Fantasy Baseball Today - 2025 Outfield Tiers! Jurickson Profar to the Braves! (1/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

Let's jump into outfield tiers (4:53)! Any concern with Juan Soto and Kyle Tucker in new locations? ... Should Jackson Chourio get drafted in the early-mid second round (13:55)? ... Why is James Wood in a tier above Wyatt Langford (21:35)? ... There are 19 names in the Next Best Things tier (32:17)! ... News (43:45): Jurickson Profar is signing a three-year deal with the Braves! ... Should Steven Kwan and Jasson Dominguez be higher than the fallback options (55:00)? ... Which names stand out in the Last Resorts tier (1:01:36)? 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

and welcome into fantasy baseball today on January 24th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we are breaking down all the outfield tiers, even the ones that have 19 names in them. And I don't know if I should read them. I asked Scott beforehand, he didn't really give me an answer. So we'll figure out. I said, I'm not doing your job for you, Frank.

That was my answer. All right, then we're reading 19 names in an outfield tier today. We also got some news jerks and pro far to the Atlanta Braves. Scott, how pumped are you? Reasonably pumped. It was nice to see them actually add something this offseason after losing. You know, Charlie Morton, Jorge Saler, Travis Darno, AJ Mentor, probably somebody else I'm forgetting. And it's like, are we going to try next year?

So they got Jerks and Pro Far. They're making a little bit of an effort there. Hey, they added Brian Dela Cruz. Yeah, who might. He's not even on like a guaranteed contract. They only have to start Jared Kelnick until Ronald de Kunu is ready to go. So that's good.

You probably want me to bring this back to fantasy because that's what the people are here for. Well, we were going to break it down later on in the podcast, Scott. I was just generally asking if you were pumped about it. Unless you really want to talk about it now. As a fan, I am probably irrationally excited about it. As a, for fantasy baseball purposes, I am trying not to let this change my perspective. Though some details that came out with the news of the signing do kind of change my perspective a little bit.

But I guess we'll call that a tease for when we talk about it later. There you go. Professional broadcaster, Scott White. That is a sneak peek for later on when we get to the news and notes. But let's jump right into the outfield tiers. I did want to mention up top, Scott, I noticed that you included U-Til-only players in your outfield tiers, which makes some sense because I don't think you're going to just make tiers for U-Til-only players.

There are a good amount of U-Til-only guys that are going to be started in fantasy leagues this year, and you can see them within these tiers. So I didn't put all of them in here. Actually, Kyle Manzardo, I teared him with the first. first baseman, which you may remember bringing him up on that show. And so what I chose to do with the DH-only players is I tiered them at the position where they're most likely to gain eligibility no matter what, no matter how unlikely it is, the position where they're most likely to gain it. So most of them are in the outfield, yes. Well, let's get into the outfield tiers, and we will

start with the first rounders. And there are a lot of awesome outfielders here. And of course, Shohay Otani, who is up at the top. Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Kyle Tucker, Muki Betz, Corbyn, Carol, Fernando Tatis, Julio Rodriguez, and Yordon Alvarez. Of the top 17 picks in NFBC ADP in January, eight of those have outfield eligibility and some big moves this offseason. Juan Soto signed with the Mets, of course, Kyle Tucker traded over to the Cubs. Also, Otani underwent a procedure to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder back in November. He is expected to be ready as a hitter by spring training, but not expected to pitch on opening day. Lots of moving parts with this early tier. First, and we brought this up yesterday, I just want to reiterate, maybe

someone's only listening to this podcast for the first time. You guys are good with Otani as a top three pick this season, despite the surgery, correct? Oh yeah, top three easily. I still have them number one for Roto and number two for points. I'm, I've been hedging on that for months since we first learned about the shoulder surgery, and I haven't made the move yet to downgrade him, but dropping him below three. I don't see any pat. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Just wanted to make sure there. Chris, any pause with Soto or Tucker in new places? So Soto, the first year of a mega contract, the biggest in baseball history, on a new team. It doesn't always work out right away. I'm not doubting the talent of either of these players. I think they're both awesome. It's just sometimes weird things happen when awesome players go to new places.

Do you have any pause whatsoever for Soto or Kyle Tucker? Soto, I think the biggest thing is city field plays very similarly to Petco Park. Big power alleys, not a great like weather environment. So we have seen Juan Soto struggle relatively while playing in Petco Park. So I could see a scenario where he only hits 260 with only 35 homers and a bunch of runs in RBI, which is basically what he did in 2023, if I'm remembering correctly. It was about 260. 275, actually.

275, 33 homers? 35. So like, he was awesome still, 930 OPS. Yeah, like that's the thing is like, okay, the downside is he's still a top 25 hitter. I don't really have too much concern about that. about that. Tucker, Chicago's not a great place to hit, but it's he's such a good hit. Like this is not an East Sock Perretti situation, right? Where you worry about the park holding him back.

I suppose maybe he could lose a few homers, but with the growth that Kyle Tucker has shown as a hitter over the past couple of seasons, especially with the improved plate discipline, that plays anywhere. the Cubs will have a pretty good lineup, not an elite one, but not much worse than Houston. So I don't really have much concern there. And Tucker's playing for a contract too. If you buy into that, I know some people don't,

but we have seen in previous years talented players run more in their contract years. Willie Adomis did it last year. Aaron Judge did it a couple of years ago. So just throwing it out there. For those who might have checked out in the second half of the season, you know, fantasy football started up, all that fun stuff,

they might be wondering why Corbyn Carroll and Julio Rodriguez are included in this first round tier. I will remind you that Corbyn Carroll from June on hit 250 with 20 home runs, 26 steals, and an 849 OPS. And Julio Rodriguez, he definitely had a downseason. You know, he didn't have this, you know, three-month bounce back like Carroll did. But over his final 29 games, he hit 3.49 with nine home runs, six steals, and a 983 OPS. Scott, it sounds like for both of those guys, Corbyn, Julio, you're not worried you're including them in this first round here yeah that's especially true for corbin carroll since we actually did see him bounce back i i don't have a way of looking it up easily

now that the the product is rolled over to 2025 but my recollection is he was the top 25 outfielder from early june on i mean i'm sorry a top five outfielder corbin carroll from early june on once he once things clicked into place for him and uh i i have I think of nothing else his performance during that time, put to rest concerns about his shoulder and it impacting his performance. Julio Rodriguez, I think he's the 2023 version is probably closer to what we're going to get than the 2024 version. I do, as I brought up before when we were talking about him, I do think the way we were drafting him in 2023 and last.

year was kind of presuming that the good version, we would get the good version all season long. And I'm not presuming that anymore with him. I think it's been three years or four years of him getting off to miserable starts. And then surging during the middle months down the stretch to kind of redeem his stats. But I don't think we're going to get that surging Julio Rodriguez year round. I just don't think. I don't think the math necessarily supports it. I will say, I don't know if you guys agree,

I think Carol's the higher floor player. I think Julio's still the higher ceiling player. Because I do think even the good version of Corbyn Carroll, there's a lot of batting average risk there that I don't think the good version of Julio Rodriguez has because the quality of contact for Julio is so much better that even though Carlin Carroll actually does make more contact, I think he's just going to tend to be a lower Babbitt guy. Or if he's not a lower Babbitt guy, he's going to be a lower power guy.

So I think it's going to be tougher for Corby and Carroll to do both of those things. And I think Julio has a better path to being a true five category guy. I think that's fair. I think the skill set could be more well-rounded for someone like Julio, especially the batting average, 273 or higher all three years. So that seems pretty safe in his profile with Carol. He does have a really high floor just because of the speed. You're pretty much banking on 35-40 plus steals.

Yeah, yeah. This was the best offense in baseball last year. The D-Backs had the best, you know, most runs scored in baseball. Yes, they lost Christian Walker. They also brought in Josh Naylor. So not exactly the same player, but Josh Naylor is really good, too. We're not going to talk about every single player in this year. Like I mentioned for the other ones, position previews are coming up.

where we will, you know, be able to talk about every player more extensively. Let's take our first break. Before we do that, download and follow our shorter podcast, Fantasy Baseball Today Express, if you haven't already. It's usually a condensed version of this podcast, 8 to 10 minutes. We usually go live 20 minutes, sometimes a half an hour, sometimes an hour, I don't know. Sometimes we just hang out and talk and then we start it up eventually. But if you want to watch that live, we do eventually go live with that here on the YouTube channel.

Again, that's Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Let's take our first break when we return back into Outfield Tiers right after this. Welcome back in, Outfield Tiers. The also elite tier includes Jaron Duran, Jackson Churio, Jackson Merrill, Ronald Acuna, and Jazz Chisholm, Power, and Speed in this tier. We got breakout seasons from Duran, Churio, Merrill,

and Jazz last year. We know Acuna has massive upside, but is returning from another torn ACL. He has torn the ACL in both of his season. needs now and sounds like he will not be ready for opening day. Based on January ADP, one of these names is being elevated above the rest. And that is Jackson Trio with an ADP of 17.3. Basically the same ADP as Yordon Alvarez. He's going five picks ahead of Duran, seven ahead of Jazz, nine picks ahead of Merrill, and 13 picks ahead of Ronald Acuna. Scott,

what do you think about that price tag, that current price tag on Jackson Trio? I think it reflects an outdated drafting model that people need to to adjust. It's over-emphasizing stolen bases, and there's no need to do that anymore. They're plentiful. They're available at all stages of the draft. You don't have to elevate the base Steelers in the early rounds beyond the non-base dealers just because you're afraid they're all going to run out.

Now, Jack Centurio could certainly end up living up to that if he's exactly who he was from June 1st on last year. If we do the same thing we had been doing with Julio Rodriguez for his entire career and just assume, okay, it was this for the final four months. So he's going to be that for six months next year. Or Corby and Carroll just now. Yeah. Well, I mean, Corbyn Carroll has done it for a year before.

Yeah, he had the record season. But yeah, if we do that with Jackson Churio, or if he just, you know, he's so young, he's entering into his age 21 season, right? Like if he just takes a step forward developmentally, There's certainly a path for him to produce like a first rounder. And I hate instances like this where the trendy, exciting player just gets pushed beyond a point where I'm willing to go. And so then I have to say all the negative things about him because, like, yeah, I mean, Jackson Churio, definitely someone to get excited about. but to put him, to draft him ahead of tried and true, consistently performing first rounders

just seems like an unnecessary risk. And I don't, as I've said before, I don't think whatever advantage Jackson Turo has over Jackson Merrill, I don't think it's big enough that they need to go as far apart as they are. So I have them tiered together and I'm much more likely to draft Merrill. The one thing I would say about Churio is he, might be a 300 hitter. Like he has, you know, that's what he did from June 1st on, or June 3rd on, I think technically you have to,

you have to fudge it just a little bit to get him over there. But he has the quality of contact skills, the contact quantity skills as well to be a legitimate help in batting average in a way that you often have to sacrifice. Like speed, we talk about it a ton. Speed is plentiful throughout the draft. It almost always comes with a sacrifice, either power or batting average, often both, later in the draft. Jackson Turyo is a guy who legitimately could steal 40 bases and hit 300 and hit 25 to 30 homers.

That's where I think you can start to get really, really excited about him. but I mostly agree that like the gap between him and Jackson Merrill probably shouldn't be as big as it is. And I wrote a 2026 first rounders piece for the FBT newsletter that came out on Thursday morning. And both that was that was cool. I read it. I liked it. Thank you. Both Jackson Churio and Jackson Merrill were on there.

I think you can make a case that Jackson Merrill just as a pure hitter is ahead of Jackson Churio right now. Yeah. I make that case every time we talk about the two of them. The problem is to play discipline, he makes a lot of contact. He also just swings at a lot of bad pitches, and it's a testament to his skill that he's able to hit as well as he does. He doesn't walk much. And he was an okay base stealer last year,

but doesn't have the athletic ability that Jackson Churio does. So I think it's a little easier to dream on Jackson Churio. and because Merrill's a lefty and because he's such a free swinger, I could see a step back, but like, I think you can also see a Christian Yellich type outcome very quickly for Jackson Merrill if he pushes towards 25 steals and improves the swing decisions a little more. There's a ton to like with both of these guys.

The NFBC ADP for Jackson Merrill in January is 26.1. and I think he's quickly becoming just my third round strategy, him or one of the third baseman, Austin Riley, Devers, Mani Machado, I think any of those three plus Jackson Merrill, I would be happy to have any of them in the third round, and I feel really good about all of them. So, yeah, really, really warming up to Jackson Merrill here at his cost. I did just want to, again, touch on Acuna real quick.

His ADP in the month is 30.5, and it's very fluid. We just don't really know right now. Scott has Acuna 28th overall. I have him 24th. Chris, you have him 21st. If Acuna plays in the spring, maybe it sounds like he'll miss the first two weeks, maybe the first month.

You know, the ADP could maybe creep up a little bit. If it turns out he's going to miss six weeks, the first two months of the season, then this ADP could drop. So it's just a very fluid situation right now regarding Ronald Acuna. And on that note, as part of the pro far signing today,

the athletic, David O'Brien and Dennis Lynn. I think that's the Padres and Braves or Braves and Padres, respectively, B-Wriders for them. They did note that Ronald O'CUNY Jr. is expected to miss the first month or so of the season while recovering from ACL surgery on his left knee. And the Braves are expected to be more cautious with his workload in the first year back from surgery than they were in 2022 when he struggled at times with inflammation and uncertainty after his right ACL surgery. This is left ACL. So, you know, we've talked a lot about the timetable and how much slower it is. It does sound like they are being significantly more cautious.

I still think that there's a chance he beats that timetable, but it's starting to look more and more like Ronald Cunia is going to certainly miss some time. So I'm moving him down a little bit. Yeah, I mean, the fact that he's going to miss time and now they're talking about being more cautious, what does that mean? him sitting out once a week, maybe twice a week. I don't think we really know. So it's intentionally vague.

Yeah. Because I imagine it'll have to do with how he's feeling. He played through a lot of pain that first year back from the first torn ACL, which is why his number suffered so much, particularly in the power department. And how does he look this time too, right? Yeah. And what's the skill? Yeah.

He's struggled. They are. As Chris said, they're building in more time this time. So he'll basically have rested and rehabbed a month longer when he returns from this ACL surgery than the last one. All right. Let's talk about the near elite tier. And that includes Kyle Schwerber and Marcel O'Suna. Both of those are Util only.

We're not expecting them to get outfield eligibility this upcoming season. But we had to mention them somewhere. So they are here. James Wood and Christian Yellich, who is one tier lower in a categories league. Schwabber and Ozuna, well-established sluggers. Wood was one of the top prospects in baseball. He has a ton of upside. And Yelich was great when he played last season. But he ended the year on the IL. He had back surgery and he should be ready for spring training. The January ADP ranges rounds five through nine with James Wood on the high end and Christian Yelich towards the bottom at 10780P. It sounds like NFBC players are playing at cautious with Yelich because there are no IL spots. And, you know, that's that's typically. how things go over there. Scott, why did you choose to put James Wood in this tier ahead of names like O'Neill Cruz and Wyatt Langford who are in the next tier? Well, I think O'Neill Cruz is pretty

straightforward. He's gotten the benefit of the doubt in the past and has fallen short of it, fallen short of our grand hopes enough times that I'm giving him less benefit of the doubt this time that he's going to live up to his potential. We haven't seen much improvement with the strikeout rate, for instance. Wyatt Langford is harder to say. I know they're being drafted similarly. I don't, I haven't been inclined to draft them similarly myself,

but I'm open to it because I'm struggling to explain why. I think this goes back to presumptions I made in October that, oh, well, James Wood, obviously he had a good show. as a rookie. He was, thought there's a lot of enthusiasm for him. He's going to be that guy that gets all the helium on draft day. So I better put him here. Wyatt Langford, he let everybody down last year. I know he had a strong finish, but he's, everybody's going to be gun shy after investing so much in him last year. So he's going to go here. And it turns out that's not the case. I mean, Wood, yeah, there's plenty of enthusiasm for him, but there's still just as much

enthusiasm for Langford. So that may be something I have to look at again. Yeah, the ADP in January just wanted to quickly mention Wyatt Langford, 45.3, James Wood 51.3. So, Wyatt Langford actually moving ahead of him. Go ahead, Chris. I do want to point out with regards to James Wood and O'Neill Cruz that if you give them the same number of games. So James Wood pace out to 146 games, keep O'Neill Cruz's numbers the same. Cruz had four more home runs and four fewer steals. It would have been 14 fewer caught stealing for O'Neill Cruz because he was only caught once. James Wood was caught eight times on 22 attempts.

James Wood struck out more often. Batting average basically identical. RBI numbers right on runs a little in Wood's favor. He's going to be a better O'BP guy based on what he did as a rookie. But based on what Wood did as a rookie, he was basically just O'Neill Cruz. Now, O'Neill Cruz is 25 or 26. O'Neill Cruz is old news, Chris. Well, yeah, a little bit.

Yeah, and James Wood, we expect to be ascending. But as O'Neill Cruz shows us, it's not always that simple. And James Wood has a lot of the same flaws as O'Neill Cruz and a very similar physical build. James Wood's a little beefier, but they're both what, six, seven, right? I wouldn't even call James Wood. beefy. He looks kind of frail. I mean, who am I to say? But, you know, frail. He's got a weird. He's kind of skinny. Like, I don't, I, I thought he would be. Grail seems like a sad word. He's weird because he was not the right word. There's a part of him that looks like a, like a slightly

leaner Josh Bell, but he's got like a similar body shape to Josh Bell where he's like, he's obviously super athletic, but he's, it's weird. Anyway, I, I view them very similarly. I actually do have Cruz a little bit ahead of wood and I have wood closer to Langford but I think it's fine I'm applying more projection to wood than Cruz and that's hard to quantify it's just

like he was more highly regarded coming up through the miners he impressed more immediately than O'Neill Cruz did he's at this point four years younger than Cruz as you said and just he just hasn't had as many misstep along the way as Cruz.

Cruz is nearing like the primers. He should be a finished product now and he feels like he isn't. And I will say with James Wood, not at all optimized. Like his swing is kind of a mess, or at least it was last year. puts way too many on the ground, yeah.

And the whole run is pretty much. He was late on a lot. Like he was hitting the ball all over the field and not in a way that felt intentional. One, two, three, four. And yet he was still on a almost 20 and 25 pace. Seven of his nine home runs were to the opposite field. Yeah, he didn't elevate a ball to the pull side until like his 40th game or something.

That's a testament to his power too. I mean, the fact that he could just go the other way and mash home runs like that too. But you're right. I mean, James Woods swing is not optimized for power yet. if he does make slight tweaks, I mean, he could hit 30 home runs as soon as this upcoming season. Obviously, no one would, you know.

Couldn't hit 40. No one would be surprised by that. Two things, obviously, me saying O'Neill Cruz is old news, I was just being facetious. He's still young enough where he can improve. I do worry about the strikeouts and struggles against lefties in his career. And I do give permission to James Wood

and all Nationals fans out there to roast me in the comments and tweet at me because, like, who am I to talk about frailness? Like, look at these arms. What's going on here? So, yeah, that was definitely a misspeak on my part. Did want to bring up the U-Til-only guys here because, I mean, we talked about them earlier in the off-season, Chris. But, again, people are kind of flocking back in.

Football's over. Everyone's getting excited about baseball, spring training coming soon. What do we think about the price tag on the U-Till-only guys? The ADP in January, Ozuna 66, Brent Rooker at right around pick 70, and Schwerber at 70.5. it's so funny because as soon as you see one of these guys go, you know the other two are about to go. It's just like, oh, crap, it's time to take the Utah only guys. And that's how I rank it,

but I have at Ozuna at 51, Rooker at 56, Schwerber at 57. So I'm just higher. I think I'm higher on Jordan Alvarez as well. He's not Util only. Who's the other? Otani. There's just one more, right? A little lower.

A lot lower. They're Staten, Yoshita and Joe Peterson. Just those three then. I think they're all, I'll gladly take them. And a big part of it, we've mentioned this many times before. So for those of you who aren't tuning in, who have been tuning in across,

I'm going to say something we've said a million times this off season already, but at least a third of your standard 12 team league are going to be using a util only player every week. At least, that's not counting John Carlos Stanton, who probably should be started at least when he, he's healthy and I think they're being downgraded a bit too much. Like if you're willing to take Shohei O'Ton, like, I get it.

It is frustrating to have your util spot filled in the fifth round. And then you get to a point in your draft where, oh, man, the best player is a shortstop and I've already got a short stop and a middle infielder. Like, I get that. That's frustrating. Your lineup's going to change. Guys are going to get hurt. A lot of guys are going to get hurt in the first month of the season.

So, like, you have to keep in mind that you're open. winning day lineup. Your draft lineup is not the lineup you're going to play throughout the season. And specifically with Brent Rooker, I think it's worth noting. He had a forearm injury last year that kept him from playing the outfield. I think the last time he played the outfield was like mid-May. But he had, I think, nine or ten appearances in the outfield in that first like month or so of the season. So he had that surgery. They've already said they expect him to play more outfield this season. I think Brent Rooker is very likely to have outfield eligibility by the end of April. He's just got to play 20% of their first month games in the outfield. You might do that in two weeks.

Even if it's not April, I think sometime in May. But yeah, it should happen. The other side of the coin with your lineup's going to change is your lineup could change in a way that, oh, you picked up this first baseman who's now must start and you have no place to play. and the utility spot is clogged by a must-star player. And so it just hamstrings you all season long. Sure. That doesn't change the overall point. I mean, the util-only or DH-only players have been being undervalued since the days of David Ortiz.

So, like, this is something we go through every year with who happens to qualify there. It's interesting, in our mock drafts consistently, these values are not happening. No. Well, that's because of us. We keep taking. Well, I haven't. I'd like to, but I never get a chance because somebody else always does. Like, they usually go in quick succession, those three.

Yeah. And it's round four or five, usually. So the people we get to draft with us do not buy into downgrading the DH only guys. Yeah, I will just point out with Swarber, because in our head-dead points mocked the other day, I took him in the fourth round because he is truly elite in that format. The batting average should be lower, but he walks up. much. He's a lead off hitter, so he gets extra played appearances. He's going to score a ton of runs, hit a lot of home runs. And I also wanted to mention just all three of these guys finish as top

21 overall players in Roto last season. And they're going in the 60s. So it's, yeah, that's the thing is they're already discounted. Yeah. Look, we're not expecting them to, I guess, be nearly like, they're not going to be as good, I don't think, as last year. But, you know, can they be top the most bankable top 40, top 50 players and you're getting them in the 60s. Yeah, I feel pretty good about that. So my draft strategy, Jackson, Merrill in the third round, Util only in the fourth or fifth if I could pull that off. There you go.

It's coming together. The next best things tier, buckle up. We have 19 names. Scott has pressured me, so I'm going to read all of them. And starting with O'Neill Cruz, Teaska Hernandez, Brent Rooker, who is U-Till-only, could gain outfield eligibility early next season. Michael Harris, Wyatt Langford, Anthony, Santander, Mike Trout, Luis Robert, Lawrence Butler, Brian Reynolds, Sayas Suzuki, Riley Green, Cody Bellinger,

Brenton Doyle, Spencer Steer, Randy Orozerana, Brendan Nemo, Dylan Cruz, and Ian Hap. There you have it. All right, everyone at home, say those names again, there will be a quiz. Yes. Someone in the comments yesterday asked, why don't we put up a graphic? I agree. I mean, it would be a nice thing to do, but what you see is what you get on this podcast. Why don't you do more work? I mean, you know, I could. I could do more work, but it's, you know, the three of us here are producing this podcast and just share your screen and scroll through the rundown. That might not be the worst idea, I guess, but... I think it's a pretty bad idea. I'm not going to do it. All right, well, let's talk about this tier. Doyle and Dylan Cruz are one tier lower in head-to-head points leagues, and there are... Hmm. Look, with any sample of 19 names, there are many different shapes, sizes, skill sets, and experience levels in this tier. I will,

quickly address some off-season stuff to happen. To Oscar Hernandez back to the Dodgers, Brent Rooker had surgery to clean up a forearm extensor injury, expected to be fully healthy for spring training. Also, Rooker and Lawrence Butler and the rest of the A's will be playing their home games in a minor league ballpark in Sacramento. Santander signed with the Blue Jays, and Cody Bellinger was traded over to the Yankees.

Scott, why is this tier so big? That's the way the position breaks down, Frank. The last tier was teeny tiny. There's kind of a gap between the elites at the position. And these players who are all, I expect to be quality starters, but I don't expect them to put up elite numbers. Some of them, of course, have the potential to. If O'Neill Cruz finally breaks through,

if Michael Harris stays healthy and maybe creeps up the lineup in a more permanent way, Wyatt Langford follows through on that big September. Mike Trout is healthy miraculously. If Louise Robert can overcome everything that plagued them last year, then they could end up rising above this tier, but they all have downside concerns too that puts them here. And so that's why they end up getting tiered with the very steady, limited ceiling but very high floor types like Brian Reynolds and

Brandon Nemo Brandon Nemo yeah Spencer spear yeah of the names you just mentioned the one who's stock improved the most this offseason in fact this is the only reason he's in this tier is Cody bellinger yes though you're more likely to draft him at first base what Yankee Stadium is the most optimal place he could have gone if there's any venue that can salvage a left-handed slugger with diminishing exit velocities. It's that one. And so that's why I feel like Bellinger gets tiered higher because of it. But again, you're probably drafting him to play first base.

Chris, ideally the names in this tier, we'll point out the ADP range is rounds four through 12. O'Neill Cruz on the high end and Dylan Cruz at the bottom down at pick 135. Ideally, you want these as your outfield two, outfield three, or are you okay if you wait until the fourth or fifth round, one of these guys being your outfield one. The way my drafts are going, it's almost never going to be the case that any of these guys are my outfield one. You like outfielders, huh? I think it's more likely they'll be my outfield three or four. It's hard to a draft.

I mixed up the words in my head just then. It's hard to avoid drafting an outfielder in the first two rounds. You almost have to try to do that. Eight of the first 17 picks in ADP, I heard, are outfielders. So, yeah, a 50-50 chance of getting at least one. And honestly, I think I took two in the points league mock draft. Yeah, it's tough. And like, it's tough, especially in a league where you only have three outfield spots because then it's like, well, I don't want to fill that third one too quickly.

But it's also like, yeah, but if you get Fernando Tatis and Yon-Avres at the end of the first round, it's like, well, I don't really care that I filled my two outfield spots because I got awesome players. So, you know, it all depends. But yes, it is hard to see an outcome where any of these guys are my number one outfielder this season. And it's more likely they're a third or fourth. Scott, give me your favorite to target and most likely to fade from these 19 names. Well, the whole idea of tears is that my favorite to target is the last one left. But putting that aside, I really like Lawrence Butler. He's going to be the headliner of my breakouts 1.0 coming out.

And his cost is kind of in the middle of this group where I rank him. But he's at the end of the more upside types at the top of the tier. He might be like third or fourth in price among this group now. He's up to like 65 in January. 65 in January, yep. Yeah, it's... The only ones ahead of him are Cruz, Langford, Tay Oscar Hernandez, it looks like. Yeah.

So I have him more like 75 to put it into context. And it's still totally believable that you could get him at 75. Yeah. But yeah, he's so maybe not necessarily from a value standpoint, but just from an, I'm excited about, I'm excited to see what comes next from him. Because he was just a total stud from July on last year, cut way down on the strikeouts. And was a monster at everything. And, yeah, it's, it's, I think. I think there's potentially a very high ceiling there for Butler.

Chris, just give me some names. Favorites to Target from this tier and maybe one that you're most likely to fade. I think Dylan Cruz is going to be really good. I don't know if that's a hot take anymore. It feels like people aren't as excited as they should be. He was not good last year. And his professional production has been a little underwhelming. But the process stuff is unilaterally excellent.

He has really good swing decisions. he makes a lot of contact. He's a borderline elite athlete, and he just has to make small improvements, tap into the raw power that we know is there a little bit more. And I think Dylan Cruz is one of those guys who could absolutely be a top 25 pick this time next year. If you want another name,

the guy who's most likely to be the last drafted from this tier, and so I'm going to get him very often, it's Brandon Nimmo, who's in my sleepers 1.0. He has twice over now shown he's a 20 homer guy. He added steals to the mix last year. His batting average plummeted, and I assume that's why he's getting passed over, but it's an outlier for his career,

and there's not really a great explanation for it other than just health stuff. So I think his batting average nimmo is going to bounce back in a big way, and he's going to be a five-category guy for the first time. For me, I think it's, I'm going back to the Sayas Suzuki. Well, once again, he hit 283, 21 home runs. 16 Seals 848 OPS in 132 games last season. If he could just avoid that one IL trip with the oblique injury,

he's done that the past couple of years. If we get a full season, 25 plus homers, 15 to 20 steals, good batting average, 8.50-ish OPS, started running more last year. So yeah, I'm a fan of Sayas Suzuki in that round 8 to 10 range as my, usually my outfieler too. And O'Neill Cruz in the fourth round, I just don't love the cost. he absolutely could make me look foolish this season but I still worry about the strikeouts

and struggles against lefties and Mike Trout look this is the cheapest you've ever been able to get him his ADP is 125 I understand that has not been able to stay healthy two meniscus surgeries last season I can't trust it I can't Mike Trout has I think like

six seasons left on his contract geez he's gonna play a full season, like 145 games in one of them. Right? Like that's a 17% change. I don't know. Like, we do think of every guy who can't stay healthy. Eventually does.

Like, Cotel Marte has played, I think, 140 games, three straight years. That was the big knock on him. He can't stay healthy. John Carlos Stanton played like 157 games two years in a row. There is going to be a point where Mike Trout stays healthy. for long enough to be a massive, massive win at his price. Because I don't think, do you guys have any doubt that he's still a, I don't know, probably not a first round caliber player,

although he did start stealing bases again last year. I don't have any doubt that a healthy Mike Trout is one of the 25 best players in fantasy still. It's probably a pick I'll be thrilled to make in a like a 12-team points league. where only 250 players are drafted and the waiver wire is ample. But then in a 15 team, Roto League, five outfielders, 450 players being drafted or whatever it is. Not much of a waiver wire to speak of.

Rather not take the chance. Agreed. All right. Let's take our final break. When we return, we'll hit some news and then back into the Outfield tiers right after this. Welcome back in news and notes.

All right, Scott, your brazener on the board. We mentioned it. They're signing jerks and ProFAR to a three-year, $42 million. deal. ProFar is coming off a career year where he hit 280, 24 home runs, 10 seals, an 839 OPS. He finished 36th overall in Roto. He averaged 3.2 fantasy points per game that was tied for 10th among outfielders. The big question here, can he come anywhere

close to this mid-career breakout? Scott, what do you think about that? And anything else that you were teasing earlier? Yeah, so I've given my take a few times. We might have more people here now, but I don't want to draft Jurekson ProFAR but the total dismissiveness of his breakthrough season is so complete. People drafting him

almost as if it never even happened outside of the top 200. It's the opposite of Lawrence Butler. It is the opposite of Lawrence Butler. And it's like, okay, well, I guess I'll be the guy that gambles on him coming 80 percent of the way there, you know, because the price is just so ridiculously low. And I wrote about him in Sleepers 1.0.

It seemed ridiculous to have to call him a sleeper after he had just by far the best season of his 11-year career, but the cost is so low, people are sleeping on his potential, clearly. And what I said in there is that there's really been no explanation for why he improved so much. underlying numbers back it up, but there's really been no explanation what changed. And I meant that sincerely, I Googled it to death and couldn't find any explanation. But explanations have come out with this signing

about him working with Fernando Tatis Sr. To tweak his swing, he, among changes he made, he added a leg kick to his swing. And basically, he was able to increase his exit velocity four and a half miles per hour.

This tweet from Robert Orr, who writes for baseball prospectus, pro far is fascinating because he basically Xeroxed his entire batted ball spread and plate discipline profile from the previous three years. He just added four and a half miles per hour to everything. Turns out that made a pretty big difference. And that sums it up. And now we have this explanation. Apparently Fernando Tatis also worked with Ronald Acuna

before his MVP season. and remember we saw the drastic reduction in strikeouts from him that year. So he seems to have a reputation here for helping maximize hitter outcomes. And if it sticks with pro far, you know, that just, it's just that little, little bit of something to make me say,

okay, maybe this is sustainable. Obviously, the Braves were willing to buy in for three years, 42 million. Not a small investment. You know, they didn't.

And they didn't have an overloaded one year deal, which they could have done. I could have seen like a one year 17 and been like, oh, okay, we're not sure on this one. Yeah. Right. We'll see. We'll see now that he's signed how much as ADP moves up. I imagine it'll move up some. But I originally ranked him in like the 125 range.

And I don't think it'll climb that much. So I think I'll still be, I'll still consider pro far value pick despite the obvious concerns about sustainability. Yeah, I've got him right around 150. I'm totally fine drafting him basically anywhere, even though, like you said, I'm very skeptical of what he did. But he was a top 10 outfielder last year. Yeah. I am interested to see how much he rises because we know there's usually a bump whenever a player signs. And this is a good landing spot for Jurexen Profar.

If the Braves' lineup gets healthy with Ronald Acuna, I mean, even without Acuna, it's still a really, really good lineup. So the counting stats should be there. It's a better ballpark to hit in. Everything is there. I think he's going to move up. How far does he move up? You know, in February, I think he'll probably get closer to that 150 range. But even that, I think if you guys, you know, keep him where you have him in the rankings, you'll have a good chance of getting Jerks and ProFar this upcoming season. As for the Padres, they lose out on ProFar and they're kind of short on depth.

If you look at Ross the Resource, their current starting left fielder is somebody named Tierso or Nellis, and their D.H. is Eggie Rosario, who's someone we've heard about for years, big minor league numbers, but it hasn't really come to fruition in the majors. Do either of those names matter

in the deepest of leagues? Tierso, Ornelis, and Eggie Rosario. I mean, look, this time last year, we were having the exact same conversations about the Padres, lack of talent in the outfield,

and then... Yeah. Proffer had a career year in Jackson Merrill, nearly one rookie of the year, despite Paul Skeen's having a historic season. So, like, we can't predict everything that's going to happen,

but I don't see a Jackson Merrill here. So I would guess they still need to go add someone, but there's some weird stuff going on with the ownership group that maybe hamstringing them this off season. They could trade Dillon C's. I think if they trade CIS, they're probably looking for major league talent. I would guess it.

Probably an outfielder, yeah. Yeah. And look, I have. faith in uh blanking on the the GM's name or pobo whatever uh... Preller AJ Preller like

people make jokes about how he just keeps throwing away prospects to buy major league talent but like I kind of think it's working for them and he's managed to make it pretty sustainable so they'll figure something out they will not go into the season with those two massive massive holes maybe one massive hole, but there's an opportunity here for someone. Let's try and move quickly through the rest of this news.

We're getting conflicting reports on Pete Alonzo. Some say the Blue Jays are, quote, deep in contract talks with the polar bear, and then others are saying that they aren't. So believe what you want. As soon as Pete Alonzo signs, we'll be here to break it down. Apparently, the Astros have restarted negotiations with Alex Breggman, which doesn't seem to make too much sense. if they were to bring him back,

it sounds like Bregman would play third, Esau-Paredes would play second, and Jose Al-Tuvae would try to play left field, something he's never done. That is a wild scenario. This is a team with a pretty bad outfield right now. They're outfield starters, according to roster resource,

Chas McCormick, Taylor Trammell, and Jake Myers. That's a pretty rough outfield and bottom third of a lineup for a supposed contender. Yeah. Big Bob Nightingale reported that the Cubs are on the verge of acquiring Ryan Presley from the Astros. That was shot down by Astros beatwriters because Presley has a no trade clause. It still might happen, but it hasn't happened yet. So we shall see. If he goes there,

I presume Ryan Presley would probably be the favorite for saves for the Cubs. Spencer Shrider has completed four bullpen sessions and is on track to have a mostly normal spring training as he returns from internal brace surgery. The Braves also, also reiterated Shrider will not be on the opening day roster. Dodgers GM Brandon Gohm said the Dodgers will still manage their late game bullpen based on matchups. No surprise. But the team is expecting Tanner Scott to have, quote, a lot of opportunities to close

games. And of course, that's before any Kirby Yates announcement, which we're still waiting on. We don't know if that's happening either. Yeah, how do you guys react to this? Yeah. I don't know. I mean, we'll see what happens with you. So right now I would presume Scott is the first one to target, but I would I would not make a heavy investment in him personally.

Sticking with the closer market, the Tigers are apparently looking for a closer themselves. I read an article that mentioned Carlos Estevez, Kenley Jansen, Kyle Finnegan, Craig Kimbrel, and David Robertson as possibilities. There are a lot of good relievers out there. Experienced closers still on the market. A couple of Hall of Famers still out there. It's true. The Reds apparently are also interested. in Carlos Estevez, just give me a name here.

If Estevez signed with the Reds, who do you think would close him or Alexis Diaz? Man, that's the Spider-Man Meave of closers I don't trust. So I don't think either of them would have a strong hold on the job either way. I would not be excited to draft either. Andrew Friedman said

the Dodgers plan to use Roki Sasaki in their major league rotation from the beginning of the season. Scott has Sasaki ranked SP 39. I have him at SP 37 and Chris has him at SP-34. I'm the Roki Sasaki guy. Why do you love Rokey? How did this happen?

He is 20th in January ADP at the NFBC, by the way. I don't know if that's changed at all since he signed, but that's way too high. I became more pessimistic when he signed with the Dodgers. You weren't on the emergency pod, but they're going to limit his inning so hard. Yep. White Sox GM, Chris Gets said Thursday that he expects Colson Montgomery to be the team's shortstop at some point this season. He also said Montgomery will get a lot of opportunities in spring training. Montgomery's prospect star has dimmed over the past year or so,

but he had a strong showing in the AFL. There were some talk that he was playing through injuries last season as well. So maybe a post-hyped name in very deep leagues, and let's see what Colson Montgomery can do early on in the season. The Blue Jays have joined the deferment party, Anthony Santander's $92.5 million deal with the Blue Jays includes nearly 62 million of that deferred. So the present day value, according to the union's calculation, is 68.6 million with an AAV of 13.7 million. Xavier Edwards said earlier this month that his right shoulder is the best it's felt in years since he began a new throwing program this offseason.

Lucas Gielito has thrown four bullpen sessions this winter and expects to be a full go when spring training begins next month. Just give me a yes or no. In leagues that have IL spots, are you interested in Gialo as a late round? stash. Totally depends what he looks like in spring training. That was not a yes or no. Theoretically, yes. It's been so long since he's been good that I

have seen no on that. But it could change my mind. There was a little bit of excitement around Lucas G. Lito this time last year, if I'm remembering correctly, I don't remember what for some people. For some people. There was something. He made a lot of changes to all of his pitches.

But I did not share in the enthusiasm. Change the grip on his slider and change up, I think. Something like that. The Cubs also signed John Birdy to a one-year $2 million deal. He offers Nico Horner insurance and could battle match off for third base during spring training. Let's get back into the outfield tiers. We've got a couple of minutes left.

The fallback options includes Jerks and ProFar, Stephen Kwan, Tyler O'Neill, Pete Crowe Armstrong, Jason Dominguez, Cedric Mullins, and Adolus Garcia. Things to know about this tier, ProFar, just signed with the Braves. I wrote here, he remains a free agent

because I actually created the rundown before he signed with the Atlanta Braves. And then Tyler O'Neill signed with the Orioles this offseason. The ADP range for this tier is rounds 12 through 18 with Stephen Kwan on the high end

and Cedric Mullins down at the bottom. Scott, ideally the names in this tier, you're looking at them as your outfielder three, your outfielder four. What do you think? I would say four. I would say four. unless you went light in the outfield

and that's not going to be me this year. But if you happen to go light in the outfield, you may have to target one of these guys as your third option. I think in a points league, ProFar and Kwan could be fine for that. Obviously, ProFar has the sustainability concerns and Kwan has had a pretty up and down career

so he doesn't feel totally secure either. But their skill set is better tailored for points leagues. Yeah, I kind of feel like maybe Kwan should be one tier higher in a points league, Scott. 3.1 fantasy points per game last year, better than Jazz Chisholm, Cody Bellinger, and Teoska Hernandez. Well, if I did that, I'd be putting him on equal footing with like Teoscar Hernandez. And the average more fantasy points than him. Boom. That's true, though he had a ridiculous first half and a pretty horrible second half.

Not in a categories league, but, you know, only in points. Can I do that if you want, but I'm not there? Can I suggest a different name for this group? I know you like to keep them similar across positions, but this is like the category specialist tier, right? With the exception of like pro far and maybe Adolese Garcia, just because Adoles Garcia might just be bad at everything now. These are all like, well, I need batting average. I'll go get Stephen Kwan. I need power.

I'll go get Tyler or Neal. I need speed. at Peter Armstrong or Cedricle Mollins. James could be... Could be like a 2020 guy. Could be, but... Last year was pretty rough. The Miley Track Regger isn't as good as the hype would suggest.

I've read some stuff that he could get a chance to lead off. I don't know how likely that is. There's... Milder Lake Tracker is pretty good, especially when you account for the massive steals totals. It's good, but like, I think it's one of those situations. where it's just the hype has been so unreasonable for Jason Thimming as for so long that like it's an 816 OPS

through his minor league career. His 53 games of AAA, 886, really good. Yeah, he's been better as he's climbed the ladder. Well, double A was pretty rough. He didn't hit from much power there. Definitely had some ups and downs in his career. Like signed when he was 16 years old, he was dubbed the Martian for, you know,

out of this world, out of this world tools. and all that stuff, but, you know, it's been up and down. It's, you know, there were early on in his minor league career. I know people were kind of dropping him in the prospect rankings and stuff, and then, you know, he picked things back up. But he should have a starting job. I think he's got free reign. I think Dominguez is going to play every day,

assuming he doesn't fall flat on his face. And Scott, I was going to ask, you know, Pete Cromstrung and Dominguez, I mean, these are two names that have obviously big prospect hype. Why are they one tier lower than someone like Dylan Cruz? because at some point they were kind of on par with him in terms of prospect status, you know? I never put Pete Crow Armstrong in that same category

because so much of his prospect profile is the very, very high defensive grade, which doesn't matter so much to us in fantasy. Obviously, he put a good foot forward offensively last year and gave me hope that he can be a quality fantasy contributor, but I don't think the upside is on the same level. as Dylan Cruz. I don't think the downside is on the same level of Dylan Cruz either, meaning Cruz has the higher floor and ceiling. And did we talk about this on yesterday's pod? PCA unlikely to hit lead off for the Cubs? I saw that report. I didn't have it. Yeah, Craig Cowell. No,

it wasn't a report. Craig Counsel said, like, we think he can get there eventually, but it's probably a no on Peaker Armstrong hitting at the top of the lineup to start the season, which doesn't mean he can't get there, but he had 286 OBP last year. Was he batting there last year? No, no, no, no. He, He started to hit a little better. Oh, okay. So some people were hopeful. I never even, it never even crossed my mind that he would lead off. Yeah.

Yeah. I actually, I actually wrote him up as a bust in bust 1.0. Just because I think he's slightly overvalued. His 80s. I don't love the price. Yeah. Is in the 130s.

And I think Tommy Edmund's going 50 picks later. I, I don't see a big difference between their expected skill sets. So. So getting back to the question, it was pretty easy for me to put P. Crow Armstrong a tier lower than Dylan Cruz. Jason Dominguez is a harder one. I just think, I don't know, Chris presented the opposite case, but I feel like there's more enthusiasm for Cruz than Dominguez,

given that Dominguez thudded pretty hard last year. And Cruz was not as good as we hoped he'd be, but he ran so much that he was still very useful. And Dominguez, his sprint speed was really low. It was 64th percentile last year. it was inconsistent playing time and who knows what that means but yeah it was a

I think it was a much more discouraging 30 or so games for 18 games I guess for Dominguez than Cruz I think was 32 I think they profile similarly and I could see making that change more likely moving Dominguez up than moving Cruz down depending on how

things look in spring training etc but there's also the question of like if Dominguez doesn't hit the ground running, the Yankees are going to do something about that. And the nationals will probably give Cruz a very long leash because they're ready for him to break through and be a part of their future plans. Yeah, I hear that, Scott. I just don't know if the Yankees have the necessary. Yeah, if they have anything.

Like who can they go to if Dominguez is bad? You know, that's, I guess, my counterpoint. But, you know, they could make a trade or something. We'll see. Yeah. The last resort's tier includes 27. names. All right. This time I'm not reading 27 names, but if you're following along, all of these tiers are live on the site. You could pull up the app and the article and you could read along

and see all the names that are in this tier. I will mention, you know, the happenings within this tier. Edmund signed an extension. Tommy Edmund signed an extension with the Dodgers this offseason. Canfordo signed a one-year deal with the Dodgers. Josh Lowe and the Rays are playing their home games in George Steinbrenner Field this upcoming season. That has a lot. the same dimensions as Yankee Stadium, and obviously they're playing in the heat and humidity of Tampa Bay. I think this tier, Scott, you really start to show the cracks in the outfield position. There are definitely some intriguing names here,

but also lots of platoon possibilities, some playing time risks. Do the Guardians even like Lane Thomas? Elliot Ramos destroyed lefties last year. He was actually really bad against right-handed pitching. Kerry Carpenter, Conforto, Josh Lowe, Burleson, Nolan Jones, Matt Walner, Willie Ara Brayu, they could all be strong side platoon. So I get the intrigue with some of these names, but I really don't want them as anything more than, ideally my outfielder five, you know, five or later.

I really don't want these guys to be my four or higher, basically. Yeah, no, I agree. I would hope to have just one in a five outfielder league, if that. I would hope to have my outfield more or less filled by the time we get to this tier. That's why they're called the last resort. And that's why the previous tier is called the fallback options. I think it's, I think it kind of sums up where we're at at the outfield position.

There are- There's a lot of dudes in here, though, that I like. Okay, go ahead. There are some interesting ones as well, but go ahead, Chris. I mean, like, I don't really like Taylor Ward, but he was like a top 20 outfielder last year. He is reliably fine. He just borings his way to production.

Lord is Coriel, same thing. I'm with Frank on Tommy Edmund. I think he's way undervalued. I know Scott hates Tommy Edmund, everything he stands for. Saddam Rafael is toolsy and found ways to be productive in a way that could make him undervalued. Evan Carter was a top 120 pick this time last year. And I know he was bad, but the sample side. wasn't huge, so I'll still make that late round pick.

And he's like outside the top 280P. Jordan Walker is reportedly going back to the swing that he used as a prospect after trying to make some changes last year. So still believe there's some upside there. Oh, yeah. What if, what if Victor Robles is just jerks and pro far? Like the same, the, you know, top prospect who just took a long time needed to change of scenery to figure it out.

but he was really good when he got to Seattle last year in ways that actually looked sort of maybe sustainable. His expected Wobah with the Seattle Mariners was like 337, which is not great, but for a guy who might steal 45 bases if he plays the whole season is really quite good. There's basically no power there, right? So it's just steal specialist. He hit four homers in 77 games. So it's like maybe you could see a path to 10 to 12. And that's not nothing.

I'm not denying there's upside here. There's lots of upside cases. Did you say Nolan Jones? I mean, yeah. No, what if we were just a year later on Nolan Jones? Nolan Jones, Josh Lowe, we're both borderline studs at this time of year ago. That's how we regarded them.

It's just the upside that's there. All the guys you mentioned, Evan Carter, Jordan Walker, like they could be just wasted picks completely. And particularly in a Deep Roto League, the five outfielder league, the kind of league where we're going this deep into the outfield rankings. You can't so much afford a total miss there. You need something out of that spot. That's fair. Also, we didn't mention the Tigers guys, but Kerr Carpenter and Parker Meadows were really awesome the final two months of last season.

I haven't. Legitimate must-start players. I haven't started writing sleepers 1.0. Maybe not head-to-head points. In the deep leagues, Carrie Carpenter is a must-start player, but I actually have him as a bus this year because he's not going to play against left-handers. He's basically a glorified Jack Peterson, and he's being drafted well ahead of Jack Peterson.

Jack Peterson isn't outfield eligible, but when Jack Peterson was outfield eligible, he was not getting nearly the traction Kerry Carpenter is right now. Well, my next question was going to be, do you like Michael Conforto, Scott, because that would be a little contradictory, but they're going 100 picks apart right now. Confordo and Kerry Carpenter, that is. You don't think Conforto is going to play against left-handers?

No, I don't think so. I think I saw that they said... I could be wrong about that. I could be wrong about that, but... I could be remembering incorrectly, but he's fine against lefties. Yeah, yeah. Maybe he does.

I just assumed if their lineup configuration was the one that had... Edmund in center field that Andy Pahez would be the short side platoon for Conforto. But maybe Pahas just starts. But I don't know. Pahas is minor league options, right? I'd be surprised if they let him just play a small role on the bench. If he doesn't have a starting job, I guessing he's back in the minors.

Yeah. Two other names I wanted to mention here. Nick Castiano's boring. I get it. Got off to a slow start last year from May 29th on. He hit 284 with. 17 home runs, five steals, and an 833 OPS. He's going to...

Was basically Nick Castellanos for the final four months of the season. He's going to bat in the middle of a really good Phillies lineup. And you mentioned Josh Lowe, Scott. I'm writing them up in Sleepers 1.0 because I think we're going too far the other way now. I'm giving him a pass for last season. I mean, he suffered an oblique injury right before the year. He was never right. He went on the aisle twice with that oblique injury.

Now he's playing his home games in Yankee Stadium South, where there's the short porch in right field. And everyone will point to, okay, the race are going to platoon him. They might. Look at their roster resource page, though. Who are they platooning him with? Like, they don't really have right-handed bats on the bench. They have Eloy Jimenez.

He's not playing the outfield. Who's that guy, Johnny DeLuca. DeLuca is going to start in center field. They've never shown any willingness. They've never shown any willingness to play Josh Lowe against lefties. I understand that. But even if he's just a platoon player, he was like a top 50 player two years ago. I will just say, I wish we were writing him off more.

Because I could get on, what, 160-ish? Yeah, I could get on board if it was like Evan Carter, who's going outside of the top 200. But like, it's funny. I see them kind of in the same light. Nolan Jones, too. Josh Lowe, Evan Carter. Right.

No, I agree. Their upside isn't any less than it was at this time a year ago. And yet I have no confidence in them. So I see where I rank them and I like, man, they need to be higher. but at the same time, I'm not drafting them where they currently are. It's situational, I guess. No, but in January, Josh Lowe is 165 or 167.

Nolan Jones is 253. Evan Carter's 270. Yeah. So that's what I mean where it's like, I totally get the upside case for Josh Lowe, but we just saw a miserable downside case for him for a guy who has only had one good season as a platoon back.

I just think he was hurt, man. I think he's a talented player. And on top of that, the ballpark that he's going to play in? Yeah, it'll help. Maybe. I like it. I like it. Maybe.

Again, I could see it, but it's 167 versus 270. You know, here's the thing. As bad as Josh Lowe was last year, he had 10 homers and 25 steals. So in a deep road to league, that was still, you know, it's still useful. Yes. Yeah. So he probably has the highest floor of that trio, and maybe that's why he's going 80 to 100 picks earlier than the other two.

Yep. All right, the leftovers tier has 24 names in it. Not going to read them off. Thanks to point out here. Jock Peterson signed with the Rangers, and he's U-Til only. He's almost certainly not going to earn outfield eligibility. Alex Verdugo remains a free agent,

and Max Kepler signed a one-year deal with the Phillies. I will also mention Roman Anthony is in this tier. He is the Red Sox top prospect and should be up at some point this season. Heston Kirstad you know post-hype option but I just don't see a clear opportunity for playing time with Baltimore right now

just give me names no analysis because we've got to wrap up but anybody else in this leftovers tier that you just want to mention their name. I just want to squeeze him. J.J. Bladay. He was good. Like why can't he hit 25 homers in a better park, you know?

Andy Pahas if he gets playing time assurances he'll move up. I'm kind of interested to see what Junghu Lee can do if he's healthy in a full season, you know? Yeah. Trevor Larnik, I really like the profile. I really like all the red on the stat cast page. It hasn't really translated to production, but it seems like it should. And also there's platoon concerns there.

Max Kepler, lineup and park upgrade. Yeah. Might be a platoon bat, but I could see him being pretty useful in a deeper league. If Andy Pahez does start in center field for the Dodgers, even if he's batting in the bottom of that lineup, I think he has 25 home run upside. All right. Those are a few names there. Again, you can check out all of Scott's outfield tiers on the site. But 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.