Fantasy Baseball Today - Blake Snell to the Giants, Jhoan Duran to the IL & Top Prospect Expectations! (3/19 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

JOIN OUR FBT BRACKET GROUP- https://picks.cbssports.com/college-basketball/ncaa-tournament/bracket/pools/kbxw63b2he4dknjvgq3q====?pool-join-key=loce5fr9njhhbrodalvjt29colznzr6z&invited-by=ivxhi4tzhiytkmrugm2temjx&via-medium=copy&ttag=FF24_lk_cbssports_cbb_bpm_copySetupInvite&sender-role=mtalnfa0gcenrr Blake Snell just signed a two-year deal with the Giants (3:05)? What's the recent ADP for Snell (9:50)? ... Jhoan Duran will start the season on the IL (16:45). ... News (21:55): Jackson Chourio will be on the Brewers' Opening Day roster. ... Who should you start in the Dodgers vs. Padres series in Korea (34:20)? ... What happened in this news prospect Spring Breakout (39:58)? ... What are we expecting from top prospects, starting with Wyatt Langford (47:07)? ... Will Evan Carter play everyday (53:31)? ... What will we get from the Orioles' top prospects (54:35)? ... Can Jackson Merrill tap into power and speed (56:32)? ... When might we see James Wood with the Nationals and Junior Caminero with the Rays (58:48)? ... We wrap up with the rest of the game's top prospects (1:02:23). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 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

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. After what's felt like in eternity, Blake Snell has finally signed. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, March 19th. I am Frank Stample joined by Scott White and Chris the Welsh.

Today on the show, Blake Snell has signed with the San Francisco Giants. All right, not too bad. More injuries this time to Yohan Duran, and we'll break down our expectations for top prospects this season. But first, Welshie, it's only appropriate that you are on the pod the night that Blake Snell signs. It just makes too much sense. Oh, man, I'm just trying to get paid.

I'm just trying to, my man, everybody was like, are you going to do the Snell impression? I feel like it's getting worse because the expectation is out there. But it is no coincidence that big signing's happening. You were even saying you're like, weren't you on the Soto signing? I think some big things happen. We also have a couple other pieces that are out there.

But it does feel like the long, oh, this is the long night, the long awaited signing we've been waiting for. You know, it's hilarious too. This felt like the signing that like opens the floodgates for other guys. But everybody else has made their move except for Jordan Montgomery. So good on the Giants for making the move. And I know we're going to have a lot.

A lot of talk about my boy just needs to stay hydrated, man. Just trying to get paid. Yes, he does. Blake Snell signs with the Giants on a two years, $62 million deal that includes an opt-out after the first season. Each of Snell, Cody Bellinger, and Matt Chapman had to take similar opt-out deals like this. Maybe Scott Boris finally outsmarted himself. Who knows?

In the end, Snell remains in the NL West and in another good ballpark to pitch in. We talked extensively about Snell this offseason. He's a high variance pitcher. comes with injury and performance risk, but when he's on, we know the upside is massive. It's Sy Young upside. The two years that he's been healthy and been at his best, he has won Sy Young Awards in each of those seasons.

Obviously, Scott, this is a very unique situation because it's so late into spring training, but what do you think about this move to the Giants? And when we might actually see Snell pitch in the regular season? Well, I'm looking forward to having more reading material on that because I don't really know like what kind of side sessions has he been conducting on his own

presumably he hasn't just been sitting around eating Cheetos you know but we don't know we don't know where he stands in that buildup and even you know if he says I'm exactly where I should be I suspect the Giants will still want him to have some kind of abbreviated buildup because they're not going to

throw him right out there throw him right into the fire without him doing a little throwing for them so hopefully we see him before the end of April. I don't think it's a given we do, but hopefully. You think a whole month? Well, normally they say it takes six weeks for a pitcher to build up.

Yeah, my only caveat, we were talking about this a tiny bit off here. My only disagreement is as far as like the ramp up goes, him going out and throwing a four-inning simulated session tells you the work that's been going on. Because you're not going to, like you said, you're not going to get up after, or clean your Cheeto dust off your fingers and go through a four-inning simulated game, you're going to work your way up to that level. So by virtue of throwing a four-inning simulated game,

I kind of assume he's been working through some of those sessions. So much so that the team is comfortable enough dropping $30 million. So just my only thing would be, you sign with the team, you get in, you throw a side session or two, maybe you get one game in, maybe one live game in over on extended spring training. I think there's the possibility, and this is my whole lead up to you saying the end of April that shocks me,

I think there's a possibility that Snell could maybe only miss one start or they could just alter and adjust the rotation. Sometimes I haven't looked at the Giants rotation, but sometimes they don't need, you know, the fifth starter right away. I think he could be available by like April 8th. Now, this is just me assuming, obviously, but I think it's kind of dramatic to think it would be outside of April, even though I understand the logic of it. I just don't know if they invest that type of money. for a full month out. Here's the thing.

They didn't invest much money. And that's fine. Like, you know, maybe it's mid-April. Maybe it's even early April. You know, we don't know exactly how long it's going to be, is my point. But it presumably won't be the first time through. But, you know, here we have a reigning Cy Young winner. By definition, not a one-hit wonder because this is the second Say-Young.

Signing, waiting to tell after St. Patrick's Day to sign, for a contract that is only two-thirds the total value of Masataka Yoshidas? That just seems strange, right? Like, that's nothing anyone would have predicted heading into the off-season. And I think it reveals where the league stands on Blake Snell, which is that they don't trust them at all.

And you know what? I don't blame them. Blake Snell is the ultimate Charazard. And if you weren't here for the genesis of that term, what a charizard is, is an overpowering force that's just as likely to turn its fiery breath around on you and spend all season charing you or half the season charing. That's actually what happened with Blake Snell in both 2021 and 22. Blake Snell in 2021, he entered August, August with an ERA of 544. And then the very next year, 2022,

he entered the All-Star break with an ERA of 522. And in both of those cases, he had made three starts up to that point, six or more innings. He was utterly useless. In fact, he was a negative on your fantasy team. There was a point both those seasons where I was suggesting you'd just cut your losses and drop them. Hopefully you didn't because his best came after that.

But now we got this hurried buildup, delayed signing. Now, even last year, five walks per nine innings, that was by far the most among qualifying pitchers, even though Snow won the Cy Young. He was the biggest overachiever by FIP and by expected ERA among full-time starters. And now there's this hurried buildup. I mean, who knows how that's going to affect him? He already has such consistency issues. Like, his consistency issues go far beyond any other players.

And so what if he gets off to that kind of start again? Here's the thing. Even if you trust there's another side of the coin, there's no way to predict when you're going to see that other side of the coin. And since we've established that back, Bad Blake Snell is horrible for your team. I'm thinking, the more I think about it, the more I think I was crazy forever drafting it, forever drafting him.

Who wants to deal with that? I mean, I'm all about building my teams around strikeouts this year, and Snow would seem like the perfect choice, but he could single-handedly ruin you. Even if he turns things around, you might make a mistake along the way, assuming he'll do it now and it doesn't happen. Like I said, maybe he goes the whole season. in charing you. There's just no telling. But he's so bad when he's bad and so good when he's good that it's just, it's going to be a major headache. And last year was kind of a microcosm of that too,

because if you look at his first nine starts, I mean, through May 19th, the first six weeks of the season, Blake's now had a 540 ERA last season. And then he, you know, obviously did what he did. I think he had a sub 1.5 ERA, the final 22 starts. And that's kind of who Blake Snell is, you know, just throughout his career. There's these extreme highs and there's these extreme lows. And we saw that last year as well. The price tag over the past week, the NFBC ADP is 81.9 as the 22nd starting pitcher off the board sandwiched between Zach Eflin and Jesus Lazzardo.

Scott, it kind of sounds like you're just out there. Look, I got them like 25th in my starting pitcher rankings. And, you know, if we hear a really optimistic timeline, like the one Chris Welsh laid out, then I might move him up a little bit. I originally had him in my top 10 before I knew he was going to be delayed. But, again, the more I think about it, I'm like, do I really want to stake my entire season on that? And I don't think I do. But when you're getting me a pick 82, you're not staking your entire season out of it.

Yeah, that's exactly where I was going. Even if you're going into the original. ADP in the 60s or whatever, you're really not staking your entire season on it. And here's one thing I would say. Obviously, there are unknowns that are kind of floating around with Blake Snell, but there's one thing is like, we kind of know what we're in for. We do know he is a slow starter. And we saw a major change. The dramatic, you know, last 20, whatever starts it was, was also attached to him finally getting through six innings and also making that change up become a prominent part of his pitching repertoire, 18% usage with a 46% whiff rate.

The guy had two other pitches of 53% or higher whiff rate in general. So like we've seen him mature. So we know what those things are. What we don't know is that mystery of what you're talking about. What does that ramp up look like? I don't think the fear should be as dramatic as it is with Blake's, especially that he could like ruin your team. If you think now he can ruin your team, why, I mean, you were kind of asking the

question, why did you have him before? why would you not think that before? I don't think much has changed. I think people are making way too much about spring training. This is check off your bingo card, me talking about me at spring training. But like, I'm around there a lot. Guess what? Zach Allen did not throw in his first live game until March 1st or March 2nd and what it was.

These guys don't get a whole bunch of games in. They work some side sessions. And we are obviously without full, full information. We're under the interpretation that like he has been running some side sessions. He'll get one or two more with the Giants now. And he may even get in to like, that final game that they throw. All I'm saying is I don't actually think much has changed with Blake's now.

Now we just have the confirmation that he's got a team. Right. This is probably a maximum in my mind of two starts, maybe only one. So I'm just kind of back on board. But if you weren't on board before, I don't, nothing. Right. On board or off board, nothing has changed. Maybe nothing has changed.

Maybe the only thing that's changed is he gained, he made gains with his change up in curveball last year and is now going to be more consistent than ever. the five walks per nine innings make me think that's a long shot. But, you know, it's possible. That is one possible scenario. But here's the, like you say, okay, well, you're drafting them 80th overall. You're not staking your whole season to it. If you're drafting them 80th overall, particularly given his history of turning things around in July and August,

you're leaving them in your lineup. And you're just taking the 520, 150, whatever comes with it. And like at what point do you remove them? Probably never because of the way July went two years ago and August went three years ago. You're probably just riding it out for better or worse. So you're staking your whole season to them. All right.

We do have to move on. But again, Blake Snell signs a two-year deal with the Giants, $62 million with an opt-out after the first season. And it should be a fun year in the NL West. Granted, the Dodgers are still obviously the favorites. But the Padres, Giants, D-backs are all going to be in the mix for a wild card spot. presumably this season. Let's quickly promote a few things.

Thanks to everybody watching us live on YouTube. Hit that like button and subscribe to the channel. If you haven't already, YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. And it's that time of year. The madness. It's bracket time. So get yours in now.

On the CBS Sports app, you can play in men's and women's pools with friends and join our challenges for the chance to win a new Nissan Rogue and trips to the 2025 Final Four. Get the CBS Sports app or visit CBS Sports. Sports.com slash play to start filling out your brackets. No purchase necessary. See terms and rules for details.

And if you want to compete against Scott, Chris, and me, and maybe the Welsh, we could get them in there too. We actually have a bracket dedicated to FBT and our listeners. Scan the QR code on the screen and click on the link in the pod and YouTube description to get in on the fun. If you've joined our bracket in previous years, you're already in. All you've got to do is make your picks. The winner of the bracket group will get a shout out here on the podcast.

Let's take our first break. When we return, we'll run through the rest of the news, Yuan Duran, and then get to the top prospects here in 2024 right after this. Welcome back in. Let's talk about this injury to Yuan Duran, who will start the season on the IL with a moderate right oblique strain. The twins hope to have a better idea of his return timeline within the week. I just kind of assume he's going to miss the first month of the season.

That's how I've been treating the oblique injury to Josh Lowe. another oblique here with Yon Duran. It sounds like this one's more severe than the Josh Lowe one. That one was described as very mild. This one's described as moderate. So I'm thinking a quarter of the season. And the low one was, I think it's been looming for a while. The Duran one just happened.

So it's just on the precipice. Yeah. So, Scott, what are you thinking about where you're dropping Duran to in your rankings? I dropped them behind like Jose LeClerc and Robert Suarez. So way down there. All right. So I dropped him to like,

like my 14th relief pitcher at 106th overall. So I don't know. Maybe I got to drop him down a little bit more. Well, so what do you think about the price here? How far does it drop for Duran? I think he's probably got to sit in that like 17 to 20 closer area. I mean,

hilariously, you're going to probably have in Devin Williams and Duran in a similar range for people if you want to make that speculation. I don't blame Scott for doing that, though, because when I looked at the Devin Williams stuff, I'm like, can I really take even him over Jose LeClerc who looks like he's going to have early saves? And if he can hold on, he's going to keep going on. Same thing would be going on with Duran as great as he is, as great as these guys are.

How much can you eat six weeks, eight weeks of losing a player not getting saves? It's just they just kind of become off my draft boards. It almost doesn't matter the number. It's just like, I'm going to pivot. And more than anything, Duran is actually making me want to press a little bit higher on closers. I know a lot of people don't like to pay up for closers. but as much as I like Evan Phillips, I might be trying to reach a little bit more

for guys like Camillo DeVall to make sure I get one of those and then maybe like a Craig Kimberl a little bit later. The depth that Closer's taken a hit for sure because in neither of Williams or Duran's case do we have, in neither of their cases, do we have like an clear cut replacement? Totally.

Exactly who's going to be getting saves in the meantime. So that really chisels away. at what seemed like a robust closer group. It's still robust compared to like last year. But it's not as robust as it was before those injuries. I also want to clarify, you know, I'm saying Duran, I think he could miss a quarter of the season. That's still half of what the time Devin Williams is missing.

So I moved Devin Williams behind even like Carlos Estevez and the real junkie closers. So I haven't moved Duran down quite that far, but he's like a tear up from that. Who is next up for the twins in their bullpen? So they got Griffin Jacks and Bronzer. Stuart. Griffin Jacks last year, a 386 ERA, a 118 whip. Just over a strikeout per inning gets lots of ground balls,

56% ground ball rate last year, averages 96, 97 on a fastball. Brock Stewart, an interesting case. Before last year, hadn't pitched in baseball since 2019. Then comes in and throws 27 and two-thirds innings with the twins last year. A 0.65 ERA, a 108 whip, 12.7K per 9, and a 19.8% swinging strike rate. So if we're just talking about whiffs based on last year, I mean, Brock Stewart was one of the best of the best in terms of doing that.

So Scott, what do you think the twins go here, Griffin Jacks or Brock Stewart? Yeah, I mean, I think just given how dominant Stewart was last year, that would be the first place I'd go if I was managing the twins. But I, you know, I don't know how much if Rocco Baldelli, having had Griffin Jacks around longer, might have a higher, level of trust with him. He was also one of the managers.

Remember back when Taylor Rogers, we considered him the twins closer, and it was always so frustrating because Baldelli was so noncommittal to using him in the knife? And so he may just revert back to that. I think he's already geared that way, and Yohan Duran was just a special talent in his eyes.

So I'm not making an especially big investment in Brock Stewart. I would probably draft Yoel Paiomps and Abneri Rebae over him. But if you're asking me to choose who I want from the Twins bullpen, I would choose Brock Stewart over Griffin Jacks. And that is why he is a professional broadcaster that Scott White. My next question to the Welsh, rank the Brewers and Twins relievers. What do you got?

All of them together? All right. I'm going to go, Pat Murphy is such a pain too. He's just like, I don't really see a guy. It's going to be a leverage situation. I would probably go pay amps, your rebate. I'm a Jack's guy. I think Jacks is going to.

Jack's also having a fantastic spring struck out 10 in six innings, only given up two hits so far. Rosser resource already put him as a closer, but I do think they're going to go, you know, just kind of move through leverage situation. So again, this is going to go payempt, your rebate. And I think Reariebe could be the best of all of them than Jacks and then everybody else.

All right. Let's get to some other news and notes. The Brewers confirmed that Jackson Truro will make the opening day roster, which makes sense after signing that eight-year extension earlier in the off-season. NFBC ADP over the past week, 122.8 as the 32nd outfielder off the board. Scott, we know that you've been much higher on Truroo throughout the offseason. You have him 75th overall as your 20th ranked outfielder. I assume this report doesn't change anything for you,

but do you think Truroo will start to tick up now in ADP with the confirmation? Yeah, I'm going to guess I've drafted. drafted him for the last time because there's just going to be too much competition for him now that he's been confirmed. And now that I don't think he deserves it, but it's, you know, I've already, I've already grown accustomed to taking him at a certain place. And I don't know that I don't know that I have the stomach for taking him earlier. By the way, you say I have him 79th overall? I don't think I've ever taken him that high. 75th. I think I just have that whole group of outfielders higher in my overall rankings than the consensus does.

So in the flow of the draft, I don't think 79 for Chorio. But I imagine he'll probably get pushed up to about that. That's even a little bit higher than me. I've got him. And I've had him here for a while. That's one of the things with the rookies that the guys that I thought that were going to break camps like Jackson Holiday, like Langford and like Churio, I've tried to keep them up a majority of the time. I've got him at 87.

So 87 overall overall, I haven't pushed all my outfielders up. And the same question, if you'd ask me, I don't know if this chance. changes too much. Maybe there's like a little bit more confirmation. Probably doesn't. I've been putting him at a spot where I think he's going to break him. So we're talking top prospects later in the podcast as well. And we actually have this new projection system called the CTW.

Chris the Welsh projections. And we're breaking them out today for the first time. Last year in the miners, Trio did this as a 19 year old. 282 batting average, 22 homers, 44 steals. Welsh, what do you think is a realistic projection here?

Again, we're not talking upside. Median projection, 50th percentile. What is realistic to expect from Trio this season? This is the anti-bat X that hates rookies. Of course, I'm going to like them. But I'm going to be a little bit more strict on some of these players. I feel like I've actually got a really good gauge on rookie stolen bases ever since last year. But my, what did you call it?

The CTW projections. Chris V. Wells projections, yeah. All right. My Jackson Cheerio projection, 255, 18 homers, 70 runs, 75 RBIs with 35 stolen bases. So I am going to probably beat. There's actually one of these rookies we're going to talk about that I think I have a lower stolen base projection then. But I think Churio is going to make up for what could be some maybe early not getting the ball in the air stuff. Whenever he gets on base, I think he's going to be aggressive on the base paths.

We saw him steal over 40 in the minors. I don't think that's going to change at the major league level. If his batting average really stinks, we'll see where that goes. But if he's hitting 250, I think he's stealing over 30 bases. All right. Aaron Boone said that Aaron Judge should be good to go for Wednesday's game against the pirates, but we've heard that before, so we'll see. Shohei Otani is set to begin a throwing progression this weekend.

And manager Dave Roberts hasn't ruled out the possibility of Otani playing the field later in the season. Outfield and first base were both kind of thrown out there as possibilities. you know, they could give Freeman a half day off if they wanted to. I don't know if this is actually going to happen, but it would be fun if it did. How about shortstop? And the majors, remember, he got outfield eligibility the last time. No, I think it was when interleague play,

before NL had the DH and on interleague play, Joe Madden didn't want to take him out of the lineup. Yeah, he got outfield eligibility. It was, he played seven, appeared seven times in the outfield in 2021. Oh, right. They got it on Yahoo. You know what would be great, though? just following the circle,

is if they put him at second base and then just kick Gavin Lux out, which by the way, less of the arm needed at second base outside of obviously first, but I would love that. Let's get Shohia Tani at second. Bryce Harper hopes to return to Action Friday

in either a Greyfruly game or Minor League game. He's dealing with soreness in his lower back. And please, that would be so welcome. I got him in Tau Wars this weekend, and I also got him on my TGFBI team. So we need you, Bryce Harper. Kenley Jansen was scratched from his outing Monday with lower back tightness,

but Alex Corr said Jansen will make an appearance on Tuesday. They also said, we're kind of up against it here. So any other delay that happens, Kenley Janssen might not be ready for opening day. Junkhuli, who's been slowed by a left hamstring strain, well, tightness rather, we'll go with that,

will be re-evaluated on Tuesday to determine when he will return. Byron Buckson, good thing, Towers is in here. After yesterday with Yuri Perez, I don't think he could have taken this. Byron Bucson was scratched Monday with lower back tightness, though the team says, that it's minor, and Buxton is expected back soon. Okay.

DJ LaMayu is dealing with a pretty significant bone bruise on his right foot and might not be ready for opening day. If that's the case, it looks like Oswaldo Cabrera would fill in in the meantime. Louis Varland is expected to open the season in the Twins rotation with Anthony Desclavani Hurt. He's dealing with a forearm injury. Gavin Stone has officially been named as the Dodgers fifth starter to open the season. Rinaldo López will be the Braz fifth starter to open their season.

and Garrick Crochet, how things have changed. He is now the White Sox opening day starter and has had a great spring. Scott, how would you rank? Gavin Stone, Rinaldo Lopez, Garrett Crochet, late round sleepers. I think Ronaldo Lopez is a distant third because I just, I don't think he has the potential to pitch as well as either Stone or, or Crochet. Though, you know, if you're talking to deep league scenario, Lopez might have the highest floor just by virtue of he holds a rotation spot for the Braves.

But I'll go crochet slightly over Stone. His fastball has averaged like 98 this spring and a higher spin rate and it just looked like a completely overpowering pitch. We still don't know that he can go beyond three innings. So there is definitely a floor concern there with crochet. But the upside is exciting. The upside's exciting for Stone too. We've talked before about how his mechanics got messed up last spring.

because of a blister on his toe and there was a pitch tipping issue during his first go around the majors as well. I read that part of what clinched the spot for him, he struck out eight of the 11 batters he faced against the Korean national team and one of the exhibitions they were playing over there. So that was kind of the clincher for Gavin Stone

and remember his minor league numbers in 2022 were just absurd. So that's where I stand with those three. Crochet, Stone, and then Reinaldo Lopez. But all of them are draftable in any league 12 teams are deeper, I'd say. And if these stat cast numbers are correct, because we do have stack cast data from that game between the Dodgers and the Korean national team. Gavin Stone had 17 swinging strikes on 49 pitches, which is absurd.

Wow. Maybe he should be first. I don't know. He's my. I have stone over crochet. I got to see Crochet throw a couple times over at White Sox camp, didn't get to see Stone. But Stone, the biggest thing for me is just not walking guys. He's got one walk so far this spring, nine and two thirds. I don't know. I don't think that's counting the CREA outing. But he has just been consistent.

Like you guys said, like getting rid of those yips, getting rid of the pitch tipping, that's critical here because he has got a dominant strikeout changeup that was flourishing in the minors and absolutely fell apart here. If all of that's fixed, the confidence is there, Dodgers are easy wins. I know it can get to six-man rotation. And at some point, you're going to probably bump yourself out. But I'm going to worry about the now.

And I would rather the fifth starter with high potential on the Dodgers than the opening day starter for the White Sox any day. Okay. All right. Let's talk some of mine. I had one other reaction to something you missed, to something you rattled off here. Let me. Oh, DJ LaMayhew.

So a deep bone bruised. sounds like a pretty long-term injury to me. I know they're saying, you know, it's not for sure he'll tell him this opening day, but I think it's pretty for sure. Does Anthony Anthony Volpe move up to the lead-off spot? I was thinking about that. He was leading off here on Monday, and he's had a great spring, so it's possible. Yeah, ahead of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. I mean, it might be the most primo place to bat, certainly for scoring runs. Yeah, no, I think that's a good point. So we'll, we'll see. Opening day coming soon. Reds updates here. We've got quite a bit.

Jake Frailey left Monday after fouling a ball off his lower body. We'll have to wait to learn more there. Nick Martinez is locked into a rotation sparp and could have some spark appeal in deeper points leagues. Andrew Abbott and Brandon Williamson are competing for their fifth starter job, but Nick Ladolo is set to be ready for the Reds rotation April 10th against the Brewers. So Welsh, does he just take that spot from Abbott or Williamson? when he's ready to go, Nick Lidola.

Yeah, I don't think there's a question. Once he's ready to go, he is back into that rotation. I am still worried about it. I've been like, I don't, like, guys that are like outside the top 200, we really shouldn't be like too alarmist about any of those type of players. But there is something about like those crew of kind of sleepy pitchers that are sitting around there when Lidolo's there. And it's like,

man, we talked about at the open with Blake Snow. You want to talk about crash and burns. Lidolo kind of has that same crash and burn effect. I'm going to still trust. It's been a super slow spring. I know he's throwing some side sessions on the backfields. I'm going to probably still trust it because his ADP is just astronomically low. Yeah, 244.2 is the ADP there for Nick Ladolo.

Let's take our final break. When we return, a quick starter sit. That's right. We're there already because the Dodgers and Padres, the Korea series starts this Wednesday at 6 a.m. Eastern time. We've got a live draft tomorrow night. This is our last chance to actually talk about this before games are happening. So we'll do that. Let's take a break.

We'll talk about that game right after this. Dodgers taking on the Padres in Korea, Wednesday and Thursday morning at 6 a.m. Eastern time, 3 a.m. Pacific. I actually will not. I was tempted to stay up all night and just kind of watch these games, but I can't do it. It just doesn't make sense. No chance. I think the Dodgers pitchers are easy calls, right? Like starting Tyler Glass now and Yamamoto.

The only thing, Yamamoto was a little shaky at times throughout spring training. Are you guys just throwing both of them right in? right away. I mean, you drafted Yamamoto as your ace. I don't think you're sitting your ace, even if... All in. You don't know how to swim, kid? Get out there.

What about on the other side? The Padres, we've got you, Darvish and Joe Musgrove. Darvish has looked pretty good this spring. Musgrove up and down. The last start he had against the Oakland A's, said he figured some things out, and he did look much better in that start, but going up against a monster of a lineup here in the Dodgers.

You know, I'd still start him. I'd be more likely to start Musgrove than Darvish. Oh, me too. That's interesting. You said that. I didn't know if we would be on that same train. I feel dicey about Darvish. Also, like, I had someone asked me that start and sick question. I'm like, anything could happen right now. We don't know how stunted the offenses are going to look sometimes at the start or if it's going to be on the pitching side. We could see 18 runs by the Dodgers or we could see Darvish, you know, spin seven shutout innings. I just don't trust it. Darvish. His inconsistencies are kind of still like looming with me. I think Musgrove is going to simplify things. I'm going to go with Musgrove over Darvish if I had to choose. So Darvish is the only one that I'm potentially sitting out of the four starters. But most likely, I agree. Darvish is the one I'm most likely to sit. But most likely if you drafted Darvish, you drafted him to start for you.

And I think sitting him right away is just getting a little too cute. But he's like SB 4 or 5 for most teams, though. Yeah, but it's an extra start that nobody. else is going to give you, right? True. Yeah, but it is an extended week. If we're counting these games, this is that like wild big collection week. If it's an extended week, that's even more the case because either he's, you know, if you're lumping this series in with the first weekend of the season, then he's going to be

one of very few two-star pitchers. If you're lumping this weekend with a very, an extended, you know, first weekend through the first full week, a 19-day scoring period, basically. Yeah. that he's going to be one of the only three-star pitchers. So, yeah. And by the way, waiting eight days, by the way, or whatever it is, if he gets blown up for eight runs and you're sitting there looking at your team for an entire week

and you're like, I hate baseball. Yeah, but that's, you know, that comes with the territory. I think it'd be a rare scenario where I sat anybody, but Darvish would be the most likely. And, you know, if you're out there wondering, who does this apply to? Not many people, I will say, most leagues have not drafted yet. Yeah. They're going to be drafting this weekend. people, if not later.

But if your roto league specifically Hasdra is a roto league, there's really no reason not to count this series because you'll get a chance, everybody will get their chance to reset their lineups again. If it's a head-to-head league, you get the complication of, okay, how does this fit in with the first scoring period? And, you know, you should probably lean against counting it in that scenario

unless you're like a hyperactive commissioner who's willing to adjust people's lineups during the long way between this series and an opening day. Jackson Merrill has been in the news he will be the Padres opening day starting center fielder and what size leagues would you guys be looking to start him?

I kind of feel the same way like if you drafted him in a roto league why not just get the extra plate appearances, right? So just throw him out there. Yeah, I mean it depends who your middle infield option is. I'd weigh, there's a good chance you got him as a bench player and so you have just a better middle infielder there.

Though if it's a close call, I'd probably lean toward getting the extra games from Merrill, Jackson Merrill. It's not outfield eligible yet, unfortunately, because I think that would be easier in those five outfielder leagues. But yeah, I'd consider, you know, if you've got a really good at middle infield option, maybe don't. If you've got a suspect one, maybe do.

Any other fringe hitters that you should consider James Outman, Graham Pauley, Jake Cronworth? As far as sitting or playing, I mean, because I think most start, I'm in for most starters. The Jackson Merrill thing is kind of interesting. I'm probably leaning away from him. him just simply because I think it's a pretty tall task. You're traveling.

You're going to see Yamamoto. I don't know how many times he saw Yamamoto in spring. You're going to see Tyler Glass now just absolutely pumping in big fat. This would be the scenario that though I like Jackson Merrill and I think Jackson Merrill, I think he's a sneaky rookie of the year candidate. I just don't know this is the situation and he might only get, you know, I guess he supposedly he's going to get both of these games. But most of the common named starters that you've drafted, I'm not looking to bench any

players. The fringier guys like, I don't think, I don't really consider Outman like the Fringe. I consider like Merrill the Fringy. Maybe if somebody playing really deeply picked up a Grand Polly, something like that, Gavin Lux, like those players I can easily move without. But like the main core players I'm looking to start. Outman would be fringy in a three outfielder league, I'd say. But, you know, just the chance of getting two extra games.

And it's two Riteys that the Dodgers are facing. So I think if, you know, if you really want to be sneaky, if it's like a daily lineup scenario, So Jason Hayward is somebody you could maybe slot in there. If you have the roster space that you can afford to mess with that. So it's, yeah, two righties on schedule for both teams. All right. Before we get to the top prospects, the Wyatt Langford's and Jackson Holidays and those names, well, also I did want to ask you about spring breakout.

So this is an event that happened this year for the first time. It just happened this past weekend. Each team's top prospects competed in one to two games against each other. and it's a new thing that Major League Baseball is trying out. What are your just overall thoughts on this as an experiment and I guess how it went the first time? Yeah, I think I kind of said this before. This has happened before. Like there's a track record of it.

The Padres and Mariners used to do this. They had the prospect game that they would do during spring. I love personally putting this, you know, big platform up for the game's top players. Baseball's made the move to. get rid of manipulation in a way to try to serve prospects coming up. It's the best thing that you can possibly do to make the game younger and make people want to be more invested is get these new young players up. So from the macro perspective, like, I think it's a great thing.

I love that they were televising them. I love that for the most part, teams are putting out their big prospects and we were going to kind of get them to see them on display. Things that I would love is just common old man fantasy baseball now or baseball people. Give me statcast and every single. go park so we can have like all the data so we can really analyze all these players. Maybe even make it a series would be interesting like a tournament, a tournament style to see these guys more than one.

Anybody that evaluates prospects and stuff like you need more than a couple at bat. So a lot of people are going to make assumptions off of one at bat like Jacob Mizorowski. You know, he struggled with walks and he's got big powerful stuff. Paul Skeen's pumping up 101, 102. Like you get these guys in a futures game type setting where they're pitching like one or two winnings. Like, they're going to pump stuff up. There's big, uh, you know, hypered emotions that are going on. So I don't know. I think it's cool. I love hyping up these players. I love people getting

to see them. And some players definitely showed up. Paul Skeens absolutely showed out with this big powerful stuff and made everybody forget for 15 minutes about a fastball shape and whatever that meant. Yeah. It's hard to take much away from one to two games. It's just such a small sample size. But I'll just quickly touch on, you know, some of the bigger performers here. We're start with the hitter side of things. For the Guardians, their first base prospect, Kyle Manzardo, one for two with a home run and two walks. The Guardians then rewarded him by sending him down on Monday. So that was just classic guardians. The Red Sox outfield prospect, Sedan, Raphaela, who could also play the infield. Hit a three run homer. He's having a great spring.

Yankees outfielder, Spencer Jones, went three for four with two homers. Tiger's third base prospect, Jace Young, who was actually Josh Young's brother, went two for two with two home runs himself. Ray's first base prospect, Xavier Isaac went three for three with a double dung. That's two owners. And Philly's outfield prospect, Justin Crawford, went two for three with a steel. Scott, you'll get the first word here. When do you think we see Kyle Manzardo now that we know he got sent down?

And are we sleeping on Raphaela? Because we've kind of talked about him peripherally, but he's actually having a really good spring. Yeah, I think we see Kyle Manzardo soon. I expected going into spring training that he would just make the team and that he and Josh Naylor would trade off first base at DH. Obviously, the Guardians had other ideas, and he's already 24. He had a good spra. I don't know.

I don't know what, I guess they're doing the service time manipulation thing, or they're just keeping depth available by sending down the guy with options. I haven't investigated the roster to see what else they could have done instead. But I don't think Monsardo is going to be out for long. I think he's a fine stash, even in deeper rotisserie leagues. he'll be one of my I'm actually writing tonight about the top prospects to stash

at the start of the year so he'll be high on that list I'm sure and then Sedane Raphaela my favorite Ninja Turtle by the way I'm sorry yeah I've moved him up in my rankings

recently here he did have swing decision issues that really manifested during his first stint in the majors great minor league numbers but there was a lot of skepticism, even when he was called up, even before the struggles kicked in. So it's been encouraging to see him perform well this spring in theory. His power should play at Fenway.

It plays to his pole side. He should steal bunches of bases. He should have pretty high contact rate. So there is a lot to like here. And given how shallow or, yeah, how thin outfield is and those five outfields are because we're probably to the point where we should be considering Raphael in the late rounds. I'd take Jackson Merrill over him. But it's looking pretty likely Raphael is going to make the team.

And he's deserving of some late round looks too. Some pitching standouts I wanted to mention from this spring breakout weekend. You mentioned Paul Skeins-Welch. I mean, he let it fly for one inning. He struck out two, including Jackson Holiday. He was hitting 102 miles per hour. Just insane stuff. Bruner's pitcher Jacob Miziarowski.

He threw 2.2. no-hit innings with three walks and five strikeouts. Red Starter, Rhett Louder, through two perfect innings with two strikeouts. Cardinals pitcher, Tink Hens, two shutout innings with three strikeouts. I don't know who this guy is, but like, he was awesome.

Yankees pitcher, Brock Selfage, four shutout endings with eight strikeouts. That was pretty great. And Marlins pitcher Thomas White struck out the side in his lone inning of work. Welsh, were any of these names especially surprising to you, these performances? Skeens wasn't.

You know, this is like a showcase thing. There are some players that know how to showcase. Skeens know how to showcase. So that was kind of a nothing burger. You know, I will tell you, Miserowski more and more to me is feeling like we could go the relief route. And I'm not saying it's going to happen. And I don't think the team is going to make a rash decision to try to do that.

But the command issues really don't. They really haven't found themselves. And he's a wiry guy that can pump it up really high. you look at Devin Williams with the injury and I don't know just long term I wonder if they would go that route Rhett louder though just really want to shout him out I actually I talked to him the day before he pitched because he was hanging around at Reds camp I happen to be there and he was like I'm pitching tomorrow he has he has had so little work since he's been drafted and he had so much work in college up to the college world series that like for him to just step right back into action like he has having those two perfect innings I think it really undersells his stuff is not as powerful as some of these guys were talking about. He's a little bit more in that Tinkins type of area, but he is an elite command pitcher. I don't know if he can ever be the number one pitching prospect in like fantasy

for us, but really, I still, I think he's underrated because of the, uh, the lack of workload that he's had. He really might come on the scene this year, drop like some mid two ERA and jump up into everybody's face if it's not already. I think he is, uh, immensely impressive. All right. Let's get into the top prospects for this season. And I realize there's like 15, 20 minutes left. But I do want to keep this moving quick and kind of like rapid fire style. So we'll get a quick thought. We'll get again this new projection system, the CTW, Chris the Welsh projections.

And we'll start things off with Wyatt Langford, who we've talked about all offseason and all spring. He's been amazing. He leads spring training with an 1198 OPS and 17 RBI. He also has five home runs. Welsh, is he up on opening day? And if so, what is a realistic projection for Wyatt Langford? Yes.

he's up on opening day for sure. I did question it at some time because of the Corey Seeger situation, which by the way, I don't know if you mentioned, he did BP on the backfields today. So as of Monday, so that's really good to see. I kind of question that that would be a reason for them to hold them down. Hey, we need some extra support for, you know, for Corey Seeger in the shortstop position. It's going to be an embarrassing justification.

Like, well, we have to sit down because you've got to really learn to get the ball from his glove. of and throw it. Like, what are you going to justify that he needs to do? I mean, he is he's dominated statistically across spring training. One negative, I suppose that you could look at. Groundball rate was pretty high in spring training. If that's something you want to look at, around 50%. So that's, that is something that like, I've never been sold that he's going to be this mashing 40 home run hit or anything like that. He can get very line drivey. And I'm, we'll have to see over time, like how that continues to develop. But yes, he breaks out. Yes, yes, I do think that there could be some wavering ups and downs.

I don't think he is going. Now, the big question I get is, like, you were so convicted about Corbyn Carroll last year. Do you feel that way about any of the prospects this year? Actually, don't. I don't feel like overwhelmingly, I've got to take these guys top 50. There's going to be minimal struggles.

I don't feel that way, but it doesn't mean they're not going to be great. So I think Laneford could run into a few things, but I still have a pretty aggressive line for him. My CTWPs, if we would, will with Wyatt Langford. I think he's going to hit, I put 275 between 270 and 275.

I'm actually open to that even being less. 25 homers, 80 runs, 85 RBIs. And this is the guy, I think he steals less. I have 12 stolen bases on him. I think it can go less. By the way, last year, the Rangers had the least stolen bases as a team in baseball. So I don't know if they're going to give Wyatt Langford

this massive green light overall. Maybe they will. If he were hitting like two, I actually think that opportunity could come up a little bit. But I don't, I'm not going to be hyper aggressive on his stolen bases. But I do think the power numbers would be good. And the reason I'm more aggressive on the runs in RBI are the one thing they have proved is he's going to hit high-ish in that lineup. And it doesn't look like he's going to hit much further down than five.

Even six isn't that big of a deal. But if he does, if Evan Carter struggles at all, and you also all of a sudden have Simeon, or you have Simeon, Seeger, and then Langford hitting three and Adolies hitting behind him. That's ridiculous. I might be underselling it, but this is like a safe line. And this is why Langford can be drafted in the top, you know, 80, top 75. Because this is a pretty aggressive line I gave him. I just cut him short a little bit on the stolen bases.

It actually kind of looks like Glaber Torres in the outfield. If you think about projected categories. The ADP over the past week is 87.5 at the NFC, the 21st outfielder. He's going right around Brian Reynolds and Sayas Suzuki. That line that you read off, it sounds a lot like what I'm expecting from saying. Sounds like a lot like Brian Reynolds. Yeah. Like a Brian Reynolds or a say Suzuki.

Yeah. And I do want to stress that that is the more guarded projection, which isn't to say he doesn't have downside. Yeah. Same with Choria, the one you gave there. But I kind of, I try not to think in guarded, measured terms when I'm drafting prospects. I try to dream of the upside because I feel like that's the whole reason you're drafting them, right? You're hoping to hit a home run at a point in the draft where there are few home runs to be found.

What do you think is dream scenarios in your mind? Because I know what it is in my brain. Yeah, what's your dream Langford, you know, why you're reaching for him? What's your mind is after? Kyle Tucker? 30-30? Maybe trade off some home run. Maybe trade off some stolen base.

I think stolen bases is the least safe of those contributions, but that would be, that would be kind of the dream scenario for for White Langford. And the dream scenario for Jackson Chorio, I think, would be something like Julio Rodriguez's rookie season. Yeah, and I have, I actually do, I will tell you, I have one player we're going to talk about on this when we get to him. That is similar to a rookie last year in their production, but it's not Langford. I think Langford's dream scenario in his first season is like a 30, 20 season with 100 RBI. I want to stress also, Gunner Henderson had 100 runs in his rookie year. It's not ridiculous for running RBI numbers to be big.

Langford legit could have 100-100 season, 30 homers, 20 stolen bases, hit 280, and he's a top two-round play. for sure. And that's why you're drafting him. But I like the idea that baseline. The baseline is the Brian Reynolds area, which, by the way, we like to draft. But you're smart. You're smart in taking that upside. You do want to think in those terms. So you don't talk yourself out.

Well, I'll just get Brian Reynolds because it's the same thing. With the key being that you can't assume that upside outcome is going to happen and start elevating them to the fifth round. Like, I wouldn't do that. Yeah. And it is in contrast to Corby and Carroll because I was doing that with Corby and Carol by the end of last draft season. I was drafting them as early as like round four.

I think it's some 15 team leagues. I even took them in round three. And I don't have the same confidence level, like you said, in Langford or Chorio that I did in Carroll at this time last year. But if you can get them around the pick 100 range, maybe even as early as 80, if it's a shallow league. Yeah. I'd be willing to do it for the upside.

And the biggest thing, sorry, I know, move on. The last thing is because there's a player that I think this kind of happens to, the biggest discrepancy in my mind, why I was so aggressive and annoying about Corbyn Carroll, I thought the projected stolen bases were laughable. And I said it everywhere I could, laughable when you show me 16, 18 stolen bases, embarrassingly stupid. And that was my pushback that it was so aggressively wrong. A lot of these projections, they're in the general space. But there is one guy I kind of think that we haven't talked about him yet that I think is in that kind of Corbyn Carrollish, something's being wrong right now. What is the opposite of rapid fire? Would it be like slow,

water because I feel like that's what we just did with Wyatt Langford. But Langford's important, Frank. He is very important. Let's do like a minute or less on like the rest of these. Just so we can get to more. Evan Carter. Wells, does he play every day? Realistic projection.

Yes. Evan Carter plays every day. I do think there could be some struggles that lefty stuff could come into play. I don't project the power numbers to go big. But I think he can move down the lineup. He is more likely in my mind than Langford. So my CTWP projections. on Evan Carter are the best batting average of any of these guys,

285, but 15 homers, 18 stolen bases, 70 runs, 60 RBI. I think, honestly, he moves down the lineup a little bit, which is going to struggle with the run and RBI numbers. And I might eat my words if he continues hitting like three or four, and he does keep mashing, but I'm under 20 on both the counting stats of power and stolen bases. Scott, how do you rank Langford, Turio, and Carter for this season? I do think Carter's the safest. I've said all along,

Christian Yelich type production is what I'm expecting from him. I will rank them Chorio Langford, Carter, but I'm drafting them within 20 spots of each other. All right, let's just knock out all the Orioles.

Jackson Holiday, Welsh, is he up on opening day? Realistic projection. That's my guy. That's the one that I think the projection is incorrect. I do believe he's on opening day. They even said, by the way, they said that Kobe Mayo doesn't probably make the roster because Jackson Holiday, if Jackson Holiday makes it.

So I am more aggressive on him. I have him as my top guy. I have a 275 batting average. I think it could be higher. Would not be shocked if he were to hit like 290 or so. But I am treating him a little bit closer to Bobby Witt. I played down the power, but I'm giving him 15 homers, 75 runs, 60 RBI. and here's the thing, 30 stolen bases.

And the projections, I think, have him like under 15 across the border, at least under 20. I think this is wrong. Orioles are going to steal. He's going to do that. I think he's going to be a big doubles hitter this year. I might be underplaying the runs, by the way, as well. But it's the stolen bases, I think, that are wrong on Jackson Holiday. And he might just be so good in a points league, too.

I mean, between the plate is a plan, even if it's not home run power, we could get lots of doubles. And so, again, that will play up even more. more in a points league. Scott, how do you rank Colton Kouser, Kobe Mayo, Heston Kirstad in terms of fantasy impact this season? They're all talented players, but the problem we've talked about, the Orioles just have a lot of depth right now.

Yeah, I think I'm going to go Kouser, number one, because I feel like his spring performance, he's kind of leapfrogged Kirstad in the outfield pecking order. Who's number two? That's a tougher one. I'm going to say Mayo right now, because I saw a report earlier today that there's a chance Mayo could make the team if Holiday doesn't. Now, I think Holiday's going to, but if they're that close to introducing Mayo as their everyday third baseman, then, you know, he could be up pretty soon.

Well, so we spoke about Jackson Merrill a little bit earlier on. What are your expectations for him this season? Because he's such a good contact hitter, but do the power and speed translate right away here in the majors? No, I think there's going to be a little bit of struggle with it. I think I might have even given him an aggressive line. I gave him a 280 batting average. I guess I'm being a little too, Pollyanna about the batting averages, but also like Langford, Jackson Holiday, Jackson, Merrill,

those are specifically players that have really good contact skills. And that's something that Jackson Merrill does really well. I went 15 homers, 15 stolen bases. I just think he's going to hit kind of lower in the lineup, scoring a lot more runs, 75 runs, but only 50 RBI. So I don't think he's going to be a big RBI guy. I do think at the end of the day, if you were to say,

what will be more? Power or stolen bases, I think it'll lean stolen bases on his side. But I think he will be a good batting average run source, and then you're hoping things click. And they had been clicking on the power front as of recent. But I think he's going to surprise some people this year. Yeah, I think Jackson Merrill homered in back-to-back games here in the spring.

And I think he just had like a multi-hit game in one of those games against out. And I think they were facing the Korean national team or another different team. but yeah, Jackson Merrill obviously had a great spring, and that's why he's earned their starting center field job. The ADP since Friday for Jackson Merrill is 276.6. And Scott, I think, obviously, for you at least, he's worth that price, right? I think you said he's around $250 for you. Actually, I looked.

He's more around 200, so I have him 70 picks higher than his ADP. Okay. Welsh, could Graham Pauly be a sneaky ad in deeper leagues? It sounds like he's going to start at third base until, while Madi Machado is still kind of rehabbing the elbow and playing DH. We mentioned last week that he gives off some Spencer Steer vibes from last year. The difference is that he doesn't have great American ballpark to hit in.

I am going to lean no, unfortunately. I like Graham Polly. And I got some great video. You can check on my timeline of Grand Polly just destroying baseballs. But Polly really showed off some of the contact struggles in the AFL. He can get into some really bad trends. I think he's going to struggle from a batting average perspective. I wouldn't be shocked if he unlaunches,

a homer or two, but I don't think he's going to be super consistent. So I'm going to bet against Pauley, unless it's like the deepest of deep leagues right now. Let's talk about James Wood with the Nationals. He's having a huge spring and the Nationals have not sent him down yet. I find that pretty interesting. 13 for 40 this spring. That's a 325 average, three homers, three steals, a 1085 OPS and a 25% strikeout rate. Welsh, the problem here. Sky and I spoke about this, I believe, on our mailbag podcast last week. There's kind of this prospect's limbo where if there's a top prospect on a bad team, if he isn't up on opening day, why wouldn't they just save his prospect eligibility for the following year, right?

Like if he's going to be a mid-year call-up, just save him until September, leave that prospect eligibility for the next year, and then you're in play for another draft pick. So what do you think about that when it comes to James Wood? Is there any chance we see him this year with the Nationals? Of course, here's a chance. Oh, this year, I thought you're going to say like opening day. Like, I just, I think that's done. They're going to go to double A.

the part of my problem with this with this team they made that commitment they're like guess what we really like Eddie Rosario Joey Gallo these guys are cool and it's like no they're not those are not the players that anybody wants you should develop these young players they're clearly not they're going to build those players up try to create some trade value get something out of it and there's some compensatory pick just something at the trade deadline I assume Dylan Cruz and James Wood are not going to be likely until that August area but to your point why bring them up at all up into September so they don't exhaust eligibility. So the following year, you get not only the compensation, but if they were to win rookie of the year, you get the extra money. So I don't think they're going to be aggressive.

And I think all these ridiculous signings are proof that they are not in the market to showcase young talent. Let's talk about Junior Camerro of the Tampa Bay raise. He will start the season at AAA. And the raise like to slow play their prospects. Camerero does not turn 21 until July. Scott will start with you this time. When do you think we see Camerero with Tampa Bay?

earlier than not. So he's a strange case because they did call him up last September. It seemed like they were setting him up to be a rookie of the year candidate this year and hopefully score some draft picks from that. But then, you know, they, it became pretty clear from their offseason moves that they weren't leaving a spot open for him. I'm sure they want to see Jonathan Aranda and he deserves to be seen and Curtis Mead, same thing.

They've had a series of injuries already. how many more will it take to get Common Arrow on the roster? Not that many more. Of course, at some point, Josh Lowe is going to be back and some of these injured guys will be returning. But as we say, life finds away, Frank. So I would think before June, Common Arrow is playing regularly in the majors.

He'll be very high on that top prospects to stash list of mine as well. Welsh, if we get Camerro sometime in May, let's say we see him for 120 games this year. What would you project for junior Caminero? I think Caminero in, I actually wouldn't be shocked if he did one of those like 300 at bat like 20 homer stints where it's like some crazy thing and we're projecting it out. But 120 games, I legit think you're going to get 20 plus homers out of Camerro. I actually think he is the prime player to draft as your first bench spot and hold and be comfortable holding for a bit because one thing we know, he will be the player that everybody waste their fab on. They will unload their fab if he becomes available when he's not drafted.

If you can stomach it, I think he's the player that you draft, hold on the bench for a little bit, see if there's any rumbling, see if the rays can move Esoc Paredes, because if Caminero is given the opportunity, he legit might be a 30 home run hitter this year. All right, I'm going to throw a bunch of pitching prospects here way, Welsh. Paul Skeens, like Camerro, we know will start the season in the minors. I would assume the same thing with Jackson Job of the Tigers

and Ricky Teeteman of the Blue Jays, although, I mean, everything that's happened with the Blue Jays and Manoa, that fifth starter job, it looks like it's Bowden Francis's now, but I think Teeteman could probably take that pretty quickly. When do you think that we see these guys? Paul Skeen's, Jackson Job, Ricky Teeteman.

I would not be shocked if we got the shocking announcement that Ricky Teeteman made the opening day roster. I think that is a positive Bodin Francis. Come on. Bowden Francis has looked good. Come on. No, Ricky Teeteman. I think Bowden Francis could be like Tyler Wells good.

All right. Well, I'll eat my words when it happens and I'll get a Bowden, Bowden, what Bowden Francis, shirzy if it happens. But I think Teeteman could. I think Teeteman will get like 100 innings at the major league level this year. I think they want to push that.

I think Skeens, I really got to be, I think schemes could be anywhere from May 1st to July. I really think they could screw out of that. I'm less optimistic about Jackson Job. As amazing as he looked, he really shined in short stents. I just think they might baby him a little bit more.

And they've got a lot. They want to get out of Matt Manning and Casey Meyes right now. So I'm the least... They can't put them both in the rotation. I'm the least optimistic about Jackson Job compared to the other two. Four hitters that we know will be up on their respective teams on opening day. Colt Keith with the Tigers, Michael Bush with the Cubs,

Mason win with the Cardinals, Austin Wells with the Yankees. Scott, there just doesn't seem to be much enthusiasm for either of Colt Keith or Michael Bush. There's enthusiasm from you, but just in general, terms of ADP, it doesn't seem that way. Yeah, yeah. And I have more enthusiasm for Bush than Keith personally. I think that park's tough for everybody in Detroit.

But I think especially a left-handed hitter whose exit velocities are not as high as they could be. I think that could be a problem for Keith. Bush, I mean, he's going to a good place to hit most days. and, you know, it is just as a short of the lineup spot as Keith seems to be and has great on base skills, always did throughout the minors, even when he, you know, was kind of struggling at the newest level. He had a few stages like that, climbing the Dodgers system. I don't know.

I think this happened a year ago for Bush, there'd be a lot more enthusiasm. I mean, obviously third base is a lot deeper now than it was then, and that's part of it. But I just think people look at 26 in the age column, and they're like, okay, clearly this is a quadruple-A guy. I mean, the Dodgers didn't have a spot for him. They avoided trading him for a long time. I know he was considered a prime trade asset, and they kept holding out.

They finally had to give in and used Bush to kind of, you converted Bush into two other longer-term prospects, so they could kind of still preserve that future upside without wasting Bush, you know? And so it could go very well. I find it's hard to get him on my roster sometimes even in, well, even in 12 team leagues. It's hard for me to get him in. So I understand, but I also don't understand. And I think in leagues where he goes undrafted, he should be at the top of your scout team.

Well, so I know that they play very different positions and have very different skill sets, but how would you rank these four in terms of their impact this season? Colt, Keith, Michael Bush, Mason, win, Austin Wells. I am going to go Michael Bush one because I completely agree with what Scott said that's my guy

I think the send down of Pete Crow Armstrong also told us a whole lot by the way look at the roster with Bush they only have four lefties and between the bench

and the starting lineup so they need lefty bat so I think there's a commitment to Bush so it's Bush it's Colt Keith and then it's like a cavern and then it's like

Mason Wynn and then it's like another small like crevice and then it's Austin Wells Wells talk to me about your boy Jordan Lawler obviously you're out there in Arizona. Big DeBacks fan, we know. Does he need an injury to get to the team?

Or do you think maybe a good first month in the minors coupled with a bad first month from Geraldo Perdomo can get this done? Well, the latter is likely. Perdomo stunk absolutely stinks on offense. He's a new Nick Ahmed, horrible in spring, horrible at the back half of last year. He can't hit. He's an amazing defender. They do love him. But Lavello is really stubborn, so it's only so long. I am more worried. about Jordan Lawler and what their full thought processes of him. I will throw this out. I don't think they're going to do this, but I would not be shocked if we got a little, Jordan Lawler's testing the outfield,

if there was an outfield injury. Like, we're going to see him there. I think the bat is holding him back because I think he's fine defensively. The bat has not progressed enough where they can justify taking a all-star in Perdomo off the field. So I'm a lot less optimistic about Jordan Lawler right now, unless we do see, but even a hot like first month, it's in the PCL so we can question that.

So I don't know. I'm pretty lost on Jordan Lawler right now. Scott, two other pitching prospects that do have some excitement. Drew Thorpe with the White Sox, who I think gave up eight or ten earned runs here on Monday. It's pretty bad outing for him. And Christian Scott with the New York Mets. Who do you think when they get called up this season, there will be more excitement around from a fantasy perspective.

Drew Thorpe or Christian Scott? I would be more excited for Christian Scott, who I think has. great swing and miss stuff and a less problematic arsenal, let's say. Whether or not the enthusiasm will be shared by fantasy baseballers everywhere, I think it kind of depends just,

it kind of just depends how the height builds over the course of the year, you know? If a guy's dominating every outing at AAA, then enthusiasm, excitement can build up really quickly. But right now, he's less of a name for fantasy Christian Scott than Drew Thorpe is. Welsh, bring us home here.

Rank these final five hitter prospects in terms of impact this season. Chase the Lauder with the Guardians, Joey Ortiz with the Brewers, Pete Crowe Armstrong with the Cubs, Justin Henry Malloy with the Tigers, and Thomas the Jacey with the Cardinals. All right, we are going to go with my boy,

Chase DeLotter, who did not get sent down yet. Doesn't mean it's not going to happen, but he has shown up in spring, everything that we saw in the AFL. He's number one. Joey Ortiz is going to be number two, just by virtue of playing time.

I'm going to go down. I got to do this. Thomas to J.C. is going to be three, even though I'm worried about the playing time because there are so many guys around. But if, you know, Edmund doesn't come back right.

By the way, Victor Scott we're not talking about here. I think he should be drafted everywhere. He could be a league winning type of guy. He might break opening camp, get Victor Scott. I'm going to go to JC. Three, Justin Henry Malloy,

four, and then Pete Crowe Armstrong. I'm going to go five, even though he is probably one of the best paths to coming back. I don't know if that basketball. is going to come back alive. But I think the top two, DeLauder and Ortiz are the ones you should be paying attention to right now. You know, that is a bad job by me, not having Victor Scott be part of this conversation. Would he rank at the top of that list that I just gave you?

Hands down. You know what? If they announced Victor Scott is a starter today, higher than Jackson Merrill. Easy. Not even a question. I think Chris Towers would agree with you. I think he put like a small bet in on Victor Scott to lead the majors and so on bases this I like that one. I have a couple of those. I haven't done that one. But if he gets all the playing

time and he hits how he has been, guys are going to steal 50 in his sleep. All right. We're going to wrap there for Scott and 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'll be back again tomorrow. Bye bye.