Fantasy Baseball Today - Are Jorge Polanco and Jonathan India Legit? Early 2022 Second Base Rankings (10/19 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: October 19, 2021

Welcome to Joctober (1:00)! The Braves are up 2-0 in the NLCS. ... News and notes (4:03): Fernando Tatis will not have shoulder surgery. How might this affect his 2022 value? ... Who finished top-five at second base last season (13:52)? Is Jorge Polanco legit? ... Who was top-10 at the position (31:53)? Is it time to fade Whit Merrifield? ... Let's take a closer look at Scott's top-10 second basemen for 2022 (44:52). What do we do with Ketel Marte? ... How about top-20 rankings at the position (49:49)? Who is the real Jazz Chisholm? ... Which second basemen might we target/avoid next year (57:45)? '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 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. I drive. Centerfield is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

What is up? Welcome on into Fantasy Baseball today, and I'd like to officially welcome you to Jocktober. Frank Stanfield joined by Scott White. today on the pod, we will be taking a closer look at the second base position year in review. Scott already has his early 2022 ranks out for second base. They are live on the site. We'll talk about those as well.

But it's all about the Braves, baby. They are up to O against the Dodgers in the NLCS, Jock Peterson. Jock Peterson. Shout out to Adam Azar. I know. Used to have a nice little soundbite there for him. Jock has three homers in the postseason. Most recently, a 454 foot.

Moonshot off of Max Scher. The guy is locked in. Scott, my main question for you, where are the pearls, man? You're not rocking the pearl necklace. I'm not. Maybe I should. Even Dale Murphy broke it out

when he was throwing the first pitch before game two on Sunday. He pulled out the pearls to celebrate Jock Tover. I was trying to research to find out what's behind this whole phenomenon of Jock Peterson. wearing the pearls.

There's no, there's nothing behind it. Yeah, there's no backstory, right? He's said, he said, I can't really say what he said. But his explanation

for why he's wearing the pearls is he's a bad witch. Oh, he didn't say which. All right. Well, yeah, the Halloween season is here.

So we will, we'll leave it at that. Maybe you could dye your hair blonde like Doc Peterson has got some, some kind of, can we do that? If the Braves win the World Series, can we get a,

like, bleach blonde? The hair, Scotty? Probably not. Oh, come on. All right, well, outside of, like, if you don't reside in Texas or, I guess, in Massachusetts, somewhere in the northeast, then the chances are you're probably rooting for the National League right now.

So that's exactly what I'm doing. Let's go Braves. I'll just leave it at that. I mean, look, if the Dodgers advance, I will be sad for you, Scotty. But we are... You know, let's not downplay the excitement. of these first two games here. Both walk-off wins.

I think I was reading from Jason Stark today, the first time the Best of Seven series has started with two walk-off wins. And the first time, I believe, consecutive games teams walked off since the Braves Twins World Series in 1991 when the Braves did it twice. So, you know,

heart-stopping games, Frank. I was a little stressed this weekend watching them. Especially the eighth inning of game two when the brave seemed hell bent on making the second out on the base paths and managed to avoid it every time. And that's the inning where they were able to pull even. So yeah, that was fun. That was fun because everybody was safe every time. But yeah, that was exciting. Yeah, exciting to say the least.

Look, we lead with Jack Peterson, what he's doing to this point. He's obviously having a great postseason for them. But Eddie Rosario, man, what a game in Game 2. Goes 4 for 4. A few very close base running plays, which you just mentioned, the play at home. The slide that he had was just fantastic. So, yeah, it's been an awesome start to the NLCS and the ALCS. I mean, we're recording this on Monday,

and the Red Sox are absolutely destroying the Astros. So let's see where that series goes from there. Before we hit second base, Got a few news items that I want to talk about. Most notably, Fernando Tatis will not have shoulder surgery. He has opted against it. And he is confident that he'll be able to strengthen the shoulder this offseason as an alternative to having that surgery. But basically everything that you read from like sports doctors or Twitter doctors, I guess, like even pro football.

Real doctors are just people who are pretending their doctors. You know, some kind of combination. But Dr. David Chow actually is a doctor. and he is a Padres fan, and he said repeatedly that Fernando Tatis will need surgery at some point. So I don't know, maybe he's young enough where he can rehab this and he'll be fine for next year, but it is worrisome because you're going to have to spend what's likely at least a top three pick.

You know, maybe some people get scared off and he slips, you know, lower into the top five, but he's not escaping the first round. So, so, yeah, there's a lot to dive in. to here, and I was tweeting a lot about it earlier today, because it seemed like the initial reaction from people on Twitter, both people who, you know, are in the fantasy baseball industry and just people who, you know, just commenters chiming in, the reaction seemed to be, well, if he's not going to have surgery, we obviously have to downgrade him. And I was kind of surprised by that reaction because I figured surgery or not, we're going to be worried about Tatis's

shoulder going into next year because I mean look look at cody bellinger his dislocation and and he's had all kinds of trouble coming back from his shoulder surgery last off season it wasn't going to be a quick recovery for fernando tatis i think people were a little a little too sanguine about the the surgical intervention option if this is how they're responding to tatis not having it and of course i'm i'm not a doctor i presume he's kidding advice from doctors in making this decision. And the other thing that maybe there's some confusion about, and it's possible I'm confused. I tried looking back at articles from earlier this year to get to the bottom of it.

Now, the shoulder injury for Tatis first came to our attention in spring training. Remember, he made a play in the field and came off the field wincing. had his left arm tucked up and we're all freaked out at that point about Tatis. They quickly ruled out any kind of long-term absence for him. But the way it was described at the time is he's had problems with this shoulder dating back to his time in the minor leagues

and these flare-ups would happen occasionally, even way back then. And then, you know, so later he had a following through on a swing. Tatis hurt the shoulder again, left the game. worried he was going to miss the season and ended up being just a very short absence. And I think there was a third episode during the season, right? Yeah, I had to slide maybe.

I had to eat my hat because of it. Remember that? Well, I think that was on the check swing. Yeah. The second episode. But my point is, I think those were all flare-ups of the same thing, right? He's been dealing with this for years. It wasn't something that just happened this year.

And he's managed to manage it without anybody knowing about it really until this year. And he seems confident that he can continue to avoid surgery through strengthening exercises. He ended up missing about 20 games this year with the injury, which all things considered isn't that much. You know, he hit 46 home runs, I believe it was, stole 25 bases. He actually missed 32 games, Scottie. But you're right. Yeah, but with injury itself, I think I read it was like 22 or something.

All right, because, yeah, there was a COVID situation with him. Yeah. Yeah, he still hit 282. 42 homers and had 25 steals. 130 games. So I don't know. I still see him as the top player next year. I'm not totally like,

obviously there are still concerns about the shoulder and you have to weigh the risk and reward there. I just think the reward is so high. Like there's not really, except for maybe a Kunya, who of course has his own concerns coming off a torn ACL. for a 5 by 5 league, there's nobody who really approaches that kind of upside that Tatis has.

And he dealt with the injury this year, again, going back to spring training. So whole season, he dealt with it fine, still performed like technically not the top player in fantasy, but pretty close. And certainly the top one on a per game basis. I don't really feel motivated to move him down from the top spot.

But I'm also the guy who currently ranks Akunia second. for for roto leagues. I think we'll have a clearer sense of how that's going to go as draft season actually approaches and maybe I'll move Acuna down if it doesn't sound like he's going to be ready in time. But I don't feel particularly worried about either.

There are risks there, but nobody's really a slam dunk. And I think we've already seen Tatis play through this and he was awesome, you know? And Acunae torn ACL, I mean, that's something people come back from all the time. I just think they're both going to be worth taking that high. Even with the, even acknowledging, yes, there's some obvious risk there.

I just don't think it's enough to scare me away. Yep. Tatee still finishes the fifth overall player in five-by-five Roto leagues this past year, despite missing those 30 games. And he averaged just about four fantasy points per game, which was tied for the most with Vladimir Guerrero. So on a per-game basis, I mean, those are those are two top hitters. That's a points measurement. I would say probably not take Tatee's first in points leagues now,

because there are more who can compete with them in that format. But with that power speed combination in five-by-five, you know, roto leagues, I just don't think there's much comparison for that, except Acuna, who, of course, has his own concerns. All right. Well, the glass half full, the positive spin on Fernando Tatis here from Scotty. We'll see how Fernando Tatis is doing, I don't know, two, three months from now. The Cardinals have parted ways with their manager, Mike Schilt,

which I think caught some. people by surprise. Or maybe not because I don't know, I saw a few Cardinals fans on Twitter that were like, okay with this happening. I don't know. By all accounts, it seemed like Mike Schilt was a pretty good manager.

So it kind of caught me off guard, but, well, all but Padre fans were stunned by it because I think, you know, he'd been such a fixture in the organization and the team had had so much success. So under him,

most of it pretty unexpected. You know, it seemed like they consistently outperformed under Mike Schilt and the Cardinals GM whose name I can never say right John Mozillack right yeah he said

it didn't have anything they thought they thought Mike Schilt managed the club well it was just philosophical differences and he wouldn't go into what those philosophical differences were but you know a lot of Cardinals fans

I said oh he didn't bring so and so into the game and into the wildcard game in this inning they were trying to to pin it all to one bullpen decision, which is just a dumb thing fans do sometimes.

I feel like the easiest thing for a fan base to harp on a manager about is bullpen management. Like, there's never been a manager who's good at bullpen management. Like, that's just, they're all bad. You're probably right about that. You know, sometimes moves backfire, right? Like, it's just easy to say,

oh, he should have done this instead. I know that was the top complaint for Cardinals fans about Mike Bethany, the previews, man. manager. Like, no fan base is ever satisfied with how the manager uses the bullpen. So I do feel certain that was not the reason Mike Schilt was fired. I suspect there was some kind of argument and maybe things got too heated or maybe, you know, maybe the front office just wanted more top down control, more direct control over what was happening on the field than Schult was willing to give them.

So he's out. My guess is he becomes the Padres next manager, but we'll see. Yeah, I mean, that would be great. I think any team would be happy to get Mike Schilt. So we'll see if he latches on right away. Oftentimes, we'll see where a team, a manager's let go, and maybe he takes a year off

and then rejoins, but I don't know. I think there's a good chance that Mike Schilt latches on here with someone. So we'll see if it is the Padres indeed. I did want to give a few Arizona Fall League updates. This is really the first time in my life that I've followed it close-ish, but there's not really much else going on right now.

Well, there's football, obviously, and there's postseason baseball. But if you want, like, a daily fix for baseball, you can follow Arizona Fall League box scores. Spencer Torkelson and Brett Beatty. That's the Tigers top prospect and one of the Mets top prospects, respectively. They are both seven for 14 so far in the AFL. And there are three hitters who have two home runs,

each the Rocky's first base prospect, Michael Taglia, and then Lars Neupar, friend of the program, not really because we've never had them on, but fun name to say, so we'll call him a friend. And then Red's middle infield prospect, Ivan Johnson. They each have two home runs here in Arizona full league. Anything else happens? I will let you know.

I think at some point we'll probably do a podcast where we talk about what's happened overall in the Arizona full league. Maybe we'll get the Welsh on because he's obviously following it very closely, and he's awesome with prospects. So we'll do that sometime soon. I don't know. Maybe within the next month we'll take a break from these early previews. But speaking of which, let's jump right in.

to second base the year in review. We'll do it the same way we have the past couple. We'll take a look at the top 10 in Roto this past season. And then after that, we will take an early look at Scott's rankings. But number one, no surprise, Trey Turner will have both second base and shortstop eligibility heading into next year. And he finishes as the number one second baseman. 328 batting average, 28 homers, 107 runs scored, 77 RBI, and 32 steals. he finishes as the number three overall player in Roto.

And I have a feeling, Scott, that really regardless of format. Like, Roto, he's going to be a top five pick very easily in my mind. Maybe in points league he slips a little bit, but I still think he's a first round pick. Trey Turner? Yeah, in points league. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think so, too. Let me see if I can pull up real quickly what he averaged in head-to-head.

points leagues this past year, 3.74. So that was the highest at second base. The highest among second base eligible players. The next closest was Marcus Simeon at 3.66. And then after that, Jose Altuvae at 3.6. And I'm just going to keep saying names. And next would be Ozzy Albies at 3.45. And then there's a pretty big drop off. Oh, no. No, there was, okay. Anyway, yeah, Tray Turner was by far the highest scoring second baseman, even in points leagues, on a per game basis. So yes, I would agree that especially now that he has that dual eligibility. And he's become less steel-focused as he's gotten older here. He actually only stole 32 bases this past year, which remember when he first started his career.

Well, he kept getting hurt, but it was on like a 60 steel pace, a 70-steel pace. So I think you could actually make the case that Trey Turner Maybe is even a little Better suited for points leagues than Roto No You know what I'm gonna make that argument about somebody else I think I was making the argument I meant to make about Whitmery field for Trey Turner but anyway let's keep going

Off to a great start year No no that's that's fine I you know I've already seen some early drafts where Turner goes as the first overall pick in Roto And I don't think that he has the same same upside as a Tatiis or a cune, but just so safe. You know, batting average, well over 300 each of the past two seasons. Still going to give you some speed. The power has really come on here for trade turn of the past couple of years. So I would be perfectly fine making that argument in a Roto league. Number two at the position was Marcus Semi and he had 265, 45 homers,

115 runs, 102 RBI, 15 steals the number seven overall player in Roto this past season. Just a monster season, a prove it deal one year with the Toronto Blue Jays, and I would imagine he's going to get paid by somebody. I don't know who that's going to be. He is an unrestricted free agent, but this is now two of the past three years, Scott, where Semyon has finished top 20 overall in Roto. So to me, I'm starting to look at that 20-20 as the outlier. I don't know that he's going to be, you know, a top 20 player again, but even with some slight regression, if he's a second or third round pick, I think because of the power and speed, he could still live up to that. Yeah, I have him as a second rounder.

I pointed out before that, you know, we don't know where he's going and where he ultimately winds up. It might change my thinking if he winds up in Detroit, if he winds up in San Francisco for some reason, I guess that's possible. If he winds up in a harder place to hit, then maybe he drops out of my second round. But he actually hit the majority of his home runs on the road this year. So I don't think we can credit his performance all to the favorable hitter environment he ended up in. Of course, in 2019, that other year referring to, he was in Oakland, which is not a very good place to hit. So, you know, it's hard to square that short 2020 season where he was pretty awful with the two great seasons on each side of it. Because, you know, I was seeing that, especially after the way last year went, that 2019 season was looking.

been like an outlier for Marcus, I mean, and I, you know, you and I both had him as somebody to avoid on draft day. And we ended up looking pretty stupid because he just kept, he just kept hitting home runs. Yeah, I don't see much reason to write him off, but it'll depend kind of where he ends up signing. The only thing that stands out to me is his quality of contact is really not great, especially for someone who just hit 45 home runs. So 241, XBA, 444 expected slug. Those were both well below his actual numbers. If that's something that you buy into, then you know, you might be wary of that. Yeah, no, that's a good point. And he was, I did give Marcus Simeon the award for biggest overachiever when we did the award show because of that

disparity between his expected stats and his actual stats. And I'm glad you brought it up. But that's, that's kind of why I referred to him hitting more, most of his home runs on the road because, I don't know, to me that counts for something. Now, I will point out that he was playing in the AL East, which has the most hitter-friendly parks of any division. So a lot of his road games were obviously in those parks.

But still, you know, he steals some bases too, gets on base a lot. There's a lot to like, you know, he doesn't have to hit 40, when he was it, 43? 45. 45. He doesn't have to hit 45 home runs again to be

worth a second round pick. No, he doesn't. If he hits 30 homers with 10 to 12 steals and the counting stats that you get in the Blue Jays lineup, that's likely worth a second or even third round pick for next year. Number three at the position was Ozzy Albies. He finished 259 batting average, 30 homers, 103 runs, 106 RBI, 20 steel. So really, can't call him a five category contributor because the batting average was low-ish, 259. It's better than league average, but it's not like he's a contributor. But he did contribute in the other four categories for sure. Finish has the number 16 overall player. He's a lot like Boba Shett, where he has power and speed, but he's doing it with a lower OPS. He really doesn't walk all that much. And the splits, if you were someone who's like scared

of bad splits, well, you shouldn't be for Albies because this is just who he is. Even though he's a switch hitter, he crush his left-handed pitching. And he's quite like mediocre against right-handed pitching. And that's who he's always been. And he still finds a way to put up these massive fantasy season. So because of that, I'm not really worried about it. No, I mean,

that's just, he's not that great from the left side of the plate. It's so weird. You get so many more bats there. He ended up hitting 21 home runs from the left side of the plate. Okay, so he gets more power

from that side, the lower batting average. No, he doesn't get more power. I'm just saying, he's, I don't want to overstate it either and say you don't want to start him on the days he's facing a right-handed pitchers.

But he had 237 with 749 OPS and against right, 323 with a 940 OPS. Why doesn't he just try it though? Why doesn't he just try batting righty against right-handed pitching? I would love for him too. I mean, obviously, Cedric Mullins.

I think he was batting exclusively left-handed, right? This year? The past two years, I believe, since the start of last year. Or maybe it started this year. I think it started this year. Yeah, I mean, I've said for a few years now that switch hitting, I think it's overrated,

and I think a lot of players would benefit from giving it up and looking at Ozzy Albi's splits, considering he's so much better against, from the side where he gets, sees the least reps, you know? Because usually what ends up happening with switch hitters is they become much better from the left side, even if they don't start out that way,

they're just seeing so many more pitches from the left side that it ends up being their better side. And Ozzy Albi's being that much better consistently from the right side, even though he doesn't see as many pitches. is there. Like that just makes me wonder how good he could be. He ends up being an extreme fly ball hitter because that's basically all he does from the left side is just golf it.

And that keeps his batting average, you know, lower than you'd expect it to be given his strikeout rate. I think it's safe to view him as like a 260, 265 header. He did have one year where he hit 295, but I think that's, you know, that's going to be more the exception than the rule. So that's really his downside is relative. to other players you draft in the third round range, let's say. Ozzie Lube's probably not going to give you as much batting average,

but he'll give you a useful number of steals. He'll give you a useful amount of power. He'll the run in RBI production will be great because that Braves lineup is so strong. And I think he's pretty much locked into that third round range at this point in his career. But yeah, Frank, you know, I don't want to keep carpet on those splits, but he actually did have five at bats from the right side against a

right-handed pitcher this year. I don't know who it was. I don't know why he made that decision, but how'd he do? He did have five at bats from the right side against a right-handed pitcher, and he homered in two of them. What? Yeah. Oh, man, that's, that's interesting. I would love to ask somebody in like the Braves organization. I don't, I don't know how I would contact anyone in the Braves organization, but man, that's, that is interesting. Yeah, it is. I've got to look more into that, but see. Changing subjects again, I meant to point this out.

So, Ozzy Albies is third here in terms of where he finished, right? Yep. One and two, Trey Turner and Marcus Simeon, they wouldn't have been eligible here entering this season. So, you know, if this season hadn't just happened, if they hadn't just gotten 20 games at second base, than Ozzy Albis we'd be talking about it was number one. So we're going to see this as a theme throughout second base,

the number of players who we think of playing other positions picking up second base eligibility in 2021 and then carrying it over to 2022. It's a lot of them. And it's make the position much deeper and much stronger than we're used to seeing. A second base is not a weak position anymore.

In fact, it might be the strongest in field position. First base is deeper, but it's deep in kind of mid-tier talent. Shortstop is, you know, has a lot of really high-end talent, but it thins out very quickly. I don't know. Second base is at least similar to those two. And then third base is by far the weakest, by far. Oh, we're going to have a fun podcast on Thursday talking about third base. But speaking of what you just brought up for about, you know, these other names up top, Jorge Polanco, I believe, did not have second base eligibility coming into the season. He was short-stop.

Jonathan India didn't. Yep. And we'll talk about him in just a little bit too. Javier Baez didn't. Correct. Jazz Chisholm? I think jazz chisholm did, actually.

Yeah, he might have. Jorge Polanco, by the way, 269 batting average, 33 homers, 97 runs, 98 RBI, 11 steals. Scott, close your ears,

close your eyes. About to bring up some stats here. 555 OPS in April. That's when Scott dropped him. And then 813 OPS. I dropped them in May. I gave him two solid months to turn things around. Yeah, he got up to a slow start in May as well.

813 OPS are better in every other month, including two over a 900 OPS. So I don't know that I'm buying the power per se here, Scott. Maybe, you know, age 27 season, maybe just finally tapped into that in-game power. I noticed his poll rate was way high. It was like near 53%. He was below 40% the previous three seasons. So that seems to have unlocked some power for him. and when you look at the other twins power hitters

the past couple of seasons, all of them just started pulling the ball like crazy. So I wonder if it's just some kind of organizational thing, but yeah, Polanco was amazing. Yeah, and he was great in 2019 too. You know, only two-thirds of the home run production. But he hit 295 with 22 home runs. It was basically a must-start player in 2019

and then had some ankle trouble last year, which is why I was so high on him coming into this season. I thought he was in for a bounce back season. It took a while for him to come around, and the bounce back ended up being even bigger than I thought it could be with that increased home run production. But he doesn't strike out much, he consistently kept his batting his strikeout rate below 20%.

And some years it's closer to 15%. And also he hardly ever puts, the ball on the ground, the career ground ball rate of 33.5, you know, if somebody has like a 40% ground ball rate, that's, that's not bad. This is well below that. A lot of line drives, which helps batting average, a lot of fly balls, which helps power production. Combined with that low strikeout rate, you know, it's a little surprising. He hit only 269, and there may be some amount of tradeoff with the batting average and the home runs, you know, depending on how often he's putting the ball in the air.

But I don't know. To me, that points to a pretty high floor. I'm not expecting him to repeat the stat line next year, but I would consider him a top 10 second basement for next year. Not top five, but top 10. As we will reveal in just a little bit. Number five at the position, Jose Altuve, 278 batting average, 31 homers, 117 run scored, 83 RBI,

and five steals. he now has exactly 31 home runs in two of the past three seasons. He had a career high fly ball rate, also had a career high infield fly ball rate way up, like 18% infield fly ball rate this year. Basically just selling out for power at this point. It didn't completely sink his batting average or anything. It was a great season for all too bad.

It kind of seems like I'm talking down about him, but he's interesting. He's interesting because he's basically, he excels in two categories, home runs and runs, and then he's just kind of okay in batting average, RBI and steals,

which isn't a bad thing, but he's just unique at this point. He used to be the preeminent batting average source, right? Back when he was a first rounder, and he used to be an elite base dealer on top of it. He's basically given up running. Even though he's still fast,

it's just not something he does anymore, and he's traded off the batting average for power, really sells out for power. hitting the ball in the air, pulling the ball in the air a lot, which works out because of that short porch in left field in his home park. He hit 19 of his 31 home runs at home,

had a 932 OPS there versus 750 on the road. Yeah, he's not leaving for a few more years. He's not going to be a free agent for a few years, so he still gets to enjoy that park, and he seemed like he's really tailored to swing for it. and certainly we're not going to have the same level concern about Jose Altufe going into next year that we did going into this year when he was coming off. Of course, the sign stealing scandal and so people were already inclined to doubt him.

And then he had a really bad regular season performance short as it was. Came around in the playoffs, which is why I know we were high on him on this podcast. but I think pretty much put everybody's concerns to rest. And I mentioned in points leagues, he was third in points per game after Turner and Simeon. His skill sets probably a little more geared for points leagues now because there's not many steals and there's not many strikeouts. There's never been many strikeouts for him.

So that may impact it. But the fact that it's debatable, the fact that we can debate, fifth is where he finished in Roto last year, Yep. And there's others that are going to come after them that we could debate putting ahead of him. It's just a really crowded position in this range. Yeah, we're talking about now. And I'm with you. I might argue that he's better in points leagues at this point.

It doesn't make him bad in Roto or anything, but it's just kind of what his skill set is at this point. So, Jose Al Tuvae has been a high quality second basement for a long time. And if you enjoy high quality meat, you need to try Butcher Box. No more searching the grocery store for 100% grassy. beef, free range, organic chicken, or wild caught seafood. Get it delivered right to your door today with Butcher Box. My fiance and I made chili this weekend using their ground beef, and oh my. Oh, my goodness gracious.

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Again, butcherbox.com slash FBT. Number six at second base this past season, Whitmeryfield, he hit 277, 10 homers, 97 runs scored, 40 steals, the steals were second most in MLB. He is a compiler, and I'm not saying this in a bad way. Availability is the best ability,

and that is what Whitmeryfield offers. He has played every single game over the past three seasons. That is almost impossible. Like today's age, any sport that you want to talk about is just insane. The fact that what Maryfield has been able to do that. However, he's turning 33 in January,

slugging percentage, ISO, home run to fly ball rate. They were all career lows for him. So I don't really think that we can count on him for much, if any, kind of power production, Scott. And it wouldn't surprise me if that just like completely falls off the face of the earth. Yeah. So he used to be

At his very best He was a good source of batting average And A passable source of home run Like it wouldn't He wouldn't set you back that much In the home run category For a guy who you drafted predominantly for steals

But That appears to be Not the case He seems more one dimensional than ever You know still led the AO with 40 steals He was one of two guys with more than 35 steals and all the majors. So still a standout in that most coveted category,

and that's why he's going to rank higher in Roto leagues in five-by-five leagues, and then he will in points leagues. But I think his skill set has change shifted a little, that it actually looks like a points league skill set because he still doesn't strike out much. He hits a ton of doubles. He led the majors with 42 doubles.

he does things that that scoring format rewards that Roto doesn't this was the argument I meant to make for him but I started making for Trey Turner for some reason because I got mixed up so just because of

the extreme scarcity of stolen bases and how much you have to pay up for him he ends up going higher in Roto leagues but I think it's going to feel like less of concession to draft Maryfield as your starter in a points league last year, uh, next year. I mean, I think if you draft them in Roto, you're designing your team in a certain way that just,

okay, I'm going to take this hit in the offensive categories to get this big glob of steals here early on. But you're, you really have to design the rest of your draft around that pick. When in points, leagues you draft with Maryfield is your starter halfway through the draft. And it's just going to be a good starter for you. So, um, I don't know. kind of a weird play in that way. And I have a feeling that Whitmeryfield's still going to be drafted decently high in Roto leagues next year.

And look, he's going to be a standout in steals. He's likely going to score runs, but really not giving you much else. Especially, like, batting average is fine, but like he's not a contributor in that anymore. So I think he might get overdrafted in that format in next year. Number seven at the position, we have Brandon Lau. He hit 247 with 39 homers, 97 runs, 99 RBI, and 7. seven steals. He got off to an awful start. His first two months, he hit 189 with a 31% strikeout rate. Its final four months, he hit 272. Strikeouts came down about six percentage points.

933 OPS from June 1st on for Brandon Lau. I know he's inconsistent, Scott, like overall throughout the course of the season, but like you look at the last three seasons, Scott. Like, his final numbers are consistent. Like they are what they are. I think he's going to hit 250 to 260 with big power, great counting stats in that lineup, and six to eight steals. So like the road to the end of the season might be frustrating, but that's kind of just who he is at this point. Well, the thing is we got a chance to see a play out over a full season really for the first time. He played 149 games this year. His high previously was 82.

So, you know, we didn't really know what a full season of Brandon Lod looked like. And with as many extremes ups and downs as, as many extreme ups and downs as, as many extreme ups and downs as there's been for him over his career, and of course this year included, I think that was important. Obviously, 39 home runs, I think that we made a big deal of the record that Salvador Perez set at Catcher, the home run record at Catcher. Brandon Lau, let's see, I'm trying to, I think Davy Johnson holds the record at 40. for a second baseman.

Brandon Lough had 39. He wasn't far. He was closing in on his own record. Now, I think he hit three home runs on the second to last day of the season. Well, didn't Semian? Didn't Semian just technically break the record? Because he was at second base. That's it.

Yeah. Yeah. That's it. That's it. Yep. So, Simeon owns their record now. Man, misremembering things here. It's October.

I can get away with it. It's actually Jocktober, Scott, but I'll let you go. Yeah, sure. Um, so what was it? What was I going to say? So Brandon Lout, he hit three home runs on the second to last day of the season, right? So he very quickly went from mid-30s to almost 40.

And that, I mean, that, the number he put up in that column stands out more because of that. But the point is, if we, I feel like we can go into next season with a higher level of trust in him than we've ever had before. And we can write out these highs and lows a little easier. And we can be a little stressed about that, a little less. stressed about that investment in Brandon Lowe. So that's good. I mean, it clearly puts him in this group with Altuve and Maryfield and whatever.

He's clearly a high in second basement now. The reason I'm going to rank him, certainly behind Altuvae's behind a couple others that we haven't gotten to yet is because the race still sat him. Sometimes it gets lefties. And that, you know, if you, You can't count on them being an everyday player that hurts. That hurts.

Definitely hurts in points leagues too. I mean, where volume matters more there. So yeah, Lowe hit 198 with a 662 OPS against lefties. It's quite bad, so I can't really blame the raise at this point for benching him there. Number eight at the position was Javier Baezes. He had 265, 31 homers, 18 steals, awful plate discipline once again, a near 34% strikeout rate, just a 5% walk rate. And it's just,

it's very frustrating for me because last year was the first time I finally bought into Javier Bias got and he was, I don't know. Like there's a lot of people that had these random, awful shortened seasons because whatever,

it was obviously an odd year with COVID and everything. But I'm just so frustrated because then the next year he bounces back and he was awesome this past year. I really don't know what to make of Javier Bias. It's awful plate discipline, but he's such a great aspect.

athlete that he's able to like overcome it. Yeah. Yeah. It's, he's become an extreme, a more extreme version of himself. Because the scary thing about investing in Javier Baez has been, okay,

he puts up pretty good numbers, borderline elite numbers, particularly for Roto leagues. But he relies on an outlier babit. He relies on an outlier home run to fly ball rate. He has to do it because of it. plate discipline is so bad and what happens if those kind of come back down to earth. And for the most part, they haven't.

But the thing is, the plate discipline got even worse this year, 33.6% strikeout rate. And yet the Babbitt became even more of an outlier. The home run to fly ball rate became even more of an outlier. The thing we expected him to regress and he got better at. And I just, like, whenever that crashes, and maybe it won't until his mid-30s, But whenever it does, it's going to be a hard fall. Really hard fall for Javier Baez. So, you know, you have to rank him pretty high,

but he's never somebody I'm going to be thrilled to draft. And I certainly, somebody you rank higher in five-by-five leagues than in points. Yeah, yeah. The plate discipline is just going to absolutely crush him in points leagues where you lose points for strikeouts, obviously. He also did this in a contract year. So he's a free agent as well. Let's see where Javier Baez lands that obviously comes.

could affect his value as well. Max Muncie finished number nine at the position. We spoke about him a little bit on the first base podcast. The strikeout rate was a career best for him. He made more contact. He did slow down over the final two months, but was kind of dealing with some injuries and stuff. I think we kind of know who Max Muncie is at this point.

250, 260 batting average, lots of power, really good OVP. He's better in points league. So skip him for now. Number 10, I did want to talk about Jonathan India. 269 batting average, 21 homers. 98 runs, 69 RBI, and 12 steals. And we've seen this before Scott where there's like these prospects that come up

and they just perform much better in the major leagues than they did in the minors. Maybe Jonathan India is just the next name to do that. But he never hit more than 11 home runs or had higher than an 814 OPS in any level at any season in the minors. So I will just point that out. But he was great. Basically from June 1st on, He was amazing.

So what do you think about India? Yeah, it wasn't in the minors for that long. It's worth pointing out. Very quick path to the majors. And yeah, did you mention them numbers over the final four months? No, I didn't mention it. But yeah, you can bring those up. Okay.

So if you give him, you give him a pass for April and May. Obviously, April was just disastrous month for hitting around the league. I'm willing to give everybody a pass for April. may, you know, obviously rookie breaking into the majors you know, you could understand that taking some time but the final four months

let's see, I'm getting different numbers than you wrote down here I have him where are we leaving out? Did you leave out as October numbers by chance? Maybe. Maybe I did. Yeah, it looks like you left out the two days in October.

So I'm going to include the two days in October. From June 1st on, Jonathan India hit 281 with 18 home runs in two-thirds of the season, 18 home runs, 10 steals, and an 82 OPS. Now, a lot of that OPS was on base percentage, which we don't care about in 5x5 leagues. We do in points leagues. But, I mean, that's pretty studly. That's pretty studly.

It's sad that he loses third base eligibility. It was primarily a third baseman in the minors, didn't play a single game. there in the majors this year, so exclusively a second base man, and that's not the position we need him at the most. But I would say with those numbers and the kind of potential

he showed over the final two-thirds of the season, he's clearly top 12 at this position, and I would put him even in the top 10 in points leagues, where bias would probably drop behind him. And obviously the walk

great. Gets a little more credit in the points leagues. We'll take a quick break when we return early 22 second base rankings here on fantasy baseball today. All right, so let's take a look at Scott's top 20 at the position. They're currently live on the site if you want to follow along with us. The top five here we have Trey Turner, Marcus Semyon, Ozzie Albi, Jose Altuve, and Witt, Merrifield. Again, the top five Turner, Semen, Albies, Jose Altuve, and. Maryfield. And I'm not...

Go ahead. So this is a position because there's a lot of low strikeout guys and a lot of high steel guys. You're going to see more differentiation between the five-by-five rankings and the points rankings. And so just to clarify what you're giving here are the five-by-five rankings. With Maryfield, as I said, would rank lower in points leagues. They'll maybe be less of a concession at points leagues. He would be eighth in points leagues rather than fifth. Max Muncie would actually be fifth in points leagues.

And I believe that's the only change here. Those are the only changes in the top five. Six through 10, we have Max Muncie, Brandon Lau, Catelle-Marte, Javier Baez, and Jorge Polanco. We have not talked about Cotel-Marte yet. He actually was very good this year. The problem is he only played 90 games.

So he hit 318, 14 homers, a 909 OPS for Cotel-Marte. And obviously, injuries have been an issue. He has missed 39% of his possible games over the past two seasons due to a bunch of different injuries. And his latest update actually had the Diamondbacks GM saying that Ketel Marte is going to focus on one position next year. And it sounds like they're leaning towards second base because that's what he played more towards the end of the year. And the Diamondbacks have an outfield prospect and Alec Thomas who's pretty close to pretty close to the majors as well. So for all

those reasons I think that he'll be at second base, but do you have any thoughts on Cotel Marte? I think he's great. His expected batting average this year was 303. You don't see, you don't see an expected batting average above 300 very often. Obviously, he hit 318, so it was even better than that. But, you know, for expected stats, you don't see as much, you don't see as much on the as high end point but you know the endpoints aren't as high and low as the actual batting averages end up being just because that's the way that's the way that sort of thing works um but kattel marty between injuries i think really validated that breakthrough 2019 season he had where i would say he was the best second baseman in fantasy and that that

that breakthrough 2019 season. You know, the power production wasn't nearly as good in 2020, as short as it was. But this year, he's still, you know, his average exit velocity was 91.1. His hard hit rate was 48.4. I mean, that's, those are the kind of numbers you'd expect from a power hitter. And after getting off to a slow start with the home runs,

Cotel Marte ended up hitting 10 over the final two months. So he ended up with 14. in 340 of bats, a little more than half a season, basically. Ended up with 14 home runs. So, you know, a guy who's going to hit probably over 300, maybe about 290, let's say 290,300. Kattel Marte will hit with 25 homers,

good plate discipline numbers, provided he stays healthy, of course. And I think that firmly puts him in the second tier at this position. You know, you have Trey Turner, the obvious first rounder, Marcus Simeon, the second rounder, Ozzy Albee's the third round. but then you have this glut of names like Jose Al Tuvei, Max Muncie, Brandon Lau, Catelle Marte, and Whitmerfield.

I mean, that's, Marte is right there with them, and that's an impressive group in its own right. I mean, you're not going to feel bad about having any of those guys as you're starting second basement. I don't think that I would depend on him for much of anything in terms of steals anymore. He only had two this year. He had one in the shortened season. However, he did deal with a hamstring injury that was, you know, one of his ailments this year. So maybe he gets you like six to eight, but it's not really something that I would, I would bank on from Kittal.

And that group I just named, by the way, I didn't include Jorge Polanco, who was fourth at the position this year in Roto production. Yeah. I didn't include Javier Baez. Uh, you could. Maybe I should. Maybe I'd include Polanco in points leagues. Maybe I'd include Bias in Roto. But that's like, that's a lot of talent at that position, you know,

that'll last pretty deep into the draft. I mean, maybe through around like seven, round eight. Pretty strong group there. A strong group indeed. And it rolls on 11 through 15 at second base. Jonathan India, Jake Cronomworth, Jazz Chisholm, Tommy Edmund, and Brendan Rogers. So some very interesting names here. And I'm going to start with one that I think,

specifically in Roto leagues I'm going to be pretty excited about for next year. Jazz Chisholm. 18 homers, 23 steals in only 124 games this year. The problem is he's kind of an enigma. Like he's hard to figure out.

311 batting average 969 OPS the first month of the season. 236 batting average 681 OPS the final five months. Now he dealt with a bunch of injuries during that stretch but this is just one of those kind of like eye testing Scott where I've seen enough from jazz Chisholm

to know that he is a really talented baseball player like he hit a mannath home run off of Jacob de Grom on a pitch that was like at his eyes and it was like 101 miles per hour and he like hit it to the upper deck and on top of that he has like blazing speed so I think I've seen enough to know that he's just he's talented oh he's definitely talented

and honestly given the way his minor league career played out, I would have expected worse than a 28.6% strikeout rate from him as a rookie. I mean, it's not a good strikeout rate, but we see guys with like 35% strikeout rates, hold down jobs in the majors. And, you know, I assume Jazz Chisholm would be more in that range. He did hit only 228 in the second half after a hot start,

had a 662 OPS in the same. second half. So a lot of development still to be done here with Jazz Chisholm. But for playing only 124 games, there were some injuries in there, 124 games. He had 18 home runs, 23 steals. I mean, you just project that out over 160 games. And obviously, that's a guy you want to have in your road of a lineup, less so in points leagues. And I'd knock Tommy Edmund down a few spots in points leagues as well. Chisholm and Edmund both have that stolen base element that is so coveted in five by five. But less own points league. So you can knock them down a few spots there. They want to be top 15 for me. But they are going to be players who are drafted to start. I think there's a

clear drop off here still. You know, maybe you include India with Jorge Polanco, Ketel Marte tier? Maybe not. I think he's right on the border of that. But then when you get past India at Croninworth, Chisholm, Edmund, certainly Brendan Rogers, you're not dealing with the same assurances.

Not clear exactly what the upside is. I don't think Croninworth and Edmund have the same kind of upside. Jazz Chisholm, maybe, but as I said, not a lot of assurances there. So, you know, this is the point

where you probably don't want to wait this long to get your starting second baseman, but as a middle infielder in a roto league, they're obviously going to be useful for you. He reminds me a lot of just skill set-wise, Byron Buxton.

We've been waiting forever for Byron Bucks, and it looked like it was happening last year. So we'll see. We'll see if both Chisholm and Byron Buxton can get it done in 2022. There was another name in this group. This was your 11 through 15. And Brendan Rogers. I mean, we got to talk about your guys, Scott, because Brendan

Rogers, how many times did we tell people to pick up Brendan Rogers this past season? And he winds up hitting 284, 15 homers, and 102 games, 798 OPS. It was solid. It wasn't overwhelming. He didn't steal any bases. But I think we're like one step closer to if he stays healthy next year, like we get that breakout season from Brendan Rogers. Yeah, it feels very close for a guy who had the top prospect pedigree and kind of dropped off the map because of some injuries and his first very brief stints in the majors. He just looked totally punchless. So I think if nothing else what he accomplished in 2021 was opening people's eyes again to his upside. And, you know, he only recently turned 25.

So he's still, you know, just right in his prime. He needs to hit for more power. I don't know that he's going to walk more. That's just, I don't think that's part of his skill set. So, you know, that hurts his value, but I don't think we can expect more from that. I think the fact that he did so much of his damage on the road, as we talked about many times during the season, even though course field should be an environment that boosts his production. I take that as a good sign.

You see a Rocky's hitter perform well on the road. You know, there's the potential for big numbers because of what they could do at home and doesn't strike out much. So, you know, hopefully it can improve that launch angle a little bit and then maybe we'll see a big breakout for him. And that's why I have him 15th here. 16th for what it's worth would be Thai France.

And this is the range at second base where you see first base kind of pull ahead. Because Jake Croninworth, I have him 13th here at second base, right, versus 9th at first base. So, you know, in that range, that kind of second tier range, second base is ahead of first base. But then you get here with Thai France 16th. I'm 16th at first at second base. I have him 19th at first base. So, you know, maybe that round 10 to 15 range in drafts is where first base pulls ahead of second base. So that's why I think you could make a case that either one is stronger than the other.

It just kind of depends how deep the, how deep of a draft you're in. All right. You already mentioned Thai friends. He is 16th in your rankings, but the rest of that list. So 17 through 20 is DJ LaMayhew, Chris Taylor, Eduardo Escobar, and Ryan McMahon. LeMayhew is, he's a tough one. He's a tough one to figure out. He's a little bit older.

Obviously, he got the pretty big contract last offseason and did not live up to expectation. So we'll see if he has anything left in the tank. But obviously, you know, if he's leading off for that lineup in that stadium, like I think there's always going to be decent upside. It's just a matter of, can I get back there without the bouncy ball? Well, he's going to be usable at least. I don't know that I call it upside to point six two head-to-head points per game.

that was the same as like Luis Reis, magical. He was bad, Scottie. Like, he was bad. Yeah, yeah. I mean, usable. Usable in a deep enough league, but if you're talking about a 12-team head-to-head lineup,

you obviously don't want 2021 DJ LaMayhew to be in it. Sure. So, you know, the reason I rank him ahead of a couple of those other guys I mentioned is because you're just hoping something weird was going on with him in 2021 and he bounces back with early round production again. But my hunch is that DJ. Jay LaMayhew was a victim of the deadened baseball, and we're not going to see that 2019-2020 version again.

Who knows what kind of baseball we're going to get in 2022? I hope that there is some kind of indication of that by the time we are actually talking about our real drafts. Before we wrap up here, Sky, just an early target. Anyone that stands out to you at the second base position that you know, that guy, I'm going to be interested in draft in that guy. other than Brendan Rogers other than Brendan Rogers

it really is going to depend on how things play out in drafts because that big cluster I talked about in that second tier I'm happy to take whichever one of them lasts the longest I have a hunch it'll be Max Muncie because the bumpy finish dropped his batting average below 250

and maybe he's only like a 250, 260 hitter, but you know, it's going to be a ton of home runs, RBI, runs scored in that Dodgers lineup. They don't take him out against lefties because he's actually even better against lefties. He's dual eligible. Unfortunately, not third base eligible anymore, but dual eligible.

So I think I'm going to end up with a lot of Max Muncie. Yeah, I think I'm going to, look, Jazz Chisholm in category leagues in Roto. I'm excited. I'm excited about what the guy can do. another year in the majors. Hopefully the Marlins could do something to help out that lineup because clearly

it's not a great lineup. But yeah, power speed combination for him, it's, I think talent is massive for jazz chasm. And then Jonathan India, I really like what I saw this year. Line drive rate was massive, the final four months of the season.

I want to see what they do with the rest of the Reds lineup, but good OBP skills can run a little bit, some power, just gives you a little bit of everything. So, yeah, Jonathan India, he kind of reminds me of Danesby Swanson at the second base position, which it's not like an elite player, but it's still very valuable. So, Jonathan, India. I actually think Jonathan Indy is better than Danesby Swanson. I say, as I wear the Braves jersey here.

How dare you? I like him even more than that. I would be fine with India as my starter. I'd be fine with, like, Polanco is somebody. I could see myself having a lot of shares in again, just because I think people might go overboard. downgrading him. On the other side of the spectrum, anyone that you think you might avoid? Well, bias is the easy answer because I'm always avoiding him.

I don't see my, I actually see myself drafting Maryfield a lot more in points leagues than I do in Roto for the argument I laid out. I just don't think, I just don't think I want to sell out that hard for stolen bases and Roto going forward. I don't want to be I don't want to draft somebody primate like I don't want to elevate him

so much because of stolen base that it ends up costing me and too many of the other offensive categories because it's just one category you know and all the other categories work together in a way stolen bases don't really and I just think I'm fine accidentally finishing eighth

and stolen bases you know if I build a good offense otherwise I'm right there with you. Those are the two names that stood out to me right away. Whitmeryfield and Javier Baez, I think, are two that I might be avoiding here in 2022. Lastly, I do want to just bring up a few prospects to know for next season, maybe next season.

I don't know that all these guys are going to make it to the bigs, but they are slowly approaching Major League Baseball. Nolan, with the Cardinals, 279 batting averages past year. 25 home runs. Does definitely have some legitimate power. I think we see him, decently early next year.

I wouldn't be surprised by that. Yeah, mid-season. Nick Gonzalez for the Pirates, he was the seventh overall pick in the 2020 draft. 302 batting average, 18 homers, seven steals this past season. The Pirates, they're a ways away.

I just, I don't know that they need to rush him, so. Yeah, I would guess we don't see Nick Gonzalez next year, but I do have him ranked because I think there's a chance. Okay.

Xavier Edwards with the Tampa Bay Rays, this guy is like a clone of Nick Madrigal, Scottie. 302 batting average, zero homers, 19 steals, 42 strikeouts in 79 AA games. He makes a lot of contact. He's going to run, but I'm not very excited. I hope they would establish Vidal Bruhan before they turned to Xavier Edwards, but...

Hopefully. Hopefully. Michael Bush with the Dodgers, he was the 31st overall pick back in 2019, 267 batting average, 20 homers and 870 OPS at AA this past season. The problem, the Dodgers are obviously awesome, so they don't have... Now, this is like a Max Muncie clone.

Yeah? Tons of on-base ability. It might have a higher batting average ceiling than Max Muncie. There were some issues this year that brought his batting average down to 267, but the scouting reports like him for average more than that. I'm really high on Michael Bush. I have him in multiple dynasty leagues. I shut everybody down who tried.

to trade for him. Really high on Bush. All right. And the last one is Justin Foskew with the Texas Rangers. He was the 14th overall pick in 2020. And man,

he looks like a good one. 275 batting average, 17 homers, a 960 OPS between rookie high A double A this past year. So he progressed three levels and he handled himself

throughout. So I think that is a pretty exciting name. Don't know if I think we'll see him next year. He's already, he's going to be like 23 next year, I think, and has already advanced to double A. So I do think Justin Foske will see next year,

even though he was the same draft class as Nick Gonzalez. And I'm high on him too. Yeah, they have a few prospects coming in Foskew and Josh Young, so maybe potentially mid-season call-ups for both of those guys. See, I'm trying to find his age. He's 22 years old. No, it'd be 23 before opening day next year. 23 by March.

Yeah. Yeah. All right, cool. So we will wrap there. For Scott, I am Frank, thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again on Thursday

with the third base position. Bye-bye.