Fantasy Baseball Today - Eight Players With The Most At Stake & Mailbag Questions! (9/1 Fantasy Baseball podcast)

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

Who are the players with the most at stake over the final month of the season (4:00)? ... Can Julio Rodriguez get anything going in September (5:00)? ... Will Corbin Burnes bounce back after a rough August (14:38)? ... Can Jackson Holliday build momentum heading into 2025 (17:56)? ... Will Spencer Arrighetti continue his dominant August (25:12)? ... How much does JT Realmuto have left (27:39)? ... Can Luis Garcia be serviceable against lefties (30:03)? ... Can Zach Neto gain more trust (35:45)? ... Can Michael Kopech become an elite closer (41:25)? ... Let's get into your mailbag questions (44:45)! ... Is there a clear top eight picks for 2025 (47:54)? ... What's Tyler Fitzgerald's future (51:38)? ... Which late pitching risers do we have confidence in (57:42)? ... What do we know about bat speed Statcast metrics (1:02:21)? Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Which players have the most at stake over the final month of the season? We have names.

Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Labor Day weekend. We're actually dropping this on Sunday afternoon. but it will serve as our Monday episode. I am Frank Stamphle joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Hope everybody enjoyed the long weekend. Got all those fantasy football drafts out of the way. And now we are here to finish strong on the fantasy baseball season.

Today on the show, we have eight players with the most at stake over the final month of the season. Plus your mailbag questions. Look at us, Scott. We got the hats on, Chris. I guess you didn't get the memo. What's going on, man? I, you know, I always feel like,

I'm wearing a baseball shirt, wearing a hat is always like, it can go either way, right? Like, you know, I don't kill. You want, and like, I'm wearing this like, you know, fauxback Kansas City Monarch's shirt. I don't have like a Kansas City Monarch's hat. So am I going to wear like a Brooklyn Dodgers hat? Like, it just, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to mix the streams there. So. Well, don't feel bad.

I just haven't had a chance to wash my hair. That's what I figured. I figured your, your hair just looked like a mess. And that's why you were rocking the hat. because you don't really go with the hat look. Not a big hat guy. It feels uncomfortable. I'm constantly fidgeting with it.

And it creates this nice shadow over my face because of the way my lighting set up here. So that's fun. It does seem worth noting. We're recording on Thursday at like 4.30. So like by the time you listen to this, there we have four days worth of games. And I only point that out because of the last time we did that,

I believe Ronald Ocuna Tore his ACL. Sure did. And we spent a lot of time talking about Ronald Acuna in that specific podcast. So now we're just going to talk about wearing hats. Yeah, no, it's just an hour of hat talk. Yeah. We probably should just stick to that. But yes, it's Thursday afternoon.

So the stats that we cite on today's episode could be a little bit outdated. So just keep that in. Let's jump in. Players with the most at stake over the final month. And it seems pretty straightforward. But Chris, this is your brainchild. What were you looking at when picking these specific names up? Yeah, I mean, I've just been, you know, I write the fantasy baseball today newsletter,

and we've got a month left in the season. Head to head points leagues might have two weeks left. And so I think I'm in one league that this is the final week. That's an animaer creation. But yeah, I just, I've started to think about where players are going to rank in 2025. And we've had these discussions on the podcast. and I think there are a lot of players who's like, there's very little show Hey,

Otani could do between now and September 29th or whenever the last day of the season is to change his value. But there are a handful of players who I think their value is very much up in the air. So that's what I'm going to write about for the newsletter over the weekend. And that's what we're going to talk about a little bit today. Well, let's start with one of the most polarizing names, one of the biggest busts in fantasy baseball this season, Julio Rodriguez, who had a top 380P in Roto leagues.

Maybe he was more of a late first round, early second round pick in head-to-points leagues. And through 115 games, it's a 253 batting average, 12 homers, 18 steals, a 670 OPS. He's missed some time with an ankle injury that seems to have made him even worse here in the second half. Scott, we'll start with you. What has gone wrong with Julio Rodriguez this season? And what would you like to see him do over the final month? Anything? Well, it's kind of fit the same pattern of his first two seasons, where he's been terrible for months to begin the year.

And then he managed to salvage it the first two years by just going bonkers after that and ending up with a really nice stat line overall. But I think this high ankle sprain has prevented him from doing that. So I'm actually really not expecting much from him the rest of this season. I think he's playing hurt. And that I would hope would suppress his value some for next year, make him not a first rounder at the very least. I think there's going to be enough hitters to push him out. But I think what could happen is if he does get blazing hot to close out the season,

I think everybody's faith in him will be restored. and probably he will go in the first round. And I haven't done it yet, so I can't say for sure. But I'm inclined to rank him as a first rounder because I do really think the ankle injury is what robbed us of seeing Julio Rodriguez at his best. Because if you remember in July, he was hitting 375 with an 1122 OPS. He seemed to be figuring it out. Had hit four homers that month. suffers the ankle sprained three days after the all-star break,

comes back without a rehab assignment, if I'm remembering correctly. And so it just doesn't seem like he's anywhere close to healthy. And I'm, well, I'm kind of willing to just mostly write this off. Now, that's not to say he's in the discussion

for the number one overall pick because he's not. Okay. But I'm, I would, I think I would be comfortable taking him with a late first or early second round pick. Let me bring this up because it keeps happening, the slow starts for Julio Rodriguez.

And it's bad enough that he puts you in this big hole early on where, I mean, in head-to-head leagues, you may not be able to climb out of it. But even in roto leagues, you're deflated, you're maybe not checking your team as much. You've maybe decided your season is over before it is because your first round pick has been terrible for two months. months or however long it lasts. It seems to be about two months every year. Three years in a row of

that now, is that just something we need to expect from Julio Rodriguez? And if it is, you know, I think a lot of his very high rankings the past few years have been because we're assuming he's more the guy that we see over the final four months. And that doesn't carry over to the following April. Yeah, I, that's a really hard question. to answer, right? Because there are some guys who are just perpetually slow starters, right? There are some guys who, Francisco Lindor, it seems like every April, he stinks. But then I've actually looked at it in like, I think two years ago, he actually had a really good April. So a lot of it is perception. A lot of it is. It's not perception in Holy Rodriguez's case.

But it's also a sample size of three. Sure. which that's not nothing. But I don't know if six months over three seasons really tells us anything, especially when you're talking about a guy who was 21 and making the leap from AA, I think at the time he made his debut. So like, oh, that guy struggled his first two months of the season. I don't know if that tells me anything about Holy Rodriguez. So like, yeah, he didn't play at all in AAA.

So he was making the leap from double A. And so it's like, I get it. And it's possible that this is just something he'll have to work through every year. But I also like you said, you know, part of his lofty ranking was the assumption that what. Yeah, that is not just going to be a 275, 8, 280 hitter, but he could be a 300 hitter. But do you know how many players in major league history have had 60 homers? and 60 steals across their age 21 and 22 seasons? I would imagine it's not many, though, for drafting and fantasy.

I don't know that age is particularly... No, no, no. But the historical context of the age is particularly important. But I point that out because, like, a big reason I never lost faith in Ronald Acuna heading into the 2023 season was you look at players who produce that way when they're that young. they almost always become lifelong superstars. And it's the same with when Juan Soto had that weird stretch in 2022-2020-203.

It's just, I want to look at that. And like, in Hillary Rodriguez case, there actually is very little to go on because there is a single other player who had 60 homers and 60 steals across their age 21 and 22 seasons. It was Alex Rodriguez. That guy ended up pretty good. Seattle fans would know a little bit about that. And so I'm kind of operating under the assumption that absent the injury,

Hillear Rodriguez probably would have ended up with more or less the numbers we hoped for. I think it would have been really hard for him to get to the 30-ish homers because of how little power he hit for earlier. And there were reasons for that. He wasn't pulling the ball as much. He was hitting a lot of fly balls hard, but to the power alleys, which is where power goes to die. Kind of a misnomer.

I've always thought that was a weird term in baseball. But I, like, I'm downgrading Julia. Would I take Corbyn Carroll or Julio Rodriguez next season? I think I'm leaning Corbyn Carol at this point, but I think that's the right range. And we talked about that on Thursday's podcast. Carol, Carol's got his own problems, but I was thinking, and just a quick answer,

because we've talked for 10 minutes about Julio Rodriguez, but Jordan Alvarez or Julio Rodriguez next year. Jordan's definitely going to be a better hitter. I feel pretty confident in that. I think it's probably format dependent for me. Yeah. I think in Roto, I'd probably go Julio. Okay.

Yeah, I think so too. One other thing about Julio Rodriguez, which we don't talk about more because, obviously the power and speed is just so awesome from him. But he is a flawed hitter. The plate discipline is not as good as other hitters that are drafted in the first round. He chases a lot.

There's a good amount of swing and miss in his game. He's also 23 years old, and he's one season removed from a 32 homer, 37 steel season. So I understand there are inconsistencies. If you look at OPS by month throughout his career, it's a lot of up and down. It reminds me of, you know,

Justin Upton was always this player where month to month, you just did not know which player you were going to get. But by the end of the season, almost always, the numbers were going to be there. So maybe Julio Rodriguez is someone you fade a little bit more, in a head-to-head league, whether that's points or categories,

because the weekly production is probably going to be so inconsistent, but I would still bet on him bouncing back next year and the overall numbers getting back to where they should be assuming Julio Rodriguez is healthy next season. Let's take our first break, and when we return, we will talk about Corbyn Burns. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in. Let's continue on.

Players with the most at stake over the final month of the season, Corbyn Burns has had a very fine season, 323, ERA 113, whip, but under a strikeout per inning, he's getting more ground balls than ever before, so pitching more to contact. Coming off a really rough August with a 736 ERA and a 160 whip under 8K per 9. It's actually been that way since the start of June, 7.8K per 9 for Corbyn's. And this has been a consistent trend with him. The whiff rate on his cutter, swinging strike rate overall, strikeout rate overall,

K per 9 overall. Everything has trended down each season since 2021. Chris, what are we looking for from Corbyn Burns, who's entering a really pivotal stretch about to enter the biggest free agency of his career. Yeah, he's about to be 30. He's a Scott Boris client. He's going into free agency.

It's one of the most fascinating storylines of the entire off-season across Major League Baseball. And fantasy players are such, what have you done for me lately? People that I think as bad as his, August has been, a lot of people would say, oh, there's no way I'm drafting Corbyn Burns next year. He's like a 10th round pick. And like, then you actually look at the numbers and like he's a top 15 starting pitcher overall. He has a 323 ERA with peripherals that mostly back it up. I think he's probably not an ace. I think he's probably more of an SP2 or 3.

but if he came out in September made some adjustments, rediscovered the cutter, got that cutter whiff rate back up to like 22, 23%, rather than 18% where it's at right now, maybe I could talk myself into it, but here's the thing that we can't answer right now. Where does Corbyn's play next year? If it's Baltimore,

a low-end SP1, you know, expecting like Aeronnola-type production, I think that's pretty reasonable, given the workload and the team context, the home park, that should all lead to a low 3s ERA and a bunch of wins. But if he goes out and signs somewhere bad that offers him a bunch of money, I could see Corbyn sliding more into the SP3 discussion.

Scott? Yeah, I think Aaron Nola is a good comp based on the way he's trending here to end the year. That's kind of what I was thinking. too for Corbyn Burns but he did just have depending on what source you're looking for his best swinging strike game of the

season and seems to have given his recent slump he seems to have redoubled his efforts to maybe to induce chases which I'm not sure was a high priority for him given the success he was having and that was always the

bargain in fantasy okay his his whiffs are going down he looks like less dominant overall, but he's still having so much success that it's hard to care. Well, if that changes the way in August, if that continues into September and what we saw last start with the whiffs going up doesn't change, then it might be hard to rank Corbyn Burns as a top 10 pitcher. Let's move on to his teammate, Jackson Holiday, teammate for now.

It's been a rough go through 369 batting average with five home runs, one steel, and a 548 OPS. The plate discipline has been a disaster, which is interesting because that was supposed to be Jackson Holiday's calling card, right? It's eye at the plate, you know, didn't swing and miss all that much in the miners. But so far, he's chasing a good amount. His own contact is okay, but a 14.9% swinging strike rate is really, really high for Jackson Holiday. Maybe I regret these words, but I am not worried long term. He is 20 years old. We've seen a bunch of top prospects throughout history, struggle their first year. Most notably, Mike Trout had a bad first season and then came back the next year and was amazing. Sometimes it takes a few more years,

guys like Lucas G. Alito and Byron Buxton. Scott, I think we'd like to see anything positive from Jackson Holiday over the final month. And if that happens, you know, we'll probably carry that momentum into, you know, drafting him as like a top 100 or top 150 pick next year. But if he doesn't, if this slump just continues, then, you know, we'll probably carry that momentum into, you might have a pretty good post-hyped sleeper on our hands. Yeah, that's a fair way of putting it. I don't think anything that happens for Jackson Holiday, the rest of the way should change how you view him long-term.

And that's going to be the approach I take. That's the approach I plan to take with young players moving forward, is invest less in the hyped rookie who's likely to be elevated on draft boards and instead invest in the post-hype guy who falls outside the top 200 or top 250. And maybe it'll be holiday. If holiday September goes about like his April did, then I think it'll definitely be him. He won't get much attention at all in drafts.

But if he's decent in September, then I don't know that he'll be drafted any earlier than he was this year, but he'll probably be drafted at about that same point. which might be good enough, but be on the fence about it. I am of two minds on Jackson Holiday because on the one hand, there was one player drafted in the first 10 picks in the 2024 MLB draft, who was younger than Jackson Holiday. And like, we're talking like he's like a year or more younger than most of the top 10 picks in this year's draft. So on the one hand, it almost feels like we're.

dinging him for making it to the majors and being overwhelmed at a time when most guys are like hoping they'll make it to the second round of the college world series right like you know i i i always want to guard against that who is doing that i don't think anybody's doing that i don't think what are you doing that no like well well i i think if jackson holiday had spent the whole season at double a and triple a just putting up monster numbers and then gets called up late in September, it might actually be better for his value than what we've seen this year, right? And so, on the other hand, though, he was 29th percentile at AAA in in zone contact rate. That's pretty bad for a guy who was supposed to have like a 70 great hit tool. And the quality of contact,

he was like, I think it was 71st percentile and expected Wobon contact, which is not bad. but that combination together like if you're making a lot of contact and you're making pretty good contact that's awesome if you're not making a lot of contact but when you do you crush the ball that's okay too the combination where he's really bad on contact or bad at making contact and just okay with the damage that does get a little concerning again he's a 20 year old was one of the youngest players at AAA, let alone the major. So I don't know how much to ding him for all that. Well, to your first point about how maybe his value'd be higher if he was just in AA and maybe looking at an initial call up next year, that's probably true. But what I'm

trying to do is divorce myself from that, I guess, where I don't want to hype any minor league hit for the upcoming fantasy season. Obviously, Dynasty is a different story. But I want to assume that they will be fringy, at least to open the year, and I might not stick with them, and so I don't want to pay the cost. And so because when they do come up and they fail initially,

like Holiday looks like he is, there's then this tendency to downgrade them maybe even before lower than they were initially. Those are the guys I want to take advantage of. And so I do think there's a wide range of outcomes here for Holiday's 2024 value, depending how September goes. I mean, maybe he hits nine home runs in September. And then he's somebody we're talking about going in the first five rounds next year. So Holiday, I think, might be the most representative player on this list here. of players with something to gain or lose rest of season.

And there is a chance that he has just been moved too quickly, right? I mean, I know we were all kind of banging on the door and, you know, climbing all the levels that he did last year and seemingly handling all of those levels. It seemed like he was worth it, but, you know, worthy of, you know, getting that promotion. But, you know, again, he's 20 years old. So perhaps he was hard. Yes, it certainly is. Jackson Holiday is still 90% rostered.

Should that be the case? I'm okay with it just because what if he does go on a heater? You know, we saw when he first got recalled. He had five homers in his first 10 games, I think. So the mystery box appeal, like it's the same thing with like Wyatt Langford, who has been pretty disappointing but has hovered around 90% for a while. I just, I'd have to be really confident that the guy I'm picking up for him is definitely better. rather than just like, oh, this guy had four good games in a row.

I don't think I would do that. I mean, it's possible. I say there's his value could completely change based on September. It could completely change based on this weekend. And by the time people are listening to this, it's like, who would think of dropping Jackson Holiday? That's crazy. Or he could go, you know, 0 for 16 with nine strikeouts.

And like legitimately there's lose your job risk here for a team that's competing for a playoffs, well, completing for the division. Yeah, look, if you're in a head-to-head playoff right now, shallower format, I don't know that you want to start Jackson holiday, right? It seems like, you know, in a format that shallow, there could be someone better out there. So, yeah, well, see what happens, obviously by the time you're listening to this, if he has a big weekend, maybe hold on to him. If not, could be looking for somebody else.

From one rookie to another, Spencer Argeti, someone we've talked a lot about recently, and for good reason, he is coming off a monster August with a 195 ERA, a point 90 whip, 13.1K per 9, 16.8% swinging strike rate. And what has changed from his first 19 starts to these last five? He's throwing strikes. He's getting more whiffs. It seems like confidence is building here. He's getting more fly balls, which has helped keep the batip and the batting average down in general here.

But this is another name where if he carries this August into September, Chris, I think there will be lots of helium on him heading into 2025. and rightfully so. And it's weird because Ergeti's a guy who, for the season has what, like a 450 ERA, 460 ERA, something like that. He's like a 437 career

AAA ERA guy. Like it might just be that he's not that good. But he's got three really good swing and miss pitches. He throws pretty hard. And we're seeing what it looks like when he commands his pitches well. And it's really, really impressive.

So command can come and go, but if we get two months at the end of the season where he keeps the walk rate below three per nine and keeps getting strikeouts like this, it's going to be hard to keep him outside of the top 40 at starting pitcher, top 30. I think Spencer Araggetti has already clinched me being excited about him next year. Four double-digit strikeout games in two months time. that's that's enough like the upside is there clearly and he's he's shown he can deliver on that upside in the majors whether he can sustain it you know september can help to to sort that out but if he does sustain it in september then yeah i mean he might be it goes from 30 next dude goes from sleeper to breakout yeah yeah we have a question coming later on about which late season pitchers are you believing the hype for next season and i think

three that immediately stand out to me are Aragutti, Spencer Shwellenbach, and Brian Wu. And again, we'll get that in a little bit later on, but yeah, those have probably been some of the biggest risers in our rankings just over the past month here. Woo is on the list that I'm writing about. And I thought about

Bryce Miller as well. Yeah, that's fair. Looks to kind of be putting it together here lately. Let's continue on and talk about J.T. Ruehmuto, who has been a fantasy mainstay for nearly a decade now, but he is also 33 years old. it looks like we are starting to see some decline from him through 78 games, a 265 batting average, 10 homers, 740 OPS. The OPS is his lowest since 2015. His 154 ISO is his lowest since

2016. Now, the expected stats still look really good. He has underperformed those, so perhaps a little bit of unluckiness here for J.T. Rolumuto. The elephant in the room is that he isn't running. He has one steel. That's normally how he separates himself from the pack at the catcher position. He had meniscus surgery on his right knee back in June, and that could be contributing to him not running. But, but I looked into this. Okay. He initially hurt his knee on May 4th. Uh, he didn't have surgery until like June 9th or something, but the injury first happened on May 4th. He only had one steal on May 4th. I think he had attempted three. He hasn't run since then. So clearly that's playing a role, but he was already not running before the injury. So,

that's where it's like, oh, this might be over, over. And I don't want to over react because I think when we say like it's over, it's like over for him being the number one catcher or in that discussion. But, you know, by this time next year, he could be a 260, 270 hitting 20 home run catcher with good counting stats. And that's a really good catcher. That's, you know, it's still a catcher one. It's just, you know, he's not stealing bases and obviously making a difference in that way.

Scott, what do you think about what we've seen from J.C. Real Muto and maybe projecting forward for him. Yeah, I think the decline is real. It started last year. I mean, last year wasn't nearly as good as the typical J.T. Rio Muto season. His percentages were down. He still had a big enough combined home run and stolen base total that particularly given the position he played. It's like, okay, we're going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Hope that the decline doesn't go much further than this. And he'll still be really good. But, he's a 34-year-old catcher. I mean, not many catchers remain good hitters into their 30s, much less their mid-30s. The ones who do are Hall of Famers. Yeah, basically.

And I think JT. Real Muto, we should still treat him like a top 10 catcher, but not top five. Yeah, I think that's all fair. Let's move into some middle infielder, some young middle infielers. Luis Garcia, having a breakout season, partially thanks to the Nationals,

just being so aggressive on the base paths this year. took some time, still just 24 years old, but through 117 games, Garcia is batting 290 with 15 homers, 21 steals, and a 779 OPS. I think the biggest thing for me is maybe we see him play against lefties over the final month and just be okay against them. But to this point, Chris, the career numbers against lefties are pretty stark, at least comparing them against his right-handed numbers. Yeah, the one thing I will say is they are giving him a few more chances,

against lefties. He has 32 played appearances against lefties in the second half. He only had 64 in the first half. So, you know, there does appear to be a little bit of growth there. That was as of a couple days ago when I started writing this. So I, I don't understand the thought process here of like, oh, we got a scrap and claw to get to 73 wins instead of 75. So let's get to, you know, let's play Ildemarovar Vargis against lefties instead. Like I don't understand how that makes any sense from an organizational perspective. The nationals owe it to themselves to let Luis Garcia

play every single day and see if he can, because like he's good enough against Ritey's that he just has to be not a disaster. Like if he's a 700 OPS bad against lefties, that's probably a top 10 second basement for fantasy because of what he can do against Ritey's. We're seeing it right now. not playing every day, he might have a 20-25 season with a 290 batting average.

And the underlying numbers are actually a little better than his actual production. So I hope they just let him play as much as he can handle down the stretch. And let's just see because it's not a stretch to say he could be a top 100 player in drafts in 2025 if he is going to be an everyday player. He currently is. According to the Radball player Raiders, 74th overall in 5x5 Roto League. this season, Luis Garcia. He's also the number 14 second baseman in head to head points. So that's partially due to playing time. If he played every day, I think he would rank higher in points leagues as well. I'm pretty sure he's top five since June 1st.

Last thing I wanted to add, Scott, is I'm usually pretty skeptical of young players who don't hit lefties early on in their career. But we've seen others kind of make big jumps in, you know, that category of the past couple of seasons, right? Like his teammate, C.J. Abrams, has made a huge jump against lefties. Gunner Henderson. Now, these are better players and better prospects than Luis Garcia, but it's not impossible for a young player to approve against lefties. No, it's not. They have to play against them, I think, for that to happen.

But you may be asking the wrong guy here, because I tend not to worry about this as much. There are so many left-handed pitchers, as long as it doesn't cost the left-handed batter too much playing time. You can look where the overall numbers wind up, even with the bad splits against lefty. and tell how valuable he's in fantasy from that. It's just not something I stress about much,

except to the extent that it costs some playing time. And it has cost Luis Garcia a substantial amount of playing time. And yet look where he ranks, particularly in recent months. It's a bad position. So kind of like I was saying for Spencer Araggetti, I'm not sure Luis Garcia can lose much of anything for me over the last month. he could just shut him down for September. And I still think I'm going to draft him as a top 10 second baseman

because you got to draft, you got to have 10 second basement in your top 10. And he's like there by default just because good batting average. And that's, we haven't even mentioned that. That's probably the best part of Luis Garcia's skill set. And then also the power and speed contributions. All right. Let's hit our final break. And when we return, two other names to talk about Zach Netto and Michael Kopeck.

We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in. Two names left on our list of players with the most at stake over the final month of the season. Zach Netto, another middle infielder in the midst of a big breakout, a former first round pick in 2022. He actually just had a home run today

when we're recording this on Thursday, August 29th. But so far, 254 batting average, 20 homers, 23 steals, a 771 OPS. Scott, similar question here. I mean, I guess there aren't concerns about splits here. but is there anything else that we need to see from Zach Netto? Is it just that he doesn't implode over the final month and we're excited about him for next year?

Yeah, I guess so. It's not my list, so I don't want to speak for Chris. Maybe we just go to Chris first. What's the rationale for having Netto here? For me, it's mostly just so few people seem to buy into it. Scott White. Hey, that's, hey, I've moved him into my top 12. I'm sure it's not a

No, I think until like the last month or so, there's been a ton of skepticism about Zach Nato. And he's had a great month and that's helped. But I think for me, it just comes down to, and maybe this is just me perceiving something that isn't there, but it feels like there's some like. Okay, he's in my top 14, not top 12. It feels like there's some.

Yeah, but the other shoe's going to drop with Zach Netto. And I can see. why. Like the skill set is okay like pretty good plate discipline, but not incredible at anything. 34th percentile hard hit rate, 33rd percentile average XVI velocity,

even only 75th percentile at sprint speed. Like it's definitely a sum is greater than the parts profile. And it's one where like right now yeah, maybe people buy Zach Netto as a top 15 shortstop and a top

150, one, 75 pick for next year. A bad September that drops his overall season line down to like 740 OPS. I could see a lot of people saying, yeah, he just got hot for a couple, for two months. And that's all it was. I could see that. So I think in this case, he's got to prove to a lot of people that it's not a fluke. I think that's where a lot of people are on Zach Netto.

So what are you hoping? Like in your, if Zach Netto hits his, his, has his ideal September for his, his 2025 value, what would that 2025 value be? I guess what's the upside for Netto being drafted in 2025? I mean, there's a realistic chance that he finishes with a 2530 season, right? He's at 2023 as of August 29th. 2530, you said? Yeah.

And like, there's no way that's not a top 10. shortstop next year, right? Well, shortstop is a tough position. Yeah, I mean, we'd all take, no matter what Netto does, we're all taking O'Neill Cruz over him next year, right? We're all taking C.J. Abrams over him. We're taking Abrams over him. I think Cruz versus Netto could be closed.

I mean, Cruz has been so hot since the start of July. Yeah, he's running a ton. I'm pretty sure Netto's numbers over the past month have been better than O'Neill Cruises, though. I mean, look, I could have heard Tyler Fitzgerald in this conversation because I think it's a similar one. where I think there's just a lot of, yeah, but it's going to fall apart at some point. And maybe that would have been a better choice.

I don't even know that that's where I come down. It's just there are stats that matter other than home runs and stolen bases. And there's untapped upside in a guy like O'Neill Cruz where I think Netto is probably maxing out here. I think Netto is trending toward being a Dansby-Swanson-like shortstop, not. not looking at what Swanson's been in 2024, which has obviously been awful, but before that, where he kind of is stuck in the middle

at a deep position, a very solid starter for you in fantasy, but not somebody you're going to build your team around. I could see that. I think there might be a little bit more juice with Zach Netto. I think maybe Swanson had one 2020 season or close to it.

That was his career year a couple of years ago. You know, Netto just stands out as like a beat. But worse, he's going to be in a season. Angels lineup versus a studly braves lineup where Swanson was at his best. Like I said, there's stats that matter beyond just home runs and stolen bases. That's fair. Netto just feels like a B plus player. And I don't say that in a demeaning way.

It's just, you know, a guy that's going to hit 250 with 2020. And maybe the counting stats are a little bit bad because of the lineup context. But he pulls the ball, decent barrel rate for a middle infielder. 75% how sprint speed is fine. Yeah, he's going to be a fun one to, uh, discuss this off season again. That's Zach Netto. Well, once your hunch right now, Willie Adama's or Zach Netto, who would you

take earlier next year? But that might also depend on where Adama signs. Yeah, free agent, yeah. I was going to say that. Well, let's just assume he's back on the Brewers. I I can't really get a feel for what the brewer's lineup is. Like, we've seen Adomis being better for longer, but

that's just because Netto hasn't been up as long, I guess. But I think I would lean Adamas, but that one's really close. Yeah, I think I'd lean Netto, but I do have Adamas ranked higher, so I'm talking about it at both sides of my mouth on that one. And I imagine I'm going to rank those two back to back at shortstop. So I don't know that we're so different here. Maybe I should have put Tyler Fitzgerald here then. We do have a question about Tyler Fitzgerald a little bit later on.

Let's wrap up with Michael Kopeck, who has always had the talent. He just needed to throw strikes. And that is what he has done with the Dodgers. In 13 games so far, he's got three saves, a point. 0.68 ERA, a 0.45 whip, 12.8K per 9, 2 walks per 9, 17.8% swinging strike rate for Michael Kopeck. Scott, everything is here for Kopec to just kind of take this closer roll and run with it. I know Dave Roberts has been a little bit hesitant to just have a guy,

but if Kopec is just this good and he has a good postseason run, I mean, we could be looking at a potential, you know, top 12 closer next season. if not higher. Yeah. I'm skeptical that'll happen because I don't think Dave Roberts wants it to happen. Not that he has anything against Kopeck. I just think he likes the flexibility of not having defined bullpen rolls. I do think Kopeck is going to get the most saves for the Dodgers going forward,

but he's going to get enough that we trust him that high in our closer rankings. I'm skeptical, but yeah, if he does, then we'll be very high on him going into next year. And I think that pretty much sums it up. up. Chris, how high could this get? How high could the helium get on Kopeck? Yeah, so like, I think an interesting one would be like, Yuan Duran, who we've talked a little bit about lately, who is having a down season, but still, like, looks good. And we know has the kind of upside that we are now seeing from Michael Kopeck. I think I'm probably going to rank Yon Duran as a top 10 closer next year.

Would I move? Is there anything Michael Kopeck could do to move ahead of like Riesel Eglacias? I don't think so. I, that, he might be a better pitcher. He might be. Iglesias is just so solid. It's such a high floor. Yeah, he's just rock solid.

And so like that, that where like not Mason Miller, not Josh Hater. Yeah, I, I tend to think probably low end number one, S, uh, closer. Yeah. is where Kopeck is likely, like Robert Suarez. Can Kopec really leap Robert Suarez, who's kind of doing a better version of Michael Kopeck over a full season? Right? Like just spamming fastballs and dominating. Yeah.

No, it's a good question. And I think this is one where the final month and the postseason really matters a lot for Michael Kopeck's value moving forward. Just because it, not because it'll change necessarily. He's going to throw like 10 more innings this season. Your opinion about a player should never change based on how 10 innings go. But if he remains the Dodgers closer and remains the closer through a deep postseason run. If he records the final out of the world series. Yeah. Well, you come on.

That's your closer next year on the best team in baseball who's probably just spent two and a half months absolutely dominating. Yeah. So that that's the one scenario that could change. I think that's the one. If that doesn't happen, if Roberts continues to mix it up, then I don't know that he's a top 20 reliever next year. Yeah. No, there's definitely some variants here with Michael Kopeck's 2025 value.

Let's wrap up with some mailbag questions, and this one is from Mark, dear Adrian, Cassius, and Mr. Beefy. I mean, those are... I feel like these are getting increasingly obscure. Get in the flask. Get in the flask. Oh, okay. That is one, that's one movie that Frank has seen. What is the movie?

One of like seven movies. Way too many times have I watched that movie. Is that a little Nicki voice? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I know people hate the movie. I know you love that.

It is one of my favorite Adam Sala movies. It is so stupid, but I love it. Yeah, this one's from Mark. I'm about to be edged out of our top six in our 12 team head head category's Dynasty League. You could keep up to eight players, no salary involved. Only the top six make it. their six are in their own bracket with the winner getting the top pick of the ninth round the

following year. I just picked up Sandy Alcansara and Yuri Perez off waivers. What is their dynasty appeal for next year? Now I will say, I think their dynasty appeal and their value for just next year are very different things. Sandy Alcansra had Tommy John surgery in October of 2023, which means he will be 16 months removed by the time pitchers and catchers report in February. Yuri Perez had Tommy John in April of this year, so the best case scenario is second half of 2025. Yeah, I don't think we're going to see Yuri Perez drafted in many redraft leagues next year.

Yeah, I think June at the earliest. Alcantra is an interesting one because it wasn't a conventional ace profile to begin with, and now he's on a really awful team. In addition to having all the concerns that come with returning from Tompenter. Tommy John surgery. So top of mind, he's probably still a top 40 pitcher, though, right?

I was thinking I might have him outside my top 40. I was thinking the same number there, 40. But maybe the other side of it, it's impossible to say till I line up the names. But I imagine I'm going to be pretty cautious with him, which isn't to say, for as a really cheap keeper, he'd be a bad one. but but if you only keep what is it eight players eight i think he could be worthy of being eight yeah he could be a eighth player that you keep i think that's pretty close yeah because you're looking at a 12 team league the top 96 players should be kept yeah when you put it that way it's a little

you might sneak 40 starting pitchers into your top 96 but that'd be really starting pitcher heavy so i i think it's unlikely you keep either oh is there not there's no cost to keeping that's i was assuming it'd be a discounted keeper. No cost. Kept on full terms. Yeah, I doubt you're keeping Alcantra. Yeah. Okay.

This next question's from Philip. Who would you rather have Junior Caminero or Max Muncie for the next three weeks? Commonero. Basically the rest of the season. Yeah, Commonero. Is it format dependent? Do you think Muncie could be better in a points league rest of the way?

Oh, he could be, but I'd get based on what he's shown so far, I think Cominero's about to take off, and I'd rather have him. All right, this one's from Isaac. the top seven hitters in Roto this year are Aaron Judge, Shohay Otani, Bobby Witt Jr., Jose Ramirez, Ellie De La Cruz, Juan Soto, and Gunner Henderson. Throw in Mookie Betts as an eighth name,

and isn't that basically a cheat code for the first round in 2025? I don't think there are any other obvious first rounders, especially if Acuna is not ready for opening day, and I will just throw in one other name. I think if Kyle Tucker is healthy, that probably becomes a top nine. But I think I would mostly agree with it. that. I think that top nine looks really, really solid for next year.

Boy. I think Acuna's got to be in there, though. He's making a point to exclude Acuna. And I think you got to include him. He's going to have had a month longer to recover from this torn ACL than the last torn ACL. And obviously he was far and away the best player in fantasy last year. Homer? Well, I mean, I made the mistake. heading into last year of not giving Akunya enough benefit of the doubt and obviously didn't get to enjoy that historic season he had. So I don't want to make that same mistake. I think I'll definitely rank Shohei Otani, Bobby Witt, Aaron Judge ahead of them.

But I don't know that I'd rank anybody else. I might have a Kunia's high as fourth. I would say like, we talked about this yesterday. The only knock on Yordon Alvarez is counting stats. And remember last year, Jose Ramirez had weirdly bad counting stats and is now having the best counting stats season of his career, I'm pretty sure. So I think Yordon Alvarez is there. I think Trey Turner.

Trey Turner is the other one. He's on like he hasn't been able to stay healthy. Well, he had the one hamstring issue. But like his 162 game pace currently is a 305 average, 120 runs, 25 homers, 83 RBI, 25 steals. And that's with, I believe he hasn't really run as much

since coming back from the hamstring injury, right? It's like you could assume that a healthy Trey Turner probably keeps out. He's only four steals in 59 games since coming back. So I think Trey Turner's there, but I think the point is probably that there is a top nine in some order. And then you can probably start to talk yourself into...

It could be a top 10 if you're like Scott and think Okunia should be in there. Yeah, okay, so I'll say top 10. I think the last two spots, I don't think any starting pitchers are going to be there. Do you think Akuna needs to be in there, Chris? Because I feel like you've been more bullish on the nine. I think so. Yeah, I think so. I can see the back end of that.

But I think those other nine I probably all feel better about. And then I think, yeah, you're going to have Trey Turner and like a healthy Fernando Tatez Julio Rodriguez, Fernando Tatis, Corby and Carol are going to be on that discussion. Francisco Lindorre, Raphael Devers. Lindor goes 30-30, 2 years in a row. Like, yeah, he should be in consideration for...

A lot of the underperforming hitters from this past year are going to follow up this group. Vladimir Guerrero's obviously... Vladimir is going to be in those guys we mentioned. Yeah. Corey Seeger might just need to be back there. Yeah. I will say we're only a...

couple weeks away now for me putting together my article predicting the first two rounds for next year and then going through position by position and revealing my initial rankings. So we're not far from doing that for real. And then I'll have clearer answers. This next one is from Brad. What are your thoughts on Tyler Fitzgerald's future in a 12-team, 12-keeper league? Fitzgerald is 26 years old. He's burst onto the scene, 71 games, 296 batting average, 14 homers, 16 steals, 906 OPS, 29% strikeout rate. The underlying plate discipline numbers don't look terrible, but he's struck out a lot in the miners as well.

There's big power and speed here. The million dollar question. What do you guys think about Tyler Fitzgerald's future? I mean, I feel like I've been answering this for a month now, so I'm not inclined to change my answer. I think you can have a hit who makes contact at the unimpressive exit velocity's Fitzgerald does and still be good. I think you can have a hitter who strikes out as often as Fitzgerald does about 30% of the time and still be good.

I struggle to come up with a single player who does both of those things, who is a fantasy standout in spite of both of those things. So you mean the contact issues? The quality of contact and the amount of contact. They're both lacking for Tyler Fitzgerald. And I think it's going to catch up to him eventually. And, you know, I've made the Zach Gelloff comp before. And mainly what I mean by that is Zach Gelloff was doing something similar last year. And by the way, the minor league data backs this up for both of these players.

So it's not just a phenomenon of, oh, they're new to the majors. That's why they're striking out so much. It's a longstanding issue for both. And Gelloff managed to sustain it pretty well to close out the same. season and so I gave him the benefit of the doubt coming into this year and he's been horrible so I don't want to make that mistake again. There is one player and I was thinking of this name when we were talking about Zach Netto because he kind of throws off all of these discussions and I think it's worth being clear. If there is one comp that you can make for a player archetype,

you should probably not make that comp. Right. Like that's just like that's bad news. You should never compare a player to show Hey Otani, right? Like that's just, if there's only one guy who does it, you should never compare a young quarterback to Josh Allen, right? Like, that's just those guys, those things don't happen. Marcus Simeon has never hit the ball hard, has become a very good contact hitter. But early on in his career was like an 81% zone contact rate guy. And he wasn't great.

He wasn't very good in fantasy. He wasn't very good in fantasy until he was like a decent like, you know, he'd hit 25 homers, steal 10 bases, maybe 15 homers one year later. But it took him a while to really put it together and become a star. Well, even in his full seasons, he was striking out more like 22% at the time than the 30% we're seeing from Fitzgerald. So I don't even know that that comp goes very far. Yeah, it was a slightly less strikeout prone era. But yeah, no, that's that's fair. That was the comp that I was thinking of for Zach Nato of a guy who took like just decent tools but found a way to optimize it.

But again, that's like the one guy. And I don't think that's a fair thing to expect. Like Marcus Simeon is a huge developmental outlier. And you probably shouldn't. But like Taffich Jones got really like he's really fast. And he's he doesn't hit the ball super hard, but he is optimizing the contact that he made. And it's just, I would feel better if it was like a 25% strikeout rate. You know, like that's where it becomes a little untenable.

And then the other thing, he's 26 years old. So if he was a 22-year-old, oh, he's fast. Maybe he'll, maybe we'll see him start to hit the ball harder. It's just everything's got to go so right for Fitzgerald in a way that's unprecedented, frankly. Sometimes, sometimes you roll snake eyes, sevens. What do you want in craps? I've never played. whatever I played it once in Vegas, but it was like three in the morning.

And I'll be honest, I'd had a few drinks. So I don't remember. I remember the dealer telling me not to make a bet that I kept making and it kept working out for me. So like, I'm clearly not a craps expert. Whatever you want to roll, like sometimes you roll sevens four times in a row. You shouldn't bet on that. This next question is from Richard. What is the dropometer on top?

I don't think I can afford to have him on my roster for the playoffs. And by the time you're listening to this, Taj Bradley has started on Friday, so we don't know what he did in that start. But his previous five before that one, a 796 ERA and a 162 whip, he's still 85% rostered. Ask me after Friday.

Nope. Drop-bometer, Taj Bradley. Well, I'm going to say six. I'm going to say like three. I'm going to say three. It'd have to be a pretty shallow league. and my need for an immediate lineup filler would have to be pretty high. Because, yeah, you can't trust him in your lineup.

But Chris says wait until after Friday. When it surprised me if Tosh Bradley had two hits in seven innings with 11 strikeouts, and then you're going to feel like even if that doesn't happen Friday, it could happen in his next start. Whenever it does happen for Tage Bradley, you're going to be kicking yourself for dropping it. That's why I said a six, because it's right in the middle of a nine and a three. three. All right.

Yeah. I like I, I mostly agree with you, but it, he's just so bad with contact, with the quality of contact he allows that it seems like he really has to be perfect and has to be an elite strikeout rate guy to survive it. And that's, that's really tough. This next one's from Anthony. Who are some late season pitching risers that you believe the hype and will rank highly for next season?

I mentioned earlier, I think Spencer Schwellenbach, Brian Williams. Spencer Araggetti are all in this mix. Three others that have just steadily moved up throughout the season and find themselves inside the top 25 or top 30 right now. Michael King, Bailey Ober and Hunter Brown. Yeah, I don't even know if Hunter Brown counts as a late season rise or his rise started in like May

and it's just happened for four months. So I, you know. Same with King and Ober. Yeah. They just had miserable starts. Ober it was literally just one start. But otherwise they've been fantastic.

And I don't think I'm going to look at any of these six and be like, no, it's fake. I'm fading him next year. I think they're all, I think they've all won me over. The one exception might be Wu because I'm still not totally convinced of the durability there. But the skill set looks awesome. Yeah, I wish he got more strikeouts. Although he is lately because he's expanding his arsenal and he's going deeper into games. I think the strikeout rate pre-August was 18%, which is really bad, even though the results were really good.

In August, it was 24.5%. So he's throwing fewer fastballs, more of his secondaries. The fastball remains an elite pitch. And the fact that he didn't throw more than I think 82 pitches in the first four months of the season, and he's gone at least 85 in every start in August. I'm starting to buy into Wu a lot more than I did early on in the season. I'll also throw Bryce Miller in there. Okay.

Yeah. I'll throw, this one is fraught, but Blake Snell, what does buy in mean? Draft them as a top 10 pitcher next year? No. No, sir. We will not be drafting Blake Snell as a top 10 pitch. I am sorry. No.

I think he's going to be drafted that way. He definitely would have been this year if not for the contract. You're going to draft Blake Snell and drop him in June. Okay. I'm not saying I'm going to do it, but I think he will be drafted as a top 10 starting pitcher next year. I think that would be a mistake. Let's leave Snell out of it for a second because that's a whole can of worms. But these six here, Michael King, Bailey, Over, Hunter, Brown, Spencer Schwellenbach, Brian Wu, Spencer

Erigetti. I will commit to ranking them all ahead of both Ranger Suarez and Seth Lugo. Yeah, that seems reasonable. All right. Well, Scott, get ready for the Phillies fans to jump in your mentions because you did it to yourself, man. I'm sorry. This one's from Pats for Life on Twitter. Which 2025 rookies will you consider drafting in the top 100 picks?

And I do think this depends whether or not Junior Camerro still has rookie eligibility. Yeah, Junior Camerra. Yeah, I was going to say. Oh, come on. You'll draft Junior Camerrero as a top 100 pick. Yeah, I mean, if he's great to close out the year, if Dylan Cruz is great to close out the year. But I won't draft them as top 50 picks.

Yeah, a couple of their names I had as possibilities, Jason Dominguez, Jackson Job, and Kobe Mayo. I would say probably not on Jason Dominguez. They're just possibly. Let her see how September goes. Verdugo is gone, and Dominguez, I think, is going to be a starter next year. I will say I feel more confident in, Jackson Job's not going to get to top 100.

I feel more confident projecting a young pitcher making that leap than a young hitter. Especially one like Jackson Job. For sure. That's what we've seen in recent years. It's really that the difficulty curve has been related to hitters. I just don't think Jackson Job is going to be there yet. He hasn't looked great since being promoted to AA. Spring training could change a lot.

Jared Jones wasn't really on anyone's radar going into spring training. but my expectation now is no. Another hitter worth mentioning maybe even ahead of Kobe Mayo is Roman Anthony. But just the rule I'm making for myself with rookie hitters is I'm not going to pay the upcharge anymore. So top 100, I think it's going to be too high for me unless somebody's semi-proven already,

like we were saying with Jim Carmonero and Dylan Cruz. If Dylan Cruz spends the month of September with like a 45% pull rate and like it's just hitting tanks to left field the whole month, he's going to rise really quickly. From overreacting sigh on Twitter, what are the early returns of the new bat speed metrics on Stackcast in terms of predictive value

too early to tell? I think that my feel for it is bat speed on its own doesn't tell us a ton. Or at least doesn't tell us a ton. much that how hard you hit the ball already doesn't. Right. It doesn't really add anything for analysis purposes. What I think it does add, and Scott, you've referenced this a few times, is those guys who, like Gavin Lux is a good example of a guy who just started swinging harder.

Victor Robles is another one who started swinging harder. And what we don't have is pre-20203 or 2024 data, but we will next year. So what will be interesting to see is. You know, I don't know. Let's use Gavin Lux as an example. He's gone from like, I think a 70 mile per hour average bat speed to 72 miles per hour in the second half, something like that. If he comes out next spring and is down to 70 miles per hour again, it should be fairly easy to just go, okay, it's not going to happen again. So I think where it might be a leading indicator is guys who are changing something about their skill set or playing through. injury. But it's more, I think it'll be more useful as a comparative tool from one sample size to another rather than just, you know, like they have the bat speed and the bat length metrics. And what we've learned is that the longer your bat, your swing is, the harder you swing. And that's like, okay, that doesn't really like Luis Saras has the slowest swing speed in baseball.

I probably could have guessed that, you know? So I don't know outside of that. It has much value. Just one year in isolation, which is all we have right now for the bat speed data, doesn't tell us much. But in the next several years, as we get years to compare against each other, I think it basically, I've already said this, but it might prove to be more valuable. This one's from Tom. We are looking to replace wins as a category in our league next year, but there is resistance to using quality starts. What other category would you suggest we try? and I've seen some people using innings pitched instead of wins.

Chris, I think you're in a your Tout Wars League is like that, right? Yeah, my Tow Wars League is like that. And it's really interesting the way they set that one up. And I think it's something that you should consider is not just we made the switch from wins to innings, but also saves to holds and saves. And so you have to find a way to balance both of those, which ends up actually being a lot trickier than you would think. because you probably want three guys getting holds and saves your lineup at all times,

but you end up with a scenario like my team where I'm first place in holds and saves. I'm 10th place innings and 14th place in strikeouts. So I clearly didn't strike that balance well enough. So I think, look, ultimately, like, I know there are some people who just think wins are bad. and you should take wins out of your league out of the, out of principle alone, because it's a bad stat. I am not one of those people.

I think you should do whatever your league thinks is the most fun. If your league thinks wins are the most fun, do that. If you think your league thinks quality starts, are the most fun to do that. If they think innings pitched, whatever. I don't think there's like a perfect approach that is going to solve fantasy baseball

and like get rid of the uncertainty and the unpredictability of wins. That doesn't exist. So just do whatever you think makes for the most fun for your league specifically. If you are going to replace wins with something, and I agree quality starts isn't really an improvement. I think it would need to be something

that clearly benefits starting pitchers over relief pitchers, which is what innings does. And it does in a way that a pitcher has direct control. I shouldn't say that because managerial decision making goes into it, but more so than a win for sure. This last one from The Kick is Good on Twitter. What player did not play in the majors in 2024, whether injured prospect or international player,

who will have the biggest impact in 2025. So some injured names, Sandy Alcuncara, Shane McClain, Shane O'Mack, wow, I don't have the sound bite ready to go. Felix Bautista, Brandon Woodruff, some prospects. and some names with Jackson Joe, Marcelo Mayer, I think Roman Anthony, technically Dominguez hasn't played yet in 2024. An international player, we spoke about him recently.

Roki Sasaki, I don't know that it's going to happen, but if it did, I think there would be lots of fanfare for him. If Sasaki comes over, Sasaki. I think if Sasaki comes over, he'll be drafted wherever Yoshi Yamamoto was. He was a top 12, top 15 starting pitcher. I think Sasaki less proven, has thrown less innings, but the talent level, I think, is comparable.

So maybe he's a little lower. You know, I don't think he's going to get to 100 innings this season, but Sasaki will be a top 60 pick if he comes over this year. Outside of that, it's probably Shane McClanahan. Wait, who? Here comes the money. Hey. And he should be ready for opening day, right?

He was like a, all. August. Here's a wild card for Shane O'Mack. Second Tommy John. Yeah, that's a good point. Oh, I didn't, I didn't know that. I should have known that. Yeah, that's still inclined to think he's going to be a top 36 pitcher in the draft, but Walker Bueller is a good example of why he shouldn't be. Honestly, the highest drafted of the players who didn't play at all, so that excludes like Spencer Strider and Ronald O'Cunia, obviously. It might be Felix Batista. In those deeper roto leagues where closers tend to get elevated, he might be the first one drafted because I think all things being equal,

closers aren't as impactful as starting pitchers, but I think I have more confidence in what Felix Batista is going to do next year than I do McClan or Sandy Alcantra. All right, we are going to wrap there. Scott and Chris, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Happy Labor Day weekend to everybody out there. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow with a long weekend recap. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.