Fantasy Baseball Today - Arizona Fall League Recap! Andrew Painter's 2025 Value (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Let's recap the Arizona Fall League up next on Fantasy Baseball today in five. Welcome into FBT and 5 on Saturday, November 23rd. I am Frank Sample, joined by our good buddy, Chris the Welsh. And we are recapping the Arizona Fall League. Let's start with one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball, Andrew Painter. This is his first game action since spring training of 2023. He's working his way back from Tommy John's surgery. Stats all look great over a strikeout per inning.

Starting point is 00:00:28 Welsh, what did you see from Andrew Painter and how much of an impact do you think he can make in 2025? I saw the Andrew Painter that everybody was selling as the Andrew Painter. He had all the stuff going, even though he'd missed close to two years. He came out, only pitched 15 innings, six starts, 30 or so pitches per game. He was throwing strikes every single game. Close to like 25 to 26 to 33 pitches were for strikes every single game. His fastball was touching 98-99.

Starting point is 00:00:59 Later into the year, he ended up starting to throw that curveball more. He was getting whiffs on the slider. He had a cutter, the change-up. Him being able to stay healthy, dominate innings, throw all five pitches, consistently throw for strikes even when the command wasn't quite there, I think said everything for him. I think he is ready to jump into a rotation next year. The question is based off of the amount of innings he's had over the last couple years.

Starting point is 00:01:22 What can he really do? That's the only question for me. If you told me I got 180 innings that of Andrew Painter this year in redraft, I would be the most aggressive of any of them. I was immensely, immensely impressed with him as a pitcher, probably one of the best pitching performances the AFL has ever seen. Let's move over to the AFL MVP, and that is Hoseway Briseño, a first base slash catcher prospect in the Tigers organization.

Starting point is 00:01:47 He's their ninth ranked prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. And he did all of this as a 20-year-old, 433 batting average, 10 home runs, a 1376 OPS. We have seen other prospects make noise in the Arizona Fall League in the past. Do you think maybe this could be a little bit misleading or are you buying what you saw from Joseo Brissingio? So it always could be misleading, 100%.

Starting point is 00:02:12 And some of those other guys that you see, sometimes it's off of these big wow moments. Jacob Marcy comes to mind from last year. These big wow moments and kind of consistently hitting like a single here and then a big homer. Prasina was just different. It was consistency of every single day, but it was all different types. It wasn't just getting a bad pitch and hitting it 450 feet.

Starting point is 00:02:33 It was being able to punch stuff opposite field, singles up the center, opposite field doubles, opposite field homers that he was able to do. And just to point out from a statistical standpoint for him, won the Triple Crown. First player to ever win the Triple Crown in the Arizona Fall League in the 25, 26 plus years, or whatever it is. And he led in six different categories. He was actually already known as this contact-based hitter in the minors.

Starting point is 00:02:59 He had two homers in like 40 games this year. He was able to then change his approach to be a more aggressive home run power hitter, which is exactly what he did out here in the Arizona Fall League. I think this is a big impactful bat that is all built around one of the best eyes that was out here in the Arizona Fall League, not fooled. He's going to make contact all day long. I love Yosue Brasino. And you know what?

Starting point is 00:03:22 Maybe we'll get fooled, but I'm here for it. A name we've heard a lot about recently was the AFL's breakout prospect of the year. Caleb Durbin from my New York Yankees. He was insane. He hit 312. He had five homers. 29 steals in 24 games. This past week, the Yankees added him to the 40-man roster.

Starting point is 00:03:42 It sounds like they're going to give him a little bit, a legit shot to make the team, whether that's as a starter, a super utility guy, whatever it might be. What are your thoughts on Caleb Durbin? Do you think he could be a legit major leaguer? That's a great question. He was in the Arizona Fall League last year. I told you last year, I think this guy is a major leaguer. My stance was a little bit more like super util because I just don't know if the bat long term can be something a team is willing to sit around and be out there every single day.

Starting point is 00:04:11 Like as a team willing to have a guy that's sub 10 homers in replacement of a 25 plus homerang guy, I don't know. But the thing that keeps him out there, he's one of the most aggressive base dealers I've ever seen. He broke the AFL record for stolen bases. He stole more bases than games he played. I think that's going to play a big role in it. He showed more power and impactful barreling than he's done before. The exit velocities aren't super great, and he probably is capped at the end of the day,

Starting point is 00:04:36 but he's got position flexibility. He does make a lot of contact. He steals bases. That checks a lot of the boxes. I just don't know if a Yankee team is going to be willing to put out there, but a fantasy team is going to want Caleb Durbin if he is starting. He's a great deep league option. And whether it's with the Yankees or somebody else,

Starting point is 00:04:52 Caleb Durman is someone that should be on your radar. And if anyone else out there wants more Arizona Full League content or if they want to just hear or see what happened, go check out the Welsh's Twitter at Is It the Welsh? And listen to our Foley podcast because we just talked a bunch about all these players and new rules that they're trying out there. And you can listen to Fantasy Baseball today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found.

Starting point is 00:05:16 Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today and Five. And we'll be back again next week. Bye-bye. Thank you.

Fantasy Baseball Today - Arizona Fall League Recap! Andrew Painter's 2025 Value (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 podcast)

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