Fantasy Baseball Today - 2026 Awards! Most Valuable, Biggest Breakthroughs & More! (10/1 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: October 1, 2026

Let's kick off the Golden Breadsticks with the most valuable hitter and pitcher (4:15)! ... Who were the best values of the season (7:30)? ... Which players had the biggest breakthroughs (16:03)?  ... Who were the most improved (23:42)? ... These players had the biggest comebacks (28:39)! ... News (36:39): Aaron Judge was not on the Wild Card roster. ... These were the biggest fakeouts (42:43)! ... What about the wacky awards (49:18)? ... We wrap up with the rest of our awards (1:04:52)!Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. And first pitch, reaching. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris.

Welcome to the Golden Breadsticks. Our annual Fantasy Baseball Today Award show here on Thursday, October 1st, October baseball is here. I am Frank Stample, joined by, Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we are going through all of Scott's awards, from most valuable hitter to Vinnie Vindication and everything in between. And I'm very happy to see that we all dress for the occasion.

Yeah, I'm wearing my best outfit. That's the best Chris. So Frank and I are wearing. I was out partying, okay? You were at the before party, not the after party. Yeah, I was at the befores, waiting on afters. Frank and I have black jackets. I have a black necktie and he has a pink bowtie. I don't know if you could see that. Which kind of matches his face. Is it a clip on?

This is actually like a burgundy valour jacket. And last year you made fun of me and you said it looked like I was from my cousin Vinnie. And I actually appreciated that. So it looked very funny. We look very formal. And then Chris looks like your cigar chomping uncle on a cruise. This is a very fancy shirt with a lot of humpback weight. on it. I've got a tie. It's like, I think this is just black. I thought I got to grab a different tie. I've got a, I think this blazer was $35 from Old Navy. I think I've had it since college. So I think I mean, it's not buttoned. But, you know, I think if I try to do that, it might be, I'm going to have to take the rest of the show off. I think we should all end the show by standing up so everyone could see what we're wearing below. Yeah, gym shorts, gym shorts for sure. Yeah, I've got the gym shorts and socks and then just like everything up top looks great here. But yes, here we are for the golden breadsticks. Let's jump in.

There's a, there's a lot to get to. Here we go. At first, I thought that was Star Wars. Like that first note, I was like, ooh, we got the Star Wars rights, okay. And we are not like other award shows. We are starting at the very top, the very best. and Scott, the most valuable hitter award for this season goes to Pete Crow Armstrong.

Who else could it be? I usually, I mean, usually, pretty much always this award has been about not just the best hitter in fantasy, but one who came at some kind of value. Peacrow Armstrong did. He was at highest, a third round pick, and he was far. and away the best hitter in fantasy, regardless of what format you played in, just the seventh player ever to have a 40-40 season, nearly tripled his walk rate from the previous year. Just a phenomenal year for Pete Crow Armstrong.

The preseason ADP 32.9 finish as the number one player in fantasy provided $49 worth of value, according to the Fangraps player reader. And I should have mentioned this beforehand. If you're listening on audio, thank you. but if you're going to watch any episode on YouTube like this is the one to watch on YouTube not just for how ridiculous on these graphics

we got all graphics not just because of how ridiculous we look I created like 40 lower thirds today I created this crazy there's breadsticks they look great too like I just wish I can eat some of these breadsticks right now but yeah it's like amazing lower thirds

we've got the background going everything all that fun stuff your most valuable hitter was Pete Kro Armstrong Scott do you want me to do the drum bolt for every award? Yes. Because I just, I thought people would just get annoyed by doing that.

No. You know, I was going to say, I think like, peak or Armstrong, obviously the top choice here and the right choice. There were some,

there were some choices, though. There were some options. They may be coming up. Yeah. They may be coming up. Yes, they will. And we're going to move very quickly

through this because there's a lot to get to. So your most valuable pitcher goes to. Again, a little too obvious, maybe, but Jacob Izzyrowski. It was even a bigger bargain and then Pete Crow Armstrong,

and though Cam Schlittler was certainly in the running, very close, a good discount pick himself, the only statistical advantage he ended up having over Schlittler was the 19-inning gap. Even wins and strikeouts, Mizzerowski bettered him. And then the clincher really was the 0.12 edge and whip,

which I mentioned earlier. It doesn't seem, it doesn't sound that significant, when they're both below one for their whip, but 0.12 is the difference between 110 and 122, and how differently would we value those two pitchers? Jacob Mizzerowski was the number two most valuable player in fantasy this year. He provided $43 worth of value, preseason 80p of 114.1.

So if you drafted the Miz, pretty good chance you were playing very late into your fantasy season. And I think you can make an argument. He was just the most valuable player in fantasy. just he went about 80 picks later than p.mstrung. So, you know, Peter Armstrong was a little more valuable in a vacuum, but yeah,

that 80 pick difference, it's not nothing. All right, Scott, let's go over to the best value hitter edition. And that award goes to Miguel Vargas. I wonder if this was one of the guys Chris was thinking of. Miguel Vargas was barely drag,

left it inside the top 300. He made a small leap last year enough to make him usable in fantasy, but I think everybody had ruled out the big breakthrough. It had just been taking a while for him to become adequate in fantasy. He ended up being this year, Miguel Vargas, as the number one gainer in average exit velocity among all hitters, he ended up being the number 10 overall hitter in Rotoli. And do you guys, you want to know where Miguel Vargas finished among hitters in points leagues?

I just looked it up right now. Third. Okay, yeah. He was the third best hitter in points leagues. Yeah. Tremendous plate discipline for Miguel Vargas. It's just tremendous season all around. I mentioned this when we did some of our way too early bold predictions for next season.

One of the ones I was toying with was Vargas finished his top three in AL MVP voting next year. What drags him down is like the defense is not great, but gosh. And he underperformed his expected stats, too. It's like, all right, can he get even better? Maybe, I don't know. Tune in to find out. When I dug in with him, I liked him even more. Yeah.

Second, third round picnic season on that fringe? He's going to be late second for me, Miguel Vargas. Unless literally nobody's drafting him there, and then I guess I don't have to either, but my inclination would be late second. I agree. All right, let's keep things moving with the Best Value Pitcher Edition, and the award goes to... Parker Messick, a preseason favorite of Chris Towers especially,

a big part of my Tout Wars championship team is the 26th round, my 26th round pick. He had a strong debut last year, didn't get nearly as much love as Cam Schlittler or Nolan McLean, who also had strong late season debuts last year. I think part of it was just because we didn't know if Messick had a rotation spot until the very end of spring training. he ended up being the ninth best pitcher in Roto,

the 11th best in head-to-head points, and he's about to go down as one of the biggest snubs for rookie of the year ever because he's not going to beat Kevin McGonigal. Nor should he. Yeah. But incredible rookie season. I think people just,

because he wasn't really a prospect of note, like he wasn't a top 100 guy when he made his debut. I think people just like actually slept on him and missed how good his minor league track record was, how good he was late last season. And it's not going to happen again. He's definitely on radars now. But that was a rare, I think one where the fantasy community just just missed out on a guy. Yeah.

And he actually got better as the season went along. His second half ERA went down to 230. His K-minus walk rate, first half 16.6%, second half, 23.2%. So he actually got better. He gained some velocity. He started going deeper into his starts as well. Just awesome, awesome season all around here. For Parker Messick, whose preseason ADP was right around 300.

We didn't know that he was definitely going to be in the rotation. But looking at some of the options there, I think you could kind of read between the lines and figure out that there was a good chance that Parker Messick would. beat in that rotation he was he was amazing all right we got four great awesome optimistic awards out of the way we got to bring it down a little bit

the biggest bust of the season goes to Vladimir Guerrero now I will tell you among players drafted in the top couple rounds

Garrett Crochet Cal Raleigh they were worse but Garrett Crochet was worse because he was injured the whole year. And Cal Raleigh, he was widely suspected to be a bust coming in. I don't think anybody would thought he bust as badly as he did, but there was a lot of bust to buzz for Cal Raleigh. Vladimir Guerrero was an early round mainstay's entire career up to this point, and just the power dried up.

And the only theory we really have for it was he was playing with an Akey Back all season, which is a pretty good theory, but it's not a conclusive one. Especially because he was never all that good. It's not like he had, you know, a month where he looked like Vladimir Carrero. He did hit like 350 in April, but not with the usual power. Yeah, there was a power. Yeah.

So it was like, yeah, I, this is one where I think we probably just overrated him because of the playoffs that he had, but even then. And we always drafted him that early. He's never been this bad. Yeah. So I think he's a clear bounce back. Canada for 2027. Although he is only number 12 at first base for me.

So, it's just a lot of good friends. I think I have nine. Fight, right, fight. Burleson, Caglio and Freddie Freeman are right ahead of him. I'm not so married to any of those guys that they have to be ahead of him. So, yeah. Yeah. The preseason ADP for Vlad, 18.4, he finished as the 221,000,

overall player according to the Fang Graves player raider. Woof, that is a very, very rough season there for Vlad Jr. Before we hit our first break, once again, big thank you to everybody who supported the podcast and all of our content all season long. We really do appreciate it. The best way to help us now is to drop a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And let us know what you enjoy most about the podcast.

If you're watching on YouTube, make sure to hit that like button. Subscribe. Stay subscribed. We'll have all a bunch of wacky off-season content, lots of fun stuff before we ramp things back up in the beginning of 2027. Let's take that break, and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball.

Today, you are watching or listening to The Golden Breadsticks, our annual FBT Award Show. We left off with the biggest bust, and we will keep things moving. Let's get back on the positives here. The biggest breakthrough in Fantasy, baseball this season goes to Jordan Walker is the biggest breakthrough. We had given up on the possibility. He had an underwhelming rookie season despite being a monster prospect and then kept

taking steps backwards, only to break through finally this year made the All-Star team won the home run derby. You know, it's a good reminder that 24-year-olds who impact the ball like he does. And that was never an issue for Jordan Walker. He always hit the ball. exceptionally hard. You can't completely give up on those guys. I think, you know, the poor September might bump them out of round two for next year, though we may have a good explanation

for why Walker had such a poor September. We'll get to that a little later. But regardless, the breakthrough was complete, monster year for a guy who everyone had given up on. I'm a little wary of, I mean, everything about Jordan Walker in every direction. direction next season because part of me wants to just look at what he did from like, it was really June on where he was pretty pedestrian and say, oh, it was fake.

He just had two good months and then he turned back into who he was. I think he had a big August. I did, but I also, yeah, but it was like a 740 OPS from June on, I think, from June 1st on or something. Yeah, July and September weren't great. And the problem is, I did that with P. Kron Armstrong last year. Yeah.

and James Wood, where it's like, oh, they were so bad in the second half, they could fall apart and it's like, no,

that actually didn't matter. And it generally doesn't, full season statistics are more predictive than partial season statistics. So I think you just take what he did overall, and it was a very good year.

It's not the first rounder like he looked like for a couple of months, but he doesn't have to be a first rounder. I'm very interested to see where the ADP winds up for Jordan Walker, because if he's in that round two, three range,

I think there are a lot of parallels to P. Crow Armstrong and James Wood, as you mentioned, that, you know, had flaws in their game, Rough Second Has last year, but big prospects and obviously hit the ball really, at least in terms of James Wood's case, hits the ball really hard. And so you don't want to kind of write that off too quickly. And obviously, Jordan Walker has immense tools. And Scott, you alluded to this. Apparently Jordan Walker was playing through some hip pain and some other discomfort late in the season.

and that could explain his brutal September where he hit 172 with a 519 OPS and a 37% strikeout. Where did he get that hip pain? Was it the home run derby? Oh. We try to tell you every year, Chris. Compete at your own cost.

The home run derby ruins another. Sorry, Chris. Like, he was just playing over his head for a couple of months and then he got picked for the home run derby because he was playing over his head. That's all that happened. He won the home run derby.

And he put on a show too. It was an awesome home run derby. That was a good choice. Yeah, sure. But that doesn't mean he was as good as he was early in the season. It's fine. It doesn't mean the home run derby ruined him. That's all I'm saying.

Let's keep things moving with the biggest breakthrough. Wait, we just did that. The biggest breakthrough. This time, the midseason edition. Luke Keeschel, popular breakout candidate coming in. By the end of June. he was hitting 245 with two home runs and a 645 OPS. A league where I kept him, I had dropped them by that point.

Fortunately, I was able to pick a backup later because from July 1st on, Luke Keishel slash 324, 422, 508, homered eight times over those three months with an approved pull air rate that gives me some hope he'll be able to repeat the power he showed in the minors and, you know, speed on base ability, batting average ability. They were already established. So I think Keishel broke through in a way that deserves to be honored here. All right. Yes.

Again, Luke Keishel, I do wonder about, like, his final three months where he was awesome. The underlying stuff still doesn't look great in terms of just like expected stats and quality of contact. Obviously, the pole there rate is very a good sign for him. But even like the bat speed actually went down a little bit. his fast swing percentage. He's probably just never going to be good at those things. But yeah, the underlying stuff doesn't look great over that final three-month stretch. So we'll see if he can kind of continue that trick heading into next season.

Let's continue on with the quietest breakthrough this year. Scott, who would that go to? Jake Bowers, I just don't feel like he was discussed nearly as much as. his production deserved. This was a guy, like, long, long ago, several organizations ago, he was a huge prospect and just never did anything until this year. Remember early on when we were upset that he was stealing at bats from Andrew Vaughn? Well, apparently it was a good idea.

Jake Bowers ended up being a top 15 outfielder in both scoring formats. Even with down the stretch he was playing with like a broken big toe and I think he had something else going on, didn't seem to matter. based machine. You look at his stat cast page. It is lit up like a Christmas tree. He looks legit. We'll see where he signs this offseason because that could be significant. But yeah, he definitely mattered this year, Jake Bowers. Really tough player to rank for next season, partially because we don't know where he's going to be playing, partially because he's a soon to be 31 year old who's had one great season in his career. And really like one good season in his career. He was pretty good in 2025, but it was in a very small role. I ended up with him at like 16 at first base, but that's behind like Luis Garcia. I don't know. I think I'd rather have Jake Bowers, but we'll see where he lands. So it's, it's tough. That's a really tough one because everything about it looks legitimate. He hit the ball incredibly hard. His plate discipline was awesome.

He stole 11 bases. 389 OBP second to only T.J. Rumfield in the National League. Which, we should call him T.J. Max if he led. Well, no, T.J. Rumpfield did. So we would call him T.J. Max. Yeah. Jake Bowers was second.

That's where I got this jacket, by the way. Oh. Not really. I have no idea where I got it. So yeah, Jake Bowers. Really tough player to rank for next season, but awesome, awesome, 2026. Yeah, picked up as a free agent in pretty much all leagues.

Like, maybe he was drafted in the NL-only leagues, but finish as a 45th overall player this past season in fantasy was Jake Bowers. And yeah, the expected stats are awesome as well. I looked into his splits. He was actually better against lefties than he was against righties. Like, where did that come from? He had an Ops over 900 against left-handed pitching. So if he goes to a team, it reminds me a little bit of Ryan O'Hern going to the Pirates

where if Jake Bowers goes to a team that's just going to play him every day, and I don't think people are going to trust what he did. And I think you're probably going to get him as like a pretty, steep discount and I don't know. I'm very interested to see where the ADP winds up here on Jake Bowers as well. All right Scott let's go over to the most improved

players and your most improved hitter was Jack Caglione hard to believe that he hit just 157 as a rookie last year. It was a bit of a head scratcher because his peak exit velocities were certainly

there and he didn't have major contact issues. The strikeout rate actually got worse here in his second year. But he hit 289. And from June 1st on, he had 317 with 18 home runs in a 914 OPS. Average exit velocity was 97th percentile. Max was 98th percentile. If you just, if you project out those numbers from June 1st on, and certainly the

stat cast data, you know, he puts the ball on the ground too much, but otherwise, the stack cast data loves gaggleum. own. It's not hard to imagine he could challenge Nick Kurtz for the top spot at the position next year. I don't think you need to rank him that way or draft him that way. But like, it's serious upside beyond even the improvement we saw this year. Yeah, the batting average feels iffy. Like, he hit, what, $290, $286 for the season, something like that? I don't think he's going to do that. I don't think he's going to repeat the 317 from June 1st on, but if he hits 270,

there's still a potential 40 homer guy here. So there is upside for a number one first basement finish. Yeah, for sure. I love this call out. I think it makes a lot of sense, man. He went from a 532 OPS as a rookie to an 834 OPS this season. Average EV up from 89.4 to 93.3. I do think he's going to be prone to streaks,

just be a streaky type player because he does chase a lot of pitches outside the strike zone. So, you know, maybe you're playing a head-to-head league, just keep that in mind. Like, you might get weeks long, months-long stretches where he's just not very good, but you also might get month-long stretches

where he looks like one of the best hitters in baseball. There was also just a lot of inconsistency with the launch angle for him, which was the thing we mostly focused on coming into the season. He had too many balls in the ground. He had a couple of months where he elevated the ball pretty well, But in the second half, it did come back down to Earth,

which helps the batting average, but makes him a little less of an obvious standout in power like you would think he should be. But hey, that preseason hype was justified. Didn't seem like it would be the first, but he ended up being Most Improved Hitter. Yeah, those first two months were pretty rough. All right, let's move over to the most improved pitcher,

and the award goes to... Cade Cavali. he came back from Tommy John's surgery late last year and by that point everyone was already kind of over it he had been a prospect previously but you know hadn't really shown a glimpse of his potential in the majors he got better with each month

it seemed like this year really took off once he met a certain control threshold and was a top 20 pitcher and I don't see a lot of reason to doubt at this point, struck out 200 batters and 169 and two-thirds innings, Cade Covelli. I think when you're talking about, because like, Cade Covelli and Jake Bowers are pretty similar. Bowers is a little older. He's going to turn 38 or 31. Cade Covelli just turned 28.

But 28 is old enough that generally speaking, you don't care about prospect pedigree much. But with pitchers, sometimes this just happens, you know, like that's the thing. a lot easier to be skeptical of late career breakouts at hitter because hitter development tends to be a lot more linear than pitcher but pitcher guys just sometimes lose it and sometimes figure it out and there's not really a good

explanation for it although in Kavali's case health is a pretty good explanation because he was a prospect like six or seven years ago and it finally worked out and I think he's just because he was healthy, yeah.

Yeah, he nearly doubled his K-minus Walker year over year from last year, 11.4%, up to 21.5% this year for Kate Cavali. Also had 18 quality starts this season, which was top 15 in all of baseball. It's tied for like 12th, if I'm looking at just off the top of my head here.

But yeah, yeah, awesome season. Very interested to see where the ADP lies on him too, because I think he's really talented. He showed that. The nationals have faith in him. They gave him that a contract extension already, but also has dealt with a lot of health issues. So I think you got to kind of factor that into his cost as well.

All right, let's go over to the Best Comeback Award. And that goes to... Yorden or Yordon, I should say, Alvarez. Really, there wasn't a strong contender for this category otherwise, but he's obviously the choice. played in only 48 games last year, followed it up by playing in a career high 158 this year, hit a career high 42 home runs,

won his first batting title, likely going to be the ALMVP. He's back and he's better than ever, Yordaun Alvarez. Maybe we should have had Chris announce that award. Maybe. That was my dude. That was because I'll just say it because I say it all the time. When the only argument against a player is that they can't stay healthy,

then you only need one thing to go right for them. And that's what happened with Yardon Alvarez. I do think there's some risk of over-correcting because it's not like whatever injury risk was there coming into the season has just completely evaporated, but he's probably going to be drafted as if the injury risk isn't there anymore. Because that tends to be how we collectively view injuries. You are injury prone until you are not one time,

and then you're not injury prone anymore. And it's like, no, he's probably still more injury prone than your average player. And there's going to be some risk involved, taking him fifth overall or whatever, and it ends up being. But he's an incredible hitter. That much has always been obvious.

And I do think people maybe forgot how good Yordon Alvarez can be coming into this season because he was not great for 48 games last year. Yeah. Let's continue on with the best comebacks. What about the best mid-season comebacks. The award goes to it's a tie, it's three-way split.

Fernando Tatis, Jackson Merrill, and Alex Bregman. I had to honor all three of them under one header here. I was looking back at last year's awards and I noticed I did 40 of them. And I looked at that and I kind of skimmed through it and I thought, how pretentious is this?

We can't do 40 again. Like, that's just, that's just celebrating myself, basically. So I dropped it all the way to 35. I was just going to say, I was like, yeah, I made 35 lower thirds today, Scott, thank you. Don't worry. I added five at the top. And even then, I grouped some together like this.

Okay, so let me run through this real quick. Tatis didn't hit his first home run until May 30th, and then he hit 24 there after, reverting to his old mechanics. He had like a closed batting stance early on. It seemed like he was trying to... It's not totally clear

what he was trying to do. It's kind of mixed on that. Yeah, it seemed like he was trying to hit for more batting average, basically. It was a bad idea. Reverted to his old mechanics and ended up being the best version we saw since that monster season he had.

What year was that, 2021? Yeah. I think. Jackson, Merrill, 219, 278, 350. In the first half, his OPS jumped about 300 points in the second half, slash 304, 339, 569.

And then finally, Bregman, this was disappointing for me because it looked like I had nailed the bust call on him when in the first half he hit 241 with nine home runs in a 696 OPS. But then in the second half, Alex Bregman hit 303 with 19 home runs, a 10-10 OPS. Homer did in his second game back from getting his face smashed in, and that ended up having his best season since 2019, the famous 2019 season where he hit 41 home runs

and finished second to Mike Trout for ALMVP. Not that his numbers were anywhere close to that, but it was his best season since then. So clearly not a bust, Alex Bregman. Yeah, I think Tatees will wind up being a pretty firm first-round pick. I think Meryl probably two, three-turn, early, you know, third-round pick, maybe something like that. And then Breggman, I,

Look, people will remember what they saw last, and that was obviously him having a huge second half, and he plays a bad third base position. So we'll be interesting to see how far people elevate Bregman, mostly for that last part, just the fact that he plays third base, and it's just a really, really bad position. Yeah, he's sixth for me at third base,

and you just kind of can't move him down any further than that. Who are the five you have ahead of him? Comanero, Jose Ramirez, South Stewart, Miguel Vargas, and Kevin McGahn. If you want to argue Kevin McGonigle versus Alex Bregman, I can hear it, but I can't really see moving Bregman below Manny Machado. I was going to say, I think you can make the argument for Machado over Bregman. The bad one, the skills, yeah, they feel very, very weak now. Yeah, that's fair.

Let's take our final break. When we return, we do have some quick news items to get to then back into the golden breadsticks. We will do all that right after this. The Strato Tech T from Viori is one of those shirts you put on once and immediately get why people love it. It's incredibly soft. Stretches with you, dries fast, and still look sharp enough to wear from a workout to the ballpark without missing a beat. It's become my go-to-tie for pretty much everything. Head to viori.com slash pod 20 for 20% off your first purchase. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today.

a quick pause from the golden breadsticks as we run through the news and notes. And Chris is back. He was, he's, he's, he's, okay, can I get a ruling? Can I get a ruling? Frank, you said something before the show. I went to a concert. I saw Weezer and the shins tonight. Very fun. We know Weezer. The shins, you know, garden state. They'll change your life. No, that's fine. Um, but I got back. like right before we started recording. And so I've got, I ordered some McDonald's that just got here. And Frank, you said I should eat it on the air. This is a very late back show.

I don't want people to see me eating. We're dressed better than we have all year. Yeah, I think someone in the comments said this is the first time they've ever seen Frank without a hat on. Yeah, that's true. I got a lot of product in my hair too. I was just like whip this thing together before we started here. But yeah, Chris, if you want to eat,

if you want to go off camera, we'll do the news and notes. Whatever you want to do, man. It's, it's fine. Oh, that's all. They gave me Dr. Pepper, not Diet Coke. That's upsetting. Whoa, yeah, that's... It's not like Dr. Pepper's fine, but it's... Yeah. When you're not expecting it, it's... It does. Yeah, it's not a great feeling.

It's a little harsh. Let's run through the news and notes, and as expected, Aaron Judge was not included on the Yankees wildcard roster. Trent Grisham and Jarkal Stanton were on the roster. Staten did not get a single at bat. Grisham started in center field here in game two. there will not be a game three. The Yankees swept the Red Sox, which obviously makes me very happy.

Garrett Crochet was included on the Red Sox Wild Card roster, and he made his return. He pitched here on Wednesday. It didn't go very well. He did not record an out. He gave up a run on three hits. He struck out one. It was kind of a weird appearance because he struck out the first batter.

He faced Spencer Jones, but the pitch got away from Adley Rutchman. So Spencer Jones reached first. He stole second. He advanced the third on a bad throw by Adley. and then things just kind of spiraled after that. He gave up three consecutive hits and then he was removed from the game. The good news is that the velocity was up

for Garrett Crochet. So I don't really think we could take much at all from, you know, facing four batters here. But velocity being up, I think, is a slight plus. He had to face lefty killer Spencer Jones. There's nothing you can do about that. No, you can't. That's just a tough spot to be in.

I'd rather the velocity be up than down. Yeah. I probably would have preferred. crochet not come back at all. Maybe he would have too. Also fair. Yeah, he's going to be a tough one for next year. I think it's generally more positive than negative that he came back and looked good.

Or at least the velocity was there. He looked healthy. Good is not what he looked. But yes, I would rather that than not have seen him at all, I think. But yeah, I don't know. I have no idea what to do with him as far. ranking. I put him 27th in my first round of rankings, but that feels about as high as you could go. And I think lower could be easily justified for sure. Yeah, we did an FBT Express episode that came

out yesterday. We talked about five of the toughest players to rank for next season. And Garrett Crochet was one of them. So if you want to hear more about Crochet, you could check it out there. Roman Anthony was removed from Boston's wildcard roster after an MRI showed an aggravation of the previous right hand injury as well as multiple new strains. And it just, it seems concerning, right? Like, this is something that kept him out for most of the season and he's still dealing with it and perhaps even made it worse.

Yeah, I don't really have much to add beyond that. It's not great. Yeah. Tyler Malley apparently suffered an abdominal strain while warming up on Wednesday and nearly did not start as scheduled. How would you know? Seven innings of one run ball, six strikeouts to one walk against the Phillies. It's been amazing since joining the Braves, man. It's like nine starts in the regular

season with the Braves. He had a sub two ERA. He had a whip right around one and then seven innings of one run ball. So, yeah, apparently he was pitching through an injury, but he looked awesome once again. And this was the third time he's faced the Phillies this month. So it was kind of shaky in the first inning. Wasn't looking like it was going to go well. And then he throws a seven inning gem gets no decision for it. All right? Joe Musgrove made his return as well for the Padres. He threw a scoreless inning of relief in their game one win over the Cubs. His velocity was way up, which is to be expected coming out of the bullpen.

But good sign for a guy who's been working his way back from an arm injury. The fastball was up 2.6 miles per hour. The cutter was up 2.6, the slider up 2.7. So very nice outing, nice return there for Joe Musgrove. We mentioned the Jordan Walker thing. He was playing through some hip pain, some other discomfort late in the season. Could explain his bad September. Cardinals top prospect, Reinell Rodriguez,

has worked out at third base and will continue to see time there as they look to expand his versatility. He has mostly played catcher in the minors, but he also has seen some time at first base. And I think this is a good development for everybody involved, Scott. I mean, if they're trying Reinell Rodriguez out at third,

that's because they really like Leo Bernal. And, well, having Reinele Rodriguez is like a good hitting catcher would be helpful in fantasy, but if he's a good hitting third baseman, that also helps. Well, yeah. I mean, if,

like, it's more evidence that they're, that they're convinced Bernal is their, their franchise catcher, which they've already kind of said as much. Rodriguez is a higher-end prospect, amazing hitter. You usually want amazing hitters playing somewhere else

other than catcher in fantasy. So that would be great if he could take the, the Todd Zeal route. Or maybe the Pablo Sandoval route would be a more modern, even that's pretty old reference. Victor Martinez, that's even older. Yeah. Walker Jenkins underwent surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow.

He should be a full go for spring training. Did end the last couple weeks of the season looking pretty good there. So I think he makes for a nice sleeper breakout type for next season. Zeb Matthews has been diagnosed with a flexor pronator strain in his right elbow and is expected. but is expected to be ready for the start of next season. So that'll be one to follow during spring training. Marlins President Peter Bendix said that Robbie Snelling, who had internal brace surgery,

is expected to be game ready by May or June. So that might be a name that we tuck away early for next season, or if the season starts on May 1st or June 1st, then he might just be ready to go from the jump, who knows? And some Blue Jays news for next season, Ernie Clement will have to earn the second base job. and Spencer Miles's role is TBD. I think he's just a name to watch

because he pitched very well this year in different roles, short relief, long relief, he started a few games. 263, ERA 110 whip, a 51% ground ball rate, the underlying numbers really back it up too. So Spencer Miles is a very deep name to know for next season. Let's get back into the Golden Breadsticks.

Again, our annual Fantasy Baseball Today award show. And we are picking things back up with the biggest fake out. The award goes too. Kyle Harrison looked like the Brewers pitching development factory had turned him into an ace finally after

two previous organizations had failed to do so. Through 21 starts, Kyle Harrison had a 279 ear are a 112 whip 11.1K per 9. Thereafter, I don't have the exact

numbers, but it went horribly. He finished with a 420 ERA compared to that 279 mark. The ERA went from 112 to 135. He wound up pitching out of the bullpen at the end of the year. So who knows what the future holds for Kyle Harrison, but it

does feel like his breakout was actually a fakeout. And I think the thing with him is just that the margin for error is very slim because he's really, he technically has three pitches, but The change-up is he throws it about 5 to 7% of the time usually.

He really needs to have very good results on his foreseamer. And it's not, like, he doesn't average 98. You know, it's not Peyton Tolley's foresemer. It's kind of a weird foreseamer that, like, generates a lot of two-plane break. And when it was working this year, it was awesome. But if it has a little, like, if it's 94, it doesn't really work as well. So it's a really, it's a really, really tough player to rank for next season.

I think I ended up going around 40 for him for next season, but it's a very soft 40, one way or the other. Yeah, and I can help you out a little bit, Scott, with the numbers down the stretch. He first reported elbow soreness on July 9th. Kyle Harrison did. He went on the IL.

His first start back from the IL was actually very good, but his final 10 games, six of those being starts, 867 ERA 237 whip, and he was so bad that he got moved to the bullpen, and then he was bad out of the bullpen. too. So we are left with more questions and answers for Kyle Harrison heading into next season.

What about the fakesst fake out award? That goes to Zach Wheeler. And he actually faked us out twice. Initially with the thoracic outlet surgery, we weren't we were thinking he might not ever be the same.

He comes back, 16 starts 216 ERA, 0.88 whip. So much for that being an issue. Oh, but wait, now he has a six-start span with an 851 ERA and 193 whip. Maybe, you know, that thoracic outlet syndrome, his health is a concern after all. But no, final six starts for Zach Wheeler. He looked just fine, 167 ERA, 0.93 whip.

Fake his fake out, twice over, Zach Wheeler. Chris, where did Wheeler fall in your first SP? ranking run. Seven. I think the top six are pretty clear. Ms. Scoobel, Schlittler, Yamamoto, Sale, Sanchez, in some order. You can quibble with the specifics.

After that, I think it's pretty wide open. I went Wheeler, Burns, Rasmussen, Luzardo to round out the top 10, but I don't know. You know, like I want to see how Lizzardo, I guess, no, they have one game left before they might be like. They said he was going to be used as an opener and then he wound up going like five innings and that sorry. He actually looked really good.

It would be really nice to get another appearance from Hazers-Lazardo where he looks like himself. I disagree that it would be real nice to get another appearance from him, but I make my way on that. That's a different thing. That's a different thing. All right, this next one, I believe

this is the first time this award is being handed out. I could be wrong about that, Scott. You could correct me on that. But the perpetual will fake out award goes to Jacob Lopez faked us out at the end of last year, was dominant, earned

him some sleeper love coming in. Then he had a 675 ERA through 12 appearances dropped in plenty of fantasy leagues and ultimately dropped to AAA by the athletics. He comes back, suckers us in again with a

nine-star stretch, 2.30 36 ERA 10.9 whip 10.9 K per 9. And then just totally falls apart. Actually, his last start was decent, but that 10 run outing September 19th at the Guardians cooked many people's gooses at the worst possible time. And like, I think he's going to keep doing this. I think there are going to be stretches where he dominates,

but as a deceptive lefty with marginal stuff, you know, it's going to be a double-edged sword. He's kind of just Andrew Abbott, but with better strikeout skills. And I think pitching in Sacramento is going to leave him open until some of those blow-up starts too. And, you know, with a view towards beyond 2027, I'm not sure Las Vegas is going to be a great place for him to pitch anyway,

or any pitchers. Like, even with it being a dome and being, or, Are they doing a dome or a retractable roof? Either way. I think it's a dome. I can't imagine they would ever have the roof open in Las Vegas anyway. It's like 120 degrees. But like the, yeah, the lack of humidity, the elevation.

It's going to be a tough place to pitch no matter what. So I think there will be uses, but probably not someone who's ever going to really matter for fantasy as far as drafts. Next up. You don't think it's going to be drafted next year? Lopez? If he is, it'll be really late. Andrew Abbott was drafted, but I don't think anybody really

thinks Andrew Abbott matters. It's just he's a guy in a rotation spot who has some talent, but that's different than someone, anyone's excited to draft. I don't think Jacob Lopez will be drafted in all leagues, but in deeper ones,

I think it could be kind of a late round flyer. But 12 team standard, I'm not so sure that Jacob Lopez will be drafted. Let's move over to the biggest head scratcher award. That goes to Paul Skeens. I wanted to highlight him here somehow. This seemed like the best way to do it. Because

well, his whole season was a head scratcher. His velocity, of course, was down, and it would be easy to blame that for his ERA jumping by two runs or so. Except his first nine-star when the velocity was also down. He had a 19080.000.0.6.6-4-whip, 10.8K per 9. And that was even with that terrible season opener. He still had typical Paul Skeen slashlight.

Nobody really suspected anything was wrong at that point. But the velocity remained down, and he had, I think, like, about a 425 ERA from that point forward. So can he regain the velocity? Does he need to, or is it something else going on? Is it the mechanical thing? with him changing how direct he is to the plate. Nobody knows.

It's a head scratcher. That is true. I think that's why he got the award. I get it now. Yeah. I think another one of the hardest players to rank for next season will be Paul Skeens. He spoke recently. He talked about maybe the WBC affecting his season,

but he sounded confident that he'll regain velocity in the offseason. I mean, you know, number one with a bullet to watch in spring training will be Paul Skeens. And it's weird because the underlying numbers were still really, really good for Paul's games. The thing is that the peripherals were mostly still really good throughout the season. Yeah. So, yeah.

All right, we do have to pick things up here. The best roll change award goes to Jacob Lats. I don't think anybody saw this coming. Him being a stud closer, got to 30 saves with a 213.8.1 whip. The Rangers actually used him as a starter down the stretch last year.

went pretty well. 272 ERA, 108 whip 7.7K per 9. So the strikeouts were lacking there, but it seemed like he had some potential in the role. They stuck him right back in the bullpen at the start of this year, though, and he was better than ever

and pretty soon claimed the closer roll. So Jacob Latt's the winner here. Remember when we were drafting Robert Garcia as a potential ranger safe source? Not that we trusted him even. Little did we know. They had a stud closer and waiting. Yeah.

finished as the 17th best pitcher did Jacob Lats, the third best reliever behind only Mason Miller and Kate Smith. So just dominant, dominant season here from Jacob Lats. Up next, the ultimate April All-Star goes to. Jose Soriano. There were a surprising number of contenders for this. Christian Walker. You brought up Bill DeMorrow Vargas when we were talking about the other day, Chris.

But I went with Jose Soriano because his April it sustained his reputation for the entire season. He never dropped below 90% rostered in CBS leagues. So in April, Soriano had a 0.84 ERA, 0.94 whip, 10.3K per 9. And it seemed believable because he made some arsenal changes, more four seamers and splitters, not so limited in his pitch selection. But the rest of the season, May 1st on, Soriano had a 488 ERA, a 1-40 whip,

and just eight strikeouts per nine innings, clearly NBD, this guy. Fooled you. And somehow got even worse. Once he got traded to the Blue Jays, 10 starts with them. 530 ERA, 136 whip, under 7K per 9,

and a 10% swinging strike rate. So I'm interested to see what a full off season with, I think it's Pete Walker is the Blue Jays pitching coach, what he could do with Jose Soriano. But yeah, did not go well, his first go here with the Blue Jays. Blue Jays. The Told You So Award goes to...

I feel bad doing this, but it's Munataka Murakami. I don't like saying Told You So anyway, but it's particularly since he's such a joy to watch, celebrate after the White Sox, do something good. And everybody's enjoying him right now. Yeah. But it kind of played out the way I certainly feared. I think Chris was pretty much there too. didn't seem that way early on through the end of July

244 batting average which you know whatever with the kind of power he's providing 935 OPS you could live with a 244 batting average that's Kyle Schwerber like right but he is so bad at making

contact whenever he swings even at strikes that he ended up looking like Joey Gallo in the end and I just think that comp is going to be a difficult one to shake for Munitaka Murakami. He ended up hitting just 207 for the year.

Final two months, he hit 156 with a 40% strikeout rate. And it is tough because he had the hamstring injury, which lines up very well with when he was good and when he was bad. And it's impossible to say how much of an

impact that had. It was not nothing, I would say, but I think this especially works. I told you so, Ward, because everybody got to say, I told you so, about Murakami. If you were a believer in him, you got to say I told you so

for the first two months. And then if you were out on him, you also got to say, I told you so. Everybody got to say, I told you so. It's tough because he's first base only. I've got him 21st right now. I do have him higher for Rodo.

I have him up at 15th. Even as somebody who's skeptical of him, and maybe that's just a ranking that I'm going to have to kind of follow everyone else's lead on since there's a bias there for me. But we'll see. Like, you're willing to rank him 21st? I'm not necessarily opposed to that.

But obviously, the upside is higher for Murakami than some of those who I'm sure you have ranked ahead of him. It's also just kind of first base is really deep. And that's kind of what I wanted to highlight there. It's just even, like, I feel somewhat warmly towards him. I think he can make it work. It's a risky profile, but clearly we have proof of it working.

But given the flaws. But even just the overall production, like even if he only hits, you know, what was it, 220 at the end, 210? Look, Joey Gallo had a couple great years. Everybody thinks he was just a bust from the beginning.

No, it just didn't last very long because the flaws were so apparent. And Murakami's overall pace was still like 45 homers, almost 100 runs. 100 RBI. Like, even if he hits 210, that's going to be awesome.

It's just he might hit 180. Yeah. Yeah, that's the thing. My only request for the new CBA is that we have to have

a mandatory Moracami reality TV show because that would just watch that, yeah. Gold. These celebrations are so amazing with Morikami.

The Mr. September award goes to Carcari. Carter Jensen. So I was I was pretty down on him at one point. Probably in August. Probably in August.

That point his numbers didn't look so great. Saying, yeah, he may be the 10th best catcher overall this year, but at no point has he been one of the 10 best catchers to start. He just kind of was available that whole time. But then in September, he blew up, Carter Jensen. He had 3.38 with 8. home runs in an 1194 OPS. And what's fitting about calling him Mr. September is remember last September, his performance

then was what got us so excited about him in the first place as a late season called for the Royals. He had 300 with three home runs in a 941 OPS. So two years in a row, Carter Jensen establishing September is his favorite month. Go ahead and trade for him at your deadline next season and then just, you know, Get all those September numbers here from Carter Jensen. Next up, we have the biggest overachiever that goes to. Eduardo Rodriguez, who else could it be?

We kept waiting for him to fall off. He ended up winning 16 games with the 289 ERA. I will point out, he had a 520 ERA in September, so maybe finally it did happen, but obviously not enough to do much damage to his full season line. That 289 ERA overall came despite a 389 FIP and a 427 XERA. His 6.8K per 9 was his lowest ever. And the walk and ground ball rates were nothing special.

So why was he good? I don't know. But I don't think it'll continue. I would like to request that next year, that is called the, he can't keep getting away with this award. That feels like a missed opportunity, yeah. Sure, we could do that. We could do the Jesse Pinkman Memorial Award also.

Yeah, there you go. He's still alive. Haven't you seen El Camino? Come on. I have not. The biggest power-up award goes to. Luis Garcia. Of course, technically, it's Miguel Vargas,

but he's gotten a higher honor, so we'll give this to. To Luis Garcia instead, who himself gained a lot in average bat speed, nearly two miles per hour, skipped right over being a 20 homer guy for the first time and became a 30 homer guy. The only real issue here is he continues to sit against left-handers, and I don't think that's going to change at this point. Did Homer here on Wednesday, his first career postseason home run,

521 slugging percentage, eighth best among all qualified hitters this season for Luis Garcia Jr. The biggest heel turn award, that one goes to. Cal Raleigh, breaking out this award again, which I named for Louise Heel because he was the initial biggest heel. But it seemed fitting for Raleigh, too, because... Look, like, obviously the historic season for a catcher, best season for a catcher ever, got him drafted in round two on average this year.

It would be one thing if he would just regressed to a typical Cal Raleigh season. but instead he went from his very best season to his very worst season which just it felt like a twist of the knife I have to say biggest heel turn Cal Raleigh he did finish strong for what it's worth but I can't say strong enough for me

to feel great about him next year it was the final 32 games for Raleigh 256 10 homers 25 RBI 935 OPS I don't know how to look this up it feels like something that would be right up your alley Chris but is this the biggest OPS drop year over year in MLB history? Oh, it has to be.

I know Mike Petriello wrote something about that, but it was like before Raleigh heated up. So I'm not sure it has to be. Because how many people... So on August 12th, it was the second biggest OPS decline from one year to the next. Rogers Hornsby went from a 1245 OPS

to an 851. Okay. From 1925 to 1926. It's still pretty good. Yasmani Grandal apparently had a 939 OPS in 2021. I do not remember him

being that good that late. A lot of walks probably. Yeah, how big was the drop overall? Do we have that number quick? It was well, you know, he got it up to 664, the OPS. So it was 200.

Less than 300 points? 284. It's not a top 10 mark of all time. Wow. Okay. I guess it doesn't have to be. His OPS was surprisingly low last year, Cal Raleigh, 948 for his 60 homer season. And he only hit like 250, something like that.

97 walks. Yeah. No, whatever. The Fizzle Reel Award, that goes to, and also what is it? It'll make sense once you hear it. It's Kate Anderson. So at times I have the Sizzle Reel Award where a guy just blows us away with his raw talent and his

stack has readings off the chart. But Fizzle Reel is a guy who, you know, came in with huge expectations and just kind of fizzled. And that describes Kate Anderson's debut, I think. Historic performance at AA-106 ERA, 0.64

whip, 13 K-per-9. We were clamoring for his debut since as far back as May. Finally comes up in August and look, he wasn't horrible. 379 ERA, 123 whip, one, two games. Like, but it wasn't any better

than you'd expect to get from the typical streamer provided you streamed well, you know? Yeah. I was surprised to see his swinging strike rate was 13.1%. I mean, that is a pretty good mark. So there's something to build on there. Obviously, like the stuff plus number, everyone kept referencing that 97.

That's pretty bad there. It doesn't mean everything, but it's not a great, you know, first run here for Kate Anderson. The What's Dead May Never Die Award goes to Nolan Aeronato

seemed like he was done as a power hitter back to back years where he failed to get even 20 home runs and like the exit velocity was barely enough before and it just kept dropping. What actually dropped even more this year

but he still got back not only did the 20 homer threshold but the 30 homer threshold. And I think looking at his war, career war, and the amount of war he earned this year,

this season may have pushed him over the edge to being a Hall of Famer. I think he was a Hall of Famer no matter what before this. Yeah, I think so too. But I think it definitely pushes him over now. Nine gold gloves,

whatever it was? Yeah, he was getting in. Nine-go-gloves and 350 career home runs, he was getting in. The war was pretty borderline. And he played a lot of, He played his best years in Colorado. Yeah, he was getting in.

Okay. All right. Well, I agree now for sure. Yeah. Nolan Aronado, 28 combined home runs in 2024 and 2025. Over 259 games. This year, 30 homers in 152 games.

It was a real John Snow turn. Yeah. Spoiler alert. What helped him to pull the air rate up to 30%. That was massive there for Nolan Aronado. Scott, we have 10 awards left. and I'm just going to let you rattle them off. I'm going to let you go in order.

I don't think we can do the drum roll for all of them. Good, because I keep waiting for a symbol splash after the drum roll and it's never coming and it's been driving me crazy. Scott from Mr. Funny Math on, why don't you just rattle off the final 10 awards here? All right. Boy, they're the ones that require the most explanation probably,

but that's fine. Mr. Funny Math is Peyton Tolly. Last year, it was Jesus Lazzardo. This is normally the award I give to somebody who, a pitcher who, you know, you take out his four worst starts and what do his numbers look like. Oh, they're actually great and people get mad at me. And it's a whole thing.

Last year it was Jesus Lazzardo. People got mad at me then. We'll get to that in a second. Taking a kind of different tack here with Tolly, it's less about remove his four worst starts than if, what does numbers look like when he throws his curve ball more than 10% of the time versus less than 10% of the time when it's less than 10% 3807 ERA 130 whip 8.6k per 9 when it's more than 10% of the time 194 aera 0.83 whip 12.6k per 9.

Imagine if he was throwing his curveball more than 10% of the time all the time. That's Mr. Funny Math. Vinnie Vindication is Jesus Lazzardo for exactly the reason I was just saying. He vindicated my funny math by actually being even better than he was last year, if you removed his two worst starts when he was clearly impacted by pitch tipping. So vindication for me and for, you should play that club. For me and for Jesus Lazzardo, the one who fantasy footballers won't see coming. Jared Jones is the one.

Now, I'll point out, he finished with the 372 ERA 108 whip, plenty of strikeouts, a great K-per-9 rate. So they'll see those stats and they'll probably be like, oh, yeah, I guess I have to draft this guy pretty high. But it'll come as a surprise to them because when they tuned out, he had an ERA approaching five, Jared Jones. But then in five September starts, 0.93 ERA, 0.59 whip, 12.4K per 9. clearly has a lot of helium going into next year. It makes sense that they wouldn't see it. They live in Arizona, I think. It's a joke about the fantasy footballers podcast.

That's all. Okay, okay. Fair enough. All right, the one who nobody saw it coming. I'm kind of naming my awards as if they're friends episodes now. This is the Carter Jensen Award. Leonardo Bernal, or Leo Bernal, as some people like to say. The one nobody saw coming, overshadowed in an organization with a lot of young catchers.

But he hit his way to the majors, good exit velocities, good plate discipline, good polarity, and then played every single game once he got to the majors, which would be surprising for any call-up, but especially a catcher. I'm getting real Drake Baldwin vibes from Leo Bernal. The Don't You Forget About Me Award. You have to sing it, Scott. Don't you. Forget about me.

I watched the breakfast club for the first time this year. All right. It was good. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. I get it. You get it. Casey Schmidt.

You forgot about him already, didn't you? I did. I did. I didn't. Well, you've ranked third baseman already. And that's kind of the appeal of Casey Schmidt. He was eligible like everywhere this year, but he'll still have third base next year,

which is very shallow, of course, and outfield as well. He was the bright spot for the Giants this year before having a torn meniscus that ended his season in late July. Still at 21 home runs. The data all looks pretty good. It doesn't walk much at all,

but don't forget a madam, breakout eligible at weak positions. Casey Schmidt, not Casey, Ksie Schmidt. All right, this is a new one. The Dodger Dog, award and it's a tie. Emmett Sheehan Jose de Paula.

Why are the... I'm struggling to figure out what the one of them was really good. The Dodgers are dogging us with this. You know? Like, they're just rubbing it in our faces. Emmett Sheehan comes up in September, looks amazing.

0.53 ERA, 0.53 with 12.7 K per 9. They keep sending them down. They don't need them. They don't need them. I mean, that's a spot starter. And then Jose Wade DePaula, he comes up, much Ballyhooed prospect, reaches base at a 50% clip. They send them down.

They don't need them. It's just ridiculous, the Dodgers. Rebuilder's delight. Goes to Jake McCarthy, who probably would not have gotten another chance to be an everyday player in the majors if it wasn't just to fill out a lineup for a rebuilding team. And that rebuilding team happened to be the Rockies. And he took to Cores Field like the scrap heap outfielders of your. Jake McCarthy did.

291 batting average 15 homers, 32 steals. Top 10 outfielder, he ended up being. 27th overall player by the Fangrax play. Incredible season. Yeah. Mr. Two-Face. You're probably going to guess this one. Oh, it's written as Mr. Two-Fraise here.

That's a typo. Mr. Two-face, gauge jump. Gage jump, in his nine best starts, gauge jump had a 135-ERA. 0.96 whip, 11 K-per-9. In his 11 worst starts, he had a 1032 ERA 218-18 whip, and only 8.5 K per 9 for whatever that's worth.

It wasn't really based on matchups or opponents or anything. To me, it's been mostly. What was that, Chris? Not even home away. He had 460 RA away from Sacramento. I was just about to look that up. He was worse at home, but not nearly as dramatic as this split I'm talking about here. It seemed more to me like how many strikes he threw was the key to it all.

But in any case, can't trust Mr. Two-Face Gage jump. Biggest weirdo, this is a favor of yours, Frank. Nick Martinez, biggest weirdo. Oh, yeah. How does a guy, I'm just going to read what I wrote here, how does a guy who's already pitiful K-per-9 rate dropped by about a point for a third straight year go on to have a career best season

in which he places in the top 15 for wins, ERA, whip, and innings? With the way they coaxed that sort of season out of Martinez, we're going to have to start calling them the devil raise again. Oh, oh. You like that, didn't you? I like it. All right, last one here.

Mr. Look Who finally decided to show up. Buki Betz is the winner here. 337 batting average in September with seven home runs and more walks than strikeouts. He actually ended up having a better OPS this year than last year. And if you project his totals, if you prorate his totals over the 150 games he played last year, because obviously he missed some time with injury this year,

28 home runs, 84 RBI, 86 runs is what it comes out to. There might still be some life in Buki Betts. Yeah, he kind of did the same thing last season, though. Same exact thing. And look, it led to another good season. Well, that's kind of my point. He ended up having a good season when all of a said done. I'm not saying like a season that justified his draft spot,

but we're well beyond him being drafted. What was it? Round three? Yeah. If you're talking about him as like still a top 100 pick, I think that's probably okay. But yeah, that's what I'm saying. He doesn't look like a batting average help anymore.

The counting stats were really bad. 130 or 140 combined runs in RBI. No, I'm saying if you pro rate those over 150 games, it's 28 home runs, 84 RBI, 86 runs. That's not bad at all. it's not bad. Yeah. It's not great.

Second, third round material, but round eight, nine. What if Mookie Betts just does what the Dodgers pitchers do, but he stays healthy? Like, he just stays on the field and he's like, I'm not really going to play until like August. Yeah, I just start it up.

His final 46 games... I don't know if you can assume a 34-year-old will hold steady too, you know? Yeah. His final 46 games this year, 315 batting average 10 homers 29 runs 33 rbi 961 ops final 47 games last year 317 9 homers 32 runs 34 rbi 892 ops it is eerily similar and he was not good for like the first four months last year either so and he had the excuse built in with like the stomach bug

and all that and we thought all right he could bounce back but uh yeah he did show up at the end but i just I don't know how much faith I would have for him going into next year. All right, Chris, why don't you bring us home? You had some awards you wanted to hand out as well. Yeah, I wanted to give some Chrissies out, some, you know, my little bit awards. So the big, beefy baseball boy of the year, obviously, I think this is probably the third or fourth year running. Kyle Schwaber has to be the big, Beevy baseball boy of the year. Parker Messick was also a standout big, beefy baseball boy.

He's kind of a medium beefy baseball. Yeah, he's not quite as big or Breesie. as Kyle Schwabber. So I think we'll give that one to Kyle Schwerber. The team name Tuesday of the year obscure musical reference edition, because he had a great year and it's a great team name. This will mean nothing to Frank or Scott and probably like 97% of the audience, but it's a fantastic team name.

Sunny Gray real estate. It's a reference to the like second wave emo band Sunny Day real estate. Great team name. Team name Tuesday of the year, the Yasmani Money Tomas Problems edition goes to Yoho Lehiwu from Heath. Surprisingly not that Heath, not Heath. Sure. Who came up with Yasmani, Money, Tomas Problems.

Because there are other heaths in the world. I mean, come on. Allegedly, there are other heaths, but I thought Yoho Lehi, Wu was very good. And then the team name Tuesday of the year is, I thought this was so funny. The Galaxy is on Joe Ryan's belt from Tyler. That's a phenomenal team name. That's very good. Well done, Tyler.

And then we'll wrap it up with the jag of the year bringing an old one back. And this one is painful. But Jose Al Tuve, just a guy now. hit 250, 16 homer, 70 runs, 50 RBI, 5 stolen bases. I was looking for like the most average player in all five categories. The RBI are a little low, but otherwise I think this is pretty close. About as average as any player can get. The most replacement level player for fantasy that could possibly exist.

Absolutely. Can I give a quick story real quick before we go? Yes, sir. Sure. So I'm glad that these awards, you know, it inspired more awards here. And it did in my own house too. So like I'm well beyond the point where like I expect or even anticipate anyone of my family is going to read my articles, you know?

That was something for like a year or two. But well beyond that at this point. Except my kids like read anything baseball related that they could get their hands on. we don't give them free access to the internet. But it's like, you know what? I write about baseball a lot. Maybe they can read something of mine. So every now and then if I write something that I think they'll be interested in,

I print it out for them and let them, you know, consume it. So I did that for this, the article of these awards. And, you know, my 11-year-old especially was excited to read it. and my wife told me tonight that when she went up to his room tonight, putting him to bed, saying good night to him. I guess you don't really put an 11-year-old to bed, saying good night to him. She noticed on his desk he had started to write his own awards for the season. She saw awards like the Grand Salami Award and Best Player the Marlins gave away. Oh, Chris.

Geez. I think trolling is his friends back in Florida, his Marlins. Best player of the Marlins gave away. Liam Hicks was the winner for that one. Oh, yeah. That's fair. Who won the Grand Salami Award? She didn't remember that one.

I didn't see it myself, so this is all second-hand. Bring them in at some point. Yeah. Also, I assume they're subscribed to the Fantasy Baseball Today newsletter. When you say they don't have access to them, obviously, that's the one. That's the one. Yeah. Yeah.

Fair enough. So next year we might have, I don't know, a special guest on the, of the Redsix. Special guest host here. Yeah. My youngest remember made his debut on the draftathon. Yeah. Our final draft, the team the three of us share together that never does well.

He lent his voice to one of the picks. So, yeah. Spoiler. It didn't do well again this year. Well, we'll try again next year. And that will do it for this year's golden breadsticks. 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 tomorrow. Not tomorrow. Next week. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts. Saturday, October 3rd on Paramount Plus. Oh, my goodness!

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