Fantasy Baseball Today - Bonus Pod: Dexter Fowler talks Cubs World Series, Shohei Ohtani, New Rules & More! (6/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 15, 2023

Frank Stampfl and Chris Towers are joined by former Major Leaguer Dexter Fowler to talk Cubs ending the drought, being teammates with Shohei Ohtani, Elly De La Cruz and the new rules! He's also helping to raise awareness for Ulcerative Colitis through a partnership with AbbVie. Visit CrohnsandColitis.com to learn more information. 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.  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

Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Welcome into a bonus edition of Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, June 15. Frank Sample, joined by Chris Towers and a very special guest, former Major League outfielder and All-Star and World Series champion, Dexter Fowler. Welcome to the podcast. We really appreciate the time, man. Thanks for having me. Yeah, man.

Let's get right into it. I know we only got you for a couple minutes here. And I want to talk about that World Series win. You helped the Cubs and the 108-year drought. came back down from three to one in the series, which featured an extremely dramatic game seven, one where you hit a lead off home run off of Corey Klobber. Tell us some about the emotion in game seven throughout the series

and maybe a little behind the scenes on that Jason Hayward speech during the rainbow. It's funny because it's kind of a blur. I feel like that game lasted for three weeks. Every time everybody asked me about that, I'm like, dang, that really happened? That really happened? But, no, we had a, I mean, we knew we were the best team in the National League. We knew we were the best team in the major leagues at the time.

And it was just a matter about showing it. Obviously, they were up 3-1, but we knew we still had a chance. Ever get tired hearing World Series champion Dexter Fowler? Anytime they have champion in the sentence, that's what it's all about. Especially since we won the World Series, 108 years. Yeah. Can you tell us that all about that little Jason Hayward speech that we heard about during the runway? Well, I mean, Jay Hay called everybody together.

Everybody kind of spoke. Jay Hay started it off, but everybody kind of spoke. So everybody, we kind of cleared the air, you know, just between, you know, obviously, you know, everything that had been going on, everybody was down of sorts. Now, they came back and tied the game up. But I think everybody was ready to just go out and continue playing. You've overlapped a little bit with Shohei Otani towards the end of your career. Obviously, one of the true unicorns in the history of the sport.

What was that like? And have you ever seen a better player than him? Like, can you even fathom what he does every day? Yeah, so Shohei, obviously, is my teammate for a year. Just him and Trouty in the same room. Like, I mean, but then you see, you see Shohei. and Shoah is one of the nicest dudes you'll meet, right? Super respectful, comes in, gets his work done, works super hard.

He's never with the position players. You only see him hit before the game. He hits before the game. Maybe he takes BP sometimes, but he usually just hits before the game in the cage. But he always is with the pitchers. And it's crazy because, like, you look at him, you're like, this dude doesn't even, like, practice hitting. He's this good, right?

And he's the, not only is he the best player out there, he throws 100, right? Hits 450 plus foot homers. And the dude is the fastest dude on the field. Nobody knows that. It's wild. It's wild. Like the dude's Superman. Like you sit there and you see Trouty and Trouty at Trouty, like, Trita can't throw

100. Yeah, he had a home run the other day, 460 feet. It was basically on the inside lower corner that he hit the opposite. opposite way. And it's just like, I don't know if I've ever seen someone do that. It was funny because when he was in a home run derby, I was telling everybody, I was like, show he's going to win this. Like, just because I see him take BP every day, I remember the first time I saw this dude take BP. We were in, I was obviously with the Angels and I come out and we were in the minor league side because of the pandemic. So I'm out there. And we had this,

the weight room was kind of, they had this deck and it looks kind of over a field. And so I go out and I can't see who's hitting. And there's home runs going out left center. And I'm like over the scoreboard and they're like going. And I'm like, damn, who's hitting? Right. And it was crazy. I walk out and I was like, that's a lefty hitting a ball like that?

And it was Shohei. And I was like, this dude is unbelievable. Like right-handed pull hiters can't hit balls like that. And so obviously that pitch right there, like that's his sweet spot. And he goes the opposite way better than anybody. Show you, Tani, amazing. Dexter, in fantasy baseball, we're constantly scouting prospects and looking for the next big thing.

And prior to 2009, you were ranked as a consensus top 15 prospect in all of baseball. What was that like for you? Did you feel any kind of added pressures, just knowing that you ranked that highly on prospect list? What was that like? I'm glad you just told me that now because I didn't know that. So no pressure.

I'll just play. I'll just play. No, there was pressure. There was pressure. At the end of the day, but I think we as players put more pressure on ourselves. Nobody wants to go out on sale, right? So I don't think me and myself, I mean, I can't speak for everybody, but I didn't really care. I feel like I put more pressure on myself than the fans put on me, right?

Because I wanted to be great. I wanted to be great. You want to win World Series. You want to be all-stars. You want to do everything under the sun. And it's just a matter about going out and doing it and having that copy. that you can do it and that you belong there. Yeah, on that topic, the Reds recently called up Ellie De La Cruz,

six foot five shortstop. This dude's a monster. He's already declared himself the fastest man in the world. He's switch hitter who hits 450 foot bombs from both sides of the plate. He's the fastest player on the Reds already. Have you had a chance to watch him? And if so, what are your thoughts? That dude's a freak.

He's a freak athlete, right? And I mean, you go, I'd like to see him in Show Hey, Ray's. He thinks he's fast. He is fast. He's super fast. But like you got dudes like obviously Billy Hamilton. You got like like those dudes fly, right? And that dude flies.

He is fast. But I've seen a lot of guys that are up there with them. But I love his energy and I love his confidence. Obviously, you know, we love playing fantasy baseball and we're playing it and we're analyzing all of it. And were you aware of fantasy while playing? Like, did you have people heckling you or anything? And do you play at all?

Obviously, I'm playing in New York and I twisted my ankle, right? I'm rounding the base. I twisted my ankle. And it's probably like my third year in the big leagues or whatever. So I go and my ankle's swollen like crazy to have to cart me around like to the X, get an X-ray.

And as I'm going back, they're like, hey, Fallon, when are you going to be back? You're on my fantasy team. Like, man, you don't even care about my ankle, man. This is crazy. Like, all the only thing you care about is fantasy baseball. It was wild. I can tell you that we care about the health of the players.

I swear, Dexter. We were never rooting against you. We obviously want you to get back. I need stolen bases. I need you to steal some games. You hear that all the time. I'm like, oh, come on, man. I'm trying to play the game.

Yeah. Do you play fantasy at all, whether it's baseball or football or anything? I don't. I don't. I have two girls that are in the thick of things. I'm a dance dad. So, like, me sitting down and doing a lineup. I just can't wrap my head around.

another responsibility. It's like another full-time job. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. If I had the time, I would. Let's riddle off a few rapid-fire questions here, and the MLB has shortened games this season with the new pitch clock.

What are your general thoughts on the pitch clock this season? I like it. It speeds the game up. That's always a plus. I feel like the guys like it. You know, just being, I'm doing a lot of media stuff now. So, I mean, getting in there and the time of games, I feel like the fans love it just talking to them as well.

Yeah, in addition to the pitch clock, there's new rules limiting pickoff attempts. We've got the bigger bases. It's all led to an increase in stolen bases. You were a pretty good base runner in your own right. How many do you think you could have stolen with these new rules? I don't honestly, I don't get the bigger bases. Okay. I don't get that.

I can see the shift and the pitch clock, but the bigger bases, what's another? It's eight inches. you know, it's not nothing. It's not much. It's not nothing. Just get a little bigger lead. Yeah, and especially with those new gloves that they're wearing, too.

I don't know if you had those when you're playing Dexter, but it's like these mittens that add a couple of extra inches too, so I don't know. Oh, yeah, yeah, the little sliding things. Yeah, I didn't want. I wore one of those.

Mine was like this, and it just had the, like, pad right here. I think if you were still playing, man, we're probably looking at like 30, 40 plus steals from Dexter Fowler. I appreciate that. You're the fantasy guy, so let's play fantasy. Yeah, let's do it. I mentioned earlier, obviously, you had the chance to face Corey Klobber in his prime, one of the best pitchers at the time.

I know, like, you're going to have to scroll through a whole roll of a deck of all different kind of pitchers that you face in your career. But if there's one that stands out, like, who was the toughest pitcher, the one that you would step up and say, oh, gosh, not this guy again? I said probably Scherz. Max Scherzer. When I first faced Scherzer, like, when he was with a Diamondbacks, Scher's threw 100, and he was. everywhere. He was effectively wild. Like he had good stuff, but he never put it together, and it wasn't. It was like

around a play sometimes, and it's either ball or a strike, and it wasn't close. But everything looked and it was nasty. And then he became a strike thrower, and then it was just like, okay, this dude is, it's like the ground when the ground was on. Like, you're just not,

you could throw no hitter. Like, the dude's just that good. And he's going to come after you, which is awesome. All right. You're a pretty good outfielder in your time. Pretty good. Very, very good. Very, very good.

That's an all-star right there. That's an all-star outfielder. So you know the position. Who would you say are the three best outfielers in baseball right now? Like all around? Yeah, best outfield players right now. I mean, you got mookie bets. Yeah.

I would also playing shortstop in second base this year, which is incredible. I go at Cunia. Yeah. And I would go trying to think defense too. Well, Dexter, I've got some Yankee decals behind me. I don't know if you... I mean, Judge, yeah. I mean, Judge is okay, fielder.

He's a little better. Okay, come on, Dexter, don't sell my guy. He's past the middle in the center field at 6-7. That's pretty good. No, but he's good. Don't get me wrong, but they're better fielders is what I'm saying. But, yeah, Judge would have to be up there. MVP. Right now he's up there.

All right. Well. Yeah, yeah. I think that's perfectly a good group. Those are all first round picks in fantasy baseball as well. Aaron Judge, Mookiee Betts, and Ronald Lecuna. Dexter Fallow, before we let you go, man, it's been a pleasure speaking with you. I know there's something that you deal with in your everyday

life that you'd like to raise awareness about. Yeah, yeah. So I have ulcer to colitis and you know, it's obviously I shared that with the world now and, you know, I just want to bring awareness to that cause. And, you know, just, just know that there are people out there that, that, that, that, they suffer through it, too, Crohn's and Colitis. And, you know,

there are definitely some resources out there that you can go to and use. And that's Crohn's andcolytis.com. And, you know, they can answer any of your questions that you might have. And, you know, it's okay to be vulnerable. It's okay to be vulnerable and to speak up because you're only going to help the person next to you and obviously yourself. Yeah, I mean, tell us a little bit of more about your experience. Obviously, not just as a ballplayer, but you're a father, as you mentioned, as well, and maybe how that has affected some of the things in just your everyday life. Yeah, yeah. So I actually, I try to educate my family as well, like my girls, like they're four and nine and just even talking to know about it, eating right, not stressing, everything under the sun,

because at the end of the day, they're going to be taking care of me when I get older, right? So just to know, and they're going to be taking, maybe their kids, you never know. It might be hereditary and you get in that aspect of it just so they know how to deal with it. And they have some markers to look out for as well. Almost two million people live with inflammatory bowel disease. And I know you have a partnership as well. Would you like to reveal more information about that? Yeah.

Yeah, so I'm a partner with Abbie and they came to me when I shared my story. And, you know, at the end of the day, like we said, we're trying to move into the right cause. And that's getting people educated and about the disease and helping them through their process as well, through Crohn's and colitis.com. Yep. I just wanted to, again, remind people of that website, Crohn's and colitis.com, where it's a valuable resource and Look, we know the value of information or resources, everything that we do here on a daily basis, talking about fantasy baseball.

Obviously pales in comparison. But again, that's Crohn's and colitis.com. That is World Series champ, Dexter Fowler. Thank you so much for taking that time. We really appreciate it, man. See, Chris, that never gets old. I know you like it. Thanks for throwing us, Dexter.

Definitely how we're going, guys. All right. We're going to wrap there for Dexter Fowler and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again later on tonight. Bye-bye.