Fantasy Baseball Today - 2026 New Year's Resolutions for Players & Teams! (1/1 Fantasy Baseball podcast)

Episode Date: January 1, 2026

The Dodgers need to trust in Emmet Sheehan! Can Vlad Jr. carry over his postseason success? The Red Sox and Astros both need to make a trade. MacKenzie Gore needs a change of scenery. Xavier Edwards should run more and the Pirates need to give Konnor Griffin a real chance this spring! 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

It's time for 2026 New Year's resolutions up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome into FPT Express and welcome to 2026. I am Frank Sample joined by Chris Towers. Let's do some New Year's resolutions here, Chris, mostly for teams and players. And first up, you have the Dodgers that you just want them to trust Emmett Sheehan. Yeah, we know he's super talented. We know that in the two major league seasons we've seen from him, He's put up elite swinging strike rates. His four seamer has been a great pitch. Sliders been awesome.

He just seems like a really good pitcher. And yet the Dodgers have been weirdly noncommittal about him. We've heard Roki Sasaki's in the rotation. And you start to do the math and you add him up. And that's five. MSN presumably is the number six starter. But, you know, they didn't quite commit to him last season. even when he was in the rotation.

He was usually the guy that got bumped if they needed to skip a start. I think there was a stint in the bullpen as well. He obviously pitched out of the bullpen in the postseason and wasn't great. I would love to see the Dodgers give Emishian a big vote of confidence, say you are in our rotation. You don't have to look over your shoulder. You don't have to worry about your job this spring. Just go out there and pitch and pitch like where we think you're capable of.

MSN could be a real big fantasy impact player in 2020. I'm just not 100% sure that he's worth his price right now without that vote of confidence. So I have a bunch of these for players and teams, so I'm going to rattle off multiple out of time here. For Vladimir Guerrero Jr., just be the stud you were in the playoffs. I know I make it sound so easy, but he makes it look easy, man. Look at what he did, 18 games in the playoffs, hit 397, 8 homers, 1289 OPS, 14 walks to 7 strikeouts. We all know that stud hitter is in there. We just need to see it more consistently in the regular season for fantasy.

So please, let's get more of that. And to the Red Sox and Astros, trade somebody. Let's free up some playing time here. For the Red Sox, trade one of Jaron Duran or Willier or Brayu. For the Astros, one of Christian Walker, Jeremy Pena, Esoc Pirae. Don't trade Esoc Paredes. Trade the other two or one of those two.

And, you know, everybody will have playing time. Let's do that. Chris back over to you, the Nationals, you want them to just give McKenzie Gore a change of scenery. That's really what it comes down to is I just, I think McKenzie Gore is so talented and for some reason he can't quite put it together for a full season. Something goes wrong. Last season loses the feel for the curveball. Everything's not quite working quite as well. The command comes and goes.

I'm not like blaming the Nationals for McKenzie Gore's inability to put it all together. I just think let's get a different, a different voice in his year. Let's see if something else can help. Let's see if he can go to a team like the Red Sox who have done a really good job of, you know, Gary Crochet was obviously awesome before he got there, but he took a big step forward last season. They've done a great job with their pitching prospects. I would love to see what a team like the Red Sox could ring out of McKenzie Gore,

because I really think there is still top 20 upside there at starting pitcher. and as long as his ADP remains outside of the top 200, I'm going to draft a lot of McKenzie Gore this year. Next up for me, Xavier Edwards just run more. I know that he's not as fast as we think, 75th percentile sprint speed. That's still pretty good. He was just way more aggressive in 2024

when he had one steal every 2.3 games versus 2025 when he had one steal every 5.1 games. So he's capable of doing it. We just need him to be more aggressive on the base paths. let's get 40 plus deals out of Xavier Edwards. That would be cool. Pirates, give Connor Griffin a real shot. A real chance to win an opening day job this spring.

Don't just say it. Let him go out there. If he has a good spring, if he proves himself, let's see him up on opening day. If he has that good spring, don't send him down and say he's working on defense and then he doesn't get called up until August or September. I know that he's super young,

but he looks like the next freak athlete prospect and the pirates need all the help. they can get. So let's give this kid a real shot. Let's take our first break, our only break, and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in FBT Express. We are giving out some New Year's resolutions for fantasy baseball heading into 2026. And next up for you, Chris, Shane Boz, throw more balls, question mark. Yeah, it's kind of a weird one because it's not like I want Shane Boz to issue more walks,

but I do think he is probably a guy who pitches in the strike. zone a little bit too much. And now that there are good pitchers who pitch in the strikes in a lot, Terrick Scouble had the fifth highest in zone rate of any pitcher last season. Shane Boss isn't Terrick School. He doesn't have Terrick Scoobles stuff. He doesn't have that change up that can miss bats the way Terrick Scoobles does. You know, so I look at Shane Boss and I just look at someone who the strikeouts are so

inconsistent, but the upside is so clearly there that he is the kind of guy who could probably benefit from inching those four seamers up and dropping those changeups and knuckle curves down. You know, just catch a little bit less of the heart of the zone with your pitches. And I think we'll see much better results from him. This is another guy. Just, you know, Baltimore is not a better pitch development system than Tampa. But just getting a change of scenery, a different set of tools, a different set of eyes, could help Shane Boz unlock what is.

clearly very, very good potential. We've talked about this one a lot already to solve season. A. E. E. E. Hennio Suarez do not go back to Seattle. It's nothing against Seattle, nothing against the Mariners. Gino just cannot hit there. He's played 195 career games in T-Mobile Park. He has a

21-batting average, a 7-17 OPS, and a 31% strikeout rate. We all remember what he did the first half of the season with the Arizona debacks. Let's get A. E. Hio Hio-Swarres somewhere, anywhere. not named Seattle. And next up here, Roman Anthony, get the ball in the air more.

This has been an issue for him throughout his minor league career as well. 51% ground ball rate in his rookie season, 6.9 degree average launch angle. His EVs are just so tantalizing, 94.5 average exit velocity. If he can get that ground ball rate just down a few notches, 47, 48%, some more pulled fly balls, raise that launch angle. I think we could see 25, 30 home runs as soon as next season from Roman Anthony. So let's get that done. Chris, back over to you, Nolan McLean.

Watch a lot of Logan Webb in 2026. This is the guy I see when I see Nolan McLean. And look, obviously his rookie season, what we saw from him, was so good that, hey, he doesn't need to take advice from me or potentially anyone if he just pitches like he did last season. But I think there's going to be some regression. I think the command and control are unlikely to be quite as good. they were last season. So I think there's going to be some adjustments,

and I think Nolan McLean could benefit from some of that Logan Webb approach, where Logan Webb has expanded his arsenal in the past few years. He's used that four-seamer as a real put-away pitch, which is a really interesting wrinkle that I love for Logan Webb. I think Nolan McLean could have something similar. His four-seamer was very effective last season at getting whiff. So I just think that is a model that, that Nolan McLean can follow and find a lot of success with.

All right, I have a bunch more, Chris. I'm just going to run through them. If you want to interrupt anywhere, just go for it. I have a double dose for the twins. Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis both play 130 plus games. Stay healthy, have big years for both of those guys. Buxton, that would be two years in a row. Zebby Matthews throw the four seam and cutter less,

breaking balls more. His four seam and cutter both got hit really hard. The slider and curve whiff rates, both over 35%. He needs to learn how to sequence better about it. I think there's talent there. I think there's real stuff with Zebby Matthews. I just want to add with Zebby Matthews, the results have been very bad. 592 ERA through his first 25 career movie starts.

He was terrible last season. That being said, when you look at the parts of pitching that we tend to look at, strikeout rate, walk rate, and then the quality of contact you allow. That's generally all the stuff. that goes into pitching. Zavri Mathews has an above-average strikeout rate, 25%. Very good command or control, 6.8%. And then his expected Wobon contact last season was 417.

That's disastrous. That is like every hitter he faced was Yordon Alvarez, basically. Oh, that's really bad. You don't want to do that. You don't want to turn everyone into Yoron-Avarez. Pro tip. But quality of contact is very noisy for pitchers. It fluctuates a lot from one year to the next.

if you have to pick a category for a pitcher to be bad at, you'd rather it be that because there's room for more rapid improvement with Zebby Matthews. So the strikeouts and walks are already there. Just get a little better in terms of the quality of contact you allow. And yeah, we could get somewhere. Gavin Williams, stick with what worked late in the season. That was throwing more curves and sinkers,

less foreseen fastballs in his lone playoff start with the Tigers. He led with the sweeper, the curve, the cutter, through his four seam just 19% of the time and he was great in that start. He was great down the stretch. Aaron Nola remembers that it's an even year. His ERA in even years since 2018, 237, 328, 325, 357.

Does the old bull have one more year in him? He might. He might have it. The Rockies give Zach Veen a real shot finally. It's time. He's 24 years old. Performed well at AAA last season. Hit the ball hard.

Showed a little bit of power. some speed. I think there is a player somewhere in there with Zach Fien. And one of Edwin Useta or Griffin Jacks emerges as the raise closer and it is not a committee. So I don't want 15 saves for one guy, 15 saves for another. Within the first month, one of these guys takes off, gets 25 plus saves because I think both of them are really talented. And as a result, we get a top 12 closer for fantasy. I don't care who it is, although I kind of want it to be Edwin Usathe. but just give us another closer for Fantasy Tampa Bay.

That would be fantastic. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to our full-lane podcast Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express, and we will be back again next week. Bye-bye.