Fantasy Baseball Today - Early 2021 Rankings Debates with Brian Entrekin! (11/23 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: November 23, 2020

No Scott White this week but it's all good because we have Brian Entrekin aka Bubba on the show! Before we get into the rankings debates, we do have some news from the weekend (3:21). Renato Nunez was DFA'd plus we have trade rumors involving Kris Bryant and Nolan Arenado. ... On to the player debates, Bubba has Teoscar Hernandez ranked where (8:39)? How should we value his breakout 2020 campaign?... Is Father Time coming for Charlie Blackmon (12:17)? What was up with his splits? ... Should we give Yoan Moncada a pass because of COVID (17:11)? ... How many shortstops would Bubba take ahead of Fernando Tatis (20:53)? ... Can Jake Cronenworth be a top-five second baseman in 2021 (25:33)? ... FOMO is real when it comes to Vlad Guerrero Jr. (32:26). Guerrero or Paul Goldschmidt in 2021? ... Is it time to give up on Gary Sanchez (38:22)? ... Who are the players we agree on (42:50)? ... Bubba and Frank are huge Metallica fans so we ended the show counting down our top-five Metallica songs of all time (46:17)! Email us at [e-mail]. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday '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, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday 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/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott, Chris, and Adam.

Ah, it's never too early for some rankings debates. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, November 23rd. Frank Stamphill here. Scott White, and you might be wondering why you have a podcast in your feed on a Monday. But considering it's Thanksgiving week, I figured we change up the schedule a little bit. Get these out to you on Monday and Wednesday in case you're traveling. You want to listen while you're on the road, or if you're just tired of listening to your family on Thanksgiving, you want to go somewhere else and listen to this podcast.

You have them early in the week. Scotty Dubbs is out, hopefully watching Euro Trip somewhere. But I got a pretty awesome duo to fill in his place. You might have heard of them. It's Bubba and the Bub. bat flip week here on the podcast. Joining me today is Brian Intrickin, aka Bubba, the host of Bench with Bubba,

the podcast, writer at Rotoboler and Fantasy D-Gens. Follow them on Twitter at B-D-E-N-T-R-E-K. What's going on, Bubba? Not much, Frank. Thanks for having me. Thanks for the introduction. It's awesome to be here, and it's never too early for rankings debate.

So get your turkey ready, maybe a turkey sandwich late night, and enjoy the ranking. It's going to be a good time. Oh, absolutely. You a big Thanksgiving guy? I'm just a big guy. So, of course, I like to eat a good meal on a Thanksgiving, but I enjoy it. I like it better than Christmas meal. Let's put it that way. But I'm also not going to get into the debate is Thanksgiving meal, the best meal, because in reality, we really don't need turkey meals. Like, I get it. So I enjoy it,

though. It's fine. You, wait, so you're not a turkey guy. No, I don't mind it, but that's a massive debate, at least in the Twitter world the last couple years, is it's why do we enjoy turkey one day a year type thing. It's so overrated. So I don't get into that. I enjoy it. I'm a dark meat guy if you're going to get really technical on this. But yeah,

no, I enjoy it. I enjoy Thanksgiving the most, I think because you get the three football games and all that good stuff. Dude, I mean, you get to sit around, drink, eat,

watch football all day long. Yep. I mean, what can be better than that? I can't imagine many things. But Adam Azor and I have been arguing recently on fantasy football today about ham being, better than turkey on Thanksgiving.

Oh, no, not a chance. No, not a chance. No ham. Are you a ham guy? I prefer, I like both, but I do like ham more than turkey. On Thanksgiving? On Thanksgiving. But I'm going to eat both.

I'm going to have a portion of ham and turkey on my plate. But I do prefer... You're an equal opportunist. I appreciate it. I prefer the ham. Today on the show, we do have rankings debates, as you would have guessed by now. We have some news items from over the weekend. And Brian Bubba, Brian or Bubba.

I'm going to call you Bubba. It's a big Metallica fan. So people probably know by now, I'm a big Metallica guy. We'll save that for the very end. We'll do our top five Metallica songs. We'll talk it through a little bit. Whether you like Metallica,

you don't have to listen to that part if you don't want to. But hey, if you want to jump in or if you just want to hear what we have to say about Metallica, feel free. We'll do that towards the end of the podcast. Some news and notes from over the weekend, Bubba. Some notable names were left off their team's 40-man rosters. And the ones that stood out most to me that were DFA'd.

Renato Nunez, Hunter Renfro, and Trevor Williams. Renato Nunez in particular, Kay, he's not a great defensive player. I get it. How useful is he? He's a D.H. who is going to hit around 250 and he has some pop. But, I mean, he was pretty damn good this past season.

So do you think he lands somewhere else with a starting job? Yeah, I think he will because, you know, the nationally, the biggest thing I think that got them with the Universal D.H. just last year is they weren't built for a DH. It was kind of a later in the season situation where the American League's build for a DH. So going into this offseason now, you have 15 teams. Let's say a few guys teams already have them.

So now you have like say 10 teams that actually need a designated hitter. So Renato Munoz will be able to put one out there. You look at the NOS, a lot of left-handed bats out there. He could find a landing spot out there. The Giants could give them a cheap deal and enjoy them. There's a lot of teams that could use Renato Nunez pop in their lineup. Yeah, I guess we have to wait and see. If the DH will be in the National League, I hope it is.

It's going to. It's going to. It's a bargaining chip right now. It's all it is. It's all it is. Yeah, it would be great. I'm a big Dom Smith fan and, you know, would help someone like Renato Nunez land back on his feet. And he had a good year. He had 256, 12 home runs, 816 OPS. He's a fine player, especially in Roto, corner infielder. Perfectly fine with Renato Nunez. So I hope he does land somewhere with some kind of starting gig.

Some notable names that were added. to 40-man rosters that I noticed. Forrest Whitley, Nolan Jones, prospect for the Cleveland Indians, Brandon Marsh, prospect for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and Matt Manning, of course, with the Detroit Tigers, who we had the Welsh on recently talking prospects, and he's pretty excited about Matt Manning. He thinks he can be the best of the, the Tigers young pitchers there. So I'm excited as well to see him in 2021. John Marossi. of MLB.com reported that the Washington Nationals have interest in trading for Chris Bryant, and the Dodgers are interested in trading for Nolan Aronado. Bubba, which of those two do you think

is more likely to be traded, or do you think they're both going to be traded? Chris Bryant and Nolan Aronado? I think there's a good chance they're both traded. I don't think these are the deals that take place. I could see Chris Bryant going to the Nationals because the Cubs are wanting to move that salary and the potential future salary and the nationals could use another power bat in that lineup with Rendon leaving a couple years ago and Harper leaving and everything. So they could use that to go with the lefty Soto, of course. But I could see Aeronado moving. I just really don't think the Dodgers in division that's happening.

So they should both be traded by some time in the season, but Brian much more likely. Are you one of the people that believe if Nolan Aronado leaves Coors Field, not that his value would completely plummet, but in early drafts, he's going in the third round. And he's consistently been over 900 OPS in his career year in and year out. and I probably would think he drops down to like a mid-800s OPS, like an 850 OPS hitter if he leaves Coors Field, which is still useful, but it's probably not a third round bat.

What do you think? Yeah, I'm with you. It's like it's one of those people, some people say he's going to take a massive drop off, and I still think he's a very, very good hitter. So I'm not going to go that far. So like you said, there'll be a little drop. It's just you got to be realistic.

Coors Field is crazy. That's just the way it is. But he's also going to be very, very serviceable. And he'll make some team. very, very happy, but not quite the Coors Field in Illinois. Yeah, I mean, we saw two professional hitters in DJ LaMayhew and Matt Holiday both leave Coors Field, and they were still pretty damn good. In fact, DJ LaMahue is better now than he's ever been. So that's honestly just a little weird. But Matt Holiday, when he went over to the Cardinals,

he was still really, really good. So I'm not going to completely write off Aronado, but his value probably takes a hit. I 100% only through this news item in here, Bubba, because you are a Giants fan. but Tyler Beattie, who underwent Tommy John's surgery back in March, said in an interview on MLB Network Radio this past Thursday that he's hoping to return to the Giants' rotation in May. And he was actually somebody I was pretty... Okay, I'm not going to use the word excited, but I will say interested in heading into the 2020 season.

I saw some interesting things in the underlying numbers for Beattie. So I'll just throw that name out there and people remember it come March or June. Mayor June. Yeah, no, I agree. He's going to get his chance. I was excited for him going into 2020 as well for like TGFBI and early drafts that took place before his injury.

I had him on rosters like later in drafts. So I was happy with him. But you look at the Giants, you know, rotation, potentially going to the 2021, Gosman, Quato, Tyler Anderson, Logan Webb, Andrew Swares. Yeah, there's about three spots there. He could take him. So Beattie will get his chance once healthy. Remember the name, Tyler Beattie.

Rankings Debates. Let's just jump right in here. Bubba. And we're going to work our way backwards. We'll start an outfield, move over to the infield and eventually make our way to catcher. We're going to be focusing on hitters today just for this exercise. Tiaska Hernandez is the first one that stood out. And everyone can find your rankings over at FantasyDGens.com, correct? Yes, that's where all my rankings will be this season. Cool. So Tiasca Hernandez, Bubba, you have him as your 12th ranked outfielder heading into 2021. And he was ridiculous in 2020. The shortened season. He hit 289, 16 home runs, 33 runs, 34 RBI, six steals in just 50 games.

And he showed a little bit of this in the second half of 2019 as well. Statcast really likes this guy. The one issue, I would say, in his profile, is the strikeouts. But it seems like it doesn't scare you enough based on where you have him ranked. So how do you feel about Tiosker? Why do you like him so much? Why do you have him ranked this? tie. And do you think you're putting too much stock into just 2020? Because that's something that we have to wrestle with every single player that we're evaluating from this past season. How do we weigh what they did this year, especially for players who just had career years like Teoscar Hernandez? And that's one of the hardest parts of this offseason. Like you've probably talked about many, many times that 2020, how do we use it? It's going to be tricky. And with Tiosker, you mentioned the

second half of 2019. So I kind of bring that in with the 2020. I was a big Tiosker guy when he got traded from Houston to Toronto and the wonderful Francisco Lariano deal. And because I knew the talent level that he was, but that astro system was so deep, people really didn't pay a ton of attention to him. She looked at even 2018, 22 homers, five steals, 2019, 26 homers, six steals. Strikeout rates have been high in his entire career. But the idea of he got six steals and 16 homers, okay, the power, maybe he's still a 25 to 30 guy.

I think he's closer to 30 home runs. But now you got a guy that really could steal you 10 to 15 bags. So now if we're talking 25 to 30 homers, 10 to 15 steals, maybe hits you 260, not 290. That's still like an elite four and a half to five category guy because the way I look at things now, batting average isn't what it used to be. Used to draft for like a 280 to 300 average. Most hitters now hitter now hitter. Like that's like a really good hitter nowadays because strikeouts are going up.

They're acceptable. It's a three true outcome. So it's the Oscar, the stat cast number, drop off the page. He's still getting better with age. There's a lot that I like what the Oscar Hannas. and I might be a little overzealous or excited about him, but I will be jumping on the train this year. Yeah, and admittedly, you know, as we move further into the off season,

like, I'm going to be looking at these players for the first time. And I didn't really deep dive to Oscar Hernandez until I saw where you have him ranked, and that kind of jumped off the screen to me. And I have him at outfielder 22, so 10 spots behind you, but I wanted to move them up almost because, and I know this is supposed to be a debate, but I do have him 10 spots behind you, but the stack has numbers, you brought him up,

he's in the 96%ile or better in hard hit rate, average exit velocity, expected slug, barrel rate. He had a 115.9 mile per hour max exit velocity, which through more research we're finding out is a sign of power, right? So like the more, the higher max exit velocity that you have on a single batted ball,

the more that correlates with being a legitimate power hitter. The one thing that's wrong with him is the strikeouts, but we've seen guys like Aaron Judge be able to get by with a 30% strikeout rate because he impacts the ball so hard. So it could be something similar to T. Oscar Hernandez, but yeah, I'm just trying to figure out, like, do I actually need to move this guy up? The name that I have just ahead of him is someone who,

you seem a little bit lower on, and it's Charlie Blackman, also in the outfield. I get it. Look, father time catches up to everybody. And Blackman will turn 35 years old in July next season. You have a Mountfielder 25. I have him one spot higher than T. Oscar Hernandez. Bubba, I mean, this is just, it was such a weird season for Charlie Blackman. He got off to that ridiculous start, his first 28 games.

He hit 405. He had an OPS over a thousand. 34% line drive rate. And in his final 31 games, he had just 200 with a 603. P.S and his line driver rate dropped down to 22%. His home road splits were weird. His lefty righty splits were weird. What is going on with Charlie Blackman?

What do we do? Is this the year that you're just like, I want to get out one year early rather than one year too late on Charlie Blackman. And it's probably more of that. It's more that I want to get out early each year. I'd have to go back and look at my 2019 rankings, but I know I had him like outfield or maybe 13 or so, which even then was going later the most expected him to go.

You mentioned the splits in the season that there's all. a hot start to the finish. And if you just go to a stat cash page, you know, 4.9% barrel rate, the lowest of his career. You look at his heart here, right, 29.7% lowest of his career. That was in the wonderful 11th percentile in baseball's barrel rate was the 25th percentile in baseball. Yeah. You just look at everything he does, even a strike rate, it's not bad, but it even went

up a little bit this last year. Everything he was doing, if you take out even that first two, like three weeks or whatever was four weeks, these numbers would be even way worse. there's something that might concern me just with the age situation went on there. He doesn't run it all anymore. So if that batting average starts dropping, the power starts dropping,

he is a fifth outfielder, fourth maybe in certain leagues, and now you just really got hurt. So at that point in the draft, I'll go for like an SP3, maybe an SP4, depending on how you're drafted, or another position. And I was passed on Charlie Blackman thinking,

you know what, if he does it again, congrats whoever had the stones to do it, basically. Yeah, so his early NFBC ADP is 99.1. That's for Charlie Blackman. For Tiaska Hernandez, it was 67.8. So most people seem to agree with you that Tiaska Hernandez is going about 30 picks higher than Charlie Blackman thus far. I still feel like he's safe for probably a 280 batting average, 25 home runs, which, yeah, I mean, maybe that doesn't move the needle for some people. And if they trade away Nolan Aronado, the counting stats are probably going down for Charlie Blackman as well.

So, well, you know, if they do trade Aronado away, I'll have to adjust these rentals. rankings and move Blackman down a little bit. One thing I was going to ask you about the Rockies players, Bubba, is for the stat cast numbers, it seems like all of them have lower expected stats than just in general, right? Like just other elite players at those positions, Nolan Aronado's expected stats, Trevor Story expected stats, because they play in Coorsfield, so obviously they have that Babbitt boost there. So should we maybe not put as much into the underlying stat cast numbers for somebody like

Charlie Blackman, they were never really great to begin with if you look kind of year by year. Yeah, no, that's a very good point. That's why I'll stick to the barrels and the hard hit rates, because that's wherever you play baseball. But the X statute, yeah, you're right, because they talk about the spacious outfield where all these other balls land and all these different things that take place in Coors Field. So it is a very good point. And that's one thing when I try to emphasize looking at, you know, stat cast pages, even Fangraphs pages. Every player is case by case. Like there's so many underlying facts, like the next guy we're going to talk about, there's a lot of stuff that took place out the field that's going to factor with them.

So when you dig in, these are great tools to like get the like just the bits and pieces. Then he dig deeper and find some other stuff. So Coor's field does play a huge factor, of course. So you're likely not having any Blackman in 2021. No, I will not own Charlie Blackman unless he really falls. Like he'd have to fall like 120 plus. And then I'd be like, okay, if he's my fourth outfielder, now he can talk. But where you're taking him, he's probably your third outfielder and I'm just not going to do that.

Yeah. So I've already done a NFBC draft champions. It's a 15-team roto draft and hold. There's no waivers. There's no trading. It's just 50 rounds. You have a huge bench and you set your line up basically all season. And I got Blackman there as my second outfielder, I think, in round eight or nine.

So I was looking for batting average at that point. The last thing that I will reiterate for Blackman is just the splits for him in 2020. He had a 797 OPS in Cores Field for his career. That's 987. So I would imagine that gets better. And against right-handed pitching in 2020, a 736 OPS in his career in 876 OPS. So if those things regressed normally,

I think we see a bit of a bounceback for Charlie Blackman. He's certainly not going to run anymore. That's for sure. You hinted at it. Yohan Moncada. We'll turn 26 next season. just had a really, really weird season in 2020. He had 2.25, 6 homers,

28 runs scored, 24 RBI, and zero steals in 52 games. He was dealing with a COVID situation. He tested positive for COVID before summer camp, and apparently it affected him throughout the course of the season. I found this quote a little bit earlier. It's like a daily battle to try and find that strength, the energy to go through the day.

Moncada said through an interpreter, but that's something that I have to deal with. with and it is what it is. I have to find a way to get through that. And that was, he was quoted saying that back in September. So this is something he was openly dealing with. And I'm kind of doing the same thing that you're doing with Mankada,

Bubba for Austin Meadows. I'm basically just giving Austin Meadows a pass for this year. So you have Mankata as your sixth ranked third baseman. I have him 10th. It's not a huge difference, but you are still buying in Mankata. Yeah. And you nailed the reason why I'm giving him a pass.

Like there's certain guys I'm not going to because of other factors. But when he comes out and says this and you've heard it of different stories about COVID effects, different people. And that really has to make you think, okay, this is tough. And we've even said Eduardo Rodriguez who had to miss the season because of it. He's coming back and saying now he's getting healthier. A lot of things Mancana's talked about, Eduardo's talked about. Now he's already saying, I feel great. I would be ready for the start of the season.

Moncotta probably needs to take some time. Like he really did to let his body heal. And he pushed through it. So I'm okay giving him that. And I love Mankata because I like targeting guys that can give me a lot of power, can chip in speed, and speed. Bad an average, it's wishy-washy with McCaw. That's a big question mark with Mankata.

But again, he's another guy, 20 plus homers, 10 plus steals on a very, very loaded offense. He's another guy that's younger getting better. I look for all those kind of things that they can keep taking the next step. He hits the ball stinking hard. And that's why people say, well, he's got this huge Babbitt. Well, when he hit the ball as hard as he does, the Babbitt usually follows. That's just playing his day. So I'm going to give him a pass this year, and I'm just going to be sticking to my guns,

basically my 2019 thoughts on him. That's how I'm going to look at 2021 with him on Moncada. The one thing that I will say about him, Bubba, is that he has been inconsistent in his career even before this, right? So you look at the OPS in each of the past three seasons. It was 705 this year. I think we give him a pass. I liked him a lot entering 2020 as well before this whole COVID situation happened.

915 OPS in 2019. That was the breakout from Moncada. and then a 714 OPS in 2018. So there is a level of inconsistency with him early on in his career. And it just seems like we're kind of chasing that upside because of the prospect status. And it's just, I don't know that it's ever going to happen. Honestly, like consistently for Moncada.

So it's just the one thing that I worry about is that we have seen a decent amount of this inconsistency when it comes to Moncada early on. His plate discipline too. Like, it's all over the place. In 2019, he, you know, he dropped the strikeout rate, but he also walked less. He was more aggressive. And then that changed this past season as well.

So the ADP early on, 87.5 for Moncada. Last year was 64.4. So if you are like Bubba and you do want to buy back in on Moncada, you're getting about a 20 to 25 pick sale difference from last year. at least depending on early draft, some of this ADP that we have early on here. Someone else that has huge upside, massive upside, obviously. We just saw it, was Fernando Tatis, huge prospect pedigree. We just saw where he finished the season. Second among short stops, he was the fourth best player in Roto overall.

277 batting average, 17 home runs, 50 runs scored 45 RBI, 11 steals in 59 games. This isn't a huge difference. I have him as my first ranked shortstop. You have them as your third rank shortstop. But some people might think that you're crazy for that. Why is that, Bubba? No, a lot of people do.

I've got this question a lot. But with me, Trey Turner, I've always, I've always believed Trey Turner is a much more powerful than people giving credit for. And he's starting to show that. I literally think he's got the 25 plus homer ups. Where Tatea might have more. But the difference between the two is Turner's going to be having a better

buying average than T's more often than not. Like DATI is 277 last year. That's great. but there's still a lot of swing and miss in Tatis at times that I'm concerned about because he'll go through stretches where he gets very, very aggressive and things get wild and even look at like his second half of the last season or at least the last like just the month of September, it was a bit of a downturn for Tatis. He didn't finish as strong as you'd hope for.

He has a lot of sections of his seasons like that we've seen in the first two years. And that's something that concerns me a little bit where Turner just keeps going unless he gets hurt. And then I have story at number two. and that basically it was Tatees and story were like 1A or 2A 2B and Coors Field got him too that's pretty much what that turns into because what we've seen with story now I don't think people appreciate enough what he's doing on the field when it comes to power speed and he's done it consistently year after year now for about three or four years

and that gives him the bump over Tatis for me it's really no slight on Tatis I guess goes to show you how deep shortstop is like you got Lindorri got 10 man like there's so many talented short stops now so it's not a slight on him It's just I think I've seen enough from Turner and Story, that consistency factor. If you're going to have to use an early pick on these guys, I want that consistency in the early rounds over a Tatis. Yeah, so it sounds like you won't have much Tatis either because his ADP is 2.7 as of now, and he's going behind only Ronald Acuna and he's going ahead of Mukki Betts.

And a reminder that this average draft position data that we have is from the NFBC, the National Fantasy Baseball Championship, and these are roto drafts. So for people who play in head-to-head points, you might say, well, oh, why is that? Fernando Tatis going second overall. I mean, there's probably going to be pitchers that go up there, and Mukhi Betts is better than him in that format. So keep these things in mind. But I agree with what you said. As the season went on for Fernando Tatis, the one thing that stood out to me was the ground ball rate by month, Bubba. Went from 40% in July to 47% in August, 52% in September. And that basically correlated with his flyballs and his line drives going down, which ultimately affected his

power. But the plate discipline, the improvements in plate discipline were great. I mean, from 2019 to 2020, he goes from an 8% walk rate to 10.5%, the strikeout rate dropping from 29% to 23%. And Stackass just absolutely loves this guy. So Bubba, you're going to put him at shortstop three. You're going to play it a little bit safer. I have no problem with taking him as early as third overall. I think I would take Ronald Kunja and Mukhi Betta. ahead of him in Roto Leagues, and I would slot Tatis in third overall. That's, uh, I feel comfortable taking him there. There's just one more thing I have on Tatis.

Yep. We look at the stat cash page. It's like he went from 13.2 barrels of 19.5, hard hit of 44 to 62. Like, that's awesome, but is that sustainable that big of a gap? That's, I mean, we can't, I can't even put it. I don't even know how I can compare to like how much he improved year over a year. I mean, it's just, it was absolutely ridiculous. Yeah, you mentioned 44% hard hit to 62.

Yeah, it's probably not going to maintain that. 95.9 mile per hour average exit loss. That's insane. Like, the numbers were awesome. There's a reason he performed the way he performed. Like, it's all in front of us. It's just, can you sustain that for 162 games? That's asking a lot.

So I do have, to this point in his career, he's played 143 career games total since the start of 2019. And in those 143 games, 301 batting average. 39 homers, 111 runs, 98 RBI, 27 steals. Pretty good. We're talking about a potential 40-30 guy. It's just, it's insane.

But he hasn't done it over the course of a full season, so I understand why someone might want to play it safe, especially with Trey Turner with the steals and Roto. I can see why someone would want to do that. His teammate, Jay Kronoworth, they were basically the inverse of each other where Tate's got off to this amazing start. No, rather they did the same thing. They both kind of slowed down as the season went along.

But you are, you're knocking Tatis for it, but you're not knocking Jake Cronoworth for it. But why is that? This goes to the position of more than anything. A, Croninworth, I trust his bad and average to be consistent. He's going to get you like 15-ish homers, 15-ish steals. Very solid production for second base. And it's just something that's big.

If I look at my rankings where I have Cronoward at 5, then you have Altuve, Brandon Lowe, Kestan Hira, Glamour's, Kevin Bezio. Lots of question marks there as well. I'll take the Kronaworth 15-15 upside with a good bag on average on a very good offense and go that route. It's a pedigree we've seen through the minor leagues with Kronoorth. You mentioned the Welsh earlier. He's talked to me about Kronoort a ton, and he's seen him, and he's a prospect guru type guy. So I'm a big fan in binding on Krono.

He just kind of got his feet wet last year. You let him get there and hopefully they're smart enough to put him behind Tatee's at two in the order. or something right in the middle of Tatisa Machado, he could feast. And that's why I'm kind of going high on him because I want to have that guy on my roster to really enjoy the wealth of the Padres offense. Yeah, so you mentioned you have him as your fifth ranked second baseman. I have him down at 12. So this is one that we actually do differ on quite a bit.

But second base is so bad. I mean, after you get past DJ LaMayhew, Ozzy Albies, I think most people are going to have one and two in some type of order. Merrifield is up there. I was not a believer in what Merrifield entering last season. He completely shut me up. Catelle Marte, who is the real Catelle Marte? Was he just battling a wrist injury all last year?

And that's what hurt his production, or was it the juice ball that really helped him in 2019? Altovae look great in the postseason. I mean, is that the Altuve we should trust? Or was it the Altuva that we saw for most of this past season? and, you know, is this whole situation with the cheating scandal too? I think it probably affected him more than anyone else. Like, if you watch playoff games, they were talking about how he's a sensitive dude

and he actually let all this whole kind of situation get to him and it affected his production. So I don't know if that's going to be a thing next year. If there are fans in the stands at some point, the Astros are going to hear it. You can guarantee that. But just regarding getting back to Kronoward, I did want to ask you just about the splits, too, if you have any concern over the splits,

because I noticed against right-handed pitching, Kronanworth is a lefty. He was great against righties. 316 batting average, 963 OPS, against lefties, 218 with a 550. Does it wear you at all? It's not great.

I'm not going to say it doesn't not concern me. It's one of those, though, I say it a lot. Maybe I'm stubborn with it, when it comes to young players. Let me see them do it for a little while. As a Giants fan, I was always fed up when I said,

Brandon Bell, couldn't hit lefties. And then they finally let him hit him for a year. Now people are like, oh, wait, he can't hit lefties. That happens to a lot of young players. So let's like, let's let the wheels go in motion for a little bit. If we get to this conversation next off season, then it might get a little more interesting. But I think there's, there's something that he can make adjustments.

Because I think he's a good pure hitter. I think he's like a Jeff McNeil type, maybe a little less average, but more consistent power. So just give him a chance to try to hit these lefties. I think he'll be better than he was this past year. Yeah, it's not a bad call. And Stackass really likes Jake Cronenworth as. as well. I mean, we're talking about 98th percentile, an expected batting average, a 324XBA.

He had a 541 X-slug. That was in a 91st percentile. As a second baseman, too. He does have multi-position eligibility. He has first, second, and shortstop. First and second are two of the worst positions, at least what I'm getting at early on here, Bubba. So I can see liking him the fifth ranking at second base. It's a little rich. It's a little aggressive. It's one of those where I tell people, well, these are my rankings.

So there's certain guys I plant my flags on. That's just how it's going to go. And I'm all about the debates and conversations on it. This is one that I've gotten from a lot of people. So I'm expecting this throughout the whole season. Yeah. And just I didn't even mention other names at second base, but like what do we do with Brandon Lau?

He was super inconsistent. he was very streaky. He was bad for most of the postseason. And then Kevin Bigio, too. It seems like he's going to be a drain on your batting average. He's the opposite of Kronomworth in terms of stack cast numbers. They really don't like what he did. So it's just not a good position.

It's a position you really need to get early or just wait to the end to try to fill like a category you're really feeling deficient on. Yeah. That seems fair. That seems fair when it comes to the second base position. All right, we're going to take a quick break. I want to remind everybody that you should be watching Champions League Soccer this week on CBS All Access.

The games are on Tuesday and Wednesday. A full slate of games at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Best teams in the world are in action. Byron Munich, Manchester City, Barcelona, Juventus, and many more. Again, make sure to watch that on CBS All Access. And if you enjoy FBT, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. You can see what all of our guests look like.

You can see what Bubba looks like right here on the podcast at our YouTube channel. And make sure to join our Facebook group talking Dynasty, Keeper Leagues, get your questions answered. There's a lot of really good discussion going on over there as well. Come mingle at our Facebook page. Facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball today. When we come back, we have a few more player debates to get to some names we actually agree on. And top five Metallica songs of all time here.

fantasy baseball today. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. What are we going to do with this guy, Bubba? Because it seems like you plant your flag, you have these aggressive rankings, and I guess it goes the other way, too, because you have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ranked outside your top 12 as of now at first base,

your 16th ranked first baseman for Vlad Guerrero. Bubba, didn't you see the pictures? They're going viral. He's in the best shape of his life. And it's only November. Come on, man. Yeah, I'm a Giants fan. I see Bobbo Sandoval do that too.

Yikes. So that one stinks. The biggest thing with Vlad, and it stinks because if anybody listens to this, listen to Bench with Bubba, I love the baby Blue Jays. That's what I call him. There's a lot of talent, young talent, and I love Lodito. I'm a big fan of his. But when you have a 54.5% ground ball rate,

it's very tough to be the power hitter we want you to be. And that just stands out as a massive red flag. Now, is he a little lower, then he probably should be sure. I could see that argument, but it's one of those where he needs to really get there because there are many more people that are going to be higher on him than I am.

So, A, I'm never going to probably draft him. He's going to have to fall to me, so it's going to come down to. I think he's super talented. There's just been too many kind of holes in the game. He's supposed to be this big bag and average guy. He hit 262 last year, the 282 Babbit. You know why?

He gets the ball on the ground a lot. He doesn't strike out a lot, which is great. I'd like him to walk a little more if he could. He's not going to steal you any bags. So if he's not hitting you a 30-plus home runs and hitting you in 285 plus, he's really not helping you out a lot because with these Jays, you have Gritchick and Hernandez and Bezio and all these other Jays. Even Routy Tellez now, the chance of drive and runs are fewer and far between with these guys right now. So he has to

produce home runs and average, and he has not been doing that right now. The biggest issue for Vlad is the ground balls, 100%. You hit it on the head and 51% ground ball rate for his career. I will point out that he lowered it each month of the season in 2020, 68% in July, 55% in August, 50% in September, but 50% still too high. I mean, we got to get that down to like 40% max. Let's get 40% ground balls, 20% to 25% line drives, and the rest is fly balls.

I'd be perfectly fine with that in terms of bad at ball data. I don't know if it's going to happen. I brought this up on our early third base preview, which you can listen to on demand. But I was reading this article that I found on The Athletic by Andrew Stoughton. Hope I'm saying your name right. Coach Dante Bichette recently said he thinks too much has been made of Guerrero's inability to get the ball in the air. Quote, I've tried to get him away from trying to lift the ball,

because when he lifts the ball, if you understand swing path, you've got to catch it out front on the way up. That's what Dante Bichette said. So that doesn't give me hope, Bother, that doesn't. eventually Vlad is going to raise that launch angle. So yes, there are pictures going viral right now. He does look like he is in good shape. Apparently he's lost 40 pounds since the start of the season,

and he has a goal of losing another 10 pounds and showing up to spring training at like 230, 235 as his playing weight. We'll see if he can actually get there. The early ADP, 59.3 on Vlad. So... A little too rich for me. a little too rich. I mean,

the guy has done nothing, Bubba. And, like, people are still drafting him inside the first five rounds. I guess part of my rankings also. It's like,

okay, if I rank them bad enough, if people actually follow my rankings, they won't be sucked into taking him at pick 59. Yeah. But I will point out, I saw on your first base rank,

so you have Vlad all the way down at 16. You have Paul Goldschmidt at number four. So I didn't really prep before. I didn't have Goldschman on the rundown or whatever, but, why why so aggressive on on paul gullchman when it comes to goldie um there there are some concerns but if we want to talk about and we've talked about a few other players that had you know good and bad

splits last year we talked to tosker and some others he started to get it going a little bit towards into last season and the one thing i have more confidence in him doing it was rough this last year but he still hit for a very strong average which means he was putting the ball and play he was hitting it pretty well overall but what we're trying to get obviously with goalies. You want the power. That's St. Louis's offense as a whole was a mess. An absolutely disaster. He still, he still barreled it over 10% of the time, almost 11%. He had a 40.9% hard hit rate, lowest of his career, but still most of the time, 40% plus isn't bad. He walked a lot more of those past seasons, so he'd be more patient at the plate.

There's a lot of things pointing in the right direction. His ground ball rate even dropped this past year. There's more of a line drive guy. So it wasn't like he took massive drops. He was almost more cautious at the plate. His chase rate dropped 6%. His first pitch switch. rate dropped over 7%. His overall swing rate dropped over 6%. So these are more things where he just be more patient at the play as what the walks increase does. So we want more Joe Votto on us.

If we can get back to the aggressive Goldie, things might turn on the right way. So I have more optimism than him. Still hitting for a good average. Maybe it's more aggressiveness. Power should return. That's what I'm shooting for. And Cardinals, please do something with this lineup in the offseason.

Sign a George Springer, trade for Nolan Aronado, do something because, I mean, the lineup as is now. is not going to get the job done. I have Goldie at number nine in the ranks, one spot behind Vladimir Guerrero. I just, I have a bit of FOMO, if I'm being honest, on Vlad,

where I think one of these years it's going to click and we're going to get this 300 batting average, 30 home run, 100. And it will. It's going to happen one of these years. But the thing is, is you have to pay to find out. So I don't like that price tag, but if they're both on the board, Vlad and Goldschmidt

at the same time, and I want to take a first basement, I would take Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Another very polarizing player, Bubba. And look, I understand if you've been burned by him, if that's why you haven't ranked so low, I cannot blame you. A lot of people have been burned by Gary Sanchez, who you have ranked as your 16th catcher.

I have him at number eight. It seems to be the end of a tier, in my opinion. It's that group of Travis Darno, Austin Nola, Yasmani Grandal. I have those three just ahead of Sanchez, and then after him, you get into Sharvis. John Murphy and Christian Vasquez and James McCann. We'll see where James McCann lands in the offseason as well.

But it seems to be the end of a tier for me. I've never owned Gary Sanchez on my team, Bubba. So I think I'm not scorned, and that's why I can have him ranked as high. What are the reasons why you have him ranked as low as you do? Yeah, you've never been scorned by Gary Sanchez. I'd keep it that way if I was you because it's not a fun experience at all. And at least the draft price is better this year, ADP around 197 or so.

in the past was a top 100 pick and that used to really sting you. So that stunk, but he's such a conundrum because his strikeout rates bad. Like we talked about bad and average is getting worse. But Gary Santis at least used to give you like a 230 or something when things were okay. Obviously, I don't ever expect him to hit 278 again.

I'm not that person. But 240 would be nice. A buck 47 this year, buck 86 in 2018. Those crush your roto teams. Crush them. Like if you're playing points or you're playing, you know, to heads. He can maybe play around a little more, especially if you don't have a strikeout penalty in your points league. But in a roto league, he just drains your team. And it got so bad

last year. They were playing, I just call him Higgie, Higasioca, over him way more frequently. It wasn't just he was just Cole's catcher. He was catching a lot. And the other thing with Sanchez, since his defense is so bad, that's why Higgy was back there a lot. He's also been kind of getting injury prone at times. So unless he can find a place where he can D.H. full time, that's great, which with the Yankees, I don't know, I know you're being a Yankees guy, quite a few DH options in that lineup that might have a little more success than Gary Sanchez. So it's really hard for me to invest in a guy like Gary Sanchez, especially playing a lot of two catcher leagues like you do yourself. It really just kind of sucks you down.

You can get a guy that hits 220 or so with 10 home runs much later if that's what you're looking for. Yeah, I mean, the batting average has been all over the place. The past four seasons starting back in 2017, 278, 186, 232, 147. The one thing I'll point out with Sanchez, he is as shrieky as they come. You mentioned I'm a Yankee guy, I watch a lot of their games, and if you look back at 2019,

he had two different months where he batted below 200, and he had like sub-700 OPSs in those two individual months. This season was a two-month season. So is it crazy to see Sanchez slump two-months? out of the course of a full year? No, it just happens that that was the entire year this season in 2020. So I agree, not going to bounce back to 270. I wouldn't really expect more than like

220, 230. I still think he has the upside to hit the most home runs at the position in any given season. Yeah, I think he's that cut off for me. It's the end of a tier there. I mentioned the draft that I did. I got him as my first catcher in that draft. I pick 175. So I've never had him before. I guess we'll find out. Bob, but do you think he's on the Yankees come next year, opening day? I don't. I think it's a good chance.

It's just, the hard part is, what do you get him 75 cents on the dollar? Like, how does that have? Like, what do they accept? It's one of those, if they sign JT, then yeah, you'll just take what you can get. So that's what it'll come down to. Some, I have a group chat with a bunch of Yankees fans,

and someone brought up, change of scenery, swap for swap, Gary Sanchez for John Gray. Oh man, John Gray in Yankee Stadium with that lineup, that would be fun. That would be really fun. And then Gary Sanchez and Goersfield. Oh, my God. You could hit 220 and I'd probably draft you high there because that's like a 40 home run launching pad.

Yeah. And again, this is just pure speculation. We're just throwing stuff around. The fantasy sports to speculate and stuff like that. Because in real life, people still think you're crazy. But fantasy, that opens up a whole new can of worms. Yeah. I don't think he'll be on the Yankees either.

So we'll see what happens. They would be selling low. Brian Cashman absolutely loves Gary Sanchez. Seems like he wants to give him every opportunity that he possibly can. But we shall see where he lands. All right, so those are some of the players that we disagree on. Let's just quickly hit on a few that we do agree on. That really stood out to me in your rankings.

And you have Tim Anderson as your fifth rank shortstop. And I'm with you. I'm fully bought in. I think Anderson is a 2020 batting average contributor. I think he's like a 280 batting average floor. I just fully buy in on the adjustments he's made and the hitter that he's become the past two seasons, being able to go to all fields,

hitting at the top of that really, really good lineup. So I was happy to see that you had Tim Anderson ranked that aggressively. I'm with you there. Yeah, no, Anderson's a guy that even in drafts now, as you've been looking, he's not getting the, I think the love he still deserves at this point in time. So the fact we both agree is great.

You'll have Toby on this week, and he's a big Tim Anderson guy as well. But, you know, Knight's Sourced up off the board, Brown pick 40 right now. MFBC and that to me is a steel shows the depth of the position once again but the bad average is legit everyone wanted to point at the high babb and this and that but it comes back to that's who this guy is he hits the ball that hard and it's a consistency thing he's done it time and time again so I love him and that power speed gumbo legit 2020 like you said that's hard to find

and if you can get them you know in round three or four after you maybe took some aces or something that's a tremendous get to help you in a rotel league with that many steals like you said also at the top of that order in Chicago, that's going to be huge for a couple years to come. Yeah, so in this 15-team draft that I did, I took Tim Anderson in the middle of the third round at pick 36. I don't hate it. I had the sixth pick. I started DeGrom, got Manny Machado in the second, and then I took Tim Anderson in the third. Perfectly fine with starting that.

If people want to give me to Tim Anderson, I'm fully bought in. These other two quickly bring up, you have Bryce Harper as your fifth ranked outfielder, and you have Freddie Freeman as your first ranked first, first baseman. And even before the Cody Bellinger shoulder surgery, I had Harper ahead of Bellinger in the outfield ranks, and I had Freeman ahead of Bellinger in the first base ranks, and it seems like you're on board with both of those as well.

Bubba, Bryce Harper's statcast page is ridiculous. It was better than his MVP season. Yeah, and I have, like, I'm with you, I had Bellinger behind these guys even before the surgery news, even before the shoulder thing in the postseason. But I think it's just people don't like Bryce Harlan. I really do. I think it's they see his hair or his attitude or whatever it is. I have no idea. He has a very hateable face. He does. He has a very punchable face, some people will say.

But when it comes to just playing baseball, he is as consistently talents as they come against. The stack has played page bleeds red. The power's legit. He can even throw in stolen bases, hits for a good ag. He does five categories very, very well. And people just keep forgetting about him. And he's one of those, if you can get him in the second, late second, early third. I think he's an absolute steal right now. Yeah, and Scott and I spoke about Bellinger a little bit last week. I've been worried a little bit about the lefty-righty splits in two of the past three seasons. He struggled against lefties, and he was tinkering with his swing before the season. And now he had this shoulder surgery, which it's not like a normal shoulder surgery

where some people have like the torn laborman stuff. They're fixing a dislocated shoulder. So I'm not overly worried, but shoulders can sap power if, you know, heading into the season after having surgery. So just keep that in mind when using an early round pick on Cody Bellinger. All right, the moment that everybody came here for Bubba, Metallica, if people who don't know, Metallica is far away my favorite band.

I think they are the greatest band of all time. If you haven't listened to them, I say give it a shot, even if you don't like hard rock, even if you don't like metal, just some of the things that they're able to do, just fantastic. know, Bubba, you've seen them seven or eight times live.

I've seen them seven or eight times live and they're just fantastic. And the reason why I brought this up is because you open up your podcast, Bench with Bubba with a Metallica song. So I figured if there's ever a time to do it, whatever, it's Thanksgiving week, talk about whatever we want. You get us started. Top five. What is your number five favorite Metallica song?

Yeah, and this is never easy and the order might change depending on the day we talk. That's the way Metallica works. But I'll throw this one in. because you kind of have to, and I'm going to say one. And one of the things I like about it the most that I love about Metallica, and I think it's why people that don't like rock, like hard rock, can't enjoy Metallica is they're just musicians at time. Like they just riff. And one has some of the best riffs you'll have between the drum set with Lars, between the guitar playing riffs. One's just an absolutely great, just musical piece that's got words with it. So I think that

deserves to be in the top five. Yeah, and I have that on my just missed, my shortlist. They were on bubble one. If anyone who's played Guitar Hero 3, it's also in that game. So if you've enjoyed it there, then you know the song. For me, number five, I have wherever I may roam. Fantastic song. You're going to notice a very common theme on my list here. I absolutely

love the black album, the self-titled Metallica album. I think it's probably their best. And yeah, that's number five for me. Number four for you, Bubba. It'll be fade to black. I absolutely love that. Like, it's another riff song. Basically, you'll see a turn on mine. It's ones where you have

very heavy guitar riffs or just drums. And Fade to Black is phenomenal in that respect. So, yeah, I can listen to that one all the time. I may or may not get to Fade to Black at some point on this list. Number four, for me, I have sad but true. I mean, just one of the sickest openings. Like, I just get like goosebumps thinking about sad but true. Yeah, number four for me and also off of the Black album.

Number three, Bubba. For me, ACDC, I tried to rip them off. but for whom the bell tolls. I guess one of those literally, you can just get, I got goosebumps just thinking to me here this bells start off out the gate,

you're like, okay, something's about to pick up. Business is picking up boys. Here we go. Especially when you see them live, like you know what I'm talking about when you start hearing the bells. Business is picking up.

So number three for me is for whom the belt tolls. Oh, wow. We did not plan this beforehand. So I'm pretty sad. I'm pretty excited about that. So I have wherever I may roam, sad but true, for whom the bell toll.

Lettoles, look, if you've ever heard it, just hearing the beginning of that, just the ding of the bell, that riff, jumping right in. Oof, six song. Number two, Bubba. Yeah, this one's going to be kind of chalky for a lot of people, but Master of Puppets. Just master, master, master of puppets over and over again. Phenomenal song. Yep, yep, hard to argue with that.

Number two, one that you already brought up so far, fade to black. And, spoiler alert, haven't got to number one yet. I don't have Master of Puppets or, or, answer Sandman on this list. They're both great songs, but I've just heard them so many times. I'm just like, yeah, they're fine.

Probably like top 10, but yeah, I'm gonna move away from that. So I have wherever I may roam, Sabat True, for whom the belt holes fade to black, five through two. Number one for you, Bubba,

favorite Metallica song. And no winter sandman for me as well. That's the chalk, like that's just too mainstream nowadays. But I went one, fade to black, for whom the belt holes, master of puppets, And for anyone's listening to Bencht with Bubba, the opening song is my favorite Metallica song of all time. Welcome Home Sanitarium.

That's because it's calm, but then riffs. It's everything Metallica does all in one for me. Welcome Home Sanitarium. I also had Sanitarium on the short list here on the bubble with one. And I also had shortest straw on the outside looking in, which is a harder song for sure from End Justice for All. But a great one nonetheless. This is going to be a bit of a take. but number one for me is Orion, big Cliff Burton guy. And look, it's a full, full instrumental song. So if you don't want to hear their voice, you just want to listen to the beauty of Metallica, listen to Orion. It is a ridiculous song that is just all over the place.

It speeds up, it slows down. It is fantastic. Orion for me, my favorite song. Try to find a live version of that, and you'll really get all of Metallica in that. Yeah, there you go. Metallica. Top five for Bubba and My mom.

Myself again, make sure you follow him on Twitter at B-D-E-N-Tric. That is at B-D-E-N-T-R-E-K, the host of Bench with Bubba. Make sure you check it out. Writer at Roto Baller and Fantasy D-Gens. Bobba, thank you so much for joining us. Is there anything else that you need to promote? Anything else you got going on? No, that should do it all.

If you follow me on Twitter, they'll see all the stuff and things. So I appreciate you having me. This is absolutely awesome, fun chatting baseball with you once again. Frank, it's been a little while, so it's fun. Thanks. Yeah, for sure, man. Always like talking baseball with. you and I mentioned it's Bubba and the Bat Flip week here on the show. Bubba, how many times per week

do you pod with Toby? Toby and I do once a week. We're in our position previews right now, so this week will be our second base preview. So we do once a week and I do some side ones with other guests and whatnot. But yeah, we do once week. We've done 58 together already, so keep him coming. Very nice. Okay. So if anyone has listened to you, they're familiar with Toby. Follow him on Twitter at Batflip Crazy. He will join us here Wednesday on the show for Bubba. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again on Wednesday. Bye-bye.