Fantasy Baseball Today - Adam Aizer's Favorites and Bold Predictions! (3/26 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 26, 2021

Adam is back! Let's start with his favorite player to draft this season (2:22). ... Let's hit the news and notes and just circle back to Eloy Jimenez who is out 5-6 months with a torn pec (5:42). What happens with Andrew Vaughn. Also, Nick Anderson has a torn ligament in his elbow and Freddy Peralta is in the Brewers' rotation. ... How did TAPHAMAMC perform last season (13:56)? What are Adam's thoughts on pitching this season? ... Who are the rest of Adam's top-five favorite players to draft this season (19:37)?... Let's talk about some miscellaneous items including a new Chris Towers hit and bad food takes (33:45). ... We have bold predictions (39:26)! Cron hits 35 homers, Tyler Mahle is the Reds' best SP, Castellanos returns second round value and more! ... Let's wrap with players that we haven't talked enough about (56:46). ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday 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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 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

Domingo Santana. Happy Kokomo Friday. Welcome into fantasy baseball today. Frank Stanfield joined by Scott White, and we have a very special show for you today. We're doing an extensive New York Yankees' 2021 season preview, and the only person who we can have on for that is none other than who. It's Adam.

What's up, Adam? Are you ready for baseball? I really am. My goodness gracious, I really am ready for baseball. I can't believe it's a week away. I'm excited, man. I got a slow draft going on. right now. I got another draft next week.

Very happy to be here on a Kokomo Friday. Oh my goodness gracious! How many emails are we going to get about that intro? What intro? Everything I just said. Oh, oh. I think it's okay. I think it'll be all right. What's up, Scott?

How are you doing? Good. I am not prepared for my Yankees preview, apparently, based on my attire this evening. This is not a team that agrees with the Yankees. much. Well, I'm happy to see that... Losing to them twice in the 90s. I'm happy to see that you're wearing a Braves hat, Scott, and not your Miami Marlins hat, apparently. See, I was, I, I intentionally

wore the Braves hats so there wouldn't be a continuity error with our mailbag podcast that airs tomorrow that we recorded earlier today. And you're like, where are you wearing a Marlins hat, Scott? So, like, it seemed weird if I wore a Marlins hat the night before and you know, whatever. Yeah, basically. All right, we're not actually talking about the Yankees today on the show. We have the return of Adam. He's going to tell us his favorite. His favorite baseball, his favorite, not just favorite baseball players of all time, but his favorite players for this season. We have some miscellaneous items to talk about with him, some bold predictions later on, and some players we haven't talked much about as well. Adam, I don't know if you know this, but we are drafting together on a team.

So it's just talking about the podcast league, right? That's right. This Monday, we will be sharing a team. So I figured, all right, why don't you reveal to everybody the player that we are going to have for certain. matter what, the one guy we're going to get your favorite player to draft this season is blank. It's Charlie Morton. I'm a fan of his. I think he's a terrific pitcher. His velocity's looking good. You know, and he just got off to a slow start. He was really good in the postseason last year. Hopefully he'll have some six-inning starts. I know that wasn't really his forte last year, but I'm optimistic going to going to the National League. By the way, I thought it was interesting. I was just looking today at where teams finished in the standings, total sidebar.

and last, I have no idea if you guys have ever talked about this. Last year, I think the top three scoring teams in the National League, but that was with the DH. So, yeah, that won't be the case this year. I'm excited for him to go to the NL, and I think he's undervalued. He's about 110th overall in ADP. He's not going like super low or anything,

but I like him where he's at. I took him ahead of Chris Paddock in a draft last week. It could probably be, you know, back to back or so in my rankings. But yeah, that's basically how I value him. I think he's a great third. I mean, if you can get him as your fourth starter, that's awesome. I'd be fine with his. My third.

Yeah, and Charlie Morton, if he can come anywhere close to the pitcher he was back in 2019, he finished as the SP7 in both head-to-head points and in Roto that year. And Scott, as we've highlighted many times regarding Charlie Morton, last year, early on in the season, was dealing with the shoulder injury. The velocity was down. But then once he returned from that injury, the velocity, his final five starts was ticking up. And then in the postseason, it was very. basically right where he was back in 2019.

It was like 95 miles per hour. And he was awesome in the postseason. So there are reasons to buy in on Charlie Morton. Yeah, I'm surprised I didn't have him higher considering. I kind of wanted to hold out and see how he looked this spring. You know, he's getting pretty old. And I just wanted to make sure his stuff, everything still looked right. It was basically Morton and Patrick Corbin that I went into spring training thinking,

okay, based, you know, a lot's writing on this in terms of how I approach them in drafts, and they've just gone in opposite directions. Morton's moved up, my rankings, Corbyn's moved down, and that's where they are. Yeah, Scott's biggest bust the other day, Patrick Corbyn, moving way down the rankings, and Charlie Morton is now up to SP 27 for Scott. He's also SP 27 for Chris, and he has SP30 for me. So inside all of our top 30 starting pitchers this season, before we, get to some injury notes that we need to mention. FBT listeners, it's literally madness time in the sports world with the NCAA tournament in full swing, but you are diehard sports fans,

which means you want to stay in the no with all sports, and that's where CBS Sports HQ is your streaming answer. Just think about what's on tap this next week alone. MLB opening day, UFC 260, NFL free agency, fallout and draft coverage, golf picks, the U.S. men's national team, and so much more. Sports never sleeps and needs. neither does CBS Sports HQ. It's available on your computer, your phone, via the CBS Sports app, and your connected TV. Heck, you might even see one of us fantasy folk on there.

I was on Thursday to react to the Eloy Jimenez news in real time. It really is a great product, and I encourage all of you to check it out. Again, that is CBS Sports HQ. Scott, we did an emergency pod earlier on Thursday, but for anyone who might have missed it, let's just reiterate. Of course, the biggest news of the day, Eloy Jimenez is confirmed out five to six months with a torn Peck.

And does that mean he is worth drafting anymore, Scott? What do you think about that? Pretty much no. Pretty much no. Very large league. A lot of high-all spots may be late, but I think it's possible he's just out for the season. Maybe he'll be back in September.

It kind of depends how the White Sox are doing probably. But, yeah, I don't think you need to stash him away all that time in most leagues. Don't worry, Adam. I'm not going to ask you about Andrew Vaughn, the top prospect for the Chicago White Sox. I put it in my cue. I put him in my queue in the, I got a slow draft going on right now.

As you should, though, lots of hype growing for Andrew Vaughn. He's going to play left field for the White Sox on Friday. So they literally don't care who they throw out there as long as they can contribute on offense. But typically when you see an injury, you know, this drastic. I mean, again, like, do you even touch this? You just stay completely away, Adam?

Yeah. Yeah. Look, like Scott said, you got a bunch of IR spots. Maybe he's back for you in the family. fantasy playoffs or something like that, but in all likelihood, you're not getting anything out of Euloy Jimenez on your fantasy team.

So do you think Vaughn, he's only first base eligible now, right? Yeah, he's only first base eligible, but if they stick them out in left field, he could have dual eligibility the first or second week of the season? Assuming he starts with the team, which as of now,

it seems like it's even more likely because they lost all that power from Eloy, and it seems like Andrew Vaughn might be able to replace some of that power in the lineup. I was looking up some outfielders who are rostered, in 60% or less of CBS leagues in case you are trying to replace

Eloy, which is no easy task, of course. But Mitch Hanager, Jack Peterson, David Peralta, and Hunter Renfro were a few names that I noticed were under that threshold. Ray's reliever, Nick Anderson, we brought up that he heard his elbow yesterday. We didn't know the full extent of it. He has a partially torn ligament

in that elbow. So I would say expect Diego Castillo and Pete Fairbanks to see a large majority of the saves. But you know with a raise, they're going to mix and match. I think there's a chance we even see guys like Shane McClanahan or Luis Patino, some of their young prospects in the mix for saves there, Scott. Is there any other names that come to mind for you? Well, you said a large majority of the saves. I think they'll see a small majority of the saves

because 12 different guys getting saves last year. I know they had a stretch of five different guys for five different saves at one point in the 60 game season. So, I mean, I am going to move Castillo and Fairbanks up a little because they are the leading candidates. But, It won't surprise me if nobody gets double-digit staves in that bullpen this year. Adam, how does it feel to be the football guy now? People are commenting on YouTube, my boy Adam from football. Football, yeah. I mean, you do host a football podcast, so it makes sense, right?

Yeah, it feels weird to not be a baseball guy, though. I'll tell you that. There's a lot, there's just a lot that I just miss knowing. There's this awesome power when you know everything about, baseball, not everything. I know everything. Everybody knows football, right? But you guys know every pitcher and every rotation and who sits against lefties and

things like that. And that's just really cool. And I always thought it was great to be a baseball quasi buff, you know, reading every box score and game recap and all that. You know your stuff about baseball. Yeah. It's cool. It is.

It's like it's such a great sport. And I miss, I kind of miss all. that I guess. I'm not going to go ahead. It's kind of weird we get in our baseball bubble where like, you know, Rymel Toppe is a big name to us. But like I just wonder general sports fan, how many of the players drafted in the first two rounds do they, do they know who they are?

You know? I think four or five years ago I asked my brother, I mean, I don't even more than that. Do you know who Paul Goldschmidt is? And he had no idea. And Paul Goldschmidt was second or third. third best hitter in baseball. So yeah, I do, I'm happy to be, I really am happy to be on tonight. I had such a great time when we did the salary cap draft together. And I'm going to try to watch a whole bunch of baseball and really be a baseball fan because I dropped the ball this preseason.

But here I am. And FBT and 5, by the way, is my savior. Very nice. I'm happy that you're listening. I learned, I mean, I basically just learned everything from you from fantasy football today in 5. Let's hit the rest of these injury notes. Juan Soto left Thursday's game with calf tightness, but it was reported as minor and that he should be all right. So I would say any discount that you could get on Wonsoto you should probably take because it doesn't sound too serious. His teammate Starling Castro was diagnosed with a very mild strain

of his left hamstring on Thursday and is considered day-to-day. This is not injury-related, but is definitely noteworthy because his name has been in the news recently, Scott. And Freddie Peralta will open the season in the bruce. rotation. Josh Lindblum will start the season in their bullpen. So far for Freddie Peralta this spring, eight and a third innings pitched, one earned run, 15 strikeouts to three walks. Where would he rank among this group of recently hyped up pitchers that we've talked about, Scott? Robbie Ray, James Paxton, Carlos Rodan, and Logan Webb. Where would you put

Freddie Peralta on that mix? Second behind Paxton. I've really, I've really just in the last week have become very high on Peralta. The strikeout potential was already enormous. There were some consistency issues. He didn't have a very diverse arsenal, but he's been mixing in change up in a second breaking ball more. I can't remember if he already

had the curveball or if he already had the slider, but he's mixing in the second one more. And clearly, Craig Counsel thinks he's come far enough to start. Now, I don't know how traditional his starter usage will be, or if it'll be more like a piggyback situation where he maybe goes four innings, you know, less than five more often than not,

doesn't really face the lineup much the second and third time through. I don't know. It remains to be seen, but obviously if he does, if he is somebody who goes five innings, the minimum enough for a win more often than not, I think the impact of his starts will be pretty high and you'll be happy you invested in him late. It's not going to cost much to pick Freddie Peral. And, you know, even if he is a piggyback starter in a five-by-five league, I think the ratios help. I think the strikeout total will still be enough to use him, even if it limits his ceiling.

You know what I just realized, Scott? He is going to be a sparp, right? Yeah. He might be the – is he the best spark right now? I would say so, yeah. I would put him over AJ Puck, who – I'm not confident Puck's going to be in the rotation. I don't think so. I kind of think they're going Dalton Jeffries instead.

Yeah, I agree. who's kind of a deep sleeper himself. Freddie Peralta throws a lot of pitches outside the strike zone. This guy walks a lot of guys. Well, Adam, have you seen him in the spring? Have you seen his eight in the third spring innings? Not that that obviously matters all that much. They're talking about him using his breaking pitches more,

which, I mean, we've said for years, right? The guy throws his fastball like 60, 70% of the time. It might even be more than that. It might be like 80% of the time. But he does have good breaking pitches. So I think if he leans on those a little bit more, Yeah, he could be the best spark this year. Adam, I don't know if you know this.

Worst Sparp season ever. I do know that. I think, man, relief pitcher seems kind of challenging this year, especially now already you've got the Toronto situation, the Tampa situation. It's scary right now. Oh, it's gross, man. Jose LeClerc got hurt, so you have the Rangers up in the air.

Hunter Harvey for the Orioles, 60-day IL. So it looks like Tanner Scott there. But, man, more than ever before, It seems like teams are using multiple relievers in the back end. And again, Sparps, for anyone wondering, starting pitchers as relief pitchers, they're very valuable in head-to-head points leagues, because obviously you can get a little bit more volume out of your relief pitchers there. Email of the day, this one's from Stephen Lipp, who is in one of our listener league.

So congratulations, and he was super pumped that he made it into the league. But more importantly, he added this. I used Tapp-Hap AMC last year, and I won both of my leagues. So thank you to Adam for that. A revolutionary strategy. Adam remind the good people of what Tapp-Hap-Hap AMC was. And whether or not you actually are going to use, what do you call it, FAP-FAM, FAB-Fam, I don't know,

whatever your new strategy is. Flaherty and Bueller. Fab-Fam plus Hater and Morton AMC. Yes, Fab-Fam, P-H-A-M-M-C. That's the new one. Flaherty and Bueller plus Hater and Morton and more closers. No. it's just not a good enough year for relief pitchers to do it.

Tapap AMC was a one-time deal. It was two aces plus Hater and Paxton and more closers. I tried it last year. Paxton did a lot of heavy lifting. Yeah. The reason why I wanted him was he was an IL stash at the time. This was all the way back in March. And he was an IL stash that you're going to get for the second half of the season.

And what you were looking for were the best strikeout starting pitchers because you were not going to go with a lot of starting pitchers. You were going to go with Scherzer. And for me, it was Scherzer and Bueller. Okay? So you basically get like, those two pitchers are almost like three pitchers with their strikeouts. And you win WIP and you win ERA and you win saves. You finish very close to the top.

And in that league, I came in fifth place, but I was so close to finishing in third. And my biggest issue is that my two aces stunk. They were Bueller and Scherzer. And my hitting was great. And I won saves. but my ERN whip were awful because those guys didn't carry me enough. So when you go in an all-in strategy like that,

you need the two guys that you spend on to be great, and I picked the wrong Aces. But I do think that it can work to have a few great starters and then big-time reliever. So in the salary cap draft that we did on the air last week, or whenever that was, I took Hater and Morton. I tried to get two Aces. It didn't work out the way I wanted to, so I had a pivot.

But I have Hater and I have Karen Shaq and I have the other guy in the Brewers, Devin Williams. Lots of strikeouts. Yes. So I think that I have such good strikeout relievers and especially this year when we're worried out pitchers going deep into games. I do think I'm going to do pretty well on ERA and WIP. Saves might be an issue, especially if Karen Shack's not getting them for Cleveland. But I've already got four claims in for relievers who are going to be on waivers getting saves.

That's how it goes. And then, yeah, so I do think it's a viable strategy just in general, in a five-by-five league, to have the elite relief pitchers and compete in the pitching categories. You're just not going to win wins, and hopefully you'll finish middle of the pack and strikeouts. Adam, I don't know if you have a nuanced take for this or not, and I didn't prep you for it, so apologies. But how do you feel about pitching just in general this year? Because it seems to be there are two mindsets, right? And I guess this was the case last year anyway, because Chris doesn't use. usually buy into pitching as much as everyone else.

But it seems like Scott and I are kind of leaning into the volatility more than ever, just because there's so much uncertainty regarding pitching following last season, that we almost want more insurance policies. So we are leaning heavily into it. And then Chris is kind of on the other side where, okay, maybe he'll get one ace, but then he's going to wait and take some upside guys a little bit later on. So what do you think overall about pitching this season, Adam? Well, here's my pitching stuff.

I have the 11th pick in a 12-team points league, We're 10 rounds in. And my pitching staff, now I took Zach Gallen in the third round last week before the injury. Bauer, Galin, Junjin, Ryu, Charlie Morton. I had the 11th pick. Chris had the 12th pick. He's got a weird team name. Merrifield Post Pavilion.

I'm sure that's some indie band. His pitching staff is Scherzer Woodruff, Musgrove, Alcantara. that's pretty good well yeah but it's not as good as mine Bauer well assuming Gowan had been healthy Bauer Gowardin Riu but I am all in on pitching

because I do feel like in a 12 team points league I don't see why I'm going to be super weak at hitting it's so much deeper than pitching I know that and there are about 13 pitchers that I love this year it's basically like your top 14 or like Scott's top 14 without Kenta myeda yeah so probably your

top 13 Frank because you have have my eight of 14. That's basically the pitchers I love. I need two of them. That's how I approach it. And I'd like to get probably four of a top 30 or so. Yeah, I think that fits right in and mesh as well with everything else

that we've been talking about. So Adam, you're welcome on here whenever you'd like to join us again. Before we get to the rest of Adam's favorites that he is drafting, I have to tell you about the all-new Stitcher podcast app. It's been rebuilt from the ground up to make it easier to listen to podcast on the go or on the revamped web player.

Stitcher is home to all your favorite podcasts from classics like My Favorite Murder, This American Life, How Did This Get Made? Plus all of the CBS shows such as Ion College Basketball, Fantasy Football Today with a few studs, and of course your favorite fantasy baseball today. In Stitcher, you have more control like setting your download preferences per show and the ability to listen at virtually any speed. You can also listen to your podcast anytime, anywhere. So give the all-new Stitcher a try, download it on the App Store. or at Stitcher app.com slash download. All right, Adam, the moment of truth. We'll go one by one.

You've already given us Charlie Morton as your favorite player to draft this year. Who's number two? Number two. Number two? Well, you said earlier that we weren't going to talk about the Yankees, which you had me come on for a show

where I told you my favorite players. You really think we're not going to talk about the Yankees. So there is one Yankee in there. We'll get to him later. Number two would be Vlad. I don't really like him. I looked at his NFBC ADP in the last week. it's 42nd. But in the draft, I just referenced, Chris took him 60 first. So you take gambles

on players like Vlad, and that's kind of how you win. So I think if I can get him around 60th overall, that feels like a no-brainer. So Vlad's one of them. You want me to just keep going? No, no, we'll go player at a time. Scott, Gerrero Jr. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who was read, Scott took him out of his bus column. So that is correct. And that's exactly what I was about to ask. So, Scott, I mean, if you're drafting this weekend, how early do you feel alright pulling the trigger on someone like Vlad? It sounds a little early for me because I know, I know my focus is going to be elsewhere at that point. 60 or 40? 60.

Okay. It's still a little earlier than I'd want. It's, it's lower than ADP, which is good. But I know there. At that point, you're 24 picks away, right? That was the end of a round. Right. So Chris and I are picking on the turn.

So if you want him, that's where you got to take him. If you have the 11th both pick. Yeah, I mean, if you have to have Vladimir Guerrero, you can't expect to get him any later than that. Yeah, so that's fair. I just, I'm not somebody who needs to have him. If he breaks out for somebody else, so be it. I think I think I'll go with some more, you know,

some more assurances there in the early rounds, and I'll still come out fine. So that's fine. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of similar to what we said about Fernando Tatis last year, except you had to use a second round pick on Fernando Tatis, where if Vlad breaks out, this is the lowest you're going to be able to get him for, I don't know, however long he's awesome. But that's assuming that he actually takes that next step.

And so far in the spring, 15 for 31, four doubles, a home run, six walks to four strikeouts for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. And we have talked about he has been raising his launch angle in the spring, which is key for him because he's just hit too many ground. balls so far in his career. All right, Adam. Number three. All right. So I really, there are some players that I just don't want to give up on. And one of them is James and Tyone. I was really high on him a few years ago. And I just think his ADP, it's 183rd right now. He's the number 63 pitcher. That's including relievers. I really want James, I think that innings are going to

be an issue. But as I said, they could be an issue for almost every pitcher this year. he's looked really good this spring. He's a great control pitcher, and we've seen, he hasn't been a great strikeout pitcher in his career, but we've seen pitchers leave the pirates and find all of a sudden

a different way to pitch and a way to generate more strikeouts. And yeah, I think he'll obviously be in position to get a lot of wins. So I really like James and Tyone as a number five starter if you really neglect pitching,

ideally six or seven bench pitch or something like that and see what happens. I like it though. I'm feeling it. Yeah, and I think, you lean into starting pitching early like, you know, we've been doing here on the show, that you can wind up with Tyone later on in your draft.

His ADP is 194.6 as somebody on your bench. Scott, I will ask you, though, about Tyone. His velocity, mind you, he's coming back off of his second Tommy John surgery. He hasn't pitched in a major league game since 2019, so, you know, he hasn't pitched for a while. His velocity has been down about two to three miles per hour this spring compared to where he was at in his prime. So does that worry you at all when it comes to him? Yeah, it worries me some. I mean, it sounds like he's changing his whole approach to pitching, basically.

So we're just, we're kind of going to see a new pitcher from the ground up, I feel like, and comparing his velocity to his past velocity, I don't know that it necessarily means anything. But obviously, when somebody's coming off Tommy John surgery, he hope they get back all their velocity. It can only help. There are no assurances with Tyone. That's important to keep in mind. I've invested in him in a few places. I have him in my sleepers column.

I like the upside. I think there's a chance he's transformed the same way Garrick Cole and Tyler Glassnow where when they left Pittsburgh. But that doesn't mean you could make him your number four starter. You know, and I'm not saying you were at him. I'm just telling the people out there

that like you get him as your sixth or seventh starter because you don't really know what you're getting with him. And if he ends up pushing his way into your top five, great. Obviously, not all of those guys are going to hold up, as you were talking about earlier in the show, Frank. Yeah. Where you kind of giving ourselves insurance policies.

Tyone is somebody that is ensuring the staff you already built. Yeah, don't draft Tyone, expecting Tyone of old. Maybe he'll build up and get to that point at some point. But just, you know, be really. realistic with your expectations for James Tion. Adam, your number four favorite. Here's another guy that I don't want to give up on. We've already spoken about him today.

James Paxton, ADP in the last week on NFBC, 223rd. Velocity is back up. I just read an article in one of the Seattle papers that said he looks like the James Paxton of old, which at times was a great pitcher. At times wasn't great, but was certainly justifiable at 223rd overall.

even if he gets injured and misses two months, 223rd overall is perfectly justifiable for James Paxton. It's a guy with an elite swinging strike rate and someone that I really felt like he had Cy Young potential and I looked like a clown last year because for some, velocity just completely disappeared. I think he had the biggest, was that last year? I mean, I get the years confused.

He hit the biggest velocity drop in baseball, right? Yeah, it was. Yep. Yeah. And right, so that's back and get a lot of strikeouts, good ballpark for a fly ballpark. for a fly ball pitcher. And yeah, I need to,

remember I nominated him last week or whatever that was. And he went for four bucks. And I was like, never do that. But now it seems more justifiable. That was such a mic drop moment. I feel like when he comes back,

you know, he's been throwing simulated games. We don't really have any reports of how it's doing. I think he had, I think he had like a visa issue or something coming back from, Canada. But, you know, he comes back. His velocity's back. He strikes out eight of the 16 batters he faces. And it's like, okay. I guess, I guess we're going to do this James Paxton think again.

I moved him up two tiers in my pitcher rankings. He's, he's ahead of Tyone now, you know? Yeah. And he maxed out at, I think it was 97 miles per hour in that start that he made last week. And his lone start, it was four and a third with a loud one earned run, eight strikeouts. So just awesome start there. for James Pax. And he was going up against the Brewers and they've been prone to strike out quite a bit. But yeah, even at his ADP, kind of similar situation to James and Tion

where there's high reward, but not really a lot of risk based on where they're going. All right, Adam, round us out. Your number five favorite player you are drafting in fantasy baseball this season. Alex Verdugo, his ADP in the last week, 130th outfield or 32. That's about where, this is Roto ADP.

This is about where he ranked in points per game in 2020, but he's fine in Roto 2. He's a great batting average source. I know he's not going to hit for a ton of power. He's a ground ball hitter. But I think what I really like about him is his 160 game pace, football guy, his 162 game pace last year, like 111 runs, but I don't know, something like 50 RBIs. And I know Frank says RBI, it drives me crazy because it's RBI's.

But the lineup could be so much better. they were 11th in runs scored last season. J.D. Martinez was terrible. Zander Bogartes was good, but he wasn't as good as he was in 2019. And Devers went from a 916 OPS to 793. Verdugo can hit lefties and righties. I don't see why he'd have to leave the lineup. I don't think that, you know, he's one of their better hitters.

So I think there's an opportunity for, you know, 100 plus runs and 75 RBIs or something. something if he's batting second. It's a hell of a year, but there's an opportunity for that and a really good batting average. So I like Verdugo. Yeah, and Verdugo has grown on me a little bit here throughout the draft season. You mentioned he's good for any format, but specifically in Roto and heads head categories, he's one of those last guys in the middle rounds that contributes batting average. I mentioned yesterday players we keep drafting. I keep winding up with a lot of Jeff McNeil for that same reason, one of the last guys that contributes batting average. Brantley, too.

those are really the last three that I look for in the middle rounds. McNeil, Brantley, and Verdugo as plus batting average contributors. And I think the counting stats will be solid. He could even chip in 8 to 10 steals. That wouldn't surprise me either. He had four steals in 53 games last year. Scott, I feel like you are not the biggest Verdugo guy. Am I right in saying that?

Yeah, I would say you're right. It's a ceiling issue for me. I actually did draft him in that draft I was part of yesterday where strikeouts count. a full minus one for hitters as opposed to minus half a point. Because, you know, he actually did strike out a decent amount last year, but normally in previous years that he hasn't. So I see the value in a format like that. But otherwise, you know, he's not going to be much of a base stealer.

Not confident he'll even hit 20 home runs. Probably a good batting average source. It might be in a good lineup spot. I just don't think there's enough upside to get excited about, especially given all the upside targets there are available now, field even later than he goes off the board. Hold on. Let me just because I think when we talk about categories,

you know, he's not going to be great in Steelers, he's not going to be great in home runs. The one that's most often overlooked is run. So he played 53 games last year and was on pace for 111 runs. And I really don't think it's crazy that, because he's going to get on base because he's probably going to hit 300, I don't think it's crazy that he could surpass that.

Like I said, I think the Red Sox lineup could be a lot better this year than it was last year. So if he's a batting average standout and could be among the league leaders and runs, then you can sacrifice, then I do think if you're getting him as a 30 second outfieler off the board,

I think that's a really good value for Verdugo. I will also mention for Verdugo that because his strikeout rate was up, he ended up hitting 308, but his XBA was only 238. It's expected batting average. Who expected that? I'm just saying that's a lot lower than 300.

238. It was 286 in 2019 when he was striking out much less. So like, he really needs to get those strikeouts down. And I think he will. But, you know, it just adds another, another layer of concern to the equation. We are going to do some bold predictions later on. And Adam, I would say, look, Verdugo scores 120 runs this year.

That's a bold prediction. prediction. That's legit. Can I give you a little more here? Go ahead. Keep going. Now, last year, I came on the show. It was, I think, it was July 15th. And you were already full swing hosting. This might have been one of my last shows. And I gave my breakouts. And this was a terrible list of break. I mean, awful. But I really think that what I meant was these are my 2021 breakouts. Because everybody on the list,

I feel really good about this year, basically. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was one of them. Glaber Torres and Jack Flaherty. I expected them to go from already great, but could be greater. I think Glabors is going to bounce back. He was out of shape last year. He got it together late in the season. I think he's going to be a lot better.

Flaherty, I said he was better than a ZRA last year. Again, he's better than his ERA. He had one terrible start last year. Other than that, he had a low three ZRA. I said, Vlad, Chris Paddock and Yohan Moncada. I do want to talk about Moncada. I know you guys are talking about. talked about this a lot. There is such an obvious excuse for him. He had COVID. It really affected

him last year. He might hit in the middle of the order now. And that could affect his stolen bases, but I think that all of these guys could come back from bad 2020s and just bust out in 2021. And the one player that I said, I was putting my fantasy baseball reputation on last year, I said, put my entire reputation. That is why I'm no longer a baseball guy. It was Carlos Correa. I couldn't stop talking about Carlos Cori. I also mentioned Corey Seeger. We all liked Corey Seeger last year. But Correa, I really thought was just going to be amazing,

like possibly win the MVP. This could be the year. There's no reason why this can't be the year for Correa. So I know, Frank, you love him. So a lot of the guys that I loved last year, I'm not giving up on, like, Flaherty. Everybody likes Flaherty, but I think he could take another step. Glaiber bounces back.

Vlad busts out. Correa, one of his best seasons. Moncada, big time bounce back. Adam, we're going to be great together, this team that we're sharing. I mean, Charlie Morton in the sixth, Carlos Correa and the seventh. We've got it, man. We've got everything figured out already. I have gone as far as to say, Carlos Correa is this year's version of Corey Seeger.

I don't think it's crazy. He's 26 years old. He's entering a contract year. And I kind of think the contract year thing, specifically for elite type players, is real. And come on, Correa just strikes me as a guy who's like, he's going to try a little bit harder in a contract year. So I'm buying in there. All right, a few miscellaneous items before we let Adam Azer go because it's very late. He has children. He's got a football podcast. He's a busy guy. We can't keep him here all night. I don't know if you know this about Adam, but since you left, Chris kind of has like this midlife crisis thing going on where he thinks he's a singer. He's like some kind of superstar or something. He does. Yeah, listen to how good this was.

I think I've heard that. Yeah, I'm sure you've heard it many times. But recently he did a cover of Flagpole Citiative. by Harvey Danger. And I know that you are a big alternative rock guy. So I wanted to play this before you leave. I got to say the line, I'm paranoid, I'm paranoid, and everyone's coming to get me. I was listening to it on Sirius the other day on 90s on 9, I think, or lithium. I think that's one of my favorite lines of the decade. So yes, go on, play.

Here you go. And I can't bid on the next end. And I'm so mad. I passed on snail And I don't want to start Kikek And how'd I am Duff with Kim Brown Yeah, that's just the final chorus of the song

And if you want to hear the full thing, Chris tweeted it out And I thought it did an awesome job It's actually about He's singing it from Scott's perspective About Scott's need for starting pitching So that's why he's freaking out about not getting Blake Snell but I don't think that would ever actually happen to Scott.

It was excellent. Chris is ringing it. You don't think I'd freak out about not having enough pitchers? No, no, you would that, just not Blake Snow. Okay. Yeah, you definitely would. Yeah, he had to pick names that fit the rhyming scheme more than names I actually go for. But yeah.

A few more miscellaneous items here. We'll wrap up. We'll take a quick break, and Adam will dip out, and we'll get some bold predictions and stuff. Pepsi is making a new peep's-flavored soda. Scott, would you drink it? Scott is already drinking it. I saw him drink it. Someone tagged us on Twitter and they said two of Scott's favorite things,

Peeps and Pepsi. I'm drinking a wild cherry Pepsi. I was before the show, just to be clear. I hadn't found this peep soda. But of course I drink it. Why not? Last but not least, today on our mailbag, well, Thursday on our mailbag, we pre-recorded it,

Scott revealed, how about this? He likes licorice jelly beans, the black jelly beans, and Cadbury cream eggs. Adam, your thoughts. Scott is a seven-year-old kid who never grew out of it. He never grew out of his taste sweet tooth. Wow. And I called Jamie an eight-year-old on the podcast we did the other day because Jamie eats like, he eats cereal.

I didn't know this, Jamie eats cereal all the time and it's all the sugary stuff. But Scott has the worst taste in food. And he just... Oh, and all of food? Wow. Terrible. And he just told him, like, saving private riot was like, meh. And he didn't really feel like he needed to see it again.

I don't want to be here anymore, Frank. Let's go to me. Just torch me on your way out. That's fine. All right, Adam. You know Jake Sealy from The Athletic. Sure do. Jake, I was tweeting about the cereal thing.

Jake says, you have a podcast about cereal, and you didn't, You didn't have me on or whatever. I said, Jake, I'm sure you would just pick all the peanut butter cereals. And he says, I'm like, what are you talking about? I read your candy rankings one year, and it was all peanut butter. And he's like, literally two of my top 25 candies were peanut butter. And I looked at the article, three of his top five favorite candies had peanut butter in them. That's a lot of peanut butter.

Jake Sealy from the athletic covers fantasy baseball loves peanut butter candy. Three of his top five. So don't let him fool you. Yeah, I'm all right with peanut butter. When it's with chocolate, it's fine. It's whatever. It's not my favorite thing. Butterfinger. That's my point. That's why the butterfinger is the worst candy. It takes the most perfect combination and makes it suck somehow. I love Butterfingers. And with that, Adam, thanks for joining us. Appreciate your favorites here. Everyone, go and listen to

Fantasy Football today. You know where you can find it. Same way that you listen to this podcast as well. Adam, we will see you, buddy. Thanks again. All right, guys. See ya. See you. Already, if you're watching on the video side, we are going to take a quick break. If you are listening on the We will be right back, but when we return, we will have bold predictions here on fantasy baseball today. All right, some bold predictions, and I'm going to read a few of these from our listeners, Scott, that came in, and then you and I can go a little back and forth. We could volley up some bold predictions here that relate to fantasy baseball, of course. But let's start off with this one. And it comes from Kevin Price. I'm not going to like this one. Dylan Carlson will be the Cardinals' fourth best fantasy outfielder. Now, he did send this in before Harrison Bader got hurt,

but he said he would finish behind Tommy Edmund in the outfield ranks, Tyler O'Neill, and Harrison Bader. Even if he only finishes behind Tommy Edmund and Tyler O'Neill, Dylan Carlson does, that's going to be pretty bad. So he went on to say Carlson had a great game in his first playoff game, but outside of that, he hit 198 with a 29% strikeout rate in his other 37 games. Scott, I like Dylan Carlson.

I will wait to tell the, people why? Where are you at on Dylan Carlson? I don't like him as much as some other people do. I acknowledge that like he's he's at a point in his career, stage of his career. We just really have no idea what he's going to be. I don't think last year definitively proved anything one way or the other. It clearly didn't it. It was a small sample.

He struggled early, not unsurprisingly. We just don't know. I mean, the profile hasn't changed from this point a year ago when he was probably the most hyped hitting prospect there was. I just find, I don't know, the range he's going. There are other people I can get more excited about because it's still, it's pretty high. It is, I will admit.

The ADP for Carlson is 163.4. And specifically if I knew he was going to be a base stealer, because that makes a big difference in terms of how useful he's going to be in fantasy, I think. Yeah, I would, I don't, not expecting a ton on the base paths. Maybe he gives you 10 to 12, kind of similar to what I'm expecting out of someone like Clint Frazier. I like both of them. I have been both in my in my breakouts column, but I've pointed this out about Dylan Carlson many times before. His first

23 games, he was awful last year. First taste in the majors, he batted 162, he had a 12% swinging strike rate during that time. So he was swinging and missing more than league average, got sent back to the alternate site, worked on some things. He came back extremely small sample size. get that, that's fine, you don't want to buy into it. That's okay. But his final 12 games, Dylan Carlson last year, he hit 278, lowered that swinging strike rate down to 9.5%, started making some more contact and started making harder contact. Dylan Carlson's exit velocity on specifically fly balls and line drives last year, 96.6 miles per hour. That was better than Mike Trout and Bryce Harper. So I think there's something in there. I think that, you know,

there's a potential for 270 plus, 25 home. runs, 10 to 15 steals, that's on the high end. It's not what I would actually expect. But even if you give you 20 home runs and double-digit steals, I would like something like that for Carlson, likely hitting in the middle of the Cardinals lineup. So I don't know how many bold predictions you have available, Scott, but I have five listed here. So we can, we can volley and go back and forth a little bit and just hit a few rapid fire ones here. The first one that I have, C.J. Cron hits 35 home runs this year with the Rockies and finishes as a top 10

first baseman. That might be good enough to finish in the top five, but I was like, all right, I'll make it top 10. Because either way, I mean, if he finishes a top 10 first baseman, that's great and that's pretty bold. So the way that he is hitting in the spring right now, I think it's kind of possible.

CJ Crone, someone who hits the ball hard, had a great barrel right a couple of years ago. I think he played a few games last year and got hurt with the Detroit Tigers and now it looks like he's going to be the starting first basement for the Colorado Rockies. So, CJ Crone hits 35 home run, Scott. You can react to that and give us your first bowl prediction.

It seems a little high. I think he'll see. He's been a 30 homer guy before, so he could be again. And maybe he'll get all the way up to 35. I think the bigger impact will be on his batting average. And actually in the top of that same column, my deep sleeper's column, I wrote about him. And I suggested it might not be so implaus.

that C.J. Crone has a better season in Colorado than Nolan Aeronado has out of Colorado. Now that's bold. That would be bold, and I'm not going to assign my name to. I guess I kind of did. But I was just pointing out it's not implausible. It's not implausible because, you know, this guy's predicting 35 homers. I'm thinking in a good scenario, Aeronado hits that and with like a 280 batting average in St. Louis. and I mean, I could just see that happening with Crone. Cron's somebody who late in every draft, I see him go to somebody else and I was like, oh, man,

I don't know why he's not like top of mind for me at that point, and we're running out of time for him to get there. Scott, would you rather have Andrew Vaughn or C. Vaughn? We just wax poetic about how much we love C.J. Cron. Yeah, Andrew Vaughn. No question that's. C.J. Cron so far in the spring is,

16 for 43 with four home runs and he's not even in Corse Field yet he's just absolutely mashing. Scott, your first bold prediction. Oh gosh, I don't even know where to start. I wrote down a bunch. All right. Will Myers contributes a combined 50 home runs and stolen bases.

Ooh. Wow. Is that bold enough? Not bold enough? No, that's pretty good. I like that. Yeah? Has he ever done? He's probably done that at some point. but it's been, yeah. So he did that back in 2017. He had 30 home runs and 20 steals. Also did it in 2016, 28 home runs and 20 steals.

Of course, last year he hit 15 home runs in 55 games, only two steals, but the Padres like to run. So this is not crazy, Scott. And bold predictions are... Yeah, it's not bold enough. I'm disappointed with my level of boldness there. No, I mean, like, he's being drafted, what, pick 120, 130 in that range?

I mean, if he does that, He's probably a top 50 or 60 picnics here. It's pretty bold. I want boldness that strains credulity, Frank. All right. So if you have one that's even crazy. I want to look foolish here now. All right, do it.

Matt Olson, out homers, Pete Alonzo. Let me finish. Pete Alonzo. And everyone else, Matt Olson, you're a 2021 home run leader. All right. Man, that would probably take, I don't know, somewhere in the 45 to 50 range. That would make sense, right? As the home run leader, I think it's doable. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah, it's not bold enough. All right, how's this one? Keep going until you find one, Scott.

Tyler Malley. Tyler Malley. I think I saw someone else do this like Jeff Passon or something, but I'm, which if somebody else is claiming it, it's clearly not bold enough. But Tyler Malley is the Reds best starting pitch. this year, which is no knock on Luis Castillo. Oh, wow. Might be a small knock on Sunny Gray, but Tyler Malley. Wow. It's even better than Luis Castillo this year, I guess, is what I'm saying. I'm not good at bold predictions then because I had Tyler Malley as one of mine as well. And I had that he finishes the top 25 starting pitcher.

Oh, come on. That's not very bold, right? I mean, he's being drafted as the 50-second starting pitcher off the board. So that means he's jumping up. you know, whatever, half. He's cutting that in half, basically, and finishing inside the top 25. It's definitely not bold enough.

Yours is more bold. If you have to defend the boldness of your bold take, it's not a bold take, all right? You are correct in that. Bold take should speak for itself. Tyler Malley, I'll just remind people why I am in on him, and I wrote him up as a, as a breakout this year.

Last season, 3.59 ERA, 1.15 whip, 11.3K per 9, and a 13.8% swinging strike rate. He changed up his pitch mix. He brought back a slider that he used back in 2018, along with a splitter, and he also has a mid-90s fastball. So I think the Arsenal's there. We just have to see it consistently out of Tyler Malley.

How many other bold predictions you got, Scott? I keep going. Keep going. Let's go. Give me time. Josh Bell, even better than in 2019. Oh, man. Even better. Let me pull up the Josh Bell numbers, because he was pretty damn good back in 2019.

that would be a 277 batting average, 37 home runs, 94 runs scored, 116 RBI. Josh Bell is better than that this season. Bold prediction from one Scott White, and it is also a contract. Is it a contract?

I think it's a contract year for Josh Bell. I'll look that up and you can give us your next one, Scott. Anthony Bass doesn't see two saves for the Marlins. Wow. We'll know pretty early on if this one is, if I went too bold with this one. It doesn't see two saves. Damn.

So who do you think is the next? Is it Yemi Garcia? That might be too bold. Yemi Garcia is the one that you're looking at? Yeah, I think so. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I was,

I was wrong about Josh Bell. He is arbitration eligible for his final year next season. So forget what I said about that contract year thing. I have been buying into Josh Bell. He was the other one with Eric Hosmer yesterday. First baseman that I keep drafting. So pretty excited about Josh.

Bell. Keep him coming, Scott. Let's go. Nick Castellanos returns. Second round value. Second round value. I thought you were going to say first. I thought so too. But then I put up that second finger and it was over. Second round value. Nick, I think I've made that claim before. So maybe people are tired of it. Maybe it's too boring to be bold. What does that final stat line look like, Scott? Second round value for Cassianos.

It looks like 305 batting average and 38 home runs Oh man Let's do it Freddie Freeman light Watch out Nick Castagnos Let's do it

Castianos is crushing it He's crushing it in the spring as well Keep coming Scott I mean I'm just going to let you keep going All right Oh you're going to like this one Could Brian Hayes NL rookie of the year

And Top 5 an L MVP. All right, so that is bold. Not for the Rookie of the Year part is definitely possible. Just because I feel like the pirates, they have to be at least decent

for him to earn top five MVP voting. And I don't know if that's going to happen. So I would say... Here's what I'm thinking. He's going to earn, because MVP voters, they just look at war nowadays, right? That's true.

Some prioritize what team they're on, but most of them just look at war. Hayes' defense is so good it's going to elevate his war to a level that they have to consider him he played only 24 games in the majors last year and he led all NL rookies in an overall war

obviously he hit really well for those 24 games too but you know the defense helped put him over the top and he still qualifies his rookie so so there you go that's my required Cabrion Hayes one

this is kind of a troll-y Chris, let's troll Chris one. Ready? Byron Buxton finishes with fewer home runs and stolen bases than Michael A. Taylor of the Kansas City

Royals. Oh, that would be rough. That would be rough for one Chris Towers. And look if Byron Buckson gets hurt, that is definitely a possibility. Guy already cracked his tooth, eating steak. Bucksen has had a really hard time staying healthy.

And with that, I think the power is coming around for him, but he's been hitting cleanup for the twins so far in spring. So the steals total might be actually a little bit more modest than we are expecting this season. Keep him coming, Scott. Louis Severino beats Zach Allen back. Okay.

Severino, they're talking about maybe a June return. Zach Gallen, of course, dealing with that fracture in his forearm. He beats the June return. He's already throwing bullpins. Build up his starting. Luis Severino makes it back sooner than you think, sooner, than Zach Allen. I'll top that one, Scott. And I will say Cindergarde.

Cindergarde beats both of them and Carlos Carrasco back. Oh, you're trying to out bold me, Frank. Take that, Scott. But I like it. That's strange. That strains credulity. You sound, I'm incredulous. I'm incredulous because I'm hearing you.

You're not, okay. Dom Nunez. He plays for the Rockies, if you don't know, he's a catcher. Dom Nunez, as in Dominic, not Donald. Dom Nunez. Out-homers, Will Smith, the catcher. Obviously, out-humors, Will Smith, the pitcher. But he out-homers the Will Smith,

who plays his own position this year. year. And so far, Dom Nunez for the Rockies this spring, 12 for 32, with two home runs as a 375 batting average, and he does have some pop in his minor league profile that would require him to play more than Elias Diaz. But I think if Nunez is hitting, then he definitely has that possibility. It's a left-handed hitter, which I like. Sure. I don't know. That might be my boldest one, other than the Anthony Baskets doesn't get two things. All right, I'm actually running out now, but I do have a couple more. Thai France.

Top 10 second baseman. I like it. I actually think that might not be bold enough, but there are a lot of base dealers at second base. So you got to argue, do you want to like, do you want to parse formats, you know, because those base dealers get pushed up in the roto? I don't know. Ty France isn't a base dealer. But top 10 second baseman, I'll say.

I guess that would make it pretty bold, right? he would have to do something like 280 and 30 home runs at the second base position. And if he plays every day, that might happen for Typhins. It might happen. It might. All right, I think this is the last one I wrote down.

Sure. Joey Vavavavato. I don't know why I did that. Joey Votto. Top 12 at first base. He's back, baby. He's back. He's going.

he's not choking up on the bat anymore. He's not trying to get more walks than strikeouts. He's fine striking out. He knows he's got to swing harder. He's got to leverage better. He showed it last year. I think he had nine home runs in September or something like that. It was one of those tale of two seasons things for him,

but the power came surging back. I missed a lot of spring training with COVID, so hopefully he's fine. And it has no lingering effects from that. But yeah, going to go bold. Say Vado is the top 12 first basement again. And the ADP for Votto is 316.4. He is the 42nd first baseman off the board.

According to Fantasy Pros, he finishes inside the top 12. Bold prediction there from Scott White, especially pay attention to the name. Obviously, if you play an NEO only or if you're playing a deeper points league, Joey Votto definitely a name to remember there. A few more that I had written down,

Lance Lynn stays healthy and finishes outside the top 40 starting pitchers definitely does not fit the incredulous whatever meter. I could see that. I had him as a bust. I'm going to double down on relief pitcher here. Josh Hater loses his job to Devin Williams, not because of injury, just because he's bad.

And the other is that Rysselae-Glasius leads baseball and saves with 45 to 50 saves this season. That is Rice Lacey's for the Angels. That's the boldest of all. Who does that anymore? Who doesn't? He's not K-Rod. Come on.

he has to do is stay healthy, right? And keep the job. Tim Anderson goes 25, 25, and wins the American League MVP. Ooh. Ooh. That's bold. That is straining my credulity. Not so much the 2525, but the MVP part. Yeah.

I think if the White Sox finish first in the American League, Tim Anderson could very well be the catalyst for all of that happening. If he puts up a 25-25 season, likely scores 100 runs in that scenario, some, I don't know, 80, 90 RBI, something like that. I think that he would definitely get some American League. MVP consideration the last one I had was regarding Tyler Malley, and we already talked about him. So there you go, some bold predictions.

Scott, let's just wrap up. Talk about a few players that we have not, frankly, just haven't talked enough about yet. And I just wanted to get some of your thoughts. Quick, rapid fire, whatever one sentence, one thought on each of these players. Josh Donaldson, we just haven't talked about it. Well, I don't trust him to stay healthy.

I've taken him a few times because Cabrione Hayes was gone and Gio Orshello was gone. But it's like, this isn't really going to be my third basement all year. I know it. If he does, I mean, I still think he could be the guy he was for Atlanta two years ago. But I just, he's so old and he's three of the past four years. He's missed a lot of time. Dylan C. Scott, looks like he'll be the fourth starting pitcher in the rotation for the White Sox. and he's having a pretty good spring.

Some people are pumping him up. What do you think? I mean, the strikeouts haven't been there for him. So until I see him become more of a bat misser, before you even get to everything else going on with him, the control and all of that, it's not like he's even struck out of batter per inning this spring. So I mean, good prospect pedigree

and was dominant in the minors, but I got to see more because what I've seen has been pretty awful. How about Austin Hayes, Scott? DJ Stewart is dealing with an injury, and it seems like he's going to have the opportunity. Austin Hayes, that is, to start in the outfield for the Baltimore Orioles, and he is having a great spring. He has, you know, and I hope he stays healthy.

I hope he finally lives up to what I've hyped him to be in the past. I just, I've been down this path enough times with Austin Hayes that I can't go there again. I don't feel like I can. And I don't feel like I have. I mean, he's ADP is. Not existent. I never see him drafted.

So, you know, somebody to monitor on the waiver wire, if he's rolling at the start of the season, you know, there's upside there. So we'll take a flyer. But I don't really need to have an opinion on him yet, I guess. Michael Waka, Scott. Someone asked us about Michael Waka on Twitter today. And the Tampa Bay Rays do have a track record of turning pitchers around. So what do you think about Waka?

I mean, it wasn't that long ago that he was kind of one of the high-end guys at the position. and never like a true ways, but kind of the next tier down. But I don't really trust the raise to give anybody a real starting pitcher workload, except for maybe Tyler Glass now, and I'm stretching it for him, just because he's so clearly the best one there.

I mean, I think they have, I think they're going to go piggyback a lot. A lot of four-inning outings from guys like Waka. And it's just going to, it's going to be hard to make an impact like that. So far, Michael Waka, this spring, 12-innings pitch, one earned run, 10 strikeouts to two walks.

Jazz Chisholm, the prospect for the Miami Marlins who came over in the Zach Allen trade. He went one for one with two walks and three steals on Thursday. He's now nine for 33 this spring with three home runs and four stolen bases. Scott, Chaz Chisholm, is there anything there? 11 strikeouts and 34 plate appearances. Maybe he'll be a guy who always strikes out a lot, but the tools will play loudly enough that he can overcome it. Last I heard, it sounded like he was the front runner for the second base job,

but it wouldn't surprise me if he struggled so badly, he can sit down, and John Birdie ends up getting most of the playing time at second base. So, you know, if you're just looking to take a flyer late on Sub-Upside, and like Brendan Rogers is already gone, Thai France has already gone, I got to understand. But I think, I think it's like a 90-10. I'll say 80-20 chance that you're dumping him.

That is Jazzism again, the prospect for the Miami Marlins, who came over in the Zach Gallen trade. I asked you this last weekend, Scott, right before we wrapped up on Friday. But if you are drafting this weekend, who is the one player that you're going out and getting? Man, it's probably still Thai France. He keeps going earlier.

Like, people keep reaching around earlier than I'm going to. And so I see. I think I haven't won one league so far. Yep. But I think, like I said, I think top 10 second baseman, I think that was far from the boldest of the predictions I just gave because I think he could be better than Brandon Lowe. You know, I think the upside's really high.

Again, that is Thai France for Scott. And last week I gave you guys Marcus Stroman. I did wind up with him in Tout War, so I was happy about that. And this week, I will give you Nick Senzel. I'm doing two drafts this weekend. I hope that I get Nick Senzel and both of them. I think he could be a 2020 player for the Cincinnati Reds. He's looked really good in the spring.

Just has to stay healthy. Please, Senzel, just stay healthy. For Scott, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We will be back again tomorrow with our bonus mailbag. Bye-bye.