Fantasy Baseball Today - 10/26 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Power/Speed Combos, NYY & CHC Recaps

Episode Date: October 26, 2017

How many players really give you a great power/speed combo (2:30) and can you prioritize that in your drafts? Chris also offers another draft strategy that centers around RPs (4:30) ... We discuss the importance of managers (12:10), Clayton Kershaw's playoff track record (18:16) and 2018 outlooks for a few Yankees (20:15) and Cubs (26:33) ... Some of the top performers of the final month of the MLB season include Jose Reyes, Nick Castellanos and Tommy Pham. Who can carry a strong finish into next year (34:50)? ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Domingo World Series edition of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast. Yeah. Did you stay up for game two, Chris? I was up. I did watch the end of the game, the last couple of innings. Nice. I was flipping back and forth.

There was a very important Toronto Raptors Golden State Warriors game. Give me a break. Are you serious? So I was, you know, between commercial breaks, I was back on the Raptors game. But I watched the game. It was a good game. I didn't see the whole game, though. I did stay. I said I wasn't going to stay up on Twitter. I wasn't going to stay up for X-Rattings, but I did stay up for X-Rattings, and it was fun. And I understand you were at a concert, each of the last two nights?

Yeah, I'm kind of, uh, I'm kind of dead right now. I've slept very little over the last two nights because I was at concert, Adam. I'm sure you have heard of against me and LCD sound system. I'm sure you're a big fan. I am often against you. Yeah. I have never heard of either of those bands. Well, you know, that's You're, no, you went to UM But you're a, you're a Miami guy Against me's a local band They've got Florida roots I'm not a Miami guy

And, uh, I'll see sound system They're the official band of New York City Really these days, Adam? They're doing a 10-night run in Brooklyn Later this month Are they like CNC music factory? Um, they are dancing. Okay.

Okay, great. I wouldn't say they're, CNC Music Factory. I would say that if you offered me free tickets to those concerts, I would have declined both times. Yeah, against me as a punk band, I can't imagine you are going to punk shows. Like 90s punk? Like offspring punk or like more punk? Like real punk. Okay, yeah, no, I don't do real punk. I do read emails though, fantasy baseball at

CBSI.com. Today on the show, we will give you a player who's going to be better than last year and a player who will be worse from the Yankees and from the Cubs who have been eliminated. We will talk about baseball managers because Chris Towers is added again with his Twitter takes. But let's start with this email of the day, number one, from Greg. I was listening to last week's podcast, and I always wait on starting pitchers. I had a solid season overall and really just think that instead of investing in the aces, I'm going to be investing heavily in the players that are able to give me the rare power speed combo. I really feel that if you build a strong core on players that provide that combo,

you'll be able to piecemeal a rotation through the late rounds, waivers, and by low trades. I got unlucky, but this strategy basically worked out perfect for me. I was wondering what your view is on this, Chris Towers, prioritizing the power speed guys. I think power less than speed is the priority. Like if you can get guys who steal bases and don't. kill you. I think that's obviously the win, but I'm at the point where I really want one of those 50 steel guys and there's only two of them, maybe three. So I really, I'm going to want Trey Turner as the priority or Billy Hamilton on my team. Because that's just,

especially in Roto, that gives you such a boost. This conversation is really for points, for Roto leagues and categories leagues, not for points, But, you know, it's interesting. You want the power speed guys. There really aren't that many. Depends how you define it. I looked at just 2020 guys. Yeah.

Which is, you know, like, 2020 is less than one home run and less than one steal per week. So that would be like 26, 26. But 2020, there were nine 2020 guys this year. There were nine 2020 guys last year. There were four who did it twice in a row. Altovae, Trout, Betts, all top five, six picks. last year. And then Will Myers, who had a weird year, killed you with batting average. Yeah.

You know, it's interesting in like an auction that maybe you try to get Altuve and Goldschmidt. Like, Goldschmidt fell just short, but he's around there. But something I'm going to consider next season is whether it might not make sense in Roto leagues to start acquiring more of those high strikeout middle relievers. I haven't done my research on this yet, but it's something that I look at, you know, there were 15 relief pitchers who had at least 90 strikeouts last season, and a handful of them were closer types, but only about half. And then you had guys like Chad Green, Chris DeVansky, guys that pitched a decent number of

innings, Usmara Petit, and had a lot of strikeouts. I'm wondering if those guys might not be undervalued in terms of filling out. you know, maybe you do go with, you know, the strategy where you look to acquire two of those 10 ace pitchers or whatever. And then maybe it's about filling out the last few spots in your rotation with some of those guys. It's kind of interesting. I think Heath did a lot of that in categories leagues. And unfortunately, we haven't been able to have him on in a while, but I would like to know how that worked out for him. I know he was winning our Roto League for a while. He was like neck and neck first and second place, and he ended up in fourth, but he ended up in fourth, but he

ended up a half point behind second place. And, you know, he's got a lot of baseball teams and a ton of football teams. So when football starts, I know it's hard for him to focus on baseball. But his pitching staff at the end of the year was Gosman, Burrios, Carlos Martinez, and then Riceo Iglesias, Mike Minor, Wade Davis, Kenley Janssen. That's four relievers there. He also had – he had Andrew Miller, he had David Robertson, and he had a bunch of – And just what makes me think this is like you look at strikeouts are way up across the league,

but I'm not necessarily sure strikeouts are up among starting pitchers, at least outside of those elite guys who pitch a bunch of innings like Chris Sale and Max Scherzer. So I just wonder if you're better off getting the elite ratio guys who can also help you out in strikeouts and maybe get two of those guys to replace one starting pitcher. Yeah, to finish up the power speed thing, the other players who had 20-20 this year, Altovae Trout, Betts, and Myers, also Tommy Fam, sneaky, good season for him. He had a fantastic season. Elvis Andrews, we didn't see that coming.

Brett Gardner, we didn't see that coming. 21 home runs was a career high. Keon Broxton, like, Keon Broxton was a 2020 guy, but he really wasn't that good in fantasy. Yeah. You know, and then Ben and Tendi was exactly 2020. Whitmeryfield was 19 homers, 34 steals. So, yeah, I mean, it's just hard to project. Steals are so fluid.

Yeah, and I think especially when you're talking about, like, the 15 to 20 steel range. Right. Because those guys tend to, you know, Anthony Rizzo had like a 16 steel season a few years back, right? Like, it just, it, I, the way I'm kind of starting to come to it is like, if I can get Billy Hamilton in the fifth round of a Roto League, I know he only provides two categories worth of value, but you don't really need to worry about steals otherwise with him. Yeah, and I think it also depends on how many roster spots you have on your team,

because he won't hurt you as much in batting average. And he won't hurt you much in every other category if you have a lot of other hitters who can make up for it. All right, email of the day number two. It would be awesome if you could dedicate a show to just the deal. different types of leagues you can join best worst most difficult most fun most original you might have already done this but i'm a new listener this year and i don't have your name email or let me let me find that i apologize quiz what's your favorite league um head to head just head to head-to-head categories is tends to always be my favorite type of league in baseball i

a lot of people really like the league specific formats the n l and a only i'm not a fan no bad That's for the obsessives. Look, I do this for work, and I love it, and I do enjoy playing fantasy baseball. But that requires a level of dedication that just, you know, like you can't have a life if you play in, especially we play in NL and AL only leagues. Yeah, you don't want to do that. I think head-to-head category is definitely my favorite, too. But points leagues are, you know, for the novice, for the beginner. Points leagues are great. They're a really easy transition from football to baseball.

And weekly lineup setting makes fantasy baseball a lot easier. Yeah, and I would just say, you know, if you want to start getting into other types of leagues, I actually think we don't really do any of them here. I don't think I'm in any of them, but I like salary cap. A salary cap? Because that's always fun when you have, like... I've done that in basketball. I've never done it in baseball. But it's always fun in basketball when you have, like, Carmelo Anthony making $28 million a year, and he's not owned, even though he's obviously, you know, a startable fantasy player.

But he's just not good enough to justify that. That's always fun. So you use their actual baseball salary? Yeah. Oh. That is interesting. Yeah, that would be cool. And you'd have to...

What would your budget be? I mean, that's kind of the problem with baseball. Yeah, there's not an actual salary cap, but I think you can just set it at, like, the average. And then you really have to think, like, is Max Scherzer worth his $30 million salary? Is John Carlos Stan? It's an interesting way to play fantasy.

I wonder who the most valuable players would be. It would be the young guys. Aaron Judge, by far. Judge, yeah. He made $500,000 last year. Wow. Cool. Yeah, I like it.

I like it. All right. Thank you. That was Alan, by the way. Alan with the email. Thank you, Alan. Shout out to Alan. Alan, you have been shouted out. Now, Alan, now that we've answered your question, you have to get on a movement watch. You have to put a movement watch watch on your wrist and tell all your friends. Because recently I've been telling the fantasy football audience about movement watches.

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If you can't remember that URL, please feel free to email or tweet me. And I'm happy to help. It's time for Chris's dumb tweet of the day. How did you pick just one? Oh, man. Chris says, most managers don't make a difference one way or the other. What are you disagreeing with? Of course they make a difference.

How could they not? But that's not what I'm saying. So what are you disagreeing with? Most managers don't make a difference. There are good and bad managers, but for the most part, they're replaceable. I'm not saying Joe Girardi's not a difference maker. He might be. But for the most part, if you put Joe Girardi on a team and you put Don Mattingly on the team,

they're going to have very similar outcomes. Yeah, but that doesn't mean most managers. don't make a difference. Saying they're replaceable, I think, is different than saying they don't make a difference from each other. Well, you should have said that. That's what I said. No, you didn't.

I took that as to say, managers don't do anything. Nobody else had that issue, Adam. Everyone else understood what I was saying. This sounds like an Adam Azer issue, not a Chris Towers issue. All right, fine. So maybe it's Adam's dumb tweet interpretation of the day. But I also think you're simplifying. You're oversimplifying it a bit.

Okay. Like, managers are important. Look, do you think, like, whoever the Yankees go and get to be their manager? If they get A-Rod, do you think it's really going to make, like, they're going to, there's going to be like a nine-game difference between what the Yankees do next season. I mean, it could be. A-Rod versus Dusty Baker. See, the Yankees should hire Dusty Baker, for God's sake.

This guy is such a great manager. I mean, come on. How could we fire him? The Dusty Baker thing, like, people act like Dusty Baker can't walk. without tripping over his feet. Like, people talk, and I'm a, you know, I'm an analytics guy. You know, I'm a numbers guy. And Dusty Baker makes a lot of decisions that I don't agree with.

Batting Jason Worth second all season is dumb. You should not do that. But it's also like, you're talking about relatively small differences between batting Jason Worth fifth versus batting him second. And there's, he does something right. Yeah, he wins all the time. Like, you can't keep winning 90 games every year on four different teams as the manager. and be the incompetent idiot that people seem to think Dusty Baker is.

I mean, I think I would love for the Yankees to hire him. I can't believe they're not bringing Joe Girardi back. The thing is, I trust Brian Cashman. I think he's a great GM, and obviously he knows a lot that we don't behind the scenes, so maybe there's a reason. And he's also just been there forever. Sometimes you just want a new voice. I guess, but I think Joe Girardi is a great manager.

I think he does a great job. I think they overachieve every year. I think he's surprised. I will say, not great in his. his one year with the Marlins. He won't manager of the year. Made some really dumb decisions that set the franchise back. His handling of the young pitching staff was very bad.

Really? There was a point where Josh Johnson, I think this was when he had Tommy John surgery right before. They had like a two and a half hour rain delay in the fourth inning, and then he brought Josh Johnson back in. Well, he's learned from that mistake, that's for sure. I think baseball has learned from those mistakes. So the Yankees aren't bringing Girardi back. Boston hired Alex Cora, who is Houston's bench coach, or still is.

The Mets hired Mickey Callaway, who did a great job with the Cleveland pitching staff. He was the Cleveland pitching coach. I hope that translates to the Mets pitchers. And the Indians are going to the Red Sox pitching coach, Carl Willis, who was a former Cleveland pitching coach and is now the Indians pitching coach again. And the Cubs... We have no idea if any of these guys are going to be good. No clue. No clue.

We're guessing on managers. Yeah. Absolutely. But Dusty Baker is going to be good unless he goes to just a terrible team. So that's Chris's dumb tweet and Adam's dumb interpretation of the day. Some news and notes. Yasio Puig is blue hair. He's the best. Did you see him freak out over not catching that ground rule double?

No. Oh, my gosh. So, what was it, the ninth inning maybe? It was late in the game. Someone doubled. I want to say it was Bregman. He hit the ball really hard the other way. Pueg dives for it.

It bounces out of his... It would have been a highlight real catch. It bounces out of his glove and into the stands for a double. Oh, wow. He, like, without even... It was such an immediate reaction. He rips his glove off his hand

and flings it down on the ground. He starts cursing. He's so pissed. I've never seen anyone react like that. Master Pug is... My favorite thing about this playoffs... I have two favorite things about this playoffs. One is Clayton Kershawl just absolutely.

stomping all over the idiotic. He's not clutch. He sucks narrative. Glad you brought that up. He's awesome. I knew. I thought of you. I thought of you. I thought of you when he had that brilliant start of 11 strikeouts. But go on. That's your favorite thing. What was your second favorite thing? Well, no, that's my second favorite thing. My favorite thing is just the world having to come to grips with Yassie L. Puege's greatness. Like nobody can deny it anymore. Like even the, like, what's his name? The guy in, in your city who hates everything. fun. Chris Russo? No, Mushnick, I think is his name.

Oh, Phil Munchkin. He wrote anti-Puikom. Like, how can you watch this playoffs and think Yassal Pueig is not amazing for baseball? You probably have never, you probably don't read Phil Munch. Oh, I'm very much aware of him. Yeah, every, I don't read him anymore. I don't read him anymore. He's a miserable, miserable, curmudgeon. But how can you watch this playoffs and think Yassel Pue is anything but great for baseball? Did you see his quote on Carlos Correa's batflip yesterday?

Yeah, he's fun. He was like, well, it was a little higher than I usually do. Yeah, he's fun, absolutely, and he's blue hair. My wife died her hair blue in honor of Yossiel Pueck. Are you serious? No, she just died her hair blue. Maybe he did it in honor of her? Maybe.

So Clayton Kershaw has a great game one, and he allowed a home run in game one. That was the ninth consecutive start in which he allowed a home run the longest stretch of his career. According to CBSports.com, the longest he'd ever, the longest stretch. which before that that he'd ever allowed a home run in consecutive games was four games in a row. Meanwhile, yesterday, Game 2, World Series record, eight home runs, and Dallas Keikle says, quote, obviously the balls are juiced. I think they're juiced 100%, but it is what it is. I'm just glad we came out on top.

There's nothing else we can say. It is what it is. That's the reality of the game until it's not. Yeah, and it's been fun. Last night's game was great. Actually, they both were great. But, you know, the Kirshaw thing, Chris, is like when you say, say something like he stomped all over the, you know, the idea that he's not good in the

postseason, you almost act like he hasn't been bad in the postseason, when in fact, Kate Gershaw has been very bad. No, no, no, no, no. It's not stomping over the narrative that he hasn't been bad. He has been bad. Yeah. It's stomping over the narrative that he cannot be good. But nobody thinks that.

There are people, I have had conversations with people who think Madison Bumgarner is a better pitcher than Clayton Kershaw, and all they cite is playoff numbers. it's ridiculous. Clearly nobody's a better pitcher than Clayton Kershaw, but if somebody said if I had one postseason game, I'd rather Madison. I'd rather have Clayton. I respect that, but if somebody said... That person's wrong. That person's not wrong, Chris.

That person is wrong. They can have Josh Beckett, too. That person's been right almost every time. They can have Josh Beckett and Kurt Schilling and Jack Morris, too. I'm taking Clayton Kershaw. I don't care. Fine. I'd rather have most pitchers in baseball in the postseason than David Price.

He was good this year He was good as a reliever He was hurt Okay but he didn't start He didn't start Oh Chris Towers All right

Season Recaps Give me a player who will be better On the Yankees next year Uh The obvious answers Masahira Tanaka I think Yeah I don't know that'll be on the Yankees Yeah but the 474 ERA

He kept getting swinging strikes all year. He kept getting strikeouts. His control wasn't bad. He had issues keeping the ball in the park. But, you know, a 21% home-rout-of-fly ball ratio, even with juiced balls, that's not sustainable. Even in Yankee Stadium, that's not sustainable. He's going to be a low-to-mid-3sera guy next year. And if people are scared off of him, I will gladly take him. He had a great postseason. And Severino's innings really concern me. I haven't really looked into Tanaka's innings, but he pitched deep into the game. See how many he threw this year, Chris?

Well, why do Severino's innings concerned? Oh, huge jump. Like what, 60 innings over his previous high? Am I resided that too many? It's at least 50. I didn't think it was. I thought he had thrown like 170, 180 innings before. I don't think so.

I think it was more like 150. He threw 150 last season. He threw 153 in 2015. Yeah, and he went over 200 this year. Yeah, but I'm not. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I'm more worried about like the 100 to 160 jump than I am the 150 to 200 jump. I don't have a scientific answer, but it's more innings than they wanted him to throw. Tanaka, meanwhile, no, Tanaka, no, he's fine.

So he's at, he's at like 200, almost exactly, and he actually threw that many in 2016. And he's a vet. Yeah, so he's cool. Pitching with a, you know, torn UCL for five years. I'll tell you who I think is going to be better next year I'm really excited about him I think he's got a chance to be if everything goes right

top five to seven first baseman Greg Bird I love him I bought all in on him after the spring I thought he was a player who was perfectly suited to playing in Yankee Stadium and just he never got the chance like I know he played

he literally got the chance but because of the injuries he was never right, but he was really good down the stretch. He's going to be better in OBP leagues. He has a great eye. In the postseason, I mean, they face some great pitching. They faced the Indians and the Astros. In the postseason, he had a 938 OPS to lead the Yankees.

He batted 244, but 12 walks, 17 strikeouts. He homered three times, so. Here's the thing I like about Greg Bird. I don't think he's going to strike out very much. I think he's going to be an above-average strikeout guy. I know he was terrible. This season overall, but specifically that first month, but it's obvious he was never healthy. Right.

What I love about him, if you were designing a player in a lab to take advantage of Yankee Stadium, it would be Greg Bird. He's a contact hitting, pull heavy, fly ball hitting left-handed bat. All of those things are going to come to get. together for this guy to have, you know, 40 homer potential playing in that park. And he can hit lefties too, so that's good. I don't know if he'll have for power, but he won't be a guy who has to sit against lefties. Yeah. A player who will be worse next year for the Yankees.

A player who will be worse next season for the Yankees, should I just make everyone mad at me? If you say Aaron Judge, I'm not going to be mad. It's Aaron Judge. He's obviously going to be worse. We already saw it. Like Aaron Judge is going – Aaron Judge is not going to be the best play. player in fantasy next season. Call me crazy.

He was the number one player, right? I don't think so. Well, he's not going to be one of the three or four best players in fantasy next season. He had... I think Charlie Blackman... What might end up being the best year of his career? I think it's going to be a lot like mooky bats, actually. He will have a very good season that is not nearly as good as the one he had this year.

Oh, I'm glad you mentioned that. All right, put a pin in that, because I'm going to give my guy. I have a question mark on this. The player who will be worse next year. I went with D.D. Gregorius. So he missed about a month. But from April 28th on when he returned, when he made his debut, D.D. was the number six shortstop in points, number seven in Roto.

It was awesome. Only Manny Machado, Jonathan Scope, and Francisco Lindor hit more home runs at the position than Gregorius from the time he made his season debut. Two of those guys, Machado and Scope, won't be shortstop eligible to start the 2018 season. Now, I love Didi coming into the year. I made some good calls. I made some bad calls. My best call was D.D. Gorgias.

I thought he was going to have a good year. I didn't think it would be this good. But Heath didn't really like him because he mentioned how much soft contact Gregorius made in 2016. And I didn't look it up in 2017, but I did see he was up. He was 396 an average exit velocity tied with Zach Granky. He doesn't hit his home runs very far. But that's fine. Yeah.

I think that's fine because everything I said about Greg Bird, a lot of that applies to D.D. Gregorius. He doesn't have the raw power Greg Bird does. He hits a lot of 378-foot home runs. Those still count. And they are, as far as I know, not moving the fences out in right field in Yankee Stadium. But if you look at... He's a whole heavy hitter.

Look at his home road splits. He was better on the road. That's what's incredible. And also, like, people think he's a legit star. when you factor in the defense. And I don't know. He might be this good of a hitter. Even though he doesn't walk that much,

he doesn't strike out much. He could be like a 280 hitter. Could he hit 25 home runs again? I mean, it's possible. I think so. Look, he's someone that if they change the baseball, probably goes back to being a very run-of-the-mill player. Yeah.

And he had 12 home runs at home, 13 on the road. But he had at 80 points, 70 points better on the road. Yeah, he's, because I don't think they're moving the fences out in Yankee Stadium and because I don't have any reason to believe they're going to change the baseballs next year, I think D.D. Grigorous is going to be a very good fantasy option. All right, the Cubs. Oh, this is what I was going to say. This is what I was putting a pin in.

I got such a nice email yesterday from CBS Sports. And it said, thank you, Adam, for playing fantasy baseball on CBS Sports. And it had this video of Heath and Chris. Just talking, just chatting at the desk. Just chatting it up. And I gotta tell you, you guys did a great job. You know what we were doing? We were reading off a teleprompter.

That was the first for me. Really? You never read off a teleprompter? No. I couldn't tell. I thought you sounded very natural. My question was, that was about a minute and 15 seconds, I think, of one camera shot and one take. Did you do it all on one take, or did you guys have mess-ups?

We messed up one time, but it was only because we had never read the second. half of the script and we decided to try to do it without having read that, which didn't work. That's a mistake. That's a mistake. You always want to rehearse your teleprompter. Yeah. You guys did great. That was really cool.

I enjoyed that video a lot. Thanks. I wish Scott had been there. Scott's obviously the guy. He'll be back in three weeks. Six-month paternity leave. Cubs. Who's going to be better for the Cubs next year?

I'll let you have yours. I agree. but I'll let you have your moment in the sun soon. I think Cow Schwabers is an obvious call here, though. I just, he's not as bad as he was last season. And I think he was like an almost 900 OPS guy after coming back from the miners, right? Yeah, Scott brought it up,

if you just looked at the numbers, and I'm going to get them up right now, that they were pretty good. I don't know if it was that high, but yeah, it was good. You know, playing time. was sometimes questionable. Let's just see.

You want to keep talking? Where do you think Schwerber will be as an outfielder next year? He definitely won't be drafted as a top 20 guy. He had a 900 OPS from July 6th on after he came back. 903. 18 homers in 65 games.

All he has to do is hit 250. And that's what he did after coming back from the minors. You know, 225 plate appearances. He had a 308 Babbitt. Nothing about that looks off to me. There's a weird type of player in baseball and in fantasy baseball that seems like he has so many

bad games, but Homer's just enough to be good enough in fantasy. And Schwaber is like, Schwerber is not a consistent night-to-night guy by any means. No, when he gets hot, he gets red-hot. He's just someone that everyone was way too high in her. coming into the season. Yeah, I was the guiltiest party. Like, his track record was pretty good, but he wasn't like a superstar in 2015, and we were treating him like he was going to be, you know, we didn't, I think the problem

was we didn't factor the downside. And the downside here was obvious. He's a horrible defender, so they're going to look for excuses to get him out of the lineup. He strikes out a ton and he can't hit lefties. And when you're treating a guy like that, like he's got superstar potential. and I think Kyle Schwerver still does, you have to still factor in that risk.

And I don't think we were doing that when we were drafting him as a top 20 outfielder. But his defense had nothing to do with it. I mean, they gave him every chance to succeed, and he was so bad for half the season. By the way, so this is what I'm talking about. So last 65 games, which is when he got called up, July 6th on. He had that 903 OPS.

65 games, he had eight games with multi-hits. Eight multi-hit games. And I think only one of them was a three-year-old. hit game. I think the others were two hit games. Sounds about right. And that's just like, you just look at the game log. It's like 1, 1,1,0, 1, 1, 1 2. And I don't know, it's almost surprising to me that he had a 903 OPS, which is exceptional in that stretch. Because most nights, he doesn't do anything. But I guess he just has enough knights where he homers, and it helps. Yeah, and he also didn't play every day in that stretch. So those numbers are a little skewer. I'm not saying I expect him to be a 900 OPS guy.

But I just think he's bound to be better than what he hit, 217 last season. I'm not sure, but yeah, I'm now counting. In that 65-game stretch, there were probably about 10 games where you had one-plate appearance. So, you know, keep that of mind. Can't have a multi-hit game when you have one-plate appearance. My player, who will be better is Chris Bryant.

He went from being the numbers. He had the moogie bets here. He went from being the number seven, number five hitter. seventh and points, fifth in Roto in 2016, to 15th in points, 30th in Roto in 2016. I think he went down 10 home runs. I just think he had an off year. I think he comes back, might win the MVP again next year.

Yeah, and I also think, like, if you're talking about guys who could join Stanton and Judge as 50 homer guys, he hasn't been that yet in his career, and he may never be. We may have been a little over-enthusiastic about him based on his minor league career, but what I love about him is the raw power and the strength are still there. And if that breakout happens, coupled with his improved contact rate over the last couple of seasons, he was a, he struck out 19% of the time this year.

That's above average. Yeah. His walk-strikeout ratio. He and Mookiee Betts both improved their walk-to-strikeout ratios and had worse numbers. So you've got to like the changes they made at the plate. I fully agree with that. I actually think the Cubs are kind of like the Red Sox and that. When you're looking for players who will have a better season,

I could probably throw six or seven guys out of you. I think Addison Russell's going to have a better year. I think Ian Hap's probably going to have a better year. I know he didn't. His were mostly playing time issues. Who's going to have a worse year? Who's going to have a worse? I had a lot.

I could not find anyone for this. It's tough. Yeah. It's really tough because like the Red Sox, there was nobody that really like played over their head. Yeah, I thought maybe Will, Wilson Contreras. Maybe Wilson Contreras.

Maybe Kyle Hendricks, although he only threw 140 innings. I went with Javier Baez, even though, like, it was, I'm grasping for straws, but he had 273, two seasons in a row. And I'm just amazed that he can do that with such bad plate discipline. And we know the way he swings the pitches out of the zone. He went two for 26 in the postseason. You know, I just, I'm surprised he's a 273 hitter, but he's done it two years in a row. again, I really had no good candidate for a player who will be worse.

Yeah. Sorry. It's hard with this team. Yeah. So they're all going to be better, except for one guy who will be exactly the same. Anthony Rizzo. Yep. He's a metronome. Set your watch to that dude's numbers. Four straight seasons with 31 or 32 home runs and OPS within 30 points, 899 and 929 for straight years. And you can't get much better than the season. Seek geek app.

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discount. All right, I want to look at the best hitters of the last 28 days of the season. And I think I did in points leagues. But the best hitters, these were not all of the best hitters. I just cherry-picked. Nick Castellanos batted 372 with seven home runs and 11 doubles, which were the most of the majors. Jose Reyes, forget about the last 28 days.

The last two months, he batted 289, and he stole 11 bases, and he had 20 walks of 31 strikeouts and 846 OPS. That's Reyes. Tommy Pham was outstanding. Batting 23 with four homers and eight steals in almost as many walks of strikeouts in the last 28 days. And for the season, he was number 21 in points at Outfield, and that was playing 128 games,

and Pham was number 11 in Roto. Carlos Gonzalez batted 380 with six homers and 10 doubles, and one walked every two strikeouts, basically. And Ozzie Albies was very good as well, batting 286 with four homers, six steals, 10 walks, four doubles in his last 28 days. Castiano, Reyes, fam, Carlos Gonzalez, Albies. Chris, who do you think can carry it over to next year?

Well, it was nice to see Nicholas Castellanos kind of live up to the expectations that I set for him. The fact that he ended up as a top 10 third baseman is actually a really nice sign, because the batted ball data for him was just exceptional last year. So I'll buy him. I don't think the price will be too high. I think he's a pretty good player.

I think he's developed into not a superstar, but a useful guy. I can't buy Jose Reyes, just the age. I think the declining skill set. Maybe it'll be there the way it was the last two months, but I think that was fluky. As long as Tommy Fam's eyes are working. I think this dude can rake. He played 128 games.

If he had played 150 games, he would have been the number six outfielder in points leagues. Yeah, I mean, look, we've seen flashes of this over the last couple years. There's always stretches where Tommy Fam just tears the cover off the ball and then goes into long slumps or gets sent down or doesn't have an everyday role. But he, you know, I saw on Twitter the other day, he thinks the eye issue is really the key. And he said, you know, the difference this year was he had 20. 2015 vision this year. Oh, that's not fair. I want 2015.

If he can see the ball, I think he's going to hit the ball. I think it's as simple as that. 2015, he can see the ball from like the right field bleachers. That's a, that's terrific. I like Ozzy Albi skill set. Not a superstar player. I worry a little bit of that there might be some Jose Paraza potential for him, where he just doesn't hit the ball well enough to put the skills that he had.

has the speed, the contact ability. But I like the skill set there. Okay. So you skip Carlos Gonzalez, so you don't care about him, you hate him. I just don't know what to do with it. I really don't. I'm not going to lie.

I'm not going to lie and say that I have any confidence in anything with Carlos Gonzalez at this point. You buy low the day before your trade deadline. Sure. Carlos Gonzalez. This year you could pick him up. Yes. Like the people who dropped Carlos Gonzalez, and there were a lot of them, you should have.

There was no reason to think he was going to do this in September. Yeah. Oh, you're right. All right, let's read emails here. We have an email about Otani. I'm going to save it for another show. Maybe we'll. Hopefully he'll sign relatively early.

We can talk about it. But here's this from Ryan. Dear whoever is on the podcast besides Adam today. I am in a five-by-five categories league with four-keeper spots. No limit on how long you can keep them. Our four-keepers are our. first four picks of the draft, so you lose rounds one through four. I currently have

Votto, Mookie, Stanton, and Kershaw as keepers. Yeah, that's the end of the email, right? I don't know. Votto, Mookie, Stanton, and Kershaw. My other options are Bellinger and Bregman. Would you substitute

any of them for Bellinger or Bregman? Again, they're Votto, Mookie, Stanton, and Kershaw. I guess you could consider Votto swapped out for Bellinger just because in 2023, Cody Bellinger's probably going to be better than Joey Votto. But flags fly forever.

Cody Bellinger's not going to be as good as Joey Votto next season. There's a pretty good chance he's not going to be as good as Joey Votto in 2019 either with the way Joey Votto's aging and the fact that he just had maybe his best season ever. So I think you stick with it. It's going to be tough to let Cody Bellinger go and know that you could have him for the next 10 years. but I just I think the gap

between the two of them is big enough that I'm just sticking with Otto this is from Paris Paras Paris

Paris Paris Okay that's probably Yeah that's better Could you help me pick my five keep My Vkeepers Will Myers

in the 13th round All right Let's start with two Two very obvious Well actually I think Most of this email is obvious Aronado in the eighth is obvious

Yep. Correa in the 9th is obvious. Ari the rest. Pick three. Will Myers 13th round. Mike Trout, first round. Donaldson, 10th. Rizzo 6th.

Salazar in the 12th. Lance Lynn and the 20th. All right. So here's the thing. When you're talking about keepers, you're always looking for surplus value. Nolan Aronado in the eighth round, that's seven rounds of surplus value.

Carlos Correa, probably seven or six rounds of surplus value. Mike Trout in the first, you're getting no surplus value. You're still keeping Mike Trout because you can't possibly get better than a first round value for Mike Trout. Like you let him go, you're going to invest a first round pick in him. If you're lucky enough, if God blesses you enough to give you the first overall pick. Right. There's no way you're getting Mike Trout unless you have the number one overall pick. So you keep Mike Trout in the first round.

After that, I'd probably go Rizzo in the sixth. You need one more, though. Donaldson and the 10th is tough. Yeah, you need one more. Donaldson and the 10th. I need five, so that's it. All right, yeah. I thought was pretty easy. So, Paris, good luck. You have a terrific core. That's a good start.

You have four players who were first round picks last year, Aronado, Trout, Donaldson, and Rizzo, and then Correa, who was mid-second. That's awesome. Pretty good. From Gene, Lance Lynn and Mike Leak for Rinaldo Lopez and Stephen Matz in a 2014-keeper league. Would you do that? Lance Lynn and Mike Leak for Analdo Lopez and Stephen Mats.

Give me the young guys. Absolutely. Oh, yeah, for sure. And this is from Johnny in Jamaica. Dear Mike, Aaron, and Wapner. Those are judges. Oh, ha, ha. Yes, they are.

Yes, they are. I don't actually know what Judge Wapner is. I know Rain Man. I know he talks about him in Rain Man. I don't actually know what that is. but yes, these are judges. I think he was like Judge Judy before Judge Judy. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. The question from Johnny is, thinking over things for next season. Is it crazy to consider Carlos Carrasco a certified top five ace? And I'm considering dealing Corey Seeger in the off season. It's been two fair seasons, but Corey Seeger always seems beat up and truthfully doesn't appear to have a game-changing bat. He reminds me more of his brother than an elite talent like Correa or

turn or a shortstop. Should I lay off the crazy sauce? I think Corey Seeger is pretty special. I mean, when you're down year is 295 with an 850 OPS and you're a shortstop, the only thing he doesn't do is steal bases. You'd like to see more of that from him. He might not be on the Carlos Correa level. But we also probably haven't seen the best of Corey Seeger.

Well, I hope so, because I sort of see where Johnny and Jamaica is coming from other than from Jamaica. Because in two seasons, Seeger has been number five in points, number seven in Roto. That was in 2016. And this past year, 2017, he was number seven in points, number 10 in Roto. And the lack of steals is actually a really big deal because this is a position where you get steals. Yeah. And he doesn't do it.

He gets like three a year. No, that's, that is, it's not totally unfair. But I just think what might be happening here is something. we see a lot in sports and in fantasy sports as well is when you're told a young player is going to be a super duper star and they're just a regular old playing superstar like Corey Seeger. I think it's easy to over correct and say, well, this guy's overrated now. And I think like you look at like the turn that Anthony Rendon made this year where he turned

into a legitimately elite hitter. There's no reason Corey Sigger can't do that. Like that, I think, is on the table. Does he have to hit more than 25 or 26 home runs? Sure, but I think he absolutely has the ability to. Okay. Okay. And Carasco is a top five pitcher.

It's realistic. Yeah, it's not unfair. I just, he doesn't have the dependability of the top five guys. Yeah. Kershaw, Scherzer, Kluber, Sale. Yeah, those guys are clearly ahead of him. I think you can throw him in the mix after that, But he's been up and down.

His ERA is never quite as good as you think it should be. Yeah. He has clunkers. He's clunker prone. He's clunker prone that crassky. He's just these bad, bad starts out of nowhere. And I think him and Carlos Martinez is another guy like this, where they exemplify the difference between command and control.

Carlos Correa doesn't walk that many people. But there are stretches where you're like, I don't know if this guy knows where the ball's going. But the stuff is obviously great. has top five upside for sure. Who would you rather have next year? Carrasco or Cindergarde? Let's see how Cindergards offseason goes.

I'll take Cindergarde. Okay. Okay, that's it for Crazy Chris Towers and awesome Adam Azer on Illiteration Thursday. Well, that seems unfair. I'm the host. Damn it, damn it, I get to say what I want. And this is one of my best outros ever, so just let me go with it. That's Chris.

I'm Adam. We'll talk to you next week. Enjoy the weekend, everybody. See you.