Fantasy Baseball Today - 2023 MLB Draft Recap & Early First-Year Player Draft FYPD Rankings! (7/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 10, 2023

The MLB draft is different from other sports (3:05). ... Paul Skenes was the first overall pick to the Pirates (9:00). ... Who's the better target between Dylan Crews and Wyatt Langford in dynasty leagues (14:53)? ... Max Clark and Walker Jenkins were the top two high school bats in the draft (19:13). ... It was another crazy weekend of baseball (25:45)! ... Jacob Wilson is the son of former shortstop Jack Wilson (29:47). ... Who were the other top pitchers in this draft after Skenes (33:00)? ... The Welsh is higher on these four college bats (36:25). ... Who are we taking in the Home Run Derby (45:15)? ... We wrap up with The Welsh's early FYPD rankings for dynasty leagues (49:20). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." 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

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. And just like that, the first half of the season is in the books. Welcome in Tough Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, July 10th.

I am Frank Sample, joined by Chris the Welsh. And as I mentioned last week, we have some unique programming coming your way throughout the All Star Break starting with today. Speaking of which, what are we talking about? Recapping the first round of the MLB draft, taking an early look at first year player draft rankings for those who play in Dynasty leagues. And I realize not everybody plays in a Dynasty League, but I think it's important for us to learn about these players as soon as possible because some of them could be impact names as soon as next season. I mean, I don't think we'll see any of them this year, but crazier things have happened. There's a chance.

There's a chance. That's why I think we need to dive in. We've got to learn about these guys because they are going to be making an impact soon. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify.

Walshay. How's the weekend, bud? What's up, Frank? I've just been getting ready for this, not being at the All-Star game, which there was this little chance I was going to. So a little depressed, but, you know, it was made okay by watching the futures game.

Everybody was out there. I had some predictions that came true, by the way. I'd said Jacob Mizoroski was going to shock everybody and everyone was going to talk about him. And like a glove, he was out there just slangin and looking great. So the futures game, though, I know some people were kind of like, oh, it was a little disappointing. It was pretty awesome to see all those guys on display.

You got to see some of the tools. And then obviously the MLB draft. And, you know, thanks to you and our great air, K and EK and all the guys that pushed to have me on if anyone didn't see. I was on CBS Sports HQ, which was with Larry Ridley, which was very fun talking about and breaking down some of the picks if anyone was watching live. So very happy to do that. And I'm very happy to be in my home setting with you, Frank.

Yeah, did a great job. I was watching some of that too because I wanted to get some instant analysis and learn about these players as well. So great job there. And speaking of Miziarowski, you know who has them in the Scout White Dynasty League, Don't you, Welsh? So lame. So lame.

So, yeah, I saw his line. I saw what he did, and I saw some people raving about him. So we'll talk about, on tomorrow's podcast, we'll have impact prospects for the second half of the season. We'll also talk about the futures game a little bit and what went down there. But let's jump in. Let's just talk about the MLB draft recap. Before we get into player specifics, let's just quickly explain how the MLB draft is different, in my opinion, than other sports.

because I think it's a very unique experience, a very unique draft, because the biggest thing that I've noticed is that teams don't always draft the best player available. Sometimes they'll take a player that's perceived to be a lesser talent or lower down the rankings, though, I don't know that anyone really knows. I mean, some of these guys are projected so far out. It's really hard to know.

But they do that so that they could sign these players in the first round for less money, under slot, as they'll call it, and then they have more money to spend later on in the draft. Does that make sense? Well, should I explain that correctly? Anything else you'd like to add on just, I guess, the politics that go in behind the MLB draft? It's kind of like espionage.

It's like Mission Impossible 7 is out. So it's just like Tom Cruise behind the scene. It's very espionagey because it's very like smokescreen and this and that. Like basketball and football, it's just meat and potatoes. It's like you take the guy, this is what you pay. There's nothing really crazy. The last person I can think of that there was like a contract thing was with Michael Crabtree. Remember that with the 49ers?

just some weird like he didn't want to sign until really late and blah blah blah that's just rare that's not in the MLB draft first off you can't trade picks that's actually the most apparent thing they did change where you can start to trade i think compensatory picks but you can't trade your normal picks and then exactly what you said there's so many rounds and then there is this politicking that happens where there are teams that are just cheap and then there are teams that want to spend other places you don't see like second round NFL picks getting like a million dollars over what that slot is. But you see that in baseball. Last year, Brock Porter got, I think his slot price was like a couple hundred thousand dollars and he got

multiple millions of dollars when the Rangers took Kumar Rocker and he took less. We've just seen all these weird things have happened over time. And this draft was ripe with it, man. I mean, we were littered with it. The Orioles always get the wrap of the team that are going to try to save money. By the way, they took one of my favorite players in this draft with this one. But the pirates were all about this. Every rumor was they're going to go under slot. They're going to take Wyatt Langford for actual slot money. They're going to take Max Clark to save a million dollars to sign one of these high school short stops later on. So that's the weird thing that happens with this. Like you said, is you've now got the situation where teams will not take

the best player so they can persuade a maybe high school player to not go into college and they'll pay him more money. And you'll even see, this is the other weird thing, not to keep going on about this, but you'll see a team like this situation that happened with Brock Porter, you'll see a team come to a agreement. And then their agents, they'll tell all the teams, and all the teams will pass. So it's like you can finagle the draft a little bit, which is super weird. Baseball is odd. And this was the first year. We also got the rookie compensation. So Julio Rodriguez, who, remember the new rules, it's like if a rookie who's a top 100 prospect is on the opening day roster and then also wins rookie the year or is in top three in voting of like

si young or MVP they're eligible for a pick the mariners did that and that was i believe the 29th pick in this draft which ended up being oh i'm forgetting who it was now it was not typeat it was johnny farmello johnny farmello ended up being the first player ever to be the extra rookie compensation we'll see the diamondbacks get that next year with forbin carroll so yes there's all actually a lot different about base base is a wacky, weird one, but it's pretty fun if you can get through all the, you know, the mission impossible. The da-da-da-da-da-da-da, Frank, but-da-da.

I find it fascinating, man. I really do. And to be totally honest, I didn't really know much about the MLB draft until I started working here at CBS. I think our first year, my first year working here was 2020, right? It was the COVID shutdown. It was only a five-round draft. And there wasn't really anything else going on.

There was no baseball games going on. So I was like, all right. Let's do some programming around the MLB draft. So started to learn about it then and just slowly kind of built up over the years. But yeah, I find it absolutely fascinating when it comes to the MLB draft. And sticking there, Welsh, how would you describe this draft in particular? Is it a loaded draft? I mean, I've heard, you know, the top five picks in this draft.

They could have been number one overall picks in like any other draft. So how would you describe this draft? Is it loaded? Is there a lot of like proximity guys? What are your thoughts? Yeah, it was loaded on the top And I would say there were four players That in the majority of other drafts

Could have been number one I probably would take Walker Jenkins out of that But you know, some might argue it It was very hitter talented It's very deep hitter talented It's not super pitching heavy We've actually had a couple of those There's a few college arms

That were elite towards the top That's why we ended up seeing I believe if I'm doing the math correctly If it was four Like four in the top 10 ended up being pitchers then we kind of had a reprieve of that. But this is a deep-hitting class. There's some good, good top-top-in talent,

which is probably going to be exactly how we treat first-year player drafts in fantasy for Dynasty and Prospect Leagues. It's like having a top three-four pick is going to be, especially three specifically, is going to be really nice because it's all my top three are college guys. And then it's going to kind of pare down,

but there's a lot, a lot of talent out there. And there is, I've got, as you've seen on my first-year player list, I've got a guy or two that is in the second round or hasn't even been drafted that I kind of presume as a top 25. I also have a player that was drafted in the 20s who is a top six first year players. So first year players are going to redevelop. There's a whole lot of offensive depth, which is great. Points League's players that are going to value pitchers. Those are going to get pushed up a little bit.

But it's a very deep draft and a little bit top heavy. All right. No surprise, but history was made with the two LSU players in Paul Skeens, the starting pitcher. and Dylan Cruz, the outfielder, going first and second overall, respectively. So we'll start right there. Let's talk about Paul Skeen's first overall to the Pirates, 21 years old, right-handed pitcher, 6-foot-6. This is a big dude.

He averaged 98 miles per hour on his fastball. He's got this nasty slider. He won SEC Pitcher of the Year honors, led NCAA Division I in strikeouts, K-per-9, and whip. So he's awesome. He looks like he's going to be obviously a great pitch. pitcher and I've read the best pitching prospect since Steven Strasberg Welsh. Do you agree with that? And what's the upside here? When can

we see Paul Schoenz? Potentially with the pirates? Yeah, I agree. I think he's just one of the, I gotta be honestly, maybe it's more of a proximity thing. I just don't have Steven Strasberg back in my mind, but it's like of a recent history. It's the best pitching prospect that I've seen and watched. He's insane. I mean, 80 grade fast. So the fastball is really interesting because there's this big thing on Twitter that today where there's a group of people and it's going to maybe show up in some of the stuff plus things that they were talking about like the shape of his fastball and and essentially what it ended up being is like there's not a lot of difference between the horizontal and vertical movement of the pitch so it's like a two scene that'll like you know sweep across the zone but it I guess it would call like dead it like flattens out a little bit but it's 102 and he commands it and that's like the weird thing so all I'm getting it is like people were arguing like oh no the shape of it and blah blah blah and college hiters just couldn't attack the fastball,

so the secondary is really that good. Well, Lance Prasdowski, as he always does, he says a monster. He did a really great breakdown, and he actually had some analytics that some of the stuff is really hard to find, especially in the college area. And he had drive-line stuff plus.

The fastball, even though the shape issues out there, had a 132 stuff-plus number, according to Drive-Line Stuff Plus. His slider, which, by the way, listen to this, dude, 66% swing-and-miss percentage. 66. It's because people couldn't figure out what to everyone was trying to do the thing with the fastball. And I do think it made the slider good. I also love his change up. I saw his change up in the back half of the year. It had a 56% swing and miss percentage. Again, a lot to do with the fastball. Some of this might come down. Those numbers are gaudy. Major league players are probably how to figure out some of this stuff couldn't. But the slider also had a 122 stuff plus. So that is his top two pitches that he's, uses the most are 22 and 32% above average.

That's what the stuff plus metric is. And I think that changeup is totally workable. Guy had a 15.3K per nine last year, a sub one whip, 209 strikeouts. And he commands. That's like the thing. Like I, there's a guy I might talk about later like Rhett Louder. He does not have amazing stuff. He has this awesome change up, but he commands.

I love commanding. And if you watch the College World Series, you saw Louder and Skeens go up against each other. And it was like, who's going to break first? And they had to get out of the game for anything to happen. Skeens is phenomenal. He's a big bodied guy. The two biggest worries are the workload he had in college.

And then this shape of the fastball and if things kind of degradate down. But, you know, man, like, he could, if they, if they were really in contention, they're like eight and a half. I was saying this on the broadcast tonight because they really wanted to hit that point. Like, it's not impossible to get this guy. to help you today. The pirates are eight and a half out. If they made a run and they were really, that's like acquiring a top end of the rotation type of pitcher or a top in bullpen arm. If they wanted to do it, I think it's next year. If anything, if I'm the pirates, I'm not letting him throw this year. I'm just cutting down the workload overall. But we'll see what they do. It's a generational

talent. And I know pitching kind of stinks in fantasy and there's no such thing as a pitching prospect. But man, I'll take him top two or three in first year player in whatever format because he's that freaking good. Again, that is Paul Skeens. And you mentioned the Stuff Plus on the fastball was 132, right? Yeah, 130. That was a drive-line stuff plus 132. Okay, so just to put this in perspective, and, you know, it might be a little bit different across the platforms, driveline versus Stuff Plus, which we have on Fangraphs, which comes from Enosaris.

To put it in perspective, Spencer Shrider's fastball is 145, Stuff Plus, and then second among qualified starting pitchers is Garrett Cole. at 126. So if those things are even close to comparable in terms of stuff plus, then Paul Skeens has like one of the best fastballs already entering baseball. So just to...

And you don't mean numbers, by the way, to like, we, those are all just like quantitative things to like confirm. If you watch him, you're like, yeah, what is this? You know, he definitely is confident. The other thing I'd say, I didn't mention this, but like, he had one of the higher...

Lance Brasdowski mentioned this. I just want to keep mentioning him because you should follow him. He's a great pitch. breaking breakdown guy. But I thought it was interesting when he mentioned the amount that he sits in the zone, his fastball's in the zone, is above league average, is above major league average. That'll be interesting to see how he approaches that because as you go up against much better hitters, you might not want to sit in the zone, but the reason he does it because this guy is so confident in that

fastball and just pumps it past you, he's a very, very unique player that I would bet on. And, you know, category players, category league guys are going to probably take him one in first year player. And It's not going to disagree. You mentioned a name a few times here, but might as well let everyone know where they can go to follow Lance Brozdowski. That is at Lance BROZ on Twitter. The next two names,

well, you know, I wanted to mention, obviously, look, Dylan Cruz, second overall to the Nationals in this draft, 21 years old, a right-handed hitter. We're talking a plus-plus hitter with plus power. He just led LSU to the College World Series Championship. And let's just kind of pair him up with Wyatt Langford here, who went forth overall

to the Texas Rangers, another 21-year-old, outfielder, right-handed hitter. You know, they're both around six feet tall, six-foot-one. Welsh, who do you like better between the two when it comes to Dylan Cruz and Wyatt Langford? What are the differences between the two as well? I love Dylan Cruz. Now, I do think there's an argument

that you could, fantasy-wise, statistically, think that Wyatt Langford actually might be the better player. He had more stolen bases last year, hit more homers. he walked more than he struck out. This is White Langford. Big batting average, 65 power grade, 60 hit tool and everything like that. So you could definitely make that argument. The one thing I look at with Cruz, because Cruz is my answer here, is I think this is one of the highest floor players.

So like worst case outcome with Dylan Cruz, I think he can be like Brian Reynolds, who he could have been playing with. There's some crazy. It's so funny. I wrote this down. And then I saw this video where someone was doing the comparison as well. And I was like, okay, cool, this is confirmation. Because you see a lot of like the batting average. He doesn't walk as much as Dylan Cruz.

The patience, though, that I think the floor is like, you're getting like a Brian Reynolds type of player with the ceiling going through the roof. He didn't run a ton in college last year. Only six stolen bases. But I got to, I do have some metrics for some of these college hitters. His max EV was 112.8, which is pretty good. anything over 110 we're excited about. 115, we're like, whoa. But he had an average EV, Frank, of 95.7.

That was the highest of any of the college hitter data I had. And he had a 90th percentile EV of 109.6, which I believe was also the highest. So I think the floor is crazy there for him. I think Cruz, I hope he steals a little bit more. I think he can. I think he could be a 15 stolen base guy. I think he could get 25 to 30 homers. He can hit over 300.

He's a middle of the order guy. Where White Langford, I think it's probably like a number four. Maybe he's a 25-25 player. I think batting average might struggle a little bit more and have more strikeout issues with Cruz. But like in points leagues with not striking out and those categories, Cruz and Skeens are one, two. I have Cruz just across the board is my number one.

I want to make that bet even though you can argue for like more power in some other spots. Guy scored 100 runs this year. It was obviously LSU. Tommy White hitting behind him was a reason, but 100 runs, 70 RBIs. He was nuts. He had a 4, 5, almost 7 slash. Yeah, yeah, crazy stuff there with Dylan Cruz and Wyatt Langford.

Welles, would you say that they compare better than, you know, we've seen a few other right-handed hitters come out and be like top three, top five overall picks the past, you know, five years or so names like Spencer Torkelson and Andrew Vaughn and Henry Davis. We know Henry Davis came out as a catcher, now he's playing outfield. But do you think Dylan Cruz and Wyatt Langford project to be better than guys like that? Better than those two or like the combos? Just in general.

Like are they, I guess, better hitting prospects than like Torkelson and Vaughn and Henry Davis when those guys were coming out? See, that's a really cool question because you also had in that same class as Adley. You had Adley Torkelson. I'm talking about that class, by the way. the, it was like Adley, Torkelson, and Vaughn all there. And I remember I was like, if Adley were not a catcher, I would probably have valued him over all those guys. But I had Torkelson and Vaughn both as like top 20. And I have both of these guys in first year player overall fantasy, my prospect list, just me, how I do it. I've got Cruz as a top five already. And I've

got Langford as a top 15. So I think, I think Vaughn's power wasn't as prestige. It definitely wasn't as prestigious as, um, as Langford. I do think Torkelson and Langford are closer. I think those two are kind of closer. And Dylan Cruz is just a different player than them that I rank higher than all of them. So yeah, I think it's like a little bit high. Hindsight, if you put Adley there, like Adley Cruz, those are actually a little bit more similar than the rest. So yeah, it's in that same class, I would just, maybe it's proximity, I would probably value them a little bit more. All right. Next up, we had the two high school outfielders in Max Clark, who went third overall to the Detroit Tigers and Walker Jenkins, who went fifth overall to the Minnesota Twins.

Looking at Max Clark, we're looking at a plus hit tool, plus plus speed. Sounds like evaluators think that he can grow into 20 plus home run power as well. And then Walker Jenkins here, this is a big dude, six foot three, much bigger than like the other hitters that we've talked about so far. Strong, bad speed, power to all fields, based on what I read at least. Welsh, what do you think about these two? Max Clark, Walker Jenkins.

Obviously, they're a little bit further away. They're 18 years old. We're probably looking at like three years down the line from now when we'll probably see them in Major League Baseball. What do you think of these two? Who do you like better between Max Clark and Walker Jenkins? I could see Matt, you know, one thing I want to point out, it's funny you say that today,

Jackson Holiday just got promoted to AA. It's true. want to point out it's true one year ago today that kid was the number one overall pick out of high school and was kind of one of those were like man he was kind of popping up and crazy and he's hit double a so we don't want to go quick and say it's three years anymore because i'm i mean dude he's gonna be up next year he's going to be up early next year going he's going to this is july 9th and he's going up to double a i'm not saying he's going to triple a i think he's going to the afl and i think he's in contingentarily. So back to your question. And the reason I kind of did that was

because I think Max Clark is special. I think this is a very, very special guy. Over his high school career hit over 500, had 88 steals. I believe only 16 total walks in 82 high school games. That's absurd. Crazy. The hit tools there, he can run. There's some power is probably the furthest thing behind, but there's still power numbers in there. I'd said this on the sports HQ man. I love his approach when you watch him. He can change. Like I don't, this isn't a kid I think that is like always just trying to mash and smash for power. I think he can hit across his body to go opposite field. He can get the swing big and loopy if he's going to try to pull it and he can even short side it. And some of that might be like pitch recognition. Some of that might be just

approach and where you are at the abats. But he's just like a super competitive smart kid. I think he's five tools. He's a really hard worker. He's into analytics. I just this is a great guy to bet on this is why the you know the Tigers everyone thought we're gonna go with college but this is a great guy to bet on nothing against Walker Jenkins because I said this I don't know if you heard when I said it on the broadcast but like all these guys are kind of small but all the projected hitters I had had only like four guys that were over six foot two which was crazy ended up being a few more because Ralphie Velasquez went but Walker

was that he was that big like big physical guy I didn't even realize this until not too long ago, but he had had a handmade injury. So one of the reasons he was kind of back is he didn't play a lot of circuit baseball this year. So teams didn't get to scout him as much, but he's got a beautiful swing, huge power, big hit tool, just a big physical, projectable body. I heard Carlos Clazzo on Baseball America comp him to maybe like an Austin Meadows, which is kind of fun. For better or for worse, you could take a look at it like that.

But, you know, the injury stuff kind of sets it back a little bit. But he's a guy to dream on for huge, huge power. but I'm pretty enamored with Max Clark. Okay, so when you were talking about the Austin Meadows comp, that was for Walker Jenkins, right? Walker Jenkins, yes. Okay. Do you have, I mean, just putting you on the spot here, is there like a player comp that you've even heard or come up with yourself for Max Clark, who is, you know, also the younger 18-year-old

outfielder here? So, okay, that's a good question. I'm trying to go into my little brain here for a second and try to think about it because it's a high speed, high contact, where I think the power could go, back a little bit. Um, you know what I heard them say on the broadcast and it's like, it's always hyperbolic to compare players to like these young superstars already. They do the bow jacks and stuff. Yeah, no, no, no. They did Corby and Carroll for Max Clark. That's interesting because when he hits across his body, there's something. I'm, I'm looking at

some names to try to spark me here. You know, I'm going to, oh, okay, I do actually have one for you. I'm going to say no. I actually don't know if I particularly love that one, but maybe a Bobby Witt. Maybe I mean, Bobby Witt's in the infield. Like statistically, I think it could go there. He might be able to hit for a little bit more average, but you know how it's speed over power for Bobby Witt. I think that makes a little bit more sense. But maybe it's a combo somewhere in there between.

I just don't think Max is that good of a hitter as Corbyn Carroll. But I do think there might even be a little bit more like raw pop in there. Also, go look at Max Clark. He's a quad dude, man. Like he is like quad for day. He's a gym guy. He is going to build a. and grow that body.

Though they may look similar now, I don't think in like five years Clark is gonna look like Corby and Carol. I mean, that's a fun one. I could be wrong about it, but I'll throw like Bobby Wood at you. Yeah, no, I was watching the MLB draft on MLB network and they were interviewing him

and I heard you say like he's poised and he's competitive and yeah, he's 18 years old and he was up there like on TV just talking and super confident and I was like, yeah, this guy seems like he's got it. Well, dude, he's got like, he's a big media. guy. So he's got like a YouTube channel. When I was at the combine, there were like, there was a, I don't know any of these guys. My kid knew, but there's like a fitness YouTuber that was there.

And then there was another film crew that was just walking around and doing like Instagram and YouTube, YouTubers, like two different crews. And then he also was interviewed by Jared Krabis for, for D.K. So it's like, this is a big media guy, huge Instagram following. And, you know, I don't think the limelight is too much for him, but he also is out there being like, you know, it's not getting to his head. He's already said he's going to work harder than you. He's going to work harder than everybody. He studies analytics. He works on his body. He's trying to optimize himself. Now, could that get into your head and get screwed up? Sure, it's baseball. Those are the type of things that can mess with you. But I don't know, those are the type of guys you like to bet on. It's a really smart high school

kid and he just went three overall. I'm very much into Max Clark. But, you know, he's further away than the rest of these guys unless he's the next Jackson holiday. All right. Let's take our first break. And when we return, we'll talk about some other big prospects. I know ones that Welsh, you are higher on than some other people in the industry. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back into fantasy baseball today.

And before we get back into the MLB draft, I just have to mention, I understand it was a crazy weekend of baseball. Like, Ellie Dealer Cruz is unreal. I know we talk about him all the time. people might get annoyed about how much we talk about him, but how can you not with what he's doing, right? It's not just we're hyping up a prospect that came up. He's living up to the hype, man. It's been crazy.

Stole second base, stole third, and then stole home in the same inning. He stole third. They threw the ball back to the pitcher. The pitcher turned his back. Ellie de la Cruz stole home. You just don't see stuff like that. It is crazy.

You know what I loved? I loved the camera shot tube that was on his face, when he was to move around third because you could see. And like, I didn't realize it was thinking about it. He was thinking about it. Yeah. That's it.

Like, like, if you just watch it one time, you just see him like, it looks like he just looks overreacts and runs. But what you can see is that guy is like working it in his head. He's no looking like he's, he's purposely not looking in the direction. And then he just go. It's a, it was a wild. It's like a beautiful no look behind the back basketball pass he did to put on what is arguably one of the most.

exciting plays in baseball. That guy is something else. That guy is something else, man. And he is trending towards, dare I say, he's only played 30 games. I think he's going to be a first round picking fantasy next year, man. It's hard to say, like we got to see how L.A. DeL. De LaCruz ends the season, obviously he could go on a slump. He's a very young player. I get it. But the talent along with just the fun factor, the hype factor that is L.A. De LaCruz, man, I think that's going to push him into the first round of fantasy drafts next year. but let's see how he kind of finishes out in the second half. Speaking of young players that have been awesome,

we mentioned his name just recently. Corbyn Carroll, we started Friday's podcast. We're like, oh, well, it might be the end of his season. He's in the lineup Friday. What is happening? I might have got a couple tweets, Frank. I might have, but you know, it was so funny because someone tweeted me and they were like, is this the biggest overreaction of all time?

And I was like, well, you didn't watch the play then. If you're asking that question, you didn't watch the play because you have to know the history. Torn Labrum had the injury, torn labor two years ago, then hurts himself a week ago, then that swing back. We all were collectively like, this is done, this is over. And then you got the little tidbits. He walked back into the dugout. Toy Lavello says, eh, you know what?

We're getting some encouraging stuff. Then the day of. It's actually better than you guys think. He did radio. Toy Lavello did a couple hours before that game. And Dave Burns, the guy that interviewed him, said, is there a possibility he plays today? And Lavello just started hemming and haunt. and being like, I don't want to say not.

And I was like, oh my God, is he going to be out there? And then he was out there. I will tell you, terrified I've been. I don't think it was the best decision. I want him to be healthy. But then he goes out and he has a walkoff hit to win for the Diamondbacks, I think, on Saturday night. And he's next level.

And you know what? Thank God. He's healthy regardless if you're rooting against him because I like him or whatever it is. Corbyn, Carol, and Ellie are great for baseball. And we should have these really fun rookies just keep going here. And I'm really, really glad. I absolutely overreacted. But it's because I love him.

It's because of love, my friends. Yeah. So, look, it was good to see. I do agree that it was a little bit scary. You know, I think the prudent move would have been to just sit Corby and Carol out through the All-Star break and whatever. Hopefully he comes back this weekend. But he was back and he was hitting well. I think he stole two bases on Friday.

It's the guy has been awesome. Played every day. Played every day off of that, by the way. played even today, which was wild. Yep. And the Tigers, they had a combined no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday, which was pretty impressive, obviously. It's a great feat.

Matt Manning combined with Jason Foley and Alex Lang. So that was cool. That was the second no-hitter of the season. Obviously, the first one was the perfect game with Domingo Hermann. And then the Tigers pulling that off on Saturday. So cool stuff there. Let's get back into the MLB draft. And Welsh, we know that bloodlines have become so popular in the past decade or so.

with the sons of former pro players making such a big impact on the game in fantasy baseball as well. And we saw another one drafted sixth overall with Jacob Wilson going to the Oakland A's. He's the son of former Major League shortstop Jack Wilson, who played many seasons there with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jacob Wilson, 21 years old, a shortstop. He's six foot three. And based on what I read, one of the best pure hitters in the nation, he only struck out seven times in 275 plate appearances this past year. if that's college and Cape Cod League combined, whatever it is, but seven strikeouts. Talk to me about Jacob Wilson here. Oh, yeah, that might be something.

I wonder if that is something else in clue because I had five on there. That was the number that I saw. But the college, they get weird with it. I mean, it was a under 3% K percentage, which was absurd. He actually played here locally, Grand Canyon University, one of the big local kids out here. He, to me, is going to be a rubber meets the road with real draft of fantasy. Because one thing I want to point out, you said this a little bit earlier, and I know we'll kind of get to it.

But there is a difference between like how I rank a player versus the fantasy because that is how I am ranking them. I'm ranking them to fantasy. So, you know, you might see a baseball America rank a player in a certain way. Well, that's for real life stuff. Mine is for fantasy. So you're going to have alterations. And you're going to see fantasy people rank these first year players all over the board until we really start to get eyes on these players, kind of see how they perform because this is just the guess. And Jacob Wilson is going to, my whole point of this is,

he's going to be the weird one because he's not great for fantasy. Well, he might be good for points, but not for categories because Jacob Wilson is a monster hitter. 94.5% contact percentage. I have a short sample size of college analytical like at Bats that I can give you. And in that, 94.5% contact percentage. 94% contact of 92 mile an hour of Velo and above. So that's a crazy number of like high-vilo stuff, which means he can get on top of it. The problem is there's just not a ton of power.

He had a max EV of 102.7. He's a big, kind of a big kid, but he had six homers this past year. He doesn't steal a lot of bases, which is kind of my problem. But he hits. He hit 418, had a 600 slug. But there's just no real projectable power. And you can kind of just see that in the high-contact percentage versus really low max EV. So this is going to be one of those guys that I don't know if he's going to have a good.

barrel rate. He'll probably hit for high average. Kind of like a Louisa Rise. He's a much bigger player, six foot three. But now he's been to the A's and God knows what's going to be surrounded by him. So though he went six overall, I don't have him in my top 15. In a points league, I might put him up because I do think, again, he'll hit a bunch of singles and he's not going to strike out. So I might raise him in a points league draft. Maybe borderlining first round if you're like a 15, you know, 15 type of league, which I guess you wouldn't. That's more of a roto thing. But you know, 12 to 15, maybe if you really want to push it. But otherwise, you know, I've got him, like I said, outside my top 15.

Again, that is Jacob Wilson, the son of former Major League shortstop, Jack Wilson. And it appears after that we get into a trio of pitchers that were, you know, all ranked similarly-ish with Ret Louder, Chase Dillander and Noble Meyer. Louder and Dillander were college pitchers, Noble Meyer, a high school pitcher. Louder went to the Red's seventh overall. Delander went to the Rockies. Ninth overall. And Noble Meyer went to the Marlins, 10th overall.

They just continue to stack up on the pitching there. They've done a great job developing pitching prospects. And we're seeing that at the Major League level now with Yuri Perez and all those guys. Well, let's talk to me about these three names, Louder, Dolander and Noble Meyer. What do we need to know about them? And how do you rank those three? Well, I mean, I loved Dolander. I don't anymore.

And I don't mean to be so stereotypical about it. but it's just Colorado ruins these guys. They absolutely ruined. I mean, they took Gabriel Hughes, I think, in this past draft. It was okay. But, like, Dillander at one point was going to be the number one pitcher taken, and he just fell apart with command this past year. And him going to Colorado just really just sours me to it.

And I really did like him. A big fastball, got big whiff rates. His slider is really, really interesting. It can kind of cut a little bit more. Had a 37% swing and miss rate. last this past year in college. But he had over 4 ERA. He was just kind of all over the place.

But it's Colorado. It's trash. I love Ret Louder. This is a insanely cool destination because of how and what they do with pitchers. It's not a good fastball. It's an incredibly good changeup. And he's a command pitcher.

And you guys all saw, if you did watch a college World Series, you saw Skeens versus Louder and neither one of them bend. Neither one of them want to do it. Louder can go deeper into games. They controlled him a little bit more with his innings. I think it's a really,

great destination, especially if they can end up developing a bigger fastball or a better fastball. It's 92, 92 and a half, or 92 to 95, something like that. But the slider, I think they can improve on and the changeup is a huge pitch. And he commands. Like I said it's on the broadcast. It's almost George Kirbyish. It's just Kirby has a better fastball. But it might be similar results.

Noble Meyer, I love. He's one of my favorites, but he's a high school pitcher. So this is, I think he could be the best non-skine's pitcher out of this class. I think he went to an incredibly great organization. They also took a second round pick in Thomas White. They literally are walking out of this draft with the best high school ready and the best high school lefty.

That's what they ended up doing here. Noble Meyer is a stud. Can hit triple digits on the fastball. Huge power slider. He's super smart. He's six foot five, projectable, but he's high school. So, you know,

most fantasy people are probably not going to want to rank him high. You might not want to take him. But if I'm in a league that has extra value to pitchers, I'm trying to get Noble Meyer and he might be a second round available pick I really, really like Noble Meyer. Yeah, and obviously look, it goes without saying an 18 year old pitcher, there's just so much

that can happen between now and the time that they hopefully make it to the major leagues. The one thing that I thought was pretty interesting about Noble Meyer, he's from Jesuit high school in Oregon. They also produced McAbel, Philly's pitching prospect who was drafted very early a couple of years ago too. And so I just thought that was notable

that they created another major Major League big name prospect in McAbel, so hopefully Noble Meyer can kind of follow in those footsteps and continue to develop there with the Miami Marlins. Four college bats that I know you like quite a bit Welsh are Chase Davis, Matt Shaw, Tommy Troy, and Enrique Bradfield, at least based on the first year player draft ranks that you sent me. Chase Davis kind of, you know, he was a little bit lower down the actual prospect rankings that I saw.

Maybe you could talk more to that, but he went to the Cardinals 21st overall. in this draft. Matt Shaw went to the Cubs 13th overall. Tommy Troy went to your Arizona Diamondbacks, 12th overall and Enrique Bradfield to the Orioles 17th overall. I know, you know, there's different varying skill sets here. And, you know, I mean, they're all, they're all college bats, right? Yeah, yeah. So they're all college bats. They're all pretty close in proximity too. If you want to go one by one, feel free, break them down. Chase Davis, Matt Shaw, Tommy Troy, and Enrique Bradfield Jr. Yeah, I'll do some quick ones. By the way, I'm going to be insufferable because The Diamondback second round pick, Frank, is that player we talked about that hadn't been drafted.

I saw that. I saw it. I'm going to lose it. So let's start with Chase Davis because I have Chase Davis really high. But I will tell you, the fantasy community I think is going to be more with me than they are real life. Because you were talking like the real life ranks is like 18 to 25 or something like that. This is Chase Davis outfielder out of U of A. But we all really like them.

He's got some incredibly fun data as well behind the scenes. He had a 108. 0.490th percentile exit velocity with of all the this is the second highest I think of all the college bats that went in the first round let me see if no actually you know what of all the college bats I have

data for in the first round no one has a higher max EV than Chase Davis at 115.6 he also had a 15% walk rate which was higher than a K percentage he was almost a 357 8 slash guy 3 71 average 494 OBP 761 slug this

past year, 80% contact rate. He doesn't chase, which is crazy. I just love everything about him. Harold Reynolds, you know, give him credit. Sometimes he gets like, people get on him about like Bo Jackson comps and stuff. But he had this comp. He was working with all draft long about Carlos Gonzalez and how the swing is very similar. He said, and it is identical, right? Dude, I saw the swing and even before they said the player comp, I said cargo. I looked at it. I said Carlos Gonzalez immediately. And the way he ends the at bat too, the way his legs move. And, uh, the, uh, He told the story about how Carlos Gonzalez then reached out to Chase Davis and they spoke about it, which is such a cool thing. And some people, Harold Reynolds being the number one, believe that this might be the best hit tool in the draft.

This might be. And he thinks he's the best hitter. I love Chase Davis. Results are there. Big hard hit stuff. Doesn't run a whole bunch, which I wish he would do. Cardinals, that was the destination. The two infielders, I have very high on my list in Matt Shaw and Tommy Troy, Tommy Troy going to my.

Arizona Diamondbacks, but I have Matt Shaw higher. He ended up going to the Cubs. I love this guy. This is another one of those. When I dug through and having some data-driven stuff, he was one of those guys that just ended up popping. Average exit velocity, almost 93 miles per hour, had over 110 on the EV. Also, pretty big launch angle in college at 20. I think that's the third highest of all the college guys I have. Didn't strike out a bunch, 3, 4, 7 slash again, and he's a great defender. Tommy Troy goes to the Diamondbacks, and he's going to be, They listed him as a shortstop. This is another one of those guys.

He had a 92 and a half percent contact inside the zone and a 114 max EV. The only reason I mention that, sometimes those high contact guys lack some of the power. Well, that is the second best of all the college bats I have contact percentage in the zone and a 114 max EV, which is like crazy big power numbers. So I love Tommy Troy. And then Enrique Bradfield is the complete opposite of all these players because this is the fastest guy in the draft. Hands down, bar none.

Will he hit for power? That's going to be the big ultimate question. But this is an 80 grade speed guy, huge defender, makes tons of contact. He does hit across his body. But man, with the track record the Orioles have right now of developing these guys, if there's a team that can optimize him,

if he can hit 10 to 15 homers, this is a guy that can steal 60 plus bases. I mean, this could be the good side everything we talk about with this story Ruiz. You know what I'm saying? Like high batting average, gonna score a hundred runs. He's a lead off type of player. He led off with Vanderbilt. I love Enrique Bradfield. Just a little dicey on how you're gonna go with it with fantasy, but I do have them ranked pretty high. Love the all those guys you pick. Those are all like my probably my core Welsh first year player guys that aren't Dylan

Cruz. When it comes to Matt Shaw and Tommy Troy, I just noticed, you know, it might be more so for fielding. I just noticed they were a little bit lower on actual prospect list. Is there any reason that you know Welsh when it comes to Shaw and Tommy Troy? Is it maybe the size? I know both of those guys are under six feet or maybe the fact that they played for lower level of competition. You know, Matt Shaw, University of Maryland, Tommy Troy at Stanford. Look, obviously still Division I colleges, but it's not the SEC. Do you have any concerns when it comes to Shaw and Troy from those regards?

I mean, I think Shaw is built to be the second baseman. He had a couple big highlight real players. They are both a little bit shorter, stoutier type of guys like that old. Dan Ugla. I kind of think like Justin Foskew. Tommy Troy has a very Justin Foskew like build, a bigger upper body, shorter, kind of thicker guys. I think it's possible they both end up a second baseman. I don't know how their arm is going to rate out at the majors. But again, I do want to point out specifically with Tommy Troy, they listed him as a shortstop. And the only reason I was thinking about that, a lot of rumors about Dylan Cs, Jordan Lawler out there, Diamondbacks need to make moves. You just wonder. Yeah, there's a rumor going around I've seen and I got, confirm this weekend that there's at least chatter that, you know, Jordan Lawler could be out there. And what better way to kind of confirm yourself if you were to make a big massive move? Not saying it's going to happen or anything, but if you were to do that, then get yourself a shortstop of the future, which they just got a college shortstop. But I don't think these guys are like shining

defensively like some of these other players. But I don't think it's anything that takes them off, at least the middle infield. You know, when you were talking about Matt Shaw and him being like a stockier, he packs a punch kind of guy, I saw the player comp they gave him on MLB net, was Matt McLean for actually for Matt Shaw, which yeah, I thought it's a little taller, but yeah, I see that. Cool. Any clear winners that you have so far just from I guess a pure baseball perspective, the any winners, any losers from the MLB draft from what you've seen so far. Yeah. So going through, I think the Rangers, it doesn't matter what else they did that they got just from talks I've had

just to let you know, like they didn't think they were getting Langford. I don't think that was much of a conversation. They There was a time I think they thought that Dylan Cruz might get to them. Then they were kind of relenting to Max Clark knowing that Schoenz wasn't getting there. So I said this on the broadcast, Frank. I kind of associate, you know how like in preseason we'll be like, all right, the best pick to have is three. Because if you don't get one of the top two guys, you get the best of the next crew. Or if there's four great players, we kind of did this this year.

What was it like, you know, Acuna and trying to, Julio Rodriguez. And then a couple of the judge. Oh, Judge and Turner. And you'd be like, well, four is great because you get the last. But if you take three, you get a choice. Well, they were four. And you would think the last piece would be Max Clark. They got handed a guy that was almost a number one overall pick.

So I really think the Rangers, whatever else happens, it was such a phenomenal spot. You guys are going to hate it. But like, the Diamondbacks getting Gino Grover and Tommy Troy just gets me all hot and excited because I'm a big Grover guy at an NC State. I love the Cardinals taking Chase Davis. There's just some really good homes here. I guess I'd have to look through the rest of these. There's not a lot that I hated.

I didn't love the Royals first pick. I don't really like what they're doing actually in general. Now that I'm looking at this, but the Marlins are the other one I mentioned. Having Thomas White and Noble Meyer is bonkers. It doesn't feed fantasy quite as much. And then I just noticed this. The Nationals, oh man, got Johandi Morales,

who is a huge power third basement who played for Miami. He's got big strikeout issues, but he is a, he's a huge bat. I really, really like him. So now they just paired Dylan Cruz with Johanini Morales. So that's another, Washington is, that's pretty awesome. Yeah, that does sound pretty awesome for them. Let's take our final break. And when we return, we'll get into the Welsh's very early,

first year player draft rankings for Dynasty leagues. And we'll do that right after this. Welcome back into fantasy baseball today. and obviously when you're listening to this, it's on Monday, July 10th. The Home Run Derby is later on tonight. Welsh, do you have a pick for the Home Run Derby? Yeah, I actually was going through some stuff. I'm going to give you my boring pick first because I have two picks. My boring pick, especially if I'm making bets, I'm going to bet both these players. My boring pick is Pete Alonzo because nobody knows how to do this like Pete Alonzo. Pete Alonzo is built for this. He has a system. He could probably teach classes at the end of his career if he wants on Home Run. run derbies, I don't bet against Pete Alonzo by making another bet. I was going through and trying to like, you know, this is the crap shoot. What do you do?

I was trying to find like maybe some little edge. And I started to look at hard hit percentage and barrel percentage. What analytics could we possibly look at that help us? At the end of the day, probably none of them, probably barrel percentage even less. But I did find something that I like. I was looking at players that had a 50% hard hit percentage and a 15 plus barrel percentage. And I found two players. Randy or Rosarena and Adoles Garcia.

And the guy that had the higher barrel percentage and yeah, not the highest hard hit, which might be what you guys would want to pick was adult. No, actually it is the highest highest, highest hard hit percentage, if I can speak, was Adolus Garcia. So I'm going to go with Adolus Garcia with the hard hit and barrel. And actually, Randy has dropped under 50% for the hard hit percentage. So Adolus and Pete Alonzo for my picks. What say you?

You know, I don't have anything to back this. up, I've just got a feeling. He's performed well on this before, and I think he can get it done. I'm going with Ladd Jr. And I hope that this is something that can help him propel into the second half because obviously it's been a disappointing first half, specifically in terms of the power. But I think it actually happened a couple of years ago. Well, maybe it was Juan Soto who had happened for. But there was someone who showed up to the home run derby and they hit a bunch of home runs. And in the second half, they were awesome. And they just started hitting for a bunch of power. So you don't believe it ruins these guys at all?

No, I think it's kind of like an over I don't know is that real I agree I think I like some kind of like fallacy right like a one hour like a one hour thing completely changes a guy's approach like I don't know it's probably like the Madden curse or something MLB the show curse it's it has a much that much validity to me I know Towers has made this point before and he's like a lot of the times the players who per who compete in the home run derby they're guys that are kind of over achieving anyway in the first half of the season right so He was like, oh, they kind of just regressed to where they should be in the second half,

and then people kind of blame it on the home run derby curse. But, you know, I don't know that. I completely believe in that. I like the Vlad one. Let's go. Let's go, Vlad. That's what I'm going with. Let's get into your first year player draft rankings for Dynasty League.

And before we actually mention the names, Welch, how much do you factor in landing spot when it comes to these guys? Because I was talking to a buddy of mine, and he's like, oh, man, I think I'm just going to take skeins if I have the first overall pick because I don't trust the nationals to develop Dylan Cruz and I'm like yeah but Dylan Cruz is already awesome so I don't know that there's much development that needs to happen here yeah I mean I think it all plays real I kind of told you before like I want to pay attention to landing spot a prime example was I had this infatuation a couple years ago with Cleal Watson and then when Clint Watson fell I was just kind of like why don't we fall why

did he fell past Marcella Mary he fell past Jordan Law like significantly and then the Marlins took him and I was like the Marlins develop hitters really well so that kind of brought me back down and I think that's paid off. Sure, I've done this as well with my current list. Like, I just want to see, I have an initial list I have months and months prior. How off am I? How right am I? You know, if I have a guy that's really high up and they fall, does that tell me something? And then obviously you think about landing spot. I mean, the angels, the angels don't develop players. They just take, you know, as close to the majors and throw them up. So like, I don't think a lot about angels guys. And I think it's enough to consider. But like,

If you were weighting it, like, talent is the most important thing with small weights to like, where did they go? Noble Meyer get a little bit of boost in that organization and positively or negatively or get a negative pushdown. So it all plays a role for sure. All right. So, drum roll please. Let's jump in. The top three in your first year player draft rankings. No surprise.

All three of the big college names up top, Dylan Cruz, Wyatt Langford, Paul Skeens. Welsh, if you're just ranking these guys in terms of prize, proximity. Who do we see first in the majors? How is your ranked list three? Paul Skeen. I mean, Paul Skeens will be the first one up. I think it's Skeens, Cruz, Langford. I do think the Rangers, I feel like the Rangers have taken a little bit longer to develop. They're kind of slow rolling a little bit. There might be something where it's, you know, Kumar gets healthy and Jack Leiter. They're really, they sent him up to AA, but maybe they're going to slow roll him now that all these guys come up. I think he's the last. I think Cruz and Skeens are potentials for this coming year. I really, really

do. Well, it'll be interesting to see what they do with Cruz if he just goes like high A, double A, and then he's competing out right out the shoot. Might be good for the, you know, nationals to think about. If you let Dylan Cruz break camp and he is up in the rookie of the year awards, you get an extra pick to redevelop that system. They actually should. Same thing can be said for the pirates with Paul Skeen. I think both of those guys are in contention to come up early next year, but maybe some of how they're treated this year is going to tell us a bigger story. but proximity is Skeens, Cruz, Langford, value bringing back maybe just a notch on pitching, trying to get the two college bats. That's why I have Langford over Skeens. But like I said,

if you want to change the order, I really don't care. I just personally value Cruz as like, he's like tier one and then Skeens and Langford are the next tier. All right, fair enough. Four and five in your rankings, Max Clark and Walker Jenkins. The two high school outfielder is there. And then the next four, six through nine in your first year player draft rankings are the college bats that we spoke about that you are pretty much higher on than I guess the rest and that's chase davis Matt Shaw Tommy Troy and Enrique Bradfield in that order we spoke a lot about those names two names we haven't mentioned yet 10 and 11 in your rankings Colin Howke and 18 year old shortstop who was actually drafted by the Mets 30 second overall I think

he was ranked like 10th or 11th on MLB pipeline so he fell quite a bit in the draft and then Jacob Gonzalez is a 21 year old shortstop. He went to the White Sox 15th overall. What do we need to know about those two Welsh? Colin Hauck and Jacob Gonzalez. Well, I mean, how is one I am considering. Like there were rumors. Everyone mocked to him going to Arizona Diamondbacks and not falling past 15. And then before the draft, there was like this tiny little rumor that maybe he was falling. So I was wondering what's going on. And was this assignability issue? Could it be a signability issue? Are the Mets going to overslot pay? I just don't know what the situation is. So that's what I'm going to monitor and that might

change, but he's like a really great five-tool player. Jacob Gonzalez was also one of the really highly sought-after bats coming into this year, early on in this year, mid-last year. His swing gets a little bit open. He can hit across his body. I don't know where the power's going to go. He's just a really solid hitter, but he's got kind of a bigger open stance, a little bit more wippy.

So I like him, and I think he's more of a proximity guy. That could be something like him and Kulsa Montgomery are playing together soon, especially if this team is going to end up maybe, you know, derailing some of these pieces like Tim Anderson. But Colin Hauke is the one. I'm going to like check in on some with some people and see if I want to keep him there. It's just because then you're starting to get into some of the high valued pitchers and there's a few other hitters. I'm a little torn on my valuation, but like the five tools with Colin Hauk, he could really be an impact player. 12th and 13th in your FYPD rankings, Noble Meyer, the high school pitcher who went to the Marlins and Rhett Louder, the college pitcher who went. to the Cincinnati Reds.

Two names we haven't talked about yet. 14th and 15th overall. Brock Wilkin, 21-year-old third basements to the Brewers. He went 18th overall in the draft. And then Kyle Teal, a 21-year-old catcher. He went to the Red Sox 14th overall.

Welsh talked to me about Wilkin and Kyle Teal. Yeah, Wilkin is one I've continuously been moving up a little bit more and more. He's pretty fascinating. One of the bigger, you could argue maybe it's a 70-grade power tool, hit just a ton of homers. He also walks a ton.

He ended up having, let me find it here for Brock Wilkin. He ended up having a 21% walk rate to a 19% strikeout rate. While hitting 3.42, he had a 500 OBP and an 800 slug. He also had the lowest of all of the guys I have here, chase rate at only 10% in college last year, with an almost 95 average exit velocity,

one of the bigger, higher guys, and he goes into a good power hitting organization. Wilkin is one of those guys I want to boost up. But I'm also dealing with strategy with a guy like Kyle Teal. Kyle Teal was kind of changing his profile, becoming a little bit more comboed hit and power tool. I just don't know if he's significantly fantastic and he's a catcher. And I don't know if I'm enamored with him. He's one I could push down a little bit.

Love the destination going to the Red Sox. But Wilken and Teal, Wilkin is definitely a potential riser. Teal is probably going to sit right outside the first round for me, but pretty good power hit tool and might even move off of the position, which would make him a little bit more valuable. 16th in your rankings is Chase Delander, the college pitcher who went to the Rockies, unfortunately. So he just fall down a little bit down the list compared to where he was at a couple of hours ago when you first sent me this list. Yeah, I hate Colorado. Just hate it, hate it. Yeah, no, we know for years. and we know the deal when it comes to people pitching in Colorado there.

The next four are all middle infielders-ish. Some of them might wind up at third base. We've got Braden Taylor. He's a 21-year-old who went to the raise. Arjun Namala, he is a 17-year-old shortstop who went to the Blue Jays. George Lombard Jr., an 18-year-old shortstop slash third baseman who went to the Yankees. And the aforementioned Jacob Wilson. He was the college shortstop son of Jack Wilson who went to the Oakland A.

Wells talked to me about this group. Braden Taylor, Arjun Namala, George Lombard Jr., and Jacob Wilson. Braden Taylor was interesting because he was a third basement at TCU, and he was announced as a shortstop for the raise. So that's really fascinating. He good contact across the field, learning to hit for power, but it's really just pull power right now. I don't know. Some people are more enamored with him than I am, but he's a pretty solid across the board. He was given 55 hit 55 power. you know, just overall solid. I just don't know if anything jumps out. Where this is that high school thing, Namala and Lombard, I both really like.

Namala is a big physical shortstop who has really big potential power if all of the hit tool things combine. Where George Lombard is another one of those guys, but, you know, I think on the broadcast, they had likened like a comp of like Marcus Simeon. I told you off air, I kind of got like even George Springer vibes.

I think there's like a physicality thing that looks similar to that. He's a guy that maybe moves to the outfield. I can see that lead off type of power. Maybe the stolen bases are going to go as he ages and grows up a little bit. Both of those guys have sky high potential, but it's just we don't know like how they're going to develop, how the organizations are both going to push them.

That's Toronto with the Mala, Yankees with Lombard. And I've already type of out Jacob Wilson. Like he might deserve to be much higher with that hit tool. It's just so empty in other spots. I don't care that he went six. He's just valued a lot less than the rest of these guys. A pitcher that we haven't talked about yet,

who went to the Atlanta Braves is Hurston Waldrop and he is a an older pitcher right I played out of Florida yeah college pitcher out of Florida yeah it's a great destination for him by the way

going to the Braves I love it he's got a devastating splitter that's the big thing he's got command issues though but this one was like all about the splitter and that's what you're banking on which you know for better for words

Is that going to be something anyone's going to really be excited about that it's like the old Casey Mize stuff? But it's a big power pitcher, big fastball. Splitter just absolutely destroys through the zone. He's just got to make it visually look like it's in the zone and it breaks out for big strikeouts. Command issues are probably the biggest of any of the pitchers we've talked about. But the Braves do it. There's a part of me that's like when as soon as he got picked, I was like, boy, could this be the Spencer Strider school? Putman Relief.

He's Splitter fastball. with one secondary and he just comes up sooner rather than later. That organization has told us they do these things. If they fix the command early, Waldrop could be a guy that pushes really really fast. Four final names here, 22 through 25 in your first year player draft rankings. Aiden Miller, a 19 year old who went to the Phillies. Gino Groover, 21 year old who went to your Arizona Diamondbacks. Nolan Shanwell, a 21 year old who went to the Angels and Colt Emerson, a 17-year-old

shortstop who went to the Mariners. We're all over the place here. Welles starting from 17 up to 21. What do you got on these names? Yeah. So Chanel was one of those. I was saying like, I don't know, angels. It's a college bat that maybe they just push in big power. There's some power in there. Pretty good hit tool. I wasn't enamored. I had him in my 20s going into this. Lou James, that's the nickname, Gino Groover. I love him. I'm higher than anybody else on him. High contact percentage. Contact in the zone. One of the better. I think only two. two guys I have registered higher. It was Tommy Troy and Jacob Gonzalez.

So, I mean, the Diamondbacks definitely had a play here. He had one of the highest 90th percentile EVs at 107. He walked more than he struck out. He hit 333 with a 431 OBP, 536 slug. I loved him out of NC State. He was just one of my favorite guys. Who were the others that we just mentioned? Oh, Aiden Miller.

Aidan Miller is a total steel. Total steel. High school bat. last year won the high school homeruner derby against Miles Naylor, one of the Naylor brothers huge big power, great circuit player kind of surprised he was there.

That was a fantastic get for them. And yeah, I think that finished out the guys we were talking about. Did I miss anybody? Colt Emerson, did you talk about him? Solid. I actually think I heard Jim Callis comp him to like a Cole Young.

I think there's a little bit more power in there. Seattle took him shorts up. They took a bunch of high school guys. it took Tai Pete as well. Emerson's fine. I just I think he's the average player kind of across the board. Maybe more hit over power. He can steal some. This is just a solid bet on a high school shortstop. But they are starting to gather those guys with like I said, they just took Tai Pete and they've already got Cole Young. All right. The top 25 in the first year player draft rankings. I just combined the word draft and rankings. I was going to say drankings. But their first year player draft rankings.

Oh, that's fun. I can go for a drinking right now. I bet you can. And yeah, that's for those who play in Dynasty leagues. Last question here, Welsh. So we know Dylan Cruz, Wyatt Langford, Paul Skeens. Those are probably the three closest in terms of proximity. Give me one or two names outside of those three that you could see maybe making an impact as soon as next year. Rhett louder definitely would jump to my mind, especially this team is trying to compete. They're trying to do it quick and now.

They move to Andrew Abbott up. Maybe they send him to high A and then maybe he finishes AA and they push him. him really hard this next year. If you got Ladolo, good, Abbott, Hunter Green, Ret Louder, I think Louder screams as a player that comes up pretty soon. Looking through the rest of the list here, I mean, Chase Davis's bat play, Hunter, oh, Hunter Waldrop, that's the other one. I mean, I think the Braves could absolutely shove him to the majors. I don't, as long as a command isn't a massive, massive issue, they are looking for those arms to go. So Waldrop and louder. No shocker. It's pitchers. I guess if you were looking for something more fun,

if you were looking for a hitter to go in there, probably Jacob Wilson. You know, Jacob Wilson might be able to be a face of that. I think he's going to just hit and hit and hit. I just don't know if any of the other tools would be there. So it's going to be a matter of like, will the A's want him to develop the other tools or will they say like, let's go. Because this is defensive ready now type of guy and maybe the bat's ready just without a few of the tools fully developed. So I guess if I'd pick a hitter, I'd go Jacob Wilson. All right. There you go. draft first year player draft rankings as well.

Tomorrow, the Welsh and I will be back. We'll be streaming a little bit earlier than usual, probably 6 p.m. Eastern time around there so we can get that out to you before the home run derby starts. And we'll be talking second half impact prospects for this season. You know, guys that you could pick up and stash now and potentially making a big impact down the stretch. And then later on in the week, Scott and Towers will be back. And we'll be talking early 2024 mock draft. first two rounds. I know that's always a fun one that we do

around this time of year. And we'll also take a look back what happened in the first half of the season, some trends, what's going on at baseball, batting average trends, stolen base trends. How is everything kind of going right now so far this season? And then we'll take a look at the second half and we'll do a preview. Sleepers, breakouts, and busts, names that could be on the move on the trade market in real life baseball. So all that

kind of fun stuff. We'll be doing that all week here throughout the All-Star break. We're going to wrap there for the Welsh, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.