Fantasy Baseball Today - AFL Prospect Standouts! Mervis Hype Train & MLB Rule Changes (11/8 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: November 8, 2022

First Pitch Arizona was amazing and highly recommended (1:30)! ... The Astros won the World Series (3:30). ... All aboard the Matt Mervis hype train (5:16). ... Mervis vs. Triston Casas vs. Spencer Torkelson (11:05). ... Heston Kjerstad seems like a polarizing prospect (13:12). ... Robert Perez Jr. dominated the AFL Home Run Derby (20:20). ... What did we see from Zac Veen and Jordan Walker in person (26:00)? ... We have three deep sleepers in dynasty (36:34). ... News (40:28): Edwin Diaz is going back to the Mets. ... We saw rule changes in person (50:48). Who might it affect in Fantasy? Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. All aboard the Matt Mervis hype train. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, November 8th. I am Frank Stanfield, joined by somebody who I finally met in person.

the Welsh who's currently banged up. Hi, you don't, buddy. Hi, you're going to hear a little bit. I unfortunately missed my first AFL Fall Stars game eight years as you were here. I was very appreciative of all the techs that I got, wondering where I was.

I was golden. Frankie and I hung for a couple days, and then I just kind of hit a wall on Saturday and I missed out on the second half of stuff, but I can tell you all, you're not as lucky as I was last week and getting tons of Frank's attention. We had a blast.

We've got stories. We hung out past midnight on Friday night. I think it was. We had a great time. We had a lot of good stuff. Yeah, we had plans to hit the poker table Friday night, and they were just so tired. We couldn't even do it.

I did get in on Saturday, well. So I'll let you in on my results a little bit later on in the podcast. An amazing weekend, of course, anyone who is a baseball fan or a fantasy baseball fan, which I assume is anyone listening to this podcast, you have to make it out. Have to make it out to first pitch. Arizona. Fantastic job by the entire baseball HQ team. Everyone that was there,

obviously Brent Hershey, Ray Murphy, do a great job putting it together. But all the panelists, just great people that were there. There wasn't a single person who was a jerk or anything like that. Everyone was cool. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that incredible too with the amount of people? Especially with like if anyone pays attention, there's definitely a competitiveness. There's a competitiveness. It's a little bit less here. We, we were poking Frank a little bit in those baseball pod tournaments like, CBS got a little bit less to worry about. But there's a different. there's a competitiveness that sometimes can seep out. It doesn't exist there. Everyone is nice. Everyone wants to help, wants to talk, take pictures, ask for pick, whatever it is. Everyone's having a

great time. It is a very, very unique ecosphere of baseball that's over three or four days that really can't be replicated. So much fun, something I know you're all about well. So I encourage anyone to get out to Arizona. They do it every single year. It's usually around this time. First weekend of November, whatever it might be, right around the end of the world series, would it be, which unfortunately, congratulations, Houston Astros. We'll get to all of it. I'm going to break down, you know, the prospects that we saw this weekend, overall thoughts. Obviously, we lead with Matt Mervis at the top.

It's just, I'm almost tired of hearing or saying his name already just because it's come up so much this weekend, but rightfully so, he had a pretty big weekend. So we'll talk about that, things that we learned, some rule changes, got to see those in person, and I heard a few different people talking about them on panels. So I'll give you some thoughts there. Free agency is about to open. Edwin Diaz is back to the Mets. So we could talk about that.

I don't think it really affects much in general. But as I mentioned, Welshie, the Astros are the World Series champs. So congratulations to Dusty Baker. The rich get richer, right? You lose Carlos Correa. You wind up with a, what, 22, 23-year-old gold glove shortstop who wins the ALCS and World Series MVP in Jeremy Payne. It was here like three years ago.

Crazy. Was here. Just no one was really. talking to him. No one really knew. Everyone's like, hey, pay attention to this Jeremy Pena kid. I also hate to do it, but like there may be of somebody on this panel, even including the person that's not here that maybe have said Astros in 6. Not that there's a big chunk to choose from, you know, there's two teams. So there's seven games. You know, you can got to get to four. So there's what? Is there, you know, six to eight total outputs here?

But I did call that Astros in six. But yeah, it's amazing. It is amazing what Jeremy Payne did in replacement of Carlos Correa. And I, have that weird perspective that now you're going to have Frank you you are going to have this and I would be I'm going to love love if I get the opportunity at all in season to talk to you about it. You're going to now have this experience where you have like been in this very intimate close setting of watching these players when you know even the fall stars game wasn't really highly attended. I think one of the games you and I went to there was like nobody and then there was another one that was chaos and you get in those intimate settings and it's like you're around like 50 or 60

people watching this guy. And then come two years later, this guy has just won an MVP in the World Series and a ring. And that was something I was like on the field standing next to him. I remember standing next to Jeremy Payne and Andreas Jimenez on field. And I actually got it. I stupidly, I got an interview with Andres Jimenez because he could speak better English. And I couldn't, uh, I wasn't able to do any translating with Jeremy Payne at that time. That's a weird experience to see and what he did.

And you're going to have that now, probably with the Matt Mervis types. I don't know if it'll be a World Series, but there's going to be plenty of those guys you're going to look back on it a couple years and be like, I was just with that guy when he was nothing. He was just a minor leaguer. Yeah, I mean, I have a feeling Jordan Walker, someone we're going to be talking about quite a bit for years to come. But let's just jump right in. And we'll start off with Matt Mervis, who I do have a clip here. We'll play this as we get up and running here. And we're talking about it. It is a clip from our buddy here, the Welsh. I also had the same one, but frankly, yours is better. You're a lot better at recording this stuff, a little bit more experience. It's not as easy as you make it look, by the way. In this clip, Matt Mervis crushed a home run off of a lefty, left on left. The first pitch that he saw on Friday would later steal a base in the same game.

Not that I think he's some kind of speedster, but it just kind of shows you, I guess he can take a bag if you're not paying attention. And then the Fall Stars game on Sunday comes out, home run to the opposite field, left center, wins the Fall Stars game MVP. and he also had a decent showing in the home run derby, which we will also get to. I've never experienced a home run derby in person, and it was so fun. It was what else can you ask for? To this audio, you got to, he got to hear too because I shared it and I even put in the tweet. There's a cameo from Frank in here because I kind of start it right off here. So if anyone's listening out of that, yeah, there you go, boom.

It's here. Oh, wow. Where is it? There it is. Top 280P. There was a big conversation piece that we were having in the stands. And again, this is one of those things that's so unique and very helpful, by the way, is we're sitting there talking with like, you know, just awesome people.

I think we're sitting there with Ariel Cohen and he, Rob Silver was at that one. And there's a couple others, Greg Jewett. And we're all sitting there talking and we're talking about the kind of talk of the town was the draft champions where Matt Mervis had gone 227. And as our friend James Anderson had noticed, this wasn't even with the AFL bump. The AFL bump is no joke because this is exactly what we were talking about. This Homer, off a lefty with the stolen base,

it's not a joke. The guy is going to crack the top 200 with the showing in front of every analyst on the planet. He has some stuff that you and I both were maybe a little bit concerned with long term, but just overall, when he gets into one, he's a monster and he looks like the type that is an opening day starter for a team like the kind of. Cubs who who else do they have to vie for an extra draft pick, which they really should try to do

when they're going to get into the market of high dollar free agents, this is a bigger reason, not only his production, but the extra compensatory stuff that you can get, why Matt Mervis really could break camp with the team as they're starting first baseman. And he opened up all of your guys's eyes even more. I wonder if Hayden Wisniewski exhausted his prospect, his rookie eligibility. I guess that one is also a possibility. if he starts the day on the opening day roster, which I assume he will because he. He still has it.

He still does have the, so you're right. That would be one. But here's the key, though. I don't know. You've got to be in two of the three major outlet top 100s to do that. So what'll be key here is Matt Mervis would not have done that last year,

but will be by the time everybody does their updates preseason. You're going to see baseball America. You're going to see baseball America might be the one that holds back a little bit, but you're going to see pipeline. You're going to see everybody jump in and have them as top 100. It's one of those weird caveats that the guy has to be a top 100 prospect. I'm not 100% sure if Wisniewski is, but that would be one other guy potentially

if they didn't want to have Mervis crack right off the top. So again, you already mentioned that he is already starting to climb in drafts, and we had two drafts this weekend, one that I participated in. They were both 15-team Roto draft and holds, where we drafted the first 23 rounds, and then we're going to pick up the draft once again in January. So we'll have all new information, and I chose pick 15, so I will have the first pick when we get back on the clock.

I'm very happy about that. But Matt Mervis went at picks 2, 18, and 225, respectively. Really? He didn't crack top 200. Not yet, but I have a feeling after this weekend, he will. I do too. That just goes to show. Like, there's 14 drafts worth of ADP on the NFBC right now. Matt Mervis's ADP is 322.4.

Part of this weekend, he's already up 100 spots. So he's just going to continue to climb. I think that's pretty obvious. Let me ask you something. Because this is something you always ask me. You now got to, I was dying to ask you, by the way. I just wasn't feeling good. I was dying to text you on where Mervis went.

But like you got eyes. You got eyes in lots of different contexts in the All-Star game in the Home Run Derby. You and I got to sit there with a bunch of great minds and I'll talk about Mervis and watch him succeed. We also saw a couple tentative swings where he ate on some stuff low, which you didn't necessarily like. When you walk out of it, is Matt Mervis everything that he has been built to you?

Yes, I think he was. There was a few swings in there. You're absolutely right, where he looked just completely fooled. And look, he's going to be a rookie next year. There's going to be growing pains, no doubt about it. But maybe, you know, at the peak, he gets like a 270, 280 hitter. But maybe out of the gate he's like more of a 250 guy. We see some of that swing and miss, some strikeouts.

I do think the power is going to be there. And they need someone. So there's opportunity. There's going to be playing time. So again. Would you be disappointed if he became like early Reese Hoskins? You know, I think that's like a viable outlook that he could be. Ries Hoskins early in his career and then he could, you know, hopefully surpass what

Reese Hoskins is. But if he, if his, if his ceiling was Reese Hoskins, would you be disappointed in Mervis? No, no, absolutely not. Again, like, I've looked at a few prospect lists before this. And he was outside most people's like 300, you know, and so he's going to, he's going to jump up quite a bit. So yeah, I think as soon as next year, he could hit, you know, $2.50 with 20 homers. I think that's, you know, an okay projection. And then, you know, that's built for upside too, where like if he takes off, maybe he hits 270, 25 homers, whatever it might be.

So I do like him, but I was going to ask you, where did he, how would you rank these three? Mervis, Tristan, Kosta, Spencer Torkelson, just for redraft next year. Ooh, okay. So, you know,

one of the things we talked about, I know we're going to talk about in a little bit was we, there's this prime example. And I think I still have the hit. If you remember us having this conversation, there was a hit he got Mervis into right field where it was a pull side hit.

And I immediately was like, dude, that is right there. One of the guys that's going to have the advantage to not having the shift pulled on him is a prime example of a hit right there that works in, it works to his advantage. It's just something that's sticking around in my head as far as the offense because I don't want to go nuts about him. I would say Tristan Kossis is probably number one. I believe in the buyback on Torkelson and I think he's going to get the playing time. But I probably would in read, I might play hot hand right now with Mervis. I don't think anything is guaranteed with Torque, as the team kind of showed us later in the year. So I guess I would go Casas, Mervis, Torkelson, but I do think Mervis and Torkelson is closer.

And I know that's not in a lot of people's minds. Yeah. So I would rank it the exact same way that you did. So Mervis went the round that I wound up taking Tristan Kossus. But that would have been a close call for me, Kossis versus Mervis. But I would have gone Kossus regardless either way. And if we get more, if we get support, if we start hearing from the Cubs and like, hey, he's going to have the opportunity.

If we can hear any positive stuff, that'll probably start to change the outlook a little bit. But I would point out, I personally see some similarities in early Spencer Torkelson and some Matt Mervis that I worry about, you know, when pitchers really, really hone in on him.

That was another thing I talked about while we were all sitting there watching Matt Mervis. Like, how much is this guy really getting challenged? It's not a lot of good pitching. You saw it. There's not a lot of great pitching that's out there. So how many guys are really challenging these guys?

And what happens to a guy like Matt Mervis, when guys are going low. He's not getting the fastball he wants to see. How is he going to adjust? He doesn't strike out, which is great. So just kind of sit on that a little bit that, you know, there's still some, there's some potential risk with a guy like Matt Mervis,

which worries me a tiny bit, especially is that ADP skyrockets. Let's move over to another big prospect that we saw here. Heston Kirstead of the Baltimore Orioles. And the game that we went to on Friday night, he had three hits. He finished a home run short of the cycle, maybe a questionable triple.

I don't know. Maybe it was an error. whatever it might be, but he put on a show at the Home Run Derby 2. He was hitting tanks to the concourse. I'm talking like these were not wall scrapers. Like he was hitting absolute bombs, Hess and Kirstad was. And obviously he's crushing it out there in the AFL. He's hitting over 300.

He's got five homers. Nope, I am looking at his numbers for this past season. But what I wanted to bring up was in the NFL, he's performing well, but the plate discipline is kind of questionable. 29% strikeout rate, 5% walk rate, really aggressive. And I noticed a big leg kick seeing him in person. That is something that might cause him to be streaky whenever he does get to the major league level. I don't know that that will happen this season.

Like maybe it's later on. But I came away a little bit torn, honestly, seeing Hess and Kierstadt in person. What do you think? Funny you said that. By the way, he does have five homers out here. I've got the stats up. He's played 20 games, five homers, but 27 strikeouts. So he's second in homers.

he's tied and he's also second in stolen bases or I'm sorry strikeout so he's kind of in that same marker yeah you know it's funny that you say that because I had this exact same conversation with someone that I asked them who's there I said what did you think of Kirsted and they're like really interesting and I said he's polarizing right and he's like it's truly a could go either way guy because he is hyper aggressive and is on the video bam right there Frank is playing the the questionable triple which turned into. It was really an error. I think it was a double that they couldn't get and he turns into an error because he's got, he's got some legs on him. I love the swing, but the hyperaggression, I think is a little bit of a problem. The strikeouts are a problem. Jim Callis on the broadcast did

ask him, though, about where did he feel he was at? And I think it's a really important question because Chris had missed a lot of time. He had a lot of, I'm forgetting what the injury was. He had a hamstring injury, but then he had like a personal medical thing that made him miss a lot of time. And when he asked him, I was actually hoping for a different answer because he asked him like, hey, where do you think you are at this space in the AFL? And he was like, I think I'm in a good spot. And I kind of wanted him to be like I'm 80%. Because I agree, the high leg kick and the aggressiveness really worry me with strikeouts.

Like it's going to be a really big problem. Is he going to be a Jean-Carlo's Stanton? It's going to be 200 strikeouts or somewhere in that range to get to his 30 plus homers. And I do believe in the organization that the Orioles, it's something that they can work on. They can get really hands on. Their player development, I think, has gone through the roof. He's missed so much time. I think they just wanted him to get some A-Bs out here.

He let it rip. So I'm not going to, I'm not going to freak out about any of it because the raw skills, I think are through the roof. The negative was all of those strikeouts. And I really didn't like to see it. But I love the swing. You know, leg kick to swing. They kind of counteract each other.

It was a little almost Royce Lewis-ish with a much bigger body guy. And he's got a chip on his shoulder. Our boy, Kajirstad, if you, uh, Remember our Kajirsta. We had quite, it was one of the most eventful games we had ever, I've ever been to in the AFL on Friday night with some, some lovely fans calling him Kajirstad. And that was fun. Yes, I was going to say for those who are either watching or listening, you might have heard

some wooing in the background. We had some woo girls in attendance, no doubt about it. They were, they were partying up. They were having a good time. A certain coach, a certain coach might have invited them, a certain coach on a team. and that coach probably got reprimanded after for the wooing that was going on. And it was quite the experience. Yep.

Last point on Kier said. I guess question. More so than point. Buy or sell in Dynasty right now? I'm a buy. I think I don't think the cost is there. I mean, it's tough for me to say,

you know, if you got someone that's really hardcore pays attention to all the stuff, listens to the podcast, his cost is probably going to be higher. But I got, I've got him pretty high. So I think at this point, based on where he was last year,

I think he's a buy right now because I don't think it's crazy to think you can get him outside of top 100 value of prospects, maybe outside of top 75. And that's a buy for me based on what I've seen with him. I'll take the risk. I don't, I'm not bothered by taking strikeout risks with really talented, like physically talented players like Heston Kerstadt is because he's also,

he's just got that baseball gene. Like that is a professional baseball player who knows the game. Like, Tristan Kossis last year. was very technical. And I really appreciated about him. He really understood his swing. He understood, you know, when he get to two strikes, he would start to choke up. He would move.

He was very much a baseball, baseball guy. Chris is not exactly that. But he's one of the, he actually reminds me kind of like the Alec Bohm. And where Alec Boehm, when I spoke to him a couple years ago, was like, I didn't really go into crazy analytics. I just let my raw talent show up on the field and not trying to necessarily do anything. Where I think he's in a great organization that is going to help hone in all of the things he needs to do while he lets his talent fly.

Welchie, have you ever been to a home run derby alive? Nope. You know what? I almost was able to say yes. And unfortunately, no, I wasn't. So for those watching us live, I'm just going to play this. You can react. I was bouncing around. So the first round, I was behind home played. I wanted to get a closer look at the swings, even though I don't think you can really take much away from a home run derby. Hearing some of the EVs, the exit velocities, that was pretty interesting. I'm going to cut you off for once a second. I just want to say,

this is the most disappointed I was because Frank and I, like I really cherish. I hope you know this. I really cherish like you and I kind of hung. We were like hanging like all Friday. Like we really did. Like we were hanging out together and talking and I appreciate that

because I wanted to do that as well. And like we were talking up this idea of going into the outfield and filming and doing all this goofy stuff and trying to get baseballs and stuff. And I'm just this is the most jealous I am. I know the feeling now of anyone else gets because. I'm seeing this is your video we're playing where you are out in the outfield. And this is an incredible video on your part for so many reasons. The person that hit it, the bomb, and then the man down that you will be mentioning.

All right. So this is exactly what's happening. Well, just kind of set it up. But I am out in the outfield. I'm recording the ball flying right towards me. And it lands like three feet away. Someone tries to catch it. We're all looking around.

Someone winds up on the ground. And it's poor Jesse Rose, who, by the way, amazing dude, love talking to Jesse as well. And frankly, I probably should have stopped recording him to help him up. But a good friend Eric Cross helped him up. Anyway, and it was, I mean, to get that view of a home run just landing right near you, it is, it was awesome. It's a perfect shot, dude. I really commend you on it. It is a perfect shot because the ball is right there. You guys should really go check it out on Frank's Twitter, Roto underscore Frank. And you got Clegg in there. You got Chris. You got Jesse eating it. And that ball is just, look at that. Just I feel like I can

catch it, just wham, is right there. It's a great shot. Which brings this into the home run Derby. And I want to talk about two prospects who perform quite well in the Derby and your thoughts about them. I feel like I've asked you about Jalen Ortiz already before, who is a Phillies prospect. He performed quite well. I heard some of the EVs. They were, you know, talking about the biggest EVs, whatever would happen, ones that stood out. And Jalen Ortiz had a home run 114. I'm pretty sure that's the highest that I heard throughout the night. So I thought I saw 117. by De LaSanto's, but maybe you're right. Maybe it was 1.14.

Jay, that was the first text I got from multiple people was Jalen Ortiz is doing a thing. And I saw the tweets about it because he's a monster power home run hitter. Yeah. He just does not have a sense of secondary off speed. He's built for this event. He's just not built for long sustainability in baseball, unfortunately. This is a 220, probably platoony type of hitter until he can hit for contact. But there is no doubt this is like 70.

plus power. Yeah, yeah. So that's exactly what I was going to say too. It's like the power look great, but you look at the minor league numbers this past season. He hit this Jalen Ortiz. We're talking about Philly's prospect, 237 batting average, 17 homers, a 33% strikeout rate at double A. So that kind of puts that in perspective for you. And then the other one who actually wound up winning the event was Mariners prospect Robert Perez Jr. who frankly, I did not know anything about coming into this home run derby. And he actually had a pretty good minor league season. He hit 280. 27 homers, 921 OPS. He walks a lot.

Strikeout rate has steadily been declining. And he was just, it was one after another. These were frozen rope, line drive home runs. I saw, it was like a teenage kid, tried to catch one of his home runs in the outfield, got pegged in the leg. The kid starts like limp it around. I'm like, yo, you were right?

Dude, even coming in that far on the home run, like this thing was still coming in hot and this kid took it right on the leg. Anyway, any thoughts on Robert Perez? I don't know if you have strong thoughts on him in general. Yeah. He looked good. He looked really good.

I like Robert Perez. If people don't know, Robert Perez is brothers with Edward Perez, very popular in the prospect scene about 18 months ago with the Brewers. They're brothers. He's the older brother. My only problem has been not his dominance, because he definitely statistically had a fantastic season.

It was just at lower levels. Like he's 22 years old. He hit that mid-season. And I think he, touched high A this year. You know, I mean, he repeated last year he was in the Cal League and I think, yeah, he just was a Cal League the whole time. And then this year he started in the Cal League and then they pushed him super slow.

So my question is why? Why would a 22 year old who was 21 at the time, why would the push essentially over two years from low A to high A happen? Why isn't it a little bit more aggressive? Now the counter is they sent him to Arizona Fall League. And he's done relatively well. He's had three homers since he's been out. here, 20 strikeouts, which has been a little high.

He's hitting under 250. And the problem has been, you know, the challenge of off speed stuff hasn't really connected because he has five total extra base hits in the entire Arizona Fall League over five weeks. So that's not ideal. He's a physical specimen. He's built like a rock. Like Jalen Ortiz is like a big body dude. Like Jalen Ortiz is the type of guy.

He walks up in your softball league. Everybody moves back. Like, I'm that type of guy, except you're moving back for the wrong reason. you know, like I'm not going to hit it that far, unfortunately. But I'm just a big physical dude. That's what Jalen Ortiz is. Robert Perez is the guy you want on your side in a fight because he is jacked. He hits rockets.

He just hasn't been challenged enough. And I'm willing to actually give him a little bit of a pass that he's going to be pushed. You know, this has been a so-so, like we'll give you a thumbs up on your AFL. Not amazing, not horrible. You won the home run derby. You showed off your power a little bit late. Next year, hopefully you start at double A. Robert Perez is someone everyone should pay attention to because he's not on radars for anybody.

I actually did a AFL draft prior to the AFL and it was like 12 of us and we drafted two guys and a secondary player and Robert Perez was on my targeted list to take as my reserve player the whole time and he got snagged in our third round because it was four rounds. So there's what, 48 total players that are going to get taken and he went in our third round. So, you know, hardcore prospect people have been paying attention. I'll bet you a lot of people in your leagues are not, and don't be too too fooled and shied away because of the low levels. It's been pretty solid here,

and I think he's going to take a lot of what he's done in the tutelage in the AFL and carried into AA. And if you see a rise in batting average and actually challenging at those levels, then pay attention because he has got the physical attributes to totally be a 35 home run, 35 homerous season hitter. Again, the name there, Robert Perez with the Seattle Mariners. Don't think he's a must add in all Dynasty leagues, but definitely an aim just to pay attention to,

throw him on your scout team, watch list, and let's see what he does, you know, start of the minor league season. And I know there's kind of been this infatuation with thighs and quads in sports and fantasy sports the past couple of years. He's got some thighs. He's got some.

He's got some thighs. It's a little Barkley-esque. It's a little Barkley-esque. He comes out and there's a presence when Robert Perez walks out. He's got a little swagger too. He comes out with his glasses. He couldn't be a nicer guy,

but he's got some, I mean, he's not, you know, quadzilla, like a certain, guy who in the homerend derby was labeled, but he's right there. That is, uh, I assume you're talking about Davis and De La Santos, right? Davis and De La Santos. Yeah, that is Quadzilla. Yeah, I think it was, uh, Eric Cross called him Thymaster too. Thymaster. That's what it was. Yeah, Thymaster. Quadz,

they're in that same range. A few other big names. Just wanted to get your thoughts. Zach Veen, I didn't get to see him in an actual game outside of the AFL of Falstars game, but I feel like every time I see his box score out here out here, like I'm still there. where you are. He's walking and sealing bases. And what did he do when I saw him? He walked and he stole a base in the NFL fall star his game. So he's actually a lot more wiry than I thought.

I didn't realize that about him. I don't know how much he's going to fill out, but he's actually like a pretty wiry dude. Zach Fiener were talking about super fast, lots of walks. I think maybe some questions about the hit and the power, but the fact that he plays in Coorsfield obviously should help that out.

He got up to AA this year. He played 34 games there. He only hit 177. he had 30% strikeout rate. I think the overall consensus Welsh is that people like Zach Veen specifically for fantasy. But I don't know.

Are you worried about him at all? You know, I'm not, I'm going to say I'm not worried about him because I know what my expectations are. What a listener might want to be worried about is this, unfortunately the thing that a lot of you guys do is can he do everything? Does he do everything?

Will everything happen? Is it going to have? Sometimes it doesn't. But my point with Zach Vien has been this. He's had a, he's had close to an MVP like AFL. He has walked doubled than he struck. He's only struck out six times in the entire Arizona Fall League. He's stolen 16 bases, which is more than anybody. He's third in total hits. Now the power hasn't been there. And I don't know if it's ever going to be there. But what I'm amazed with him is he doesn't let himself get insanely fooled.

He makes tons of crossbody contact, which is some doubles power. And he's a monster on the base paths. Like I've never seen anybody like him. He is so long and wiry. His reach he gets on a lead off is bigger than anybody you can imagine. Now add four extra inches on the bases. Yeah. He's going to steal 40 bases. I really think he can steal 40 bases at the major league level. I just don't know where the power's going to go. You give him an extra boosting course, why I like him a little bit more. Best case scenario, you're probably looking at 2040 and that's Starling Marte. Worst case scenario, it might be 12, 10 to 15 somewhere in the homers, but you got to be happy with 30 to 40 stolen bait. I just, that's never going to go away. It doesn't seem like. And his body hasn't

filled out in two years. So I like the guy. I think he's got the swagger. He makes all the hits. He's a he's a menace on the base pass. And that's something I've actually walked away with, if you want to talk about my preconceived feeling to what I've changed to, he's probably one of the most dominant preconceived to new feelings about like, you know, Edward, Julian. would probably be one of the biggest just pop-up type of guys. But Veen, I really kind of turned a page on. And I personally know how to live without 30 homers. And hey, best case scenario is in Colorado.

So there's always that extra benefit. And power is the last tool to develop. Just unfortunately, the Rockies don't really develop that well. So I'm very much in on Veen after seeing him a gazillion time so far in the AFL and what he can do, just knowing that, you know, it's elite, stolen bases. and I think it has a potential to be elite batting average. We just got to see what happens with the other two categories. You know, you were running through what his line could potentially become at the major league level,

and it made me think about Cedric Mullins with walks. So maybe a middling batting average, 250, 260, obviously gets helped out a little bit by Cores Field, 10 to 15 home runs, a bunch of steals, a bunch of runs scored. And again, the difference is that he's going to walk a lot. He has a really, really good eye at the plate. So that was just like a random time came to my mind. there's a total opportunity that this guy, it's just going to take time.

Like he's going to build more muscle. He's still a young kid. Yes, there hasn't been a big body progression, but body progression will happen. You know, we saw it with like Jason Worth. Jason Worth is this skinny little kid when he started.

But that might be where the body ends up going. And you would take that type of body on Zach Veen. So I just don't want to take away power being the one reason I would move away from him because I thought there were so many intangibles out here that worked in his favor, that it's like, give him a couple years, give him some weights, give him Colorado and, you know, let that power be some. I mean, this guy, like you said, he struck out a lot in his move up. He's obviously come here focusing on not striking out and making all the contact in the world. Let him get comfortable with that and then start to adjust for power.

That might sacrifice the batting average a little bit, but when you start seeing the power numbers come up, you can tell what he's doing and where he is in that maturation process. And power is that last one. I don't think I even realize how young he really is. He turns 21 in December this year. So still very young and likely to start at double A next year. I don't, we won't see him next year, right? I think we'll probably see him.

He's probably more than a 20-24 guy, yeah. I think he's a 20-24 guy for sure. Colorado's weird. You never know. I mean, Colorado should be doing whatever they can to try to get these guys in, you know, to get these extra picks or vying for it. But I would say Veen is a no on this year. Yeah, I mean, they'll probably sign someone like Joanna Cespitus from the dead

and they'll play him over him over Zach V for like the next three years or whatever it might be. Another big name out here, Jordan Walker did want to, you know, see what he had to offer, obviously. And the first thing I said to you when you asked me about Walker, what do you think? What's your first impression? He's fast. I did not, like, I know he stole 22 bases in the minors last year, but, you know, sometimes that could be a little bit fluky, stolen base numbers in the minors. He's fast. He is really athletic and even more athletic than I realized.

So that was really, you know, the main takeaway for me when it comes to Jordan Walker and easy power to the opposite field. I have a clip I'll play a little bit later on. Fun one between him and his teammate, Tink Hens. But those two things that stood out, fast, easy power to the opposite field. Yeah, and I had mentioned to you, here's a cool thing that happened midway through. They decided to start playing him in center field. So that's an extra bonus. You know, to see him play in center field to show off those wheels,

it's not just like dead power. And this video you got right here is a loud double that is just crazy. I mean, the way he steps into too, like if you start looking at guy like Heston Kerstead, who's there's a lot of business in the front, though it's this beautiful left swing, the stroke he's got, Jordan Walker is just easy stuff. He doesn't overdo anything. He doesn't overpress his body. He just steps right into it.

If his pitch recognition is on and you make a mistake, you're done for. And he flies. Look at that. The ball also just hit the centerfield wall and he was already halfway past first base. So this is a guy that can absolutely still use some bases. I don't want to do it because don't like everyone stop. Don't do it what I'm going to do. But it's very Julio Rodriguez-esque.

You know what I'm saying? Like power speed. The guy stole I think 19 bases this past year or 17 somewhere in there. He wants to steal. He's going to steal 50. What if you have 15 stolen bases and 30 homers? of this guy, probably not in his rookie or anything like that. But, you know, this is a versatile guy who's not going to play third for this team where

they're not out of there, but he can play multiple outfield positions and he can stay on the field. You get some stolen bases in there. You're going to be cooking. And it's, this is a poor man's Julio because I don't know how anybody is going to recoup and do what Julio did. But I think there are vibes of it. A big physical guy that doesn't feel like he can steal, but he really, really can.

So as I alluded to earlier, I'll set it up here. AFL Fall Stars game, it's American League Prospect versus National League prospects and they... They decided to play a bottom of the ninth even though whoever, I guess National League was batting in the bottom of the night. They were winning the game, but they just wanted to get these guys

more at bats and have a little bit of fun. The American League ran out of pitchers. So they bring in Tink Hens, who is a starting pitching prospect for the St. Louis Cardinals and we needed one batter to reach in order to get Hens versus Jordan Walker and we got exactly that. So the game

comes down to this final at bat here, and its first pitch swinging for Jordan Walker against his teammate. Now, I don't know much about Tinkhan, so obviously, Welsh, I want to get your thoughts on him overall. But this is just a really cool moment to see in person in general between two really, really good teammate prospects. Yeah, two big teammates. I mean, Tink is one of the guys, and here's that pitch.

And you sent this to me, I think. I thought it was gone. I thought this was gone. I thought Jordan Walker walked off against his teammate, especially how he's hopping at the end, but it was just the last hour. And Tinkins is just a phenomenal pitcher with great secondaries. His numbers are crazy.

Some question the size. But this is one of the best pitchers out here. He's just been pitched in relief because I didn't want to press any of the innings on him. So I wish you could have seen him more because his secondary stuff would have been the best challenge to other players. That's what you would have wanted. You can see the secondaries of his.

His curveball is stupid. Go back and watch any of those minor league numbers or any of those videos. You can see. He just drops a curveball, got a nice, a little in the lower 90s fastball with movement. Like I said, there's worry maybe that there's some relief risk out there, but I just don't think so. I think he's grown in his body. And I just wish we would have got like four or five innings out of the guy, but we just unfortunately didn't. All right.

That is pitching prospect Tink Hens. And we do have a few other names, three deeper names that I'm going to present to you. Well, so let me know if we need to know anything or follow these guys, add these guys in Dynasty anywhere. Before we do that, just want to take. a break and remind you that we have a TikTok account. I don't really know what I'm doing, but we're going to have some fun. If you've noticed on the YouTube channel,

we're making these shorter videos now, some original content. We're having some fun with that here in the offseason. I made one about Bryce Harper, about Albert Pooleholes, and obviously we're going to cut down some clips from the actual podcast and put it out there. I got a bunch of AFL highlights,

so I'm going to make little highlight packages of different players and put it up there. But you can follow us on TikTok now at FBTPod. the link to follow is in the podcast in the YouTube description. And after this week, next week, we will go back to position recaps and early rankings for next season.

We've got third base up next week. Scott White will be back then. So I probably should have mentioned that. Scott's not here today if you haven't realized. Oh, Scott, you haven't said anything yet. Did you have fun? That was a big question we got, by the way, was where Scott White, that came up a bunch of times.

It was like, hey, is Scott here? I got it so many times. Has Scott ever been here? I don't know. No. I actually got to ask God. I don't think he's ever been there, but yes, that was a question that we did receive quite a bit. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. All right, we are back here on fantasy baseball today. Three other deeper names that I saw out at the Arizona Fall League, first pitch Arizona this weekend. I wanted to get your thoughts, Welsh.

Yankees third base prospect, Tyler Hardman, he had a double dong at the game that we were at on Friday. Looked into his minor league numbers. Kind of interesting from a corner infield perspective. A little bit of pop, a little bit of speed. He had 14. steals in the minors this season. 31% strikeout rate, mostly at high A. Don't really like that. Another name, Ace Prospect,

Lawrence Butler. I saw him in the Fall Stars game. Don't only know much about him, but he's got a little pop. He also has a little bit of speed. Also struggles with strikeouts. He had an opposite field line drive double. He was flying out of the box.

So I just thought that that was pretty cool to see, just super aggressive running the bases. And I didn't see this guy, but someone brought him up to me. It might have been on a panel. They were hyping him up. Astros prospect, Will Wagner. He is the son of Billy Wagner, and he has performed quite well at the AFL as well. 340 batting average, two homers, six doubles, two triples, and an OPS up over 1,100.

So three names there. Will Wagner, Lawrence Butler, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, do you like any? Would you be looking to add or scout any in your dynasty leagues? You know, it's really funny bringing up Will Wagner. I had this moment. I think it was before you came. I just don't remember exactly.

It was Tuesday or Wednesday, one of the things. And I was just talking with a few people. I think it was crossing Clegg. And we were kind of at this moment where I was like, man, I just don't know what to do. It was me and Chris Clegg. We were sitting there and I'm like, I just don't know what to do with Will Wagner. I'm like physically, you know, kind of stout, kind of big dude. I've seen him rock a couple big hits.

He just didn't have huge numbers. And then on cue, he smashed a homer into right field. He pulled a one that had to be 430 or something like that. And on that same front, I don't have you remember this. And actually, this might have been to Clegg and cross as well. In surprise, I told them, I said, there's, see that tree over there? I said, that tree right there was hit by a player, 468. I think it was one of the longest AFL homers.

It was from Lawrence Butler from, I'm sorry, it was Zach Daniels. So go look at Zach Daniels because that's what we were talking about. Lawrence Butler shares similar attributes to him and Zach Daniels, both these kind of big, tall physical freak, except I like Zach Daniels bat in power a little bit more than Butler's because I think Butler is just a little bit too volatile. Kind of reminds me of Estevan Floriel, if you think about him. And Tyler Hardman is tough. I wasn't really on Hardman.

I couldn't agree with you more like crazy strikeout numbers at low A is worrisome. But then he just smacked and crushed two homers. One was I think back to back off the Mervis one. And none of us got it because we're all sitting there, you know, editing our video of Matt Mervis and then Hardman just crushes one. But if I had to rank them, I actually think I'm a little bit more interested in Will Wagner. And then I would probably go Hardman. And then I just worry that Butler is going to be a little bit empty, even though

athletically he flies. And we'll probably see Billy Wagner, by the way, a little side note because surprise has already locked up a game in the championship game, which is on Saturday. So two teams will be playing the rest of the week for a play in spot. But surprise with Nick Gonzalez, Henry Davis, Zach Dan. Will Wagner already going to play in the championship. All right. Well, let's take a little break from the AFL. Actually, we'll get into some of the rule changes and things that I saw

while out there at the Arizona Fall League. But I do want to hit some news and notes because we have a lot of options being picked up, declined. We do have a signing. So we'll start there. And make sure you subscribe on YouTube and have notifications turn on because we are ready to get a lot of player signing. And we're going to go live, emergency podcast, all that fun stuff.

of. So just be ready because, you know, the content will be flowing in over the next couple of weeks and months. Edwin Diaz and the Mets agreed to a five-year, $102 million contract, the largest contract ever for a reliever. His early ADP is 33. So you're playing in a 12-team league. You know, end of the third round, 15-teamer, early third round, something like that. First, close her off the board. Was he the first, I was about to ask. Did he go before after Hater? He goes before, he, by ADP and in the drafts. I was in Diaz went first, then Class A, and then I think Hater was the third closer off the board. Interesting. We have this long conversation.

Rob, actually, we're kind of listening to it. Rob Silver was having behind us about the whole closer market and how projections are actually going to be incredibly favorable to Hater because of the three-year average and not just, you know, that little last stent that it's going to put him back up very, very favorable to maybe putting him as the top closer back in that market. And he had said Class A at three for him, because I, was trying to argue for Class A, maybe a two. So it's interesting to hear that people are already just making that move of not messing with

Hater, even in the first two closers. All right. Bryce Harper is expected to undergo an MRI later this week that will determine whether or not he'll require off-season surgery to address the torn UCL in his right elbow. It's hard to remember that he actually has been playing through that because he still has been so dominant this year. But just to know for next year, he will be utility only to start the season. but if he has the surgery,

he gets back on the field, obviously he will regain outfield eligibility quite quickly, but we'll see what Bryce Harper does. The Angels said the team will not trade Chohey Otani this off season. He is entering his contract year,

but I find it interesting Welsh that the Angels specified. It was their GM, Perry Manassian, or I don't know how to say it. But they said this off season. So they didn't rule out trading him in season.

I just thought that was very interesting. Yeah, I think that's one of those little nuggets. planted a little tiny Easter egg out there. Like, we're not trading them in the offseason because they want to see, you know, Trout's health, Rendon returning, what they can do in free agency as far as the staff goes. I don't know. I guess it's good. You just kind of, you actually almost need that, especially if you're going to try to get

anybody to come into L.A. You can't have the idea of Otani being traded looming around. You have to make everybody feel comfortable so they can attempt to go all in. All right. Starling Marte underwent core muscle surgery last week and is expected to be ready for the start of spring training. I have done one and a half draft so far, and I have Starling Marte on both teams because he is, I know, he's going in the fifth round of 15 team leagues. Sure, I'll take Starling Marte at that point as my second outfieler, whatever it might be.

We had a bunch of option-y type things, options being picked up, options being declined. Welsh, feel free to jump in wherever you want, interrupt. And if there's a player that sparks your interest, jump in, whatever. Jacob de Grom, Chris Bassett, and Taiwan Walker all declined their respective options with the Mets. And I did take my plane ride home with Ariel Cohen. So you know we were talking about Mets while we were sitting in the airport. How fun was that? How many of those three do you think return?

Probably two. DeGromp, to me, is really up in the year. Steve Cohen will give him whatever money he wants, but it just comes down to if DeGrom wants to pitch in the south where he's from, Texas or Atlanta, then he's going to go there because I think those teams are going to offer him a lot of money too. So I think it just comes down to where he wants to play. I'm probably most worried about Bassett returning.

Taiwan Walker, I think, probably could come at, like, a decent multi-year deal. But I'll say two of those, go back to the Mets. As long as we have a spot for Tyler McGill later on in that rotation, I'm going to go with that. Tyler, or I'm about it. Both Carlos Correa and Zander Bogartz opted out of their contracts, which adds to a loaded shortstop free agent class. Trey Turner is part of it, Danesby Swanson.

So lots of big names available. Seguera, middle infield, second base shortstop, but Philly just had that. So he's kind of added to the group. And I think the only one that kind of goes back is Tim Anderson. Tim Anderson's option was picked up. So the White Sox will not be in that case. But yeah, it's a pretty good class. Yeah, sure is.

Carlos Sordaun exercised his opt-out class, as we expected, is now a free agent. And outside of DeGrom, probably the top pitcher on the market. Anthony Rizzo opted out of his $16 million option with the Yankees, making him a free agent. I just, I think he wants a few more years, whether it's a three-year deal. Will anyone give him four?

I don't think so. What if the Cubs brought him back? What if the Cubs brought him back and just killed all the Mervis stuff? And just brought him back on like a two-year deal to play with the Cubs again. I mean, it's very unlikely, but you know,

where is this going to go? I don't think it's completely unfounded because they've been linked to Jose Abraeu already in the off-season. So for what? Also forget, Rizzo played with the Red Sox and the Padres organization before setting up shop with the Cubs.

He was originally with both those organizations. So I don't know. Ties, maybe there's something there in a spot. The Padres don't have a home and he used to play there and never know about Boston. Yeah. You know what?

It might not be the worst idea for him to go back to Chicago because he can kind of mentor Matt Mervis. That'd be kind of cool, actually. I don't know. Yeah, a little DH first base type of thing. That would be cool. Talking myself into it.

The White Sox, as you mentioned, picked up to Tim Anderson's $12.5 million option. The Phillies picked up Aaron Nola's $16 million option. The Yankees picked up Severino's $15 million option. Robert Suarez, a reliever with the Padres, declined his $5 million player option and is a name to remember because he had an awesome season.

And if he goes to a team that needs a closer or just needs help in the back end, I think he could definitely be in the mix for save. So Robert Swares, a name to remember there. Jerks and Profar declined his option. The twins declined their options on each of Chris Archer, Dylan Bundy, and Miguel Suno. I always have a soft spot for you, Miguel, Sano. So I hope you latch on somewhere.

The Red Sox declined their option on Tommy Fam. And Zach Eflin, decline a mutual option worth $15 million. Don't really get that one. That one felt very much like a 24-point, or 24-team points league that we play in, where it's like, no world is a Zach Eflin worth $17 or something like that in a normal auction league. But in a 24-man points league, he might be worth that. Turning down the $15 million seems wild,

but there must be something out there that's like, hey, there's three for 40 or something, you know, just a little bit long term for, I mean, he's a four or five in a rotation. It's just, the baseball numbers are wild right now. We had a very insignificant trade happen. Outfieler Sam Hilliard was traded to the Braves in exchange for Dylan Spain,

a 24-year-old reliever, who I don't really know much about, honestly. Cardinals outfield prospect, Moises Gomez. Wellie, you're going to have to talk to me about this guy. He was added to their 40-man roster, and he had a crazy year. 294 batting average, 39 homers, a 994 OPS and 120 games

between AA and AAA and AAA. He's an older prospect, like 24 years old, but he came out of nowhere and he had a ridiculous season. Any thoughts on Moises Gomez? You know, it's funny. It's stuff we can't talk about,

but in the halls of the conference, there was actually some Moises Gomez conversation going on. We were actually talking about, him and how the organization feels about him and sees him that I think this is a precautionary moved for a guy that had an insane year that you get him on the 40 men roster. I don't see I don't see him setting up shop with the team. I think the team would move him. I think they want to move him.

I think they want people to see the value. It's an insane year that he had. He did a lot of it at AA though. This was like a 24 year old that was killing in AA. But no doubt, you know, the power numbers are insane. But kind of also seen this like, Nelson de la Cruz did this as well. There's just big strikeout plane, huge power numbers that he was taking advantage of in

AA that I just don't know translate to the majors. I kind of think Moises Gomez is going to find. I think the Cardinals are going to find a nice destination for him with maybe a Colorado or I don't know. You know, the find a team that is looking for some depth. And if he goes to a place where he can get actual playing time or Colorado, he might be interesting. Yeah, I mean, you said Colorado.

My heart started being a little bit fast. So like, yes, let's do it. I mean, that's not their MO. Their MO would be to sign a 30 year old that can hold him down. They'd sign a 30 year old to play one year and left field to make sure that they stunt the growth of the up and coming 22 year old, like Zach Mead or something. That sounds exactly right. The inaugural MLB draft lottery will be held on Tuesday, December 6th. Doesn't really matter for fantasy.

I mean, I guess it could long term MLB draft, yada yada, but this is the first time they're doing it. So it's, you hate it? I just don't like it. I'm not a big fan. do it in some of our fantasy because I'm also a very like fantasy is meant to be fun so I don't really complain a whole lot but like internally like if you ask me like we did that one of our dynasties where we changed and they wanted to do it to curb you know any uh tanking or anything like that but they turned into a lot of it's not a big lottery fan especially in baseball that it's

never been done and that they moved it we'll see it'll probably be fine but you know it's going to be a you know there's a team like the the nationals or the pirates or the diamondbacks you know that you would have been built. Sometimes these teams to turn the organization around, you need two or three years of this. The Diamondbacks have done that with Lawler and Drew Jones and, I mean, and Corbyn Carroll, really.

They've done it through this first round. They've rebuilt the face of this team. But they might not have been able to do it if they were pushed out of potential pick. So I just don't particularly like it. Like, there's no advantage anymore. It's like in real baseball, why did we do the lottery?

Is it to make it a little bit more exciting for viewers? No one's going to tune in. No one cares because ultimately the biggest problem with Major League Baseball and their draft and their draft prospects, it's the only sport where a guy gets drafted and you don't see him for four years. Who cares? Who cares? Basketball? Instant. Football, instant. Baseball? See you in 2026. So no one, no one cares. Yeah, I think it's just a perception thing. It's optics. They want to make it look like they're, you know, anti-tanking, whatever it might be. But like, you're right. I don't think it ultimately affects things all that. much. Anyway, let's wrap up with some thoughts on the rule changes. Obviously, you've had a much closer look.

You've been out there at a bunch more games and I have a clip here that I'm going to play. I'm going to pull up from Twitter, but really good look at your takes on these. Yeah, the pitch clock, I liked it. So the pitch clock is 15 seconds for a pitcher with a base is empty. It's 20 seconds with runners on base. To be totally honest, I mostly didn't notice it and it kept the game moving. So, and I know that there's studies that have been done that that show.

this season in the minor leagues, games were substantially shorter than they have been in years past, so I'm all about it. Obviously, we have a great story to tell Welsh where, and you haven't seen this before, there was one start. Pitcher had a full count that we saw.

The clock is winding down. He starts wiping his eyes. He's got like some dirt in his eye or a bug, something flew in his eye. And the timer expired. On a full count, the umpire issued ball four, told the batter, go to first base. Walk. And the pitcher yells, but I had something in my eye.

And the umpire just shrugs at him. He's like, sorry. Everything you said is 100% accurate. But he goes, I got something in my eye. I was rubbing my eye. And then the um goes, okay. And then he goes, does that not matter? And that would, that killed me.

I died inside when he did that because everyone just stared at him because it didn't matter. It was a pretty, uh, it was a pretty epic scene. Uh, so if you are watching, you'll, you'll just see in the background. the pitch clock going off, they throw the ball back to the pitcher. The batter at this point is Zach Gelloff, who is a pretty well-known prospect for the A's. He steps out of the box, and so they reset the pitch clock. So there are ways where, you know, it can be reset. You know, obviously if something like that happens, I think if the dude who had something in his eye, like yelled, hey, time out or something like that, you know, they probably would have reset the pitch clock.

And I'm going to say that. If you want to talk about pace of game stuff, this is just one of the best things. I was at a game. this is right before I saw you, Wednesday night, one hour in 59 minutes of full nine-inning baseball. Wow. Between the surprise Suoros and the Glendale Desert Dogs, one hour in 59 minutes was a game time. Me, Clegg and Eric Cross sat there and we just reveled in the game time of under two hours.

It's good for baseball. I mean, obviously with runs, it's going to go, you know, if there's more offense, it's going to be a longer game and whatnot. But the pitch clock is great. It speeds up the game. It doesn't mess around. it's just awkward when a pitcher is given an extra ball because he doesn't go or in that instance like you were alluding to.

I had never seen this happen on a full count. I wasn't even sure what would happen. And sure enough, it was just a full on walk, not a bach, but a walk because he was rubbing his eye. Yep. And something else that happened. And I think we were talking about it at the time and we didn't know why it was happening. So we went to that game Friday night.

The catcher was lobbing the ball back to the pitcher. But he had an arm because there, you know, before they start the inning, he's throwing the ball down to second base, and he's throwing the ball obviously very hard. And so we're trying to figure it out, and it turned out, I heard this on a panel the next day,

they're being taught that on purpose, Welsh, to give the pitcher an extra half second. That isn't being factored into the pitch clock. So they're lobbing the ball back, and it just adds up. It gives the pitcher an extra half second to like reset in between the pitch clock or whatever. Sneaky, sneaky.

You underestimate the sneakiness. we were dying and figuring out what it was because we're like, why is this a situation for Major League? You know, that was our big joke because it was like three or four where he is just lobbing it past the second basement to go in the outfield. I don't think I registered that.

That is a sneaky little play by the pitch of the defensive team. Yeah, it looked like he was throwing knuckle balls back to the pitch. He was just like loving them. For fantasy purposes, sort of what's actually actionable with the pitch clock. So Luis Garcia, Shohei Otani, U. Darvish, Jordan Montgomery, were the pitchers that were closest to going over the pitch clock on average this season. So taking nearly the full 15 seconds, or I guess even if runners are on base,

20 seconds, whatever it might be. So those are the names where I don't think you devalue them for fantasy, but it wouldn't surprise me if, you know, over the course of the season, if they're a little bit flustered because they take longer, maybe they have to groove one in and it turns into a big inning where, you know, things kind of just go awry. It wouldn't surprise me. So they can lose their counts. You know, if they're not paying attention, all of a sudden, they could have a pitchers count, and then they could get an extra walk put in there, and then they're going to change a sequence. It'll be interesting to see how the guys go.

I don't think we have enough information to adjust to that one quite yet. Outside of just the game times, hopefully it'll be a little bit less. The other rule change, which we saw, and you alluded to, was the shift ban out in the AFL. Four infielers all have to be on the dirt, so no one playing in the grass on the outfield, two on each side of second base, and on, uh, on, on either side of second base. And specifically, you mentioned Matt Mervis, hitting that line drive, which normally,

it seems like it would have been right into the teeth of a shift. And, you know, more often than not, it's turned into outs the past couple of years. So I just think that's something worth noting for those extreme left-handed pull hitters. And our buddy, Chris Clegg, who phenomenal dude in person, love talking with Clegg.

Follow him on Twitter at Rodo Clegg. He had a chart of the biggest difference in batters. non-shift babbitt versus their shift babbip. And here are the top five from this past season. M.J. Melendez, Robbie Grossman, Kyle Tucker, Anthony Santander, Jock Peterson. Also on that list, Corey Seeger and Nick Cassiano. It's a little bit further down. So some names that you could take away here, but very clearly, it seems like extreme

left-handed pull-hitters. Yeah, and I think there's a benefit. It's paying attention to any of these guys. The Corey Seeger, M.J. Melendez, those ones kind of like just jump out. to me, I think Kyle Tucker already is just so uniquely amazing. But the Melendez one, especially in two catcher leagues or even deeper single catcher leagues also with the extra position eligibility. But the Corey Seeger one, I think Corey Seeger's going to come back at some value.

And Nick Castionis is pretty tough to gauge. But I think you're going to see, I don't think it's going to be one for one. I don't think it'll be 100%, but there might be some better opportunities that go certain guys' ways. And Corey Seeger could go from mediocre to a much more palatable option. option and a guy like Matt Mervis, that could be the difference between them being able to stay up and continue to produce because maybe that batting average goes from 240 to 255 because a couple more singles and doubles because Mervis stings the ball. That's the thing. I mean,

he stings that ball in with EVs that no second basement is going to catch up to. That's why the shift was such an advantage. And he is hitting it right to them. I really think that's going to be an advantage for him. Yeah. Yep. And I know two names that Scott has brought up that he thinks will benefit greatly are Anthony Rizzo and Rowdy Tellez. So again, those are just the extreme pull-hitting lefties. It's really hard to quantify, and this is something I took away from another speaker

throughout the course of the weekend is, it's really hard to quantify how much it will affect batting average. Like, maybe league-wide batting average only climbs three, five percentage points. It's really hard to quantify, but the ones where it really might matter are the left-handers

where, you know, maybe they're going up 10, 15 points. And over the course of full season. That obviously matters quite a bit. Rounding it out, whilst we were talking beforehand, you asked me, what were the top three food items that you had from this weekend? Honestly, yeah, baby. Well, I was saying maybe items you consume too, because I put you on to a couple, we had some drinks together and bottles of water and some others and stuff like that. There was a couple that I turned you on to. They think you were happy about, but food was the talk of the town and it wasn't just because Eno was around. There's a lot of food talking. You guys were doing a lot of peacocking with

sharing your different food places that I think got you excited to go and check out a few. Yes, absolutely. So Little Miss Barbecue, I don't frequent a lot of barbecue food places. I live in New York. If there are great ones around here, I don't know about them. So obviously took advantage of that. Shout out to Bubba, Bench with Bubba podcast. And he put out the picture first. I said, yeah, I got to go to that place. And they had ranch beans. I can't, still can't it over. What are ranch beans? They taste mostly like regular beans, but there was just a hint, a hint of ranch.

And they were so good. Some sliced brisket, I think I had a cheddar jalapeno sausage thrown in there, too. It was just so good. You live out there, so you gotta go, you gotta go get it out of here. That was so good. Henhouse, another spot. I got a breakfast biscuit that was legitimately six inches tall. I don't want to know, I don't even want to check my weight.

after this weekend. I have it. I don't feel very good. It's just, I got to eat salad for two weeks straight after what just happened, but it was a breakfast biscuit with eggs, cheese, bacon, fried chicken, and the chicken country gravy, that white gravy, whatever it is, they serve it in a cracker barrel all the time. You're killing everybody here right now. You are just making everybody hungry. Oh, man, it was insane. It was, uh, it was so good. I had to get in and out while was there in and out burger because I don't have it here on the East Coast, which it was fine. I didn't get to try Waterburger. I know you think that's better Welshie.

So, I mean, I don't think. It's clearly. And for beer, yes, the Scottsdale blonde was very good. So I appreciate you. Shout out to Huss Brewing. Our buddies over at Huss Brewing. So good. Poker results.

So I'm so bad. How did I miss this? Frank and I, we sat in this room, by the way, a wacko room. We're sitting in with like a couple tables and you guys would just be. blown away by the people, Justin Mason, Paul Spor, Jeff Erickson's over here, just a room of minds and people are playing poker. And we were so fried on Friday, we could barely sit and stand. I'm so disappointed because I was so looking forward to sitting with you as poker went down.

So you got in on one of the games. Yeah, I looked over at the Welsh on Friday night. He sat down on the couch. I looked over again, he was sleeping. So I can't blame you one bit because we were, you're right, we were fried on Friday night. but Saturday I got in on the action. It was the table that included, I'm not going to remember everyone,

but Scott Chu was part of it, Jeff Zimmerman, a couple other great dudes, whatever. And I made it to the point where they combine the tables, so there's two different tables going on at once. Final table. Yeah, so I made it.

I didn't get down to the final. I think they chopped it three or four ways, but I didn't make it that far, but I got to the joint experience. So I was kind of proud of myself. How many hours did it last, though? It was, I was probably there for two hours.

Two hours playing. The last thing, can you relive your best hand, the one that stood out to you? Ooh, what happened? I can relive my worst hand. I can tell you that one.

That's fine, too. That's good. And that's the one that, that I got, I got thrown out with. I had, I had pocket kings. Pocket kings and,

um, I should have bet. I should have bet earlier. And I think, like, yeah, And I think like an ace came out on like the fourth card. You see, I say fourth card.

I don't even know the terminology in poker. Yeah, it's called the turn. Yeah, yeah, that card. So I see the ace come out. And I'm like, oh, you know, I'm going to play it off like I had an ace. So, you know, I'm like, all in right away. Someone else had the ace. And they're like, yeah, they call.

So it was not my bad. That's a bummer. I'm not a good poker player. But I'm sure people who actually play poker are listening to this and they're like, Frank, you're so dumb. But, hey, you got to start somewhere. I don't think so at all. You had pocket kings. You slow rolled it a little bit.

Yeah, I did. I was slow rolling. I was slow rolling for sure. I was trying to make a little bit more money, get the pot up a little bit. I didn't want to scare everyone off. And then, you know, burns you every time. So that's where we're at. Phenomenal weekend.

Again, shout out to the baseball HQ guys. Awesome meeting everybody. Awesome meeting you, Welshie. So happy to do it. And hopefully I can make it out again next year, man. I hope you do, man. It was a killer time, like I said, even when I wasn't feeling good, Frank was still nice. And he was texting me and checking in and just giving me updates and stuff.

It was very good. It was very good. I hope you were out there for all the years. I enjoyed spending the time. And literally, the only regret is I just didn't get to do more of it. We had a lunch plan. We had a, we're going to elbow some kids for some baseballs at the home run derby. We had a lot of big plans.

We just didn't get to do. But I'm happy that you had a killer time and you've got the, you got the perspective for it now because it's, it's addicting, man. It's really good. It really is. Again, highly recommended to any baseball fan fantasy baseball player out there. It's a lot of fun. If anyone's still listening here by the end of the podcast, our next, podcast. We'll be breaking down the draft that I was part of. And so we'll run through, you know,

some of the early round stuff. And then like my team in particular and Welsh could either grade it or rip it apart. I actually kind of hope you rip it apart. But anyway, we'll do that on the next podcast and it'll be a lot of fun for the Welsh. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again later this week. Bye-bye.