Fantasy Baseball Today - Breakouts! Will Patrick Sandoval Take the Next Step? (3/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 11, 2022

Join our FBT March Madness Bracket for a chance to join our listener leagues- cbssports.com/FBTbrackets Breakouts! Let's start with Chris' favorite this upcoming season (1:25). ... Can Willy Adames build off his big 2020 (8:16)? ... Can Shane McClanahan put it all together (16:00)? ... News and notes (26:11)! Ranger Suarez likely won't be ready for Opening Day due to visa issues. ... Why have people forgotten about Luis Patiño (34:22)? ... The Dodgers need Tony Gonsolin this year (38:35). ... Can Triston McKenzie stay healthy (43:05)? ... Will Eduardo Rodriguez take off in Detroit (46:05)? ... It seems like people aren't buying Kyle Schwarber (49:00). ... Can Lourdes Gurriel put it all together for an entire season (53:08)? ... We wrap up with rapid-fire breakouts (55:35)! 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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

Into fantasy baseball today on March 11th. I am Frank Stamphle joined by Scott White and Chris Towers on the happiest of Kokomo Fridays. Baseball is back and we have all the breakouts. But before we get into it, I just want to welcome everybody back. Hey there, where you been? That's right. The season is on.

It's time to jam in as much fantasy baseball prep as you possibly can. Please feel free to go back and listen or watch all of our on-demand content, which features position previews, live mock draft, sleepers, the whole shabang. Much more. Go check it out. Okay, now I'm ready.

True story, I had Chris and Scott send me their five favorite breakouts before the podcast. They had two of the same players on their respective lists. Who were they? I don't know. Let's find out. Let's start with Chris. Who is your favorite breakout this season? Yeah, I knew that those two guys would be on our list.

And since I get to go first, I'll pick one of them. And it's Patrick Sandler. of all a nice patty sando he made a leap last season you could argue he made a breakout leap last season when he posted the 3.62 era in 87 innings but i think he's going to do that and more in what i hope will be a larger role he missed some time with injuries last season however it was a back injury it wasn't you know an arm injury so i think that's a little less concerning for a pitcher and he was really good 26% strikeout rate 10% walk rate i think there's room for both of those to improve, but he also had a 341 expected Wobah against on contact against

compared to a 369 league average. So he was really good at suppressing hard contact. Pretty much all of his pitches that was true of. And the change-up is just a freakishly good pitch. Last season, he threw it 30% of the time, 51.4% whiff rate. That is nearly uncharted territory. He had a 221.1. expected Wobah against an 82.8 average exit velocity against his changeup. His four-seeing fastball, 84.9 mile per hour average exit velocity. So that was really good as well. It's not a swing and miss pitch, but he does have a slider that looked really good last season, even a curveball that did a pretty good job of limiting hard contact last season as well. So it's a full arsenal for Patrick Sandoval. And I think there's a chance he goes out, pitches

is 180 innings of a low 3 ZRA and ends up as a top 15 starting pitcher. I think that's well within the realm of possibility for Patrick Sandoval. I'm very excited about him. You've heard us talk a lot about Patrick Sandoval. So far this preseason, if you've been

listening, if you're just tuning in for the first time now that the lockouts over, get ready for us to talk a lot about Patrick Sandoval over the next four weeks. We all like him a lot. He's, I think, collectively, one of our favorite breakout candidates. And yeah, he's going to be a good one.

I believe he was featured in each of our breakout columns. And rightfully so. You mentioned the changeup, Chris. Filthy. Just an absolutely filthy pitch, which produced a 28.7% swinging strike rate. Just to put that in perspective, Jacob de Grom, who is otherworldly,

a freak in his own right, his swinging strike rate on all of his pitches, just combined. It's like 20, 21% last. year, which is much higher than the rest of the league. Again, this change up, almost 29% on that changeup. He was awesome. He made 14 starts once he joined the rotation on May 17th. Patrick Sandoval did a 3.39 ERA 118 whip, 86 strikeouts over 79 and two-thirds. Endings pitched during that span. Scott, the only questions that I really have when it comes to Patrick

Sandoval is health. Can he do it over the course of a full season since he's coming back from that stress fracture in his back from last year? I don't think that's the only question you should have. Is he going to walk too many guys, I think, is a reasonable question to have, too? Even last year, 3.7 per 9. But I'm not here to talk down, Patrick Sandoval, because I have him as a breakout candidate as well, and I agree with Chris that that's what the upside could be for him. His numbers look especially good when you remove all the relief appearances, where he was

pretty shaky for the most part. And yeah, I mean, you mentioned we talk about them a lot on this podcast. I recently did one of my surveys that I do on social media sometime, on Twitter, on Facebook. You know, presumably the people responding to these surveys are them being followers of mine and ours. They listen to the podcast. And so sure enough, I presented eight questions. And Patrick Sandoval was one of the highest finishers on all, on, on, on, on, on, on many of them on the most appropriate ones.

Who's the one player you have to have this year? Which SP seems like the best bet to break out? Who's your favorite late round target? Sandoval was among the highest finishers to all three of those questions. Can I add just a little bit more color to how good his changeup is? Sure. So there were 55 pitchers last season who ended a minimum of 100 played appearances against them with their changeup. Patrick Sandoval led them all with 51.4% whiff rate.

That's whiffs per swing. Devin Williams was second at 47.2%. A reliever with a freakishly good changeup that he throws 64% of the time. Might be the single best pitch in baseball. Number three was Ranger Suarez, very good pitch. He had a 39.8% whiff rate. You're talking about a 12 percentage point difference between number one and number three in terms of that. And he had the fourth lowest expected Wobah against with his changeup. The pitch

is, it's stupid. And that's to finish off batters. So he's, so it's a great changeup and he knows how to use it. Yep. Yep. Let's do it quick. This or that when it comes to Patrick Sandoval. His ADP is 206.4. Chris, would you rather have Sandoval or Anthony Descalfani? If you're going, if you're starting it with pitchers in his ADP range. It's going to be Sandoval for a while. All right. Well, let's see how high we can get. Sandoval versus Dezcoffani. Sanneval. Sanneval versus Jose Orkitti. Sanival. Sandoval.

Sandoval versus John Means. Sandoval. Versus Noah Sindergarde. Sandoval. Versus Terrick Skoobal. Easily. Versus Jjun Riu. Sandoval.

Versus Trevor Bauer. Sandoval. Versus Marcus Strowman. Sandoval. versus Michael Kopeck. Sandoval. Versus Mike Clevenger. Sandoval.

Adam Wainwright. Sandoval. Logan Gilbert. Sandoval. Sunny Gray? Sandoval. Eduardo Rodriguez? I do have you.

Rank Lair. All right. So that would get Patrick Sandoval inside the top 50 starting pitchers, which I believe is actually where you have him ranked, Chris. So he's, I... Yeah, he's 42.

me. I just moved him up even more than I had him. I had him 48. It wasn't high enough because I looked at it and it's like I'd rather have Patrick Sandoval than Tyler Malley. Yeah. All right. So make sure you get yourself some Patrick Sandoval this upcoming season. Scott, your favorite breakout this year is Blank. Wild Willie Adamas. That's my favorite breakouts. And it's one of those breakouts where you're not totally sure if you should call him a breakout because it kind of already happened. But when it's not being reflected by the ADP, I feel like it's justifiable. Willie Adomas goes about 1 40th overall among short stops.

He is, oh, it's hard to tell on Fantasy Bros because I got a lot of non-short stops mixed up in here. But he's like right around 15th. 15th or beyond at the position, not being drafted as a starter, even which deep position, I understand. am, but on 12-team leagues, considered very fringy in 12-team leagues, just in terms of should he start or should he not start. And he should start because this was his numbers after joining the Brewers last season. He had 285 with 20 home runs in an 886 OPS. That's in roughly three quarters of the season because that's when the trade happened. 285, 20 homers, 886 OPS.

His road numbers during his time with the Rays, which covers the rest of his major league career, 291 with an 858 OPS, virtually identical to those numbers he put up after joining the Brewers. So clearly what was holding him back during his time with the Rays was Tropicana Field, which is a terrible place to hit. Adamas himself has spoken to it complaining about the batterer's eye in particular, but it's dimly lit. The roof is like white, so it's easy to lose the ball in it. It's just a terrible place to hit, and it seems to impact certain hitters especially so, and it seems like Adomis falls into that category. I think it's totally possible that Adamas could end up with better numbers than Carlos Correa this year,

and I like Correa. I think Adama's could be better. I think it's not outside the realm of possibility, at least if you're talking about the 5x5 stats, you're leaving plate discipline out of it, I don't think it's outside the real possibility that Adamas could have better numbers than Xander Bogart's, who goes 100 picks earlier. So, I mean, I find myself often waiting at shortstop

because I know Adomis is going to be there. You know, obviously there's a lot of talent at the position. It's hard to pass up Corey Seeger at his going rate. It's hard to pass up Carlos Coray at his going rate. But Adomis makes it really easy to do because I'm just very confident in what he should. showed us with the Brewers last year. Yeah, and what he did with the Brewers last year was amazing, as you referenced, Scotty. From that point forward, he joined the Brewers on May 22nd.

Here were his ranks among short stops from that point forward. Batting average, he hit 285, that ranked 7th. Home runs, 20. That was tied for third. OPS 886, that was fourth best. So in the three really major categories we're looking at for offensive production in fantasy baseball, Well, Willie Adomas was a top seven short stuff in each of those since he, after joining the Brewers on May 22nd. So it's hard to argue with the production that we saw last year.

And obviously it's a, I would say, pretty solid lineup. It's a good ballpark to hit in as well. Chris, I feel like you were the one who called Willie Adamas like the cheat code at the position. If you just, you know, wait and you miss out on everyone else,

he's just kind of like that fallback option. But the problem is, if you wait too long and then you miss out on Willie Adamas, It's like, what do you do after that? Ah, my Tout Wars team. Face and point. Yeah, so that's the problem.

If that is your plan and then you miss out, it's like, what do I do now? Yeah, that's kind of always the problem when you set one guy as the strategy for your team or for any position, really. It doesn't quite make a lot of sense to say. I have an answer to this, though. Go ahead and finish your thought. I do have an answer, though. yeah it just like to go and say like I have to have Willie Adamas and not have a backup option

like you should be willing to take Willie Adamas he's the 18th shortstop eligible player in NFC leagues he's actually dropping in ADP there he's fallen behind Dansby Swanson and J. Croninworth which I don't know but yeah like if you don't get him it's Chris Taylor Louisa Reyes Brendan Rogers.

That's basically my answer. If you want to squint and talk yourself into Ahmed Rosario or Aohanahe, Johanah Suarez is another option. But yeah, it's risky. So, you know, I pointed it to my Tau Wars team is what happens if you miss out on Adomas, too. That's worth noting that's a 15-team league with the middle infield spot. It's a deeper league than most of the people listening play in.

The fallback for Willie Adamas is Dansby-Swanson. or it's taking a shot on Brendan Rogers breaking out, or it's Chris Taylor, who could be a 25-15 guy theoretically this year. It's not a disaster if you miss out on Adamas. Adomis is your last shot. I mean, look, I think Brendan Rogers could put up stud numbers this year. I think O'Neill Cruz could put up stud numbers this year.

But the last player you should expect to put up stud numbers at the position is Willie Adamas. But that doesn't mean you can't get competent shortstops after him. it is I will point out there is for his career he has outperformed his expected Wobah 332 to 313 so this may not matter all that much but his expected Wobo was pretty middling 325 overall last season and his actual Wobo was 349 if you just isolate the time he spent with the Brewers his expected Wobo was 33 so a little better but still pretty average ish for a you know starting hitter I guess the least average is 316, but among starters, 332 is probably pretty average. But if, you know, if you believe there's something about his approach that makes him likely

to outperform his expected stats by, you know, a significant margin every year, then it's not so much of a concern. That's the one caveat I would put on it, is the underlying numbers aren't quite as impressive, although it's

sort of hard to figure out why. You know, like his expected batting average is 23rd percentile but he hits the ball hard he hits line drives like it's it is sort of weird that barrel rate barrel right's 11.4% that's really good

that's good so it's like I don't quite understand what it is he's the plate discipline isn't great yeah his plate discipline isn't great but he's a pretty pull heavy hitter so I like yeah I don't know it's weird I'm not 100% sure what to make of it but you know we do have four seasons of him you know seven

1,700 plate appearances of him outperforming his expected stats by a solid margin. So, you might just own that skill, too. Chris, I guess you didn't get the memo beforehand, but no Willie Adama's slander allowed on this podcast. Nothing I said was false. He was, you know, he was, you know, he was slander spoken. No, it's fine. No, actually, I appreciate, you know, we got to play devil's advocate for some players,

present all sides of the argument. But overall, another player, I think we're all in on here on. Willie Adomas. For me, my favorite breakout this season, the low-hanging fruit. Honestly, I thought we would all kind of be in on this player this upcoming season, but it's not the case. Shane McClanahan, also known as Shane O'Mack. Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talks. Here comes the money. Shane McClanahan as a rookie last year. 3-4-3-E-R-A, a 127 whip, 141st, 141

strikeouts over 123 and a third innings pitched a left-handed pitcher, who averaged is 96.4 miles per hour on his fastball, has a deep repertoire, throws four different pitches at least 8% of the time, and he had a swinging strike rate overall of 14.8% last season, which was tied for eighth among starting pitchers with at least 120 innings pitched last year. There's some concern over, okay, he pitches for Tampa Bay, they could limit him, you know, he's a young pitcher on that team, which more often than not, I would agree with that. But if you look at their rotation, they really need length out of him. They don't have a lot of, I guess, just talent or reliability in that rotation.

So I think that they are relying on Shane McClanahan to lead them. I think he's going to be their opening day starter, assuming that, you know, everything works out well in spring training. I just, I love the talent. I love what we saw last year, the strikeouts. You're talking about the raise, Frank. This is the team that pioneered the opener. They don't subscribe to your rules about what they do and don't need. But I think we would have said something similar about Tyler Glass now a couple of years ago, too.

And eventually they just kind of let him go. Maybe that's not the, maybe this isn't that year for McClanahan, but, you know, he got, you know, to close to 130 in terms of, I think he got over 130 with like minors and majors and postseason combined. So I think it's like, you know, pretty, you could pretty easily see him getting, getting to 150, 160 innings this upcoming season. He's got to work on some stuff, obviously, a lot, a lot of hard contact. You know, the fastball was very hitable, but it seems like, it seems like one of those things that there's just too much talent here

and the raise are going to figure it out, whether it's, you know, a couple of tweaks to the pitch mix or sequencing, whatever it might be. Everything is there for Shane McClanahan, including a very high ADP. So I will point that out as ADP is 103.8. It's almost being baked in. That's the concern for me.

Yeah, is the fact that, you know, you're paying for, a breakout. But you know, if he turns out to be a top 15, top 20 starting pitcher, then it'll be worth it. Yeah. No, he's an obvious breakout candidate. I'm not, I'm not saying he's not. I mean, there's a lot to like there about Shane McClanahan. It's just when you, when you factor in the the fact he gets hit really hard when he does get hit, that makes it so he doesn't really stand out from the other pitchers, that other young group of bat missing pitchers. That, that other young group of bat missing pitchers who were counting on taking a step four.

So many people are counting on taking a step four at Alec Mnanoa, Dylan Sees, who else is in that group? Trevor Rogers. Yeah, sure. They all have their warts, McLeanahan included. And so there's that where, okay, I don't really think he stands out among that group. And as you mentioned, his ADP is about as high as I'm willing to justify, even knowing the breakout potential.

And I'm not saying your breakout pick has to be based on ADP, but when you have enough breakout picks who you think are going, like, are going at a discount. Like, I don't really, I'm not really going to claim ownership of a breakout candidate who I'm not drafting that often, you know, because their ADP doesn't allow me to. Yeah. That's where I'm at with McClain-Anne.

No, I get it. I mean, the thing is I'm willing to draft him at his cost. Yeah, I mean, more often than not, you know, in a 12-team league, I can wind up with him as my SP-4. I've done a few 15-team leagues where I can get him as my SP-3, and I'm perfectly fine with that. Chris, I know you're a little bit more skeptical when it comes to Shane McClain. Yeah, I think he's probably closer to the other two exciting young pitchers in the

Rays rotation, or assumed in the Rays rotation, Shane Baz, and Louis Pettino, though, he is the highest ranked of them for me. And just to put a little context on what we're talking about when we say, Shane McClanahan gets hit hard. He had a 460 expected ERA based on how, you know, how many strikeouts, how many walks, but also the kind of quality of contact he gave up. His 45.7% hard hit rate was the third highest among qualifying starters. His 7% barrel rate was the 12th highest among qualifying starters nestled between Mike

Fulton-Evitz and Taiwan Walker. his expected Wobah was 424. Expected Wobah on contact was 424. That's in the bottom 10% of the league. So he wasn't just like bad in terms of quality of contact. He was among the worst in baseball. Now, if you want a silver lining on that dark cloud, it would be that it takes a long time for quality of contact stats

to stabilize for pitchers. And it's not like a full season. It's not like the difference when 200 innings and 120 innings. You're probably talking about three full seasons to really know how much of a pitcher's quality of contact stats are their skill versus random variance. Batters own a lot more of that skill. And so if you were going to bet on that type of player to outperform those expected stats, I think he would be one of them because that's where he falls short is a place that he may not actually. be as bad as he appears. And also, it's just worth noting, Robbie Ray is also quite better in terms of the quality of contact he gives up. And so is

pretty famously. And if you miss enough bats, quality of contact isn't that important. Yeah, I think Shane Bieber is kind of like what Shane McClainahan should be trying to be. And honestly, like, it sounds crazy to say, but his stuff might even be better than Shane Bieber's. Yeah, I think in how stuff is true. I think Robbie Ray is a pretty good comp in terms of quality of stuff. It's just the gap between where Shane McClain and was last season and where Robbie Ray is was 27% strikeout rate versus 32.

When Robbie Ray has been around a 27% strikeout rate, that's what he was in 2020. And he was one of the worst starting pitchers in baseball. Now, his walk rate was also 18%. So it was a disaster all the way around. He wasn't very good at anything. But things can go wrong very easily for a pitcher if they give up that kind of quality of contact. So that's the concern for me. And that's why I do think Trevor Rogers is better because I think he has similar strikeout potential.

But I think he's better at the quality of contact stuff. I think, gosh, who are some other players in that kind of mold? It's like Alec Manoa, Dillon Cs. These are like the young, hype starting pitchers that are expected to take that next step. I think a healthy Carlos Rodon is better. I think Frankie Montas is probably better. But I have Shane McLeanhan in the top 36,

so it's not like I hate him. It's just I'm unlikely to draft him at the price he's going. I get it. If there's one drawback to McClainahan, it is the price, but every year there are breakouts drafted in this range. You know, around pick 100, you know, maybe 100 to 120. Some of them hits, but don't.

I mean, it happens every year. Again, Shane Bieber. No, I get it. But it's just like, if he does figure out the hard contact, I think we could be talking about Shane McClanahan as like a top 15 starting pitcher drafted next year, right? Like third or fourth round pick, something like that. So the upside is definitely there.

Nobody's disputing that. For sure. I also have a bit of a mental block on just like, why did nobody? think he was a starter before this year. There was like nothing in his minor league numbers to suggest that he couldn't be a starter, but like every scouting report was like, yeah, he's good, but he's going to be a reliever. And it's like, I have the trouble with that because it wasn't just like scouts thinking that. A lot of what you would read is like the rays aren't sure if he's a starter.

That I guess I have trouble getting past like whatever it was. Because once he got called up, it was like, oh, this guy's got like, four great pitches. He looked like a starter last year. I'll say that. I don't know when he developed those extra. Because usually it's because their arsenal isn't full enough and or they're short. And McLeanahan is only 6 foot 1.

So that probably factored into the thinking too. Yeah. We're not all. Yeah, I mean, he's considered short for a starting. Yeah, no, I know. We're not all giants like Scott. I was reading a scouting report of Max Meyer today for the Marlins.

And he's six foot. And it's like, ooh, he looks like a release. That's six foot tall. That's like 90th percentile among American men. It's quite tall. I just drafted Dre Jameson in the Scott White Dynasty League prospects only draft. And he's pretty short too. I think he's six foot. Scott, how tall are you?

I am six two. Oh, tower. It's technically six one and a half. We stand a tall king. Look at him. That's why he's looking down. They might say I'm too short to be a start. When I, I'm technically five.

I stretch it to 510. So when I see Shammeklan and I'm like, what's up, big guy? You're playing center. Chris, you're not 5.10. We're the same height. I'm 5'10. I went to the doctor last year and I was 5'9 and 3 quarters.

We round that baby up. That's an even 5'10. All right. I'm not rounding down to 5.9 on my license. That's fine. My license is fine. It's always round up. Anyway, we've got more breakouts coming a little bit later on.

The return of news and notes. I have a feeling that we're going to have a lot of this coming up over the next couple of weeks. We haven't had anything to report. And unfortunately, we've got to start with some bad news. According to Matt Gelb of the athletic, Ranger Suarez may not be ready for opening day due to visa issues. Scotty, this is your boy, Ranger Danger. Do we lower Suarez in our rankings now? Yeah, I think you have to.

I haven't determined exactly how much I want to lower him. I can tell you, though, I definitely regret taking. Ranger Suarez instead of Nelson Cruz in round 13 if that war is now. And this was something. We didn't talk about it in the emergency podcast, but I was talking to you guys about it afterward. Like I wondered if this would happen with the players who need visas and that sort of thing. It's a lot harder for them to just spontaneously start spring training.

And when that spring training is only three weeks long, you know, that gives them a narrow margin for being ready for opening day. and we saw it a lot in the 2020, leading up to 2020, when they had a similar timetable for their training session in the summer. And a lot of players were late reporting. I know Giovanni Gallegos was among them,

but there were a bunch. Now, there were a lot of pandemic restrictions in place that I'm sure made it much, much harder. So hopefully it won't be that many, but I doubt it'll only be Ranger Suarez. I don't know enough about players like living situations to comment on who it could be, you know? Yeah, and I think it might differ from, you know, based on country of origin just because U.S. diplomatic relations with Venezuela are very different from Dominican Republic or Colombia or Mexico. And so, you know, my wife's from Venezuela, so I know a lot about it.

And it's actually very difficult to get visas coming from Venezuela for, like, logistical. reasons. And so I do wonder about that. It also, the thing that like the red flag that immediately jumped out at me when I saw this was, I remember 6th of Sanchez last year, couldn't get to spring training on time. He was delayed at the start of spring training because of visa issues. And then, you know, injuries shortly followed. You know, he was healthy at that point, presumably. So that's the kind of thing where it's like, what if he has to try to rush to get back? maybe they just start him in the bullpen. I don't know if they had that luxury with Zach Eflin recovering from surgery,

but given his history, that's possible too. Hans Kraus, get ready. That is a pitcher for the Phillies. He's not in a diehard movie. Not that I know of, but it may be relied upon, unfortunately, to start the season for the Phillies. I think I'll personally move Ranger Suarez down below Adam Wainwright, which I probably have Adam Wainwright higher than most people do,

so I don't know if that means anything on its own. But that would mean just ahead of that trio that I think is fine, but decidedly second tier, that trio being Tyler Malley, Nathan Avaldi, and Sean Mania. How dare you? I know, you like Sean Mania. Yeah, I would rather have Ranger Suarez than those guys, but I'll move him behind like Chris Bassett and Framber Valdez and Adam Wainwright.

So not a drastic move. I mean, you may not be ready for opening day, but I bet he'll be ready after a couple turns through the rotation. You know, the nice thing is when you only throw fastballs, you know, you probably don't need a lot of feel. You just got to get that one pitch going. Hey, you were just typing his changeup a minute ago. So it is a great change up. He's got the change up. He's just a joke.

Scott, in a points league, obviously, Suarez is one of the top Sparps drafted. that's starting pitcher as relief pitcher. Do you think that this decidedly moves him behind Louis Severino now in that format? I don't. I don't. No. I don't. Yeah, I mean, you don't either.

Okay. Yeah, Severino's got enough question marks himself. So, just wondering. The next item that we have here, unvaccinated players, I saw this just before we started here. Unvaccinated players cannot play in Toronto. And it could affect players on the Blue Jays. It could affect players in the American League East. you know, it's not worth speculating over, you know, which players are vaccinated and which aren't.

But if you see players not playing in Toronto for no really specified reason, then you know why. This is the reason. So what I would throw that out there. Presumably not. I mean, is it going to be an issue for any of the Blue Jays themselves? So I don't know if the, I saw someone talking about there are like rumors. People have whispered about a player on the Blue Jays not being vaccinated. vaccinated and not being able to play, but I don't know.

Like, I wasn't able to see, like, who it was. I haven't seen any, like, reputable discussions about it, so I don't know. But it is possible. I know in New York, it was mostly people who lived there couldn't play. I don't know. I think Canada, you can't cross the border unless you're vaccinated. So that, um, it's not nobody. Yeah.

We've seen that in the NBA. we've seen that in the NFL. The NBA has had to deal with more restrictions. It's a good thing that New York City lifted their restrictions last week because that was the rule for, this is what Kyrie Irving hasn't played for the Nets at home. I don't think yet because New York City, if you lived in New York City,

you couldn't go into the office if you weren't vaccinated. And Kyrie Irving's office obviously is Barkley Center. So that would have been a problem for the Yankees of Mets. It's a good thing that that restriction was lifted for the sake of those teams. And for obviously a thousand other reasons, let's hope that there's no circumstances in which that restrictions put back on. It's possible Canada could lift its restrictions between now and it becoming relevant. I mean, I don't know how likely it is, but it's possible.

Yep. And we'll wrap up with this, our last news item here for our Adam Azer and Nando DeFina. supporters out there. Greg Byrd signed a minor league contract with the Blue Jays. I hope he's vaccinated. Before we hit the break, let's before we hit the break, I want to remind everyone, if you haven't already,

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We're going to take a quick break when we return more breakouts here on fantasy baseball today. All right, so let's get to more breakouts. We've already mentioned Patrick Sandoval for, honestly, all of us. Willie Adomis for all of us. And then Shane McClainahan was my guy earlier on. but Chris, give us another one. Who's another breakout you're excited about the season? You know what?

I'm going to go with one of Shane McClanahan's teammates, and that is Luis Pepino, who was, I think, pretty unanimously considered to be the better prospect of the two at this point last season. And, you know, his, he didn't quite break out last season. His strikeout rate was only 22%. That was about average, 431 ERA. Didn't really look spectacular.

at any one skill last season, but there's a lot to like about Luis Patino's skill set and what he did at the Major League level last season. If you look under the hood a little bit, his slider and change-up were both excellent pitches, change-up not so much as a swing and miss pitch, but in terms of the quality of contact allowed, it was excellent. His slider was great at both.

The curveball, he didn't throw it all that often. looks like a bit of a work of work in progress based on the results last season. But hey, if it's your number four pitch, that's fine. But yeah, Luis Petino was among the hardest throwing starters in baseball. He wasn't far behind Shane McClanahan last season, 95.7 mile per hour average velo with that fastball. He gets good spin on it. So it could be a very good swing and miss pitch,

and the results on contact weren't bad last season either. So I think all the parts are there. He's got to throw the fastball last. I think and integrate that change up more as he becomes more of a starter. But I think Luis Patino is well worth the not top 100, not top 200 price. I'm not, I'm not.

No, no, he's 300.9. Yeah, it's like a. Seems to be being treated as if he's not going to be in the rotation, but I haven't seen any indication that that would be the case. Ross, the resource has Luis Patino in the rotation. And again, it's not, without Tyler Glass now, it's not a really strong rotation. McLeanahan, True Rasmussen, Corey Kluber, Ryan Yarbrough, Luis Pettino.

So, Scott, I mean, I think the raise really needs something from Patino here. Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's a guarantee he has a rotation spot, but I don't know. I've been surprised there hasn't been more interest in him. Just, you know, throw out all the numbers, just a post-type sleeper, you know? Yeah. I think the strikeout rate being so low is really like that's one of the things when you're looking at a breakout pitcher

and you see a strikeout rate below one per inning and it's like, oh, but he was 11 per 9 in the Myers. Fly ball pitcher two in the American League east. Not great. I haven't seen fit to draft him, but I mean it has surprised me that nobody seems interested in him at all and maybe I should start considering it more. He threw 106 innings last season

That was over 26 Start 26 appearances 22 starts He made 20 starts in 2019 He appeared in a handful of games in 2020 So I think he could throw 150 innings You know I don't think that's out of the question either So I like Luis Petino

As like a true breakout as someone who is going to do something We haven't seen from them at the Major League level before All right Yeah, I think he really needs to work on that third pitch. I think that's the biggest takeaway here, Chris, is he throws hard with the fastball. He's got the slider, which gets swings and misses. You know, he slightly mixes in a curveball change up. I mean, if one of those can become that true third pitch for him that he uses, you know, 10 to 15% of the time,

I think that could be the key to unlocking Luis Pettino. And more, like, I give the raise the benefit of the doubt when it comes to pitching development. They've done a fantastic job. So if any team is going to figure it out. I do trust the raise to do that. Scotty, another breakout here in 2022. It is time for the Tony Gonsolin breakout. I know I've thought that before just last year.

He was my preferred target among the trio of Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, and Julio Arias. That didn't work out so well. But now the Dodgers need him more than ever. It was definitely contentious who was going to claim those spots at the back of the rotation at this time a year ago. They don't have many options. The guys they're targeting in free agency that now are Andrew Heaney.

Max Scherzer is gone. Clayton Kirschol, likely gone. They need Gonson in the rotation. And, you know, a big reason why he didn't make good on his potential last year is because he was injured so much of the time, had a shoulder issue. His walk rate especially seemed impacted

to buy it. It went from 1.4 per 9 in 2020 to 5.5 per 9 last year. But when he did get an extended stretch on the IL and then came back, his velocity picked up. His slider and splitter combo got back to getting a lot of whiffs. And that final month, when he was completely healthy, Goncelin's had a 15.1% swinging strike rate. It was better than the swinging strike rate,

Cole had last year. So clearly, he is capable of missing enough bats. And, I mean, you just look at his career numbers, 142 in a third innings. 285 ERA, 109 WIP, 9.4K

per 9. Give me a 142 in a third innings this year with those numbers. Obviously, this is going to, that's a pick that's going to pay off. He's got all the advantages that the Dodgers supporting cast. I think this is the time.

Tony Gonsland. And he's been even better as a starter. than those numbers. He has a 255 ERA with 126Ks and 120 innings as a starting pitcher with a 1.06 whip. So, yeah, that's pretty promising. And maybe this is just a slippery slope that I'm falling for right now, but much like the Rays, the Dodgers really know what they're doing with starting pitchers. I mean, they routinely get the most out of their pitchers. And when Gonsland has been healthy, they've been able to get the most out of him as well.

So just like giving the Dodgers the benefit of the doubt in that regard. The ADP for Tony Gonslyn, according to Fantasy Pros, is 280.3. Scott, I mean, look, I guess you could just grab multiple of these pitchers because we like all of them. But let's say that you have to choose between them. There's four sleeper slash breakout candidates in this range. Tony Gonslin, Jesus Lazzardo, Carlos Carrasco, Alex Cobb. They're all going within eight picks on average.

How would you rank that group? Gonselin, Lazzardo, Carasco, Cobb. I personally rank them Carasco Cobb, Gonselin. So I have Gonselin as the third of that group. And then Lazzardo just way out? Yeah, I mean, I'm not as confident in Luzardo. I definitely see it. I definitely see it.

But I'm probably not going to get him if those three or if it's between him and any of those three, I'm not going to get Luzardo. And he's just not the priority for me that those three are. So yeah, I mean, Carrasco, the fact that I, I think he's basically, we talked about on the sleeper show obviously, but I think he's basically fine. I think just the time he missed at the start of last season, he just never really had a chance to, to build up normally after that. And we saw how great he was in 2020 still. So I, I think he's, I think he's the, the clearest of those three to far exceed his draft position. But yeah.

I like the upside of Cobb. I like the upside of Gonsolin. I think the biggest thing holding Gonsolin back from those two in my rankings, and I do have Cobb and Carrasco's top 50 starters, whereas Gonsolins more like in the 60 range, is just the shoulder injury last season, how troublesome it was for him to get past that, how often we thought, oh, he's making progress,

and then it just kind of was in fits and starts for a lot of the season. But I think if he's fine, I think he's great. you know. Both of you gave out a late-round pitcher you think can break out. Now it's my turn. I am going to give you Tristan McKenzie, who we've seen stretches of being a talented pitcher already in his short Major League career.

If you just take what he did in the short in 2020, he was amazing. 3.24 ERA, 0.90 whip. Obviously comes with a ton of prospect pedigree. Last year was very weird for him. Uncharacteristically, averaged over eight walks per nine, just an absurd amount. Over eight walks per nine in his first 10 starts that was related to, it seems like now it was related to his velocity. He averaged around 91 miles per hour during

that time. He was banished to the miners to try and figure things out over his final 14 starts. The walks came all the way down to 2.2 walks per 9 and its fastball velocity, 92.7. So closing in on 93 miles per hour there, built the velocity back up. And there were some hiccups late, but he had a 10-start stretch where he truly looked like one of the best pitchers in baseball, 2.96 ERA, 0.73 whip, and a 12.9% swinging strike rate from July through September. When everything is clicking, he is a fun pitcher to watch. He's a strong whip pitcher, lots of strikeouts. He does give up a lot of fly balls. That's why he typically is a good whip pitcher. He doesn't allow a lot of hits. But when they are hits, they could be home runs. So keep that in mind. But if he keeps people

off base via the walk, then I do think that is paramount for Tristan McKenzie. You know, obviously he's got a small frame and, you know, that's always going to be a concern. But it's not just a small frame. It's like a really small frame. Yeah, I don't know if this is a reference that you get, but he's got like a Jack Skellington frame. I got it. I'm, yeah, I just, man, of all the like, he is rail thin and long. Um, just not a fan. It's an interesting. It's an interesting, like visual. It is, it is. Like, he's very unique to watch.

I was trying to say, like, Nightmare before Christmas does not do it for me. I can't get behind it. That's a great movie. Yeah, that's... What's that is a top 10 Disney song? It's probably going to call us some backlash there. Tristan McKenzie, look, the thing is the, you know,

of other people in the industry like him as well. We see the ADP 236.6. So going well ahead of the names that we were just talking about, going ahead of Kyle Hendricks, who we seems like we all kind of like as a sleeper here on the podcast. as well. Scott, any interest in Tristan McKenzie? I think it's, you know, can he stay on the mound and, you know, develop some level of consistency? I think those are the big question marks for him. They're just, they're big question marks as far as I'm concerned. I mean, he came back from the

minor leagues and his walk rate was on the other end of the spectrum and you're like, oh, okay, this is, this is more like it. And then he totally imploded to end the season. So I just, I have no idea what to expect from Trista McKenzie anymore. Of course, there's upside. I have no issues with anybody calling him a breakout candidate. It's just not one that I tend to get excited about. All right, let's get through a few more of these breakouts. Move a little bit quicker here.

Chris, who is another one you like the season? Eduardo Rodriguez, who I've talked about a decent amount. I'm not sure. Yeah, he's going quite a bit ahead of these guys, 153.3. And that's a testament to the how far the fantasy industry has come in believing in the underlying data and the metrics that back up the stuff that we see. Because he had a 474 ERA last season. He was not good. You just have to look under the hood to see that he had arguably his best season in terms of the underlying metrics. his strikeout rate was a career high, walk rate, a career low,

and he was still really good at limiting hard contact. Now, you didn't see that in the actual numbers. He did get hit hard, but he had a 330 Wobah compared to a 288X Wobah. He hasn't really been a pitcher who's had a big gap between those things in his career. So I think there was a lot of bad luck involved for him last season, and I think luck's going to turn around for him. in a better ballpark. Oh, I'm kind of dying here with the cough.

I'm trying to get through it. Better line and better ballpark, better, better. Division. Someone please take old. All right, Chris, go cough. I get to who he was talking about. Who was he talking about? Eduardo Rodriguez is the player that we are talking about.

And Chris is right. Like, all the underlying numbers were fantastic for Erod last year. He posted a 4.74 ERA, his FIP, his ex-FIP, his Sierra, his expected ERA, according to Staccast. Those were all 3.65 or lower last year. And I love the park shift. According to Stacast, Fenway Park ranks second in offense over the past three seasons.

Camerica Park during that same time is 20th. Erod has been much better in his career on the road. So I'm in as well. I mean, they're a team that's expected to be better, you know, run support should be better, prospects coming, all this kind of fun stuff. I'm in. I like Eduardo Rodriguez.

Again, the price there is 156.6. He does remind me a little bit of like Carlos Martinez back when he was with the Cardinals in that even when he's good, his whip is always pretty high. And so that's a little bit of a concern, but he is someone who's thrown 200 innings before. And it's worth keeping in mind last season. He was coming back from Meyer Carditis,

You know, a very serious and scary heart ailment as a result of a positive COVID diagnosis. So the fact that he was as effective as he was and made it through 31 starts, I mean, that's impressive in its own right. So, yeah, I love Eduardo Rodriguez. He's going to be on a lot of my teams this year. All right, Scott, why don't you get us another breakout here?

Okay, I am going to say Kyle Schwaber, is a breakout. The wandering eye. Yes, indeed. I think he, that beefcake. Yeah, I think he is, I think he's in line for career numbers. He put up career percentages last year, but of course missed a lot of time with, I believe it was a hamstring injury.

And I'm not sure if, I'm not sure, I don't know, I'm not sure why there isn't more consensus over this opinion. I wonder if it's, people see the 399 about. bats he had last year and think, oh, well, they must have been platooning him, or maybe they don't even notice the 319-nighted bats and, oh, he had 32 home runs, that's fine, whatever. Yeah, the counting stats are pretty middling. Right, because he got the only 399 at bats, but you project his 32 home runs over 155 games, which is what he played in 2019, and that's 44 home runs.

He made some changes to his swing. He worked with Kevin Long, one of the more esteemed hitting coaches in the league. with the nationals at the start of last season, and they worked to help him recapture his old stance, where he squats lower, gets his legs into a swing more. It was what he had in college and early on in the minors. You look at his numbers from college and early on in the minors, and there's a reason why he was as hyped of a prospect.

I mean, he was considered an awful defensive player and still one of the best prospects in baseball. That tells you a lot. Yeah. So, you know, between just the pace he was. on last year and those changes and the fact there really there really are no platoon concerns anymore he's to a point now where he hits lefties good enough and then with the addition of the dh i mean he doesn't ever no matter where he signs he doesn't have to play the field again if the team

doesn't want him to so playing time shouldn't be an issue as long as he stays healthy i think he'll be a low-key 40 homer threat scott i don't think that you'll like this comp but i think part of the reason we see him going where he is. The ADP for Kyle Schwerber is 116. It feels like people aren't completely buying into what they saw last season. Kind of reminds me of the hitter version of Sean Mania. Right? Sean Mania kind of like we already, we know what he's been for his entire career. And last year, I mean, made some noticeable changes. He was throwing harder. And, you know, there's some people who buy it like me. I'm in on Sean Mania. And then there's other people that are just like, eh, he's Sean Mania. So I kind of feel like Kyle Schwerver might be kind of lumped into

a similar category where maybe people are just not buying what he did but you're right he changed the batting stance he was much better against left-handed pitching last year too that was huge for him he finished 84th overall in Roto in just 113 games I mean that's just a

testament to how good he was and he averaged 3.3 fantasy points per game that was tied for 15th in the outfield with Yerdon Alvarez and Cedric Mullins who got that research you did Frank probably a probably a top six round

pick in an OBP league too. I, yeah, I like Schwerber. Scott, I might even say, I'm with you when it comes. Oh, my God. Frank, I do have to point out one thing to continue to make you feel bad about being on Sean Mania Island on the podcast. You like how he snuck that Mania propaganda in there. Yeah, like, I've got to.

Oh, yeah, just like, like, call me when Sean Manaya has the pitcher version of a 38 home or 92 RBI season. All right, my guy. All right. I think Cal Schorber is just, I think he's just overlooked. I think it's, there's a little bit of like the Marcus Simeon thing where he was really good in 2019, bad in 2020, really good in 2021. And all of a sudden it's like, oh, I don't know which one's real, but it's like, I don't know if the bad season was the 60 game weird season where you faced like six teams total and like couldn't go home. I feel like that might be the outlier.

Kalshawber is a really, really good hitter. He deserves more respect. He is overlooked, much like Lourdes Gurell, who I believe is undervalued right now, an ADP of 140.6. Apparently he was dealing with knee issues early last season. Over the first two months, he hit just 249

with four home runs and a 632 OPS, his average exit velocity, just 88.2 miles per hour. From June 1st on, Lordeus Gariel hit 291, 17 homers, 867 OPS, average exit velocity, up over 90 miles per hour. He was making much harder contact. He was lifting the ball better as well. I mean, I think being able to lift the ball is, you know, lifting the ball better, I think often can be attributed to, you know,

maybe you're dealing with an injury at times when you can't lift the ball. So I would blame that on what happened with Lordeis Garillo last year. And especially leg injuries. That was something that Vladimir Guerrero's. hitting coach talked about I think before last season and the year before how he just like he had weakness

in his legs that was causing him to not be able to get under the ball. Yep. And with Lordos Griel, I mean, he makes contacts. Last year, career best, 18.9% strikeout rate and he showed us glimpses before. The short in 2020, he was just fantastic.

308 batting average, 882 OPS. And he's really the last everyday player you can get from the Blue Jays lineup. So if you think the Blue Jays can do anything close to what they did last year, you probably want some kind of exposure to it. And Lordus Gureel is someone who I do like to target. Chris, would you rather have Kyle Schwaber at his ADP of 116?

Or would you rather have Lordeus Gouriel 24 picks later? So two rounds. I've got both of them about 40, no, about 60 picks higher than their 8.000. in my overall rankings. I have Kyle Schwerber as a top 70 player. Lourdes Greal is a top 80 player. But Kyle Schwerber is higher, so I will go with him. All right.

I'm putting my money where my mouth is, guys. You guys want to call yourselves the Kyle Schwerver and Lardis Gouriel guys. I'm actually the guy. I guess the answer. Got them both ahead of Randy or Rosa Rana, ahead of Mitch Hanigur, ahead of Tommy Edmund. I have Schwerber ahead of those three. The true answer for Chris is,

Both. Why not both? The answer is yes. And Lordus Gueriel. Chris, why don't you give us another, just rattle off a few more breakouts that you like this upcoming season? Oh, a few more. Okay. I think I have one left on the list that I sent you, and that's Joe Adela. And anybody who's listening to this podcast knows that he's been featured in a lot of sleeper,

a lot of breakout conversations. Had a massive season at AAA Salt Lake last year, was on a 45 Homer Pace. It's the former PCL, so there is some inflation there. But he was crushing the ball. He came back up to the majors, was making a lot more contact than he did during his disastrous 2020 debut, was hitting the ball harder. We've seen him post elite max-ex-ex-velocities, elite sprint speeds. So we know the tools are there. It's just about finding the way to put them into action more often during games.

So I think Joe Adela is someone, look, you don't get a lot of opportunities to buy. by elite, elite blue chip type talents. And that's what Joe Adel is. He was a top five prospect in baseball. He was comparable to Jared Kellanick as a prospect. Their minor league production is very comparable. Kellnick wasn't actually that much better in the majors than Adele has been. And Adele is actually only three months older.

So he goes a hundred picks later a little bit. He was in the majors last year than Kelman. What's that? Oh, last year, yeah. Just specifically. Yeah. So I love drafting Adele at his price. I rank him a lot higher than his 2.2080P or whatever it ends up being.

And then a couple other breakout candidates. I'm putting together my list to write for tomorrow's column. And I've got Alejandro Kirk. I've got Alberto Mondesi. That'll be controversial if I end up including him. And Luis Erius, who I'm just a big fan of, kind of a sleeper, kind of a breakout, kind of already broke out a little bit like Willie Adamas last season. just really like the underlying skill set for Luis Arias.

I think there's 25 homer, potentially 10 steals, potential with, I think he was on a hundred run pace from like June 1st on when he really started playing every day. So a lot to like about Luis Arias. Oh, yes, music to my ears, Chris. Luis Arias were both in. Last year he hit 249, 23 homers,

five steals, a 789 OPS, strong plate discipline. He walked 11% of the time. And he was even better in the second half where he improved the strikeout rate, improve the walk rate, more line drives, more hard contact, just really improving in every way that you want to see a young player improve.

Strong lineup, strong ballpark to hit in, triple eligible on CBS, second base, third base, shortstop. So lots to like there with Luis Arias. Scotty, you got another breakout for me? I just want to say we are all on board with, We're all on board with Joe Adele. I am not on board with Luis Arias.

I think the ceiling for Luis Arias is Eduardo Escobar, which would be a fine player, but that's the ceiling. This year's Austin Riley, Scott. Uh-huh. With 10 steals, take that. If Luis Arias is a six-win player this year, I will eat my words. Will you eat your hat? No.

It doesn't. Fine, but you are printing out your word. and eating them on this podcast. Oh my gosh. If he projects to be a six-win player. Projects? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Austin Riley actually loves the six-ling world last year.

He plays 110 games, but is a four-win player. You're eating words. I'm sorry. I'm not eating anything. I'm sorry, pal. First of all. You'll eat red-hot cinnamon peeps, but not a piece of paper. Oh, gosh, those are good.

I'll eat those all day. Anyway, um, the hot tamales peeps. Oh my gosh, you got to try those out. Oh, geez. Okay, so Frankie Montas is a breakout for me. Chris mentioned him earlier as somebody he likes more than Shane McClanahan. I think I like Frankie Montas more than like Logan Webb. I'm not far off there.

Over his final 15 starts, he started throwing his splitter more than ever. It became basically his primary pitch. He had a 211-ERA 102 whip 10.8K per 9. a swinging strike rate on par with Max Scherzer's. That was over 15 starts, not some teeny tiny sample, half the season, basically. And so, you know,

if he can maintain that feel for the feel and the confidence in that splitter over a full season, what might the numbers look like? Hopefully we get a chance to find out. O'Neill Cruz, who I mentioned briefly earlier, the more I look into him, the more I like him.

he is a 6'7 unicorn somehow able to play shortstop in spite of that height and really began leveraging it for power last year and Way Scouts long predicted. You project his numbers in the minors last year over 150 games. It comes out to 37 homers and 41 stolen bases. Baseball America recently published the average exit. at velocities for every hitter in their top 100 prospects, O'Neill Cruises was far and away the highest. Average exit velocity of 94 miles per hour last year,

which is certainly, it's beyond delete. It's beyond delete. Power potential is legitimate here. The questions are, how early does he take over as the Pirates starting shortstop? You got two games there at the end of last year, so I'm hoping it's opening day, but never know. and the other question is with that height

our major league pitcher is going to find holes to exploit in the way minor league pitchers didn't. So fair questions, but the cost is so low around 250th overall that I think the upside makes it worth it. Let's see, Dalton Varshow is it is a judge Gallo-Stanton-ask raw power for O'Neill Cruz.

I believe. He definitely has the hardest hit ball in Pittsburgh Pirates history in the stack cast there. He might have the two hardest hit balls. I see that, but yeah, maybe. Only nine plate appearances and he hit 118 miles an hour. That's the thing about that is, yeah, it's only two games. You can't fake hitting the ball that hard. You know, the 100 mile per hour average X velocity in two games doesn't matter.

But the max ex-vilo, that's like, okay, he's in that discussion already. at least in terms of raw power. And by the way, with that kind of ability to impact the ball, if he does end up being a 30, 35% strikeout guy, he could still be good. I mean, you know what he reminds me of? I'm starting to talk myself into him too.

Damn, he's going to be in my column tomorrow. You know who he reminds me of? Aaron Judge. Kind of middling prospect or big prospect. The numbers were always like, really, this guy? Why isn't he better? Then he gets up to the majors and it's like, Oh, boy. Oh, boy. He's different.

Aaron Judge. Yep. That is, it's really starting to sound. Yeah, it's really starting to sound like Aaron Judge. Yeah. I was going to say Dalton Varshow is the fairly obvious breakout candidate at catcher. But I think what people are overlooking with him is that he was a career 302 hitter with an 899 OPS in the minors. and over his final 57 games last year,

he was useless before then. He was like a 150 hitter in the majors before them, but over final 57 games, he had 294 with an 886 OPS. So he started to look like the minor league version of himself. Probably the only catcher who will steal a useful number of bases. Let's see, anybody else I want to mention? Brendan Rogers, I've been on him for a while now.

He was pretty good last year, but actually struggled at home, which, you know, considering he did pretty much all of his damage on the road as a Rockies hitter, that makes me think the upside could be a lot more. Alex Kirolov, still on him. He impacted the ball very hard,

even with a torn ligament in his wrist last year. And for the brief time before he tore the ligament in his wrist, his average exit velocity was like 96.5. So, yeah, he's a, he's got a lot of upside. as a hitter. I think Joe Ryan deserves a mention here. Last two years in the minors,

247 ERA, 0.82.8.2 whip 13K per 9. But it doesn't throw very hard, mostly throws a fastball. Is it just a gimmick? Well, his first five major league starts last year, he did a lot of the same stuff.

So I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt up for the price. And I am going to go to the John Means Well, one more year just because they made such dramatic changes to the layout of their ballpark

pushing back the left field fence 30 feet and raising it too from 7 feet to 12 feet like it's it's going if you just do a park overlay of Camden Yards and every other park it looks like the most punishing

park for right-handed power hitters now and John John means being a left-hander with extreme fly-ball tendencies that's going to be right in his wheelhouse. And I think, you know, the strikeouts didn't come to fruition last year. I don't think they have to necessarily for him to break out this year. John Means Business? Question mark?

Maybe he might this upcoming season. I'll wrap up with one more of my own. And that is Logan Gilbert. The surface level number is not fantastic last year. Actually, quite bad. 4.68 ERA. But the underlying number is much better. 3.87 Sierra.

that is skill interactive ERA. That was better than fellow rookie Alec Manoa, who many people are excited about. It was better than Blake Snell. It was better than Luis Castillo. Two pitchers being drafted much higher than Logan Gilbert. His K-minus walk rate was nearly 20%, 19.9%. That was tied for 26th among starting pitchers

with at least 110 innings from last year, actually tied with Joe Musgrove. He has all the pieces, Logan Gilbert. He just needs to put them together. His slider generated an 18% swinging strike rate, change up 16% swinging strike rate, and the fastball was rated as the eighth best fastball, according to Fangraph's pitch values last season. That was better than Robbie Ray, better than Garrett Cole, better than Sandy Alcantara. So I think everything is there for Logan Gilbert.

He just has to put it together. And if he does, I think we could be talking about him as a top 20 starting pitcher next year, hopefully with Shane McClanhan. So those are two guys that I do like quite a bit this season. We're going to wrap there. For Scott, Chris, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again on Monday, unless there's breaking news over the weekend.

Bye-bye. We'll be back before Monday, guys. Yep. Yeah.