Fantasy Baseball Today - Bonus Pod: MLB Draft First-Round Recap w/ The Welsh! (7/12 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 12, 2021

How does Henry Davis compare to other top catcher prospects for Fantasy (3:52)? Can he turn into a J.T. Realmuto type? ... Let's talk Vandy boys (10:08)! Jack Leiter or Kumar Rocker for Fantasy? ... What does Jackson Jobe's upside look like (16:10)? ... How do we rank the prep shortstops in Marcelo Mayer, Jordan Lawler, Brady House, and Khalil Watson (19:21)? ... How does Welsh rank all of these prospects for first-year player drafts in dynasty (26:46)? ... Let's wrap up with some superlatives (31:05)!  'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  To nominate Fantasy Baseball Today for The People’s Choice podcast awards, go to podcastawards.com/app/signup/ and then toggle down the "Sports" category. 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. I drive. Center Field. What is magnificent? 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, Chris, and Adam. What's happening, everybody? Welcome into a bonus edition of Fantasy Baseball today. Here to recap the first round of the MLB draft for those in Dynasty League. or maybe those in redraft who just want to familiarize themselves with the future stars of the game. Frank Stanfield here, and you know if we're talking prospects I had to bring in my guy. You know him very well. Used to host this very podcast, host of everything in this league and of course crushing it on prospect.

One, his prospect podcast, which you need to listen to. It's Chris Welsh, a.k.a. the Welsh. What is going on, my friend? It's a very busy time for you. It's crazy time. What's up, my friend? It's good. It's draft time.

We're like literally recording this as the draft is going on. And it was super cool for baseball to be like, hey, you know, it'd be fun. Let's not let anybody shine. And let's have the futures game and let's just throw the draft in together. So nobody can really talk about anything. Poor futures game. Brennan Davis, you know, winning the MVP, having two homers.

Nobody cares because of the craziness of the draft. I don't really blame them. I was pretty stoked about it. There was some awesome stuff that happened in the first round. Big, big implications. but, you know, nothing like a draft starting on a Sunday and going into a Monday morning. That's what I've always said, Frank. It's the best way to do it.

MLB, man, this just can't get out of their own way, right? Shooting themselves in the foot. They're putting on the futures game while one of the biggest soccer games of the year is going on, like the Euro Cup final. I'm trying to balance like eight different screens at once. I'm watching the Yankees. I'm watching the futures game. I'm watching soccer.

There's all this stuff going on. NBA finals, NLB draft is just, oh my gosh. There's so much. Yeah, I didn't even mention that. good there was a good placement of having the draft like right with the NBA finals as well. The only good thing that came out of that and I hope it was a reactionary to all that stuff was like Manford getting booed was just like inject that into my veins. Like just he couldn't even get his words out as he was trying to open up the draft because

he kept getting booed and he was looking at people. I just wanted him to be like, shut up there. Like we need to be like you give in the look like, hey, why am I getting booed? You know exactly why you're getting booed. booed. But that was a nice. That was one of the few really, really big positive, pleasant things that happened during the draft. But there's much more. And we'll talk about all the guys. Yeah, it's like, dude, just embrace it at this point, right? Like, exactly. That's exactly my point. That's what I'm trying to get across. I probably didn't say properly is it's like, Godell just has

embraced it. Oh yeah. He's a bad guy. Breaking news, Manford, you're the bad guy. You're the heel of baseball. You think you're the face. You think you're a baby face. You're not a baby face. Adam Silver is the baby face of commissioners. You're the heel and you need to embrace it. Don't stop, be like, hey, why are you doing that? Because you're ruining baseball and you put the draft on a Sunday night. What is the best heel tag team of all time? Because I feel like Rob Manfred and Roger Goodell should just team up at this point.

Give them the world title. Give them the world tag team title championship. Put them in a hell in the cell. And I got to tell you, though, I don't know who you'd pair with Adam Silver. What commissioner, what's a good commissioner that anybody thinks about after that? There isn't. I don't know. We'll have to find like a fantasy commissioner somewhere or something like that.

Like who's the best fantasy commissioner you can think of? We'll figure it out. Scott White. You'll play Scott White. He's got the Scott White League. We'll do Scott White and Adam Silver versus Goodell and Manford. I love it. I am here for it.

Let's talk some MLB draft. That's what we're here to do, right? For the second time in three years, a college catcher was selected first overall with Henry Davis going to the Pittsburgh Pirates. past season hit 370 with 15 homers, 10 steals and 50 games at Louisville. And just wanted to figure out, Welsh, where does he stack up against the game's top offensive catcher prospects like Adley Ruchman, like a Francisco Alvarez with the Mets, who we also saw hit a home run in the futures game?

Where does he stack up against those guys? And what does the projectable skill set look like for someone like Henry Davis? Is it possible for him to turn into like a JT. Real Muto based on some of that speed? That's a really good comp. a really good comment. Hinner Davis is one of those guys that I did watch a ton of this year. And he's impressive on all fronts. He's always making contact. He's got just good pure raw power. He kind of has a lower center of gravity that he gets under it. He does the like no batting gloves thing, which I just personally hate and I can't get over sometimes. But he's a stud. He's

absolutely a stud. And I think what you just said is like the main question. Adle is his own tier. Francisco Alvarez really has established himself as like the no-brainer number two, just big pure raw power as well, Henry Davis is probably in that tier with him. And I think Joey Bart was kind of one of those lines. My initial placement in fantasy for first year player is he's not a top five pick, even though he was the number one overall pick. He's not a top five in first year player for a couple reasons.

He's a catcher. He's not Adley, Rutchman. I think there's an argument that you can get him there if you'd like. maybe five. But, you know, offensive skill sets, he's going to steal. He's going to hit. He's going to probably hit for decent power. And I think he's a, he could definitely even be a number two.

But I think he's like a three or four hitter. That's what he was doing at Louisville. I've got him right around the top 60 overall on my fantasy list, but right outside the top five comparative to this class. So it's going to be one of those things that it confuses people where you see how high a guy goes and you're like, well, is that the top guy I take? no. And that's also one of the big reasons why I, you know, one of my missions and what I do with Prospect One and my list and everything is to talk to people with this based on fantasy because

I did it for years and years and years where, and it's not a bad thing, you go to MLB pipeline or you go to Baseball America and you check out their list and you see and you're like, okay, and this gives you relative stuff. But those are not built for fantasy. Those are built for real life. Defense is as a heavy piece that's put into it. They'll, you know, they might wait a guy, an outfielder who's got a great offensive potential, but like, ooh, he's not looking like he could play center field, so they ding him a little bit. So I'm trying to fix that and talk about it from a pure fantasy-based standpoint.

So when you see a guy go one-one, you're like, this is a top guy I've got to take. It's not. If you play in a two-catcher league, he's more valuable. If you're playing points leagues, there's pitchers that move up. And if you're, you know, just playing roto head-to-head stuff, there's a lot of high-end potential in some of these shortstop. So it was an underslot pick.

They're obviously looking to save on date. I can tell you, you'll see why and who they saved on. They took Anthony Solomito, who wants a lot of money, and he's going to be a hard sign. So I think they obviously underslot Henry Davis. The pick was like a two million pick. It's probably going to take two and a half or 2.7 or something to get Solomito. So that was kind of the repercussion of what they did was to get a really good

young high school pitcher that they would be able to sign. And Henry Davis is a great real life cornerstone, but for fantasy, not top five. Yeah, I think a bunch of good points there that I want to hit on. And something that I'm kind of learning here because I've never really admittedly paid all that much attention to the MLB draft is that there's like a lot of politics and stuff that go into like these draft picks and like, oh, we're going to spend less on our first round picks so that we can get a better second round peg.

Like it's all very interesting from just like a pure baseball and MLB draft perspective. But what you said about prospect lists and guys that are drafted early in the actual MLB draft and how they don't necessarily need to go as early in first year player drafts, I think is paramount. Because, again, like, they're factoring in defense a lot of the times, obviously, when drafting these prospects in the MLB draft. And it's, like, similar to something like Christian Patche, right, who, like, has been ranked super high on a bunch of prospect list for a long time.

But it's mostly for his defense. Like, maybe the offensive game comes around eventually. Completely different player, obviously, from Henry Davis. But I thought that it was, you know, what you're saying there makes a ton of sense. Just sticking with Henry Davis for a second, proximity, what are you thinking? a fast mover here throughout the minor leagues? Yeah, I mean, I want to jump up to one of the questions we're going to talk about, but yeah, one of the fastest, I think Henry Davis is.

Like I said, he's great for this team because they've got guys like Quinn Priester and Ronsie Contreras, who is going to be in the futures game. You know, they've got some good pitchers. They need someone they can build around. They haven't had a guy since, you know, Neil Walker, actually, who I think gave the pick for them. Neil Walker came up as a catcher, or Tony Sanchez, maybe. They just haven't had a really good crew or a good.

you know, catcher to build up through the system. And that's a guy. Henry Davis is, I think, kind of one of those quiet leaders and, you know, team rallies around him and he was a Louisville guy. So yeah, it's a, it's a solid, solid pick for an organization. But, you know, like I said, just being able to weigh through that, you know, Hess and Kerstead was tough for people because he went to overall last year to Baltimore and he had big power. And everyone's like, I take him the third. And it's like, no, you don't. You don't take him in the top 10. And that's what is so uniquely different about these is like, you know, there are guys that went in the teens.

There's a guy in the teens. I have at number two overall on my first year players. So there's a balance that's going to flow through all of this. And crazy stuff is going on. Guys are saving the money and, you know, the politics of it at the second pick. You know, we'll talk about it with it. But, you know, the Jack Leiter was threatening, rumor was threatening to not sign. And people are calling bluffs. Baseball drafts are, uh, they're a whole other beast.

But Henry Davis won one. It's a really great pick for the organization for fantasy. It's okay. It's okay. All right, Jack, later. Lighter, we will get to him in just a second. If you're watching us on YouTube, make sure to hit that subscribe button

and tap the notification bell. Let's you know when we go live or we drop a new video like this one. Let's talk about those Vandy boys. Jack Lighter goes second overall to the Texas Rangers and Kumar Rocker slips to 10 with the New York Mets. And we were talking beforehand,

the possibility of seeing Jacob de Grom and Kumar Rocker in the same rotation is just amazing. And it could be so, so, so fun for baseball. Kumar also like in de Grom's ear and be like so how do you throw that? Imagine like him improving the slider and picking up stuff like

it's nuts oh to me Kumar with the with the Mets. Yeah, no, that's actually a really good point too and I talked about this with for redraft leagues with Joe Musgrove when he joined the Padres.

I was like, look, he's hanging out now with Darvish and Blake Snell like he's gonna learn things from these guys and you know so far for the most part Joe Musgrove has had that bit that breakout season.

So it's a good point that you bring up there with Kumar Rocker. Look, both of these guys are electric, lighter with a fastball. Rocker has that ridiculous slider. Is it a slam dunk, Welsh, that lighter should go over Rocker in first year player dress? I know that there are some question marks with Rocker, but I personally trust the Mets development staff more so than I do the Texas

Rangers, or should that not matter? That's an interesting way to put it. I mean, actually, I was on doing a live feed when Kumar got picked, and I love the landing spot. I love the Mets landing spot. It's the Mets way. Draft pitching, sign hitting. That's what they do. That's what they've been doing for a while and it's a good recipe. And I think the Mets have done a decent job of developing pitchers and picking the right guys, you know, and they got J.T. Ginn and they've got Matthew Allen who had Tommy John surgery, Kumar Rocker. They got a stable of dudes that are coming and they're coming pretty quick. And it's a good, it's a good spot for Kumar. But lighter to me has always been the clear cut guy. I have both of these guys in a general range of each other. I don't love to go crazy high on pitching.

but I've got Jack Lighter inside my top three and I've got Kamar inside the top five. So my five for first year player is pretty locked. And that's why when I say guys like Henry Davis and stuff, I just don't see. And there's a couple of the landing spots of some draft picks that were intriguing. I just don't see how I'm going to adjust my top five. Lighter in the draft,

there's this rumor going around that he was like asking for like $10 million. Again, it's a rumor. And he, you know, for teams not to draft him so the Red Sox could get him. and then the Rangers kind of called that bluff and picked him up. And they've done it. They do a decent job as far as developing. They don't have any just, if you will,

bangers of pitchers. You know, Cole win did start the futures game, but Lighter's going to come in and he's going to be a beast. He is electric fastball, electric electric fastball. He's got some good secondary stuff. The Rangers are going to have to work with him on making sure that he doesn't only live off that fastball because he's not going to be able to just 80% fastball when he gets into the majors or anything like that.

again, he's going to have to continue working on adjustments, but he's a guy. I've got him at number three overall in my first year player, and I would be willing. I mean, if I was in a points league, I probably take him one, to be honest with you. I wouldn't even worry about the young short stops. I would just go in on pitching. And Kumar's right there. And as a steal, I personally would have loved to see the Diamondbacks take him. It's two pitches.

The only thing that, like, I'm sitting with, is to let Kumar fall. And to not only let him fall, you had two pitchers that I was surprised when I had of him. You had Mazakado, which was an utter shock, a high school pitcher to the Royals. And then you had Bachman go in front of him. That's a college and a high school, another college in high school pitchers that's two high school, two college pitchers that went ahead of him, that what is scaring off the teams? Because he's got two electric pitches. I mean, the fastball slider combo is crazy. But do they really believe he's not going to develop anything else? I mean, I talked to him three years ago, and you can hear it on Prospect 1, and we were talking about

the development of a change up, which I think a team can start to implement. He started throwing a cutter. What is it? You know, is there really big relief risk that made teams go, you know, safety, I think over the upside of Kumar Rocker, who's also a team leader. So I think there's some little questions out there that maybe the risk reward isn't worth it and you just go solid with lighter, but the two great picks and, you know, it's a decent pitching fantasy season if that's what you're looking for for your first year player dress. Yeah, I think it's a little bit of overanalysis too for Kumar Rocker, right? Like, he's been in the like limelight. for a long time now, right?

People talking about him as all the one, one for a while now, and he's finally coming out. And I think, like, we just have so much footage and analysis from people that they're kind of just, like, over-analyzing every single thing that he does at this point. So, you know, and to that point,

there's this element that happens. So, an episode I just did on Prospect One, I had Jim Callis on from MLB, and we were talking about the MLB combine. They just added the combine, and it's this new thing. And I was trying to poke and be like,

you know, hey, did this guy do this? Did anybody help their stock? And Jim kind of hit a point that I think works with baseball negatively is he's like, there's nothing anybody could do that's going to change anyone's mind. And that's like baseball in a nutshell right there is, you know, you get scouts, you get people that go, they see a kid, they see the pitches, they see where he's positive, he's negative. And they say, got my report. And there's no, there's not much new. And even when there's stuff new, they just go, oh, okay, let's mark that down. You know, he did like start adding this. We'll see if that works. But no one changes anything. It's stuck in their ways more than anything else. And when Jim said that, it was to me the classic word right there. Then why even have the combine? If no one is willing to change your mind whatsoever, should you change your mind on like a guy running, you know, like in the football like running and shorts and stuff? Maybe not. But still like if you're, if everyone's so stuck in their ways, the book could have been out on Kumar last year. No one's willing to make any adjustments on it. And then people just move on. And they don't, you know, recheck in with a kid and, you know, how are those extra pitches going? You know,

Was that done in conversation? It's that nausea a week ago. But Kumar Rocker, he's a total stud. I think he's going to move decently through systems because he can go deep into games. And as long as he develops outside of that slider, like a third really good pitch, I think he can move pretty quick and it's a steal for the Mets. All right. Let's move on to another pitcher that was drafted inside of the top three picks.

And you mentioned his name about a month ago when we were talking MLB draft prospects. High school pitcher Jackson Job goes third overall to the Detroit Tigers. And prospects are hard enough to project. We know that at this point, but high school pitchers are probably the hardest because you're talking about an 18-year-old where anything can happen in the next three to four years. You can say that for like any prospect, but specifically for pitchers, it's pretty tough to project. Jackson Job, Welsh, how does he rank for you compared to lighter and rocker? Obviously, if you plan on taking him in first year player drafts, you're going to be waiting a while. You're going to be waiting a while, but he is one of those pitchers that, from a high school perspective, that could really, really move. He's the same. He's the same. He's the same. He's the same. He's the same. He's the same. He's the same. He's, spin guy, if anybody heard. He, he registered like a 3,000 on his fastball. Yeah. So, yeah, and this is a high school kid with three plus pitches. Some would argue that, you know, he might already, regardless of college or high school, have the best fastball and slider combo.

So, you know, you've got two of the best pitches. You've got really good command, easy delivery and crazy spin. It's everything to love. It's on the lines of like, it reminds me of like McKinsey Gore, Not in that they're the same is in that like when McKinsey Gore got drafted, it was kind of like, well, regardless of who else is out there, gore is high. This is next level. Job is on that run. I know Tigers fans not happy.

Shout out to my boy Paul Spore, who I know is very upset because you're passing up on dudes. I saw that. I saw that. But I think this is a couple things. And I think this was the Marcella Meyer fallout was the next two teams, the Rangers, you know, I had received word that. the Rangers weren't even considering Meyer.

It was either going to be lighter or Kumar Rocker. That's what I had heard. And if they got scared about that price, then they would have gone Kumar Rocker at two. So the fallout of Meyer is like that the next two teams already had made their decisions. And I think the Tigers had already made their decision. They fell in love with Joe. I mean, it's hilarious.

They just keep taking pitching. But they got a high school kid that they can develop through the system. They're probably going to save a little bit of money. And they already on day two took a kid that I absolutely love. Isaac Pacheco, who's big Texas kid, huge power, third baseman, high school that might need a little bit over slot because he was a potential first round pick. So I think they're doing well. It's going to hurt for Tigers fans that they took a high school pitcher over Kumar, over the short stops or whatever it is. But they were able to do some damage in the second round as well.

And Job is, he's a dude. You know, I had been asking a lot of people, I'd done a debate episode on Prospect One where it was, like asking industry guys, Mick Abel who went last year versus Jackson Job and who would you take? And it was split and it ended up being Mick Abel by just like a hair. So that's about the relative range. So he's like a top 75 overall prospect and I've got him, what did I tell you? I think I believe eight on my first year player drafts. Yeah, he is eight right behind Henry Davis. And I think that actually kind of ends a little bit of a tier of value after Jackson Job of like, you know, the top eight guys are kind of the core and Job is the end of that.

All right. Let's take a look at that quartet of prep short stops. You already mentioned one of the names there. Marcelo Meyer, who went fourth overall to the Boston Red Sox. Admittedly, everyone knows, I'm a Yankee fan. Not the greatest day for being honest. You weren't happy. Marcelo Meyer landing to the Red Sox and then Kumar Rocker to the Betts. I'm just like, all right, well, just, I'm going to shut this off.

I'm going to go do something else. Meyer goes to the Red Sox fourth overall. Jordan Lawler to your Arizona Diamondback. Six overall Brady House to the Nats at 11. and Khalil Watson to the Marlins all the way down at 16. All four of these, I think, could represent, could, you know, there's a long time before we see them play, the biggest values in the first round. Give us some strengths on each guy here between Meyer and Lawler and House and Watson.

And maybe why? Why did someone like Watson fall as far as he did? So, okay, so with Watson, I mean, Watson didn't require the big money. There could be a size issue that's there. You know, Marcella Meyer represented floor, Lala represented upside power, like impact power. Brady House also impact power. And I think, I think people were able to just talk themselves out of Khalil Watson because, you know, he wasn't exemplatory over any of those other guys while representing a whole lot of skill sets. I wish I had the answer because I'm all in on Khalil Watson.

I think he is dynamic. He is five, he's like five foot nine, like a buck 75. but he represents the best speed. He has a huge bat speed. There's a lot of power that's still to be developed in there. And this isn't like raw. Like where Brady House, I think has a question about his overall hit tool,

Khalil doesn't. So I think Khalil is like a five tool player. And I got him number two on my first year player. So I think it's a steal for the Marlins. And this is what I'm saying. Like, this is the mental game. People are going to have to figure out because if you see Khalil Watson at 16

and you're following like what pipeline or whoever is doing, you know, he might be the end of a. first year player draft. And, you know, he might go like five or six and others, but he really shouldn't be that much further down. He's a big impact player. Meyer is still so interesting. I started to build scenarios where this would happen yesterday. And then it did. And it's really funny, off air, we were talking about just like the second round. And I mentioned a player. And I said, there's one guy in the second round that's to be really interesting to watch because there is,

there's some rumors going around that he might return to Florida and it's Judd Fabian and I don't need to turn it to this but like the Red Sox are gifted these situations. Not only did they take Marcela Meyer but I said look out if Fabian goes early in the second round that means a team is going to

overpay and they took Judd Fabian. So the Red Sox are having I think a bang in the first couple days because they got Don't say that maybe. Don't say that Welsh. It's just and also one thing I was like stewing on here is I have got four Red Sox inside my top 30 overall prospects. Wow.

Four right now. That's how well they're doing. And what's so great about Meyer is they probably don't have to, you know, overpay because as a high school kid, he's not going to not sign. So they could, they might even be able to cut a tiny, tiny bit of a deal overpay for Fabian. And Meyer represented everything. He represents the floor, good hit tool, good power. He can run a bit, good defender.

he doesn't have the discrepancies that some of these other guys have. Jordan Lawler, who I absolutely love the king, the king, Jordan Lawler, I'm going to call him. He is a big power guy.

Might be one of the best just raw power players in here. Little swing and miss. Brady House, even bigger power, but more swing and miss and contact issues. I rank them Meyer,

Watson, Lawler, and then the next tier is Brady House. Interesting landing spots, but Lawler's a great landing spot. Meyer, really all but House is just weird. I'm just not a big house guy going to Washington,

but I love what Miami is going to be able to do with Watson, and you can put him in, you know, side by side with jazz. Lawler is going to be a huge impact, and Meyer is just a collection of what probably might be the Red Sox walking out with one of the best drafts, at least based, I think, on the first couple rounds. So you said you're not a big house guy. You live in an apartment or? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm a condo guy. I'm more of a Brady condo guy. That's where I'm looking for. Yeah, Brady House. he's just this big luggy dude and you know they think he can play shortstop still and it could I actually was speculating like boy what if you put him in Colorado and this could be like Troy Toulouwitsky all over again but there's just like hit issues and you know for all of the upside and offense that was talked about you know he fell out of the top 10 and it didn't seem like

that was a possibility where Khalil was you know he was really establishing his name up with these guys where house was already there it's kind of like kamar drop into 10 it's like well What was scaring the teams off? You know, why were they, why were teams moving away from, if you really think this is a cornerstone of four impact shortstops, why? Why did Brady House fall off like that? Why did Killet Watson? You could say the same thing.

But I think House is more, um, is more nefarious than like Khalil Watson. I think there's some real contact issues where I know the diamond backs were just elated to get Jordan Lawler as they should have been. Very nice. Very nice. Yeah, and I'm 100% just being a hater. If you're a Red Sox fan, you should feel very good about what they're doing. so far in this draft. And just the prospects they already have in their organization between

Tristan Kossis and Jeter Downs, there's a lot to be excited about right now. Darren. I mean, Darren can be any day. That's, that's the big one. And now they just added a freaking Judd Fabian, which, uh, you know, there's some issues there on Fabian. I mean, this was a number, I don't mean to jump into him because we got other stuff. But Fabian was like at one time was talked about as like maybe a first overall pick, especially because this is a college bat. He had probably the best pure raw power. And he struggled at the beginning of this year. And then he had a swing change. And he started shortening up. He started making contact again. He got his batting average up. And he was hitting bombs. And this is a situation

where, I mean, God, you put him in Boston. And if they can keep going with that swing change, this is a steal. And this is a huge impact player. And I mean, you want to talk about that, Boston's not afraid to go with buzzy guys. They got Blaise Jordan last year, who was like an internet star. Now they got Jud Fabian and Marcella Meyer. Boston's nuts right now with what they're doing in the system. They just need pitching. You know, I'm surprised as they keep going hitting. They really need to stack up on some pitchers, but offensively they're doing very well.

All right, well, so let's give people a little peek behind the curtain. And you've already alluded to some of your first year player draft rankings, but if we're just talking about the names that we've mentioned to this point, Henry Davis, Jack Leiter, Kumar Rocker, Jackson Job, Marcelo Meyer, Jordan Lawler, Brady House, Khalil Watson. How are you ranking that group of eight for first year player drafts? So, Marcelo Meyer is still going to be one, even though he was taking forth. Like I said, he is a high contact guy, just represents all the tools.

By the way, if you watch the draft, how much of the draft did you get to catch? I watched a good amount of it. And I was watching the MLB network feed. And I think it was Marcelo Meyer who they compared to. They were like, oh, he's like Cal Ripkin and Chipper Jones combined. I'm like, come on. Yeah, Brian Reynolds. That's a classic.

He's like the Terminator in Jesus Christ. He's amazing. But Meyer looks like Vincent Chase. He's entourage. That needs to be his nickname in Boston. He looks, I mean, you remember Entourage?

He looked like Vincent Chase. Very nice. Identical. It was crazy. I was like, are you going to be Aquaman? Marcella Meyer, though,

he's the top guy. There's floor. You know, does he have as much power upside as Laller? Maybe not or house. Does he have as much speed upside as Watson? No, but I think he's like the best floored player across the board.

I've heard Corey Seeger comps. I think Xander Bogart's actually might be a decent comp. I think the power or the speed kind of dwindles a little bit. But Myers number one. Khalil Watson is two. Jack Lighter is three. And lighter you could move if you're like I said in a pitching heavy. I would be willing to go one on Jack lighter.

Jordan Lawler I have at four and Kumar Rocker at five. So that's like a tier. And I don't truly believe one of those guys is like if you were to take Kumar Rocker with your first overall pick and a first year player that you deserve to be screamed at. Because I just think that's a tier of players that we'll see where the separators are. Two of those guys are going to come out here to Arizona. And most, I mean, I'm assuming Lider is going to come over here at a complex level to start.

And Jordan Lawler did the same thing. And I'm going to try to see them and catch up and maybe I'll get some eyes. Maybe I don't know if Jack Lider will pitch this year. Lawler should play and I should get some eyes on them. And maybe, you know, as we get to see some of these guys in, whatever, if it's complex league or it's low A and we'll start to change our minds because that's the big thing. If you start to look at these guys the minute they get drafted to how the year finishes stuff changes. That's the core. The next grouping for me goes Kumar, Brady

House and Henry Davis. So that is how my top eight of the players we've talked about, fair, Job at the end, Meyer at the top. All right. Is there any names that we haven't mentioned that deserve to be ahead of these guys for first year player drafts? Or is this how you have your ranking set up with this top eight? So this, I gave you my, that's my first year player rank for fantasy, except there's, there's two things I'll point out. I love Harry Ford, who went to Seattle. I had him at nine.

I love this kid, five foot, 10, 11, 200 pound catcher who I think can play in other spots, athletic, big impactful bat, but a guy that I'm, it's going to be hard not to push above him is Benny Montgomery, who went in, if you want to talk about scenarios, of like, what's the best scenario you could have for fantasy? It might have been Brady House in Colorado. Next might be Benny Montgomery. And Benny Montgomery is like raw power. He's got big speeds, big six foot four kid.

He's actually super like Zach Veen, who they took last year. But he just might be a better offensive player. And he goes to Colorado with all that offense. That's a guy that's going to be really tough to not jump. And especially if he comes out a little bit hot and he plays some complex level, I could see Benny Montgomery as I'm staring at my list here. I could see him getting up to six, five or six or something like that just based off like just like Zach Veen did for people. Some people had them at like two overall.

I think Montgomery is someone that everyone's going to have to pay attention to because that is a hot destination for a very talented like five tool outfielder who's already just big and ready to go. He's super athletic. I think he has some potential to really rock it. All right. Let's finish up. with some superlatives here, Welsh. And if for some of these, you choose names that we've already talked about, players, perfectly fine. We'll start here with

the best hit tool in the first round. Who you got? Well, I'm going to go with Marcella Meyer. Yeah, I mean, unfortunately, you're going to probably hear a lot of the same names with these, because if those guys represented it differently, they probably wouldn't be going in the second round

if it was anybody else. But, yeah, I would say from a hit tool perspective, Marcela Meyer is the one that stands out. At one point, I would have said Matt McLean, but he really fell off. And I think, I'm just kind of looking through here to see. Yeah, see, nobody else is catching me that I want to tell you. I'm going to stick with Marcelo Meyer.

All right. So best in-game power, who you got there? You know, from a high school perspective, I definitely am going to still go Jordan Lawler. You know, Jordan Lawler, I think, really is going to be able to tap into it. And this is just a big power, swing that's going to play. I think some could argue Brady House,

because Brady House might have more raw power. But I'm going to stick with him. And if you were to go from the first round and go college, I think college makes it so much tougher because the college talent is not quite there. From a power perspective, I actually might go with your guy, Trace Swinney. You know, because there's not that many college bats to choose.

Oh, no, no, I'm sorry. I mean, it would be Henry Davis, I suppose, now that I'm thinking about it. But a non-Henry Davis guy, I'd go with Trace Sweeney over guys. South Frelick and Matt McLean for power. Very nice. All right, we get a lefty in Yankee Stadium. That could work out pretty well.

Sure. The best speed tool here in the first round. Khalil Watson. Yeah, that one's pretty easy. I mean, some might argue Benny Montgomery as well. Benny Montgomery is right there, but give me Khalil Watson. All right, so the hitter most likely to become a first round pick and fantasy. Is this, we're going back to Marcel O'Meyer?

This is a, yeah, I mean, I think the safe one is Marcelo Meyer. I mean, here's the deal. I think there are the four players I would pinpoint. And now I'm proving the point of why one of these guys would come up is Khalil Watson would be right behind Meyer. That's why I have them at the top two. Jordan Lawler because of the impact power. If Jordan Lawler fixes the swing and miss issues that exist,

he's going to be a top 15 prospect like tomorrow, that type of stuff. Like with how Christian Robinson was with the Diamondback where it was like, oh, there's just massive power and he's starting to fix it. Like, that's this type of guy. Jordan Lawler at one point was becoming the consensus number one overall pick. So those three guys all have first round talent. But I'd also say Benny Montgomery, you know, a guy in Colorado who can hit and run. This might be shades of old school Charlie Blackman.

You know, if you're going to hit 30 and you're going to steal 20, if you're Trevor storing the outfield, that's first round talent. So Benny Montgomery is another one of those that I would throw in there. All right. The pitcher most likely to become a first round pick. Oh, lighter. I mean, that fastball. get out of here. It's an easy, easy jack lighter.

A job would definitely be in there. Job has the real potential to be an absolute freak in a stud. And if Mazocado throws four straight, no hitters again, then we'll take him in the first round. It's pretty good in high school. Last one here. Most likely to make it to the majors first. So if we're looking at proximity here, what you got?

Yeah. I would have to go with Henry Davis. Maybe that's counterintuitive because it's a pirate. And the Pirates just don't do it. But, you know, this, how long can this team keep doing this? I think he is ready. I think he's major league ready and he's ready to go. If you want to adjust it some other ways,

another one would be maybe Will Bedner with San Francisco, who went 14 overall. You know, he can go deep into games. There's a couple of college arms. I mean, I guess at the end of the day, probably the easiest is to say, like, one of these college arms, you know, they can come in relief and they can maybe a Jordan Wicks or something like that.

that, but I'd say Henry Davis is probably the most pro-ready player right now. And, you know, man, if we had seen Kumar go to Texas, I might have said Kumar, because I really believe that kid could just go. So like if you were just asking me and not trying to analyze baseball, I'd say Kamar Rocker could go out right now and he could help in a bullpen if some, you know, if the Mets were, you know, trying to go for a pen or something like that, I think that is a possibility. But I'll go with Henry Davis.

Yeah, kind of similar to how the White Sox, brought up Garra Crochet last year and Relief. And Chrisale. Yeah, and Chrisale. Yeah, they did it

with both of those guys. Just imagine Jacob de Grom going seven and just like turning it over to like Kumar Rocker. Seven, eight. Like they have Jacob de Grong go seven, Kumar Rocker and the eighth, Edwin Diaz and the ninth.

Like, good luck, buddy. That's dumb. It's totally done. I mean, I'm not saying they would do that, you know, because there's a lot of innings that he put up last year

compared to the year before. But I mean, if there is a kid that can do it, it's Kumar Rocker, especially over a short inning. There's no need for Texas to do it. I would love to see that. It would be such a great story, by the way, for baseball

and what a stud that kid would be to get some confidence doing it. We never see it happen, rarely, at least outside of, like you said, with crochet. But, you know, that's why it's probably actually safer to go that route and pick one of those type of pitchers in a guy like Kumar Rocker. Because of that factor of the pirates, the pirates hate to push prospects, and that would be the only reason. But you've got the most pro-ready guy versus an. organization that doesn't want to. So you're kind of stuck a little bit with where Henry

Davis is at. But, you know, hey, crazier things have happened in baseball. Maybe we, maybe we could see a Kumar Rocker dropping that slider and fastball in the eighth inning or something in September. Who knows? Oh, man, that would be so, so fun. Welsh, any players that we haven't talked about yet, some favorites of yours that went in the first round, maybe some stuff that's going on in the second round right now, anything that you'd like to talk about. Fifth overall pick, Colton Couser, we haven't talked about at all. He went to the Baltimore Orioles, and they've kind done this thing the past couple of years where they pull some guys up the board. I don't know if this was like a reach pick or anything, but anything on maybe Colton Couser or any other favorites of yours

in the first round. I'm not a big Colton Couser guy. I had done a Prospects Live mock where he actually went five and this is, you know, that underslot thing that they were attempting to do. And they it's really interesting. It actually just looks more cheap because the Baltimore, I'm looking Baltimore in the second round took Connor Norby, who's a great pick by the way. He's a college bat who I don't think is going to be over. slot. So I just don't understand what they're doing. But hey, he's a big, you know, tall guy who can check into some power and stuff. He's fine. As far as the rest of the first round, Matt McLean is still a guy to monitor. I still like Matt McLean. And, you know, his offensive

output, South Freleck, who went to Milwaukee, which is, it's kind of funny because we were comparing him against Garrett Mitchell. And then he goes and plays with the same guy that's there. There's some interesting stuff going on in the second round, some names to watch. I told you, Judd Fabian going to Boston, I think was a big deal, 40th overall. Jaden Hill went to Colorado. That's a guy to watch at Tommy John's surgery. He's got a, I mean, he's kind of like a Kumar Rocker light, like a big old slider at LSU and he just got hurt.

Might be a bullpen guy. Dylan Lyle went to Washington. They're actually raking now that you really look at it. Brady House and Lyle is a pretty big steal. And I told you, the guy just went as we're recording this, West Coth, out of Desert Mountain High School, which is my alma mater, just went 57 to, the Chicago White Sox and Coth is like big power

big massive power high school kid. This is a great pick for them and then I just noticed also Cardinals Josh Baez was one of my favorite coming into the draft athletic outfielder 6 foot 4, 220 big power. The point of why I'm like throwing out some names there are going to be some studs

that you're going to be able to pick from in the second and third round of first year player. This isn't the biggest deep draft but there are some serious upside plays. There's a couple safe college bats, but I mean, you can probably literally pick the college bats on your hand. But the high school guys, there's going to be some big potential. Coth, Lyle, Baez, a couple of those guys already went in the second round.

So, you know, keeping on the lookout for it, everyone's going to be adjusting some stuff. Baez specifically is someone that I would have had. If, let's say you're playing in a 15 team league, he'd be a first rounder for me. And then he just went in the second round. So lots of good talent that's still sitting out there, some guys to go. And first year players are going to, they're going to start forming. and developing pretty soon here for everybody. Very nice. Yeah, remember those names that Welsh just gave you there in the second round,

some potential sleepers in your first year player draft. Again, the Welsh, host of all things in this league, of course, crushing it with the content right now on Prospect One, which is his prospect podcast. You need to be listening to it. Make sure to follow him on Twitter at Is It the Welsh. Yes, it is the Welsh. It is. Hey, I think.

Anything else you'd like to promote while you're here? No, man, I just love doing these stuff. hit me up and you're just like, Frank's the best. He's like, hey, I'd love to have it. You don't have to do it though. It's all good. I'm like, no, dude, I want to. I told you and I would say it here publicly.

I love doing shows with you. You know, you and I used to do some smaller hits way back in the day and stuff. I like doing more long form stuff with you. Have a great time doing it. I just appreciate you having me on talking the stuff. And the only thing I'd say is if people want to check out my list, my top 500. I got a Dynasty 300, all that. I got a Patreon.

Patreon.com slash ITL Army. And this week, it's going to be updated. with the draft guys, just, boom, plotted right on the top 500 list that they could check out. And that would be about it. But yeah, thanks, man. Thanks for having me talk. And hopefully everybody enjoyed it. And he's got some names implanted in their brains to get ready to just fleece all of their fantasy teammates in the coming weeks by getting some picks and getting these guys.

Very nice. As always, love having the Welsh on here. We're going to wrap there for Welsh. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again sometime. Bye-bye.