Fantasy Baseball Today - Fantasy New Year's Resolutions! FAAB, Rookies, James Wood & More! (1/2 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

To display your continued support of the show, please vote Fantasy Baseball Today in the Sports Podcast Awards in the "Best Baseball Podcast" Category https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/best-baseball-podcast/ Happy New Year (2:35)! ... Before we get into our resolutions, Gleyber Torres signed a one-year deal with the Tigers (4:54)! ... Josh Bell is headed back to the Nationals (9:12). ... It's time for Fantasy Baseball New Year's resolutions (18:55)! First up, stick to your guns. ... How can we do better job with in-season FAAB (23:00)? ... We should all cool it on the rookies (25:49). ... Should more people use draft software (32:05)? ... The Orioles need to do something (35:51)! ... We need Dylan Crews and James Wood to pull the ball more (42:21). ... Keep running, Oneil Cruz (49:54). ... The same goes for Masyn Winn (52:05). ... Reese Olson needs to find a way to get two strikes (54:16). ... Can the baseball gods keep Mike Trout and Jacob deGrom healthy (56:35)? ... We wrap up with the rest of our New Year's resolutions (59:45). 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. Happy New Year. Welcome into fantasy baseball today on January 2nd, 2025.

That's going to take some getting used to. I am Frank Sample joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, we have some more moves that took place over the past week or so. Nothing too crazy. We got Glaber Torres to the Tigers. Josh Bell is headed back to the Nationals. We had an emergency podcast come out for Corbyn Burns and Teoska Hernandez, so be sure to check that out. And we have Fantasy New Year's resolutions.

These will be a mix of resolutions for us as fantasy managers. You as Fantasy managers, teams, specific players should be fun. Chris, hello there. Are you a big New Year's resolution kind of guy? No, not really. I think it's useful to have goals and things you want to do in the upcoming year. But like, what's the term for like the second Friday of the year when gyms get a lot less crowded? There's like a specific term that they call it.

And like that's what I, you know, I want to avoid. that right like if you make a whole big stink about like on this one day my life is going to change it's like your life probably not going to change you're probably going to just fall back on bad habits so like i don't want to do that but yeah it's good to have to have some go i'm trying to read more in 2025 i bought an ipad and have refused to log into any social media on it so it's just for good screen time so i'm trying to have some better habits but no i i don't i don't i don't i don't don't like to tell myself that just because the calendar changed, I'm going to become a better person. That's not going to happen.

I hear you there. You know, every year in January, I do like no carbs, no alcohol for January, just as a reset. You know, the holiday months, November, December, November is like my birthday, my brother's birthday, Thanksgiving. Then you have Christmas. You have New Year's. You have all this stuff going on. So I like to use it as a little reset.

And that's good. Yeah. Like, especially for us with this job, like, it gets harder to like eat well and be healthy when the crazy parts of the year come, which is like starting in February when we're going to be going five times a week. So like it's, it's probably good to get a base level of healthy moderation in there before you ruin it all. Yeah. I would like for that to carry over further into the year. That's always the plan. But as soon as I get to February 1st, I'm like, give me a huge plate of pasta and a big.

year on the side, and I'm going to love this. So if I do sound a little more grouchy in the month of January, that is the reason. All right, let's get into some latest news and notes before we get to the fantasy New Year's resolutions. Again, there is an emergency pot out for Burns and Teascar Hernandez, so

make sure to check that out. We are also recording this a few days in advance, so hopefully nothing big has happened in the recent days. The Tigers have signed Glaber Torres to a one-year $15 million deal. Does not feel like a great fit at all, Chris. And I don't want to be a Debbie Downer. I hope Glaver Torres

takes off and bounces back to the player he was a couple of years ago. But as a result of this signing, the Tigers are moving Colt Keith to first base. And it doesn't seem like they have a clear fit for Spencer Torkelson in their lineup as of now. And we know Camerica Park is just a really, really tough place to hit, especially for power. So it just doesn't feel like a great fit overall for Glaver Torres. What are your thoughts here? Yeah, it's not ideal. It's obviously, I think, a lineup downgrade. Like I understand the Tigers decision making process here and going to get him. The problem is the Tigers infield was bad last year, like all around pretty much. I don't think

they were even league average at any spot on the infield. The worst spot in this infield was shortstop by far. They had the worst shortstop situation in baseball. They had a 55 rated runs created plus from their shortstops. And Glaver Torres isn't going to play shortstop. I hope so. at least. And so it still leaves the biggest toll on this team. And, you know, the Colt Keith moving to first base of it is weird because while Torkelson was the bigger disappointment, there wasn't that like Colt Keith wasn't that much better than Spencer Torkelson last year. So I don't know if this really fixes much for them. I think, you know, obviously I do think Labor is an upgrade over whatever the infield configuration would have been.

But there's still a lot of question marks along this infield. So I'm not, I understand why they did it. I think it makes sense. It's just there are still plenty of questions to be answered with this Tigers infield. And I would guess it's a Torkelson Keith platoon. And maybe some insurance, you know, Jace Young didn't exactly kill.

it in his brief stint. So, you know, they've got some permutations of the infield that they can work around. But I certainly don't love it for Glaver Torres or the, the Tigers, necessarily. We have heard in recent days that the tigers are interested in signing Alex Breggman. And I think that makes some sense. Like, you know, it makes a lot of sense. It's just also not a great fit for Alex Breggman. Not a great fit for fantasy. It's a good move for them. Overall, you improve your defense. You get some veteran leadership in there. He has ties to AJ Hinch, obviously, from their days back in Houston. So we'll see if that happens. But just getting back to Glaibra Torres, you know, it was a downseason for him. He hit 15 home runs. He had a 709 OPS. He hit 17 total home runs,

if you include the postseason last year. And that would have been nine if he played all of his games in Camerica Park. So just to kind of give you an idea of how his swing just really does not play well in Detroit. You know, I would personally expect, you know, 250 to 260, 12 to 15 home runs. Maybe he can get you 10 steel, something like that. It's a boring middle infielder and a deeper league, something like that.

The NFBC ADP in December is 209.8 as the 15th second basement off the board. Chris, would you rather have Glaver Torres or Bryson Stott? I guess Stott. I'm not even sure what my rankings say about that one, but I also haven't updated them since the Glaber news. I have Glaber ahead of Stott, but I actually know, I have Stott ahead. Okay, so that that's fine.

What about Glaber versus Andres Jimenez? I think I'd rather have Jimenez. Yeah, I think so too. Glaber versus Michael Garcia. I would rather have Glaber. I don't really, Michael Garcia, the steals were good and he scored a decent amount of runs last year. I don't think he's going to hit lead off again.

and he was pretty terrible last year. So I'm going to go with Glaber there. And lastly, Glaber or Jackson Holiday? A holiday. I will take the flyer on the upside, assuming we get to spring training and he's locked into an everyday role like we expect. Let's talk about Josh Bell,

who is returning to the Nationals on a one year $6 million deal. And if you remember, he played there all of 2021 and most of 2022, 247 games, with the Nats. Josh Bell slash 278, 363, 483 with 41 home runs and 145 RBI. That is a 162 game pace of 26 homers and 95 RBI.

He's coming off two seasons where he was not nearly as good as those numbers. And I don't think he gets all the way back there. But, you know, his career in Nationals Park, he's been really good there. It's an 899 OPS. So maybe he just sees the ball better there. It is a pretty good park to hit in. it's an improving lineup. I'm not going to say it's a great or even good lineup,

but it is improving another kind of Borner Corner infield type of guy, Chris, but what do you think about Josh Bell back to the Nets? Yeah, and we're assuming he's just going to play DH full-time and Nathaniel Lowe is going to be the first baseman. I think those are nice upgrades for a lineup that didn't get a lot from the first base or D-8 spots last year. So that works out. I think it matters more for lengthening and deep.

deepening the nationals lineup, which suddenly looks okay, not great, but okay. Don't tweet it or put it on blue sky, Chris, because I did that. And people, they did not agree with my take that this is an okay lineup. I mean, look, you need James Wood and Dylan Cruz to be what we hope they are. We need, you know, hopefully better overall production from C.J. Abrams, you know, a repeat from Luis Garcia, maybe a bounce back from Cabert Ruiz. but you can squint and see average out of this lineup, I think. I don't think that's too optimistic there.

And so look, Bell and Lowe are both corner infield types. You know, I don't think either of them needs to be, you're probably putting yourself at a disadvantage if they're your first basement. But as a corner infielder, especially in a 15 team league, I think both of them are reasonable late round targets. Yeah, I would expect. something like a 250 batting average, low 20s and home runs, 75 plus RBI. Again, it's not a great player.

But you know, you get into leagues where you need a corner infield spot, having guys that are just kind of boring and keep things moving and don't kill you anywhere, you're going to need a few of them at least. And the thing about Bell is there will definitely be a stretch this season where he is a must start player. Because this is what always, it's actually kind of wild. He has played for two different teams and three. three straight seasons now. And it's actually kind of bonkers how like in 2022, he was really good with Washington.

He had a 377 Wobah, like 87 OPS. He was horrible with the Padres after getting traded there. 2023, terrible start to the season. He was useless with Cleveland. 11 homers in 97 games, 383 slugging percentage, hit 233. got trade of the Marlins really good. 11 homers in his final 53 games. Last year, kind of the opposite.

Terrible with Miami, like a 699 OPS, pretty solid with Arizona. 797 OPS if I'm doing the math in my head correctly. Like there will be stretches where Josh Bell is very useful for fantasy. There will be stretches where he's pretty bad. He's always been a streaky hitter. And there's a lot of moving parts in his swing. there's a, you know, the fact that he's a switch hitter probably doesn't help either. But there will definitely be stretches where you're happy to have him in your lineup.

And let's hope they happen early in the season. Yeah, he's not a name for shallower formats, 12 team points leagues, anything like that. In Roto, he's probably a guy you stream whenever he's hot, something like that. Barely a top 24 first basement for me. In a 15 teamer, though, he might check in as a, you know, starting corner, util guy, something like that. The NFBC draft champions ADP in December for Josh Bell is. 370, the 303rd first baseman off the board. I think he'll move up closer to 300, around Jamer Candelario, Tyler Soderstrom, other names like that. We also saw a swap of

former top-ish prospects on Sunday with Matt Mervis getting traded to the Marlins for Vidal Bruhan. Both have been pretty awful so far in their Major League careers, very small sample size, but also just 26 years old. Chris, it's easier to see Matt Mervis earning some playing time with the Marlins, but for both of these guys, it's NL only. Maybe at some point, if Mervis figures things out, he's like a deep league stream or something like that, but kind of seems like NL only names for now. Yeah, it depends for the Marlins,

because they do have a lot of same-ish, like, they kind of have a type here, at least in the corner bats that they've been targeting. You compare them to like Kyle Stowers and Griffin Conine, and even Connor Norby and Davis and Delos Santos are a little more legitimate prospects, but they really seem to be targeting guys who are probably quad A players, like guys who are probably not major leaguers, but have major league skills.

Like Matt Mervis could have major league power. It's just a question of whether he'll make enough contact to get to it. Hasn't so far in the majors and limited opportunities took a real big step back at AAA last. season only hit 235 with 15 homers in 81 games 30% strikeout rate so I don't expect it but you could see a Jake Berger outcome here right like it's not the likeliest scenario certainly but I think the Marlins are kind of hoping they get a couple of Jake Berger players out of that group and maybe Matt Mervis will be that he doesn't need to be drafted outside of even in even NL only leagues. Like, it's not clear

he's going to play. So, it's probably a reserve round picking. Yeah, he's a reserve round picking an NL only, but like, I could see a 20 homer season there, yeah. And for Vidal Bruhan, this kind of just feels like insurance in case Niko Horner is not recovered from his forearm surgery by opening day,

but obviously we'll learn more about that as we get closer to spring training. A couple of announcements before we hit our first break, a reminder that FBT is a finalist for Best Baseball podcast in the Sports Podcast Awards and the winner will be determined by a fan vote. So we need your help.

Scan the QR code if you're watching on YouTube or click on the link in the episode description. Once you get to that page, you see the FBT logo, you click this little thumbs up button, you punch in your info and it's easy as that. So please help us bring home the hardware. We would really appreciate it. And just some programming notes and updates starting next week. FBT is back to three times per week and we will be live on YouTube once again.

So for most of the offseason, we've just been uploading our content to YouTube. For emergency stuff, we've been live. But we're still ironing out all the details. Let's say right now, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday nights, 10.30 p.m. Eastern time. We're live on YouTube. That means you'll have an audio podcast in your feed, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings starting next week. Also, our five-minute podcast, Fantasy Baseball Today and Five is being rebranded as Fantasy Baseball Today Express. So there'll be a little bit longer episodes than you.

usual in that eight to 10 minute range. So make sure to subscribe to FBT and five if you're listening to this, you know, this week. Or once we switch over to FBT Express, you can subscribe to that as well. Let's take our first break when we return, Fantasy New Year's Resolutions. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy New Year's Resolutions. Here we are, 2025. And again, these will be a mix of things that we can do better as fantasy managers that we think other people can maybe do better as fantasy managers, but we'll also mix in some specific players, maybe some teams,

things that we want them to do differently. So Chris, why don't you kick us off? A fantasy baseball New Year's Resolution. Yeah, the biggest one, I think we talked about this in like the first podcast we did after the season. I think we kind of did like a,

what did we learn? And for me, it was stick to my guns. And specifically, I'm thinking of, I actually had a pretty good year with my bus pitch. six last year. Sleepers and breakouts, we won't talk about those. Those didn't go nearly as good,

but like the players I was avoiding, I did a pretty good job. Like I looked at my, my bus list and I had like Anthony Volpe and Hassan Kim and Cody Ballinger and Lane Thomas, all guys I avoided and I feel pretty good about avoiding those guys. What I'm talking about here is the guys that I had as bus and then didn't avoid, specifically like Nolan Jones and Josh Lowe, who I didn't really want. then as drafts happened, I just like kept talking myself into like, oh, Nolan Jones dropped to like 90. I can take him there and it'll be fine. Like that there's no downside. And it's like, well, clearly there was some downside there.

And so look, it's not to say that you should never draft a player that you have as a bust. Like there are, you should never be completely out on a player unless you just don't like them for some reason, in which case it's your team, do whatever you want. But like value matters. And so if a player falls far enough, I will draft any player if they fall far enough. But I needed to be more, because like, especially with Jones and Lowe, I ended up looking at all my teams. I was like, why do I have these guys on every team? And it was like, well, the value was right. And I was like, well, no, it wasn't.

Like, you still, you still need to to stick with what you, with the process that you have. And if that means occasionally drafting a guy that you don't like because the process is right and the, the build that you're putting together is right that's fine but like with low i started drafting him because late in spring his uh he had the hamstring or hip injury whatever it was and his price fell and i was like well i can justify it but then now i'm looking back and it's like yeah but the reasons you weren't drafting him weren't just price it was because i thought he wasn't necessarily going to be an everyday player and i didn't buy the power that he showed in 2023 and even when he was healthy. Those were problems for Josh Lowe. Like he started running a lot in the second

half and kind of became a useful speed only guy, but that was really all he did last year. And even when he was playing, it was like, that wasn't worth a top 100 pick or a top 120 pick whatever ended up being. So that's one of my resolutions. Just if I'm sure about something, I want to stick with it. And it's interesting because I have, kind of the opposite effect. Like once I write up bust or guys that I know that I'm avoiding, I'm not going to say I'm pretty much out, but they would have to be,

they would have to fall even farther than where those players fell for you, Chris, for me to get back in on players that I'm actively avoiding. For me, I need to do a better job of getting my sleepers and breakouts. Now the problem is a lot of these guys that I write up, like the fantasy industry is smart. Everyone likes the same players.

They know what to look for in a sleeper or a breakout or someone we expect to take. that next step. And I did well with, you know, one name in particular, Shoto I Imanaga. I was all over him last year and I drafted him everywhere. I had a bunch of shares. But here were some names I wrote up as sleepers and breakouts that I had on one team or less. And I think I had 15 fantasy teams, something crazy last year. Jaron Duran, Michael King, Teaska Hernandez, Tyler O'Neill. These are all guys I wrote up back in January of last year. And I wound up with either one or none. I had no Jaron

to ran, no Tyler O'Neill. And I really like these guys. And I just, I don't know how it happened that way. But, and I say the same thing every year. It's like, if you have conviction on a player in the middle to late rounds, it's a little bit harder in the early rounds because it's just dependent on where you're drafting. But middle to late rounds, just go out and get your guys if you have conviction on those players.

Next up, my first New Year's resolution, I guess, is doing a better job with in-season Fab. And it's mostly just the time that I dedicate to doing Fab. Now, I don't want to make excuses. No, you have a legitimate excuse. I love... Putting together the podcast for Sunday is a massive, massive chore. I love what we do, Chris.

And I don't want this to come off as complaining. Like, we are the luckiest people in the world to have this job. Sundays are tough, man. Sundays are tough. We're looking through three days worth of box scores and stack cast data and news and quotes. And there's just so much going on. But I think what I could do a better job is. job of is throughout the week, just adding a player here or there to my, my fab claims, right?

Just so I don't forget about them later on in the week or dedicating an hour on a Friday morning or an hour on a Saturday afternoon, something like that. Just so I don't have to do everything on Sunday, right? So just better time management in terms of fab. That's something I want to be better at this. I literally have to put, and like most of the people listening are not playing. You were in 15. I think I was in 11 last year.

To be fair, I think maybe only like six or seven of those were fab leagues, but it's still a lot. I think all of mine were. But what I have to do on Sundays, I block out on my work schedule four hours. That's just waivers and I put a link to every league in there so I don't forget. Because we're also, I don't know about you, I'm playing on four different platforms, I think, every year. So it's just, yeah, it's hard to keep track of all that stuff. And look, even if you're only playing in a couple of leagues, it can be tough if it's not. like top of mind. So that this is always difficult for for these people who are playing,

you know, 20 high stakes leagues. It's literally a full time job for them. So it's, it's really hard. Yeah. And I give all the credit in the world to people who are amazing at Fab and, you know, look, people who play high stakes leagues. These are some of the best and smartest minds out there. So I get people credit. It's just like in the second half of last season, I was looking at all my teams and I realized, you know, some players that turned into league winners, Spencer Schwellenbach, Xavier Edwards, those two really come to mind. I just didn't really have them anywhere. I think maybe I had one share or maybe two of Spencer Schwellenbach. I had zero Xavier Edwards. And if you played in a Roto Categories League, he was absolutely a league winner down the stretch. So especially that

second half of the season, I mean, after the trade deadline, there's so much that can happen where closures become available or even speculating on closures before we get to the trade deadline. And really doing your diligence and putting the time into Fab. It's something I want to be better at next season. Chris, over to you, another New Year's resolution. Yeah, this one's for everyone. Let's cool it on the rookies. You know, like, and we're doing a good job of that right now in December

when, you know, Dylan Cruz isn't like hitting 500 in this first seven spring training games or whatever. But like, what happened last year, especially, I think we got. way out over our skis because I was looking at the overall ADP was fine like Evan Carter White Langford and Jackson Churio were all in like the 120 to 130 range in the overall ADP. But if you look at some of the late drafts, I looked at the last Vermont draft we did of last spring. White Lankford went 77th, Jackson Churio went 79th.

Evan Carter was 93rd. Now, those weren't even outliers. I saw Wyatt Lankford in like the 50s. at times. And it worked out for Jackson Churio, if you were patient, because remember, as good as he was, he had a 581 OPS at the end of May. There's a decent chance that the people who drafted Jackson Churio last year didn't actually benefit from drafting arguably the best rookie. And Wyatt Langford, it took him even longer. He had a great September, but was pretty useless before that. And Evan Carter got hurt and never really had the chance to build up his value.

but these are, for the most part, players who have not proven themselves at the major league level. Evan Carter was a little bit of an outlier because he had. He had that really good September and then the really good postseason run where he felt a little safer. And I think the injury explains a lot more of why he struggled. But we are passing on proven impact players at the major league level to draft rookies that we're hoping can be proven impact players. And that's where it gets really dicey. And right now, look, in December 80p, Roki Sasaki is the only one inside of the top 140.

Dylan Cruz ADP right now, 140.4. Jason Naminguez, 150.7. Perfectly fine with those. Those are shockingly reasonable. Again, we'll see what happens when the spring games happen. And, you know, Dylan Cruz hits one, 410 foot home run, and all of a sudden, he's a seventh round pick. But right now, they're fine.

But I think, like, the ones that work out, Jackson Merrill, you know, was never really a top 200 pick last year. Like, I'd rather take that chance. And so, you know, looking ahead to 2025, you've got Christian Campbell and Roman Anthony are outside of the top 300. Jackson Job, surprisingly, only 340 in ADP. So those are the ones that, at least for now, you know, Roman Anthony could obviously have a great spring and earn a job and end up as a top 100 pick. I could see that happening very easily. but right now those look like the guys to target.

And Scott has talked a lot about this the past couple of years where top prospects for whatever reason, and obviously we had huge breakouts, Julio Rodriguez and Spencer Shrider, Michael Harris, guys like that. But there were lots of names that struggled mightily at first. Even those, like, Gunner Henderson is for first two or three months. He was terrible. And then he kind of broke out those final three months of the season.

There seems to be a longer, time period for prospects to get acclimated to the league. And maybe they need to struggle at first. Maybe they're being pushed a little bit too soon, but they struggle, and we've kind of seen this Jackson Trio last season. Merrill, the first couple of months, was not great.

So we had to wait for him. I think it's taking a little bit more time. So you could be patient, but again, I think do it more so with those late round guys rather than using a top 100 or top 50 pick, something like that. And my personal theory is just, you know, we didn't talk about it a ton at the time,

but they contracted the minor leagues a couple of years ago. And there are just fewer minor league teams. And I think what that end, there are a lot fewer players in the minors. And I think what that's done is you don't have as many of those like 27-year-olds who throw 92, but like have command and have a breaking ball that they can throw somewhere near the strike zone. And you think like,

well, that guy's never going to make the majors. What does it matter? And it's like, but if the first time you face a pitcher who can throw a breaking ball for a strike is in the majors, that's going to be difficult to adjust to. And obviously that's an exaggeration. But like, I think the the talent level is probably not that much lower in the minors. But like, the skill level is probably lower in the minors than it has been in recent years because you have less fewer players who maybe aren't majorly, but are more developed, know how to play the game. That's my personal theory of what's, I think, led to a larger talent gap between the majors and minors. And another thing that, you know, we've kind of mentioned in passing the past couple of years, maybe we should focus on it a little bit more, is they're using the minor leagues as kind of a training ground.

Yeah, to work out all these new rules and things and, you know, the ABS system and all. Last year they had, I think, Monday through Thursday, it's crazy, regular umpires. Yeah. Friday through Sunday, they had an ABS challenge system. They were literally using a different strike zone half the time last year. A couple of years ago, they were using what pre-tapped baseballs or something. And we saw strikeout numbers crazy. Yeah, in the first half in, I think it was the Southern League or the one of the double A leagues they were using. Because I think that was Andrew Abbott had just like bonkers strikeout numbers.

And it was like, yeah, but they're they're using the pre-tac ball. Like that these things matter. The wider bases that we used the last couple of years, those were in play in the minors. So, like, they were literally playing a different version of baseball in the minors than they had been at the major league level. So, like, that stuff, it's impossible to quantify. But I think the strike zone one especially is going to led to a lot of people having a much tougher time getting acclimated. All right.

Next New Year's resolution for me is an interesting one. And I don't know that we've ever talked about this, but getting better at using a draft software or just using a draft software at all. Because I know a lot, probably the majority of high stakes players, are using a draft software while drafting. And I've used some in the past.

I've experimented. The past couple of seasons, I really have not. I've just relied mostly on projections and my rankings and tracking stats throughout the, the draft, but not nearly to level that a draft software or something smarter than me would be able to do. So I do want to get back into it. And, you know, I'd like to do a better job tracking my stats and projected standings throughout the draft, Chris, because doing a live draft, I feel like this is maybe where I've gone wrong in Rodo League's the past year is throughout

the draft, doing your best to build a balanced roster. And there will be things that pop up throughout the course of the season, but really, I mean, building that foundation of balance between not just, okay, offensive stats, but hitting versus pitching and all that. And so a draft software could just do it for you. And I know that there are a lot of really great products out there. And for anybody listening,

if you have any recommendations or if you want to just show me a tutorial, feel free to reach out. Frank.stample at paramount.com. I'd love to connect and learn more about it. But this is something I've been thinking about for a while, Chris, because I kind of feel like maybe I'm falling behind other drafters because I know a lot of smart people who use products like this. Yeah, no, I think that's just kind of falls under the umbrella of just get better as a fantasy player.

And like it's, I think there are limitations to like specifically drafting with an idea of like, these are the targets I need because those targets are going to shift every year. And projections are not going to be exactly what final numbers are. And like just drafting the high. projected player throughout your draft is a really good way to finish in seventh place. You know, like you do need outliers to hit. You need risks to hit. You need to avoid kind of boring players at times.

But yeah, no, I think that that makes a ton of sense. Yeah. All right. Let's take our final break. When we return, we'll start it to get into some team specific player-specific New Year's resolutions. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in. Chris, no surprise.

One of your first New Year's resolutions is, for the Baltimore's. Just do something. And I don't mean like signed Tyler O'Neill when you probably already had too many corner players on your roster. Like it's time. Like this, I mean,

and look, I'm repeating myself from the Corbyn's discussion. So I don't need to like go too far into depth. But like, there's no like, it's time to consolidate. We talk about this from a fantasy perspective a lot where like, especially it's more relevant in football,

but also in head to head points leagues. Like one of the worst things you can do in when it comes to like your playoff matchup time is like having too much depth and not a good enough starting lineup. And I feel like that's kind of where the Orioles are right now. We're like starting lineups actually really good. But we're, you know, the pitching staff mostly is the problem where it's like, yeah, they've got enough guys. Like they've got major leaguers. They don't have any impact pitchers right now on their roster. And it's time to start turning, you know,

maybe it's Kobe Mayo turning him into, but like, there's too many guys wallowing in not everyday roles or down in AAA. It's time to turn them into people who can help you win games and win a World Series right now. Because as I mentioned in the Corby and Burns thing, Adley Ruchman is no longer making the minimum. You had for three years, one of the biggest edges any team in baseball had with Adley Ruchman making the minimum. And now that's gone and you didn't win a playoff game.

it is time to like get serious about winning a world series and it just doesn't feel over the last year since the Corbyn's trade and even that wasn't enough. It doesn't feel like the Orioles are serious enough about maximizing this window right now. You've got a world series caliber core, but you don't have the the pieces around them to get there. And I don't know, man. I'm worried that this Orioles team that seemed like it was going to be the, the class of baseball. I don't know. They might be the third best team in their division right now.

Like if Boston especially adds another starting pitcher, like if Boston ends up with Roki Sasaki or, you know, you know, if they added Jack Flaherty, I think you could make the case that Baltimore's the third best team in their own division. This should be the time you're running baseball. So I'm very frustrated. This is less fantasy relevant, but just as a baseball fan, man, let's go for it.

Yeah, but I do think there is a fantasy aspect to all of this too, and you brought it up. It's that consolidation where we could have maybe more fantasy assets for our disposal if they would consolidate or if they would trade them away to other teams where they could play. You know, the updated Orioles lineup, according to roster resource right now, Gunner Henderson, Adley-Rutchman, Ryan O'Hurne, and maybe Ryan O'Hourn falls off in that creepy. a spot, but Tyler O'Neill, Colton Couser, Ryan Mountcastle, Cedrude, Jordan Westberg, Jackson Holiday. Heston Kirstad, nowhere to be found.

Kobe Mayo, nowhere to be found. And they have Samuel Bessio on the way, too. He's more of like a later in the season, 2026 guy, but we could be having the same conversation next offseason trying to figure out where is Samuel Bessio going to be playing for the Orioles. And in contrast, their starting rotation is Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez, Dean Kramer, Tomoyuki, Sugano,

and Trevor Rogers. So I think we are in agreement there. I actually had a different Orioles-related New Year's resolution, and it's that Jackson Holiday drastically improves his plate discipline and takes a huge step in 2025. Easier said than done, obviously, for, I think a lot of the reasons we mentioned. I think maybe he was rushed a little bit to the majors. There was so much excitement.

It was so tough because, like, he wasn't rushed, right? Like, he crushed at every level, but he was so young. You want, you know, but he was 20. Yeah. So maybe he was, you know, he shouldn't have been there yet. And we've seen countless examples of top prospects getting called up, taking a little bit of time to figure things out, and then being amazing. You know, Mike Trout, Byron Buckson come to mind. I'm not saying Jackson Holiday is going to become those guys.

But if there was a player with his prospect pedigree, you know, that could pull it off. I think it is someone like Jackson Holiday. The plate discipline was awful last season. 33% strikeout rate, zone contact, and swinging strike rate. were both worst in league average. Yeah, the zone contact rate especially. Like that was supposed to be, like contact was supposed to be the carrying skill for Jackson Holiday.

It was supposed to be like near the top of the rating scale. And it just wasn't. But he's still just 21 years old. And I trust the pedigree. I trust the bloodline, you know, just having somebody like Matt Holiday as your father that you could just go to and ask questions and figure things out.

Like we've heard about other. major leaguers going to train with Matt Holiday. Matt Holiday is a well-regarded hitting coach. This is not just like, oh, my dad played baseball. This is like, I have family dinners with a guy who is one of the more well-regarded independent hitting coaches out there. And I think, isn't the other holiday kid, like one of the top prospects in the upcoming draft? Yeah, I think he's in play for the number one overall pick, something like that. And I know we just kind of ragged all over the Orioles. They have done a great. job developing hitters. Gunner Henderson.

Absolutely. Jordan Westberg. Colton Couser just finished top three in American League rookie of the year voting. So, Cedred Mullins, like not even the top prospects, but just like finishing these guys off, they've done a good job. My cat is being annoying. And this just feels like the perfect player to buy in on. The top prospect that failed. Now he's going outside the top 280P. Not that he's an afterthought because if you play in a deeper league, those draft picks still matter. Like that's a starting. 21 is not a bench pick. That's a starting middle infielder. You need him to produce.

But betting on him at that point where even if he's not great, if he's like a 15-15 bat, that's worth it. But who's to say he doesn't take that next step and he's a 2020 guy with like a 270 batting average? I'm not expecting that, but it's within the range of outcomes for somebody like Jackson Holiday. So I do have faith in him getting on track in 2025. Chris, back over to you.

A couple players here that you have resolutions for. Yeah, I'm going to make fun of, the way I say or don't say the word pull people always point out that it sounds like a swimming pool instead of the pool I don't I don't hear it

every time you say dead pole hitter Chris I just think of dead pool the hero they are the same word to me I don't understand what like what is wrong with my brain and my mouth muscles that they don't like pull and pull They like they sound the same to me.

We're going to, we're going to lean into it. Dylan Cruz and James Wood. It's time to jump in the pole, P-U-L-L. Let's start elevating the ball in James Wood's case in particular. But let's start hitting it to the pole side. This is something the nationals have had a lot of success with. Lane Thomas, the only time he's hit for power in his career, has really been when he was with Washington.

And, you know, that is, I think, something that they have done a good job of as a team of prioritizing with their hitters. And, you know, like Dylan Cruz, the more I look into him, especially, the more I think he is one of the best values in fantasy this season. He's going 90 picks later than James Wood. And I get it, James Wood was better than him last year. But these are very similar prospects in terms of pedigree. I think in terms of tools, there's not that much of a difference between them. Wood probably a little more present power,

but Cruz has certainly shown big game power more in college than in the majors, but that's more about him consistently hitting the ball to the right parts of the field. And I think the underlying plate discipline stuff is awesome for Dylan Cruz. He swings at the right pitches. He's just got to do a better job of maximizing what he does. And then James Wood, I mean, the reason James Wood is going 90 picks ahead of Dylan Cruz is as unoptimized as he was last season. And if I'm remembering correctly,

I think he only hit like five balls in the air to the pool side last year. I don't think he did it until September. Yeah, no, it was late in the season too. And so the fact that he was able to produce that way without being optimized at all, I think bodes well. Like there's a solid high floor here. But this is another one.

The play discipline is much worse with James Wood than it is with Dylan Cruz, especially when you look under the hood at the swing decisions and the whiff rates and stuff. But both these guys have at least above average and probably much higher than above average power. And if they can both put it into play, I think there's huge five category potential for both of them. And frankly, a chance for Washington to emerge as a playoff team next year if these guys really take a step forward. I actually had two nationals-related New Year's resolutions here. One was for James Wood, even more than pulling the ball, hit less ground balls. A lot less ground balls, if it's possible, because he had a near 56% ground ball rate in 79 games with the nationals.

That was 52.4% at AAA. So regardless of level, he was clearly up over 50%. If you look at his previous years, it was 40% the year before in AA, 4,5%. percent at high A. He typically lived in that low to mid-40 percent ground ball range in the minors prior to last season. And we saw a similar adjustment. They're not the same player, but we had concerns about Ellie Dela-Cruz and his ground ball rate. From year one to year two, he went from 54% to 46%. So it's possible for a young player to do that. And obviously, we didn't see his ultimate power upside. But, you know, Ellie got to 25 home runs. I think if James Wood drops

his ground ball rate to the mid 40%. I think he could hit 30 home runs as soon as next season. And to, you know, like pull our eyes out of the spreadsheet and use the eye test like so many people want us to do. You know, I think one of the one of the visual comps that a lot of people have made to James Wood is to Josh Bell. And that is one that I, there's a similar looseness to their swings. I don't know if that's the right word, but it fits for the way I picture them that, like, there's an inconsistency in their swings maybe that Josh Bell has sort of tightened up

as he's gone on in his career, but that was a problem for him early on, not elevating the ball to take advantage of his power consistently enough. There's a lot of inconsistency with, like, the launch angle for both of them. James Woods launch angle, sweet spot was 31%, you know, which is, basically how often he hits it in the right angles. And that's been an issue for Josh Bell as well. And so that, that, you know,

I do wonder if there might just be some inconsistency for Josh James Wood throughout his career. But obviously he's so young that any amount of improvement there could take a big step forward. And I wonder if there's something to do with the size of just these human beings, right? Like James Wood is a massive dude, 6'5, 6'7, Josh Bell. 6'4. Ellie Dealer Cruz, we know, is a huge dude as well.

So I wonder if it's just how big they are. Maybe it's the way that they're pitch that contributes to those higher ground ball rates than we would like. One more for the nationals. Give Luis Garcia Jr. Every day at bats, a chance to play against left-handed pitching. And on Luis Garcia's end, just be adequate against left-handed pitching.

In his career, he's hit 250 with a 625 OPS, 68 WRC Plus. He was a little bit better last year. season. 259, 641 OPS, 78 WRC plus. He's still young enough where he could take a little bit more of a step forward against left-handed pitching. We know he just broke out this past season,

282, 18 home runs, 22 steals. If he gets the opportunity to play against left-handed pitching and he's just okay, the batting average overall might come down a little bit, 260, 270, but the counting stats could be much better, Chris. I mean, he had 58 runs and 70 RBI last season. That's just not going to cut it. That's not going to help him reach his ultimate upside.

So if he's an everyday player, if we can get, you know, 80 and 80, 80 runs 80 RBI. All right, then we're talking about Luis Garcia could maybe return, you know, top 50, top 40 overall value next season. And he's around 120 in ADP right now, which I feel is a little high. But if he's going to play every day, it might not be. You know, that's the key. It's hard to get the counting stats you need to justify that kind of price. But I fully agree. There's no reason not to let him play against lefties, at least to start.

Look, if he goes out there in the first couple of months of the season and you are competitive and he's just a total zero against lefties, then he's not everyday player. He's just a platoon bat and he's a really good strong side platoon bat, but you've got to get an upgrade there. Because if this is a team, like I said, that could make a playoff, run next year, that would matter. But you got to find out. He's still young enough. This team, the upside is still there to give him a chance for sure.

All right, Chris, back to you. Another fantasy New Year's resolution. All right, O'Neill Cruz. It's time to keep running because we know that O'Neill Cruz is one of, I don't know, the two or three best athletes in baseball pound for pound. You know, we talk on the football side of things. there's a lot of talk about speed score, which is like, if you run a 4,340, but you weigh 150 pounds, that's a lot less impressive than what Derek Henry does.

You know, like being 4, 4, but 250 pounds, that means you're going to, you're functionally faster. You're going to be a lot harder to take down. O'Neill Cruz, 6'7, 215 pounds. So his 88th percentile sprint speed is like, that's even more impressive. And L.A. Dela Cruz is honestly, even more impressive, given that he's, arguably the fastest player in baseball his size. But, you know, O'No Cruz, he didn't really do a ton with all that speed early on last season with seven stolen bases in the first half of the season.

And when he, you know, was hitting 250 and was on like a 25 home pace, I was like, I mean, he's an okay fantasy player, but this is not the star we thought he was. Well, 15 stolen bases in the second half, all of a sudden, if you're talking about, is there 30 steel upside here? Is there 40 steel upside here? Well, that makes the whole thing look a lot more impressive. Now, doesn't it? So that is the one for O'Neill Cruz where I think consistency as a hitter

might always be an issue. But if we can get a few more of those 10 stolen base months like we had in August, that would go a long way. Yeah, that would help tremendously with the upside. And I express some of my downside. my overall concerns with the downside of O'Neill Cruz last season when I had him as a fade. He's still being drafted as a top 50 overall player.

There's strikeouts, their struggles against lefties. He's still just 26 years old. And he can improve and he can run more. And if he makes a little bit more contact, then we're talking, all right, 25 to 30 home runs, 25 to 30 steals, solid batting average. Then, yeah, that's what makes him worth a top 50 or top 40 pick in O'Neill Cruz. For me, Chris, another similar one, letting somebody run is Mason win for the Cardinals. Just let Mason win run.

Very solid rookie season, but he only had 11 steals. He's 87th percentile sprint speed. And to me, there's no doubt that he's capable because he had 32 steals, his first season in the minors. Then he had 43 in year two and really good success rates as well. So if the Cardinals just turn Mason win loose and he's there every day, lead off hitter. I think he's capable of hitting 270 plus 15-ish home runs 25 to 30 steals and if he's leading off maybe we're getting

80 90 run scored something like that. So I could see a big step forward here for Mason win if the Cardinals let him run more. I mean you just look at what he did after getting moved into the leadoff spot last year. Okay the 248 batting average that was that was pretty bad. I think he's actually a good bet to hit for a decent batting average. And I think the ceiling, I've made the comment. I've made the many times. I think the ceiling's like Tim Anderson.

I really think he has that kind of potential, but it's going to depend on becoming more of an active base stealer because last year, he hit 248 as a, in the leadoff spot, that wasn't ideal, obviously. But he had 13 homers in 102 games. He scored 70 runs in 102 games. He only had four stolen bases after getting moved into the leadoff spot. Wow.

That is like that is such low hanging fruit that I really think that if he just gets to that, if he can just do what he did last year, but preferably hit even 260 would go a long way. All of a sudden, yeah, it was a 19-homer pace. It was 102-run pace. That could be a really, really good player, a six stolen base. pace is just not going to cut it though. Yeah, absolutely. But the tools are there for him to be a 25 stolen base guy.

For sure. Chris, right back to you, another New Year's resolution. Yeah, for Reese Olson, and this is much easier said than done, but find a way to get strike two. You know, we've talked a lot about Reese Olson, and there is very little hype around Reese Olson. I think his ADP is like outside of the top 400 right now. No, 282. Okay, lower, higher than I thought, but still pretty low. Pretty late round guy.

And you look at the profile and the slider, 46% whiff rate, 266X Wobah against. The changeup, 43% whiff rate, 251 X Wobah against. Even like the sinker got good results on balls and play. He just could not get whiffs with his sinker and four seamer and didn't get enough opportunities. He's really hard to have two pitches with a whiff rate over 46% and have a strikeout rate of 22%. That is a below average strikeout rate. And it's just put yourself in more situations where you can put guys away with those really good pitches.

Maybe it's developing a cutter to kind of bridge the gap. And maybe it's not a great whiff pitch in its own, but it can generate some foul balls and some weak contact. but I think Reese Olson has a path to being a legitimate strikeout pitcher. It's just can he get there? Can he put himself in those situations often enough? I think the talent is there. We just got to get to it.

And I think there's a good pitcher there too. I mean, he made 22 starts last season, a 353, ERA 118, WIP, gets a lot of ground balls. You look at the underlying numbers, a 317 FIP, 351, expected ERA for Reese Olson. his forcing fastball has gotten crushed so far in his career. I wonder if he should just focus sinker, slider change up. I really think like this might be a case where like sinker, cut, slider change up could really work for him. I think there's a pitcher there though.

And it's a great part to pitch in. It's an improving team. So there should be wins there as well. He had some injury stuff last season. So you need him to be healthy. But there could be a, I'm not going to say a fantasy ace, but. you know, we could be looking at like SP2, SP3. I could see a top 25 season out of resource

and if he stayed healthy and got a few more strikeouts, yeah. All right, Chris, this next one, who am I asking? This is, we are asking for a new year's... Burning sage and incense and finding four-leaf clovers and whatever we can do. We are asking for a New Year's resolution from the baseball gods. Mike Trout plays 130 games

and Jacob de Grom throws 150 innings. Let me be very clear. I do not think either of these things are going to happen. Pretty unlikely. 20, 25. We spoke about DeGrom last week as an overvalued player right now. He's being drafted as a top 10 starting pitcher. He hasn't thrown 100 innings since 2019.

And, you know, maybe he gets to 100. But I just have concerns about how healthy he will be for the rest of his career. But if either of these guys or both can stay on the field for that amount of time, it's just better for the game. And it helps us in fantasy because we get two more awesome. some players. So Mike Trout is 33 years old. He had two surgeries on his left meniscus last season and he has not played 130 games since 2019. Steamer currently projects him for 130 games, hitting 251 with 31 home runs, 85 RBI, nine steals and an 833 OPS. If you get that at an

ADP of 134.8, that's amazing. Thrilled. Yeah. Yeah. And that's not the ceiling. Yeah. And to be clear. Again, I don't think that's going to happen, but I'm rooting for it to happen. I want to be wrong. I want Mike Trout to be healthy and have a great season. DeGrom is returning from his second Tommy John surgery. We saw him for a few starts last season. Again, he hasn't thrown 100 innings since 2019. But if he can get to 150, Chris, he's a top five starting pitcher. I believe that. So, I have a little bit of talent questions. Like, I think Jacob de Grom is being. drafted as if he is definitely the best pitcher in baseball and the only question is innings. I have a little bit of concern about whether he is that level of pitcher.

I still think he's very good. Yeah. But yeah, it's health. Like I don't really have any questions about talent. Like if you told me every pitcher was going to throw 150 innings this year, no more, no less. Every, I don't think he would rank lower than third. Yeah.

Right? Like even with like I, I would take Paul Skiske. ahead of him. I would maybe take Eric Crochet out of him. Other than that, I think Jacob de Grom is right there with Terrick Scouble and Chris Sale, anyone else you want to put out there. So it's just a

health concern for me. Yeah. And I don't even think he'll be the same pitcher he was, but if we get 80% of the pitcher Jacob DeGrom was a couple years ago for 150 innings again, yeah, I think he's pushing on being a top five starting pitcher. So please, baseball gods, let's

make that happen. Chris, we only have about five minutes left. So if you want to just rattle off a few here or, you know, just only say one and leave people in suspense, I know you're writing a newsletter. So people can go out. I'm not sure. I'm trying to figure out if the best way to do it is it goes out on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day in the morning. I don't know. New Year's Eve, you know, give people more time to read it, you know. But this one, it already happened. So I was just being cute by saying cut the cutter, Carlos Rodon. You know, we're trying to try to be snappy. He did that at the end of in the basically the second half of last season. The last cutter he threw was June 27th. It, I think, made things a lot better for him once he got that out of the

picture. It just wasn't a very good pitch for him and made the four seamer less effective. I think there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about Carlos Rodon and what he showed in the second half last season, but the cutter just cannot be a part of the game plan unless it's going to be a lot better. So I'm hoping that sticks because I still think there's top 15 upside with Carlos Rodot. And I might say something similar about the curveball too, which he only threw 8.3% of the time last season. But 281 batting average against 531 slug. The slider and changeup look like elite pitches. I mean, the change up took a huge step forward. It was amazing for him. Fastball still gets crushed. So if he can find a way to get back to that fastball a little bit up at the top of the zone, just above

zone with those two wipeout breaking pitches, the slider and the change up, then yeah, I mean, there could still be, I'm not saying it's going to happen, there could be an ace outcome there for Carl's Rodan, but I might say to scrap the curveball as well personally, but I think it works as like an early count strike stealer. Yeah. And the underlying stats weren't as, it actually did generate a decent amount of weak contact. It's just some of that weak contact turned into doubles in a way that hopefully isn't sustainable. But yeah, I mostly agree. Like fastball slider changeup should be the approach for Rodon.

And then, you know, the occasional early count curveball, that's probably okay. Catch them off balance, you know? Do you want to reveal your last one or save it for the newsletter? Yeah, this one I'm not 100% sure. It's Nolan Joan, Nolan Aeronado. How about a little self-awareness, bud? Like, you missed your chance.

Yeah. A trade to Houston would have been the best case scenario for your career for the next couple of seasons. I think it might have made him fantasy relevant again. And he turned it down. And they went and got Christian Walker and he stuck Paredes. And now there's no path there. So I don't know where Nolan Aronado can get traded to. Boston keeps saying Raphael Devers is our third basement. I saw another quote from Breslo just today as we're recording it, where he says. said Rafi is our third baseman. It's like, if you could get Nolan Aronado, though, that might work out for everybody, but it doesn't sound like, I just, I don't know what he wants. I don't know, I don't know what Nolan Aronado's goal is. Why are the angels on your list? I don't understand it. Yeah, he keeps saying he wants to win, but. I mean, I think you'd have a pretty good shot of doing that in Houston, so I don't, I don't know exactly why. It was a, frustrating that he turned that trade down. Yep. I'm just going to rattle off a few here,

and this one's for the Mariners. Give Logan Gilbert more run support. One run? Can we get him one run while he's pitching? Logan Gilbert continues to improve. He had an awesome season. 323 ERA, 0.89 whip, 220 strikeouts, over 208 and two-thirds innings. It was incredible.

He had nine wins. Nine wins. Here are some pitchers who had double-digit wins last season. Andrew Abbott, Jake Irvin, Marcus Schroman, J.P. Sears, Colin Ray, Ben Lively. do I need to continue right Logan Gilbert had nine wins and 12 losses last season oh in his 12 no decisions

he had a 295 average a 0.81 whip and 9 point Aks per 9 those were in his no decisions gosh it's like Felix Hernandez all over again that is such a waste man can we get and have they added anyone am I forgetting something that the mariners have done I don't think they've added a hitter yet.

I don't think so. They let Jorge Polanco walk, and I'm actually kind of in on Jorge Polanco as a post-Seattle post-Safecoe T-Mobile sleeper. No, they have not done a single thing. Can we get like a good hitter? Are they not throwing money at Pete Alonzo, you know? Right.

Like Christian Walker. Like, yeah. Santander. Santander still out there. Like, look, those guys are. They're not perfect. San Tandere. Can we fix the batter's eye?

Something. I mean, that might actually hurt some of the pitchers. So I don't know if I want to do that. Just to give you a little bit more perspective on this, Logan Gilbert got 3.55 runs of support last season. Paul Skeen's had 5.26. Well, that's unfair. You can't compare to the Juggernaut Pirates lineup, you know.

Oh, how about the Juggernaut Tigers lineup while we're at it? Terrick Scoobal, 4.97 runs of support. And this is the oddity of all. I mean, this is why baseball wins are so stupid and so fickle. Zach Wheeler, who by far has the best offense of all of them, 4.52. I mean, that's good. I mean, it's good, but it was like,

it was a decent. A three-quarters of a run below Paul Skeens. Skeens and Scoobel, right? So that was just, yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.

It's the, the Jacob de Grom in the Mets where they just refused to score runs for him when he was the best pitcher on Earth. It's so frustrating. So frustrating. And I have three final closer ones, Chris. That's burn through him.

For David Bednar, throw more strikes. Get back to all stuff. form. He had the oblique injury in spring last year. I feel like it was an uphill battle for him all season. Maybe I'm just making excuses. I had him in a few spots. I agree.

The walk rate was just something so far beyond where he was in his career. Like the previous three years, his walk rate was not amazing, but it was good. It was serviceable. It was certainly good enough to make him one of the best closers in baseball. Last season, nearly 11% walk rate with 4.4 walks per nine for David Bednar. So throw more strikes. I think he could get back. Maybe not all-star form, but top 12.

Closer form? I think that's possible. And then for the Twins and Mariners, please, just unleash Yuan Duran and Andres Munoz. Just stop playing around. I understand from a baseball perspective and a coaching perspective

why it makes sense to use your best relievers in the biggest spots in the game. But we are playing fantasy baseball and we want saves for our closers. And, you know, Duran, it looks like they were headed that way in 2023. He still only had 27 saves. and Munoz, who I believe is

legitimately one of the best relievers in baseball, he had 22 saves last season. So if they just unleashed these guys and we get 30 plus saves from both, again, we're talking about top 10, maybe top five closers for fantasy. Yeah, agreed. I think, like, I understand why it happens,

but we can, the highest leverage point is often still in the ninth inning with a lead of one, two, or three runs. So let's just throw them out there more. Yeah, let's do that. All right, there you go. So New Year's resolutions, 2025. Scott will be back next week, so there you go.

We'll kick off the new year with Scott next week. We're going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again next week, three times per week. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts.