Fantasy Baseball Today - 2024 Fantasy Baseball Awards! Most Improved, Bobby Big Bat & More! (10/3 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Before we get to the awards, what's the latest in the playoffs (3:09)? ... Joe Musgrove left with an elbow injury (7:07). ... Let's get into the 2024 Fantasy Baseball awards, starting with the most impactful player (13:30)! ... Who was the most valuable pitcher and hitter in Fantasy Baseball (14:31)? ... Reynaldo Lopez and Jurickson Profar both improved in a big way (21:03). ... There was a clear winner in the biggest breakthrough award (26:24). ... Who were the biggest comebacks (29:30)? ... What is the Bobby Big Bat award (39:41)? ... Who won the Freddie Fleet Foot award (41:39)? ... Can Sean Manaea keep the act going (42:47)? ... Who were the biggest fakeouts (44:15)? ... Who were the biggest over and underachievers (52:40)? ... We wrap up with the rest of the awards (55:40). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv 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/ 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. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Welcome in to the 2024 Fantasy Baseball Award ceremony, where we will celebrate the very best in the game.

Power and speed, hitters and pitchers, accomplishments, and triumphs. But as we all know, too well, not everything is rosy. Fantasy baseball is imperfect, so we'll also hit on the duds and the downfalls that hurt us along the way. I am, for example, joined by...

That's very good. Thank you. I am, for example, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers on Thursday, October 3rd. Today is our award show where I am dressed completely ridiculous exactly what you'd expect for a fantasy baseball award show.

Check it out on YouTube. if you aren't subscribed already. You look great. Thank you. Very spiffy. I thought, you know, I thought about like doing my hair

and like wearing a suit to go along with you. I'm just lazy. You know, I just didn't feel like it. I also have some like colorful lights that I haven't debuted yet. So I've got like a gold aura

coming out behind me. I watched some monologues from the Oscars in the past from previous hosts just to get an idea to kind of like set the mood and get my mind right. So hopefully this lives up to those expectations.

But first, the playoffs are off to a roaring start. Scott, I know the expectations for your Braves were very low as you intimated the other night. I am sorry, as they were eliminated by the Padres here on Wednesday night. Yeah, disappointing, but less disappointing than an elimination. I mean, the Braves have been to the playoffs 24 times in my life, I believe it was, and this one hurt.

this elimination hurt the least of all of them. Which one hurt the most? 97. Which one hurt the most? Man, I don't think I could even come up with an answer off the top of the head. I think it's 1997. Against the Marlins. That was bad.

The Eric Gregg giant strike zone for Levan Hernandez. It's one of the most well-called games by now in MLB history. Yeah, no, that was bad. Because that was the first time a team they beat for the Divinels. eliminated them in the playoffs. So that was among the many painful ones. But no, I mean, they didn't have a good year. They had a lot of injuries.

And I'm confident this nucleus still has multiple playoff appearances ahead of it. So better luck next year. I mean, the fact that they lost the MVP favorite and the Syung favorite coming into the season, along with Austin Riley and a few other pieces along the way and they still made the playoffs, I would call that a pretty big accomplishment

and overall, honestly, a good season for the Atlanta Braes all around, though they are eliminated, as we mentioned. So much for my Astros, Philly's World Series prediction, the Astros are out. The Tigers continue with their incredible story. I mean, really, one of the best, most improbable second halves in baseball history,

I would say, for a team that's sold at the trade deadline went on to have the best record in the American League in the second half. What's the stat that they kept? It was like 42 starts by their starting pitcher of three innings or less this season. It's all hands on deck too. It's the most like Tampa Bay Rays kind of approach that you have seen from this Detroit Tiger scene where it's, you know, reliever starting games. You're getting bulk relievers. You're getting platoons.

You're getting pitch hit appearances. You're getting just. Eric Scuba and pitching chaos. Yeah, seriously, pretty much. The Astros, this is the first time they will not compete in the ALCS since 2016, which is just crazy. I mean, talk about... Since Barack Obama was president.

Yeah, a dynasty. I mean, there's no other way to put it, right? Like, this Astros team has absolutely been a dynasty, and they're not done. Like, obviously, they still have a great team for the future. Alex Breggman, by the way, tweeted, thank you, Houston after the game. He is a pending unrestricted free agent, so we'll be interesting to see where Breggman winds up.

Of course, he still could return to the Astros. The Royals went into Baltimore and they beat them in two straight. They swept the wild card series here. They advanced to face the Yankees in the ALDS. How about this? Three teams in the ALDS from the American League Central. What if I told you that before the season?

I mean, nobody would believe that. That's baseball season. I don't know if any of us thought any team from the AL Central should make the playoffs. Seriously. And then I know most people will say, oh, well, I already got these responses on Twitter. They shouldn't have been in the playoffs.

they face the white socks, blah, blah, blah. I mean, okay, I know it's only a two-game sample, but they just marched into opposing teams, you know, home fields and beat them in two straight, right? Like the Tigers did it. I'm blanking right now. Royals. The Royals.

Yeah, the Royals just did it as well. So like, yeah, give them credit for that. The other team on the Nation League side, by the way, the Brewers and the Mets, Jackson Trio said he's not done yet at just 20 years old. Two home runs against the Mets, one to tie the game in the eighth inning of that game, and then they take the lead later on a Garrett Mitchell home run. So yeah, that is tied at one to one at the time that we're recording this,

and they'll play that game three on Thursday night. We did get a lot of injuries, though, from the first round. I will just point some of this out. Joe Musgrove left early on Wednesday. The ESPN broadcast said it was elbow-related. Apparently he threw a few curveballs where the velocity was way down. I haven't seen that confirmed yet myself. Now, the team announced it was right elbow tightness,

which is scary. Extremely concerning given all the time he missed this season. with an elbow injury. It is worth noting that he's got a bones burr floating around in that elbow. So it wouldn't surprise me if it's directly related to that. And Joe Musgrove probably just needs to get that out of there. Easier said than done, I guess. Yeah, I was reading a piece about this when he first came back the other day,

just because I wanted to write about Joe Musgrove. And he basically said the reason he didn't want to get it surgically repaired is what can often happen is in the court. of removing a bone spur, it can either cause damage to the UCL or reveal damage to the UCL that will necessitate Tommy John's surgery and he just doesn't want to take that risk. Well, that's what I was going to say.

It's possible too, like with Spencer Strider. It ended up being a bone spur in the elbow that thankfully didn't damage his UCL too much, but it still affected the UCL. And in fact, to the point that everyone thought that's what the injury was when he was shut down. And could it have caused more damage for Musgrove? If it could have, we'll have to see. But that's, since we know he already has that going on in his elbow, it makes it a viable explanation apart from the UCL.

So I'm not terrified for him yet, but we'll just have to see when they examine him further. I was inclined to rank him as a top 30 starting pitcher. In fact, I did when I released my way too early rankings this morning, or Wednesday morning on the FBT newsletter. Now I'm inclined to not have him inside of the top 40. Maybe that's an overreaction one way in both directions, but it's... The only way it's not an overreaction.

The only way it's not an overreaction is if he comes back and pitches again this postseason. But I think if he doesn't, then everybody's going to be a little reluctant to draft him next year, regardless if he has that bone spur removed or not. Yeah, again, that was Joe Musker of. Colton Kouser was diagnosed with a fractured left hand. There's enough time. He should be ready to go by spring training.

And Max Fried also left early after getting hit in the hip by line drive. And could be the last time we see Max Fried in a Braves uniform. Yeah, yeah. Probably. Given that he's a rough way to go out. 31, I think.

We're about to be 31. And I think he's close to that. has remained pretty solid, but has had a couple of injuries the last couple of years. And it just, he's another one that's tough to rank for 2025. Yeah, one of my bold predictions is having to do with his health. Yeah. One of the bold predictions of the article. Okay.

But I had really done that. 21st starting pitcher. Got it. Yeah. And just in terms of will he be back with the Braves? I feel like if the Braves really want a player back, they usually extend them before they get to this point. So it's not impossible, but yeah, I feel like if that was going to happen,

it probably would have happened already. So we shall see where Max Fried winds up this offseason. Let's take our first break. When we return, we'll get into all of the 2024 Fantasy Baseball Awards. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in 2024 Fantasy Baseball Awards, and this is Scott's baby. He goes all in on this assignment every postseason.

there are legitimately 40 awards in the article that is on the site. I'm not sure that we'll get to all 40 of those on this podcast, but we will try. Make sure to check out the article anyway. And, you know, Scott, I feel like every year we want to come up with a name for these awards, but we haven't found anything that sticks yet, right? It's just...

What if we used before? I was trying to remember. I think we've done the breadsticks or the FPTs. Yeah, I like the FBTs. The FBTs. I like the breadsticks the most. but I think the golden breadstick. Yeah.

The golden breadstick. That's pretty good. Anyway, I feel like most awards shows, they save the biggest awards for last. We are not like most award shows. We are starting with the big, serious awards. And then we'll work our way down into the more fun, wacky ones along the way. You have some music to play if we go too long? What do you mean?

Like an award shows. To play us off. Play us off the stage. I could probably come up with something on the phone. Just play. Just play Susan Waldman. anytime we start going too long. I can do that.

All right, first of Scott, we have the most impactful player award, which goes to... Shoah, Otani. This is the most obvious of the awards. I kind of made a superlative of superlatives just to give him an award because he had maybe the best fantasy season ever, first ever 50 Homer 50 Steel season,

and it comes right after Ronald de Cunia. We were saying at this time last year, Ronald de Cunia maybe had the best fantasy season. season ever. Shoah O'Tani found a way to top it and he did it in a year where a lot of people had a lot of doubts because he was coming back from elbow surgery. And on top of that in spring training we had the whole betting scandal fiasco thing which I'm still pretty annoyed about because I was kind of warming up to the idea of O Tani being like a mid first round pick and I was starting to take him there and then I just got completely scared off and I'm like eh I'm not even

going to use a second round pick in Otani and yeah that turned out to be not smart. because he was the most impactful player in fantasy this season. What about the most valuable pitcher, Scott? That award goes to... Pitcher, you said? Or hit it. Most valuable pitcher. Pitcher, okay.

That award goes to Seth Lugo. And worth noting that valuable, I'm kind of emphasizing the value aspect of that. Seth Lugo, on average, was the 282nd player drafted. And he wound up being the sixth best in five, by five scoring and the fifth best in points. And we kept waiting for him to fall off.

He had kind of a rough patch there at the start of the second half, but then finished very strong 208 ERA in his final six starts. I think he's likely to be overdrafted next year, but he earned this award this year. I mean, this is one that like 20 years ago, 15 years ago, maybe even 10 years ago, Seth Lugo definitely would have been overdrafted. He probably would have been drafted as a top 20 starting pitcher

coming off a season like this. Now, I think he's probably going to end up, like, I don't know, there might be some bottom dropout potential for him. You know, the Royals seem pretty likely to take a big step back. Anytime a team takes that big of a step forward from one year to the next, you should expect some regression. He hasn't thrown 200 innings or been a full-time starter multiple seasons in a row yet. So, like, we don't know exactly how it's going to go, but like, I don't know.

he's probably not going to be a top, certainly not top 30 starting pitcher next year, even by ADP, right? The first number that came to mind was top 40. Yeah, like, I mean, people are pretty, uh, drafters are pretty savvy these days.

And I think that the rank and file are pretty much going to defer to the, the people who put together rankings. So, so maybe, maybe I'll end up with a lot of Seth Lugo next year. But I, you know, he's,

he's, he's probably never, going to win this category again. Yeah, and just to put some emphasis on that most valuable pitcher part, his ADP, which you mentioned Scott, that was SP 86 off the board, according to fantasy pros. And Lugo finishes a top five starting pitcher in both formats, Roto and head-toe points leagues this year. Just give me a quick fill in the blank.

I would draft Lugo as my SP blank in 2025, as in my SP2, my SP3, my SP4 on my fantasy team. Four. that's where I have him rank yeah four okay Scott most valuable hitter goes to Brent Rooker again the emphasis is on value here there were better hitters than Brent Rooker in 2020 but you're right not that many he was drafted 260th overall on average and it ended up being a top 20 performer overall in fantasy top 10 if you if you look on the way some sites do their roto formula. And like the big surprise was the batting average, 293, and that held pretty steady, especially in the second half when the strikeouts dropped off a little bit.

And yeah, he's going to be a very interesting player to draft next year, Brent Rooker, for no other reason than because he's going to be DH only. And that's what I wanted to talk about. because to me there are at least for no doubt about it stud DHS for 2025. Shohiotani, obviously he might be the number one pick in most leagues. But also Marcelo Zuna, Kyle Schwaber, and Brent Rooker were all top 20 hitters in fantasy this season. And they will all be DH only.

And I'm not really sure how much of a path there is for any of them to gain outfiel eligibility. I know Ozone, no, Schwarber and Rooker did end up playing at least the five games they needed to gain eligibility this season. OZuna, I don't think, saw an inning outside of the D.H spot. Yeah. And it's kind of interesting because I wrote about first base today. And I think part of the Universal D.H has made first base a little weaker. Because like you could see a world where Marcel O'Zuna is playing first base somewhere if the Universal D.H doesn't exist, right? Or Kyle Schwarber.

And instead, their teams are able to just slop. them there. And I also just think like you add, yeah, first base, this was the worst season for first base hitting in at least 23 years, by the way, which I find very interesting. And there's a lot of reasons for it. But you also have Jock Peterson, John Carlos Stan, Andrew McCutche and Masataki Yoshita, J.D. Martinez, who were all worth using. And I believe Heston Kirstad is also DH only next year.

Sounds right. And Kyle Manzardo? I think Kirstad's going to be. be outfield. I'll double check while you're finishing your point. I, I might have not got it right, but I think he only had like 14 games at outfield. 19 in the outfield 13 at DH. So he's going to be outfield.

All right. Ilo Jimenez could be a viable bounce back in it. So my point is there are a lot of DH only players who should be in your lineup or at least someone's line next year. I kind of wonder if we're going to reach a point where Ozuna, Schwarber, and Rooker are just screaming values because there's a decent chance

you're going to have a DH only player in your D8 spot this year. And you might as well get one of the three guys or four who were top 20 hitters this season. I think that's what's going to happen because that's usually what happens with D.H.I. And the more there are, the more likely it is to happen. I think I'm going to draft a lot of Brentbroker next season. I guess the only problem, Chris, is if you fill your utility spots

too early, which is something I never thought I would say, but, you know, Ozuna or Schwarber in the third round, or you can get Rooker in like the seventh or whatever it's going to turn out to me. I have no idea. There's that one to 15 team league where I think Rooker went in like the ninth or tenth round. And like, again, this was a guy who was a top 20 hitter this year, arguably top 12. And so even if you expect a lot of regression and honestly the underlying numbers don't really suggest there should be that much regression. I think if you can get him in the eighth round,

I just think you don't worry about it. All right, that's my sound that we have to move on. More fantasy baseball awards. Let's move into the improvements. The most improved pitcher this year, Scott goes to. Rinaldo Lopez had a 199 ERA and his return to the rotation after a couple years in the bullpen.

And we kept expecting him to drop off the ERA estimators called him one of the biggest overperformers. And then it seemed obvious it would happen when he began to have arm troubles in the second half. But he came back from those IL stints looking even better. His strikeout rate was way up. And he actually lowered his ERA. So he looked, the deeper we got into the season,

the more Reynaldo Lopez seemed deserving of his. numbers. I don't think he's going to have a $199 ERA again because I wouldn't bet on anybody doing that again, but I do think he's here to stay as a legitimate asset and fantasy and you know, it's mostly just

a matter of staying healthy, I would say, for Ronaldo Lopez. Yeah, and those ERA estimators are kind of all over the place. The FIP is at 292. The expected ERA is at 388. Let's kind of split that and if we could get a mid-3s ERA with over a strike operating, that's still a

really valuable pitcher for fantasy. How will the arm bounce back? You know, it's a big jump innings. He had some forearm and shoulder inflammation this season. So I think those will be some big questions for Ronaldo Lopez heading into 2025. Scott, let's move over to the most improved hitter who was? Jurexon Profar, 11-year journeyman who hadn't put together a season of fantasy consequence since 2018. And when I say fantasy consequence, I mean, it was pretty fringy in 2018.

team, but Jerks and ProFar emerged as a must-start player this year. For reasons that I don't, I haven't seen a good explanation for him. He genuinely hit the ball harder. The underlying numbers backed up the forward-facing numbers, more or less. He did slow down a little in the second half, but not enough to make him less than a must-start. He'll be a free agent. I kind of hope he goes back to San Diego's because it seemed to work out there for Jerks and Pro-Far this year. On a one-year $1 million deal,

there might not have been a better just value contract around baseball than Jerks and ProFar this season, who went from hitting 242 with a $689 OPS in 2023 to 280 with 839 OPS this season. A career year at 31 years old, he made some legitimate improvements, but A, how much do we buy those? And B, what will the price be for Jerks and ProFar? My guess is it's probably going to be pretty low

if everyone's skeptical on jerks and profile heading into next season. Let's move into the most improved midseason edition, which goes to. A. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. Hennio Suarez. I don't think anyone would have blamed you for completely removing him from your fantasy viewpoint entirely. When he came out of the first three months batting 196 with a 591 OPS, he had, after all, hit two, 21 with a 744 Ops the previous four seasons. So it had been years since Eugenio Suarez was a big time contributor in fantasy. But over the final three months, he hit 312 with the 974 OPS. The strikeouts were down.

The exit velocities were up. He's 33. So again, it's hard to explain what exactly changed here for Suarez, but he's going to be back with the Diamondbacks. Next year one would assume he's on a team option. And I think I'll probably have to rank as a top 12 third baseman, given the alternatives there. Yeah, I mean, that was going to be the follow-up question. The overall season for A.U. Henni Oswares,

256 with 30 homers, 101 RBI, 788 Ops. And that was the most complete season we've seen since 2019 from A.U. Henni Oswars, who finished as a top 40 overall player in Roto and returned $21.6 worth of auction value this past season. Let's move over to the biggest breakthrough. And in case anyone's wondering, we're not ignoring Chris. He had some internet issues, so he had to hop off for a second.

But hopefully he's back shortly. Chris, Scott, the biggest breakthrough award goes to Jaron Duran. Biggest breakthrough. He joined the ranks of the outfield elite. And if you look at the underlying numbers, the entire profile, nothing strikes me as unsustainable. And in fact, this breakout year for Jaron Duran,

more or less felt like a continuation of 2023. The biggest thing that changed for him was more regular playing time. And it turned him into a fantasy stud, one who I think is going to be drafted in the first two rounds in most leagues next year. Yeah, Jared Ran, the final line, 285 with 21 homers, 111 run scored, 34 steals, and 834 OPS, finishes a top four outfielder in both roto and head-to-head points.

One thing that may be a cause for concern, the splits. He did hit 255 against lefties, which is serviceable. 665 OPS versus lefties, 9-10 versus righties. Scott, can you see that being a problem?

I mean, can you imagine a world where he turns into a platoon player if he's really that bad against lefties? Well, that's what I worried about coming into this year, which is why I didn't just translate last year's numbers over a full season. I think

I think he's earned the right not to platoon at this point. He's proven himself to be one of the centerpieces for the Red Sox, and it's just not going to happen now. Could be wrong. I mean, if he gets off to a slow start, if he's causing them to lose games, then yeah, the circumstances could change. But I don't think that's where the Red Sox are right now with Jaron Duran. Also, I don't think this is going to happen,

but I'll just throw it out there. they've already come out and said they're listening on any player in trade so I mean there's no better time to sell Jarron Duran because he's this is the peak of his performance that we've seen so far in his career I mean I guess there's a chance that he gets better

but I'm just not going to rule it out the possibility of maybe the Red Sox trying to sell high on Jaron Duran Scott let's move over to the biggest breakthrough midseason edition Midseason edition Biggest breakthrough Lawrence Butler who I don't

think was really on anybody's radar prior to July. He was batting 179 with a 529 OPS during that time. And well, he was a prospect of some renown. He was never rated that highly. Had some interesting tools, but just seemed a ways from putting it all together. But he put it all together in July, had a huge month then and continued in August and September. Final three months ended up hitting 302 with 20 homers, 14 steals, and a 943 OPS. His strikeout rate went from 31% in those first three months to 21% in the final three, which is the biggest reason I believe Lawrence Butler is here to stay. I can already see, Scott, this is one of those players where you guys, I think,

are going to have to keep me in check because I am getting irrationally excited already about Lawrence Butler. Just what he did in the final three months. And look, even if you throw that out and look at his final season numbers, they were really good for a guy who is just getting the opportunity to play every day. And I say every day because he was actually better against lefties than he was against righties

as a left-handed hitter. And I love to see that from a young left-handed bat. So a 291 batting average with an 838 OPS against lefties. Small sample, only 89 played appearances, but yeah, both numbers were better than his splits against right-handed pitching. You know what I think, Frank? What's that? I think you need to bring back

the drum roll. I had a little pizzazz. to this. You notice I'm kind of building in a pause anyway before I reveal the winner? I can do it. We were talking beforehand as to whether or not I should do the drum roll for everyone. I'm like, it's a short enough drum roll. I thought it would just get annoying for people. I don't think so. I'll bring it back. I think it helps. Well, let's see what we got here. The best comeback season. Scott, why don't you hit us with both the hitter and the pitcher. Best comeback season goes to... The hitter is Vladimir Guerrero and the pitcher is Jack Flaherty. Guerrero, of course, was the number one fantasy player in 2021,

had fallen short of expectations in the years after, particularly in the batting average department, ended up hitting 323 this year and 3.45 from May 1st on. He's back to being the top first basement of fantasy, arguably a first round pick. And then Jack Flaherty, I think, is even more deserving winner here among the pitchers. Um, 2020, uh, 2023 was the healthiest he had been since his breakout as an ace in 2019.

And he just didn't look good. So I think everybody was finally ready to move on from Jack Flaherty as a, as a, as somebody to care about in fantasy. There were good reports with the Tigers the spring. Everybody kind of climbed back on board, at least the most, at least the most perceptive types. They started targeting Jack Flaherty's a late round sleeper again. and it worked out.

He took a little bit of step back after joining the Dodgers, but altogether, 13 and 7 record 317 ERA 107 whip, well more than a strikeout per inning. Clearly a big-time fantasy asset, Jack Flaherty. Yeah, just to put in perspective from one year to the next, 499 ERA 158 whip in 2023, 317 ERA 107 whip here in 2024 for Jack Flaherty, who played on a one year $14 million deal.

So it will be interesting to see, A, what kind of contract he lands, obviously what team does he sign with this offseason, especially when you consider he has dealt with some, I think pretty worrisome injuries in the past. He's dealt with some shoulder stuff. He's dealt with a back injury. And apparently that did kind of pop up during the trade deadline, right? When teams were looking to acquire Jack Flare,

it sounds like the Yankees had a deal that was close, and then they kind of just backed out because they were scared of the physical. I hope it goes back to the Tigers. Ooh. How much would the Tigers like to have Jack Flaherty now? You know, I see them in game two of the playoffs. They're having to do a bullpen game.

I mean, Scott, don't, don't change it. If it's not broke, don't fix it, you know? I'm just saying, they trade them at the deadline because they don't even believe they're going to make the postseason, and boy, he would be a boon to their chances right now. Yeah. Final haircut update, by the way, for Vlad Jr. who cut his hair on June 19th. From that point on, he had 359 with 23 of his 30 home runs, a 1084 OPS, 93.1, average

exit velocity, 15.4% barrel rate. Missed opportunity. I should have had best haircut here. Yes. I guess we can, nah. I would say you could keep that in mind for next season, but it's like, we're not going to be murder there are some award

we'll get into the sillier one soon I'm sure but there are some awards that I make up just to comment on a specific player and that would have been one so yeah jerks and pro far really had a great money it was just like August

that wasn't sorry what did I miss oh you missed a lot Chris you missed jerks and profar a Eugenio Suarez Jaron Laurence Butler Vlad Jr., Jack Flaherty and I know

that Scott hates Eugenia Suarez and scoffed at the idea of him being a top 12 third basement for 2025. I said he's going to have to be because... But that is where I ended up ranking. I think I ended up ranking him 10th, maybe. Yeah, there's not going to be enough third basement otherwise once you remove the guys who are losing eligibility. I...

We'll get into it more in the offseason, but I guess my question is, where are the good hitters? What position are the good hitters play? Shortstop. guess. Like outfield suddenly doesn't feel that bad once you actually do the rankings. Yeah. Yeah. Like outfield actually feels kind of okay.

No, it shorts up in outfield, pretty much. Relative to first, second, and third, yeah. Yeah. It's, all right, sorry. What was the last one? We brought back the drum roll. Scott demanded the drum roll. I demanded the drum roll.

We felt a little light on pizzazz here. All right. Let's do the next one. Yeah, let's get into the next one. We'll continue on with the best comeback midseason edition. Goes to. Corbyn Carroll, who else? Obviously, things were looking bad for Corbyn Carroll early on.

He was looking like probably the biggest bust, first round pick, NL rookie of the year, raining winner, hit 213 with just two home runs in a 619 OPS for the first three months. But in the final three months, 250, 20 homers 889 OPS ended up finishing as a top 10 outfield or the batting average was on the low side but there was enough of everything else

that it wasn't really a down year for Corby and Carroll when all of a sudden done and I don't think anybody sweating the shoulder too much heading into next year. The ADP wound up at 4.8 for Corby and I thought look there's no way he's going to come close to returning value you know at the midseason point whatever

he finished 22nd overall in Roto top seven outfielder in both formats helped by 121 run scored, so that was pretty great. 22 omers, 35 steals. Some weird, batted ball stuff, which I think he touched on,

mentioned, like, his timing was just off early on in the season. So hopefully he just doesn't have that awful start next year and kind of picks up where he left off with the second half. Just want to say, like,

I know people get frustrated in the moment with players like Julio Rodriguez and Corby and Carroll. This is a, those are both good examples. I mean, Julio, it took a little longer, but Corbyn Carroll is a good example of why bench him. Don't drop him.

When you're talking about a player with that kind of upside, I don't care how bad as it gets for as long as it gets. I just don't think you can ever drop a player like Corby and Carroll. Absent an injury or something like that, but I just, if you kept him in your lineup for two months and then dropped him in June, there's no coming back from that, really. You banked all the bad production.

You replaced him with some crappy guy off the waiver wire, who unless it was jerks and pro far probably fell apart. I guess if it was Lawrence Butler, you were okay. But for the most part, it probably screwed your season up when it could have, he could have really helped you make up for the hole that he put you in. So it just, I think in the stock trading, world. They call that realizing the losses.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. But it just people get, people were getting legitimately frustrated with us when we were saying not to drop Corby and Carroll. Yeah. And just don't do it. I think we need a saying or a mantra for next season, or at least I do, because I kind of fall for this trap too, because I think I'm a little bit more overly emotional while playing the game than you guys are. You're a little bit more even keeled with it.

But just like 162. or six months, right? It's just such a long season that even if someone gets off to a really bad start for a third of the season. Like you can have an awful first two months and there's still enough time

for you to get your season back on track and we just need to keep that in mind. We just need to have that mindset, you know? This is one thing that I think about a lot. Corbyn Carroll was basically bad for an entire fantasy football season and still ended up with a really, really good season. So that's the thing you have to keep in mind

is it's just it's a different game. Yeah. And football demands overreacting. Baseball demands underreacting, at least when it comes to your core pieces. You can overreact on your 15th, 18th, 22nd round picks. But when it comes to a guy like Corbyn Carroll, you just have to have faith that he'll turn it around. Let's take our final break. When we return back into the awards, we go right after this.

Welcome back in, continuing on with the 20. 2024 FBTs, the golden breadsticks, the fantasy baseball awards for 2024. And Scott, we make it to the Bobby Big Bat Award. I guess explain what that is, and who is the winner? It's Aaron Judge. Now Aaron Judge probably seems like too obvious of a winner, led the majors with 58 home runs. The idea behind the Bobby Big Bat Award is a big power impact for relatively low cost.

Judge was the 12th player drafted on average, but he still well outperformed that, hitting 58 home runs in a year where only four players even got to 40. And his 144 RBI were the most for any player since 2008. And this all happened just two years after he set an AL record with 62 home runs. So what he proved, Judge, with this season, is that that outlier historic type of season is more than normal.

than the exception for him, and we should probably draft him as one of the first two players next year. Judge returned $60 worth of auction value in a 12-team Roto League and scored 734.5 fantasy points on CBS. Juan Soto was the next closest scoring outfielder, 86 points behind Aaron Judge,

just to put that in perspective. And to oversimplify a bit for the sake of making Aaron Judge sound even more impressive, there are 168 roster spots four hitters in a standard 12-team Roto League. In the other most recent podcast, we talked about how only 23 hitters had 29 homers or more this season. That means that there were roughly 155 fantasy relevant players who hit fewer than half as many home runs as Aaron Judge. Those numbers aren't exact in terms of their actual impact, But he gave you the biggest edge possible in the power categories.

Next up, the Freddie Fleetfoot Award goes to Bryce Terang. This is the same as the Bobby Big Bad Award just for speed instead of power. And we actually are getting a steep discount here from Terang. He was third in the majors with 50 stolen bases despite being drafted 405th overall. The problem for Bryce Terang, you at 292 in the first half, only 2.14 in the second half. So in the end, he needed all 50 of those steals to be a high-end fantasy contributor. And I think kind of leaves himself as a pretty tough player to rank for next season. The speed is there. I think that's obvious. The Brewers seem like a team that's willing to run.

The quality of contact from the first three months to the last three months for Bryce Serang, average exit velocity was down over three miles per hour. And it already wasn't really that good. So, yeah, that is a problem for Bryce Tarang heading into 2025. And yet, he's my number eight second baseman in Roto leagues for next year. That just speaks to the position, man. That is just second base is so, so bad.

You're going to hear that a lot this offseason. Next up, we have the Ace Up the Sleeve Award, which goes to Sean Mania. He was fortunately good enough in his first 20 starts with the 374 ERA that he was widely rostered in CBS Sports Leagues. thankfully, because you probably didn't even know you had an ace at that time, but he turned out to be an ace over his final 12 starts. He took inspiration from Chris Sales delivery, lowered his release point, and went on to have a 309 ERA.

0.85 whip and 9.9 caper 9 of those 12 starts. I do think the trick may be wearing off, though. His last couple regular season starts weren't as dominant. His first playoff start here, the same thing. The command was shaky tonight for sure. 32 years old. He's going to be an interesting one for next year, Sean Minaya. Yeah, I was going to add, I think he's a pretty tough player to rank for next season.

And if you go on fan graphs and you sort the game log, they have a new function where you could look at Stuff Plus metrics just on a game-by-game basis. And his first 20 starts versus his last 12, like the fastball and the sinker shot up in terms of Stuff Plus, but his slider came way down. So it's like there was a trade-off there. Yeah, I just, I don't know if how much of this will be sustainable

from the final 12 starts heading into 2025 for Sean Mania. Let's move into some of the fakeouts. The biggest fake-out awards, Scott, because we will be handing out two players that are on the same exact team. And that goes to... Gonna sound like a Phillies hater here, but it's Alec Bohm, the hitter, and Ranger Suarez, the Pist.

If you'll think back to April when basically nobody was hitting, Alec Bome looked like he was a godsend, basically. He was hitting, he hit 366 with four homers at 1036 OPS that month. Seemed like he had taken this stud turn. But the rest of the way, when everyone else started hitting, final five months, two of fifty-eight batting average 11 homers, a 713 OPS. His final numbers, Alec Bome ended up basically where they always do. And I think that makes him decidedly not a stud, though, you know, a solid fantasy contributor. Ranger Swars, it went even worse. So first three months last season, you'd be raked over the coals for suggesting he was anything less than the next Greg Maddox.

He had a 183 ERA as late as June 29th. Thereafter, 11 starts, 654 ERA that command. amazing command that he found went away. And in those 11 starts with the 654 ERA, only once did Ranger Suarez go even six-innings. So it was basically useless from July on. And I've already had a Phillies fan in the mentions. Actually, another listener responded to someone who was like yelling at us

about Ranger Suarez earlier in the season saying like, hey, what happened here? Just kind of like holding that person accountable. And they blamed it on injuries, Chris. So I think that could have an injury in that. So like this is the thing that's tough. Yes, Ranger Suarez did get hurt. And that almost certainly impacted his performance the rest of the way.

It also probably wasn't sustainable either way. No, it wasn't sustainable. And like this is the thing that's tough. I think these are both good examples of this where we talked about it a lot with Suarez when it was happening where there wasn't like a great. explanation, right? It wasn't like his velocity wasn't up. His, you know, in fact, I think it was down. Yeah, his whiff rates were up, but it's not like there was more movement on his pitches. The stuff didn't necessarily look better. There was a fan graph's piece, I think early in April or May that talked about how he was like unusually successful at throwing in the shadow of the zone, which is like just on the

edges of the strike zone. And like, it wasn't a fluke in the sense that he was earning the results he got. Ranger Soros really was pitching that well. It just wasn't sustainable. And it's kind of hard to wrap your head around those two ideas being true at the same time. And Alec Bohm also had much better quality of contact metrics early on. And that didn't end up sustainable.

and it's just sometimes players get hot and it's not fake, but it's not sustainable either. And that is, we're so used to talking about flukes or like, like this guy's getting a 370 babb and that's not sustainable. But like sometimes you earn a 370 babb. Sometimes a pitcher earns a 190 babb. It still doesn't mean it's real. And that's the hard thing.

And that's what we were saying about Ranger Suarez at the time and Alec Bohm, for that matter. I wrote an article about both of them in April suggesting, even though they've earned it so far, it's unlikely to last. I think that that's my concern for Brent Rooker, too. And I understand it was a full season where he sustained it. He earned what he did in 2024. But I know there have been times when I would hide. the out of nowhere breakthrough from the previous season, pointing out, hey, he actually earned those numbers.

And then he just wasn't as good next year. It feels a lot like Luke Voight. Yeah. Who got hurt, suffered a really bad hernia? That sounds right. I think that he played through during his second or third season that really derailed things. But that's fair.

And I'll admit, I have a lot more faith in Brent Rooker being sustainable than jerks in pro far. I'm not necessarily sure that's logical or consistent. But, you know, a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. In danger of oversimplifying,

I just want to put a bow on Ranger Suarez. He wound up with a 346 ERA and a 120 whip. For his career, he has a 342 ERA and a 128 whip. And Scott, how often early in the season did you say, these things tend to even out? it doesn't always happen

but a lot of the times they do tend to even up let's go over to the perpetual fakeout award which goes to Mitch Keller he did it again last year 331 ERA through his first 19 starts

559 ERA in his final 13 this year 320 ERA in his first 22 starts 729 ERA in his final nine he's a he's an odd one to figure out, I want to believe, but I want to believe, I feel like is the rallying cry for a lot of nuts in the world. And I'm starting to sound like a nut when I talk about Mitch Keller.

I'm afraid. I think he's a good example of a guy who earns the good and the bad. Like he just, his talent level seems to fluctuate wildly because he's constantly tinkering and he's constantly working through stuff and I feel some Mitch Keller vibes with Hunter Brown. I don't want to say it and I don't want it to be true, but it feels like Mitch Keller's 2022 and Hunter Brown's 2024 are very, very similar. And that doesn't mean the same thing will happen to Hunter Brown. It's just that's the vibe that I'm getting off of Hunter Brown,

who I believe I ranked as a top 30, maybe top 25 starting pitcher. So I agree by the way. I agree. I see a lot of similarities there. And what did I just say about Ranger Suarez for Mitch Keller? Last season, a 421 ERA 125 whip. What did he wind up with this year? 425 ERA 130 whip.

Kind of just feels like that's who Mitch Keller is. Again, at a risk of oversimplifying. But two nearly identical seasons in a row now for Mitch Keller. Scott, let's wrap up the fake outs with the fakesst of fakeouts. Jackson Holiday. I'll admit the name for this award may be a little too clever by half. Fake is fake out. But what I'm trying to say is that for that very brief stretch at the end of July, beginning of August,

he looked like he had figured it out that he had overcome that miserable start to his career in April, hit 278 with five home runs in those 10 games. But then he hit no home runs the rest. rest of the way, 200 batting average, 31% strikeout rate. It was right back to what he was before and leaves a lot of questions unanswered for 2025, I would say. Does not turn 21 years old until December of this year. We know that progress is not linear.

Not every prospect works out, obviously, but we have seen many a prospect get called up their first year, not work out, and then obviously still go on to have tremendous career. So I think one of the most famous examples is Mike Trout. He got called up. His rookie season was not good. Came back the next year. Won the MVP, I think, right? Did that happen?

Or close to it? Anyway, it was an amazing season. Jackson Holiday, yes, he has things to work on. 33% strikeout rate, 55% ground ball rate. And he was just abysmal against breaking pitches this past season. Let's go into the over and underachievers. Scott, you can reveal these both at the same time. The biggest over and underachievers.

Go to Very different players here. David Peterson is the biggest overachiever. Juan Soto actually is the biggest underachiever. I'll tackle Peterson first here, had a 290 ERA, 10 and 2 record. You look at the high whip, you look at the low strike rate. It's pretty obvious he overachieved and didn't earn that ERA. But sometimes that can happen.

You can see that disparity with a big ground ball pitcher like David Peterson is. I'm going to cede to the ERA estimators, though, when in doubt. And the ERA estimators, we got a 367, a 410-X FIP, and a 458X ERA for David Peterson. So I'd fade him pretty hard next year. I think everybody will. Biggest underachiever Juan Soda. Now, this is interesting because obviously he was amazing. Bounceback season after a couple down years in San Diego, going to be an MVP finalist in all likelihood.

in the AL. But he was the fifth biggest underachiever, according to expected batting average. He was the single biggest underachiever, according to expected slug. Should have hit 319 rather than 288. Should have slug 6.58 rather than 569, 688, I'm sorry, 658 rather than 569, according to Stackcast.

It's hard to imagine Juan Soto will be much better next year, but it's possible. I will just add that, you know, last year when when people were trying to find a reason for why Juan Soto, you know, he had that really bad stretch from like mid-2020 to like the end of May of 2023. And there were a lot of theories as to why and why it wasn't a fluke. And a big part of it was he hits most of his flyballs to like the power alleys rather than down the lines. and that was posited as one explanation for why he was underperforming his expected stats. And he has consistently underperform. This year was the biggest 42 point gap between his Wob and X Woba.

But for his career, it's 15 points over the past the previous three, the previous two seasons. It was 13 and 25 points. So, you know, like Yankees State is a great park for power down the lines. it's just okay to the power alleys. And so, you know, I agree with the, it's probably unlike Ewan Soto's going to be better in 2025 than 2024. On the other hand, you should never bet against Hall of Fame players.

I would at least bet on higher than a 288 batting average. It was kind of a, that seems reasonable. Last couple months, he lost a lot of points off that mark. Let's stick with the Yankees. And Scott, we are going to go to, I believe, a brand new award called the biggest heel turn, literally. Luis Heel.

Yeah, who else would it be? This is when we get into the fun awards, by the way. We're out of the conventional ones now. But what happened with Luis Heel, he was a hero. His first 12 starts, a 182 ERA, 0.92 whip, 11K per 9. And those numbers laid a good enough foundation. He's probably going to be the A.L. Rookie of the year. But his final 17 starts, remember his first 12.

Great. Final 17. Luis Hill, total villain, 492 ERA, 142 whip, 9.4 K per 9. So he lost a fair amount of those two. He also led the majors with 77 walks for the year. I'm going to be fading him pretty hard next year. I do wonder how much the

innings maybe caught up to him. I know that was like pretty early in the season, but he also threw almost no innings in 2023. He threw like 30 total innings, I think, between 2022 and 2023. Yeah, so perhaps that's a built-in excuse. You watch the guy pitch, he's obviously electric. The whiff rates on his individual pitches

actually don't really add up to it, but yeah, I think he's just a pretty unconventional pitcher. And yeah, pretty tough one, I think, to rank heading into 2025 is Luis Heel. Scott, the biggest Weirdo Award goes to... Oh, thank you very much. Tyler Fitzgerald. Biggest weirder, this is one I do every year.

It's someone who's production we have trouble making sense of. And Tyler Fitzgerald is a perfect example. We've been talking him down ever since he became a thing in fantasy. He had a 22nd percentile average exit velocity, a fourth percentile strikeout rate. Usually you need to be really good at one or the other, if not both, to be a fantasy asset. And he managed to succeed in spite of it. did slow down a little over the couple months, the final couple months,

but didn't crash. Still, I get that feeling Tyler Fitzgerald. I've made the Zach Deloff comparison to him all year, and I think his follow-up season could go about like Gelofs did. 15 home runs and 17 steals in 96 games for Tyler Fitzgerald. September, a pretty tough month where the strikeout rate jumped all the way up to 37%. So, yeah, we'll have to find it. out what Buster Posey thinks of Tyler Fitzgerald heading into next season. And yeah, I guess we'll

find out in spring training or I guess throughout the offseason. Maybe they just signed a bunch of players and there's nowhere for Fitzgerald to play. I guess we'll find out. Unfortunately, he didn't keep second base eligibility. Yeah. That would make him a lot more interesting. Now I think he's probably in the 17 to 20 range at shortstop, I would guess. Yeah. No, I think that's a fair point. Let's move into the Best Jackson Award, which, based on this very small sample of the postseason, is extremely irrelevant. Jackson, Merrill, slightly over Jackson, Churio. They ended up having very similar rookie seasons, probably going to finish second and third and NL rookie of the year voting. But Merrill, because he started a little better, four spots ahead of Churio in five by five scoring, eight spots ahead in point scoring.

This is in talking about just outfield. fielders. Interestingly enough, Churrio finished ahead of Jackson, if you just look at the final four months, but I'm not. I'm looking at the whole season. So Jackson,

Meryl edges out Jackson, Churrio, Jackson Holiday, and Jackson Job, far behind. Would you guys like to hear a fun fact? Yes. There have been nine major league players with the first name Jackson. Every single one of them

is currently active. Isn't that weird? It's a very popular name right now. Yeah, I guess it was a very popular name 20 years ago too, but. Yeah, it's just that's and like a but like Churio, Holiday, Job, Merrill, even Jackson Coer, like they were, a bunch of them were top prospects. It's just, it's just weird. Names are weird like that.

Nobody's naming their kid Scott anymore. Names be weird. Let's move into the, most bubble-wrapped award goes to Garrett Crochet. Who else could it be? The down-and-out white socks, they failed to trade him at the deadline,

and that pretty much sealed his fate. Their number one mission the rest of the way was just to preserve his trade value by any means possible, and they never let him go more than four innings again. The ERA actually went up quite a bit during that stretch, but the strikeout rates winning strike rate were still amazing. It was mostly one terrible start. I think that inflated that ERA.

If the white socks don't trade Garrett Crochet this year, this offseason, they are crazy. And that's the only scenario where I'd be worried about is fantasy value for next year. I currently have him top 15 in my way too early 20, 25 starting pitcher rankings. That will depend a lot on where he's pitching next year, obviously. If it's Chicago, I think it goes down. but he was one of the best pitchers in baseball on a per inning basis by a lot of metrics, including K-minus walk ratio, XERA, he was top five. It's hard to overstate how good Garrett Crochet is.

And also, do you think him and Louise Heel are pretty much the top two for a rookie of the year? I don't think he qualified. Does he qualify? I don't think he does qualify. Probably not, yeah. I think he had too many days on the active roster. Because I was going to say it would be weird because Louise Heel might be a super two player in 2025. I was going to say it might be weird to have two arbitration eligible rookie of the year finalists.

Yeah, he had a full season as a reliever in 2021 basically. So that used it up. Among pitchers with 140 innings pitch this season, Garrett Crochet ranked first in K-minus walk rate, first in swinging strike rate, and fourth in expected ERA. 2.83 is the mark. Scott, we are running out of time. time. So I will leave it up to you. I guess we could hit a few more of these. Is there anything that really stands out that you wanted to get to?

Let's see here. Let's just keep going, because it's going to take me too long to think of it. I kind of want to hit the Mr. Funny Math Award, and I want to change it to the Scott White Award. Yeah, the Sky White Memorial Award. Which goes to. Bailey Ober. Okay, I was most proud of that award name, Mr. Funny Math. But it's fine.

Bailey Ober is the winner. And I think you know where I'm... Your nickname can be Mr. Funny, Math. We could do that. I think you know where I'm going with this. He ended up with a 398 ERA on the year. It's a pretty good season. 398 ERA.

If you take out the two impossibly bad starts where everything spiraled out of control and it would be difficult to repeat that the... To repeat it if you tried. Just two starts. That ERA goes from 398 to 318. Hey, it worked for Mitch Keller. It was four starts for Caller, okay?

Not two. All right, there's two more that I want to hit on this list. One that I think is extremely relevant right now. The Mr. April is just a warm-up award. Went to Michael King. His first seven appearances, a five ERA and a 147 whip. From May on, 242 ERA and a 112 whip. And his first playoff start against the Braves,

seven shutout innings with 12 strikeouts for Michael King. Okay. Can I go through a few of these real quick? Yes. The one fantasy football, I got to speak well. The one fantasy footballers won't see coming. This is one I do every year. And it's Spencer Schwellenbach this year.

Remember, he didn't really show signs of life at all until July. And it wasn't clear until August and September that he was the real deal. Final 15 starts, 254, ERA, 0.96 whip 9.3K per 9. Everyone who listens to this podcast knows how much we like Spencer Schwellenbach. Vinnie Vindication, you mentioned, Frank. Chris Sale. I stuck with him for the four years he was injured. Through much mockery and derision,

I said he could still be an ace, and lo and behold, he stayed healthy, won the NL pitching triple crown, probably going to win the NL Cy Young. Vinny Vindication is Chris Sale. Mr. Wait, who is Bowden Francis, who probably few people had heard of, before he joined the rotation down the stretch

over a span of six starts, had four where he allowed just one hit over seven plus innings. And during his nine starts, overall 153 are a 0.53WIP, 8.5K per 9, Bound and Francis emerging late as an interesting choice for next year.

Mr. Day Late and Dollar Short is Jose Ramirez, 39 homers, 41 steals. it would have been only the seventh ever 40-40 player to go 40-40. And it was rained out the last game of the season. He might have gotten there if that game for the Guardians wasn't canceled because it was rained out. And also he was a double shy of 40. So he could have been the second ever 40-40-40-40 player if he got both a home run a double in that game.

We'll never know. But Jose Ramirez deserves a shout out for that near miss that was beyond. his control, it turns out. Mr. Health is overrated. Is Royce Lewis. He finally had a stretch of good health, 58 games in the second half. And what did he do with it?

He hit 207 with a 620 OPS. So who knows what to make of Royce Lewis anymore? He suddenly doesn't feel so magical. Let's see. Mr. Two-Face is Taj Bradley. Remember, there was a stretch of nine starts in June and July, where he had a 0.82 ERA, 0.89, whip, 10.6K per 9, looked like a top prospect made good, an emerging ace and fantasy.

He followed up with a 6-star stretch with a 985 ERA, 184 whip, 7.6K per 9. And it really came down to the splitter, which lost a lot of its vertical movement. It gives me the feeling Tage Bradley is going to be another Redetmer's type where his success is totally going to ride on that one pitch. And if he has it, he's awesome. If he doesn't have it, he's terrible,

and he's going to drive us all crazy. I don't want to condemn him to that yet, but I get that sort of feeling with him that I don't like. I don't like. We don't need another redembers in our lives. And finally here, Mr. Thanks for the Memories. It's a three-way tie. Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer.

Clayton Kirshaw. It's been real, y'all. Multiple Cy Young winners. First ballot Hall of Famers eventually. But they all had trouble taking them out this year and they all didn't look so great when they did. So whether or not they retire this offseason,

I think we should treat them as retired in fantasy. That's when we should have started playing the playoff music. For Clayton Kirschall just maybe the in-memorium. Did you ever know that you're my hero? Rest in peace to the fantasy value for all of Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershow. I think that's a good place to wrap up. And there were a few other awards we didn't get to. So make sure to check out Scott's article, which is, again, 40 awards deep for this past fantasy baseball season.

We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again next week. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.