Fantasy Baseball Today - Breakouts 2.0! Potential League Winners to Target in Drafts! (3/6 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

Robbie Ray still has huge strikeout potential (4:11)! ... MacKenzie Gore got off to a great start last year, struggled and then finished strong (7:20). ... Triston Casas will play everyday in the middle of the Red Sox lineup this season (12:13). ... News (17:25): Gunnar Henderson has a mild intercostal strain and might not be ready for Opening Day. ... Nick Lodolo has a lot of talent, he just needs to stay healthy (24:35). ... Justin Martinez and Jordan Romano are late-round relievers to target (27:45). ... Jared Jones flashed his upside early last season (34:15). ... Who are the rest of Scott's Breakouts 2.0 (41:05)? ... News (47:50): Rafael Devers is still not ready to play. ... We wrap up by recapping our Breakouts 1.0 from back in January (59:30). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. And first pitch, Washington. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott and Chris. Next up, breakouts 2.0.

Welcome in Tough Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday. March 6th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we'll reveal the latest round of breakouts we wrote up on the site. We'll also go over some of our favorites from Breakouts 1.0 as well. We all wrote that back in January, so a lot more people are tuning in now than we had back in January. So we'll catch you up on some of those players that we do like quite a bit. And we do have some pretty interesting news to go over as well.

Scott, you are recording from Parts Unknown. What's going on here? A long time listener slash viewers may recognize this space. I'm going to be honest, I don't. You don't. Well, you know, this was a long time ago before you were regular on the podcast, Chris. Oh, wow. This is my in-laws house.

Power was out at my own house. So, fortunately, they live 15 minutes down the street and don't mind me coming over using their internet and doing a podcast loudly while they're sleeping. So that's very nice of them. A common observation from commenters is that it looks like I'm broadcasting from a great. grandmother's living room. Well, now I actually am. I made the same joke before the show. This is what an actual grandmother's living room looks like, okay?

It probably looks pretty head. It looks more modern than, you know, she's very, you know, watches a lot of HGTV, Pinterest, that sort of thing. We love an exposed faux beam in the background. Yeah, there you go. All right. So anyway, I might be a little less organized. because of this. The whole setup is kind of janky. My mic kept losing connection. So just

bear with us. Bear with us. Chris, why don't you kick us off here with in addition to breakouts 2.0? All right. So I want to be clear. I have 15 players in breakouts 2.0. Only three of them are new. And according to Frank, we can only talk about the new guys. And I added three pitchers because I wanted a little more balance. And two of them are relievers. And I don't feel nearly as strongly about those guys that do some other guys. So bear that in mind. But I do feel pretty strongly about what we're hearing about Robbie Ray and what we saw from him in the seven starts last year, where his velocity was up. He got a ton of strikeouts. The fastball slider curveball all looked very, very good. I think it was 45% whiff rate or better on both the slider and the curveball.

Now he's working in this new changeup that he learned from Terrick Scoobal to, you know, hopefully be able to get righties out, maybe mix things up a little bit more overall. And if you're looking for 2025's Chris Sale, this is your best bet because I really don't have a lot of concerns about how Robbie Ray is going to pitch as long as he's on the mound. And well, yes, he only made seven starts last season in his return from Tommy John surgery. It's not like Arm-Marquez, where he came back from Tommy John surgery and immediately had arm issues. He had a hamstring injury. That's not really a concern for me with Robbie Ray.

So I think there is 220 strikeout potential here. It's a great ballpark, good defense behind him in San Francisco. I think there's a lot of ways that things go right for Robbie Ray this season. And it mostly just comes down to how many innings he can stay on the mound for. But in terms of expected performance, I think he's going to pitch like a number two when he's out there. Pretty sure we talked about Robbie Roy. yesterday, right? So, so nice. We'll say it twice. That's right. We are in on Robbie Ray. The ADP over the past already in reruns. The ADP over the past week in the NFBC is 170.86. That is so late. Yeah, it is.

I thought it would be rising more. And maybe it will continue to rise. But going right after Ronaldo Lopez. Who would you guys rather have Robbie Ray or Ronaldo Lopez? Oh, Ray. I have Reynaldo higher, though I am never excited to take Reynaldo when the time comes to take him. Maybe I need to move him behind, Ray. You know, I said that very confidently, and then I looked at my rankings. I have Robbie Ray, literally one spot ahead of Renaldo Lopez. So that is a clear delineation. The gap between 149 and 150 in the overall rankings is a chasm.

Would you rather have Robbie Ray or Kodi-Singa? I think I have Robbie Ray ahead of Kodi Senga. Feels like they both have similar upside and downside cases. It's just they both have had lots of injuries. They both have issues with control, but it should get lots of strikeouts. Senga goes way before Ray, doesn't he? Yeah, he does.

The 80P in the past two weeks is they are nine picks apart. Oh, okay. That's it? Wow, Ray's been. I don't know if it's Ray climbing or Senga falling, but. I think it's a combo of both. I mean, I'm going to say Senga, though it's another one. I'm never really that excited to draft Senga this year.

All right, well, let's continue on with additions to breakouts 2.0. Scott, I will give you the option of choosing between two different pitchers, Nick Lodolo or Mackenzie Gore. Who do you want? Let's start with McKenzie Gore, because I like taking him ahead of Nick Lodolo. I feel a little bit better about McKinsey Gore than I do Nick Ladolo. Interesting. So, yeah, we'll start with that.

McKinsey Gore, there are a couple of marks in his favor. So if you'll remember the way last season played out for him, amazing at the start of the year looked like a big breakout then, got knocked around during the middle few months of the season. And then finished on a very high note as well. Well, his final seven starts, McKinsey Gore had a 155 ERA, a 0.91 whip, and 10 K-per-9. The walk rate was vastly improved during that stretch. That's always been an issue for McKinsey Gore.

I remember reading during that turnaround late last year, him crediting the training staff. He didn't specify what for, just helping him through an issue. and he credited them for helping him get back on track. So over the years, I mentioned a lot of times that sometimes what we view as player slumps, there's always something behind it, whether it's just their mechanics are a little off or their timings off in the case of hitters or they're playing through some injury that we're just not hearing about. And I suspect that was what was going on with McKinsey Gore.

given how different that middle stretch of the season was from the beginning and the end. He's clearly a big bat misser. And if he can throw enough strikes, I think there's a lot of upside here. One other stat I like to tout here. So I kind of divided his season into three segments. But just taking the whole season into account, McKenzie Gore had a 340 Babbup on the year. That was the second highest among quality. of fine pitchers.

So you would imagine there's going to be some correction there on top of everything else. I don't know that the Babbip, what happens on balls and play is the biggest issue for Gore, but that's another mark in his favor. I think a big season's coming. The thing I can't get over with McKenzie Gore is why he's so bad against lefties. He is a left-handed pitcher who throws from a funky arm slot and throws 96 miles an hour. and lefties just crush him. It's the weirdest thing.

And I don't know exactly what it is. But last season, he had a 306 ex-Woba against right-handed batters. That's really good for a lefty. Against lefties, he had a 346x Waba. That was actually much better than 2023, but still pretty bad. And I think it was like an 830 OPS to put it into terms that are a little more understandable. but yeah, it's just, it's the weirdest thing because he's a fastball,

curveball, slider guy. His fastball and his slider both get crushed by left-handed batters. I just don't have a good explanation for why that is. And if he needs to throw that change up against lefties as well, you know, you want to save it for opposite-handed hitters. Changeup got that had the best whiff rate,

but he didn't even throw it 10% of the time last year. It was a new pitch form. Yeah, I don't know. if he threw it, he didn't throw it a single time against the ladies. Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't So maybe that's it. Maybe that's just, it's his best pitch and he needs to throw it against everyone. I don't know, but it's, it's the weirdest thing, but that kind of suggests that he could take off like a rocket ship if he fixes that one issue, because typically left-handed pitchers are much better against lefties, and we worry about their ability to get opposite-handed hitters out. And so he's already got the hard part figured out. It's just...

Yeah, I'm not even sure that that's the holdup because clearly he was getting everybody out for the first six weeks and then the final six weeks or however long it was. So, yeah, I mean, that is an oddity. It's not something that moves me off of McKenzie Gore. McKenzie Gore's ADP over the past week, 214.5. And he's in that same range as a lot of other interesting pitchers, which we talked about yesterday.

It's maybe grab three or four pitchers early on that you could depend on, wait, and then come back after the top 200 and just load up on upside arms. There's guys like Spencer Arrigetti and Mackenzie Gore and Gavin Williams, who we spoke about yesterday, Clay Holmes, Jesus Lazzardo, Jackson Job, Nick Ladola, who will also talk about today. So just lots of interesting names going outside of that top 200 range in ADP. A name for me, in addition to Breakouts 2.0, is Tristan Kossis. he was on my breakout list last year as well.

Unfortunately, dealt with a strained left rib cage that limited him to just 63 games, but this is a former top prospect. He'll still just be 25 years old on opening day. 13 home runs in 63 games last year. That's still a 30 home run pace over 150 games. He hits the ball hard. The barrel rate supports the power that he showed.

And in a small sample size, he actually hit well against left-handed pitching last year. The strikeouts went up after Ritz. returning was a troublesome sign, but I just wonder if he was still playing through injury the final couple months of the season there with Kossis. And part of the reason why I added him to breakout 2.0 is Alex Kora has already given him a stamp of approval for playing against both lefties and righties this season. So I was a little bit worried about, you know, would he play every single day? But it sounds like that won't be an issue in everyday player

batting in a prime RBI spot, like hitting right behind Jaron, Raphael Devers Alex Breggman, that is a great, great spot for Tristan Kossis to be. So the ADP over the past week is, I know he's going just outside of the top 100 picks. And to be exact, it is 116. He kind of represents the fall off of a tier for me. So I would like, he's like the last guy that I won as my starting first baseman. But yeah, that is Tristan Kossis. Anybody else share optimism on him this season?

He's kind of the default. breakout pick at first base. He was mine. It's like someone at first base has to break out. And I tend to write my articles trying to hit every position if I can. So he's kind of the only guy I have to go on. So yeah, I'm with you on that one. I wish I wish I had more concrete things to point to from 2024 to support it. It's mostly just how good was he in the second half of 2023? Well, it was a 40 Homer Pace. Yeah, the 2023.

Obviously, the prospect pedigree is really high. That slash line from the second half of 2023 was ridiculous. He was everybody's

breakout pick last year and let us all down. In ways that go beyond just the injury, his strikeout rate was inflated and it was inflated

before the injury. It was a head scratcher. I'm not without hope for Tristan Kossis. but at this time last year it's like yeah I'm going to draft him to be my first basement and he's going to be a stud and this year it's like okay I'll draft him to be my first basement but I don't know exactly what I'm getting and it's only about 20 picks later than where we were taking them a year ago I just wish the discount was bigger I don't there's never been a draft where I've been like oh I got to take like look at this great value for Tristan Kossis I got to take him because the upside is so great it's more I don't know that I want to turn first base over to him. It's still too early for that kind of risk. Before we hit our first break,

just a reminder of the programming rest of the week. Bus 2.0 will be out on Friday. We'll have a bonus mailbag coming out on Saturday. And if you're watching us here on YouTube, make sure to hit that like button and subscribe. If you haven't already, the road to 30K. I saw someone in the comments, 30K by opening day. Maybe that should be the phrase.

That sounds pretty good. So we are, we're close. We're not far out. I think we're at like 29, 400. So let's do it. 30K by opening day. Let's take a quick break. We'll be back right after this.

Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. Before we get back into Breakouts 2.0, I do just want to hit some headlines here from Wednesday because we did get some pretty big news, so I wanted to touch on that early on. Gunner Henderson has been diagnosed with a mild intercostal strain, and his manager, Brandon Hyde, said Henderson's status is up in the air for opening day. He also said they're, quote, very, very hopeful.

that Henderson will be ready for the start of the season. So kind of a confusing report because the first half of it sounded like the sky was falling. And then they're like, no, we think he's going to be all right, though. So I don't know exactly what to believe. Scott, what do you think about Gunner Henderson? Did you lower him at all? I did a few spots. He was sixth or seventh for me in Roto prior to this.

And now he's 10th. I moved him behind Corbyn Carroll ahead of Francisco Lendor. I basically moved him to the first. the back of a group of hitters I value about the same, just to safeguard against the possibility that it lingers longer or that he has some kind of, it has some kind of adverse effect on a swing, which we've seen from hitters before.

I don't think this guy is falling. I think he's still an obvious first rounder. If he slides to round two, I'm going to jump on that all day. You know, there's still three weeks to go. And three weeks for a minor, they didn't even aside a grade to it, I don't think, the strain for a minor muscle pull like this.

In theory, it's enough time. You just don't know if he tries to start swinging too soon or whatever, if he could suffer some kind of setback. So on average, hitters with an intercostal strain missed 23 days, with an average, with a median of 21 days miss. This is per the baseball prospectus recovery dashboard tool. And so the injury happened on February 26th. That would be March 19th to the 21st, which would give him probably four to six games of spring action to get back into if they wanted to do that.

So there's time for him to be ready for opening day. And honestly, if he's healthy and cleared by March 21st and they just don't play him in a spring game, I don't think that would be the end of the world either. You know, we saw that with, I guess it's not a great example because Corr Siger did start off pretty slow last year, but I believe he didn't play in a spring training game last year before debuting an opening day. Yeah, that was more of a miracle. Yeah. Anderson has played in some spring games. Yeah, I mean, almost out of abundance of caution, I would kind of not mind if he didn't play in a spring game.

Yeah. So I'll move him down a few spots. he was my number six player. I moved him down to ninth, but it's not. It does represent, I guess, a multiple spot drop in the shortstop rankings, but that's just because there's so many guys up there. But I'm not actually all that worried about this. Yeah, I had Gunner 5th.

I moved him behind Tucker, Soto, Ellie, and Mookie Betts. So that does drop him a few spots in the shortstop rankings. And I'm just warning everyone right now, I might be the curse. I might be the curse this season because I drafted Gunner Henderson and TGFBI while, you know, while this was happening, I just kind of assumed, ah, he'll be all right, you know, and then this news comes out on Wednesday. And I also drafted Sean Murphy in Labor last weekend, and then it turns out he has a fractured rib.

So I'm off to a great start so far in drafts that we're playing out this season. Speaking of the Orioles, Grayson Rodriguez's fastball was down nearly three miles per hour on Wednesday. After the start, he said the diminished velocity was a result of feeling slas. luggish and an inability to get behind the ball. One of his fastballs actually got clocked as low as 89.5 miles per hour in this outing. Chris, are you worried at all about Grace and Rodriguez? Well, he is one of my breakout picks. I added him to breakouts 2.0.

And I'm a little worried about it for a couple of reasons. One, he hasn't thrown the sweeper yet, which he was talking about adding back to his arsenal this spring. I haven't seen it in a game. He's made some apparent changes to his slider that I don't love. It looks more like a cutter. And without the sweeper, I think that would probably be a net negative. But it mostly comes down to just learning that he kind of redid his mechanics as a result of the lat injury last year, which he also dealt with a lat injury in the minors as well.

So sounds like he's trying to address that via mechanical change. And I just, I don't love that. I don't, I don't love that for a guy I'm hoping. I don't love that for a guy I'm expecting a step forward from. Like, I'm calling Grayson Rodriguez a breakout in the true sense that I think he'll accomplish something he's never done before and be a borderline ace. And now there's some uncertainty here. It doesn't really, the fastball velocity, like, if he wasn't feeling right today, that, that's fine.

It was down a little bit in his first start. well, but not as much, but it's just, it's not what I want to see from a guy who, again, I'm expecting to do something he hasn't done before. So I read those same quotes you just gave Frank. I read them in the news aggregation and it raised my concern. Then I went and looked at the MLB article about this and it brought my concern down. This is what that article quotes Grayson Rodriguez as saying. Sorry, I put him in my notes as Grayson Reynolds. But he's Grayson Rodriguez. Okay.

So this is what he said. The intent was still down. Still not going out there trying to throw 95, 100%. Really just trying to make sure I'm in a good spot. Pitch buildup. My program. Obviously, coming up, we're going to start letting it eat. But right now, just trying to make sure that I'm in control,

making sure we're working on getting the scapula muscle loaded in stuff, just trying to sink everything up together. So it sounds like he was intentionally easing up and just hyper-focusing on mechanics. That's what that quote makes it sound like to me. And he doesn't sound, I don't detect any worry from him in that quote. So I'm going to take him at his word for now. Now, we've had before heard players say things like that

and then struggle to regain that velocity when they are ready to, quote, let it eat. But he sounds like he is totally on top of what he's doing and that it was totally deliberate. I hope so, Scott. I hope that is the case for Graysen Rodriguez. It's just dealing with a shoulder last year and a lat injury as well.

It's just it is a little bit concerned. So let's see where he goes from here, the rest of spring training. Let's get back into Breakouts 2.0. And Scott, I mentioned a name earlier. Nick Ladolo. Why do you have him as a breakout this season? Well, I will tell you, Frank, why I have him as a breakout this season. I kind of always have Nick Ladolo as a breakout.

I think there's a lot of upside here as good as he is at missing bats with his curveball. And it looked like he had finally met that upside at the start of last year. The first 11 starts for Nicola Dolo, a 276 ERA 101 whip 9.6K per 9. 11 starts. That's a significant number. It's pretty easy to forget how good he was during that stretch because things took such an ugly turn thereafter. But it started with a blister on his middle finger that even at the time he was saying

affected the way he was gripping the curve ball. And we saw the stats, the movement profile of the curveball. all change while he was trying to pitch through this blister on his middle finger. And I think his attempts to grip it properly ultimately led to the finger strain that ended his season. So a blister messed up his best pitch. It messed up his season. It messed up his stats.

I know he spent, I can't remember the details exactly, but I remember reading about some efforts Nicolodolo made to address the blister issue. to kind of toughen up that part of his finger, this offseason, to avoid that, to keep that from happening again. So it seems like, it seems pretty clear what happened to Lodolo. Is it possible those first 11 starts were just a mirage or that something else could derail him this season? Yeah, it is.

But I thought, I think the talent's been there all along. And when he was healthy last year, he showed just how good he could be. Scott, who do you like more, Nick Ladolo or McKenzie Gore this season? Well, I already told you, Frank. I have Gore ranked higher. That's right. In part because I... Isn't he going higher?

Yes. He is going around 2.15 and Lidolo down at 240. I do have Lidolo ahead, personally. I want to give myself a chance to get both. Chris, they're that far apart in ADP. I'm probably going to rank, you know, presuming I'd like them both in a broad sense. I'm probably going to rank the higher ADP guy higher so that I give myself a chance to get both.

Chris, you like Lodolo too, right? I believe you had him in sleepers, 1.0. Yeah, he's a sleeper, but the distinction there mostly comes down to price. Ladolo's outside the top 200. So I call him a sleeper. That's kind of how I make my distinction on the sleeper. But yeah, everything Scott said is exactly what I said in my sleeper's article for him. I think he's super talented.

The fastball plays up. It's a tough home park, and so we might get the ERA. You might just have to live with a mid-3s ERA in a best case scenario, but I think it's going to be a ton of strikeouts and a very efficient pitcher. All right, Chris, well, you mentioned earlier that you have two closers or potential closers here on your list. Jordan Romano and Justin Martinez. Why do you like those two as breakouts this season?

Honestly, part of it is just that in Martinez's case, I think there, people are kind of overlooking him a little bit. There's a lot of AJ Puck love, and the Diamondbacks have not said who their closure is going to be. Kevin Ginkle is the most overlooked of these three, because he's very much in the mix for saves. I don't believe he is. I know they've said he is.

That's what the manager said, so I'm going to, if we're taking Grayson Rodriguez at his word, I'm going to take the Diamondbacks manager whose name is Tori Lavulo. Yep. It's not just what they say. It's how they say. But either way. Justin Martinez has been, I mean, he's always been filthy, but he's come to spring with some absolutely ridiculous stuff.

He hit 103 in his first spring outing. He sits 100. He was really very good last season, 29.5% strikeout rate. And so while I think H.J. Puck's really good. I think if they think Justin Martinez can be a lockdown closer, it would kind of make sense to leave Puck as a little more of a flexible option, still get some saves. It's not going to be one guy dominating, I don't think. But Justin Martinez could be a really, really good closer who gets 25 saves. So I think he's being overlooked

in fantasy. And then Romano, the big question coming back from last season's elbow surgery, the one that basically ended his season was, can he be the same guy? He's in his early 30s. It's not a guarantee, although it wasn't like an invasive surgery. It was a cleanup, I believe. But could he be the same guy?

And then he comes out in his first spring appearance. Look like the same guy. Generated a ton of whiffs with a slider. Fastball was sitting 96.5 exactly where it was last year. Doesn't look any worse for the way. looks like he's going to be the closer for the Phillies given the money that they gave him. And obviously that's one where you don't think he gets 100% of the saves for that team given how they've operated. But I think there's a decent chance Jordan Romano's just back and available at a very steep discount.

I like Jeff Hoffman more than both of these. He's a breakout for me as well. I know we talked about him on the Sleepers podcast yesterday. He can be both. And I, but I think these are three of my. favorite relievers to target right now. Look at the ADP over the past week. There's four relievers going right next to each other within a six-pick span.

Jordan Romano, Ryan Presley, Justin Martinez, Kyle Finnegan. Actually, Carlos Estevez isn't that mixed too. Five pitchers going within seven picks of each other in ADP. Chris, how would you rank those five? Romano, Presley, Justin Martinez, Kyle Finnegan, and Carlos Estevez. So it sort of depends on what your team needs. right? Because I think Martinez is a better closer than Kyle or a better pitcher than Kyle Fanagan or Ryan Presley. Those guys might be better bets for saves. So if you don't have

reliable safe sources, then you might put Finnegan and Presley ahead. But I think I would go Romano, Martinez, Presley, Finnegan, Estvez, I think a pretty clear fifth. I have Romano way ahead of that group. And if the Diamondbacks came out and said, Justin Martinez is our closer tomorrow. If they came out and said that, then he'd probably move up to a similar spot as Hoffman. But I think Puck could be a lights out closer too. And I do think they're genuinely torn between those two,

though Martinez is helping his chances with how he's looked this spring. Does it bother you at all, Chris? How many base runners Martinez gave up last year, 131 whip, walk rate of 4.5 per 9. he was their closer at the finish. So you'd assume he'd just automatically have the job coming in. I think part of the reason there's a competition is because he wasn't looking great at the end of last season.

He was giving up just not a lockdown guy at the end of games. The stuff looks great, but the actual results haven't measured up to it. The walk rate is the biggest concern here, obviously. And the fact that he primarily threw. as a sinker could make him a little more prone to giving up walks or prone to giving up hits. And I think the command's probably just not going to be great regardless for him because of how hard he throws. But I will say his Babbit was 322. That does feel a little high given how hard he was to hit.

Again, the fact that they're grounders might make them more likely to get through. but the fact that he never gives up home runs could be a benefit. So I don't know. You'd prefer the whip to be a little lower, but he had a 248 ERA and a 307 XERA. The FIP was 259, XFIP 288. Everything points to him being effectively wild. It's a small sample, but because he's so cheap,

I'm willing to just kind of roll with it in general. especially because if he was named the closer, does he go 100 picks higher than he currently is, 80 picks higher? His 80Ps like in the 225, 230 range. Yeah, probably would move up to inside the top 150, I would say. I lean AJ Puck as well, and really it's just because he goes 45 picks later. I think it's like a complete open chance for either of them right now

to be the team's closer. So just give me whoever's going later of the two and Puck is going 45 picks later right now. As good as the skills were for Martinez, and they were really good last year, when AJ Puck joined the debacks, he had a 132 ERA, a 0.73 whip, 14.1K per 9, 19% swinging strike rate. So I think both guys are really, really good. I think it's a good problem for the debacks to have.

Tori Lavullo also said that he doesn't care that puck is a lefty in being an option for saves too. So yeah, just give me whoever goes later, and most of the time, that is. AJ Puck. In addition for me to Breakouts 2.0 is Jared Jones, who last year burst onto the scene and then slowed up. He dealt with a lat injury, and that knocked him out for six weeks. Once he returned, he did not look like the same pitcher. But in his first seven starts last year, he looked like the second coming of Spencer Shrider. I mean, Jared Jones was, he was the talk of the fantasy world for the first two months of the season or so. A 263, ERA, a 0.78 Whip, 11.4K per 9, nearly a 19% swinging strike rate during that time. As I mentioned, he did take

a step back after that. Control started to become an issue. Gives up a lot of fly ball, so, you know, home runs could be a problem as well. He got hurt, and as I mentioned, did not look the same once he returned. What I like, though, is talk this offseason that he's worked on developing his curveball and his change up, and he has added a sinker so far this spring. And he, I think, knows that he needs a reliable third pitch. The fastball and slider accounted for 84% of Jared Jones's pitches last season. So I'm just hoping that one of those pitches emerges or maybe even just mixing in a sinker with his four-seeing fastball

just kind of keeps hitters off balance enough to stop giving up home runs and fly balls and things like that. So I like the pitching development here for the Pirates and I think we see another step forward for Jared Jones. either of you guys in on Jones this season. I'm fine with him at his ADP. I've drafted them before. It's the sort of thing where I wish,

I wish the good version was the second one we saw. So I didn't have to figure out why he lost it, why he went from an 18% swinging strike rate, which is world beating Spencer Strider-like, as you put it, to an 11% swinging strike rate, which is about as mid-ed, it gets. That's a, that's a, from a pure skill standpoint, that's a huge drop off.

And the majority of a season was the lesser form. So yeah, maybe a third pitch fixes it all. Yeah, I think, oh, sorry. I just don't know that my level of confidence in that lines up with where he's going, especially given how late the Nicola Dolo and McKinsey Gore types are going. I like Jerry Jones, I have him ranked ahead of ADP. I do think there is something to the idea that he just can't sustain it. Because what we would see a lot in his starts is 97, 98, 99 in the first couple of innings,

and then some really drastic drops and velocity as his starts went on. It doesn't necessarily mean that will always be the case for him, but it's it was there. There were some fluctuations in his release and his extension and his fastball velocity as the season went on to the point where it was sort of like there was no one version of Jared Jones. There were five different over the course of the season. And tightening that up and figuring it out, I think he could be an absolute ace. I think the he does an exceptional job

throwing the fast ball up in the zone. He's going to get whiffs with it, the slider. He manipulates it really well. Sometimes it looks more like a cutter. Sometimes it looks more like a true slider. I like betting on the upside. I wish I felt more confident

that the upside was there. It's, yeah, I mean, there's no doubting the upside for Jared Jones. I want to, like, key in on what I mean here

because I don't want people to think I'm like a Jared Jones hater. huge upside. But there's huge upside for so many pitchers. So he's going so far ahead of them, like as if there's reason to be more confident he's going to meet his upside. And I don't know that I'm more confident he's going to meet his upside. He could, but any of these pitchers could.

And so I'd rather bet on the ones that don't cost me as much. I totally get that. The ADP over the past week for Jared Jones is 146. So it is a much higher price tag. and typically if you want him, I think you've got to wind up with him as your SP4 in a deeper league. He might wind up being your SP3.

But I think what I come back to is the fact that we saw what his upside might be at the beginning of last season. It's just can he do that consistently? Can he maintain that velocity? As you mentioned, Chris, can he be that pitcher over the course of a full season? That we don't know exactly.

But the fact that, you know, we have seen glimpses of what his upside could be. I think it's higher than maybe even some of those names that we mentioned. Higher than Gavin Williams? I think so, yeah. I think so. Yeah. Okay.

I think his secondary is much better than Gavin Williams's. Yeah. Fair enough. All right, let's take our final break when we return. We've got a few more breakouts here, some news, and it will wrap up with a reminder of breakouts 1.0. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today.

Breakouts 2.0. Scott, you have a few more names here on the list. I'll run through these and feel free to give a quick nugget or whatever you'd like on these names. But you've got Mason Wynne, Christian Campbell, Chris Bubich, and Ryan Walker as players you're planning to add to breakout 2.0. Yeah, so Chris Bubich is the main one I want to focus on here. I feel like when the sparse are being discussed, he is often overlooked. When he might have the most upside of all of them, he doesn't feel. for sure have the fifth spot, but he's considered the favorite for the Royals.

And Chris Bupich, if you remember, that's where, like, he's the reason the name Lance Brasdowski was first uttered on this podcast because he, early in, I guess it was 2023, right? Early in 2023 when he was still a starter for the Royals, he introduced this changeup. Or let me see if I can remember the story. He, no, he introduced a slider and he added velocity to the changeup. And the change up just became a total world beater. The slider was a third offering that kind of brought his whole arsenal together. Brozdowski had the great data readings to back it up and put it in terms that I couldn't possibly.

But really made the case that Boobitch had figured it out and was on the verge of becoming a legitimate high-end starter. But then he had Tommy John surgery. He tore his elbow ligament right away. So we never got a chance to see that brought to completion. Came back from Tommy John surgery last year, and Boobich put together a 267 ERA out of the bullpenny. He put together a 267 ERA 102 whip 11.6K per 9. That change up in slider looked like it was playing the way it was before the Tommy John surgery.

Like, he hadn't lost that. And so now they're ready to reintroduce him to the rotation. And there will be workload issues, but he's a total afterthought in drafts, it feels like. So I love drafting Chris Bubich and try to make sure I do it in every league. You want me to go through some of these others? I do want to add. Okay. Go ahead.

Bovich is working as a starter this spring, like you said, has a good chance to be the fifth starter for the Royals. And he has sustained his velocity so far. He only threw 38 pitches today, not much. more than he'd thrown a relief appearance. So not a guarantee that that's there, but he average 93.2 miles per hour at the fastball today. That's what he was at in the bullpen last year. So that is a, I think, a very promising sign for Chris Bubich.

And I just wanted to mention the ADP over the past week, NFBC, Chris Bubich, at 361.6. If you look specifically at CBS Points Leagues, he is going at 263. So 100 picks higher, which makes sense. sense because again he does have that RP eligibility go ahead scott all right so ryan walker i feel like this is a pretty obvious one i mean frankly he already broke out last year but he's not being valued as the elite closer that i think he is so i'm going to just give him just just prop him up a

little here i've been drafting him like an elite closer as somebody who doesn't like to spend for actual Lee Closers, happy to get him where he's going. Last year, a 191 ERA. In 80 innings, by the way. 191 ERA, 0.85 whip, 11.1K per 9. Great control, absolutely unhittable with that almost sidearm delivery. Batters just did not know what to do with him.

And Bob Melvin eventually recognized it and installed him as the closer when Camilla Duval was struggling. And Walker's numbers got even better from there. So I think he's just a dude in the ninth inning. And I love that people aren't drafting him as such. So that's Ryan Walker, Mason win. The main things I like about him are that he said he's going to steal 40 bases or he's aiming to steal 40 bases this year after stealing only 11 last year.

So that alone would make him a breakout. He's also expected to hit lead off for the Cardinals. so he's going to get a lot of at bats, chance to rack up runs. His power production picked up in the second half, and I don't think we've seen the full extent of his potential there. Mason Wynn tends to go in the same range as Jeremy Pena, but I like him more than Pena. I like him more than Anthony Volpe.

I like him more than Ezekiel Tovar. I think my rankings reflect that now. I want to make sure I have some shares of Mason Wynn and you can get them for fairly cheap. And then finally, Christian Campbell. I don't think there's a whole lot to say here. Had a huge breakthrough season across multiple levels of the miners. They kept moving them up. He kept producing in every way.

You know, hitting a tunnel line drives to give him a good average, great plate discipline, power speed. There's not really anything he doesn't do well as a hitter. And he appears to have the inside track on the starting second base job for the Red Sox. Kind of a slow start this spring. I'm not sure it's going to happen. They've also been playing him in left field. I actually been playing him in left field more than second base. So they're giving him a couple avenues there to break through.

If it doesn't happen on opening day, I believe it'll happen within the first quarter of the season. and he might just be a must-star player. And part of the reason I think Christian Campbell is worth bringing up on a show like this is, you know, he's not getting the Jackson Churio treatment from last year. He's not even getting the Jackson Holiday treatment. And he's barely going inside the top 300. Yep. Past two weeks, 292 has not budged.

For that caliber of prospect to have that strong of a read, clear of a path to a job, but it just seems I want to be more careful drafting prospects this year too, but that seems like we're taking it too far. The only thing that does worry me, Scott, and you touched on this is how he's looked so far this spring. He's one for 17 with nine strikeouts,

and typically we don't want to put too much stock into spring training stats, but for a prospect that's trying to win a job, I think it does mean more. So I think, you know, hopefully we could see more out of Christian Campbell over the next couple of weeks or so, and maybe he gives the Red Sox,

a reason why he should be on their opening day roster, aside from just being a super prospect, but obviously looking like that player here in spring training, that would be nice to get from Christian Campbell. All right, let's get into some other news and notes. Raphael Devers was supposed to make his spring debut Wednesday, but he did not, and apparently he is still not ready, Chris. You actually alerted me to this.

Is there anything more to this story? Do you plan to lower Devers at all? I already lowered him last week to the bottom of that second team. year at third base. So he is behind Jazz Chisholm, Mani Machado, Austin Riley,

and that's it, right? That's the whole he's fourth out of four now. There's a pretty big drop after that down to, like 30 or 40 picks down to Caminero and Westberg.

Yeah, I think Devers should probably still be like a third round pick. It does still sound like the expectation is he'll be ready to go as ADHD. And part of me does wonder how much of this delay

in the spring is saving face a little and saying, oh man, Raphael Devers would totally be our third baseman, but just that that dang shoulder, I guess he's got to be the DH for the next 12 years. You know, like that is part of what I'm wondering,

but like he has only done like batting practice right now. And he's, you know, not throwing in fielding drills yet. So I do think they're, there is something there and the fact that it comes after we saw it limit him in the second half last season, even before the injury, his bat speed was way down, his arm strength was way lower. He had the injury all season. Yeah.

It just affected him the last two months more. But the fact that an offseason of rest and rehab has this still as an issue just makes me think there is a chance that this just wrecks his season. And nobody's talking about it that way. We were saying that in April last year. Yeah. He had. And it did. Well, he ended up being so good through April, May, June, and July that his final numbers were about where they always are.

Yeah. But there's no, there's no guarantee that that would have happened that he couldn't have fallen off in July or June. And for me, it's mostly just that I entered the season or the draft season, thinking this was totally behind him and that you just draft Raphael Devers as he. if he's Rafael Devers. And now, eight months, seven months after he was shut down at the end of last season,

it's still an issue. I think you have to move him down. Yeah, I've moved him. I still have him ahead of Machado, but they're like back to back for me. And that's in 12 team leagues, what a late third rounder,

basically. So dropped basically a full round for me out of concern as well. Adelaus Garcia, who's dealing with a mild, mild left oblique strain expects to be ready for opening day. This is another one where I just hope the Rangers give him enough time and don't try to rush him back because obliques can be very tricky.

And oblique seem to be a big theme so far of spring training because players just keep popping up with oblique injuries. In fact, the next player, Christian Walker was scratching the lineup due to left oblique soreness here on Wednesday. So of the injury situations brought up, this is the one that worries me. most. Christian Walker. Yeah.

More of him than Gunner Henderson or Grayson Rodriguez or even Raphael Devers. Because left oblique, that's what he missed time with for the Diamondbacks last year. The quote from the Astros manager was not particularly reassuring. He said, it's something I don't want to see right now. I'm just hoping for the best. So we'll find out, we'll have a clear answer for Chris. Christian Walker soon, but if I was drafting right now, I'd let him fall a few rounds. I think you put a pin in this one and say, yeah, let's keep an eye on it and, yeah, drop him a round just out of safety.

Wyatt Langford is expected to make his spring training debut Friday. He's been out to this point recovering from a mild oblique strain. Corbyn Carroll is very close to being fully recovered from a back injury he dealt with over the weekend. Jordan Walker has been diagnosed with left knee inflammation and is not dealing with any structural damage. From a Jeff Passen article, Sandy Alconter will be on an innings limit this season, particularly early on. And I saw our buddy Nick Pollack from pitcher list suggests that Sandy could be getting the

Garrett Crochet treatment from last season. So the way that they treated him in the second half, maybe we see some of that here in the first half with the marlins. I will say no way. No. There, there is zero chance that Sandy Alcantra is dealing through four innings with 65 pitches and the Marlins pull him out. There is, I will, I will shave my head if that happens. Ah, that doesn't exactly. You've already shaved your head anyway. You've already shaved your head, man. Look, it grew back, right? So I thought you're giving up on hair to be honest. I was surprised it came back. I was surprised it came back. I was surprised they came back too, but it looks okay.

I do want to put a note on this one that last week, Craig Mish, who is one of the most plugged in reporters around the Marlins, he, I think he's on the broadcast now, the pregame show. He said there are no limitations. And now Jeff Passan is saying there are, there will be limitations, particularly early in the season is what he said. neither of them sourced either of those reports. But what I did find was Sandy Alcantra himself talking to the media. Let's see, I want to get the exact quote. He acknowledged he will be somewhat limited in the, that there will be some limitations early on in the season. And then he said after the first two months of the season, quote, I think they got to let me compete.

the way I'm reading this is the first two months of the season will be a lot of five and six innings starts for Sandy. There will be some times when he's pulled after 88 pitches instead of going the next inning like he normally would. I don't think it's a like we're going to pull him after four and he's never going to throw him more than five. I would be stunned if that was what it was. If he's not pitching well, maybe. But like this is not going to be a. a Garrett Crochet situation. Some stack cast stuff from Wednesday.

Kevin Gossman made his spring debut, one and two thirds, shut out innings with two strikeouts. His velocity was up a little bit. His fastball up almost one mile per hour. His splitter was up 1.5. His slider was up 2.4 compared to last year. Jesus Lazzardo got destroyed.

He gave up three home runs, but the velocity remained up, which I think, again, is a good sign. He averaged 96.4 miles per hour on the fastball, and he had nine swinging strikes on 40 pitches. Reese Olson looked great, three shot-out innings with four strikeouts. His velocity was up one plus miles per hour on all of his pitches. And what if the Rangers closer is Emiliano Tejoto?

He struck out the side on Wednesday for his second save of the spring, and he averaged 98.6 miles per hour on his sinker. He got four whiffs on his slider as well. This is a prospect of note in their organization. I saw him in the Arizona Fall League two years ago, and he was making hitters look foolish then. Scott, we were talking beforehand. We're still trying to figure out who's going to be the closer

or get saves for the Rangers this season. I think it's fair to just throw Emiliano Toyota's name in the hat. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, remember, Emmanuel Class A was originally a Rangers product, and I think they didn't know what to do with them, which is how it ended up with the Guardian. and the Cory Kluber trade, and they've kind of been in between with Teoto, too.

It seems obvious that he's eventually going to wind up in the bullpen, but they still insist on having him start. And so, you know, worth noting they haven't actually floated his name. A lot of other people have been floating names for Rangers Closer. They've been slow to embrace the most obvious choice, Chris Martin. they shot down the John Gray idea that just emerged in analyst circles, it seems like. They haven't really tipped their hand until today, Bruce Bochi did mention a name. It wasn't Emiliano Teoto.

It was a name I learned 30 minutes before we started recording. Mark Church, Mark with a C. Bruce Bochy said he sees him as a closer, quote, sometime down the road and added, it could be when we break camp. So that's the closest he's come to endorsing anyone for the closer. I am not rocketing Mark Church up my draft boards yet. I still think the Rangers reliever to draft is Chris Martin,

but not with a lot of conviction because. Let's move Mark Church. that top 600. I can do that, sure. Who knows? Maybe it'll be him. You look at his minor league track record and it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. He threw one major league inning last year.

Yeah. I am kind of wishcasting Emiliano Tejoto to be their closer just because he has electric stuff and I think he would be pretty good in the role and hearing his name for a couple of years now as a prospect, everyone kind of assumed he was the closer of the future. But then, as you mentioned, Scott,

he was used as a starter last season in the minors. So yeah, they're kind of in between on Toyota. I mean, I will say that that was my last pick in the Scott White Dynasty Prospects draft. It was a good pick, too. I didn't know. Who suggested you make that pick? I'll be honest. I was, I think I was into my second hand grenade in New Orleans this weekend when I was

texting Scott to send me a list of names. But that was the one I picked. So I'm with you, Frank. I texted you. I'm surprised Emiliano Tejoto hasn't gone yet. Among the names I sent you, he was the one you picked. There you go. I do want to just focus on Kevin Gosman for one second because I am starting to talk myself into a little bit of a Kevin Gosman bounce back. He obviously was not himself for most of last year. The splitter was nowhere near as effective. I think he dropped his arm angle as a result.

of the shoulder injury and the velocity was down. But his fastball velocity was up back to 2023 levels. The movement profile on the splitter was getting a little more drop on it in this one. I think Kevin Gosman as like, I think he's around 150 in ADP. I think he's a decent value here, I will say. The past 276 over the past two weeks at NFBC. We'll take that every day. I think he should be around 150.

He's going just ahead of someone Christopher Sanchez, who's looked really good this spring too. I move Christopher Sanchez up the rankings a little bit today when I was touching things up there. All right, let's wrap up with some reminders of Breakouts 1.0 and lots of big names on this list and definitely worth mentioning them and reminding people why we like some of these names.

Scott, I'll just throw your names out there from Breakouts 1.0. Wyatt Langford, James Wood, Lawrence Butler, Bailey Obert, Jordan Westberg, Spencer Schwellenbach, Spencer Argetty, Tyler Fitzgerald, Lars Neupar, Reese Olson, Matt Shaw, and Jonathan Aranda. Are you going to have all of those as holdovers and breakouts 2.0 as well? Not Tyler Fitzgerald. That feels kind of stupid. I mostly just wanted to comment on how late he was going relative to the numbers he put up. I guess a sleeper. Yeah, yeah, you know, I had too many sleepers already, so he wound up in breakouts. But yeah, I'm probably going to leave him out because I'm just not that excited about drafting him, even for as late as he goes, because the exit velocity and strikeout rates are both terrible. For the podcast audience, I think Wyatt Langford and James Wood are too obvious to get into here.

They're kind of the free space breakout picks. I will reiterate Lawrence Butler. why I like him so much from July 1st on last year. Well, let's start before July last year and his entire professional career. Lawrence Butler was interesting, showed athleticism, showed he could hit the ball hard, didn't make enough contact,

and just seemed like more of a project than a true prospect. Started off terribly last year, spent some time in the minors. It was actually after he came back that he worked on some mechanical tweaks with the A's director of hitting, eliminating excess movement, staying back on the ball. And with those tweaks, Lawrence Butler was a monster the rest of the way, July 1st on 302 batting average, 20 homers, 14 steals, a 943 OPS. You can basically double the numbers to find out the sort of pace he was on 40 homers, 28 steals.

His strikeout rate was 20.6 percent during that time as compared to 30.7. percent previously. So that'll play. And I'm not, I find I'm getting less and less cautious. He's looked pretty good this spring, Butler. You only one strike out in six games. It's so much upside. You know, I wish he was a little cheaper. He's creeping up towards 60th now in ADP. Yeah. But man, the upside is so high and outfield is kind of hurting at that point. Okay, so that's that. Let's do Bailey Ober real quick. He had, of course,

Of course, the high ERA last year, 398, which I think scares some people off. But if you eliminate his worst two stars, one of which was his first start of the season, where there were all kinds of baggage with that. His ERA drops from 398 to 318, to 318. Much better. And frankly, I think within the realistic range of outcomes for Ober, his profile is very, very similar to Shoda Imanaka. who actually had a 291 ERA last year. Fly ball pitchers with elite control

and pretty good bat missing ability. Between the two, Bailey Ober actually had the lower expected ERA last year. And I think it's within the realm of possibility that their ERAs just flipped this year. Jordan Westberg is a huge breakout candidate of mine because he sort of like with Ryan Mountcastle, the fact that they're pulling the left field fences back from being, you know, the most power suppressing environment, more or less for right

anti-power hitters. They're moving them back in, in a way that should play well for Westberg with his premium exit velocities. It was great last year. I mean, you just project his numbers over 150 games that comes out to 25 homers and 88 RBI, both of which would have ranked second among second base eligible players. I think there's a chance he does even better this year. You mentioned Schwellenbach and Eric Getty and got it.

so many. I'll just get into it on those last two. Schwellenbach and Erigetty. Schwellenbach combines elite

control, like George Kirby levels of strike throwing with a six-pitch arsenal, both of which would suggest he's been in the league for 12 years,

you know? It almost reads like a like a veteran journeyman just kind of trying to keep his career afloat, throwing a ton of strikes and mixing up the pitch selection. But he does it with like great stuff. And he does it, he did that in his second year as a full time starting pitcher. Was it his second year or was it his first as a full time? It was his second. But well, he threw about 65 innings the year before, but it was, he was a full

time starting pitch. He was a reliever and a shortstop in college. So the fact that he expanded his arsenal to six pitches while maintaining elite control. I mean, we kind of, we kind of saw it in the numbers already. I mean, I mean, just saying that you can take them at face value. The skills appear to be there for Spencer Schwellenbach. Finally, Spencer Erigeti, whose numbers you can't at all take at face value, because 453 ERA, 141 whip, why is this guy worth my time? Well, that's because two-month stretch at the end of last season, 272 ERA, 11.4K per 9.

He leaned on his secondary offerings more. He started throwing strikes more consistently, and the stuff clearly played. He had more double-digit strikeout games last year, Spencer Arroghetti, than either Terrick Scoobol or Paul Skeens. All right, Chris, over to you, some names that were in your breakouts 1.0. Wilson Gutreras, Tristan Kosses, Jordan Westberg, Jr. Camerro, Mason Wynne, Jackson, Churio, Wyatt Langford, Dylan Cruz, Grayson Rodriguez, Spencer Schwellenbach, Brian Wu, and Jeff Hoffman.

Are you still buying all those names as Breakouts this season? Everybody's still in, like I said earlier, I'm a little iffy on Grayson Rodriguez with the way this spring has gone, but there's still three or four opportunities for him to get past whatever is going on right now. Some of these guys don't really merit. Much discussion, Westberg, Camerro,

when Scott made the case already, Lankford is, you know, one of the free spaces on the board. So I will start with Wilson Contreras, who has the highest weighted runs created plus. of any catcher over the past two seasons. Minimum 800 played appearances because he has missed some time. But he's going to be playing first base for the Cardinals full time.

The hope is that that will keep him healthier, not going to say healthy because he's 34 years old and has missed a lot of time with hamstring and lower body injuries that could still crop up. But I think he's going to be among the leaders in playing time for catchers. I think he is one of the best hitters at the position. there is a world in which Wilson Contreras is the number one catcher in fantasy, not his younger brother William Contreras.

So William Contreras obviously second among catchers in Way to Runt's Crater Plus the last two years. Comanero, he hit, it was something like three home runs in his final seven games during Springball. Who? What were you saying, Chris? Yeah, he hit, I think three or four home runs. in the final like eight games in the Caribbean series

and then I think he's up to three already in spring training in like six games so he there's no question what the upside is here he could be Marcelo Zuna he could be Jordan Alvarez am I shooting too high here? I don't know he's 20

21 he might get there eventually I'm not sure it'll happen this year but he could get there eventually and then I do want to say about Dylan Cruz I know he had one month in the majors last year and was not great. It was like a 630 OPS. Stole 12 bases in 31 games, though. So if you look at a lot of the stack has stuff that we typically look at and compare it to Wyatt Langford,

it's eerily similar. Very good plate discipline. More like good than great quality of contact, but really good approach at the plate, plus athleticism. Now, Wyatt Lankford should be going ahead of him because we saw the upside. in September when Cruz was struggling. White Langford, I believe, was the AL player of the month. And he is a breakout.

White Langford's now a top 40 pick. And showing no signs of slowing down. Dylan Cruz could be a comparable producer this season at a hundred pick discount or an 80 pick discount. I think it's closer to what it is right now. Very similar prospect pedigree drafted right around the same spot. I think they're ahead of Langford. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

They were in the same draft, weren't they? Yeah. so I just want to point out there that Dylan Cruz I think is not getting enough credit for the upside because he hasn't shown it in the major league level yet and then Brian Wu I just I really think the only question is whether he can stay healthy and it's a big one because he's dealt with some forearm and elbow injuries and I know Frank you have him as a bust nothing personal I guess but man Brian Wu is like might have the best fastball combination in baseball. And if he doesn't, it's only because like, Zach Wheeler and Paul Skeens are the best and second best pitcher in the world or whatever.

Like Brian Wu is in that conversation with those fastballs. He generates a ton of wifts and a ton of weak contact with his four seamer in the air, a ton of weak ground balls with the sinker. They're both ideal pitches. The slider has shown some swing and miss upside. He's got great command. Unlike a George Kirby level.

of command and control. I think there's strikeout upside. I think he's going to limit damage. And then the last two months of the season, he all of a sudden started throwing 90 pitches more often than not. Started getting through six innings, something he didn't do it all early in the season. So I just think it's just staying on the mound for Brian Wu.

And if he does, I think he has top 10 upside. All right. The names in my breakout is 1.0. A lot of the names you've already heard on this list. Wyatt Langford, James Wood, Lawrence Butler, Spencer Swellenbach also the pitcher that I love this year from our Valentine's Day episode.

Jordan Westberg, Junior Camerero, Dylan Cruz, Jason Dominguez, Mason Wynn, Spencer Arredegetty, Jackson Holiday, who we spoke about yesterday as a sleeper seeming more likely that he'll be on the Orioles opening day roster and looking to run more of the season, so that's good news. And Tyler Soderstrom as a corner infielder who offers power upside, but there have been talks that he could be the backup catcher for the A's this season.

And for those in deeper two catcher leagues, you know, maybe you draft Soderstrom as a corner or a bench bat, whatever it might be. And if he gains catcher eligibility, that could be a huge boon to his value as well. Did just want to touch on Jason Dominguez because we have not talked about him at all from breakouts 1.0.

But, look, we've heard the name for a long time. He's still just 22 years old. I think we have prospect fatigue when it comes to Dominguez a little bit. We've just heard his name. He's been a top 100 prospects. six times, I think. Yeah. Yeah, he's just been around for so long, right? Like, as soon as he was signed, he was, you know, dubbed the Martian, and we were fed all of this about, you know, his tools and, you know, his upside being sky high. And I still think there's a lot of upside. I think

there's power and speed and the fact that he is a switch hitter who pulls the ball a lot, playing in Yankee Stadium. I also think there's a non-zero chance that he leads off for the Yankees this season. His skill set, of all the players there are considering jazz Chisholm and Volpe and Cody Bellinger. I think he has the best eye out of all of them. If you look at his minor league profile, he walked a lot, great on base percentage.

Like I said, there's speed there. So I don't know if he can catch a fly ball. So we've got to watch that to make sure that he can. But assuming he gets better in left field, I think there's some pretty big upside for Dominguez and maybe as the leadoff hitter for the Yankees this season. It sounds like they're leaning away from that more the leadoff thing.

But yeah, I mean, he's obviously a breakout game. candidate. I mentioned Lawrence Butler has looked great this spring. I looked up the numbers. He struck out one time in 17 plate appearances. Well, Scott, Chris said that. That stat sounded better when Scott said it 20 minutes after I did. That feels like a good place to wrap up the podcast. For Scott and Chris, he's not at home, you know, it's an unfamiliar situation. I get it. Yeah, I mean, from one grandma's living room to another.

An unfamiliar situation, but a familiar problem, wouldn't you say? Yes, indeed. For Scott and Chris. Absolutely. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.