Fantasy Baseball Today - 2025 Bold Predictions! Bailey Ober for Cy Young!? (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Let's have some fun. Bold predictions for 2025. Up next on Fantasy Baseball, today in five. Welcome into FBT and 5 on Saturday, September 14th. I am, for example, joined by Scott White, and Scott actually has an article which is live on the website, CBS Sports.com, with 20 bold predictions for next season. I have chosen five of them.

Starting point is 00:00:22 Scott doesn't know which five I chose, so let's jump in. Of first, Spencer Schwellenbach is better than Spencer Strider. Yeah, this is one of those bold predictions that I'm not sure I actually believe, but I'm making a point here. I'm making a point that Spencer Schwellenbach legitimately has ace potential, just like Spencer Strider does. I'm not worried about Spencer Strider.

Starting point is 00:00:48 I don't want anybody to take this the wrong way. He didn't actually have ligament damage in that elbow, remember, just had a bone spur that was putting pressure on the ligament, ended up having... Internal bracing surgery. I think it'll be fine for opening day. I think it'll be good. But Schwellenbach has elite strike-throwing ability and elite swing and missability.

Starting point is 00:01:09 Since he began getting more swinging strikes in the second half, you take that rate, you take the overall strike percentage, and the only two pitchers who rank as high in those two categories is Schwellenbach down the stretch here. I've been Terik Scoobel and Shoda Imanaga. Next up, Lawrence Butler has a higher command. combined home run and stolen base total than James Wood. Yeah, so James Wood is going to get tons of height going into next season.

Starting point is 00:01:41 It was arguably the top prospect in baseball when he got called up and has looked fine here in his major league debut. But he does have a pretty big risk factor in a near 60% ground ball rate, which I'm sure he'll be able to overcome at some point in his career. Will it be next year? I can't say for sure, but I know he's going to be drafted a lot higher than Lawrence Butler, who to me has just as much upside, arguably, since July 1st, 326 batting average, 19 home runs, 10 steals at 1043 OPS. And while I might have dismissed it in the past for Lawrence Butler because of the swing and miss in his game, it's only like an 18% strikeout rate since July 1st. So it seems to me like Butler's just overcome.

Starting point is 00:02:28 I think the discount will make him the more appealing pick. At this time last year, Scott predicted Terrick Scoobel to win the AL-Sai-Young Award in 2024. Well, Scott, looks like you're going to be right about that one. Next up, Bailey Ober wins the AL-Sy Young Award next season. Yeah, so I'm, before you reach for that wallet, I'm not quite as confident in this over-pick as I was in the Scoobill pick at this time of year ago. Bailey Ober, I do think, has the ability to contend for that Tsayang Award.

Starting point is 00:03:06 So he has, he's a proven strike thrower. He's also really good at hip prevention because of how many weak fly balls he allows. It all adds up to him being a whip standout and in turn an ERA standout. There have been a couple starts this year where things just kind of spiraled on him and he ended up with really ugly stat lines, if you take away his first start of the season and you take away the nine-run disaster that happened here just a couple weeks ago,

Starting point is 00:03:39 take away just those two stars for Bailey Ober. He has a 285 ERA and a 0.88 whip on the year. And this is for like a big six-foot-nine guy who was built to take on a lot of innings and has started to pitch deeper into games. So I think he takes that to another level next year and winds up being a true ace. Next up, Garret Crochet also wins a Syung Award,

Starting point is 00:04:04 but Garer Crochet pitches in the AL. Explain yourself. I'll explain myself. He gets traded, and he gets traded to an NL team. Obviously, that's the only way he and Ober could both win a Sy Young Award. So I think the White Sox would be just totally foolish not to trade Garer Crochet this offseason. They basically kept him in bubble wrap. The entire second half, I think, because they know they need to preserve his value.

Starting point is 00:04:34 He's only two years for free agency. And he's considered an ace caliber pitcher right now. So they need to cash in on that. If he gets hurt at any point during this two-year window, he's going to lose so much trade value. They've got to take advantage of this offseason. And just playing the odds, you know, there are 15 NL teams they could trade them to, only 14 NL teams they could trade. trade him too. So I think

Starting point is 00:04:59 betting here he goes to the NL and he just continues to do what he did here in in 2024 which is lead all starting pitchers in K-minus walk rate and X-Fit. Last but not least, we usually talk about prospects on this bonus episode.

Starting point is 00:05:17 Jackson Job, Quinn Matthews, and Bubba Chandler all make the opening day roster for their respective teams. Yeah, so again, those names are Jackson Job of the Tigers, Quinn Matthews of the Cardinals, and Bubba Chandler of the Pirates. Jackson Job, you're probably plenty familiar with.

Starting point is 00:05:35 He was regarded as one of the top pitching prospects even coming into this season. But Quinn Matthews and Bubba Chandler have seen their stock tick off this year. And I make this comparison. These three are in a similar situation. They're pitchers, obviously, as the three hitters, the three stud hitting prospects, who made the opening day roster last year, White Langford, Jackson Chorio. and Jackson Merrill. It's, of course, harder to justify a pitcher on an opening day roster than a hitter because you run into workload concerns down the line if they're accumulating

Starting point is 00:06:09 like a starter from the very start of the year. But we saw the pirates do it with Jared Jones. And I think if Jackson, Job, Quinn Matthews, and Bubba Chandler make a strong enough impression next spring. We'll see it for them too. Again, if you want to read more bold predictions, you could find them on the website, CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, You can listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today and Five, and we will be back again next week. Bye-bye.

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Fantasy Baseball Today - 2025 Bold Predictions! Bailey Ober for Cy Young!? (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

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