Fantasy Baseball Today - 10 Things We Want To See In 2025! (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 10 things we want to see happen in 2025, up next on fantasy baseball, today in five. Welcome into FBCN5 on Saturday, September 28th. I am Frank Stanfield, joined by Scott White. This is our final in five podcast of the 2024 season. And of course, we are looking ahead. Ten things we want to see happen next season. A little bit of rapid fire here. Scott, starting with your Atlanta Braves.

Starting point is 00:00:25 Please give us Ronald Acuna and Spencer Strider fully healthy. on opening day. Yeah, particularly strider. I've been kind of surprised how reluctant people are very early in the process, of course, but to invest much in him for 2025. And I just want to remind everybody, he did not have ligament damage in the elbow. He had a bone spur that was applying pressure to the ligament, had it removed, had the internal bracing procedure done almost proactively.

Starting point is 00:00:58 but I think the expectation is he'll be in the mix next spring and I hope to see it. For the White Sox, trade one of or both, Gara Crochet and Luis Robert. They got to trade crochet. I'm definitely rooting for that to happen. We can't go through this with losing the second half to this intense innings management.

Starting point is 00:01:20 They'd be insane not to trade him. His value will never be higher and he doesn't have that many years of team control left. For the Red Sox, we get some kind of contributions from one of or all, Roman Anthony, Christian Campbell, Marcel Mayer, and Kyle Thiel. Yeah, they have a lot of talent looking to break in, and they're kind of full.

Starting point is 00:01:42 I mean, Tyler O'Neill's a free agent. Let's presume they don't bring them back. Ceylon Raphael, I imagine, would go to the outfield, which would block Anthony from making the opening day roster. Von Grissom is still in the mix and just got called up in September. So Christian Campbell is he going to get an honest shot at second base? It's really going to be interesting to see how it all shakes out for the Red Sox given, given the many possibilities.

Starting point is 00:02:09 For the Giants, we want to see them re-sign Blake Snow. We do. We do. I think it's gone very well for him after the groin injuries early on that held him back. He seemed to kick into that Cy Young form. It didn't take him as many. he starts to get there. And I'd like to see him have some stability. For the twins, not only do we want to see Royce Lewis healthy for at least 130 games, can we find out who he is? Yeah, yeah,

Starting point is 00:02:40 because, you know, for the first couple years there, in between all the injuries, you know, a lot more injured time than healthy time for Royce Lewis, but whenever he played, he looked like a total stud. And then he got a more extended stretch of health here. in the second half of 2024, and it wasn't so studly. So we still don't have enough of a sample here, I think, to form a firm conclusion on Royce Lewis, and obviously with all the injury risk, we have to feel confident he's actually going to be good when healthy.

Starting point is 00:03:13 Another one we want to stay healthy for the Reds, Matt McLean. Scott, we need all the help at second base. We do. And he's not going to be eligible there to begin next year in CBS Sports Leagues. He played more games at shortstop than second base. in his last healthy season. So shortstop only. Let's see him get those five games

Starting point is 00:03:31 at second base as early as possible because we need him. He might be my number six second baseman to start the year if he ranked there to start the year. Yep. Another one for the Bruers. We want Christian Yellich healthy

Starting point is 00:03:43 for at least 130 games. That would be nice. Yeah, even more than that, I just want to see that he's back after having the back finally operated on. I feel like that dealing with the back issue all those years is what kind of knocked him. It kind of removed him from the perennial MVP discussion and cost him so much production. He's not a young guy anymore, but he seemed like he was mostly back to form,

Starting point is 00:04:18 certainly looking a lot better this year prior to having the surgery. So just I don't even really know what to expect from Yellich, but obviously a stud outcome is possible. For the Phillies, Andrew Painter has a big spring training and is in their opening day rotation. Yeah, he was on track to be as a 19-year-old a couple years ago prior to Tommy John's surgery. And obviously, he's been off the radar for a long time. But it wouldn't surprise me if he made such an impression next spring that it's like how Jared Jones went for the pirates this spring. And suddenly, he's gaining a lot of traction and fantasy. For the nationals, James Wood gets that ground ball rate.

Starting point is 00:04:55 under 50%, which sounds like it would fuel a breakout. I would think so. That is the one glaring flaw for James Wood. And if you look at his actual home run pace since being called up to the majors, we feel like it's gone really well for him, for the most part it has. But his 162 game pace for home runs, a lot lower than you might expect. He needs to put the ball on the ground less. And of course, it always comes back to Jonathan Aranda with Tampa Bay.

Starting point is 00:05:25 We want them to get consistent at bats, whether it's with Tampa Bay or another team. Yeah, they've given him a look here in September. It's gone well. And they have a lot of, they have a lot of issues to address in the off season. Brandon Lau is time to move on from him. Yandi Diaz, same thing. Aranda, we've seen him play both first and second base. So maybe they decide to keep Aranda and get rid of one of those guys instead,

Starting point is 00:05:51 or maybe Aranda's the one on the move. One way or another. I want to see this guy. I play finally. All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts, are found.

Starting point is 00:06:05 Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today and Five all season long, and we will be back again next week. Bye-bye.

Fantasy Baseball Today - 10 Things We Want To See In 2025! (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

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