Fantasy Baseball Today - Arizona Fall League Recap & Late-Round Prospects to Target! (11/22 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

How can we use the Arizona Fall League for prospect analysis (6:35)? ... How does the challenge system work for hitters and is it close to being viable in the majors (10:10)? ... Andrew Painter looked great in his first action back from Tommy John surgery (18:00). ... Josue Briceño put himself on the map with a huge AFL showing (24:16). ... Colson Montgomery looked much better this time around (28:39). ... Is Caleb Durbin a Major Leaguer (33:22)? ... Zyhir Hope has huge power but also things to work on (40:54). ... What did the other Top-50 prospects do in the AFL (44:50)? ... Any concerns with Jett Williams (49:14)? ... The Welsh is down on Ethan Salas while Leo De Vries has huge upside (51:25). ... What about Brock Wilken and Jac Calgianone (53:40)? ... We wrap up with a rapid-fire segment, taking a look at prospects in deeper NFBC leagues (58:15). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi 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/ 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

Happy Kokomo Friday and welcome into fantasy baseball today on November 22nd. I am Frank Stamphill here to recap the Arizona Fall League with our good buddy, the mayor of the AFL. He doesn't call himself that, but I consider you the mayor, Chris the Welsh. What's up, man? How's life? What's up, buddy? Good to see you. Always good to see you. I miss you. I miss the audience here. Hope everybody's doing great. I'm dealing with, this is my actual start of seasonal depression because Arizona fall league has just ended and you know baseball is done for a lot of people or there's the playoffs and I'm just going through prospects enjoying life to its fullest but now that's over so I have to sit

in dark rooms look at sheets look at numbers and prepare for the 2025 baseball season for dynasty and redraft that's all that I can do to keep myself afloat my friend hey I got to describe for the people that are listening to this podcast and not watching on YouTube if you can just kind of like don this jersey the Welsh has has this customized Arizona Fall League jersey with all the different team patches on the side. On the back, Prospect One, which is the podcast that you do, Welsh,

where you're constantly breaking down the AFL and all things prospect related. That jersey is fire, dude. It is sick. I was so excited when they made this available. And one of the proudest moments, too, was when they did this and I could get customization, I was like, ah, I'm not going to do that type of thing.

I'm like, maybe I could do one with Welsh. And then when it hit me, the name prospect with the number one, instant love I fell in. And this is one of my absolute prize possessions. I actually had a thought too of, and I didn't do it. But I was thinking, how cool would it be maybe to pick one guy every year to sign the jersey and then just have that over time. And I was going to have Andrew Painter do it.

But then I would like, I got to wash it. And then I could never wear it. And I didn't. So downing out the Arizona Folly customized jersey. I'm glad you like it. and I thought I'd wear it for the show. Dude, it is sick. I think you have a good idea there.

That one you keep just to wear. Next year, maybe you start up a new one. That one starts getting signed every year. You frame it. You take it out every year. Get someone else to sign it. But that's a pretty good idea. I like what you're working with there.

Today on the show, we're taking a look at standouts from the Arizona Fall League, both good and bad, mostly good. There wasn't too many bad performances that I wanted to talk about. And we will end the show with some deep league prospects that you can look at in those early NFBC.

draft champions leagues. I mean, those go super deep. 15 team roto leagues, 50 rounds. So there's a bunch of prospects being drafted, and we'll find out which ones the Welsh actually thinks can make an impact in 2025. Before we get started, we jump into the AFL. Just remind everyone

Welsh where they can find your work. Prospect related, non-prospect related, whatever you got going on. Yeah, I mean, the number one thing, like the easiest way to find all the stuff if they want. Follow me on the socials. I'm on all the, at is it the Welsh in a social platform is where you can find me. My biggest of them is on Twitter. I'll tweet about them.

Prospect one, you know, we're in the weird offseason transitional stuff. I'm going to be doing my final recap of the AFL, but Prospect One is the podcast. And then as well, you can find me on Fantasy Pros, all that were in full baseball mode. I did a bunch of shorts. I actually did all of these YouTube shorts. Frank, you would have loved it. You're the master of doing the social shorts. I did all of them from the stadium. So I was in different parts of the stadium while games were going on filming some breakdowns of the Arizona Fall League. But yeah, check out Prospect One, mainly if you follow me on the socials, that'll tell you all the different things that I'm doing.

Yeah, I actually saw some of those shorts, and they were pretty cool, man. Yeah, you got the game going on in the background. Just watch out, because I know, when was it? Last year, two years ago, you were recording with Kleg and Eric Cross. You guys almost got hit with a foul ball or something. We were at Peoria Stadium. I do this thing. I always like to record.

I like to do recordings from stadiums. I was actually going to do a podcast of only recordings from stadiums. I'm going to do it next year where I get all the different people. And we were in the midst of recording at the top of the Peoria Stadium. Ball just comes flanging right at us as we are recording. And it felt like two feet from us. Nobody caught it, which we should have it. But then I think Cross went running for it and kept it.

I did have my eye on it a little bit because I was in spots where foul balls could have absolutely slapped me. But you know what? I'll take one for the team. I'll take one for the content. would have been incredible content if I got whapped by a baseball while I'm talking about Yose Brasino. Ooh, and that is a name we will get to

in just a little bit. But let's jump in. I know the Arizona Fall League, it's kind of evolved over the years. Welsh, you know, I've heard it referred to as a finishing school. Maybe it's a place for players to try and rehab their value

or rehab from injuries, all of the above. How do you personally view the AFL nowadays and how do you use it for prospect analysis? Boy, it's a really good question. Because it's evolved. I don't think it's no longer the finishing school. Like it's not,

it maybe it's still a piece of that. It's a piece of a lot of different stuff. It's the mistime injury school. It's the rule five school. And it is a partial finishing school. I think it's just, it's like the misfits. It's the misfits of prospects in a lot of different ways.

Because why is it not the finishing school? Well, Leo DeVries was 17 years old when the AFL started. His birthday happened on like the second week Friday in. And he ended up being the, the third youngest player to ever hit a home run in the Arizona fall to get 18 years old. That's not a guy that's coming up next year.

So it's not quite a finishing school. It's, you know, trade evaluations. It's overall evaluations of players. And I think teams use them very differently. There are trends that these teams end up, like you will always see Cardinals sending out like a top catcher. You know, like there's things like that. They've sent out Jimmy Crooks.

They sent out this year, Leonardo Bernal. So I think teams use it differently. so we have to describe it that way. Ultimately, what that does, though, is it does make the prospect analysis difficult. But at the end of the day, how I look at it is I'm looking for the trends and I'm looking for everyday things. You're not paying attention to stats because the pitching is awful here.

Ironically, we probably had the best AFL pitching staff that has ever been assembled on one team. And we can talk about it if you want, yet probably the worst pitching the Arizona Foll Lake has ever had. in general. But the ball flies, but what you're looking for is you're looking for tendency and trends and consistency and maybe things you haven't seen before. And that's where it comes back to, it's not just the finishing school. It's, you know, Bersigno, who we're going to talk about, missed a ton of time. And he's in a very developmental standpoint. So it's like, do we have to

completely focus on that stat? No. And we don't want to look at any guy that dominated the Arizona Folle. You can say that's the number one prospect of all time. It's just about checking boxes from that scouting perspective and being really consistent. And the Arizona Fall League had a lot of that, but it also, again, it had some of the worst pitching. I think there were probably like 15 plus pitchers with like a 12 or higher ERA this year. I mean, guys are getting blasted, 27 run games, 15 run, you know, two innings. It's crazy what happens out here.

So you're just looking for these guys to check some boxes, not swing at every bad pitch, see how pitchers are the tendencies of where they're attacking a guy and see how they adjust. It's that type of stuff. It's grain of salt with all of these prospects. But I wish there was one identifiable way to speak about this league. It's just not. It's evolved into a cauldron of different things because they also are testing out stuff, by the way. They're testing out the automatic balls and strike system.

Well, I think that was a couple years ago. This is the challenge system. And then they implemented the Czech swing challenge system, but it's only in one ballpark. That's the type of stuff I'm talking about. It's just this really weird mixture. of different types of players with different types of rules and upcoming umpires that

I think you really have to be hyper-focused to know how to analyze these players because the stats absolutely can lie. Real quick, I mean, something you brought up there that I didn't even think to ask you about but now that you brought it up, the challenge system, right? Talk to me about that because you had a really cool video

of a prospect that looked like he struck out and then he challenged it and then the next pitch he hit a home run or got a hit or something like that. You know who that was? Was it Caleb Durbin? It was Caleb Durbin. That's right, baby.

We better be talking about Durbin. We are talking about Caleb Durbin, who was added to the Yankees 40-man roster this week. I actually brought that exact scenario up. We had Ryan Howard, former Philly Ryan Howard on the podcast during the World Series, and we were talking to him about some new rules and what he wants to see happen.

And I brought up, I was like, hey, our buddy the Welsh is down at the Arizona Fall League. I saw this awesome video of the challenge system, and then we had Ryan Howard react to it. So I did get you in on that one. Oh, give me that clip. Yeah, I'll send it to you later. Yeah, talk to me about it.

Like, how efficient is it? Like, do you think it's close to coming to the majors? Like, it looked pretty awesome. This is a great question. So I'm going to give you two parts to this because let's start with the challenge system. The challenge system is phenomenal. Now, I do think there's an element where it can kind of kill like a momentum because I think there's traditionalists that it's like, just let them have, you know, this or that. But you would see these calls that would be within.

I've got a host of videos. I actually should do a super cut of the challenge because anytime I'm out there filming and then a guy challenges, they'll tap their hat and it'll go up and then you can see how close this is. The system is phenomenal. They have got it within and it tells you too.

If you remember on the video, it'll say this was two inches off or a half of an inch off of the plate and it will show you exactly where the system says it's a ball or a strike. It is quick. I think it kills arguments. One of the biggest arguments I saw, it was this huge, like, screaming match was when it was actually when Chase DeLotter horrible strike call.

And I put this on Twitter if you want to check it out. He taps his helmet. For some reason, they didn't go to the challenge. And then it started up this real big, you know, screaming match about stuff. But I've also seen DeLotter who a little edge to him this year, he would just be like, that's not a strike. Boom, challenge. And that happened once. And then it went to the video board and it was a ball.

he was like, okay, like it was able to shut him up and it also kind of killed some of the intensity. So from that standpoint, I think it's great. I think the system has been worked out over the last couple years. They are super quick with it. It doesn't. The only one game it stalled out was because they couldn't get the challenge board up on the main board at Camelback Ranch. And we all just sat there staring at ourselves and then they had to tell the ump. But otherwise, it happens within like a 15 second marker. And the perfect example is that one you showed Ryan Howard, you see the called strike against Caleb. He challenges, and it's under a minute. It's like 30 seconds. And then boom, next pitch, he hits a home run. So I think they've really got it dialed in.

I have seen six to seven challenges in a game and it is gone against the ump. And I think that's good for the umps to learn where they're off. I think that is going to help train them. I think any um wants to publicly be seen of having six balls go the opposite direction of their challenge. No, I think I can think of one name. Well, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that one name. But I think it creates accountability that works really well. And I think it's close. I think they had such a great system for it this year.

And it was so smooth and just umps and the players would just own up to where the call was. And there was less intensity. I loved it. The inverse, I just want to throw out to you, even though you didn't quite ask, was the check swing challenge got a lot of work to do. There's a player that said there's no chance how it's currently. calibrated, that that can stick this way, because every single player is going to be able to call off a check. And they're using it off a degree angle of the,

because Drew Gilbert was the very first one to have it, may or may not have been him, who said it, that had the check swing. And it was just too much. And they were like, that can't stick. So I think that's got a couple more years before they're going to implement the check swing challenge. But it's super interesting to watch.

And that's something the Arizona Fall League does. But I do think the ball strike challenge, instant challenge replay system, that should be like, I would love to see it next year. I think it is ready. Yeah. Even if the robo-ump thing is not ready or maybe they're playing, I don't know what the latest is on that.

Like maybe they kind of scrap that, but this is kind of like a happy medium, man. We keep the human element in the game with the umpire. But again, they're human. Like they can get things wrong. And if we have the technology, you know, when you were breaking it down and talking about whatever,

if it's an inch off the plate or two inches off the plate and they tell you right away, they have that technology. It reminds me a lot of tennis, right? where they can just go, they challenge it, and they look at it right away, and they show you, boom, it was like an inch away from the line,

whatever it might be. If they have that technology, why not get it right? Let's do this thing the right way. It's dramatically faster than the NFL's challenge system. I just, people should know that too if you haven't seen it. It is like tap and then they go,

the batter is challenging the called strike. And then boom, within three seconds, you see the graphic come up. You see the ball flying in. And then they zoom in and it has green if it's a ball, red if it's a strike. it shows you exactly where it was, you're done.

It's like 20 seconds maximum between the challenge and the result. That's nothing. And it gets important bad calls corrected or it'll also confirm when a, you know, it's going to help the zone, I think, too. If a hitter thinks, no, that was a strike and not a ball and it was a ball. I think it actually can help the hitters as well to understand the zone better. So I think it's just good for baseball. It's great technological stuff that I really think they perfected out here.

maybe inside baseball people would feel different, but I hope to see it soon. All right, before we hit our first break, just a reminder to listen to FBT and our 5 minute podcast, FBT and 5 on Spotify. If you're watching on YouTube, you can scan the QR code that will take you right to the FBT Spotify feed

and send in your screenshots of Spotify Rath. I know that's coming out towards the end of the season and people spend so much time listening to us in the N5 podcast. Send us those screenshots. The bosses like to see that kind of stuff. Let's take our first break. When we return, we'll talk about the players from the Arizona Fall League.

We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in, recapping the Arizona Fall League. Let's get into the players. And there's only one place to start. And that's with one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball, Andrew Painter. This was his first game action since spring training in 2023, as he's working his way back from Tommy John surgery. From a stat standpoint, everything checked out in the AFL, a 230 ERA, a 0.89 whip,

over a strikeout per inning. But what did he look like, Welsh? Did you get the chance to see him? How was the velocity? What did the pitch mix look like? Your thoughts on Andrew Painter? I got a lot of video. He had six starts out here.

I talked to him a couple of times as well. I believe I saw four of the starts, including his last start, which was at Camelback Ranch. His last pitch of the Arizona Fall League was a strikeout. And I've got that video on there if you want to check it out. I thought it was phenomenal. It's, you know, the, I mean, I've seen,

it's hard because it's like you've seen great pitch prospects last year. We saw Jackson Job, Ricky Teeteman. There are guys that at their stage, they were so dominant and have fallen off, Forrest Whitley. I'm kind of reminded of that. Like, he was so dominant. There was something special and easy about Andrew Painter. I love, I love talking to him. I love being around him. You know, funny anecdotal thing quick was he told me at the beginning of the season, he was going to pitch around 15 to 20 innings in the fall league. and they were going to kind of cap his the total amount of pitches that he threw per per outing.

And he had 15.2. So I saw him the day after his final start. And the desert dogs were in a playoff run. And I asked him, I said, is there any chance that you can pitch in this final one? And he told me, he said, I told the coaches, I'm ready. He said, but they would probably get a call from someone up higher if I did pitch and someone would get in a lot of trouble. So, I mean, he was really.

being managed. Painter looked phenomenal. There was a little bit of like early command issues that were out there, but every single outing, massive amounts of strikes. It was like 26 of 33 pitches were strikes every single time. Velo did a great job of hitting the upper. I think it was like 98. He touched 98, 99, sat a little bit lower. He commanded that pitch. His secondaries were phenomenal. His slider. It was interesting early on, it seemed like it was heavy fastball. And then in the like start like four or five you started to see some more sliders there was an outing where the first pitch guys were out here and i believe it was chris blessing uh eric cross and chris clegg and myself we were all out at one of those outings and that was where he was heavy slider and he

was setting up early fastball slider he was throwing three or four other pitches here's my point to all of that was results results whatever arizona fall league i think you can give him extra bonus points that this league was uh weighted offensively that the ball flies more in Arizona. But what it was was he was consistently able to throw his pitches for strikes. And he was throwing all of his pitches. And there was comfortability. And the Vila was there.

And he was doggin guys, just not knowing what was going on. And if you do want to look at the stats, 18 strikeouts to four walks. You know, he just wasn't letting himself get behind. He did give up some hard hit stuff. And I think that was more about the command that was out there. Yet he was still throwing for strikes and not getting hit. To me, it was like the most dominant pitching. performance I have seen in the Arizona

Fall League. And I got to see like Job and Teeteman go at it. There's a different vibe. And Job had this last year where it was like the stuff was great, but he was predictable. And then Teeteman was he would pitch from behind, but sometime his command was off. It never happened with Andrew Painter. He looked every

bit of the top pitching prospect in baseball. And I really do think he is going, I think he's a legit shot to break camp. And I think they even mentioned him already is the fourth starter. He's poised. Dudes a cool cucumber. Nothing phases him. He had a blast out here. I think he's even hanging around here, just training in the offseason. I am obsessed with Andrew Painter, and it's just good to get him out here healthy,

and he left the Arizona Fall League. I think checking every possible box you could want. His early NFBC draft champions ADP is 294, so that kind of puts him in late round sleeper territory. Rosser resource has Taiwan Walker as the Phillies fifth starter. You just mentioned it. I mean, I think Andrew Painter very well could be in this rotation on opening day. Do you think that happens, how many innings you think that he could possibly get? Because, you know, inside the top 300, you need some volume there still. And I don't know if it's realistic. He throws more than like a hundred innings. Yeah, I know. I think you're right about that. That's the problem. Like, he hadn't pitched in like two years and he came out here and pitched 15 innings. He wanted more.

He was healthy. His arm looked good. I really don't think there's a chance that he's going to actually break camp. I think he's going to probably doing some more offseason work. They're going to press him in spring training. I think you've got to get some innings in AAA. Like he went 35 pitches. Like he didn't push 40. He didn't push past the third inning. I don't think they're going to be comfortable with that.

So my guess would be that, you know, maybe this is like that Yuri Perez path of he could come up earlyish and then they managed towards the end. Maybe more likely is that he's a guy that comes up in May, around May. I think he, I would imagine they would want AAA get up to five. six innings, see what you get, see what you have, see if he's healthy, and then build up to what you said, probably somewhere in the like 80 to 100 innings is probably hyper-aggressive.

So I think the two 90s is probably a good spot. I drafted, we were talking about this in like NFBC drafts. One, I really hit on this year with Jared Jones. I got a lot of him late and he was, I think, able to press a little bit further into his innings. I would suspect it's May and then he gets shut down or they're going to play like a mid-season. season hold him back, but it's all going to be based on help. I would be drafting him post like probably post 200, to be honest with you. He's going to be on my radar because I do think those

innings will be massively impactful for Andrew Painter. Like it's not going to be wasted stuff. It's going to be big strikeouts. He's going to be able to pull wins. It's just going to be a question of the comfortability of once they start moving him past like pitching three. I would have loved to see him pitch three innings. We didn't, we got that from Job and Teateman out here in the fall league. We never got that from Painter here. That would have told me he, he would, would have been ready to pitch sooner. But because he didn't, I don't think he's actually going to break camp. Let's move over to the AFL MVP, Hoseway Brasenio, a first base slash catcher prospect in the Tigers organization. He's ranked ninth, according to MLB pipeline in the Tigers organization.

And he dominated, he did that as a 20-year-old. He hit 433. He had 10 home runs, a 1376 OPS. Welsh, how much stock do you put into a performance like this? And I ask that, as some of who drafted Jacob Marcy in the Scout White Dynasty League last year, who was awesome in the AFL as well, kind of this come out of nowhere breakout type prospect. What do you think of this breakout for Braseno? Could it maybe be a little bit misleading for Dynasty? It's totally possible. Like, I'd have to chalk that up. I remember I was doing, I did Chris Blessing, a live show with him and he was like, we don't have to talk about Marcy, knowing like I was, I'm like, no, I'll own it. Like, let's talk about it. It's all good. Like,

Jacob Marcy looked incredible in Arizona Fall League last year, fell apart this year completely. So you could attach that. I don't think you should. A difference, I mean, Bracino is a much younger player, very different type of player, and also had some significant, you know, missed time, but also it was the transition of, like, who he became.

So coming into the Arizona Fall League, he had a career 13 homers in the minor leagues from 2002, 2022 on 13. He ends up almost taking down that number in the arrows in Ophal League this past year in the minors in the minors in 40 games, 151 at bats. He only had two homers as well. Also really wasn't putting up a bunch of extra base hits five. There's a contact base hitter. Very, very contact base hitter.

So you get out here. First thing that stood out, he's a specimen. He was six foot four looks jacked like. You're like, wow, this guy looks like a quintessential first baseman. And that's primarily what he ended up doing out here. The things that I do put stock into, that bat was live every single at bat. And it wasn't just like, hey, I got a meatball, fastball, and he pulls it and he hits it 450 feet. No, this was a guy that was pushing opposite field.

I have this great homer I got. I think it was his last homer of the AFL. It was an opposite field home run in Peoria. And it looked like it was a flick of the wrist dropping double. And he punched that out. The guy has crazy pure raw power. He also has an incredible eye for the zone. That was something I was hyper-focused on.

And his teammates, this is a really great thing where there was a called strike. And then he challenged it. And his teammates are like, nope, like they're yelling. Brasino knows the zone. Sure enough, they do the challenge, comes down. It was a ball. His teammates start screaming because they know this guy has one of the best understandings of the zone. I love his ability to punch it to all fields.

He's got crazy, crazy raw power. To me, it's kind of Paul Goldschmidt-like. Like I didn't get this take where he's trying to hit homers. He looks like a doubles hitting type of guy that's just going to push balls out. I think he's ultimately going to be a first baseman. Listen, I put him inside. He's easily inside my top 100 prospects for this year. It might be another Jacob Marcy situation.

I'll chalk it up to the game, if that's the case. But the guy just won the Triple Crown. Never happened in the Arizona Fall League. He was the number one in six different offensive categories. And it wasn't like, oh, hey, it was a windy day. And he went up against the, you know, this. triple A pitcher with a 14 ERA. It's like, no, man. He dominated every single game he was at. His bat looks so, so real. His teammates loved him. And offensively, not only did he just

have a great year. He did stuff that no one's ever done in the history of this league, which has been over like 25 years. First guy for that triple crown. He was great. And I really do think this is a guy I want to invest in for dynasty. It's not going to be for redraft. You know, the guy didn't get above what was at high A this show. or low A this year. So he's going to have to kind of take a lot of this newfound, new found attempts as far as what he does in the zone where he was hitting across his body. Now this power,

he's going to have to hit for average and try to go for that 20 plus power in the minors this year, which I think he'll do. And that'll make him probably a top 30 prospect by the end of the year. Jacob Marcy, we're hoping not. Yeah. I was going to ask how far away he is. But yeah, hasn't played above low A. He's 20 years old.

So I think at least a couple of years away. there on Hoseway Braseno. Someone who we could see as soon as next season is Colson Montgomery, a repeat offender of the Arizona Fall League. I remember watching him at the AFL with you just last year, and he had an awesome showing at the Fall Stars game. He won the MVP of that game last year. But other games that we saw him, there were some pretty bad swing and miss.

I remember top of the zone. He was missing a lot of pitches as well. He was awful that year. Yeah. Montgomery spent all year at AAA. this season, this past season, he hit 2.14 with a 29% strikeout rate. He only played 11 games out at the AFL, but what did you see from Coles of Montgomery? I thought you looked like a completely different player. So I will tell you, I believe there was an injury lingering a lot last

year. And it may even concurred in that AFL. And it was kind of tapering down through a lot of the year, because the disappointment was, I made excuses for Colson Montgomery in the AFL. I remember, you know, People would come in, they're like, boy, you're swinging at everything. And I'm like, I think he's just trying to be aggressive out here, get in front, see what you can do. Nope, that carried into the year. High strikeout rate was awful. So I was like hyper-focused when he came back to the AFL. Through the first two weeks of the Arizona Fall League, one strikeout.

And it was like, I think it was like nine walks to one strikeout through the first week. Completely different decision-making. You saw, also the way he approached each at bat before, it was kind of like chased a lotter, where before, you know, get up to the bat. blah, blah, he'd go in the first year. This year, he's taking his time, stepping out, kind of talking to himself, very comfortable, trying to go all fields. He wasn't getting the secondary pitches. He was getting eaten up by sliders in the year before. He wasn't getting eaten up by those sliders or high fastballs. You just saw this guy who was more confident, felt healthier. And they actually took him out of the Arizona Folly because they had felt he accomplished what they

were looking for. So I chalk up. I think there was a little bit of injury that was carrying back his season and he looked like a completely different player in the Arizona fall league as far as his confidence goes and the pitch type he was going at it's not to say he's going to say he's going to be a two 90 hit or anything like that but I really do think he turned a corner and saw some huge big power from him as well I just wish he could have stayed in the fall league a little bit longer I think he's sneaky because if you don't pay attention to the fall league you see this really garbagey crappy year that he had on average he's a total buy for me right now because he is close to the majors he played third base out here almost

exclusively. So whether it's third or short, that flexibility, I think, is a real positive. That's something that Royce Lewis did some years back. But I think he's one of those hidden gyms that it wasn't about the numbers, and though I was very hyper-focused on the strikeouts, by the way, those that lowered, but also every single at bat, not getting fooled, not making these really bad. He was always swinging at stuff like low and then they would punch him high. That just didn't happen this Arizona fall league. So I'm encouraged and I think he's going to have a really solid minor league season that's going to get into the majors. Only 11 games in the AFL, 32 at bat, but 10 walks to 6 strikeout.

So again, nice to see that plate discipline here from Colson Montgomery. In that first NFBC draft that I did, I got him at pick 489 as my third shortstop. I like to get three of each infield position. I think I had Lindor, Brooks Lee, and Coles of Montgomery. What do you think about, you know, a near 500 pick cost of Colson Montgomery as like your third shortstop? I think that's what you've got to do, like in those NFBC drafts. You get outside the four or five hundreds. Now, a mistake I made this past year, we were talking about this off air.

I think I went a little too heavy on the upside. And this is like an NFBC strategy. I think I went too heavy on all these upside plays in later rounds where I really screwed myself for injuries. And then the guys that didn't make it. But I think you have to have a nice compliment of that. And I think this is like, there's a couple of guys from the Arizona Fall League that if you're getting him in the late 400s to 500s are great bets. This would be one of them that I would do. because, you know, maybe the White Sox don't want to start up the clock.

I think, if anything, I'd love to see teams start learning that everyone's like, well, you know, we're not competing. We want to wait to start those clocks. Why don't you get those guys from day one, build up this garbage team that you might have, White Sox, and try to go for those compensatory picks, a much better value in getting the first round pick, the extra first round pick than trying to have one more controllable year of a guy that you're either going to give that big contract or send off to the Cardinals or Red Sox or whatever once you lose 120 games again. But like I would like to see the worst teams be more hyper-aggressive.

I don't know that the White Sox would do that. But I do think Montgomery is one of those players that could be it. So all that to circle around say, yeah, I think it's a great pick. He would be one of the handful of guys that I would really like to get that I do think is getting close. A name that we mentioned earlier and a name we've heard a lot about recently, AFL's breakout prospect of the year, Caleb Durbin. from my New York Yankees. He was insane.

He hit 312, 5 home runs, 29 steals, which is an AFL record, 975 OPS across 24 games. The Yankees added him to their 40-man roster this week, and they've been hyping him up. From Aaron Boone to Brian Cashman, they're legitimately talking about Caleb Durbin getting a shot to be their starting second baseman

entering next season. He's not a highly rated prospect, Welsh. He's older at 24 years old. I've had some people tell me, the exit velocities are really bad. He's a good context hitter, but the plate discipline is a little bit iffy for him. What do you think about Durbin?

Do you think he's a legitimate major leaguer? I don't know if you remember. Do you remember we talking about him last year? We saw him last year. Dude, he was a spark plug last year. I was talking about him last year. The only thing that kept me off was he's a small guy. Like it just, it's hard.

Maybe it's just like a stupid bias sometimes and it doesn't work. You know, you look at guys like Altovae, it doesn't work. But the one thing you looked at was like, it's a small guy. You and I. did a great episode last year with James Triantos, live at the Arizona Fall League. And I brought up Durbin.

And Triantos kind of talked about Durbin because they had these, you know, that team had monster stolen base guys. Alcantra was stealing bases. Durbin was going crazy. And I remember I actually called Caleb Durbin the wrong name on that show. And the AFL guy was like, Caleb, because I called Chad,

old Chad Durbin. But like, I was enamored with him last year. So he comes back out here. He did the same things. What I thought was really encouraging? Yes, absolutely. a lot of people are talking about like the 90% exit velocity is like not good. Yeah.

Like I think if you are looking at this guy as this big impactful homer and hitter, it's not that. He did have five homers, I believe, five or six in the Arizona Fall League. Pretty impressive. One of which you can see where he had that challenge and he nuked the ball out of there because he has a really good approach and he's got a really good sense of the zone. He makes a decent amount of contact.

He can walk some. I think he is hyperaggressive, which could lead to some lower, batting averages, but he is a menace on the base path. He stole more bases than games he played in the Arizona Follett. He owns that record now. I have thought from day one, he's a good defender. He's a super aggressive base dealer. He can play multiple positions.

And I think his bat is sneaky. So that sneaky could be, you know, if he was a starter, maybe it's only eight homers and 25 stolen bases. But it could be 50. I think there's a 15 in there. And that could be 50 stolen bases. He is one of the most aggressive base dealers I've ever seen. I'm in.

I've been in on Caleb Durbin. I love to see that the team is more interested. I think my word last year was I think Caleb Durbin is a major leaguer and is probably a super util guy. And that seems to be changing to Caleb Durbin is no doubt a major leager, but maybe it's as a starter. I kind of don't believe that they will do that. But I think he's a great guy to bring off of the bench.

And I think he's a super fun fantasy guy. I mean, if he was in a really, really happy hitter environment, maybe he does sneak into double-digit homers, but I don't think it's out of pocket to think you could get, you know, five, six, seven homers out of him, but serious, serious, impactful stolen bases. I think he was a real deal guy and, you know, maybe some AFL inflated stuff, but I have loved Caleb Durbin for quite some time. He was drafted 427th in that early NFBC draft that I did. So he is gaining some steam. I think I was around 35 or 36. So he's starting to climb. I think it makes sense, just the fact that he's in the minds of the Yankees brass and he's added to the 40-man roster.

Even if he isn't an everyday player or starting second baseman, yeah, he could be that super util guy. And the Yankees have a bunch of guys that get injured. You know, as much as I love jazz Chisholm, it's like, he doesn't really have the cleanest bill of health. So, you know, this is a deep league draft and hold guy that potentially, you know, could work his way into summit bets as soon as next season with the New York Yankees. Well said. And also I think he'd be a quintessential. I mean, now it's all leagues, but like old school AFL number 9. hitter. You know, that's like a new lead off hitter. Like get a guy that is just absolutely destructive on the base paths. If he's hitting nine and he can get on base and then you have the one, two,

threes. I think teams look at that. And like I said, he has defensive flexibility. The questions will be with the bat. The problem with the Yankees is it's like, you know, if this were, you know, the pirates, you know, it's like the pirates would look and be like, let's give this a chance. Let's roll. The Yankees have like all the options in the world. They're going to get bombarded with these great trade opportunities to move this guy over here and acquire this guy. And they want, you know, monster payrolls and stuff. If they are going to spend all their money maybe on pitching and they don't resign Juan Soto and they just don't cover a lot of the infield, then Durbin is a great

fallback option. I think that's how they actually look at it more than like, we were going to start him. I think he's a great fallback option and maybe even a trade piece. If he were, don't try him to the Marlins, please. But like, you know, if he goes and gets traded to a team where he can get a legitimate shot, like you said, deeper league, sneaky guy to keep an eye, and especially if you're chasing stolen bases. Before we hit our final break, Welsh, I have a.

a Thanksgiving related question to ask you, something we've talked about in recent years, what are we drinking this year? I know it's been white Russians in previous years, but what do we got going on? What's happening on Thanksgiving? Well, it's still white Russians. It's always white Russians. That's just that that's my tradition. I don't drink them any other time of the year responsibly, but that is, we, we duded up on Thanksgiving. I don't know where it came from, to be honest with you. It's just something I've always done. So that is where you have joined me in previous years. We had a great, I think it was like two years ago where we would just share pictures.

And I got pictures from Frank of like, here's number one, you know, that type of stuff. So I would like if I could request, I know I'm not on as much anymore. I miss you guys, though. I'd like to request if you are going to partake. If I could have some, you know, some photo back and forth. We can share our white Russians. If I can get you to do another one. Yeah, we virtually, you know, cheers on thanks.

Yeah, virtual cheers. Exactly. Let's get it done. All right. Let's take our final break when we return. More AFL recap right after this. Welcome back in, continuing on with our Arizona Fall League recap. Well, let's just try and move a little bit faster

so we can get through all these names here. But somebody I've heard a lot of hype about in prospect circles is Dodgers Outfield Prospect Zahir Hope, who is only 19 years old. I know he hit some tape measure home runs out at the AFL. The final numbers weren't great. I know that there was a lot of strikeouts as well. Are you buying into this hype for,

for Zahir Hope from a dynasty perspective. Yeah, I know I am. It didn't end well. And I kind of came across like what I think the problem is. But like physically, he is so physically impressive. Jack dude hits monster bombs that last year, if you remember that crazy Manzardo video I had where I was like, this is the furthest home run I've seen.

Zaire hit the ball in the exact same spot. Like it went into the walkway of Peoria. He has got crazy, crazy raw power. But what I figured out, He's a monster fastball hitter. He really struggled on secondary stuff. And that kind of keep, I think that's what happened once. We love to see in Arizona Falle gives this unique perspective.

I'll try to be quicker here. These guys all have their tablets and they're all talking and they're scouting and players are talking to each other. And you love to see that camaraderie. And you love to see that kind of analysis from players like on the spot they're learning. I think something that maybe wasn't there that happened a partial way through the AFL was learning that if you throw Zaire, a fastball high and in, he's going to absolutely destroy it.

But if you get him off balance, you start throwing him some secondaries and low stuff in the zone, you can then come back up and you can get him. And that's what happened. To me, he's a really big fastball hitter that has a lot of work to do on secondaries. But I think he, from a talent perspective, and that's what you want to bet on sometimes in Dynasty, I want to invest in Zaire, hope because he has the makings of a guy that can hit 30 plus home runs. I do think he could maybe tap out.

of his speed. He puts up some good speed numbers and maybe he steals like 10 to 15. I just wouldn't be shocked if he ended up becoming like a Teoska Hernandez like down the road or something like that. But I really, it's also just amazing human beings. Zaire Hope is always cheerful, always happy. I think he can be an absolute stud. And it just is like a shame that the Dodgers of course got him again. Like it's like, why do they keep letting us do this? Like it's crazy to me. But yes, Zaire Hope is a buy and the AFL numbers kind of tapered it down at the end that I think it makes it even more palatable. a lot of people have Zeyer Hope now inside the top 100 prospects, but if someone in a league of yours is not valuing him as a top 100 prospect, pounce.

You know, something you just said in your analysis right there reminded me of this soundbite that we have. So this is for the Dodgers. You can't keep getting away with it. That's what, that was in my brain. It was the Jesse from Breaking Bad 100%. He can't keep getting away with it. That's the Dodgers, man. We're just, it's a Dodgers world. We're just living in it right now. I know more than anybody as the Yankees fan. You do.

Obviously lost to them. Quick to follow up on Zai Here Hope. Where does he rank on your personal prospect list? Oh, on my personal, I want to say, let me do a quick search and I'll give you the number. I have him at 58. I rank prospects for fantasy. I don't value as much proximity just for people to know. Like if you're in a world, ranks can adjust.

There are some people that I think rank heavier on proximity. proximity and that's a player that could be up sooner. Rightfully so. I try to have a bigger macro perspective of what their value can be. I think if you were looking at proximity, Hope's got to be down a little bit further. But I've got him from a talent perspective. I really do think there's some immense talent that he will continue to work on

and they can fix those problems. And when they do fix that off speed stuff and if he connects with that, dude could be a top 15 prospect in baseball, huge EV stuff. So I've got him just outside the top 50. Five names that are ranked in the top 50 on MLB Pipeline. who participated in the AFL, Colt Emerson from the Mariners,

Xavier Isaac from the Rays, Chase the Lodder from the Guardians, Moises, Bayesteros from the Cubs, and Nick Kurtz of the athletics. Did you get to see any of these players? If so, who impressed you most from that group? All of them, baby. All of us, I saw everybody.

I got to see everybody. How about this? I will give you one of those players I have massive concerns about, and I'm down on, and it's Xavier Isaac. And I wish it wasn't. Xavier Isaac,

if you've seen pictures of him like in trading cards and stuff looks like a bigger dude he thinned that out baby he looks really good but the problem is his work against lefties and a team that loves to play platoons

is already kind of a concern and I didn't really see a lot of stuff that I loved from Xavier Isaac like he's got some raw tools he was hitting some doubles I wonder if there's going to be impactful power I think secondary stuff got him I just walked away

walking into the Arizona fall league thinking like, oh, this dude could be like a first round pick in prospect drafts. I moved away from that. I really have him ticking down because his aggressiveness to his results, I don't think are moving in a right direction. Where a guy like, you know, like chase the lauder just looks exactly how he always has. Like, dude does not beat in the zone. He has hyper focus on the pitches he's going to attack.

He looked exactly like he did last year. He's just been super unhealthy. As far as the other guys, Ballesteros is just such an underrated dude, probably because of the catcher side and the physicality. Love him. Colt Emerson, I actually was like, I came up and I came down a little bit. Doubles Monster. I feel like the power's kind of ticked away. He also got really hyper aggressive.

I'm worried he needs to simmer down because of that strikeout rate's going to be too high. He's never going to be able to tap in. But Nick Kurtz was like my favorite of all of these guys. Nick Kurtz looks like a mountain man. Looks like you should give him an axe and he should be chopping wood. The dude, he, they did not want to pitch to him. And you didn't get a chance to see him really attack some of that stuff. But he was pushing balls opposite field.

He's a big boy classic looking first baseman, almost like, it's like a Troy Gloss type of guy at first base. He's just a big physical dude who, you know, had monster college numbers, big exit velocities, doesn't strike out a bunch. I think Nick Kurtz of this entire group is probably long term my favorite of all of them. But I think Chase DeLotter is the one that we see first. But I do think Ballesteros and DeLotter we will see this year. I think DeLotter could break camp with the team if you're looking for this year's drafts.

I think Emerson is probably the furthest away. But don't sleep on Nick Kurtz. First year player drafts, I have bumped him way up. And one of the big questions, you know, I got to tell you, I'm sorry. I don't know if I looked at this, but, you know, Jack Caglione, sorry, I was going to call him Joe. Caglione and him are a really interesting first-year player move. And I moved Curtz above Caglione.

But I bet we will talk about him here in a little bit. But don't sleep on Nick Curtz. Nick Curtz was the fourth overall pick in this year's draft, 24. Again, by the Oakland Athletics, the Sacramento Athletics, I guess you can call them now. Any chance we've seen Nick Curtz this year, maybe later on in the year? I think there's a chance. Or do they, like, hold them back and maybe kind of start. his clock for opening day 2026.

So here's what I would say. Them bringing Nick Kurtz to play in the Arizona Fall League to me is finishing schooly that there's a possibility that maybe they want to make some headway, start this headway of getting him up there. He's one of those guys because they're such a good team

of like, you know, what is it? Hard hit numbers with Barrels like Lawrence Butler, Brent Rooker. Kurtz is of that same camp and he's like just a really good hitter. I would not be shocked whatsoever. I just think that might be at the expense of Tyler Soda. I don't know if they're ready for that. Also, fun fact, Nick Kurtz and the rest of those A's were the final and last players to ever wear an Oakland Athletics uniform.

The Arizona Fall League players were the final players. So Nick Kurtz, Tyler, Tyler Baum, a couple other players were the Denzel Clark. Those are the last guys to wear that uniform. All right. Let's talk about some of the struggles as well. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, although there is a lot of sunshine out in Arizona. one name that I am heavily invested in the Scott White Dynasty League is Jet Williams

from the New York Mets and it was a weird season I know he missed a lot of time due to wrist surgery got sent out to the AFL where he did some nice things he also hit 225 he had 30 strikeouts in 22 games I know he suffered some kind of foot or ankle injury while he was out there what did you see from Jet Williams weird year do you think maybe he's a by low in dynasty or legitimate concerns for him?

Yeah I was I was I reported that, by the way, that lot of you. I have the pictures in video. What he did is he was playing a lot of center field out here, which I think is interesting. He ran into the wall and he hurt his ankle and we thought he might have tore or something. He ended up limping. They had to carry him off and then he walked out and then he limped out. And then he did limp back, which is probably a good sign.

So maybe it was just a sprained ankle, but it looked really bad for a guy that has just had a really rough go of it. Listen, I thought Jet was about where I thought he was. I think people used to have him like in the top 25. There's some big speed. He's a smaller guy that definitely has some power, but he's just like hyper aggressive. He played some really bad shortstop too, by the way, which I'm not surprised he was out in center field.

I think that's his future home. He had some really bad plays out here. But, you know, I think he's an on-base guy of once he had a 376 OBP while he was out here in a 225 average. He's going to get on base. He's going to steal. He's got 15 home run power. I could see him as a 1530 guy in the majors.

I just think there's a lot of missed time and there's still a ways to go. And I don't love how aggressive he was. If people have him outside of the top, like 75 prospects, he's a buy. You're probably outside of the top 50 as well. The problem is I think a lot of outlets are going to have him really high coming off of this AFL. I just want to see him be healthy.

And I just, there's a bad taste of my mouth when he was, he's always injured. And then the last thing he did on the last day of the AFL was get injured. It was kind of fluky, but you just hate to see it. And I hate, you know, wrist injuries too. I know this is just kind of like the outlier, the one that never worked out. Alex Kierloff, I just always think of that wrist and how he can never get it right. It just really sapped him of power too.

So I'm not saying that's going to happen, but it's just something that comes to mind for me. So hopefully we can see a healthy season from Jet Williams in the minor leagues next season. Two big name prospects in the Padres organization, Ethan Salas and Leo DeVries. Frankly, I was pretty shocked that they sent both of these guys out to the AFL. Did you get the chance to see either? I mean, you know, neither performed well. they're also just 18 years old. So it's like, how do you value like what you're seeing from these guys

versus, you know, how young they truly are? Yeah, no, I saw a ton of them. A bigger question would be, I'm trying to think, who did I not see a lot of? I didn't actually see a ton, ton of Jet and Drew. They were like, you know, a handful of games, but I saw almost all I felt like of Leo and Salas. So Salas, from a fantasy perspective, I'm just not as excited.

Real world perspective. I think he's like a great catcher. I do think you were starting to see him move to being more of a contact hitter. And I think that's going to be key to him. Just try to be a double's hitter. Try to, you know, be comfortable hitting across your body. Don't try to hit everything out, you know, just be a big masher. Because that's not who he is.

I was not impressed with the bat. I think that is lagging. And, you know, I had him really high in early years. I think that's down. So, you know, where's the rank? It's not top 50 from a fantasy perspective. I'm a cell in that territory. because I just think that bat's going to lag.

Leo DeVries, on the other hand, I really think there is a big offensive potential moving forward. Switch hitter. He has got this incredible bat speed that he has more of that upper cut type of approach. And I have a, there's a great, it was a best day, dude. Two homers from Jack Caglione in a day on video. And then Leo DeVries hit one like 415 from the right side.

And it's a beautiful homer you can see on my Twitter. And that's a lot of what you saw. But he's a super young guy. that doesn't have the strike zone enabled. So it's like when he got meatball fastballs, he destroyed it. You can see all of the talent from Leo DeVries. I do think Ethan Salas might be kind of capped as far as what the offensive potential is.

My hope would be is if you can get 15 homers out of him, that's, you know, maybe it gets into 20. I just don't think he's going to be an elite, elite fantasy prospect. I'm looking at my side screen because I'm trying to scroll through your Twitter to like see these videos that you're talking about at the same time. But one that I see right here, here is actually from Jack Caglione, who you mentioned a few times here. Look, two sluggers that I think you could say struggled. Look, one struggled. Brock Wilkin, I'm putting Caglione in this category.

He didn't really struggle. I'm just kind of stretching it here so we could talk about him. For Wilkin, he hit 155 after hitting 200 in the minors this year. So do you view him as a by low from a dynasty perspective or are you legitimately worried here? And then talk to me about Caglion because it seems like, you know, maybe someone you're pretty excited about. Yeah. So Cags is a good one to talk about. Here's what I say with Wilkin. If people are just done with Wilkin, I think there's an interesting buy long season.

I think there's some other stuff that's floating out. They don't need to get into it. But there's just some other stuff that, you know, can get distractions, very long year for him. His power is real. Hit some absolute moonshots. But his decision making is just not like, you know,

chasing low stuff. You can get him really high. It's like when you need to see hitters be able to expand the zone and his zone is not expanded right now. It's like, give me here. That's what he wants, which is like that middle front. So it's like if you have the proper pitch mix, you can pitch him up and down and you're going to get him chasing and swinging through. But like there's 30 plus homerun power without question if he can fix it.

And he was a great college player. So I think there's a possibility for that. But I'm not like enamored. Caglione is really tough. I saw so much of Cags this year. I saw him play in the bridge league. You know, it's out here in Arizona. It's like a rookie league ball all the way into the AFL.

And I've seen him make horrifically bad swings and decisions. Like he will get it in his head. He wants to swing first pitch and you throw him a secondary and he just makes goofy sword like pitching ninja is going to put him on there. But you also know the pure raw power. My favorite moment and I tweeted about this. So I got three. I don't remember how many homers cags hit maybe four. I got like three of them on video.

The last one was in Glendale. And it was the most ridiculous Homer I'd ever seen. He hit it. And nobody moved. a couple players turned around and he went around and I was like, where the hell did it go? The stat cast data said it went 418

and it was like 113 off the bat. Like, that didn't seem right. I talked to Jack a couple days later and I was like, that ball that you hit 14, there's no way. And he told me, he goes, funny, he goes, the data we had in the dugout had it over 500 feet, 503.

I think it was the exact number he told me. And I was like, what? Are you kidding me? And I tweeted about it. and people loved it. I didn't see anybody else ask him about it or correct it, but that's what he told me. The decision making he made in the second half of the AFL,

I thought was really impressive because he was trying to smash every ball early on. And that was part of the problem. Maybe he was getting some easier pitches. There were a couple meatball fast balls that he destroyed. But like, listen, it's the biggest raw power ever. The two home run day hit two homers. And then he hit a single 117 off the bat.

We had the stat cast data. So we almost were like, who cares about the homers? He hit this single 117. It is elite, elite raw power. What's the floor? I don't know. Maybe the floor is like this version of Jean-Carlo Stanton right now.

I worry he's going to hit 240. I don't know how hyper-athletic he really is. He's going to play first base. But he's got like the 40 plus home run power. I am encouraged that he started making better swing decisions and his recognition. And I think Pipeline even talked about that started to look good. But there are some big warning signs in him. So like I want to go all in.

but I really do think like the worry is he's a 30 plus strikeout percentage guy and he's never going to hit over 240. But if he hits 270, I mean, he's going to be that great version of Pete Alonzo that we've seen. Now that was it, 40 plus homers, 270 average. He's going to have 100 RBI. Like they want to push him higher. I think he's a crazy weird talent. And like first year player people in fantasy seem like they don't want to invest him.

I get the vibe that most rankers that do. prospects and stuff and first year player do not want to put him in the top five or six and want to put him near 10. I'm just going to take the shot because I have seen him make some improvements and I've seen insane, insane power from this guy who carried that into college that I think he's worth the top five first year player pick just off of the potential that it works out alone where I think a lot of people just like you want to get everything right and it's like, well, no, you know, this guy, I'll get take this rookie, take Bryce Rainer and stuff like that. And like, nah, dude, like Jack is a crazy weird problem.

prospect that if it clicks, it's going to be thunderous. All right. That is the Arizona Fall League recap. Let's wrap things up here with some NFBC talk. Lots of early draft and hold leagues that are happening right now. And I've got rapid fire 32 prospects that are being drafted outside of round 25 of draft champions leagues. Let's call this the well show meter.

One to 10 being this player, one being this player does not. make an impact at all in 2025. 10 being this player could be up on opening day and could be making an impact right away. Well, so are you? So is the 10 like their make like not only are they making impact, but it's like awesome rookie Jackson Churio, Jackson Merrill type kind like production just so I know the numbers. Not necessarily. Yeah. I mean, look, I guess 10 if that's what you want to go for, yeah, like that's like the highest of the high like the high end outcome. Yeah. So let's say that like they could become a stud right away. Okay. Okay. Perfect. Well, should meter is locked in, it's calibrated, let's go.

All right. Luis Anhele Acuna from the New York Mets. We're going to go with a five, sorry. All good. Quinn Matthews, pitcher with the Cardinals. Three. Victor Scott, also with the Cardinals. Ooh, seven. Jordan Beck with the Rockies.

Six, the meter is jumbling a little bit. We're going to go, I want to say seven, but I'm going to go with six. Sean Burke from the White Sox. To two. Jacob Miziarowski from the Brewers. Five, but that impact could go to an eight if it is full-on relief and Devin Williams is traded and maybe he gets some save opportunities. So it's like five to, somewhere to five to eight. The meter had to give you some context.

Davidson de Los Santos from the Marlins. Seven. formerly from your D-backs. I know you are a fan. Colby Thomas from the Athletics. Uh, six. Noah Schultz from the White Sox. Uh, two.

Brandon Sprote from the Mets. Eight. And by the way, just stop the calibration real quick. I, seven is like they're up quickish and they're doing like, you know, they're like serviceable. You could probably keep them around. Eight is they're up soon and they're making bigger impact. Nine and ten are like the big one. So I just want the reference.

When I say seven, I think they're up with enough. production, but I don't know if it's elite production. But Sprott, I'm going to say, what did I say? I think eight. Yeah, eight. Edgar Caro from the White Sox. Five. Kyle Teal from the Red Sox.

Ooh. Eight? Yes, eight. I want to say eight. Nick York from the Pirates. Four. Kate Horton from the Cubs. Three.

Samuel Bessayo from the Orioles. Ooh. Sneakiest of sneaky. Six. That one is like a mid-season. Maybe he's traded and maybe the impact is big in a small sample size. Arelvis Martinez from the Blue Jays? Eight.

Chandler Simpson from the Rays. Ooh. Eight. Christian Moore from the Angels. I'm getting you with this one. Six. Bryce Eldridge from the Giants. Zero.

Carson Williams from the Rays. Nine. Carson Williams, we interviewed last year. Go check it out on YouTube. Marcelo Meyer. Marcelo Meyer from the Red Sox. Eight. Adela Amador from the Rockies.

Five. Owen Casey from the Cubs. Seven. Hurston Waldrop from the Braves. Ooh, seven. Tink Hens from the Cardinals. Six. Thomas Harrington from the Pirates.

This one's super sneaky. I'm going to say five, but don't be surprised when it's an eight. Caden, Dana from the Angels. Seven and a half. Can I do percentages? Yes. Okay. One prospect.

Everyone knows their rules like 7.2s? There you go. Chase Burns from the Reds. I'm going to go one. He could go the Red Louder track. I actually asked him about that. I kind of don't think it does happen, but this one could be a 1 to 7. Zach Veen from the Rockies.

seven just added to the 40 man roster as well yeah Chase Dullender from the Rockies um five I just don't know if he's up enough it's tough man he had such an amazing season

if he's up he pitches for the Rockies you know it's just like yeah dude it's like it's a rock like he's one of the best pitching prospects but like he's a Rocky I don't know when he's up that one's super tough Zach DeZenzo from the Astros boy that one could be six and Travis Bazana from the

Guardians. Boy, if he's up, it's a 10. I'm going to go with six. I think they slow roll it through the year. So I didn't, I mean, what I give you, the top was, I give you one nine. I, hmm, did you get to a nine on anybody? I think Carson Williams. I think I gave you a nine on Carson Williams, just defensively, just such a monster.

But also, give it a nine when the raise are like the biggest platoon team ever. That might be wrong. What was the caveat to this? These were all guys that were going outside the top, like what, five, outside of the top 25 rounds of 15 team league. So these were more like I was looking at, you know, reserve options, you know, players are going to draft for depth that you think could be up. I mean, there are obviously big name prospects that I didn't mention.

I think the other two that come to mind immediately that are going just before round 25 are Roman Anthony and Christian Campbell. I mean, do you think these guys are like huge impact guys right away? Oh, man. Like Roman Anthony, I just talked about him on a video I did. Roman Anthony would be the type that you would tag a 10 with. But the reason you might knock it down is like, does he come up early? Like, I don't know.

Like, if they go and make the trade, they trade off like, Will you or Brayu? And they move some of, I think Anthony might be the guy maybe before Christian Campbell, because there's more of a defined outfield role. But it's a really good question. I don't know if all those guys can come up. Frankly, the big four, the Red Sox, the value might come from two of them being on another team. And that's where they get the production. If they're all Red Sox, they might eat into each other a little bit,

specifically like, you know, Campbell and Anthony could eat into each other a tiny bit. Yeah, and Roman Anthony, by the way, he's going in round 18. So, I mean, it's not, it's not like the top prospect of years past where, you know, trios going top 100, Wailang for top 100, something like that. You know, it's still, you probably got to draft him as like your fourth or fifth outfielder in round 18 of a 15 team league. So I feel a little gun, like I said, I feel a little gun shy with how like upsyty I went late in NFBC that like as my fourth or fifth outfielder.

I don't know if I want to do it. But like if if we were to be like, hey, June 1st, you know, will Roman Anthony be up and does he stay? I want to be like, yeah and yeah. I think he's going to stick around. Dude, you know, good plate presence, good hard hit numbers. I don't feel quite as insane as everybody. Like he's unanimous number one.

Like I don't feel like that. There's a part of me that might think Christian Campbell might be the elite fantasy option of the entire group. But you can't deny like if Anthony is in. that lineup, especially if they make some decent moves and they put him hitting six between, you know, you've got like Devers and all them out there and Durant, I don't know. Anthony could put up like

a really, really sneaky fantasy season. Maybe it's more reminiscent of like Colton Kouser at the end of the day. I would love for them to be hyper-aggressive. I just don't know if they will, but you do have to make your stances. He's one of those guys that's probably is worth doing it in deeper like NFBCs. That is the Welsh.

Make sure you follow him at, is it the Welsh. Yes, it is. And you should follow him and make sure to check out his prospect podcast. prospect one as well. We're going to wrap there for the Welsh. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again next week.

Bye-bye.