Fantasy Baseball Today - Bold Predictions, Season Awards & World Series Winner! (3/29 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

Let's jump into 2023 bold predictions, starting with Corey Seager (4:05). ... Will Anthony Volpe hit for a lower batting average (7:30)? ... More bad news for Dylan Cease (14:55). ... Darick Hall could be Rhys Hoskins 2.0 (19:15). ... News (23:38): Hoskins will have ACL surgery and Andres Gimenez signed an extension. ... Charlie Morton gave up four home runs during spring training (30:30). ... How good can Oneil Cruz be (34:45)? ... Graham Ashcraft is gaining steam (36:30). ... How many steals will Corbin Carroll get (39:50)? ... Let's get into our ROY, Cy Young and MVP picks (47:46). ... We wrap up with our division winners, wild card teams and World Series winner (59:30)! 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.  Fantasy Baseball Today is a finalist in the Baseball Category for the Sports Podcast Awards! Quickly create an account and vote here: https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/best-baseball-podcast/ 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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Last year, my preseason World Series pick was the Brewers over the White Sox. Let's see if we could do a little bit better. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, March 29th.

Frank Stample joined by everybody. Scott White, Chris Towers, and Chris the Welsh. Today on the show, we have our annual season preview, bold predictions, award picks, and of course, our World Series winner. Before we get started, make sure to like this video and leave a comment and subscribe if you haven't already. If you're listening on the audio side,

we really would appreciate a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. Thank you very much. Reminder that you can always go back and listen to all of our shows on demand. And last week we did a huge prospect preview with the Welsh. Just yesterday, we did our 16 team head-to-head categories listener league draft, which was a ton of fun. If you want to sit through like three hours worth of drafting, feel free to check it out. But gentlemen, we are one day away from opening day.

How's everybody feeling? How are you guys doing? Tired. Tired. Yeah. For us, opening day is both a finish line and a starting line. Yeah. Yeah, it's like whenever the NFL season starts, it's the same thing for me where people are like, how are you feeling?

Like, things are about to get crazy. It's like, things have been crazy. If anything like the month before the season starts for us is the craziest part. Once the season starts, you settle into a routine. You've got, you know, we know we got to do this on Monday. We got to do this. Like that's somewhat easier. But this is, yeah, this is the hard part of the year.

I think probably what Frank was asking was more how we feel about the start of baseball season. Oh, is that it? I was like, I'll save it for my therapist. I'm stoked. I'm absolutely excited that because like you guys have been doing this just like me. This has been six months, six months of the, I mean, the season didn't even end and we were already pushing to this. Six months culmination. Now this is the season part two.

It's like we just experienced our season and now we're going into like winter league. baseball where it's just a whole other season that's going to go down. I'm just excited to see what it looks like. I'm excited to get yelled at. I'm going to get yelled at. As soon as Lars Neupar goes 0 for 18, I'm going to get streamed at by everybody. Jeffrey Springs gives up five runs. My mentions are going to go wild.

And it'll be dead silent when Corbyn Carroll has a two home or two stolen base game, something like that. But I'm very excited for all the results. Yes. Yeah, Byron Buxton's going to get hit by a pitch of my mentions on Twitter are going to be a disaster. You and me both. You and me both.

Yeah, I feel like every time, anytime any Buxing does anything, we're CC at C Tower, CBS. That's pretty much what's going down. Guys, let's get into some bold predictions here. I look back at some of our last year's bold predictions. Chris Towers and I, we were quite bad. Scott hit on two of them, which, look, if you hit on one, I think you're doing a pretty good job. Scott went two for four. These are trying to go over the moon.

Yeah, like I try to go. I try to emphasize the bold aspect of bold predictions and that it's it's kind of two degrees beyond what's believable, you know? So yeah, that I hit on too, I think is frankly, very lucky, very lucky. Yeah. Those two that you hit on. Jake McGee doesn't get more than five saves. He had three last year and both Dalton Varsho and Alejandro Kirk finished as top five catchers in fantasy that happened in head-to-pointe leagues. Kirk was sixth in Roto, but you know what, Scott? We'll give it to you We'll give you credit for that one. Why don't you get us started here, Scott?

Your bold prediction number one. All right. Let me pull up my old document. The old trusty doc. Let's see it old trusty doc. All right. All right. So we'll kind of ease into it.

Corey Seeger wins the AL batting title. The entire batting title of the entire AL. We'll go to Corey Seeger, who, you know, I feel like, whenever there's some pushback to our Corey Seeger enthusiasm, which has been a multi-year thing. So I get people are just tired of us raving about Corey Seeger. But there's a focus on how low his batting average was last year in the 240s.

Worth reminding everyone, Corey Seeger entered last season as a career 297 hitter. He was as consistent of a 300 hitter as you'll find. So last year was a big exception. and basically all analysis that everyone's done on the subject suggests that Corey Seeger was the player most victimized by infield shifts last year. And the shifts are going away. So, you know, kind of a double-pronged attack here on Corey Seeger's bad batting average last year.

You got regression to the mean, regression to norms, and you have the shifts going away and him standing to be a big beneficiary from that. And oh, by the way, last year's batting title winner is in the NL now, Louise Arise. So less competition. I think it wouldn't be surprising if Corey Seeger hit between 315, 320, and it's a good chance that'd be enough to get it done. Yep. As we mentioned, all offseason last year, Corey Seeger only hit 245. His XBA was 283, according to statcast.

And if spring training is an indication of what we might see from Corey Seeger this season without the shift, He went 22 for 55. That is a 400 batting average with four home runs and OPS up over a thousand. I think he's ready for the season to start. The ADP over the past week at the NFBC for Corey Seeger, 227 drafts, by the way. That's not his ADP, I wish it was. 44.4. Yeah.

So if you wanted Corey Seeger, I hope you're one of those early drafters because there is no discount anymore. You got to pay full price. I think I got them once as much as I rave about. I just did my last draft today, 13 teams. I think Seeger's on one of them. I was about to say, did you get them? Did you get them in today's? No, no, did not.

Our shortstop is Carlos Correa. I did a double tap in one league where I took Seeger recently and then I waited a little bit later in a discount on Wanda Franco on both of those just playing that game. I want to point out also, Chris Towers, I believe has an article coming out on bold predictions. And I have, I believe my stuff will be. being there as well. I have a tied-in MLB prediction to the Texas Rangers that will align very well with Mr. Scott White because I am a believer in the Texas Rangers this year being much better. And I think one of my predictions in that whole baseball one ties very, very well to Corey Seeger on it.

All righty, a nice little sneak peek there. And yes, the article will be out Wednesday morning, Wednesday afternoon. So be on the lookout for that. CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball towers. Let's go over to you. Bull prediction number one. Yeah, I'm a glutton for punishment. I like to get yelled at. And so I'm going to go with a bold prediction that will make everybody mad. One of Jordan Walker or Anthony Volpe will be set back to the miners. Look, I mean, you could also throw Corby and Gunner Henderson in there.

Come on. Come on. They've at least made it to the majors and held more than held their own. Look, I'm as excited about Jordan Walker and Anthony Volpe as anybody. I just did my last draft of the year. I drafted Jordan Walker for $14 in that league. It's a pretty good buy, I think. You know, don't.

Not if he's in the minors. Don't trip over yourselves to congratulate me. Look, it's just, it's overstating things to say that, like, there's a 50% chance of a top prospect being sent down. That's probably not true. If you look back at like the 2020 or last year's top 10 on baseball prospectus, which was just what I happened to be looking at, I think seven made the majors and only Spencer Torkelson was sent down.

Look at the previous year's top 10. Six to Sanchez, Ian Anderson, Jared Kalanick, and C.J. Abrams. Now, they didn't all get sent down as rookies. You know, Ian Anderson didn't get sent down until like his second or third year. So, you know, that's a resounding success. But the point is, just to remind ourselves that in March, it's really, really easy to talk yourself into like, nothing bad's going to happen. Jordan Walker's going to be the best player in baseball.

Anthony Volpey's going to steal 50 bases and hit 20 home runs and be the next Derek Jeter. Those are possible outcomes. And we have to talk about fantasy sports as in the context of ranges of outcomes. And young players, rookie players are worth drafting because the high end of their range of outcomes can be incredibly, incredibly valuable and incredibly lucrative based on the prices you pay. Like Jordan Walker, I paid $14 for him. That's a lot for a guy who has to this point in his career accumulated $0 worth of fantasy value. However, it's entirely possible he's a $25 player this year and it looks brilliant.

But the error bars are really wide. And just like the high end outcomes for rookies are really, really high and potentially very lucrative, the low end outcomes are very, very low. These are guys who have never proven it. I mean, you know, Anthony Volpe and Jordan Walker effectively haven't proven it at AAA. You know, Anthony Volpe got there, but he wasn't particularly good. He wasn't terrible, but it was like a 700 OPS. So it's just a reminder during a time when we all get very excited.

Spring is a time for optimism. April can be a time of wet blankets and just putting it out there. We don't always know where those wet blankets are going to be, though. Sure. That's part of it. And, you know, it might be some pretty established players who don't come close to your expectations, which certainly happened with numerous last year, Jose Berrios immediately comes to mind. On the subject of Anthony Volpe and Jordan Walker, I was preparing for this last draft of mine.

It's a main event team that I share with somebody else. And I was looking at the main event event draft results, the ADP, since the Volpey announcement this week and then he made the roster. Volpey's ADP is actually ahead of Jordan Walker's since that announcement in the main event leagues. He's going inside the top 100. Now, that wasn't the case in our draft. We actually took Jordan Walker with Anthony Volpey still on the board, mostly because of the favorable eligibility.

Walker is going to be eligible at their base and outfield soon enough, which are the two most difficult positions to fill, I feel like. But I kind of get it, because I've said before, I think Volpe, for being a 21-year-old rookie, the floor feels pretty high

because the plate discipline's so good and the steel's total should be, like, when he gets on base, he's going to run a lot. I feel confident in that. So there's going to be that nice, regardless of what the batting average and the home run rate looks like, he should have a lot of steals for you. Shout out to podcast listener Kevin Price, who sent in a very informative email today calling out Scott White directly. That's right.

I actually have that. The email, yeah, I'll just read it. Scott was just the latest person I've heard to say that Anthony Volpe was unlucky with his 272 Babbup and AA. But has anyone checked his batted ball data? a 56.9% fly ball rate and a 23.2% infield fly ball rate. Those numbers are off the charts high. Highest qualified fly ball rate in the majors was Kyle Schwabber at 51.1%. And he had a 240 bad. He was lucky. Like this sounds like what I said was Anthony Volpe got off to a really slow start at double A because it was especially cold. And then his batting average from this point forward was this. I don't think I used the word unlucky. I think this is a guy.

you know, who just assumed that because it's something he's heard before. That's what the, he was kind of putting words in my mouth. I'd be very curious, was that information? I mean, because that's important. That's, it's a great information. But, you know, if you go back and look at Volpe, he hit 197 in April. He hit 207 in May. And then June it picked back up.

Like, what's the level of all of that infield fly coming from the first two months compared to the back half of the two months? And it may work in his favor and everything like that. But there's a lot of pick and choose out of. of all of this with Anthony Volpe. I think the big thing to focus on as well is just he was able to recover. This is a guy that always, you know, hit relatively good as far as batting average has gone in his minor leagues and hit 294 in 2021.

Rookie year we don't really care about. But 249 was more of an outlier of who he was. And he was able to recover from hitting almost 200 and two months while hitting over 290 to 300, the rest of the way through and get his average back up and put up crazy counting stats. So I don't know. I feel like it's like a little picky. when we're talking about Volpe, and I think that's the place that everybody's in right now.

Everybody's defending and destroying these prospects and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, like, Volpe does have a better floor than Jordan Walker. And I think I said it maybe last time I was here or somewhere else. But I actually think with both of these guys guaranteed, I prefer Anthony Volpe a little bit over Jordan Walker just off the maybe risk factor for this season. There's a lot to unpack here. I actually had that email for later on in the podcast, but it's totally fine. I like where your head was at, Chris, because I was going to bring it.

up as well, five emails in five minutes. Now we only have to do four emails in five minutes. Good. We might even get three emails in five minutes done this time. But I thought it was a really good point that that listener brought up as well. And it's something I hadn't noticed. But high fly ball rates coupled with high infield fly ball rates typically lead to a very low babb. It's not something that I've pointed out before with Volpe. So I'm happy to bring it up. And yeah, maybe it does lead to a lower floor for that batting average. And we were expected at first. for Anthony Volpe. Let's move into the Welsh's

Bold Prediction Number 1. What's you got? All right. I'm going to save my favorite one for last, and I have a couple. I've got to pair these down because you'll see a few in the Chris Towers article

that's coming up. How about this one? I think you're going to like this one, Frank, and I won't go into crazy craziness here. But Bold prediction is a negative as well, and maybe there'll be hate. Dylan Seas, Chicago White Sox pitcher, will be the third most valuable starting pitcher

out of this rotation in fantasy. Lucas Gialito will overpass him, and Lance Lynn will overpass him. We don't obviously care about like spring stats being the totality of it all, but I think it's enough to acknowledge the horrific spring he had, an over 70 RA, a 188 whip,

and that kind of encompasses the problem. The floor that he provides are those big strikeout numbers. I think Chicago White Sox can be a good team this year. I don't necessarily think it's going to be at the expense of Dylan Seas. Like I see Dylan Seas like Syung numbers and I just kind of, I just don't get it. I think the the walk numbers overall are alarming. I think the consistency is alarming.

I think Lucas G. Alito is going to come back to being the ace of this staff. And Frank, you know, you've talked about it. Lance Lynn is the guy. Lance Lynn is a guy that you want to put on. I think Dylan Seas could be last in wins among these three. And I think from a fantasy value perspective, we're going to look back and we're just not going to enjoy the spot that we got Dylan Sease. So bold, however level it is, he is the third most valuable Chicago White Sox starting pitcher and for our fantasy teams.

And we want some, you want some Chris synchronicity, some synchrochicity. Chris X. Chris. Yeah, one of my three bold predictions in this piece, which will be on CBS Sports.com on Wednesday morning. Dylan Seas finishes with an ERA over 4.0 is one of my bold predictions. that would be nearly two runs higher than what he did last season. I've talked about it a lot, but he went from being pretty bad in terms of quality of contact allowed to being very, very good last season.

And that is the type of jump from one year to the next that I just tend to be very skeptical of because pitchers, they have control over the quality of contact they allow. They have less control over that than hitters do. And it's very, very noisy. We typically need multiple seasons worth of data to know a pitcher's true skill level when it comes to quality of contact allowed.

And then I also added this note at the bottom of it, which kind of overlaps with what Chris said. I'll also note that C's is one of those pitchers. I just think less highly of every time I watch him pitch. It feels like he's constantly on the verge of a meltdown. This might just be an aesthetic criticism and my own bias leaking in, but it's there and it colors how I view him.

I just like, he's one of those guys that like you catch him in the wrong five pitch outing or, you know, outcome. And it's just like, you're like, how, what is this guy doing? And so I, I'll admit my own bias there. I just like, I don't think he's that good. And I struggle with that because I'm not really an eye test guy. And so like the numbers are what they are.

I believe in them to a certain extent. Chris, or Dylan Sees is one of those players that I'm, I'm more skeptical of the numbers than than with most players. Yeah. And the numbers really feed into his spot too. Like you want to like try to pair halves together. He was as dominant in the first half as a. second half, but, you know, it just stares at you when he'll look at like 78 walks.

I think it a relatively high left on base percentage and his inconsistencies don't feel like they're going to be able to be paired over entire season, even though he did it last year. It's one that it could be wrong about. You could be totally wrong about this in the long term, but it's just not one I want the investment on, especially with that volatile of a walkie pitcher, if you will, where I think Lucas Gialito and Lance Lenn are trending in the right direction. But, Scott, did you have something to add to the hate? Hate, hate, hate, hate.

Oh, I was just going to say, you know, since. You know, with the Welsh joining the fray, we're kind of the anti-Dill and C's podcast, right? I don't think any of us are in on him. Well, then get your shares in, everybody. Get your last-minute shares in for Dill and C's. I did get one share in a league, really shallow league, so you could take bigger risks. And also, it's a points league where strikeouts are worth a full point. So I thought that mitigated some of the risk there with CIS, but otherwise, yeah, pretty consistently passed them over.

Bull prediction number one for me. Derek Hall outperforms what Reese Hoskins did with the Phillies last season. So 246 batting average and 30 home runs. Derek Hall is better than that this year. Slugging will not be an issue for Derek Hall, who posted a 17.4% barrel rate last year. That actually was higher than, I believe, Reese Hoskins has ever posted in his career.

Much smaller sample size, of course. Among hitters with at least 50 batted balls, Hall's barrel rate ranked seventh ahead of Shohei Otani, Austin Riley and O'Neill Cruz. So, I mean, we're talking about what we think to be some of the best sluggers in the game. The only downside here, of course, will be we expect Derek Hall to sit against left-handed pitching,

but I don't really know who he's sitting for. It's not like the Phillies have all this depth now. They've lost a bunch of players to injury. So maybe he has to play. And, you know, maybe he gets a little bit better. He's been bad against lefties and the minors. I get it. But I think when he plays, he's going to hit a lot of home runs.

He is one of those guys who would probably benefit from a fantasy perspective from not playing every day. Because it's sort of like Jesse Winker back when he was at his best against the Reds and his like, his top line triple slash numbers were probably a little deceivingly awesome because he sat against lefties so much. But like, yeah, last year, I think this includes the majors and the minors, but he only had 12 played appearances against lefties and the majors last year. Seven strikeouts in them. 175 average 242 OBP 314 slug against lefties between the majors and minors for Derek Hall last year.

That's rough stuff. Awesome against Ritey's though. Yeah. I think it's mostly going to come down to whether the improvements he made the spring were legitimate. And, you know, you can find a lot of, oh, this guy changed this thing, this guy changed that thing. And it's, of course,

When the numbers back it up, it's a little more easy to see the glass half full. In Kevin Long's case, or Kevin Long's the Phillies hitting coach, Derek Hall's case, he worked with, the story is he worked with Kevin Long, the Phillies hitting coach, one of the more well-known hitting coaches to be more selective at the plate, wait for his pitch, which, you know, is an important thing to do, easier said than done, but considering how much the plate discipline has improved for Derek Hall this spring, Tiny sample though it is, spring training, though it is. There may be something there.

The Phillies seemed pretty excited and quick to anoint him the starter once it was announced. Reese Hoskins was out. They could have gone and made a big offer for like Luke Voigt or somebody like that. Let's take our first break here. And when we get back, we'll get into some news and more bold predictions here on fantasy baseball today. Saturday on CBS, the NCAA men's basketball championship erode to the final four reaches its final. destination. In Houston, coverage of the semifinal games begin at 3 Eastern with at the final four and the Final Four show, all leading up to tip off at 6 when Florida Atlantic faces San Diego

State, followed by Miami clashing with Yukon, the NCAA men's final four national semifinals this Saturday on CBS. True story, I don't know anything about college basketball, but I used to love Yukon. I took them to win our FBT bracket. I currently ranked 14th out of 285 people. I don't know. Anything else that I chose probably has not come to fruition, but I still have Yukon, so I feel pretty good about that. Chris, let's go owls. Who? Chris, you're also 14th. So I don't, I don't know. I guess I believe I have Alabama winning, so I'm not going to win. But yeah, I'm I'm reading for FAU because one, I went to FIU and people get us confused. all the time and like maybe that'll benefit me in some way.

Maybe I'll tell someone, hey, yeah, I went to FIU and they'll be like, oh, I want a bunch of money on them in the tournament. I just won't say anything and maybe they'll buy me a drink or something, you know? Azard went to the U, right? So he's probably, he is a UM guy that's, he's on fire. Both teams are somewhat local for the Fort Lauderdale based CBS sports crew. And I believe Dave and Adam both went to UM. Um, and we try not to hold that against them.

All right. Let's get into some news and notes. Reese Hoskins is scheduled to undergo surgery on his left ACL this Thursday. We know that he is expected to miss the entire season. Andres Jimenez and the Guardians agreed on a seven-year, $106.5 million extension with a $23 million club option in 2023. Good for Hermannes, get your money. But I tell you what, the guardians were never going to give Lindor the money that he got from the Mets.

So this is basically their alternative and maybe it works out. Jimenez was awesome last year. I think he might have even had a higher war than Lindor. He did. Yeah, he was really good. Like sixth in baseball in war last year or something. He had a higher war than Lindor had in any of his years with the Guardians. I love Jimenez this year so much.

I know you guys saw too. Like essentially the spring stats, if you've gone over it, Jason Collette just put this out. They've about doubled stolen base attempts. And there's just something in my brain that Anders Jimenez is going to be the one of the biggest beneficiaries of and is going to be running wild. And just for any of those folks that are out there, 150 to 1 for Honduras Jimenez

to lead the league and stolen bases right now in some places. I just kind of can't help myself with them right now. To continue with a theme, though, if I may be a wet blanket. Unders Jimenez did not attempt to steal in the spring. He only played 10 games. Saving them legs,

saving them legs, baby, saving them legs. You only get it so many in the colds. He was also in the WBC, just throwing that out there, WBC a lot. I know that we brought up Ahmed Rosari. as one of those players as well because the sprint speed has always been super high.

He just doesn't run that much. So maybe someone who benefits from those new rules as well. Hunter Brown is on track to be part of the Astro's rotation to start the season. He recently battled some lower back tightness. Jorickson Profar resolved the visa issues and is on his way to join the Rockies

right now as we speak. Both Tony Gonselin and Daniel Hudson are eyeing late April returns to the Dodgers. Gonselin dealing with a left ankle sprain. Hudson continues to rehab. from ACL surgery that he had last June and could throw a bit of a curveball into that Dodgers closer mix.

We keep talking about Evan Phillips and potentially Brewster-Graderol in that role. With Tristan McKenzie expected to miss time, it sounds like Hunter Gaddis will step into the Guardian's rotation. His ERA last year in his minor league career, excuse me, 3.90,

but comes with a lot of strikeouts, 338 strikeouts, over 251 and two-thirds, innings pitched. That is Hunter Gaddis. Welsh, any chance that the Guardians accelerate someone like Gavin Williams or I think it's Tanner Bybee because that's what I learned while watching minor league baseball videos. But everyone's been calling him Tanner Bibby. I think it's Tanner Bybee. Yeah, I'm 100%. It could be either one of them. Whatever you say, yes is what I will agree with you on that. By the way, everyone's going to love Hunter Gaddis Gadis. If you haven't looked at him recently, he looks like a mountain man. He looks like a wrestler.

He looks like a wrestler. He's wild. I was at the Guardians game against the Royals right before the end of spring training. And he walked out and I was like, who is this guy? I'm like, what is this? He's just a mountain man with the hair.

He's awesome. I don't believe Gavin Williams is. I think he had a little bit of, like a little bit of held back in the spring, just a tiny bit. But, uh, Bibi, uh,

whatever. I think Tanner is definitely a possibility. The year he put up last year is phenomenal. I think it's put him up at the front line of the rotation, especially with, you know, Espino, a complete afterthought right now. Gavin Williams is just not ready to be that guy. But I do believe Tanner, a bivey-bibby would be the next guy up. And could be a guy if Gaddis does struggle early on.

But if he does succeed, he's going to be like a little cult favorite by everybody with a big old locks. Bye-bye. Bye-bye bibby was a play that a musical that my high school did, I think. Bye-bye bibby. Bye-bye, baby Tanner. Yeah. Okay. I'm with it.

Scott. Some nicknames in there. Hunter Gattis himself, though, I think is worth keeping an eye on, especially given the Guardian's track record with bringing the best out of their pitching prospects. Those strikeout rates are very impressive. And this spring, he had 17 strikeouts versus three walks and 13 innings. So I'm not saying he needs to be added in any 12-team leagues. He did get drafted in the 15-team league I was in today, though.

So somebody gets a little flat though So in that game He gave up two first inning homers In the game that I was at He gave up one to M.J. Melendez a solo shot And he gave up a monstrous one to Edward Olivares And that was kind of the starting lineup They hit out there

And he just kind of gets flat as far as like his stuff goes So we'll have to see I don't know how long of a leash they're going to give him He really got beat up in those first couple endings And that kind of took him out So I'm a little bit worried about the stuff Not playing up like we're kind of used to with some of the Guardians pitchers.

But yeah, again, big strikeout numbers, so it's going to be interesting to see. There is no timetable for Adelberto Mondesi's return as he continues to rehab a torn ACL that he suffered last year. Johan Oviedo will be in the pirate starting rotation as J.T. Brewbaker battles a forearm injury. Oviato was solid last year, 3.21 ERA, 1.29 whip, 11.2% swinging strike rate.

He made his final spring start on Tuesday. He had seven strikeouts with 16th, swinging strikes on 70 pitches and his slider was up 3.2 miles per hour compared to last year. Very deep league name. Johann Oviedo, maybe NL only, but someone to watch early on as well. Lioti Tavavers will begin the season on the IL. Any interest in Bubba Thompson who had 67 steals between the minors and majors last year. They like Robbie Grossman. They are Robbie Grossman starting. I think Bubba's interesting, but Bubba hasn't really been hitting. They haven't treated him as a starter, by the way, on the backfields. He's kind of been isolated. Lyotia's kind of been as well.

I think he's going to be restricted. I think if you want to speculate, you can speculate. But that commitment, like a week ago to Robbie Grossman, I don't know, really said a lot to me. So I'm just not, I'm not locked in that, and I know obviously, like, he can still get a spot with Leotty out. I'm just not locked in that they're going to do that because they also were playing Josh Smith. They started this about a week ago. Josh Smith is an infielder, but they were playing in center field at one of the games that I was at. They had Cole Calhoun. Robbie Grossman and him and Josh Smith was in center field. They are experimenting with that.

And don't be shocked if Josh Smith gets more work in center field than Bubba Thompson. Okay. I know Josh Smith was dealing with a thumb injury, but it looks like he was back on Monday. So should be healthy for the Rangers there. Stupid Yankees. They reassigned Willie Calhoun to the minor league camp. Come on, man. Like, I had a great spring.

Give him a chance. Not yet. Any you. You and Willie. You and Willie Frank. I love him. I love him. Performances worth mentioning from the final day of spring.

training. Scott, I'm not just saying this to mess with you, I swear. But Charlie Morton allowed two more home runs and he gave up four homers total this spring. It's 12-inning, so it's a small sample size. But that's coming off allowing a career high 28 homers last year. So I thought it was worth mentioning. I would have liked that to be different in spring training, though I imagine at the stage of his career that he's at. It's really just about getting his work in. I don't know. Like I thought I was super high on Charlie Morton relative to the consensus. I only ended up drafting him one league, one of those 13 leagues.

So I'm not even all that invested in him, strangely. It's a few players like that. Max Muncie, I feel like nobody's higher on Max Muncie than I am. One league. I think it was... Vinnie Pee. Two leagues. Vinnie Pee. Baby!

The Head to Head Points Listener League last week, Chris and I were chanting for you to draft Charlie Morton, and you still didn't do it, so can't play must. And I had the chance, yeah, the Memorial Magazine League. That's what you're talking about, right? Oh, was it that? That happened. Yeah, that option we did.

Remember, I was holding out for Joe Ryan, strangely, because I have Charlie Morden ranked higher than Joe Ryan. And I ended up getting Chris Bassett instead. I just kind of mismanaged it. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe he's done for, but we'll know a lot more at the end of April than we do here at the end of March.

Yeah, something to definitely watch early in the season with Charlie Morton. Freddie Peralta threw four and two-thirds shutout with five strikeouts. He averaged 95 miles per hour on his fastball. Last year, he was at 92.6. Never higher than 93.6 in a season in his career. So also something I want to watch early, the fastball velocity for Freddie Peralta. Yeah. That's very, because he's always been a guy who's like the loudest car in the world goes past my apartment.

I don't know. Jet. That's a rocket ship. That's about, you didn't have SpaceX right now. Yeah, that was pretty Peralta's ADP. Yeah. Frilelis always had a really good fastball. You know, remember before the breakout, that was all he threw, really.

He was like a 70% fastball guy and he hit it really well and he had really good whiff rates. So throwing it even harder is pretty interesting. That's going to definitely be something to watch for sure. We were waiting for Red Demers to get into a ballpark with statcast. he finally did. His fastball was up 2.8 miles per hour. His slider up 4.4 miles per hour compared to last season.

So the reports were true about the velocity being way up. But he was bad. He was pretty bad in this one. Two and two-thirds, six hits, three runs, three walks, four strikeouts. Yeah, he struggled with control

and command mightily in the parts that I was watching. So we'll see. Maybe this increased velocity is something that throws his control off a little bit. So I don't know. We'll have to watch that as well. I'm big on Detmer's. He's kind of part of my stuff.

The dirty little secret out here, it's incredible. For whatever reason, Salt River Fields of all the ballparks is the only one with stat cast stuff. I don't know why the rest of the Cactus League has not implemented them. It's really frustrating for full stuff. But that's why you get a lot of skewed things. If you look at Springs training stats as far as Salt River, because that's the place that you're going to get them. And that's what helps the guy like Detmer's getting in there. It's so stupid, by the way.

Yeah, he did still. he have three strikeouts, four strikeouts, three walks. So he ends the spring with 27 strikeouts to eight walks. That's still pretty good in what, eight, you know, 21 innings. Yeah, I'm not too concerned about a bad outing. You know, the control was mostly there throughout the spring. So I'm still very excited. He's definitely one of my most drafted players.

I made sure to get him in my last one tonight. I think I got him for nine bucks. So, I think that's a good price. Yeah. All right. Well, that is Reed Detmers, and we'll watch early in the season. Let's run through a few more bold predictions before we get into our season awards

and all that fun stuff. Chris Towers, we'll start with you this time. Bold prediction number two. I've got two really fun ones. I'm going to go with... You know, you could have chose both of them and just avoided the down-talking the prospect. Well, I'm going to have...

have an opportunity to kind of talk about one later. So I'll go with O'Neill Cruz finishes as the number one shortstop in fantasy. And look, it's, if you've listened to this podcast for probably five minutes at any point this spring, you've heard us talk about what makes O'Neill Cruz such a special player. Granted, he might be more of an intriguing collection of tools than an actual baseball player right now had the hardest hit ball in the stack cast era last season I believe had the highest velocity

throw tracked by an infielder in the majors because Mason Wynn is out here throwing like 98 miles an hour from shortstop which just seems unfair to his first baseman and O'Neill Cruz had the 12th highest average sprint speed in baseball last season which is just to say that

he's ridiculously tooled out and he is outrageously skilled and if he comes even somewhat close to putting all of those tools together at the same time, he's just going to be a fantasy monster. We saw it in September last season. He got the strikeout rate down to like 28% and put up close to a 900 OPS and was on like a 30 homer, 30 steel pace. I think he has that kind of upside. And frankly, I don't think 30 homers is his ceiling.

I think 30 steals might be his ceiling just because like, that's a lot of steals. Yeah. But 30 homers is absolutely not his ceiling. 40 homers is probably not O'Neill Cruz's ceiling. Scott, let's go right back to you. Bold prediction number two. Okay, so this one's bolder than the Corey Seeger batting title one I gave. All right, you ready for this?

Ready. Graham Ashcraft. Leads. The Reds in strikeouts. That's pretty spicy. That's pretty spicy. That's a spicy one. Yeah.

Graham Ashcraft. More strikeouts than Hunter Green. More strikeouts than Nick Lodolo. A guy who seemed to have that latent potential just by looking at him throw that 100 mile per hour fastball. It's really more of a cutter. But, you know, didn't have a lot to go with it. And didn't put up particularly good numbers as a rookie.

He comes in with a new slider grip. And the strikeouts just exploded this spring, 25 and 17 in a third innings compared to just two walks. And it impressed those on the Reds beat enough that I mentioned this the other day. They were asking Joey Votto toward the end of spring training who he feels like has the best future between Hunter Green, Nicolodolo, and Graham Ashcraft. Like they were mentioning Ashcraft in the same breadth of those other two, which I found interesting. that that would be the talk among the Redsby. And so... Did you hear his answer, by the way?

He took a very political answer, just kind of talked about the merits of all the pitchers, and then said Alexis Diaz. It was the best. Yeah, we know we're talking about that. It was such a great answer. He's like, well, so the best of those three would be Alexis Diaz.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love Joey. He's a good one. But so was Graham Ashcraft, I think. And, you know, as Chris was reiterating, These are obviously like two degrees beyond what we're really believing could happen. But Graham Ashcraft is a guy who I'm trying to make sure I get late in all my drafts if I'm still drafting. Or, you know, I'm going to extra dollar on fab bidding to pick him up off the waiver.

I just have a good feeling he's going to be the spring training. When we look back on this season, oh, who are some of the guys making noise in spring training and went on to have great years? Graham Ashcraft's going to be among them. And I think Scott kind of referenced it, but like bold predictions, it's not the thing you think will happen. But it's like in the direction of the thing you think will happen. Right. Like it's not like Scott doesn't actually think Graham Ashcraft is going to get more strikeouts than Nicolatoa Hunter Green. But like he's saying he likes Graham Ashcraft, you know, that kind of thing.

Chris, did you say and I wouldn't put money on it? but it's not the craziest thing I've ever heard of. I want everyone to note when Mr. Scott White gave that, not only did he give the bold prediction, he crossed his hands, got back in his chair and was like, it's the most confident I've ever seen Scott White in anything of all time.

I think you do believe this one, and I love it. Hey, they're bold for a reason. Scottie's in on Graham Ashcraft, Welsh. Bowl prediction number two. All right, this is one of my favorite ones. And there's a little betting component to it as well. It's no secret that I love me some Corbyn Carroll.

Like right behind. And if you're watching the video, you can see that jersey back there. My bold prediction is Corbyn Carroll leads baseball and stolen bases. He is the stolen base leader. This spring, he stole five and under 50 at bats, which is absurd. If you want to play a 600, if you wanted to play the spring game, by the way, of 600 or bats, you're looking at 60 stolen bases

that he's going to end up putting up. Obviously, he's the fastest man in baseball. And, you know, you could definitely have a question about like what the ultimate power is going to be with him, but this guy just gets on base. Funny anecdotal thing,

Enosaris and I were talking about Corby and Carol today. And we were likening how his max EV had not hit 110. And, you know, he wasn't quite at that 110 marker, which could be a question of like his big major max power. Yet he has a 92 plus average exit velocity on the season,

or at least in spring training and what was marked, which really shows a consistency of how he is hit. And he gets on base. And I know even if they have him at five, that's fine. I think he's going to hit at the top of the lineup. And then you want to pair it against the guys that are favored in the league. Ronald Acuna ran a whole bunch last year. I still don't think it's going to push 40 with him.

It's a big bat. Estuary Ruiz would be number two in a lot of books. I've seen 7 to 1. I don't think Estuary Ruiz is going to hit well enough to be able to do it while hitting in the back of the lineup. I do want to make one point there because I noticed something really interesting with Estuary Ruiz in yesterday's game because they're playing, I think they played that one in Oakland or in one of the parks that has stack cast data.

He did have a 109 mile per hour. He did. Exit velocity on a home run, which was way, harder than any bad at ball he hit last season, his max exeval in the majors of 100.2 miles per hour. So that's, I think your point makes sense. Bree is going to be hitting at the bottom of a bad lineup. And I think there are real questions about the bat anyway.

But, you know, he might just be Jorge Mateo. I think that's probably the most likely outcome. But Mateo steals a lot of bases, but he didn't play enough to like factor into that conversation. And I wonder where that'll go. We also looked at that, by the way, as three. spring training and the data we could get average 83 miles per hour exit velocity. That sounds right. Compared to a 92 plus, almost a 10 mile an hour difference on the average exit velocity

between Corby and Sterlingerese. So my point isn't to like tear everybody down, but to say that the opportunity of the players that are up there, and Advertamondisi is up there. Get out of here. I think Ronald Acuna looks like the best hitter with the best probability to do it. Yet I just don't think he's going to need or want to steal at that clip where the diamond backs will. And Corbyn Carroll has hit.

He did it this spring. He put up absurd numbers. If I had it in front of me, he was like, fourth and walks and OPS. He had 1100 OPS. He had 17 hits of 500 OBP at spring numbers. But my point is,

is he gets on base. And if the power isn't even translating into home run power, he steals third base. He's not afraid to go from second, third. He did it in the futures game last year on the first pitch. Funny enough,

Shane Lingalear threw him out. My point is, I think it's 15 to 1 right now. Now, you can get Corby and Carroll to lead the league. That's going to be my bold prediction. He's going to do it on the base paths. And it's also why he wins in our rookie of the year. You know, my only objection to this, not sure it's that bold.

It might not be that bold. Well, I did say he would lead the league in stolen bases. I mean, I think he's going to steal a lot. But yeah, you might be right. It might not be as bold as we really think when it all, you know, push comes to shove at the midway point of the year. But I'm going not just leading. I said lead the diamond. I think I said it on here, like three months ago, when everyone was like, oh, Jake McCarthy,

I said he's going to lead the diamond backs in stolen bases. And now I'm going down and saying he will lead the league in stolen bases. But yeah, might not be bold enough. The final numbers for Corbyn Carroll this spring. 17 for 46, 370 batting average, 508 on base percentage, 1138 OPS with five steals. Again, that is Corbyn Carroll. I have something on him in just a little bit as well. Bold prediction number two for me.

I'm just going to quickly mention this one. The Marlins produced three top 30 starting pitchers for fantasy this season. We know Sandale Alcans for as long as he's healthy. That's the near lock. Jesus Lazzardo, I've had him in breakouts 1.0 going back to January. So I think he can be a top 30 starting pitcher. Then we just need one of Trevor Rogers or Edward Cabrera. And given the upside, there is some downside.

I get that. The upside of both of them. I think one of them could do that. And we get three top 30 Marlins starting pitchers in fantasy baseball this season. Johnny Coedo Erasure. Hey, Johnny Quedo will be top 30. Might actually be Yuri Perez erasure. Johnny Quito, top 30 starting pitcher in NL East only leagues.

A bonus bold prediction that I wanted to mention. Scott and I did not coordinate this. We did not coordinate anything, and it is uncanny how similar picks Scott and I have coming up. It's crazy. It's been too much time together. We really do. Our general baseball prediction was that multiple players would steal 50 bags this year.

I actually said I think at least three players will do it We haven't seen a single player steal 50 since 2017 I think it was Dee Gordon and Billy Hamilton did it the same season It was like 59 and 60 respectively for those guys I even give you three names that I think are gonna do it And that was Trey Turner Corby and Carole and Estuary Ruiz So just putting it out there on the record I'm not even joking I almost put that in as one of I was good

And three was the number two that's so where I promise you I was gonna go Maybe I don't do Corby and Carol and do everyone's going to be like, oh, Welsh, Corbyn Carroll. So I was going to say, three guys steal 50 plus stolen bases. That is wild that we're all there, which guarantees no one will steal more than 35.

Well, you know what that tells me? It's not bold enough. Maybe not. Who goes 60? And I throw a couple more at you just with no analysis, just, you know, real quick. Yeah. Blake Sable is a top 10 catcher in head-to-head points leaks.

I like that one. I told you off air about my feelings on Blake Sable. I like it. And since I've hit on two saves, Bould's predictions the last two years, last year you mentioned the Jake McGee one, Frank, the year before I said Anthony Baskets, no more than two saves, and that's exactly what happened. At least two Mets, at least two Mets,

record more saves than David Robertson this year. I like that they're always negative. I like that you have negative saves. That's the only way you have to be negative on somebody. And you're going to nail it. Like from a game theory perspective, that's pretty smart, though. Because, like, you just need one other guy to get saves on a team. Yeah.

You know, like, David Robertson could be awesome. But Adam Adivino gets the first chance and never relinquishes it. All of a sudden, Scott looks like a genius. And then they go trade for Alexis Diaz. I mean, part of it is, I mean, that is kind of the point of the prediction, right? Is like, there seems to be judging from ADP data, this widespread presumption. Oh, David Robertson's the guy. He was, you know.

He spent a lot of last year as a closer. And that was kind of how I felt about Jake McGee last year and Anthony Bass the year before. There just seemed to be too much assurance relative to reality for all of those relievers. I think the same is true for David Robertson. I don't think he's the best reliever in that bullpen. And I think there's a good chance he's not in the mix for saves for long, if at all. All right. Well, if you want to find the rest of our bold predictions, make sure to read Chris Towers's article.

which will be on the site on Wednesday morning, CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. We'll take our final break and be back right after this. Welcome back into fantasy baseball today. Let's wrap up with some season predictions and awards. Again, Scott and I are so sympathetic. It is wild. Just give me names for these or names of teams

because obviously we don't have enough time to get really deep down into this one. Worth mentioning, Chris Towers and I both hit on Justin Verlander last year. We predicted ALC. Sy Young Award winner, and that's exactly what happened. I chickened out. I was going to do the same thing. I ended up going Shane Beaver. Yeah, I can't take credit for it.

I did chicken out. It's almost a clean suite. This year, it will be you and I who predict the AL-Sy-Young Award winner together. But first, let's get into the National League Rookie of the Year. I mean, I think I have a pretty good idea where everyone's going. Welsh, you want to lead us off? Oh, Corbyn. Corby. I was just pointing Corbyn Carroll. It's bad podcasting, but I was just pointing Corbyn Carroll. Funny enough, Jordan Walker did adjust some odds out there of Corbyn Carroll's likelihood.

You do have Kodaisanga, I believe, that still is going to qualify in there. So there's a lot of competition and some maybe pitchers to be had to come up. But at the end of the day, I made the bet personally like a month ago. It is Corbyn Carroll. Scott? It better be Corbyn Carroll. I got a lot of bad situations in fantasy leagues. If it's not Corbyn Carroll, who I ended up taking in round three of that main event,

league. Interestingly, I got Nolan Aeronado in round four. I just given my saga with stud third baseman and never being able to get them in round late in round two even. I just wanted to point out, I got Nolan Aeronado on round four in that 15 team league tonight. All right. Towers, NL. Rookie of the year. Corby and Carol, I think the biggest thing that he has on Jordan Walker, I could see Jordan Walker being a better hitter, but defense does matter. And the Cardinals are talking about Jordan Walker coming out of games late with defensive replacements with Dylan Carlson being used that way it's gonna cost him some at bad opportunities I think just Cor McEl is gonna be a much more valuable

defender so I think he's an easy pick here all right make it a clean sweep Corby Carroll that means there is no chance he wins rookie the year now all four of us chosen I wanted to mention a long shot James Outman who will be on the opening day roster for the Los Angeles Dodgers let's move over to a L rookie of the year And Scott, we'll start with you this time. I'm going Anthony Volpey. I picked, I mean, those two were the rookies. I said I feel best about the floor.

Same reason for both. Great plate discipline. And there should be no shortage of stolen bases. So there was a big defensive hurdle to clear if we're ranking rookie of the year winners by projected war. Obviously, Volpe playing shortstop. But, yeah, I'm going to go Volpe. Chris Towers, AL Rookie of the Year.

I think Gunner Henderson's the obvious pick here. And, you know, part of it's just we've seen him at the major league level. He was very, very solid. He was at like a four-win pace. So I think he's a pretty safe bet. Chris Welch. My head says Masataka Yoshida. My heart says Anthony Volpe.

And I'm going to go with my heart. And I'm going to say it's Anthony Volpe. Also a team that I think is to make the playoffs. I do not think the Red Sox are going to make the playoffs. You're talking about war. You're talking positionals. stuff, you're talking Yankees, and I like the floor of Volpe that I think there's just an edge there and I think he's going to take it down. And I made a bet on both of those guys, by the way,

to hedge both bets, Yoshida and Volpe I have my investment in. All right, well, you know, look, Yankee fan, you know I got to go with Anthony Volpe, right? So three out of four of us going with Volpe, you know what that means. Of all the dramatic things I've ever seen. All right, let's move over to what do we have up next? NL. Sy Young Award. Towers, you're up first. I'm going to go with Sandy Alcantara Homer Yeah a little bit But it's also just like

I don't know man He led in the baseball reference Version of War last year By two wins Over the next closest pitcher It wasn't as close I think Carlos Rodon actually led the NL And the Fangraphs war

Which I think the Fangraphs version of war Is kind of silly for pitching But that's a different discussion I think we should judge things On the actual runs that were allowed not some theoretical amount of runs that were allowed, but that's fine. I just, Alcantra is such an innings eater. He stands out so much in that regard that I think if he's anywhere close in ERA,

I think he's going to be the Siong winner. Chris Welch and L. Say Young. I can tell you, I think my worst things are Siyang, so I'm just going to put it out there, don't listen to me. I think there's so many guys that eat into each other. I'm going with Verlander. I think him and Scherzer hurt each other, but at the end of the day,

I just think Verlander's going to eat innings. He's going to have strikeouts in there. I think he's going to have the most wins. I think it's just going to make a lot of sense. And he's not the favorite on a lot of odds books. I'm going to go with Verlander. All right, Scott, reveal your NL-Syung Award. We have the same pick for AL and NL.

Of all the players that we could choose, we somehow came up with the same players. So I don't know how to sound. All the dramatic things. I'm going with the other of the aged Hall of Fame-bound Mets duo, Max Scherzer. No, not Kodi-Sanga. Not Kodai Zer.

Max Scher, I mean, he pitched at a Tsayung level each of the last two years, 238 ERA, 0.88 whip, 11.3K per 9, the last two years. It's just he missed a little bit of time with silly things, not major arm injuries or anything. So, you know, if he just holds up, which I think he can, then he might be the odds on favorite at that point. Yeah, he's, I read an article. He has a stated goal to get back to 200 innings pitched.

Obviously, I'm sure a lot of pitchers say that. But I think if Scherzer gives 180 innings this year, he could very easily be the best pitcher in baseball and win the National League, Sa Young. So I chose him as well. Let's go over to the American League. Wells will start with you this time. Going with Jacob de Grom.

I think, again, coming back to the Rangers stuff, I think if he puts up 160 plus innings, which I know is a wild thing to hear, I think he could lead baseball in strikeouts. and I also believe that the Rangers are going to make the playoffs. And I think he's going to be a big portion of that. And a healthy DeGrom is an easy Sai-Young winner. But there's nothing easy with Jacob DeGrom in his injury history. So I'm going to go with DeGrom and I'm easily the only.

I don't even need to see what the list looks like. I'm easily the only one taking DeGrom here on this. Chris Towers, A.L. Say-Young. Yeah, I'm the guy who's going out on a limb and picking the number one pitcher in the American League in fantasy, at least. And that's Garrett Cole. who I know the ERA tends to be a little inflated. He's never won a Sayyung, which is kind of wild to think about.

I think if he gets the ERA below three, which I think is very reasonable, given the innings and strikeouts that he's going to pile up on what I think is the best team in the American League, he's going to win the Sion this year. Wow, this guy moves to New York, and now all of a sudden,

Hey, I'm walking here. He's a Yankees fan. He's choosing Garrett Cole. Hey, aye, aye. New York City, baby, pizza. I do love some pizza. Chop cheese. You know, I've never had chopped cheese in my life.

It's just like a cheeseburger, right? It's just like a cheeseburger, like in a sandwich bun. I don't know if that's exactly it. We'll have to talk about this. Scott, as I referenced many times, this is a pretty long shot pick for both of us, but somehow we wound up on the same players. Yeah, I said I talked myself out of Justin Verlander for Syung

last year. I came close to doing it for this pitcher, but I said, no, I'm going to go with my gut. Christian Javier is going to emerge as a Cy Young caliber pitch. Any for any, he's already there. It's just a matter of sustaining it over more of an ace workload. He is so good at limiting hits and then getting strikeouts on top. Like, there might be no pitcher in baseball better equipped to throw a no-hitter than Christian Javier. I think he gave up one hit or fewer in five different outings of at least five innings last season. There you go. He threw a combined no-hitter against the Yankees last year and then left after the sixth inning in the World Series with a no-hitter intact. Yeah, I think that was including the playoffs, yeah.

He found the consistency last year. He's going to add the volume this year and he's going to take home the hardware. Look, the Astros need him too. They lost Verlanner, so they really need Valdez to be an innings eater again. They need Javier to step up in that way, too. So I am with you, Scott. We are a sympatica, as I mentioned, about 10 minutes ago. I said, you know, let's just give out names so that we could get through everything. No one's just giving out names.

We're all going names. NL, we're going names. Give me AL and NLMVP, just your picks. Scott, we'll start with you this time. ALMVP, Shohay Otani. He should always be the favorite. Correct. NL MVP

Juan Soto I think he's going to have a huge year for a contender All right Chris Towers AL and NL MVP Chris Towers AL and NL MVP

Sorry I had to scroll Shohei Otani He should be the favorite every year Ronald Acuna That's my number one player I think he's going 4040

I think the Braves Probably win the wild card Sorry Scott They're still going to make the playoffs Oh, wow. That never happens, you know. Like, anytime the Braves and Mets are considered co-favorites, it's always the Braves who come out on top.

You realize that's right. I don't know how much history there is there. Does that also, does that forecast the future, though? Just because it happened in the past. Correlation doesn't equal causation. I also have to point out how much of a frontrunner, Chris, is with his award picks. Yeah. And what was, who did you go out on a limb?

for Gunner Henderson. Sandy O'Contra. I told him he won last year, but nobody else said him. Look at Scotty coming for you, Chris. Attack. Attacked. Names, names, names, guys.

I'm sorry I said the team that won 101 games last year is going to win their division. I'm so sorry. What a jerk. Wells, A. L and NL MVP. Otani, they get it right. I can be honest with you.

As a weird one, I wanted to put Otani as like a Cy Young in there as well. I thought about it. Okay. Yeah, that was what... My whole reaction is he wins both. I did it on another show, and then I'm like, ah, it's doing crazy here.

We can't do all of it. My MVP on the NL, I'm going with Trey Turner. I think the Phillies are going to have a huge second half. I want to point out one dark horse. It's funny, you guys mentioned it. Soto, Tatis. I actually think Machado is a dark horse for that team. I think they all eat into each other.

That's why I didn't do it. Soto, the injury stuff worries me. Tatis missed time. I think Machado could actually be the MVP out of that, but I'm going to go with Trey Turner, big second half for the Phillies. Names. All across. the board. Shoah Otani, ALMVP.

By the way, Welsh, they got it right last year in choosing Aaron Judge. They did. It did. It was like an all-time great offensive season. Right. What I wrote in the piece is injuries or judge being possessed by the spirits of Ruth and Garrig are the only thing standing in Otani's way.

Judge definitely beat Hitter Otani for sure, but he's two people. No. NLMVP, Welsh, you and I have the same pick there. Trey Turner, I mentioned I think he could steal 50 bases. I think he can hit 25 to 30 home runs. If he does that together and the Phillies make the playoffs, I think there's a good chance for Trade Turner to win the MVP.

Do we want to do all these division winners? Yes, yes, yes. All right, well, then you got a power through. Come on, you know, we're getting up there. Scott, let's go. Give me your American League division winners and wild card. No, let's go division by division. We all give a pick.

Let's go. All right, A.L. East, go. Yeah, Blue Jays. That was terrible. Scott first. Blue Jays. Yankees. Yankees.

I have the Yankees as well. AL Central. White Sox. Guardions. I have the Guardians. I have the Guardians as well. Let's go clockwise, guys. Al West.

Mariners. Astros. Astros for me as well. And the wildcar teams. Astros, Angels, Yankees. Blue Jays, Ray's Angels. Seattle, Texas, Angels. and I have the Blue Jays, the Angels, and the Mariners, three teams.

Kiss of death for the Angels right there. Chris was the only one who put the Rangers in, Chris Welsh. But I was tempted to have all three of the wildcars from the ALS. There are four teams there that are going to be, it's going to be a dog fight between everyone but the A's, the poor ace. Sneaky sneak. All right, well, NL East. I wonder where a scout's going. Braves. Mets.

Mets. I too have the Braves That was the toughest division for me to figure out Let's go to NL Central Cardinals Cardinals Cardinals. Cardinals across the board NL West

Sticking with the Dodgers Padres Padres for me I am going with the Padres as well I have a bet in on the under for the Dodgers regular season win total this year NL Wildcard teams

So I have Mets Padres Phillies. I'm curious to see if we all have the same six teams. I think there's, I've looked, but I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure we all do. Dodgers, Braves, Phillies. Bonus, bold prediction. You need 95 wins to get into the playoffs in the National League this year, except for the NL Central. That sounds right. I have a Philly Dodgers, Atlanta, so I think that finishes it out. Yep, I've got the Dodgers, the Mets, and the Phillies as well. So all the six, all the same six teams, and I thought about getting the Brewers in there, but I just couldn't do it.

They could win the NL Central. They're not getting a wild card. From Brewers, I think the Cardinals are a lot better than the Brewers, but I guess that depends on partly how you feel about Freddie Peralta, and I'm down on Freddie Peralta. All right, well, let's get to our World Series. Picks here, blank over blank.

Again, I had Brewers over White Sox last year. You can't do worse than that. Welsh, we'll start with you. I have got the Padres over the year. Yankees. Padres do it. Well, uh, towers. Padres over Astros. And Scott, again, we did not coordinate this.

We could have chosen any teams. We could have chose any teams. And we somehow fell on the same two. Scott, reveal our World Series pick. Braves over. Boo. Mariners. That's right.

That's exactly right. I was debating so hard. Like, the Braves and Mets. are so close to me in terms of the division and then coming out of the National League. So I was thinking like Mets are Braves over the Mariners. I think the Mariners could really surprise people this year. They have enough pitching to get it done. I think if Julio reaches the ceiling that we think he can get to,

like their offense will be amazing too. They've got a good bullpen. I think the Mariners have everything set and ready to go and make a big push. How did they say Oscar Hernandez from last year and still have a great bullpen? Let's do it. All right. Well, those are all of our bull predictions. Our season predictions for Scott.

Towers and the Welsh. I am Frank. Thanks for watching and listening to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.