Fantasy Baseball Today - 2023 Top Second Base Prospects, Dynasty Trades & Arizona First Pitch! (11/3 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: November 3, 2022

First Pitch Arizona is here (3:23)! ... What's the deal with second base prospects (6:30)? ... Termarr Johnson leads The Welsh's top second base prospects (8:45)! ... Michael Busch and Connor Norby could make the biggest impact in 2023 (19:20). ... What are we expecting from Vaughn Grissom and Michael Massey (32:20)? ... News (36:48): Nolan Arenado has opted in with the St. Louis Cardinals. ... We have some dynasty mailbag questions (43:36). ... Which second basemen should you look to buy or sell in dynasty leagues (47:31)? ... We wrap up with the latest updates from the Arizona Fall League (53:04). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection 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 lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. How do these second base prospects stack up against the rest? Let's find out. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today.

I am Frank Sample joined by Christopher the Welsh. No Scott White, who is on a much-nobes. needed staycation. I don't know that that guy has taken a day off since February. So yeah, good for you, Scott. Get out there and have a good time. Today on the show. A staycation? A staycation? Yeah, staycation. That's it. So, like, he could be just sitting at his house right now, just not recording with us? One thousand percent. I would actually gamble on that's what he's doing. Because I was going to say, I want to know what he's doing. Like, if he were out somewhere, I would be, I actually would be fascinated to know, like, what's the thing he's out there vacationing on? But you know what?

I can really appreciate sitting at home, maybe a cold drink, watching some World Series, just live it up. Absolutely. I know one thing he's doing for sure, and that's making videos about Halloween candy because I saw that on Twitter, but I guess save that for another day. Today on the show, you guess it. The top second base prospects from a dynasty perspective. We'll also talk about it from a redraft perspective.

Who do you need to know for next season? 2023, Dynasty buy and sell at the position. and I do have a few emails that are dynasty related that I want to get to. Sorry I've been neglectful. Especially in season, it's so hard to get to the emails. Like there's so much going on every single day in the world of baseball. But even now, like football's still going on. I have some football responsibilities.

Who cares about that? It doesn't matter. Anyway, before we get into it, Welsh, how are you doing? How's life? How was Halloween? It was good. There was much candy acquired. Actually, I think we broke records.

We got more candy than ever candied before. I will tell you, we are on, what are we, day two post-Hallowing, I'm tapped out. I think I'm tapped out with candy. I think I overdid it a little bit in the last two days, more than my kids. So I think I'm going to let them finish it off. But Halloween was good. Kids were happy. All the candy in the world is acquired.

And now we start taking down. The only thing I'm sad about is you take it down all the crazy decorations. There's some insane decorations out trick-or-treating. So now we're going to just move on to, you know, just like the more snazier, And we'll move on to Thanksgiving. For those watching us live, you might notice something different about me. I don't have any facial hair. That was part of my Halloween costume.

I shaved my face. Full dedication to the costume. I dressed up as Christopher Maltesanti from the Sopranos, which, wait, Welsh, have you watched the Sopranos? Oh, of course. I actually saw your picture. It was a pretty fan. I like that you put the picture that you guys were mimicking to.

It was a very, very good look. Yeah, yeah, I didn't want to say anything about the beard, but you definitely, you took it down. And I'm going to be seeing that. pretty mug in about 24 hours beardless too, if we forget to mention, because, you know, as fun as Halloween was, I turned right back into the Arizona Fall League and was out today. And I'm going to be sitting with this fine young gentleman tomorrow watching some of the baseball's best prospects.

I am so excited, man. I've seen this going on for years, first pitch Arizona, which for anyone who doesn't know, it's a huge fantasy baseball conference. I guess we can call it that where everyone gets together and watches a bunch of Arizona fall league games and this year there's a home run derby and there's a fall star's game and the world series is going on so it's just everything baseball and fantasy baseball and for years i've had fomo and i've wanted to get out there and i'm finally doing it so i'm happy you brought that up anyone who's listening maybe you're listening to this on the flight to first pitch

arizona come say hello let's hang out let's grab a drink you know the welsh you know me uh it's going to be a lot of fun so please don't be a stranger come hang out with your favorite fantasy baseball today, guys. Before, I keep saying before we get into it, are we ever going to get into it? We're kind of in it. We're kind of in it. Yeah, we are in it. Make sure you follow Chris on Twitter because I feel like I don't pump you up enough. At Is it the Welsh, make sure you give them a follow there. You can see a bunch of great Arizona Fall League highlights, but also prospect content. Welsh, anywhere else where people could find your work. Yeah, I mean, in this league.com, the Patreon is kind of the best place if people want to support. That's always a great thing.

I do my top 500 ranks, which I updated this month. I do my dynasty list, which was updated. we're in November. The new update is coming. I'm also going to be putting together a little bit later in the month, the prospect ADP, the brand new version for the coming year, which Frank and Scott have both taken part in. So I just do a bunch of unique prospect content that is specific to fantasy. So the In Thisleague.com Patreon is the best place. But yeah, just follow me on Twitter. You can check out my musings. You can check out. I have so much video that sometimes I talk myself out of posting that probably would be really interesting to like just the prospect nut. So I try to,

but I try to keep it to like homers or great hits or awesome strikeouts and stuff. So if you want to see some of the highlights of the AFL, I have been out almost every single day and I try to continuously post got a Matt McLean Homer the other day. Not much today actually in the game that I was in, but almost every day we've got a few little highlights and I try to spread all of the stuff because there are things that are even little pre-AFL that have started to move. there's a lot of chatter.

We'll probably talk about it at least at some point. Matt Mervis, some of the guys in the industry have already been sharing. I think it was James Anderson from RotoWire shared that in early draft champions, Matt Mervis already went 227 in a draft champions. And that's not counting the AFL bump, which will happen, which, A, the whole industry is going to be here. They're going to see him on display. He's in the home run derby.

Guy doesn't strike out. This guy is going to crack the top 200. And a lot of it kind of starts here. So we're going to be sharing information. I've got video for you guys if you want to check that out. And it's just important to hang it. It's a shout out to Frank for everything that he's done to make sure that there's some good offseason content here on fantasy baseball today, especially with the AFL,

because AFL really does push up quite a few prospects in their value for redraft or for dynasty. Yeah. And if you want to hear more about Nash-Mervis, then you can listen to last week's episode where we broke down the first base prospects for next season and for dynasty purposes. But today is second base, so let's jump into the position. And we'll just start with an overall outlook here. Well, as we're talking beforehand, you said, look, there's a few names on this list where these guys might not wind up at second base or vice versa.

There's other players who could wind up playing second base. But the overall feel I got from you is that second base prospects might not be the best. Yeah, yeah. So like the second base, like if you look at your pure second baseman, it's not great. And that actually kind of ends up being the same thing. It's so similar to how international recruiting. classes are. If you ever pay attention, there's three, there's maybe four positions in international recruiting. There's a catcher. There's a shortstop. There's an outfielder and there's a pitcher.

That's it. Those are the positions. And then everybody else kind of sprawls out from, from out within. So when we sit here and we talk about these prospects at these positions, I always want to give the caveat to say, hey, listen, we're going to highlight five guys that are more or less pure to this position, even though I kind of broke the rule as I did last week as well, positionally, and guys that might not qualify. But I would like to acknowledge, guys, we're not going to talk about, you know, in this spot are short stops that I think could easily move to second base. I would not be shocked to see an Ezekiel Tovar move there if the team really wanted to

press that. That wouldn't be shocking. Anthony Volpe is a player, if he were to be pushed up soon, might move over to second base. That might be a position they move him as well. And there's just a handful of. guys lower Royce Lewis. Now that Carlos Correa, it looks like he's gone. Royce Lewis would probably be more

predominant shortstop, but Edwin Arroyo, Zach Netto, Luis on Helicunia, Brian, Rokio, there's a handful of guys, even to Jackson Trio, all these shortstops, I don't think are necessarily locked into being that so they could move over to the second base position. So just

acknowledge that, yes, the position itself is a little eh, and there's guys that may move into that spot. Look at Von Grisham, prime example of a pure shortstop that you know, moved in and played a ton of second base last year, that this position can be better by the time they get to the majors, but the pureness of the position, it's kind of stinky. It's kind of stinky when we're going to just hone in and focus on some of those names. I'll definitely admit that, especially when we talk about the redraft prospects that are pure second baseman.

All right, so let's start with the top five prospects in Dynasty Leagues. These are via the Welsh's rankings, of course. So we will start up top number one, Tremar Johnson from the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was just drafted fourth overall in this year's draft. So he is a young one, 18 years old, still a ways away. We'll talk about him, of course. Curtis Meade with the Tampa Bay Race, who plays second base and third base. Nick Gonzalez, also with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Nick York with the Red Sox and Connor Norby with the Orioles. We will save Meade and Gonzalez. Those are more proximity prospects. Could make an impact next season. Let's start with Tremar Johnson. Well, someone who I know you like quite a bit, I already mentioned, fourth overall

pick in this year's draft. He only played 23 games, so I don't think that we can really take anything away from that. But according to MLB pipeline, 70 hit grade, 60 power. Is this like the left-handed Jose Al-Tuve? Because he's a small dude, but it sounds

like he packs a pretty big punch. Yeah, he's definitely as far as like Al-Tuve goes. Like, if you look at his MLB pipeline page, like, 5-7, 175, he's built different than Al-Tuve. He is built outward, more, thicker guy. This is a guy that won a high school home run derby as well against some huge bats. I'm trying,

I think like Elijah Green was in it, prospect with the nationals. Drew Jones might have been in that one. I mean, this guy has major, major pop. And one of my other shows I do, probably the most relevant to you guys here, Prospect One, which I have a weekly show I'm doing of recapping the Arizona Fall League. I had Carlos Colazo on from baseball America. And I've cited this multiple times. But Carlos, when we were going through the process of the draft, when he came on, he told me, he's like, listen, this is the best offensive prospect with a hit tool that I've ever scouted for Carlos. Now, he would admit, you know, he's still young into the game. This isn't 20 years of experience of going out and stuff, but he has single-handedly the best

in-person hitting prospect that he has ever seen. And hit tool is his play. He's listed as a shortstop, but even MLB Pipeline acknowledges him as a second baseman on their own ranks. This will be the spot. They've got a lot of short stops already there. The funny thing, though, I will, this is where things teeter and whatnot, positionally is Tremar is with Pittsburgh.

They also have Nick Gonzalez. And we're going to talk about Nick. Nick is not a, he's been playing shortstop. He's not a shortstop. He's never been a shortstop. I watch him at New Mexico State. He's a second baseman. So that is something that could move Tremar back into being more of a pure shortstop.

But at the end of the day, it's the offensive output that I care about. I don't care about his rookie year. He can steal some bases. But yeah, you said it. 70 grade hit tool, massive, massive power, massive contact. And this is fantasy. so I really care about the offensive output. I don't like the landing spot of Pittsburgh.

I wouldn't mind if the Diamondbacks would have taken him if let's say Drew Jones would have went to Baltimore, but didn't happen. But Tamar is probably the top target, again, pending the second base qualification. Where is he off the top of your head, Welsh, in your first year player draft rankings? He is number three, I think, overall right now. So I had him at two, and this is one I'm strung with.

Number one is Drew Jones, and it's not close for me. Elijah Green, I always loved. And he looked really good in his short stint this year. His strikeout worries, that was the thing that we were kind of holding on to. Seems it's a little bit less than usual. And I sometimes hate to take away from overall talent to proximity things that happened. But Tamar kind of struggled in the beginning. Elijah Green did not and was showing off his massive power.

Plus he can run. So I think it might be safer to go Elijah Green over him. But in my eyes, Tamar is a top three first year player guy, like, without question. And I know people want the proximity prospects, especially if you're playing in these deeper leagues. You want guys that'll help you now. This would be my year.

If I'm in the top four, I'm just going to avoid that. I'm not going to let myself be talked into Brooks Lee or Kevin Perrata. And just take the awesome, awesome high school bats that are there and let that gestate for a little bit. Because look at Jordan Lawler. Jordan Lawler was one of those high school bats,

him and Marcella Mayer. Jordan Lawler might make his debut next year. And that's how much this has changed and baseball has changed and the, you know, the offensive maturation can change with these guys that I just wouldn't worry too much about it. And I would take tomorrow. All right. Let's move over to Nick York from the Boston Red Sox, a 20-year-old first round pick from back in 2020. And he had a huge 2021 debut season.

And then he took a huge step back here in 2022. He is out there in the Arizona Fall League where he's hitting 318. He's got one homer, seven doubles, 12 walks, a 14 strike. out. So a lot of both, I don't know if maybe he's being passive and he's waving and missing, whatever it might be. But did you get a chance to see Nick York out there? And overall, your thoughts on really taking a huge step back here in 2022. Yeah, I've seen Nick a lot. Actually, it's a funny picture. I took a shout out to my daughter, my daughter, Gemma, who I took her out to her very first baseball game the other night. First ever, she finally wanted to go. So me and my son,

we took her, we went right over to surprise. Scott Still was playing. And she wanted to take a picture with a player. First player we see, Nick York walking in a hoodie because I recognize him. I'm like, hey, that's Nick York. She calls him over. Nick was so kind, took a picture with her, signed a thing for her. He was great. And he's a big personality guy. You do wish that doesn't care matter for fantasy, but you do wish that would kind of translate into the game as well because that is a struggle. And I really like, I like Nick York. I like his approach. It's not a lot of nonsense. When you get to see him, Frank, what you're going to see is, you know, a guy with kind of an upright stance that doesn't do a whole bunch of business. He lets his body turn into the pitch and he lets his,

you know, really the lockdown of his lower half just attack on the ball. The problem is, is he susceptible to high fastballs, which is something Nick Gonzalez has been, I've been talking about. He's been susceptible to low pitches. He's really swinging through a lot of low pitches. And he's striking out a decent amount. You said 14 strikeouts already. I see a lot of swing through. But when he finds his pitch, he's been showing off big doubles power. and he's a bit thicker than you're probably going to have imagined him when you see him. And you can see the power potential. And doubles is always a really great precursor to future home run power.

Just the problem is I don't know if there's going to be consistent contact in the future. I'm seeing a lot. It's a trend with a lot of these guys that the high velocity upper zone stuff is getting them and they're not adjusting. The thing he's been working on is trying to hit lower zone stuff. And, you know, he's just turning doubles out of it. So, again, this doesn't make the position feel really great. I know Boston Red Sox fans want him to be huge, but he hasn't shown anything different here than he's really shown off in this last minor league season.

I think batting average is a problem. Power could be there. I just don't know how quick it's going to click. And I don't really think he's a big stolen base option. So it's a little, it's a little underwhelming, if we're being honest. Welsh's number five second base prospect is Connor Norby from the Baltimore Orioles, a 22-year-old second round pick from 2000. Very fantasy friendly game.

He hit 279 this past season with 29 homers, 16 steals, and an 886 OPS across three different minor league levels. Did get up to nine games in AAA. So my question, Welsh, is why isn't Connor Norby one of the proximity prospects? Do you believe that he's not going to make an impact next year? You know, it's funny that when you just said that,

I was kind of looking, I was like, you know, I think I might have needed to put him in here. And I think for all intents of purposes, is now that I'm thinking about it, I think I would put him in at least at number five on our proximity. I kind of had a player that I wanted to talk about that's here to put on there, but he belongs in this. I think he is part of this top five because of the AAA performance.

Big power numbers, 29 homers, stole some bases. He was able to move through. The X factor here would be, man, is Baltimore willing to just say, screw it?

Let's go Norby. Let's go Henderson. maybe we even bring up Kirsta. Let's just get these guys going because I don't think this team, and this is what does work very well in favor of him being a proximity guy, is that I don't think the team is like, well, we need to scatter these guys. You can't keep Connor Norby and Heston Kirsta down this year. And if you bring them up, which you rightfully are probably going to need to do,

you're not going to be able to save a guy. My whole point is like if teams want to really have a long-term outlook, do they want to save a guy each year that they bring up to try to get extra picks. I just don't think so. I think the team should throw these guys out here. And this is probably a misread on my part, how I was putting this together. Norby should be on the proximity. He's actually younger than a few of these guys that are on here and put up way big power numbers. I just don't think he'll break camp. I think he'll start in AAA. If he continues his success, then I think you're going to see him very soon. If he struggles, I think the team will baby. I do not

think they will push. This, Connor Norby is not Gunner Henderson in my mind. I do not think they will push him. And a fun one would be like, who comes up first? Connor Norby or Heston Kersted. I'm not 100% sure. Based on the strikeout rates I've seen with Heston, I'd say it's Connor. But this is definitely one of those pop-up guys and probably someone that you should take

a look at trading for in your dynasty leagues that the fantasy value hasn't caught up to where he's really probably going to be ranked. And I think a good example, when I do these prospect drafts that I create an ADP for prospects out of, I think Norby is. going to be pretty eye-opening for a lot of people of how high he's going to go, which really might be like top 50 overall prospect. And I don't think that he's valued in that in a lot of circles. I just checked the first draft that I did. Again, this is a very deep draft. 15 team league, five-by-five roto, 50 rounds, a draft and hold. Connor Norby was not drafted.

That's probably a mistake. And I'm going to keep that in mind moving forward when I do another one of these drafts, which I will be doing on Saturday, by the way. I hopped in one of those during first pitch Arizona. So we do the first half of the draft there in person and then the second half at a later date as part of a slow draft. That'll be fun. What is that, is it a 15 teamer? Yeah, 15 teamer. Is it points? It is five by five roto. I'm pretty sure it's just the standard draft champions format within it. Well, I'm just saying my whole point is like, you shouldn't be allowed in it if it's points. You should be completely restricted from it. And I will have to tell someone, if it's a points league, you are not allowed to do it because they're

all wasting their money. But if it's Roto head to head, maybe it's a little bit better of a playing field. No, it's actually a good point that you bring up because if there's anywhere I've struggled the past couple of years, it has been Roto. So I'm still trying to figure out that formula, hopefully get back on track next year. Second base prospects to know here for 2023, redraft leagues. Some players who might be able to help you out will start with Michael Bush of the Dodgers 2019 first round pick, who has a great birthday, just absolutely great birthday. He will turn 25 years old a week from today on November 9th. Okay, there you go.

I thought you were saying a great birthday. Is that your birthday? Yes, it is my birthday. It is your birthday, okay? Oh, so, oh, we're going to just miss your birthday out here. We'll have the little little birthday celebration out here. Michael Bush is like the quintessential Dodgers prospect. Huge power numbers can play multiple positions, second base, first base.

I think he can play third. You know, it's just like a Max Muncie kind of all over again. He's had some batting average struggles, I guess you could say, AA in 2021, he hit 260, but he moved it up to 270 this year. There's a lot of swing and miss in his game, but hit 32 homers. 32 homers also walk 74 times. So this is that type of guy. The problem is, where does he play?

And we've kind of gone through this with Dodger prospects. We'll see. You know, Miguel Vargas is someone that I think is a very viable option for third base. We have to see who resigns and who doesn't. Michael Bush would be great in another destination, but he's just a massive power guy and he's 25 years old. He's going to play this year. Where?

I don't know. I don't 100% know where and when. If the Dodgers blow all their money on, let's say, one former New York outfield or something like that, and they can't resign a couple other the good players. They're going to have to fill the gaps with players like Michael Bush and Miguel Vargas and that would create playing time. And he's a big, big, homeer guy.

And you know what? I don't like the strikeout rate and I'm not going to lie about that, but high walk rates with huge. huge homers. He had a 12 homer increase from last year to this year. This is the type of stuff that you bank on, especially an older hitter who's a little bit more advanced. Michael Bush is a not popular name on a team that definitely, definitely breeds these type of players. So Michael Bush, you should pay attention to, at least in a redraft proximity perspective. And in that draft that I did, Michael Bush went in round 32 out of 50. So again, it's still,

I'm kind of kicking myself. I wish we did this podcast before I drafted so I could have taken Connor Norby. I didn't take Edward Julian either. I'm so, uh, he didn't get drafted. I'm so frustrated. We'll get to him in just a bit. Yeah, we'll get to him in just a bit. But man, I'm frustrated. I didn't get him. Uh, let's, actually, let's just talk about Edward Julian now. We raved about him last week. We talked about what he's doing in the AFL. He's absolutely crushing it. He's got some power. He's got some speed. I know he's been running a little bit over the past week. I saw a tweet that you put out. He's going to be in the home run derby. I am so excited to see Edward Julian play in person. The problem, which, which is kind of similar to Michael Bush, is where will the twins play him? Do they have a spot open? They have Louisa Rise and they have Royce Lewis who's coming back. And Nick Gordon had some interesting stat cast numbers. So look, usually these things work themselves out, but the twins do have a lot of those players right now. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, absolutely nailed it. This has been my argument. Also, didn't you mention Jose Miranda? Right. You know, Jose Miranda actually might be one of the best fantasy assets in that infield of all of the players. I'm very, very big on him. You want to talk about sleepers for me, at least the first base side or wherever they want to play him. Yeah, no, I think that is exactly the problem with, and it's Edward, Edward Julian, who I like, I like him a lot.

He's got a really interesting personality. And I had asked him, I said, hey, they asked you to do the homerendurie. And I got to break a little bit of news because nothing had been announced. And he was like, yep. And then I asked him and I was like, they're going to give you guys a little something to win it? And he's like, and you smile, he's like, yep. And I'm like, all right, that's cool. So on Saturday, if people are Karen, there will be a home run derby.

He will be one of the big featured bats. And I would say he's probably near the top of the list of players that are up for MVP of this league. That's how well he's played. He's the number one in OPS, almost 1,200. He's actually tied for the highest slug in the league with Stephen Scott, who is also going to be in the homerine derby. Funny enough, he's number one in OBP. He struck out 16 times, but walked 15 times. And as far as batting average goes, he is third.

That is ridiculous in how much he's dominated. He's got four homers, four stolen bases. He does a little bit of everything. He's a pure second baseman. And my thing I've been telling everybody is like, I look at him and I say, this is a major leaguer. This is a vet that plays for a long time. I don't know if he'll be a lead or not.

But he has got a very simple, repeatable swing that he knows how to get on top of. It's going to be how much that pitch recognition. goes. And then the ultimate question, where does he play? And that's what I don't know. I really hope, I think they sent him out here for a very specific reason. And I really hope that they give him an opportunity very early on next year because I think it should be, it should be on the table. He's not going to play double A. He's going to start at AAA. I don't know if he breaks camp, especially with all the guys that they've got. But when he gets there, this is somebody in specifically the ones that you were doing, the draft and holds and stuff. This is a guy that you should,

bank on, especially if you're not going to get smacked early for him not coming up. Otherwise, he's probably going to be someone if you don't have a minor league stash spot that you should be locked in on as far as waivers once it gets like a month or two into the season. But hey, don't take away that they could possibly let him come up now because they're letting him do a little bit of everything. He looks, it just looks like a really good, complete player. The stolen bases, he's been a little bit more aggressive lately for, you know,

that's nothing in this league compared to like Vien's like 15 or whatever it is. But, hey, four homers, four stolen bases. Edward Julian's kind of a complete package. And I'm a very big fan. And I expect some very fun videos this weekend that we'll be sharing of Edward. Let's talk about Nick Gonzalez, who we've also mentioned a few times here, just talking about what he's done or what he hasn't done so far in the Arizona Fall League. He's 23 years old, seventh overall pick back in 2020.

And much like Nick York, who we spoke about, he took a big step back. From 2021 to 2022, I know that you have concerns over. over Nick Gonzalez. Give us your overall thoughts. And do you think that Tamar Johnson pick is maybe an indictment on Gonzalez or do they just take best player available? They don't really care. Oh, God, no, no. Tamar is a, you just close your eyes and take the best player and you just let the world figure it out later. But they do have a glut of those guys. You know, Nick Gonzalez, Lever Piguero, O'Neill Cruz, you can make the argument of whatever they end up doing with him once these guys start to come up or they move them. And now Tamar that there's a glut of them that

I guess only so much you can close your eyes and just take the best available player. But in my eyes, that is like, you don't even care about Nick Gonzalez in that standpoint. Now, Nick has played some third base out here. I do think that's an option that they're looking at. He's played some third. He's played second. He's played short. I've seen him play all those positions.

And he's gotten bigger. He absolutely destroys mistakes. He's hit a couple tank home runs. I've got two of them, I think, on film. The problem is, is his free swingingness has gotten worse. High fastballs. Again, it's kind of a trend out here. and I just don't know how coaches work through it or really what the fix is.

But I mean, listen, if you can change his eye to something low, dude's not, he's not catching up to high 95 mile an hour stuff. And that's most of the back end of bullpins in Major League Baseball. So I really worry about the batting average. Like how long is it going to take for him to catch up to this power? Because the power is the thing that gets him. He's striking out a decent amount here while not walking. He's not really stealing.

He has, what is this? seven, half of his hits are extra base. And he's only attempted two stolen bases in seven singles or counting the walks as well. So that would be 11 opportunities that he has had an opportunity to steal. And he's only attempted twice. So he's not aggressive on the base pass right now, which I think would help his fantasy value. So unfortunately, you know, what last year, Nick York and Nick Gonzalez were, I think, the high-end second base guys that you want, they're just a lot lower because they both don't

provide the stolen bases. Nick has the better power bat and has explosive bat speed, but his really pitch recognition looks worse here. And I'm really worried that he's going to be a 240, maybe 20 homerine hitter. And if he could hit 300, I think he could hit 30 plus homers in the majors. I just don't think that's going to happen anymore. So I think he's pretty steadily a post top 50 overall prospect right now. All right. Talks me about these last two. Curtis Meade. of the Tampa Bay raise and Zach Gelloff of the Oakland A's. Both of them play second base, third base in the minor leagues this past season. Curtis Meade 22 years old, Zach Gelloff, 23 years old.

So it sounds like they are kind of knocking on the door here. What are your thoughts on each specifically for 2023? Yeah, Mead is, again, it's a cheat because like he's, I think he's listed more third base. The race don't really have a spot for him. I would love to see him get traded somewhere. but he is all contact, five tools. I don't think there's elite power. There's decent power.

He can steal bases. He makes great decisions. He was doing that while I interviewed him, my famous, at least in my little dumb world, my famous worst interview I've ever done, not as in like awkward because I've done a couple awkward interviews. Alec Boehm and Alec, Austin Wells were both very awkward for me.

But like I was awkward and I asked the worst questions on the planet to Curtis Mead and he couldn't have been a nicer guy. but one of the pieces I got out of it was, you know, he was coming out this amazing season, 20 years old. And I said, hey, like, what did the raise have you work on and do? And he's like, nothing. He's just, they let me do my thing. So think about that.

That's a guy that, you know, he is kind of a late blooming prospect, came from another organization. He played in the COVID year. He played full season ball in Australia. And then he came back and that team didn't really put their hands into, you know, altering a lot of stuff in developing. And he just did his thing. And he was awesome. So this is just a good five tool prospect, but when is he going to play?

And I just wanted to mention Gelloff because Gelliff might be a better real life player. Ultimately, his brother is one of the top prospects coming out next year out of college baseball. I think at Virginia, it is. But Gelloff has made some of the best defensive plays I've seen out here. He is pretty solely played second base. He does have a nice bat. He's got some big power.

There's some swing and miss in there. But he got up to AAA. He's playing second base a ton out here. And defensively how he's performed, I really think this A's team, what's stopping them? I think Galloff's a guy that could come up really, really soon. And if he does and the power starts clicking, he's going to be someone you're going to want to pay attention to. Because that defense is going to keep him on the field. My only worry is like, is he going to be a defensive only guy?

So in the grand scheme of what we talked about, the more that I'm thinking about it, Connor Norby, you know, Connor Norby might be the number one guy. I really wasn't considering the minute we started this podcast, the more we're talking about it. He might be the number one because of AAA. So if you were banking on, hey, I want proximity that could hit, it's probably Bush and Norby, and then you're going to go over here with Nick Gonzalez, Curtis Mead, and then Gelloff is kind of just like a last minute shot for more of the pure second basement if you're just looking for some bodies. I think there's a real chance that Norby can be on the roster on opening day, just the more than I'm thinking about it. I think that what you said about having a prospect that can start on opening day each year for like the next couple of years, whatever it might be,

Are they going to hold Heston Kirstad down for the whole season? Probably not. Like, he's probably going to be up at some point this year. But it would make sense in my mind to have Connor Norby up and, you know, let him and Gunner Henderson kind of battle it out. And maybe one of those guys gets you a draft pick, you know? See, that's really smart of you because I think, I think the, again, sometimes the best analysis is just like working through it live on podcast.

I love to do this. I'm glad we're doing this here. Because the more I think about it, I do think a majority of teams are going to have a long-term plan now about who the guys are that they're going to bring up and manipulate to potentially get them the picks. Gunner Henderson is already set up to be that guy for them this year. They have nothing to worry about because he didn't exhaust prospect eligibility. He's their guy where they go for the first round pick. Heston has some strikeout issues. They could justify keeping him all the way down towards the end, giving him a little bit of a sample size, and then him being the guy next year.

So in turn, if you are going to have your shortstop second base duo, be to the end, together for the next six, seven, 10 years, why not do it sooner rather than later when you've already gotten him time? If Norby looks good and they're comfortable in spring training, I do think there is a shot for it. I think it's a little bit more of a long shot, still just being honest, but I do think there is an opportunity for it. So the more we work this out, Norby, Bush are probably the best early options of any of these actual pure second base, but not counting again, like if Tovar plays second base or a Von Grisham situation or something like that. Speaking of Von Grissom, I did want to bring him up. I have two names here that I wanted to get

quick thoughts on. Von Grissom lit the world on fire as soon as he got called up. He had 2.91, five homers, five seals and 41 games. Did slow down in the second half of that sample size where he hit just 174 over his final 15 games. But he will only turn 22 in January. He only has 22 games at AA. I feel like this is kind of dependent on whether or not Danesby Swanson resigns with the team, which, I mean, they have all these other great discounted deals with their other players. I don't really see why they wouldn't bring Dansby-Swanson back, but that's kind of like a quick thought process on Von Grissom. And then Michael Massey, who is kind of this unheralded prospect with the Royals,

he's got some power, he's got some speed, 13% barrel rate last year, third best among qualified second baseman. I'm pretty interested. Yeah, and he definitely makes some good contact. It's going to be really interesting to see what happens with the return of Mondesie, You know, we can't ignore what's going to go on with that. Bobby Witt is going to be back in locked into shortstop. So you've got to think about like positionally, what are they going to do?

Maybe they, you know, they've talked about this. Maybe they platoon Massey and Monassie. Monassie was playing more third base. You could go back to that. But also like Monashie just can't stay healthy. So maybe they do that. Massey's definitely a later in guy that I'm interested. And, you know, the only argument I might give you counter to the being tied to Dansby

Swanson was before Ozzy Albi's re-end. himself, they had started working Von Grissom in the outfield. And that wasn't something that he had done a whole lot of. They started giving him some major league tutelage in the outfield. So here would be my thing. I actually don't think he could be majorly tied to that. And what I would look for is in spring training when he starts almost exclusively working in the outfield.

And if they have him playing in the outfield for the most part of spring training, I would say that is probably because they're going to let him run with it. So I think there's a better chance than not that Grisham is back in the opening day roster and maybe it's just in the outfield. And, you know, he could serve as the backup second baseman and shortstop for that team. Through 11 drafts over at the NFBC, Vaughn Grissom's ADP, 182.4. Does that sound okay to you? 182.4.

That's Grissom's? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I mean, boy, if it was post-125 after that first like, what, three weeks or month of him, you would be like, oh, my. God, how is he going after the top 125? He definitely slowed down on the strikeout rates a little bit worrisome. I think that's right.

I think anything after the top 150, like, what are you going to do? You're going to go and get your boring corner infielder that's 32 years old, or you're going to go get just an up-and-coming outfielder who can steal a bunch of bases and showed off at least for a month. Yeah, I know. I think that's actually, that actually might be a little steelish, to be honest with you, Frank. What do you think? I think right now, if you have a lien that he's going to play,

which it sounds like you do, that you should be in one of the, these drafts and you should be taking Von Grissom because if he is on the opening day roster, this will turn out to be a steal. I just kind of worry about the playing time right now, but obviously those things can figure themselves out. Speaking of this ADP, Catell Marte, one spot ahead of him. Going right at 182. So that's the decision you have to make. Catelle Marte or Von Grissom heading into next seat. It's interesting. You brought him up. We might have to talk about him here in a little bit. All righty. Before we do that, let's take a quick break. For those watching us live or on demand, hit the like button.

subscribe to the channel. Drop a comment if you haven't already. Let us know which second base prospect you think it will make an impact in 2023. For those listening, please hook us up with a five-star rating and review on Apple and Spotify. And just a heads up that next week, we are taking a break from the position recaps and early previews. Scott will still be on staycation.

So Welsh and I will be here for two podcasts next week. And we'll be talking first pitch, Arizona, what we learned, prospects, you know, just a full evaluation of the weekend. And then we'll talk about that draft that I did. So that's the breakdown for next week. I love that. I love that idea. By the way, I've been trying to push Frankie, if anyone wants it.

I want us to like be in the stands. I want to do a podcast where we're recording in the stands at the AFL and we're just bringing people over. I think that would be great content. I love the idea of a live Frank Stamphle because you're very good at that stuff. Back in the days when you were doing some of the live radio and stuff like that, I think you and the public would be good. But I'm very excited to do a couple with you next week.

Let's do it. We'll take a break and we'll hit some news and notes. here on fantasy baseball today. The news and notes here is the latest. Again, the World Series still going on. Let's go Phillies. So not really that much going on overall, but here's what I've got.

Nolan Aronado has opted in to his final five years worth $144 million with the St. Louis Cardinals coming off a great year, hit 293, 30 homers, finished 31st overall in Roto. He's got like a third, fourth round ADP right now, which seems fine. I think that's okay for Nolan Aronado. Chris Sale has also opted into the final two years.

years of his deal with the Boston Red Sox. His career with the Red Sox. I mean, it started amazingly. Then since Tommy John happened, it's like one thing after another. He broke his finger trying to field a ground ball back in July. And then he suffered a broken wrist in August due to a bicycling accident, which immediately made me think of, have you seen the commercial? I don't even know what that guy's name is, The Vulture from Brooklyn Nine-Nine where he's like riding the Peloton and then he just goes crashing into the vulture. That's the chaos guy. Yeah.

That's the chaos. Yeah. Actually, that is the funniest thing on the planet that you just took. Every other human being knows him as chaos in the Allstate or whatever commercials where he's like, I'm chaos and blah blah. But he is the vulture in Brooklyn Nine-Ni, which is one of the best comedies on the planet. And I saw him as the chaos guy in there.

That is so funny that that was your reference to him. Yeah. So he's like riding his Peloton. and then he goes flying right through a glass door. He's like, you know, you need insurance. And that's what I imagine Chris Sale doing on, you know, with his bicycle, however, he got hurt. Anyway, he's expected to be a full participant in spring training. And his early ADP is 154.5.

He's going right around Lucas Geelito, Joe Ryan, Dustin May. Does that sound right for Chris Sale? Man, he's brutal because he's one of those guys, the upside, especially because look at the payoff. I know a lot of people are going to comp. You had the payoff of Verlander this past year. You know, these old dominant pitchers. The problem is, is just like, he is walking chaos.

Like, you don't know. Everyone wants to get on Jacob deGrom and all these other players for the injury proneness. But, like, sale is pure chaos at 150. His return is a value if he's there. The problem is, I don't know if he's there. You said Dustin May. God, do I love Dustin May?

I really love Joe Ryan. He fell off pretty hard on the second half. of the year, which has me a little bit worried. But I don't know, it's probably maybe, I don't want to caveat this, but maybe it's about the build that I have. Like I think there's more upside with Dustin. I think the upside with Dustin May could be like old school peak sale. I just don't know sale has that anymore.

So I feel like I would go May, then maybe sail over Joe Ryan because Joe Ryan kind of flopped a little bit on the second half. I think there's just a lot of upside with sale, but God, it's risky. I wouldn't want to take him with like a team with like to Grom or old. older pitchers or, you know, I'm buying back in on like the flaredes and stuff and maybe Frankie Montas. I don't want to have the, I assume him as volatility. And if I have a lot less volatility, I would be comfortable with drafting him 150 or maybe a little higher. You know what they say? Chaos is a ladder wrapped in a Boston Red Sox uniform. That is Chris now. Nelson

Cruz's eye surgery went well. He plans to return for another season at 42 years old. No surprise, but J.D. Martinez is unlikely to get the qualifying offer from the Red Soxie. He is now 35 years old. He had 274 this past season. Just 16 home runs. He went through some crazy drought. I think it was a two-month stretch where he only hit one home run or something like that.

So I don't really know how much J.D. Martinez has left in the tank. Cubs outfield prospect, Brennan Davis was shut down from the rest of the Arizona Fall League due to back tightness, which is very scary because he had back surgery this past season, which caused him to miss much of the 2022 season. Speaking of that draft that I did, I took Brennan Davis. as I don't know, like my eighth or ninth outfield are off the board. So it's, you know, it's a depth piece. But I'm worried.

I'm worried about this Welsh. You know, there's a little thing that I've been thinking about with him because I did get to see him. He was a slow start to start here. I think I got one of his like only homers. I get two homers here. I've got one of them on video. I got to see him multiple times.

And, you know, something I had been thinking about is his swing. We kind of laud him for like, hey, he does have this short bat path in how. he approaches it. But I wonder if the short swing is part of the problem with him at all. Because like he doesn't have full motion. You know, you'll see guys like like Wander Franco. I'm kind of doing this on video if anyone cares. But like Wander Franco, he comes through and he has this full helicopter where the arms come all the way back to his neck. Sorry, I was blocking my mouth there, to his neck and he kinds of helicopter approach. And you see other players that have this just full swing through. Brennan doesn't have that sometimes. And you see where he'll just have this short half

bat path where it comes up and comes back. And you just got to, wonder like, you know, it's a tall, lanky guy, maybe that is just a tiny bit contributing to if you're, if you're halting your approach, maybe that's tightening up the back. I don't like this stuff. You don't like to see a guy that's never hit the majors that has all the athleticism in the world having constant back problems. That's for us. That's for me.

I'm 39 years old. Back problems are for me, not for prospect. So this definitely dampers what I thought was kind of a good positive start to him being here. And it reiterated, this is kind of like the thing that happens in Jacques Carlos Stanton. Like Stan doesn't get hurt for a while. And then I'm like, oh my God, he could hit 50 and I just love. And he's post 100 value. And then he gets hurt and you're like, oh, yeah, I forgot.

Buxden would be another prime example. Like, oh, I forgot. This is what happens. He might be going the way of Buxden, but he does have a lot of talent. And I wouldn't, this might be a thing that actually makes me jump into a buy on him because he's coming off of a bad season. if people weren't paying attention to his short stint, the AFL, see a back injury and might get more worried,

he might come dirt cheap in Dynasty, and that might be something I poke around at. All right, that is Cubs Outfield Prospect, Brennan Davis, if you are looking to buy. A few more manager hires, the Royal signed Matt Quadrado, former Ray's bench coach. White Sox signed Pedro Griffel,

who is the former Royals bench coach, kind of an interesting hire. Didn't really know anything about him before he got hired, but I hope he does well. I root for the White Sox every year. they're my World Series pick and here we are. Can you believe they were talking to Ozzy Gien too again? I mean, no, honestly I can believe it because the White Sox, they just, they make some very, very interesting decisions when it comes to not really their front office, but I guess they're their managerial candidates.

They went from like Tony Larusa to re-talking to Ozzy Gian and they're like, let's just hire somebody that no one can even pronounce his name and we'll just leave it at that. Yeah, basically. Let's quickly run through some emails and then some Dynasty trade candidates. We saw some Arizona fall week stuff to get to two. But here are the emails.

Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com is the email address if you want to send something in. This one's from Jason. I have Vinnie Pasquantino, Alec Berluson, Nick Prado, Matt Mervis, and Alex Kirolov. Only want to keep three in Dynasty.

My picks are Vinny, Mervis, and Kiroloff. What say you? Jason, you are a very smart person and you should be cheered for your smartness because yes, those are the picks. Those are easy picks. I can't give up on Kirillov.

Ironically enough, like Vinny is the biggest no-brainer. Mervis in, even if you just were keeping him on hype, makes all the sense in the world. So then you're coming down to Burleson, who had a nice little look, Prado and Kiroloff. I just, I'm an Alex Kierloff, Apologist, and unfortunately he's another one of those guys, like just lots of injuries, wrist thing, back thing.

If we can get a full season out of Kirolov, I really think he can do something. He's a really smart hitter. So I wouldn't be willing to give him up, especially if it's versus Nick Prado and Alec Berlson. All right. Let's move over to this question from Thurgood. I need to know what you guys and the Welsh think about Ellie De La Cruz. He is at AA at 20 years old. He's got another question, but let's start with that.

Your quick thoughts on Ellie De La Cruz. I mean, he's a monster. He's a top 10 overall fantasy prospect. He has got all the five tools. He is a lot of the things, he's a little bit more on the positive side of what people try to project on to O'Neill Cruz or tried to project early on.

I do think there's some swing and miss issues out there. I don't really quite know exactly where he's going to play because they traded for Edwin Arroyo who could play shortstop. Noelvie's going to play third. So will Ellie be the shortstop? And Edwin goes the second or will you go in the outfield. It doesn't matter. He's pretty electric.

And I would be, I would feel good, though. I will tell you this is a me thing and maybe not like a lot of other people will go with this. I would always, especially him, I'd be willing to see like, what do people want to give me? What, what's the market like? Because I think his prospect status is incredibly high to the point it could even be difficult for him to live up to it. You could get a king's ransom for L.A. Dela Cruz right now. So you don't just trade him to trade him.

But if someone is willing to give you the keys to the kingdom, I might, I might get rid of that mortgage and give him the slip. second part of this question. I am set up nicely to contend in my 14 keeper. 14 keeper. Wow. Okay, that's a lot. Five by five Roto League. I have one spot available for Ryan Mountcastle, Ellie Dela Cruz, Edward Cabrera, Rwanzi Contreras, Alex Kerloff, and Brett Beatty. Sounds like Dela Cruz can make a huge impact in five by five roto. 14 keepers. I think you have to take him realizing that this is probably a red shirt year, right? Does that worry about like Mount Castle had a

a year, underwhelming, I suppose, and just like, it's kind of, eh, I don't really look at any of these other pieces is like, oh my God, you got to keep her Winsie. I mean, I told you I like Kiroloff, but you can't deny Ellie.

Do you think the now production in what might be a more upcoming Baltimore team is worth giving up on Mount Castle to think he's also the 14th of these guys for Ellie? This is kind of a proximity question too, because I would go Ellie, but I think there's an argument. A lot of people would be like,

well, I don't want to burn my, one of my keepers on a, guy that I'm not going to get probably any production out of in 2023. Yeah, if you have a minor league spot or somewhere where you could just stash him, I have no problem with that. Make him one of your keepers, stash him for the year, keep him again. Hopefully he comes up sometime in 2024, I guess it will be at that point. But me personally, maybe I'm wrong.

I don't think that we're going to see him at all this year. Okay. Yeah, I'm with it. That's where I'm at. I don't think so either. I don't either. But I think that's just an interesting one with like Mount Castle versus Ellie. But I think Ellie is the guy.

And you kind of said it, like red shirt. Yeah. All right, quick dynasty buy and sell at the second base position. Well, do you have some names ready or do you want me to go first? Or do you want me to go first and then you steal my guys like you do to Scott? Yeah, that's true. I do steal the guys. No, let's hear you.

Let's hear you do this one because let's see if I'm, if you're going to steal any guys for me. I don't have a ton. I think I've got two buys and one sell right now. Yeah, so I didn't do the Scott thing. I don't have, you know, five different players in each category to go with. But the buy for me was Jonathan India, who's coming off a very disappointing season. I think, look, I basically give him a pass.

I think he was never healthy for the entire season. I think he was playing through his hamstring. You could look at the underlying numbers and say, you know, he didn't hit the ball hard. He didn't hit the ball hard two years ago, and he's still awesome. He pulls the ball, he puts it in the air. He plays in Great American Ballpark.

Typically has good plate discipline. Chip in like 10 to 15 seals, whatever it might be. I am buying Jonathan India, if anyone is down on him right now. The other one is Michael Massey. I think that's more so for Deeper leagues. I already mentioned 13% barrel rate last year. You just don't normally see that from a second base prospect.

So I think there's some legit power in his bat. And the cell was Glaber Torres, who finally got back on track. Is that one of yours? That was definitely my cell. That's a good one. I completely agree with you. This is a good one. And this one hurts too because, you know, you're watching on YouTube.

You see I've got all the Yankee stuff behind me. And I love Glaver Torres. I have his player shirt. I was at some of the first games where he debuted for the team. I was very excited for him. I still think he's a really good player, but you can't deny that looking at his career, there's been a lot of ups, there's been a lot of downs. He's back on track now.

And I've already kind of seen his name floated around and some trade rumors. It would not surprise me one bit if he's traded to the Marlins for a Pablo Lopez or something like that, which if he doesn't play in Yankee Stadium, could completely tank his values. So I like the player. I still think he's fine for redraft, but I would try to. sell Labor Torres now. Yeah, I can get into that. Mine, as far as buys go,

this might seem weird, but I'm going to buy into jazz. And the reason I'm going to rebuy into jazz is just to reiterate to everybody that, like, jazz chisholm is in a dynasty way, even if we're just not, we're not talking about redraft, we're talking dynasty,

should be the number one second baseman on the board. But I don't think, you know, he is valued in that, especially in redraft. He's going to come in anywhere from, Where did Sky? I was going to look this up. It's got him at three or four, I think, on his early second base rank. Yeah, four. So that right there, I think, is very telling.

You've got an older, Jose Altuve, who does what he does. Marcus Simeon is exponentially more volatile than Jazz Chisholm. And Jazz was projecting out to beat 2525 easy on the season. He just had some injury problems, very aggressive swinger. But I think he's an electric player. I think he's a great buy right now because I think the very very. value is lower than it's going to be in a long time. I think you could also maybe argue Ozzy Albies is at a low.

It's just you want to know what's funny is I think Ozzy Albies would be tougher to buy than Jazz Chishol would be because I don't think people would want to give up on Ozzie in that powerful offense. So I just want to reiterate him. The Homer side of me is just to re-point out, even though it was bad, you mentioned his name was Catele-Marté. And I've been a kind of a defender of Cotel-Marté because I think he has just really pure raw power started to kind of.

looked like he was running a little bit more. It became a lost year this year, but there's also some stuff that I just don't think quite matches up. He had the lowest BABIP of his entire career this past year at 276 while that offense was trying to find itself. He was also overly aggressive. He pulled more than he had ever pulled before, but he still had a sub 20K percentage. And his fly ball rate was exponentially higher than it was the previous year.

Like something I was looking for was like, hey, was his ground ball rate maybe even higher? No, it's not. It's his fly ball rate. which if, and I watch him a ton, he was swinging for the fences at all times. He's always trying to murder baseballs. What I'm hoping is, is that team is going to easily analytically look

and you can just see the fly ball rate is up, Abbup is low. You know, let's get back to basics. Let's get back to making good context. Stop trying to pull the ball. Get back into your doubles hitting and you're going to start hitting for power. The only reason I bring him up is I think he is a dirt nothing at this point.

You said he was, I think, right before Von Grissom. This is in the 180s. If I can get Catelle Marte around the 150s, I actually think it's a really good price to buy back in on because if he readjusts off of the Lobabip on a guy that almost won a batting title, he can hit 30 homers and the team is stealing more. I mean, Josh Rojas and Jake McCarthy alone were stealing like crazy. The dynamic has changed on the offense and he can be a big part of it if he's healthy, hitting at the top of the order with Corby and McCarthy hitting in front of him. that Catele-Marte might be a fun buy, and Christian Walker hitting right behind him with his 40 homers and re-adjusted Babbip.

I think it can be done and I think he's a really good buy right now. And lastly, just on the sales, you would already mention kind of my main guy, which was Claver Torres. I might be willing to sell high on Andreas Jimenez. If people are looking at that, I do like his game. I like the contact rate,

a bunch of stolen bases, 1720. I would take a look at maybe high valuing off of him I think the strikeout rate could get a little bit worse with him. And I don't know, I'm just not enamored if his value is like really highly up in the top like, you know, six or seven or something like that. I might look to consolidate. But Glaber Torres was definitely the top guy. All right. Let's wrap up with some Arizona Fall League updates.

And hopefully we'll have a bunch more for you coming next week. But I do. I finally have it. How does Homer Simpson feel about Arizona Welsh? Arizona smells funny. That's it. That's what I wanted to. add to the sound bite for Scott White, who found it originally.

As soon as he's gone, by the way, I want to point out. You brought it back as soon as he left. I want to start with Andy Pahez of the Los Angeles Dodgers, because I feel like I've asked you about him before Welsh and you're kind of just like, eh, you know, like he's a prospect, like he's a name, but maybe I'm putting words in your mouth, but I just feel like I kind of do that. I'm kind of sometimes. Yeah, but how do you feel like, do you take anything away from what he's done so far? He's hitting 3-17, 4 homers, only one strikeout in 16. at bets in the AFL, 953 OPS,

anything that you've noticed from Andy Paix. No, you know, I'm really glad you brought him up because I've almost intentionally been trying to talk him down a tiny bit on this entire thing.

I've been trying to talk him down because he's a big guy. This is, you got up on the screen, and Nelvi Marte hit off a Quinn Priester here. Oh, right. Maybe I should pull up the right player then. Yeah,

just pointing out, we can look at Nuelvi if we want. But the thing that bothers me about him is the body. It's just a bigger, again, you know, who am I the person to judge on that? But like, yeah, he's just a bigger body guy that kind of worries me. But you know what he's been doing? He has been making contact that I can't even ignore. He's got huge power. This video you've got is a pitcher Efron Contreras who throws a really good curveball, a decent fastball and just, I mean, you can't really quite get

the vibe of it here listening on the podcast, but this boom, just loud contact that he hit to opposite field. He can let the ball. come in. He didn't try to overpull. And that's the thing that's actually been impressing me more than anything else because I kind of put on him the free swingerness that like, you know, is he going to end up, you know, chasing low pitches or is he going to be one of those high fastball guys that get beat? And you know what he's not doing? He's not getting beat. And that's something I want to acknowledge that maybe he is beyond a 240 hitter. He's got massive power. I've seen him hit a couple tanks. And he will be a part of this Saturday's

home run derby. So you're going to get to see some of that power on. on display. He also was a little bit smaller in his early years, but he looks like he's 6-1, 6-2. He's growing into that body. I don't think he has a lot of depth as far as like where he all can play. But he's playing right field right now. He's got a decent arm. And you mentioned it. What was it? One strikeout in 63 at bats? Yep. That's a stupid number. So Andy Pahas, the one thing the knock on him was his lack of batting average. And guess what he has done here? Not struck out and made tons of contact. That is the type of thing you're looking for. Not 12 homers

or any nonsense. It's like, hey, do the opposite thing that we're digging you for, and it's exactly what he's doing, not striking out and making contact. So he should be a bigger piece of attention for all of us, except he's a Dodger. Where the hell is he going to play? So I completely made a mistake.

He has 10 strikeouts in 63 at bats. I was looking at the stolen base category, but either way, that is a 14% strikeout rate, which is still really good. It's still better. Anything under 15 at this point, I think is something to be excited about with a lot of these guys. Like Edward, Edward, for prime example, leads the league in OBP and OPS and slugging.

He's got, I think, 16 strikeouts. So Paios has less strikeouts than him, and they're both on the same team. Yeah, indeed. Let's move over to a player you've already alluded to because I pulled up the wrong stream. And we will talk about Nelvi Marte, who came over to the Reds in the Luis Castillo deal. and has been disappointing again. I don't know how much stock you put into Arizona Fall League numbers, but he's batting 208.

He's got two home runs across 53 at bats, reportedly been playing through a small finger injury, so perhaps that has something to do with it. But, Welsh, I feel like I've listened to Prospect 1, and, you know, it just feels like Noel V Marte is kind of a tough one to figure out, where he was like the super hyped up prospect, but I'll let you talk about him more because...

No, you totally nailed it. I mean, my wishy-washiness comes out sometimes when I'm a little baffled on where do I let him sit? Because early on, he looked like he was struggling. Actually, I like how that video kind of slowed down there for everybody if you got to notice it. He looked like he was just slow to turn on pitches. He's gotten a little bit better, maybe the injuries in it. Part of it is he got just smashed during the season for how his body has kind of changed. And I think that's maybe affecting how he's getting around on pitches.

And, you know, this used to be a much smaller guy with way, way more athleticism. And that athleticism seems to have kind of gone away a little bit. But, you know, he's turning on pitches a little bit better. This was off of Quinn Priester with the pirates. People can hear that smack. And you see how much the bat covers in the zone. And he did this off of a curve, which was nice to see. I want to see him, I want to see him hitting off speed pitches.

That's a big thing I'm looking for. He's like, can guy, these are some of the best prospects in baseball. they should hit fastballs. If you throw 95 down the middle and they're waiting on it, these guys should hit that. I want to see how these are adjusted sometimes. And he just missed this coming off of the wall, as I note in the tweet. It bounces off the wall at the left.

It also was getting out in a hurry. So he still got good EVs. He is turning on some off-speed pitches. So I think there's still a lot to be positive about. It's just, is he a top 10 prospect? No. Is he in the top 25? I think he can still be in that general range.

But, you know, the interesting thing that the Arizona Fall League provides is when you get like, you know, three or four guys or top 25 or whatever, and you put them in a cube and then you start looking at them and you're like, well, this guy is so much better than all of them. Do I really like him more? Like Vien was a really prime example for me about that. And Lawler was as well as you start to look at these guys. And Nolwe just doesn't quite fit it. I definitely think he can be good. I just don't know if that superstar potential is still there. Stolen bases, I think, are just gone by the dodo. And I just don't know he's going to hit for high batting average. So he's still fun.

He is a personality for sure. But if you got anybody out there that's valuing him inside the top 20, maybe you can make a deal that's going to benefit you big time. The only thing I would point out with Noelvi-Marté is that you do not have to be a perfect hitter to succeed in Great American ballpark. And we've seen that time and time again. It's just a really, really good ballpark to play in. Obviously, don't let that factor into it too much from a dynasty perspective because,

you know, we're looking at the total package here anyway. But I'm just talking about, you know, once he makes it to the big, keep that in mind for like redraft leads. That's something I add to Zach Veen as well. You know, Zach Veen with the extra push in Colorado, the one knock on him at this point is like, hey, where is the power? Colorado is an extra little benefit.

So it's something that we can factor in that maybe that will be the determination between 10 homers and 15 homers. And Cincinnati might be kind of a similar thing that you can make a few more mistakes and succeed in Cincinnati for Nwellvi than you would have in Seattle. Let's move over to the pitching side of things. And we've made it to our weekly, Kumar Rocker segment who had his best start yet on Monday. I want to give credit where it's due

because we spoke about him after his first start and we were kind of freaked out what's going on with this guy, his delivery, you know, just walking everybody. Did not look good in his first couple of starts. He looked much better on Monday. He had his best start yet. He went three shut out, one hit allowed, zero walks, five strikeouts. The zero walks is the key here because he had nine walks over his first seven and two thirds. Ennings pitched in the Arizona Fall League. Welsh, I don't know if you had a chance to see this or read about it or if you have any thoughts overall, but it's good to see him get back on track. Yeah, unfortunately, this is one I didn't get to see. I was actually at another ballpark at this time. I've seen three of his five starts. I did ask a round about it. And the one thing I got was like one of the very first pitches he threw was unfortunately something he's done in every game. It's like a fastball past the catcher hit the wall in the back. And what I was told was that he might have taken a little bit off the fastball and it commanded a little bit better. Because that has been his problem.

The fastball, when not commanded, is not setting up anything. These guys are just sitting and waiting on sliders. It has been his M.O. The entire AFL, no one cares about his fastball. They just sit and wait for a slider that sits in the zone. And then they pop it out into right or left. And that's what's been going on with him. And the walks have killed him.

So this game, if this is true, I don't have 100% confirmation, but I was told is a little bit might have come off the fastball because the delivery looks about the same. And that means you're commanding better. you're setting up your pitches. He's striking out. He didn't walk anybody. And all those walks are coming off the fastball. So this is the good stuff. And this is why I think at the very beginning I said, like, you just don't like lose your mind about stuff. People, and it's very dangerous, ish, you know, dangerous in the prospect evaluation thing. When people come out here for a weekend,

you see a guy do one thing. And then you're like, done, done, done, done. I don't want to do that. Someone asked me this about like Carson Wisenhunt, who we're going to talk about in a second, and ask me about his changeup in a rating. And I was like, listen, it was amazing what I saw, but it was one start. I don't want to start putting claims off of one start. I can have my feelings about it. Same thing with Rocker. Like, there still is the potential that Walker might be able to become a starter here.

That was a good first sign. But if you are taking off the fastball, you're going to need to make sure that you're incorporating this cutterish thing he does in a changeup if you're going to be throwing 92 down the gut and you're going to have to throw a lot of sliders. You might have to be like Hunter Green. And unfortunately, he doesn't throw a, 99 mile an hour like Hunter Green to go with a big slider, but he's going to have to probably be a 30 to 40% slider usage guy.

You mentioned the name, Carson Wisden Hunt. That's where I want to wrap up here today. And you tweeted out a video, one of the better outings you've seen so far at the Arizona Fall League. He went two shut out with five strikeouts to zero walks. He is a left-handed pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, just drafted in this year's draft in the second round. Will he be worthy of a first-year player draft selection?

Yeah, so this is my overre, this is probably going to be my overreaction of all of them. But I will tell you, I think he is the best pitcher out here from what I saw in this outing. He went two innings, struck out five. This video I have for you, I put up, it's his three strikeouts in one inning. He got on a fastball. This is going to be a change-up. It's just a gorgeous change-up on J.C. Correa. And then I think it's a Scott Schreiber.

He gets a back-to-back change-up strikeout. I believe four of his five strikeouts were off the change-up. Every freaking changeup he threw, guys were swinging through. I don't recall seeing anything like it. It probably had an eight or nine swinging strike percentage overall. It's a beautiful, beautiful change up. The fastball isn't incredible. He was at ECU and got suspended for drug-related issue,

and he didn't play the whole year last year. So then he played on the Cape, and he was sitting around 89. This game, I think he touched 93, sat around 91, so it's not a big fastball, but he commanded everything beautifully. And you can see in this video, the change-up is gorgeous. So it's a little overreactive of me, but what I did recognize is I was way too low on him and I boosted him way up my first year player

because this is a pitcher you should pay attention to because also the Giants do pretty good things about advancing these pitchers and bringing him out here and showcasing him. It's a big one. And guess what? As I'm told Mr. Frank Stamphill, we're going to get to see him on Friday. So you and I can talk about him even more

because he will be, he's slated to pitch in Mesa on Friday for just you and me. Ah, yes, let's do it. Perhaps it'll be podcasting in the stands at that point. If not, I'll be taking some video. So make sure you follow me all weekend at Roto underscore Frank. Make sure you follow the Welsh. At is it the Welsh.

It sure is. I will see you in less than 24 hours, my good friend. We're going to wrap there for Welsh. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again on Tuesday. Bye-bye.