumping up our major league ranks. Yeah, and I think we talked about him last episode. I've always been really high on him and loves seeing the start he's getting up to. Right now, What do you think about what Tyler Black is doing? Is he at third base? I thought, well, they're showing eligible there. He's played one game there so far this year,

but yeah, I was last year. I played twenty eighth. Yeah, he played twenty eighth there last year. So it's interesting though, And the question for me is if they signed Reese I believe to a two year deal Reece Hoskins first, what's there? And they're not playing Black at third anymore in the minors, they're obviously prep I mean unless They're going to pull a Toronto and show him and left field when he comes up and begs the question why is it? Because? Is it because Black's third base defense is

that poor? Is it? They don't plan on having Hoskins around long term, so it'll be interesting. But nonetheless, I mean, offensively, Black is doing what you want Black to do, a hitting homers and stealing bases. So I think he's ready to come up. I bet the Brewers are waiting for late May, that wonderful time in late May when players all of a sudden get promoted. Yeah, but no no service time manipulation, just paverage out that way, right. I got three guys outside my top fifteen

who I'm quite sure are going to move in there pretty quickly. A lot

of people talking about Cam Collier. I know I'm not breaking any uh you know, breaking any news there, but two three fourteen ninety one slash line in the Cincinnati system. He's in the High A. He's already got six home runs already and uh only a four percent walk rate. But which is why the opp is only three fourteen? But well it doesn't the boy's getting out of the park. So uh, you argue with a lot of that,

and then James Treanto's in the Cups, is getting off to another really good start two ninety three, three forty four five seventeen slash line with three home runs, and oh no, somebody's got a small basis not him, he's zero. And then another name that got a lot of conversations a year or so ago, and then not much last year's Andres Chaparro, who's with Arizona nowase he started out with the Yankee system, I believe right now a

three twenty one, four hundred six nineteen slash line with six home runs. Not quite sure why he doesn't get well, he doesn't get ranked higher and doesn't get talked about as much. But those are three guys right now. I think by mid season ranking is a very good shot at being being in the top ten at third base, especially with a couple of graduations are going to happen. Of a couple of names you mention before, I'm surprised.

I didn't hear you mentioned Jace Young or was he in your top ten or whatever. I don't he was not, No, I did not mention him. You're right, yeah, Jace Young. He's having himself a heck of a Oops, I just closed my tam. He's having himself a heck of a twenty four here, and I think he's actually going to be the third basement long term there versus Colt Keith. So but yeah, he's four home runs, and I mean people who are better at scouting than I am saying

he could be as good as his brother. So if it's not apparent, I'm a big Josh Young fan, so I'm excited to see what Jace can keep on doing here. Yeah, and he I think it would definitely be at third base. Keith is actually playing some very good second base right now, and so I think he's silly in there. I think third base is wide open and they're just holding it for Jason. The kind of light the rotation that got going on right now. They got some good chemistry going with

the team. But come mid season, if they need a bat, that call up could be as early as you know, All Star Game to bring him up there. So yeah, no, I didn't intentionally leave him off the list just as I was going through names. It wasn't one of the ones I circled to talk about tonight, But anybody in your I don't know fifteen to twenty five range. You see moving up into the top ten, Well, that's tough. I'm fifteen to twenty five range. I mean I

had Brandon Taylor at thirteen, so I'd be cheating. I had an Aiden Miller of Philadelphia, I have fifteen. He definitely has had a heck of

a start as well. You'll pull him up to speak a little bit more eloquently, but he's actually stealing more bases. It's one thing I've noticed then. I anticipated he's got five stolen bases already this year, and I don't think he was ever scouted as being a fat guy. So let's see how all that he's at low way, so we can see how well that plays out as he advances. But it definitely caught my eye. But he's batt in three eighteen three sixty seven OVP and a five forty five slug. That's

two homers and four doubles to make that happen. Yeah, I mean he's shown an all round, five five tool kind of approach here starting off his professional career, his first full season. So it'll be interesting to see with Philadelphia and them bringing him through here. And then I just want to say for the record, that or Elvis Martinez has been playing second base this year.

So even though we talked about him in a lot of positions last year, we can hold off a couple of weeks before I have to say that I was so wrong, you know, I actually he really was going to use him as mine. But I it was like, I'll wait till short stop because that's where I thought he was speaking second. Well, we'll have our time, all right. Uh So, who the who's the deep dive?

Who's the sneaky deep at this position? For you? You know, it's I'm really you know, I have a hard time deciding if they're sneaky deep to me or sneaky deep to our listeners. And it's definitely a name who was around last year near the end of the year. It's Reuben Santana

with the Diamondbacks. He kind of we haven't heard much about him. He's another toolsy corner and fielder type and it's been a he got a little bit of a late start in low Way this year. He's nineteen, just turned nineteen this year. Nothing. He isn't setting my Way on fire, But I like the fact that he can be stealing. He could be stealing bags and hitting home runs and getting you combo meals as he makes his way through. And Arizona is an organization that I trust some of their development, so

it's definitely one to be watching. And probably i'd say two hundred and fifty ish minor league teams are minor league player and rostered leagues. But yeah, Reuben Santana is someone who I don't think is getting enough press or at least seems to be lost in all of the shuffle with like fypds as he was

starting to pop last year. Yeah, what I did for this, I was looking at players who are currently in A or high A and getting off two good starts and then you know, kind of shortened through the air and looking with their pedigree and everything was so you know, these are long shots, and I guess that's called the sneaky deeps. But the one I settled on, but after that, there's somebody else wanted to ask you if you've heard about. But the one I settled on for the sneaky deep was a

Braylan Wimmer who was in the Colorado Rocky system at a Ball their eighth round pick last year out of South Carolina and he had a decent starting complex last year at just fourteen games at three eighty three four to fifty three five ninety six, and this year he's hit four home runs already, uh hitting three nineteen four thirty nine five ninety six. Walks at a fifteen percent rate, strikes out at a seventeen percent rate, which is low, so almost walks

as much as he strikes out a ball. That's a sneakyast. It's just there. And if he start to look at an a ball, because you know, the pitchers there are still trying to find the strike zone, so it's not that hard to walk. But at least he is showing the patients and taking the walks when they're there. So a few stats I see, they are the kind of worth worth keeping an eye on. Sixty three two hundred so built for power. Yeah, listed at third base and shortstop.

I don't see that profile sticking at the shortstop, so very likely a corner infielder. The other name that this guy is showing eligible at first, second, and third playing it in the Minnesota system Rubel or Rubel cesspit us and

no idea if he's related. So Minnesota Twins playing high A this year three seventy four to fifty two, six eighty five slash lines so far. Twenty two he had a very good year, twenty three he did not, So he's kind of been up and down through his young career. He's twenty three in high A, which is starting to get a little bit old for the level rule five eligible this year, and I know that you look at that to be very meaningful. I don't have you heard the name at all,

am I just no, I am not familiar. But I pulled them up as you're talking. Yeah, I see as bad as four thirty two. Well that'll probably come back. Yeah, I mean the role five eligible for someone a twenty three year old at hay A probably doesn't. You know. He might go into minor league portion or something like that. But I don't see him as being all those things unless he continues his hot streak and makes his way through. Obviously he's not multi He's able to play a lot of

positions, so that is not going to hurt anyone by any means. But no, he's he's not a name I'm familiar with. Yeah, I think I'm gonna file it under a hot start and a small sample, but it was just funny. I hadn't heard or seen the name at all, and like seeing a few different sorts of I kept popping up in the middle to the high range. I thought, who was this guy? And I've heard of him? But I'd start in a small sample sounds like something like Private

Investigators, black and white movie Boguard. I was gonna use it for the title for my autobiography, There you go, my life, My life in fantasy baseball. Uh So, if you got a minute, I've got one. Unless there any other third basemen you want to talk about. No,

let's let's see what she got, all right, Uh, let's pull a trade. It doesn't really hit the position. But looking over the the trades that got posted in their discord, as we've said before, people kind of throw up a simple poll. And so this is a in a thirty team dynasty league where they're looking at category is on one side of the trade, Bailey Ober picture on the other side, Brady House and Hayden bird song, thirty team trade, the thirty team league, thirty team league categories, and

a macuum. I'd probably lean Ober in a thirty teamer can I ask why and that that was that was the majority of vote. It's seventy three in there. I would lean House and bird Song, partly because I like both those guys. I don't think too many people know bird Song except for the guy who just drafted him in that league we're drafting right now, which pissed me off. But I'm sorry, I hitit that out. Sorry, Aaron, He's all yours, good, good good, get that thing. Oh

man, Yeah it was. And I I know Hope Bailly is, of course, but I just think he's a guy. But is he woulden because in a thirty teamer he's a live arm I don't disagree. He's not a He might not have the overall fantasy impact of Brady House, but he has fantasy impact currently. Brady House, as much as I'm a fan, is still and both of us are a fan of many others. It's still you know, a minor league baseball player, and a lot can happen in the

next year. Plus birds Song is a pitching prospect. Enough said on that comment on that topic, it's just when you're in a thirty teamer, and I also said in a vacuum, okay, but so double down on that point. But I just think that the MLB contributor who's above average. You know, he's not a He's not just gonna be getting Indians. He's going to be contributing in other facets of other categories for you. I just think

that's very valuable piece that isn't easily discarded. I should that's easily be discarded. Now, if I'm rebuilding, even in the thirty man I would probably move over for House because pitching is so fickle. I know that I am in probably in the minority in that as well, but if I'm anywhere near a competitive window, give me over. Yeah. I do tend to hold pitching in the thirty team leagues, in the super deep leagues that I'm in. But he's only pitched over a hundre innings once. He just pulled up

his page while you were talking there. He doesn't walk anybody. I didn't know his walk greates, you're that good. They're all below six percent for his entire career. So so of course the whip is down and that helps keep the E E r A down as well. Yeah, he doesn't, and you know, then he'll get those ten strikeout games or eight strikeout games, and then he wants you know, one or two the next one.

He's not super consistent, but he doesn't walk anyone, which is crazy because he's huge, right, and usually those gigantic How tall is he, like sixty eight or something? Yeah, usually usually their mechanics are all over the place. But yeah, he's got that down. He's only I'm actually surprised that he's only crossed over one hundred Indians once. But I think he was a late bloomer. If I remember right too, I think you just broke out. I finally had a full season last year, right, Yeah,

in twenty one he had ninety two innings. That was a twenty five year old, and then twenty two fifty six innings in the majors. Now he has Yeah, I was just gonna say, I'm gonna do the math. Yeah, there's been up and down. Looks like it looks like he did a rehab in twenty two and then came up. But okay, well, thank that you enlightened me there. So yeah, I knew a Bailey over of course, hadn't paid a real close attention and a little bit more there

than I thought. So I learned the hard way when I first joined. When I joined my first thirty man that you know, there's only so many starting pitchers. Yeah yeah, hold on, hold on to him like grim death. Right yeah right, Well that brings us to the end of another episode. Uh, Chris, any final words. I missed talking to you on a weekly basis, So this snuck up on me and that makes me

sad that we're already at our time. Oh I did too. I'll have to we'll have to call in chat and there's nothing to stop us from doing that. I like it, Yeah, I know, we both Uh. You know what else I like? The two weeks went by, Like I haven't spent too much time in the rankings. What am I doing? Like, I'm watching baseball, I think, you know, during the ranking season, there's nothing else to do, so I'm like in the spreadsheets all the

time. And now I'm like, yeah, I turned out the MLB network and that the you know, Tigers are playing well right now, so I'm watching their games. But even when i'm not, there's always a good pitching matchup or you know, good players on. So it's definitely cutting into my ranking time. It's actually watching the game we love. But uh, yeah, I've enjoyed it too. Uh and Uh, I'm glad to hear things are going well with you. Look forward to the next one, and to

all of our listeners out there, Hopefully you enjoy hearing the conversation. Hopefully you're learning some things, and more importantly, we know how valuable your time is and we really thank you for spending some of it with us. So be well. We'll be back soon to talk about the middle infielders, and shortly after that look for our next GT thirty update. So thank you,

everybody, and hey, let's hear what Taylor has to say. Hey, everybody, before you go, I got to tell you about my buddy, Nathan, mister dynasty one stop, the one stop shopper for all your dynasty leagues. Are you considering a new fantasy baseball league but don't know where to start? Nate's got your back, total draft degenerate that just wants to do some bestball leagues. Do a d one s Nita shoulder to cry on. You'd have to ask, but he's a nice dude. Maybe you could come

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