Fantasy Baseball Today - 2024 Outfield Tiers! Strategy, ADP and Players to Target (1/25 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: January 25, 2024

Outfield is a little tougher than the infield positions this year (3:10). ... Ronald Acuña was so amazing, he now has his own tier (7:38). ... Is there any concern over Yordan Alvarez's injury history (10:12)? ... Should Luis Robert and Adolis Garcia be one tier higher (13:53)? ... Evan Carter is such an interesting name in the next best things tier (28:24). ... Why is Jordan Walker a breakout candidate again (34:24)? ... The last resorts tier feels dire (44:33). ... News (54:17): Joey Gallo signed a one-year deal with the Nationals. ... We wrap up with thoughts on the 2024 Hall of Fame class (1:03:05). To display your continued support of the show, please vote Fantasy Baseball Today in the Sports Podcast Awards in the "Best Baseball Podcast" Category https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/best-baseball-podcast/ Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 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 lead. Well, fantasy! Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Here we go. Outfield tears.

Welcome into fantasy baseball today. Frank Scott and Chris here on Thursday, January 25th. Today on the show, we're breaking down all the outfield tears, even the ones that have 25, 40, names inside of them. Finally get to some of that extra news. And we didn't get to talk about the Hall of Fame yesterday. So I think if we have time, we'll wrap up with that a little bit later on. Scotty, Outfield, as we've talked about all offseason, trying not to pay as much attention to position scarcity, but Outfield does make it pretty hard. Lots of talent up top inside of the top 24. The middle part of it, all right, gets a little bit murky. And then I think there

are some pretty fun names going later on in drafts. So how are you feeling about outfield right now? Terrible. It's, I mean, there are basically two positions worth paying attention to in drafts this year and it's outfield and starting pitcher. And really, those are the two that I'm strategizing around. That's really what my whole draft strategy is based around. And in outfield's case, it's just because of the astonishing lack of talent

relative to the infield positions where we talked, what was it, just yesterday about second base, how I'm thinking about skipping a tier there. Well, I didn't have to think very hard about it at all in the outfield. There is no also elite tier in the outfield. There's just the first rounders. And then I made an extra special tier above that, just for Ronald de Cunia. But that also elite tier, kind of the second, third round range. range in drafts, maybe second, third, fourth round range.

Just nobody worth drafting there. Somebody will get drafted there, but they won't deserve to because they belong in a lower tier with players who go later. So the flip side of that is that there are, and I may be jumping ahead too far for your liking, Frank, let me know if I am. There are nine outfielders who should probably be drafted in round one, early round two at the latest. And I wonder, given the drop-off after that and the drop-off that comes after around 24, 25 in the outfield rankings, which is really where the infield positions begin to distinguish themselves from the outfield positions.

So given those two huge drop-offs, I wonder if it's so important to draft an outfielder from that top-teer. from that top tier, from those nine first round caliber hitters, that you should just do it. I know, like maybe, maybe I shun to have Bobby Witt as my number two overall player because of that.

Maybe, maybe Jordan Alvarez has to go ahead of Corey Seeger because of that. It's, it's something I'm wrestling with even now, and I would like more mocks to see how it plays out. I gave myself the second overall pick in the last mock we did, just so I could say, take Bobby Witt and see how it turned out.

And it went okay. But I think I had some good fortune to make it go okay. And I'm not totally sold on having Witt second overall, just because he doesn't play the outfield. And you can talk yourself into that, Scott. Using those nine players you talked about that are first round caliber outfielders, there are different points in the first round where you can make that argument, right? Like you just said, Julio over Bobby Witt,

where Freddie Freeman goes, you could talk yourself into Kyle Tucker or Fernando Tate. or Juan Soto going ahead of Freddie Freeman. And towards the back end, you can say, all right, I want Yoron Alvarez over somebody like Bryce Harper or Matt Olson or Jose Ramirez. So there are different points in the first round where you can make that argument. I think the conversation we had yesterday kind of highlights the point, which is if you're drafting Mookie Betts in the first round, you're drafting him as an outfielder.

Almost, I mean, not guaranteed, but you're probably drafting Mookie Betts as an outfielder. in a five outfielder league I would think back think back two years and the idea of playing a guy willingly at outfield ahead of second base would have been unthinkable so I think that just highlights

the the lack of star power and really it's not even the the lack of star power I guess it's the wrong way to put it it's the lack of everything but star position you know But it's like that top nine is awesome. And I quibble a little with the, there shouldn't be anyone in the second or third round,

but I have one outfielder in that range. So like in my, if I was doing the also elite tier, it would be one guy. And then we'll talk about him. That, my friends, is a, I want to get my response ready. Say who would be.

He has two first names. I also have that exactly on the rundown, Scott. So if you want to cheat down a little bit, you will find, yeah, that's who we're talking about. Let's get into the tiers. The unmatched one name, Ronald de Cunia, so good. Yeah, it's a created tier just for him. Because he broke fantasy.

He hit 337 with 41 homers, 73 steals, 149 runs scored. And according to the Razball player raider, Ronald de Cunia earned $70 worth of auction value in a 12-team league. The next closest player was Matt Olson at $46.6. And if you look at the head-to-head points format on CBS, Acuna scored 817 fantasy points.

The next closest was Freddie Freeman at 666.5. So the unmatched tier, I don't know that there's much to add. I mean, we had a conversation about this recently. I don't, the last time there was a player this unquestioned as the number one player was probably Mike Trout like a decade ago or something like that. Yeah, and I'll add in some other. data to color this. I went through and I did,

well, we'll talk about it in the future. I'm going to have some pieces on CBSports.com, but basically the, what you needed to win your league last year for a Roto League data. And one thing that I found really interesting was there was a higher correlation between where the first place team finished and stolen bases and runs scored than usual last year.

I think that's mostly just because Ronald Ocuna, was such a standout because usually stolen bases is by far the lowest correlation between winning your league and winning the category usually teams that win their league on average finish between third closer to fourth place in stolen bases which makes sense stolen bases are their own thing they don't correlate to anything else all that strongly whereas if you do really good in home runs you're probably going to do pretty well and runs an rbi i too last year Ron Lucuna was such a dominant fantasy force that the average team, I mean, it wasn't a significant gap. It was like the average winning team in a Roto League finished 3.5 in stolen bases, but usually

that's like 3.8, 3.9. And so he kind of reshaped the fantasy landscape on his own in a way that is incredibly rare for one player to do. It kind of feels like whoever has the first pick this year should have a third round reversal. Right. Like we used to do in fantasy football in like the late 90s early 2000s when like Ladani and Tomlinson was just so much better.

That was a real thing and in a lot of high stakes fantasy football in early 2000s. Let's move on to the first rounders tier. Eight names here. Julio Rodriguez, Corby Carroll, Muki Betts, Kyle Tucker, Fernando Tatis,

Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, and Yordon Alvarez. Also for fun, Chohei Otani, would be in this tier. He's listed on this tier. on the, in this tier on the website. He's going to go around this range in most drafts as well.

This ADP kind of ranges from picks three through 17, if we look at NFBC ADP. Scott, if we are talking about a head-toed points league, I know that you rank these tiers, you rank the players within these tiers as well. My guess is the top three would be bets, judge, and Soto. Does that sound right? Betts, Judge, and Soto.

Yeah, that's exactly how I happen in points leagues. Same. All right. So it does change a little bit there. And we did a head-to-head points mock draft recap maybe a month ago. And we talked about some of the really big differences throughout the draft, but really up-top focusing on how much a draft can change this year between head-to-head points and road.

There are so many first-round caliber hitters. I said it before they're 17 that I think there is more room for distinction between the two scoring formats than I can remember. And my rankings vary more as a result. Yeah. And I think the one, the way you can think about it, like, better hitters, hitters, not stolen bases, but just what they do as hitters, bump them up in points leagues. I think that's the best way to think about it. So you got like Corby Carroll, Julio Rodriguez, Bobby Whit, they're really good hitters. But they're like mid-800s OPS bats

right now. Yeah. Judge Soto, you know, those guys are, our mid-900s OPS bats. Yeah, I would At least. I would say there's a pretty clear correlation between OPS or even WRC Plus and fantasy points. There's just, you know, it waits more things like walks, obviously, where, you know, someone like Bobby Witt or Julio Rodriguez, they don't walk all that much, but they steal a ton of bases. So that's that difference between, you know, Rodo and a head head points league. I asked a similar question yesterday about Corey Seeger, but Chris, I'll ask you this.

How much do you worry about injuries with Yordon Alvarez, who right now is typically going at that one-to turn. He's missed 93 games over the past three years. That's 19% of all of his available games. 2021, it was, it seemed like it was mostly some COVID stuff, you know, had some day-to-day injuries. 22, he went on the aisle with right hand inflammation. Last year, missed a ton of time with a strained oblique. Sometimes for some of these bigger sluggers, something that could linger year over year. Do the injuries worry you with your on Alvarez? I would say he probably has a higher baseline injury talent. I don't know what the right way to frame that would be than most other players,

certainly in this tier, but like it would be a little disingenuous of me to say, I can't draft Jordan Alvarez, but Aaron Judge is a top 10 pick. You know, like Aaron Judge's injury concerns are arguably even greater. And, you know, we've seen what the one healthy season now. In fairness, the healthy Aaron Judge season, was historically great, and we haven't seen that from Yard on Alvarez. So that's what?

But I was going to say, I thought you said yet, which. Yet, yet would work too. I mean, I think like a 315, 50 homer season very much within the realm of possibility for Yvarez, to the point that more or less expected to happen at some point in his career. It's just when will he have that year

where he stays healthy enough for it to happen? The also elite tier, Scott mentioned up top, none, zero, zilch, nobody in the also elite tier. The near elite 13 names, a ton here. Luis Robert, Mike Trout, Cody Bellinger, Adoli Garcia, Michael Harris, who I do see is featured on Scott's shirt today, very nice. Randy Arosa Rana, Kyle Schwaburber, Nolan Jones, Josh Lowe, Jazz Chish, Christian Yelich, Jackson Churio, and Wyatt Langford. Oh yeah. Gritty. First and foremost, each of Jones,

Low, Jazz, Chorio, Langford. They are one tier lower in a head to head points league. Combination of... Really changes the complexion, doesn't it? Combination of strikeouts for some skill set, you know, seals being more prevalent with some of these players,

maybe some playing time with some of these names as well. But it's a huge tier covering all different skills and experience levels, obviously. I was going to make the argument for two names that I have. thought could potentially be in that also elite tier.

Probably not in a points league, but I could see it in a categories league. Luis Robert and Adolus Garcia. Garcia, top 20 overall player two years in a row. The problem is that the steals have now fallen off, so that sucks. Luis Robert just finished as a top 24 player last year, 38 homers, 20 steals,

had this huge prospect pedigree, finally put it together, but he also kind of has his words, injury concerns, and he's on a really bad team with the White Sox. So I guess I made the case for and against Scott, but those are the two. Adolias Garcia and Luis Robert,

I would make the argument for them to maybe be in that also elite tier. Yeah, I mean, if Luis Robert meets his upside, which he did last year, then he would belong in that also elite tier, I think by himself only in categories leagues, because in terms of points per game, Luis Robert last year was basically the same as T.J. Friedel. So he's, you know, I think he's better than T.J. Friedel, but his skill set is not suited well for points leagues.

But why I don't put Luis Robert in the also elite tier even in Roto is because I think the odds are very much against him having that best case scenario again for the reasons you already mentioned. Missed a lot of time with injuries in both 2022 and 2021. last year was the first time playing even 100 games. And yeah, that lineup really drags down the counting stats. And one thing that I've always made a point to argue about when we talk about these injury-prone players is part of my problem with the way we discuss injury-prone is we contextualize so much about fantasy baseball. You know, Vladimir Herrero played 40% of his games in, I can't remember what Park it was, essentially. central Florida somewhere, right? Dunedden. And then in Buffalo.

And that's why and all, and we, we quantify so much. And then with injuries, it's just like we're like reading tea leaves and you fish guts and, and, you know, try like, there's nothing, there's nothing like scientific about it. And I think Louise Robert is a good example of this because he has been dogged throughout his career by the injury pro tag.

And this season, he probably will not be because he only, he only missed, what was it, 18 games last year or whatever? He played like 144? 145, yep. It's weird for me to be doing the, do you guys remember that this happened in September thing? But do you guys remember that Luis Roberts' injury season came to a close six games early

with a knee injury? I didn't. Now he only missed six games because it happened on September 23rd or whatever it was. If that happens in May, It was an MCL sprain. If that happens in May and he misses a month, all of a sudden it's can't trust Louise Robert. It's the same injury.

It just happened. He wasn't in control of when it happened. So this is a good example. Luis Roberts is a good example of the unscientific way we tend to talk about injuries as a fantasy baseball community, not just us three. I don't know what scientific. way you could do it, but isn't it true? And I don't know the research behind it, but it's a truism,

that the best predictor of injury is past injury. Yes. I think the best way to phrase it is there is very little that can predict future injuries. But what is there past injuries would be a pretty helpful. Okay. Sure. I also want to say that the reason I'm harping more on Louise Robert for his injury history than Jordan Alvarez and Corey Seeger is because your Nauvers and Corey Seeger have top five upside. Well, Luis Robert has top 25 upside. It's just the reward isn't as worth the risk. I don't feel like.

If he was on a better team, I would argue maybe he does have like top 10, top 12 upside, but I mean, he just had a career year, 38 homers, 20 steals. He had 80 RBI in 144. games. The White Sox are going to be really, really bad. So I do think that's something you can hold against Luis Robert here. Scott, I did want to ask you about the back half of this tier. Obviously, you know, some people hear some of the names here and, uh-oh, light bulb goes off. What are we talking about? We've got guys like Nolan Jones, Josh Lowe, Jazz Chisholm, Jackson Trio, Wyatt Langford. Why are they included in this tier? Is it solely an upside play?

Well, I feel like that's probably the... the answer. Is it just the upside? Is the reason? So can you go through those names again? So I did not include Christian Yellich, who's at the back half there, but like some people... He's more of a floor play. Some people will like hear, again, like Nolan Jones, Josh Lowe, Jazz, Truro, and Langford. They're guys that are not very proven or in Jazz's case hasn't been able to stay on the field. Yeah, I was curious if you included him. Yeah. Yeah, I did. It's not just upside because, of course, you could find players further down in the tiers.

with comparable upside, who also have the upside that could put them in this tier. But it's how confident I am in them meeting their upside. So I'm more confident, I guess, in some degree, to some degree in Luis Robert meeting is upside

than I am in Nolan Jones meeting is upside. But I already said I'm not supremely confident in Luis Robert meeting is upside. And I wouldn't say I'm supremely confident in Nolan Jones meeting is upside. But I think that upside is similar. And I think they'll come pretty close to their upside. So, I mean, this is kind of the distinction between a tiers ranking system and just straight up ranking him.

It's obvious Louise Robert needs to rank higher than Nolan Jones. Do I think their final production will be comparable? Yeah, I do. It's a better chance, Louise. Like, if one of them is going to finish higher, I'd put my money on Louise Robert. but ultimately Jones could finish higher and I think it'll be pretty comparable. Yeah, I think this tier,

one, this is already the part of the Halfield rankings where I start to get indigestion. And two, it feels like a really wide tier to me. I'm not necessarily disagreeing that this is what the tier should be. Like I said, I would probably have Luis Robert and maybe Michael Harris a tier ahead, but this, it's a wide range in the rankings. And this kind of highlights why if I could get two in that first, you know, tier and a half would feel better about my chances.

Yeah, and I hear the Michael Harris thing and I want to put him higher, but I have counting sense concerns for him. Sure. Just like I do, Robert, because of where he's positioned in the lineup. You mentioned Adolese Garcia, Frank. there it's I feel like he's I feel like he's a liability in two categories

certainly a liability in batting average and just underwhelming in stolen bases relative to the other players you could draft in the same range so that's why I have him in this tier

as opposed to making him a part of a very small also elite tier but those would I guess would be the three who you could if you wanted to distinguish you could

maybe Mike Trouton a points league. You could do the same with him. I thought about that, but ultimately decided against it because his plate discipline isn't as good as it used to be. I think the biggest stretch we haven't mentioned, but Jackson Chorio and Wyatt Langford, I am showing

supreme confidence in them by tearing them this high. But I think by the time spring training gets going and drafting is picking up in full force, I think most people are going to be where I

currently am on those two. Yeah, and that's part of what Chris was saying about this, just being a wide range within this tier because Luis Roberts ADP is around 30. Right now, Truro and Langford are around 150 and 160. But if Scott's right, those will move up. Yeah, but if, yeah, Scott's right. And like, we see these guys in spring training. They start hitting home runs. Like, yeah, they're probably closer to the top 100 picks. They're going where like Anthony Volpe was going by the time we knew he was on the opening day roster last year. And like, I think we all agree. These are better prospects than Anthony Volpe.

Yeah. Honestly, at this time last year, Volpe and Jordan Walker, I think we're still outside the top 200. And then think about how much they shot up, right? By the time we got to mid-March, they were top 120. Sometimes even top 100.

Walker was a top 100 guy, I think. Yeah, it was crazy stuff. Before we take our first break, just a few things to promote here. FBT is a finalist for the best baseball podcast category in the sports podcast awards. And this is the final. week to vote. Thanks to all of our listeners. We actually won the award last year and now we're

looking to go back to back. To help us bring home the hardware, you can find the link in the podcast and YouTube descriptions or scan the QR code on the top right corner of the screen. The whole process should take you less than a minute and we would really appreciate it. Mailbag podcasts are starting up next week and we have a new segment that we are introducing prospect spotlight. So if you have a top prospect that you'd like us to evaluate, leave a five-star rating on Apple and drop the prospect's name in a review and we'll choose one player to highlight

in each of our future mailbags. Lastly, we have a bonus podcast that will be released on Friday this week. I am talking first year player draft rankings and international signings with our buddy the Welsh. Obviously, very useful for dynasty players but maybe if you want to get ahead

of the competition in your Keeper League or Redraft League, these are names you're going to have to know at some point. You can obviously check that out on YouTube or wherever you listen. We're talking about 2023 draft. The, yes, the first year. I mean, first year player draft rankings for, I guess, 20, 24 leagues.

Yeah, there's like three or four names from that that you're going to need to know for this year probably. And that also. Well, one's already debuted. And that also includes a handful of the international guys that we need to know about. Yeah. So I think, I think the trend is toward. fading those 17-year-olds that signed. But I just released my first-year-player

rankings, the top 30, and I have three of them, three of the international class in there. I did not include... Oh, sorry, no, I meant, like, Yamamoto and... Oh, yeah. Lee. Right, they're both included,

Yuki Matsui's included. I did not include Nolan Shanwell, and I'm surprised because I see other first-year player rankings. I mean, one at him debuting supersede his first year stat? Like, are you not allowed in certain leagues to pick up a major league? I don't know.

A major leaguer just because he happened to be drafted? I don't know. I don't know how it works, but I left Nolan Shanwell out of my, or Shanuel. Is it two syllables or three? I left them out of my first year player rankings. And I'm not going to correct you, Scott, because I've

heard it different ways. So I still need to learn more about old Nolan. We'll leave it there. Let's take our first break when we return the rest of outfield tiers here on Fantasy Baseball today. Welcome back in. Let's continue on with Outfield Tears and we are up to the next best

things. Six names in this tier Brian Reynolds, Spencer Steer, Sea Suzuki, George Springer, Tayasker Hernandez, and Evan Carter. Okay. So let me jump in real quick. Okay. The unmatched, there's one, Ronald Dukunya. The first rounders

there's eight. The also elite, there's zero. The near elite. There how many? 13. And now here are the next best things. They're six. So this is the second drop-off. I was referring to it outfield.

And this is the bigger drop-off. This is where we get to that end of the end of that top 24, top 25, and the depth at every infield position is so much better after this point. So this is, the tier is called the next best things. and it's really kind of your last, it's really kind of your last chance to get a quality outfield, an outfielder you can really feel good about, let's say. And in most leagues, I'd like to have three outfielders

by the time we get to the end of this tier, because I so hate what comes after. And I think there's so much more value to be found at every other position. Yeah, and I was going to say something really similar, Scott, where I actually really like this tier and I think if you're playing in a deeper league I want to have at least two outfielders by this point but if you play in a 10 or 12 team league,

three. Let's try to have at least three outfielders by the end of this tier. Brian Reynolds and George Springer, they feel like floor raisers, you know, just what we should expect from them and what they've done so far, obviously, in their careers. Suzuki and Evan Carter, I think there's breakout potential

with both of those two names. Teasker Hernandez kind of a wildest. card here with the Dodgers. Spencer Steer. Not as much enthusiasm for me. Maybe it's different for you guys. I thought you liked Spencer Steer. I thought I was alone in the Spencer Steer bust

bandwagon. It does not feel as exciting as any of the other names in this tier. Maybe I'm just being unfair to Spencer Steer. He obviously had a great season last year. But the one I wanted to focus on was Evan Carter. Such an interesting player to evaluate. Only 21 years old has huge

huge prospect pedigree, played 40 games last year between the regular and the postseason, hit six home runs with six steals, displayed a ridiculous eye at the plate, basically did not swing at pitches outside of the strike zone, but somehow managed to strike out a lot. His bad BIP was over 400, and he's been really bad against lefties in the minor. So, Chris, Evan Carter is, I use the word interesting, complicated. I think that's probably, like, he feels kind of hard to project. He feels hard

to project moving forward I would say. Yeah, I think a lot of it is going to come down to how many bases he steals because I think he's going to be

probably just a decent power hitter. Like I don't want to put a ceiling on a player this young who was as good as he was in the major league at the major league level last year.

But like I'd be surprised if it was much more than 20 given the quality of contact, given the minor league track record where he has 27 homers in 246 games. You start to pace that out. That's more like a 17 homer pace over a full season. He's really young. He's succeeded at the major league level,

but the quality of contact metrics. So like if he's not a 25 stolen base guy, it gets a little harder to see how he justifies this. You know, if you play in an OBP league, that might be different because he should be very, very good. in that format, but I just, I think they're, I'm not likely to draft Evan Carter this year. I know who I feel like you're going to say it. You know who I feel like you just described though?

It's a player from the previous tier, Christian Yellich. Yeah, I think that's a decent comp for Evan Carter. Yeah. Like what Christian Yelch is now? Right. And, you know, I called Christian Yelich in that previous tier where he was a little. alongside Louise Robert and Michael Harris. I called him a floor play from that tier.

And obviously nobody would call Evan Carter a floor play. He's not proven enough to have earned that. But he's a tier lower. And so I had, I mean, Frank and I were talked about it a lot when he got called up last year. We were very skeptical of him being a fantasy asset right away because he seemed underdeveloped physically and the exit velocity readings weren't great. And there just wouldn't be enough power. and he immediately proved us wrong in a pretty dramatic way.

And by postseason, you know, Rangers obviously went on to win the World Series. So they had a long postseason run where they did quite well for themselves. And they moved Evan Carter up to like third, fourth in the batting because of how much they valued his contributions. I think it's a diverse skill set. Obviously elevated by the on-based skills, obviously elevated by the fact he's, pretty good base dealer. I'm not sure whether he's going to end up more of a 15 homer type or a 25 homer type, but I think there will be enough there.

I think he'll either be like a something like a Christian Yellich or maybe a speedier Brandon Nimmo or maybe even better that. But there's a Michael Harris upside outcome. Yeah, sure. No, and I'll admit, I just kind of assumed that his price was a little closer to Christian knowledge, but that's not the case. He's going about 50 picks later. So that, that does make me feel a lot better about it. Evan Carter, around 125 overall. Actually, that seems fine. That's exactly right. Let's move on to the fallback options. 24 names in this tier, including four util only bats that are in

there. Here's what we're going to do, kind of break it down six names at a time, because obviously I'm not going to read off 25 names. The first six, Lane Thomas, Marcel Ozuna, who is, you till only. Jordan Walker, Nick Castellanos, Jorge Soler, Chas McCormick. We spoke about Thomas and McCormick on our Can These Breakouts Repeat episode? But Chris, I know you wrote up Jordan Walker as a breakout. Why is that? Well, I mean, I think the biggest part of it is just look what he, where he was being drafted last year. Look at what he did after coming back. I know the production wasn't great from a fantasy perspective, you know, because the run in RBI totals especially, but like he came back from the minors at the beginning of June and put up an 800 OPS the rest of the way.

And it's worth keeping in mind. So another guy who doesn't turn 22 until May, there are certainly things to work on. And he's going a little bit ahead of Evan Carter, which, you know, I'm not sure makes a ton of sense. But it's just, it's a bet that. this might be the last time you get Jordan Walker and outside of the top 50. All right, let's slide up. Scott.

You had interesting things to say there, Chris. But what makes Jordan Walker a breakout candidate is like the most obvious question. Right. That's what that's, he's kind of, I think a bit of a free space on the breakouts board. I almost put him in my breakouts one point of it.

It's like, what am I going to say here? Right. Yeah, I don't have too much to say. It's just because you don't have a ton tangibly to grab onto from last season. Like he didn't. Yeah. It's projection basically.

Right. He wasn't horrible, which just being 20, I think he was 20 when he made his debut, right? No, he was 20 when he made his debut. Being 20, getting sent down, handling that the way he did. and coming back to be a productive player. I just, the chances of that guy turning into a high-end player are pretty high regardless of whether like,

oh, he didn't hit the ball that hard or hit the ball on the ground too much. I don't really, I don't worry about that too much. Now, when the price is 110th overall, it's a little iffy, but if I'm going to bet on people in the outfield at this range, I'd rather it be the 21-year-old who more than held his, on as a rookie. No, that's a great point because this is this is the beginning of the yuck in the

outfield. And I mean, you could look at Lane Thomas and Chas McCormick from this tier, a couple of 2020 guys. I think McCormick got all the way to 2020, right? If not, it was just a if not it was close. Yeah, he didn't have quite enough of bats. But we don't really buy the on the skills underlying those seasons for Lane Thomas and Chas McCormick. And so I think they're fine in this range. but it's not like you draft them feeling good about, okay, I got that outfield spot filled all year. And Jordan Walker, you don't necessarily either, but you expect the trend line to go up with him

while you expect it to go down for those others. And trend line going down, I mean, you could say the same for Jorge Saler because of his injury risk. You could say the same for T.J. Friedel because of another skills issue. Oh, we haven't gotten that far yet, right? We haven't gotten that far into the tier. Never mind. We've got to pick it up because there's a lot of names still to get to the next.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The next six players within the fallback options tier, Cedric Mullins, Eloy Jimenez, who is util only as well, Anthony Santander, Ian Hap, Brendan Nimmo, and the aforementioned T.J. Friedel. I get everybody is just collectively done with Eloy Jimenez,

but his ADP is currently 219, which just kind of seems crazy to me. Cedric Mullins could be a steel in this tier. He is one year removed from hitting 16 home runs with 34 steel, Steeles took a step back last year, but only played 116 games dealing with a recurring groin injury. Scott, how much do you think those struggles were due to the injury versus real steps back for Cedric Mons? I could buy the argument that the groin had something to do with it, but I, I'm leaning more

towards Cedric Mollins just isn't that great. I mean, he had the 30-30 season in 2021 that shocked us all and had him. ranked among the elite the following year and his home run production was cut half the next year and there's just other than the fact he runs fast there's just not a lot in the skill set to like here

and now the Orioles are breaking in all this new young talent more than they can fit in the lineup and Cedric Mullins I'm not confident he's even going to be an everyday player his steals aren't as valuable anymore in the current environment and I question the playing time

and I don't think there's much power or batting average help there. So I couldn't invest more than this in Cedric Mullins. That's for sure. The next six names in the fallback options, James Outman, Tommy Edmund, J.D. Martinez, also Util only, also remains a free agent. Estuary Ruiz, Kerry Carpenter, and Jaron. Outman and Ruiz are both one tier lower in a head-to-ed points league. Outman strikes out a lot over 30% of the time. And Ruiz, mostly a steel specialist so far in his career. And what? We'll just start there. Chris, Esther Ruiz, 67 steals last year, the second most in baseball behind Acuna. Is there any way that you see yourself drafting Estuary Ruiz in 2024?

Was Billy Hamilton before your time? Frank, certainly on the podcast, but like... No, it's part of like my fantasy baseball career, definitely before I was here, though. Yeah, because that's basically what Estuary Ruiz is. I mean, he might actually be a better hitter than Billy Hamilton, which says something about how bad Billy Hamilton was. But yeah, it's just a question of how valuable is the odds on favor to lead the league and steals. I don't know if they actually the odds on favor, but I would probably say he should be. But the thing about this whole tier, I mean, every time, every name we're saying is like,

yeah, that guy might not be a starter by June. Yeah, that guy might not be a starter by June. Yeah, that guy might not be. So it's sort of like, at least you know what. Ruiz is going to do, right? Well, no. No, I was actually going to say, the biggest knock of all on Ruiz for me is that by the end of last year, not even the A's could justify playing him every day. Yep, that's exactly right. And something I was going to point out earlier, too, like, talking about

the depth within the outfield, obviously there are tons of players because whatever, every team has three outfielders. But the way that baseball has trended the past couple of years, specifically in the outfield, there's more platoons than ever before at that position. So, we just don't have as many full-time players in the outfield for fantasy as we do other positions. Outman, Duran, yeah. Yeah, and that's part of what kind of limits the upside at this position.

With that being said, I do kind of like Jaron as a breakout candidate this year. I wrote him up and breakouts 1.0. I think Kerry Carpenter kind of already broke out, but if he does what he did over a full season, then obviously that's even bigger of a breakout, which I think is possible for someone like Cary Carpenter. Carrie Carpenter and Jaron Duran stand out in this range as two players I would target if I felt like I was behind in the outfield at this point in the draft.

All right. I mean, all he has to do, all Carrie Carpenter has to do is just kind of what he's done at the major league level, right? 149 games, 26 homers. Runs and RBI numbers have been pretty bad, 74 and 73, but he just does that. You're going to feel decent about that with like a 270-ish batting average. And a non-zero chance that he could chip in like 10 steals. 10 steals, yeah. Yeah, he's been kind of fast.

Didn't want to quickly pull up his splits for his career. Yeah, against lefties, batting 231 with a 643 OPS. So that's not quite at that. Don't love it. Don't be rude. Like, Jared Duran was pretty good against lefties last year. He was good, yeah. He just, it's 49 play appearances.

So who the heck knows? That's exactly right. The final six names in this fallback. options tier, Lars Neupar, Stephen Kwan, Masataka Yoshita, Junghu Lee, who came over from Korea. And we do have Byron Buxton, U-Til only, but expected to play center field, so should likely earn outfield eligibility. And of course, we can't forget Chris's man crush, Riley Green, who we spoke about extensively last week. Scott, each of Neupar, Kwan, Yoshita, and Lee all feel like they could be head-to-head points league specialists, standouts, rather, I guess.

and in the case of Kwan, Yoshita, and Lee, those are three names that could potentially give you batting average contribution in a Categories league after pick 170, which obviously once we get to that point, like there's really not many names that could help you in batting average, but those are three that stand out,

mid to late round options that could help batting average. Yeah, it's a major concession because they're not helping a bunch of anything else. Right. Juan gives you some speed, Yoshida, modest power. but you'd rather have batting average taken care of so you don't have to fall back on these guys in that format.

But I do like them a lot more in points leagues. If the tier was smaller, then, yeah, I mean, if I divided up this big tier of fallback options into points leaguers and categories leaguers, it would look very different. There's a lot of the order changes depending on what format you're in. All right, we are on to the last resorts tier. That's right.

We're not even up to the final tier at Outfield yet. 24 names in this tier. And we'll do something similar. We'll do groups of six again. And we'll start with Sal Freelich, Christopher Morel, Starling Marte, John Carlos Stanton, Alex Verdugo, and Jared Kelnick. Wait, did you miss the first two? Let's see, did I?

I don't know. Are the first two, Tyler O'Neill and Jared Kelnick? I have Sal Freelick and Christopher Morel. I have Tyler O'Neill going later on in the tier. Yeah, same what's there. Kellogg. Did not update? I need to check that because it should be Tyler O'Neill and Jared Kellnick at the front of the tier. But go ahead.

Okay. I literally copy and paste it from the article, Scott. Yeah, I guess it didn't. I thought I went in there and updated it. But okay. Okay. Never mind. So again, the names that I mentioned, Sal Freelich, Christopher Morel, Starly, Marte,

John Carlos Staten, Alex Verdugo, and Jared. Kellnick. Chris, we do see some post-hyped names here in Freelick and Kelnick, some potential bouncebacks in Marte and Stanton, if they could stay healthy, of course. Morrell has upside. Verdugo gets Yankee Stadium in a contract year. I think some of these names are kind of interesting. Like, again, the back half of outfield, like there are some interesting names, but obviously they come with a ton of concerns, and that's why they're ranked where they are. Yeah, what was the question? There are no questions. It's just, okay. They're interesting names. I yeah I I don't know

that might be generous I have Freelick as a as a sleeper but like the the Freelick sleeper case is like maybe he could be Stephen Kwan but like the good first half 2021 or 22 Stephen Kwan where you know there's a really good source of batting average and like that's what I'm hoping for there I don't have a ton of optimism about the the six specifically that we're talking about here.

Kelnik, I just, I don't think he's going to be able to hit lefties. He really fell apart after like, what, May last year. And so I don't have a ton of optimism here. I think Freelik is, I don't know if I would say my favorite, but the one I'm likely to draft the most at cost, because his ADP is pretty low. But yeah, I don't have a ton of faith in, anyone in this tier, certainly.

The next six includes Dalton Varsho, Lordis Gariel, Taylor Ward, Whitmerfield, who remains a free agent, Tyler O'Neill, and Nelson Velasquez. Those last two names there, Scott, Tyler O'Neill, two years removed from 34 homers, 15 steals, also in a contract year here in Fenway Park.

Nelson Velasquez, I mean, the guy crushed 17 home runs in like a really small amount of time. So I think there is some power upside. with him as well. Yes, there is. I don't see him being much more than a specialist, though, Velasquez, I'm talking about. O'Neill could be more, obviously.

He was more in 2021. And Fenway Park has... Go ahead, Chris. I know you got an interesting stat here. Sorry. Yeah, it's... So, Tyler O'Neill has underperformed as expected Wobo by a significant amount. The past two seasons, he's been above 3.30 in XWO

by each of the last two seasons, below 315 in each of them. Over the past five seasons, right-handed hitters at Bush Stadium, Bush Stadium, is that what it's called? Yeah. Yeah. Have underperformed their Wobba, their expected Wobah by 15 points. At Fenway, right-handed hitters have overperformed by 12. That's a pretty significant gap between those two.

So, you know, maybe that can help Tyler O'Neill overcome some of the, I don't know if it's bad luck or underperformance that he's had the past couple of years. Yeah, and we've seen other cases of the sort of right-handed masher do that at Fenway Park, Hunter Renfro and out of all and out. But part of why I'm not all in on that for Tyler O'Neill is I think people mostly blame injury

for the way the last two years have gone. But he just hasn't hit the ball nearly his heart. as he did in that 20-21 season. And maybe that's injury-related too, but it's a skill issue on top of the injury issue that makes it even more questionable. The next six names, Jake Frailey, Jeff McNeil, Chris Bryant, Garrett Mitchell, Matt Walner,

and Leoti Tavares. Walner is someone who also has huge power similar to Nelson Velasquez. My guess is Strong Side Platoon for the Twins. And I feel like Tavares is sneaky. He's 25 years old. 14 homers, 14 steals last year, hits the ball hard,

awesome center fielder. So my guess is he will get every opportunity to play for the Rangers this year. Chris, any interest in those last two? Walner, big power. Tavares, a little power and speed. Yeah, I think Tavares is pretty interesting as a cheap power speed guy.

Walner, it's just like they clone Joey Gallo. I mean, up to like the way he looks and the way he swings. It's kind of why he's a little less beefy, I guess, but yeah, I think he's a, he's a fun-ish player and look like, Chris Bryant has been pretty disastrous so far. But it wouldn't surprise me if we got like, we've gotten a couple of dead count cat bounce seasons from Charlie Blackman where it looked like he was done. And he ended up being more useful than expected for fantasy. It wouldn't shock me if we got something like that from Chris Bryant.

Yeah. They're moving them to first base this year. Yeah. And hopefully that helps him stay healthy. Right. Hopefully that takes less of a toll, yeah. Yeah, but you can't draft him expecting it. No, and the price is so low, too. I mean, everyone, kind of like Eloy Jimenez, I mentioned earlier,

people have just like written Chris Bryan completely off at this point. Final six names in the last resort's tier, Hunter Renfro, Austin Hayes, M.J. Melendez, Jack Swinsky, Henry Davis, and Brendan Donovan. No analysis on those because I do just want to quickly wrap up. The leftovers tier features 46 names. For the sake of the audience, I'm not going to read those names off, but I asked you guys beforehand, just give me two or three names from this tier.

I mean, we're talking real deep league stuff here. That might interest you. Scott, you get the first word. William or Breu interests me a lot. I think I don't really get the lack of enthusiasm for him, particularly within prospect circles, since he still qualifies as a prospect. Great on base skills.

had a power breakout in the minors last year that carried over to the majors his swing seems well suited for power elevates and pulls the ball well and had a really good debut for the Red Soxie bats left-handed So there is a platoon risk there And I'm assuming he'll begin the year in a platoon

But if he breaks out of that platoon He could be a very surprising player for fantasy Do you want me to keep going or stop with him? That's fine Chris, a name or two I'll double up on twins. I like Alex Kiroloff and Max Kepler. I think, you know, obviously Kierloff has to stay healthy. Coming off shoulder surgery, the good news is, as far as I know, the surgery was very minor. It was a cleanup procedure in his shoulder. It didn't find any significant damage that they had

to repair. So hopefully, you know, he hit the ball pretty well last season. It's just obviously a question staying healthy. And then Kepler added like, what, 2.8 miles per hour to his average velocity last season, tightened up his launch angle, led to a career high, expected batting average. Like, he's always been someone who had to pull the, I can only hit for power if I sacrifice batting average thing. Last year showed some signs of changing that in a way that if he can back that up, could be really interesting. All right. I agree with you, Scott, on Williare Abrae. I had him written down here. Parker Meadows with the Tigers, he went nearly 20-20, back-to-back seasons in the miners. Obviously has some bloodlines there with Austin Meadows as well.

And Jose Siri, freakish tools, awesome fielder. He's got some power and speed. He's got some power and speed out rate. So it's a really bad batting average, but I do think there is some power and speed there from Jose Siri. Let's take our final break. When we return, we're going to go a little bit longer. We're going to talk about some news and notes. Some Hall of Fame stuff. We'll do that right after this. All right. Let's wrap up with some news and notes. And we did have a smaller move that we didn't get to yesterday. there might not be any analysis needed. The National signed Joey Gallo to a one year,

$5 million deal with $1 million in incentives. Does this matter at all, guys? It could. I mean, he's, if there's any team that offers him a chance to resuscitate his value, it's that one. They're going to play him, and we'll see how it goes. It's probably his last chance. Yeah, we did see, obviously, Jamer Candelario,

have a breakout season playing every day. Lane Thomas just did it as well. Yeah, he will get the opportunity. He starts the ball very hard, Gallo. He just doesn't hit it nearly enough. No, no, 43% strikeout rate last year. Completely untenable. Hopefully he can get that down a little bit.

Angels GM Perry Manassian said on Tuesday that Carlos Estevez remains the team's closer on paper even after signing Robert Stevenson. To that, I would say, plans change. Wasn't the quote officially, like, But that's ultimately the manager's decision. Yeah, that's exactly right. Find you someone who,

find you someone who loves you as much as Perry Menizian loves Carlos Estevez because he's been singing that tune ever since he signed him to the perplexion of everybody. Yeah, there have been three drafts completed at the NFBC since the Stevenson signing was announced. And his ADP is 207.3, Estabez 246.7.7. Stevenson is just kind of cruising on by, and I have a feeling that's going to continue to climb as well.

Speaking of the Angels bullpen, they signed Matt Moore to a one-year $9 million deal coming off surprisingly strong season for him. He does have 36 holds over the past two years. So for anyone who plays in a holds league or a league that has that category, Matt Moore might be a name you need to know. The Yankees are tentatively planning for Juan Soto to bet second and Aaron Judge to bet third in the lineup. Aaron Boone indicated that he,

He'd like to see DJ LaMayhew win the team's leadoff spot. Boone also mentioned Verdugo and Glaber Torres as potential leadoff candidates. Does this matter at all for you guys? Soto second, Judge, third. Wants Soto's going to be a monster this year. I mean, the amount of runs he's going to score batting ahead of Aaron Judge, that alone. In addition to the rebound, I expect him to have now that he's out of San Diego and in New York, It's just, it's, I think we're all going to look back and say we undervalued him.

Speaking of the Yankees, Brian Cashman said last week that Carlos Rodan has already reported to spring training and that Rodon quote looks really good physically. I saw a picture where he did look noticeably slimmer for whatever that's worth. And Scott, I know you wrote up Rodon in your sleepers 1.0. Rodon's ADP, this offseason 173.4. We all remember what he did in 21 and 22, where he pitched like a top 10, top 12 pitcher in fantasy baseball. It's just, can he get healthy once again here with the Yannis? Has he shaved the mustache? I feel like, I think the picture.

It was such a bad look for him. I think the picture I saw is he still had it. Okay. He looked like every dude in Bushwick. Like you go over to birdies and just every guy looks like that. It was not a good look for Carlos Rund. I really think he needs to get rid of it if he wants to succeed.

Hot take. Moustache is a bad look for every guy. Mastash alone. No other facial hair, just a mustache. There are some guys who can pull it off, but it's pretty rare. That sounds like words from someone who can't grow a mustache, Scott.

Ooh. Well, I do better under the nose than on the cheeks. I think I could get a decent mustache going. Well, there's only one way to prove me wrong, Scott. Dylan Seas is unlikely to be traded anytime soon, according to Mark Fentzand of MLB.com. Jonathan India could apparently see time at first base

and or left field this upcoming season. Just kind of adds more to the mystery, I guess, the Reds lineup. Hopefully not in Cincinnati. Right. The other Reds news, Nelvie Marte, who suffered a hamstring strain in the Dominican Winter League, will be ready for the start of spring training, so that's good.

Rangers prospect, Justin Foskew has a chance to break camp with the team according to Jeff Wilson of Rangers today. Foskew turns 25 in March. He's a former first round pick from back in 2020, has flashed some power and speed in the minors. I think more telling, Scott,

within that same article, this gentleman, Jeff Wilson, mentioned Wyatt Langford could be unlikely for opening day because the team doesn't want to start his career as a DH. What do you think? It would be unlikely for opening day.

It's an interesting phrasing there. The one knock on White Langford is that his defense isn't up to the standard of his offense. And given that the Rangers already have a full outfield, I could see that. I still think they could get creative. They could rotate everybody, all of their outfielder's through the DH spot

to give Wyatt Langford some. reps there. And the draft pick incentive, I think, is going to have the final say here. And I give Langford better than 50-50 odds of making the major league roster, though not much better than 50-50 odds. All right, Brian Beow has been working on commanding his slider during the off-season and plans on making it, quote, a significant part of his pitch mix this upcoming season. Tristan McKenzie told reporters that he's feeling great and has been slowly increasing

intensity this off season. Chris, both Bayo and McKenzie, I do think have some sleeper appeal, and they're both going outside the top 225 picks. Yeah, I mean, remember, McKenzie was a top 100 pick this time a year ago. So he's definitely someone that I like betting on as a very cheap bounce back candidate. Bayo, I don't know how much that's like, obviously a reliable third pitch is good for any pitcher, but his biggest issue, Last year was he just got demolished by left-handed batters. He gave up an 883 to LEPS to Lefties last year. Is a slider going to change that?

I'm not so sure. It's weird because- He has such a good change-up. Right, that's the thing, as you would think. I think the bigger problem is sinkers tend to be especially bad against same-handed or opposite-handed hitters, and he throws his sinker, I mean, less against lefties, but it was still a big problem both of his fastballs were.

So I don't know. It's just to say that I'm not sure that fixes his biggest issue. But 226 ADP is fine. Yeah, so the changeup against the lefties last year for Bayo, 248 batting average against 34.5% whiff rate. Here are the batting averages on his fastball, sinker, and slider. 333, 341, 370. 248, I want to consider.

great anyway. I mean, given the context. I think the expected Wobah against was like 280 or something, which is very good. That is very good. Next up, the Angels and Red Sox are in the bidding for free agent Adam Duval, which I don't love to hear because Scott, we both like Willie or Brayu. So do not want to see Adam Duval back with the Red Sox. The Brewers invited four of their top prospects to Major League spring training. Starting pitchers, Jacob Mizziarowski and Robert Gasser, plus infielder's Tyler Black and Brock Wilkin. Wilkins. and was a draft pick just last year. I think there's a real chance

that Tyler Black and Robert Gasser could both be on the Brewer's opening day roster. And those are names that need to be on your radar for fantasy. Does Gasser throw hard? Look, with a name like that, he can't fail. Actually, no. He's more of a...

He's more of a... I don't know what the term is, but... It's an ironic name. Self-tossing lefty. Yeah. All right. but he has pitched well at times in the minor, so I think he's probably a name that needs to be on radars. The Guardians invited Kyle Manzardo to Major League Spring Training.

He's expected to compete with Rule 5 draft edition, Davison de los Santos, who did have some big power in the minors, but struck out a lot. Lastly, guys, the Hall of Fame. I don't know. I don't know. We talk about it every year. Some people really get up in arms and all crazy about the Hall of Fame.

Congratulations to the newest editions. Adrian Beltray, Joe Maurer, and Todd Helton, obviously all very well deserving. I guess his Billy Wagner will probably be in next year. But truly a shame in my opinion that Gary Sheffield did not make it on his 10th year on the ballot. Yeah. Go ahead.

Sheffield watching him play, he was a Hall of Famer. There was no question when he was playing. It's just PEDs. And I get it if he wasn't as good as Mary Ramirez or Alex Rodriguez who are also not going to get into the Hall of Fame. So it's like, it's tough. Those guys failed. They actually got suspended.

Yeah. I mean, I think the Gary Sheffield PED, my understanding is the connection there is pretty thin. So he's admitted to it. He admitted to inadvertently taking something when he was training with Barry Bonds. Oh, okay. It was like a cream that was applied to an injured knee. Okay.

Well, I wasn't familiar with that. So that makes. I'm kind of surprised he got as close as he did if that's the case. Yeah, I mean, he's been closer than Manny or. And so that's the thing where it's like, Mani and Arod were better players, you know? I mean, he got that much closer than Sammy Sosa for good. Right.

Sammy Sosa, the connections are even more tenuous. Right. So, I mean, Gary Sheffield might have been the fiercest right hand, the most terrifying right-handed hitter of my life. Yeah. There are, I mean, you could put McGuire Sosa in there. Obviously, you could put Manny Ramirez, Albert Bell, Pujols. It's not even, but I think terrifying is the right word.

There were better right-handed hitters. Nobody was just as, like, as terrifying on like a gut level as Gary Sheffield in the box. And so much emphasis is on the strength and the power and the batwaggle and deservedly. but he was just such a good, like you go look at his strikeout to walk rates throughout his career. It's crazy. For having that batwaggle, he hardly ever struck out.

And he got on base so much. Just by on base skills, you could make a case for Gary Sheffield. On base skills and longevity, you could make a case for him as a Hall of Famer. And yeah, it's a shame that he, I didn't think he'd ever get as close as he did. And it's a shame that he came so close.

and didn't make it in on the final year. But just a moment to sell it. I mean, Adrian Beltray, there was no question that guy was getting in. And anybody who didn't think that guy was getting in, I find him and Joe Mower going into the Hall of Fame so fitting because they're like two completely divergent paths to the Hall of Fame. Like Adrian Beltray had basically one great season before he turned 30. He was in the majors as a 20-year-old, I think.

But he really only had like the one huge year. And then he had a couple of other very good years. But then, like, he turned 30 and was just like 850 OPS, 900 OPS every year with elite defense. He was an elite defensive player his whole career. Joe Maur was just so obviously blindingly brilliant in his 20s that he basically added nothing to his career after the age of 30. And he still got into the Hall of Fame. He's, I don't know if he's the best. hitting catcher of all time because Josh Gibson and Mike Piazza, but he's in the discussion

for sure. And I mean, winning three batting titles as a catcher is just bonkers. Only I think seven catchers have won a batting title. There have been seven catcher batting titles of all ever. And he has three of them. It's, Joe Maurer was one of my favorite players when he was when he was active. I thought he probably should have won at least two MVP awards. I think you can make a case. that he should have won a third one. The one Justin Moreno won, I think he probably should have won as well. He was so good.

And then Todd Helton, not just a course field thing. All right? This dude had like an 870 OPS away from course field or something in his career. He was an outstanding player. I'm so happy. I always want to see a bigger Hall of Fame class. I think we should have three or four players going in every year pretty much. And I'm thrilled.

that these three guys made it. Yeah, shout out to all three again. Adrian Beltray, Joe Maurer, Todd Helton, the newest editions of the MLB Hall of Fame. Let's hope Andrew Jones gets in next year. Let's go, Scottie. Andrew Jones. I'm with it.

Let's go. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we'll be back again next week. Bye-bye.