Fantasy Baseball Today - Kershaw Re-Signs With Dodgers, Gary Sanchez to the Brewers & Reliever News (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:02 We've got the latest news and notes from the past week up next on Fantasy Baseball today in five. Welcome into FD in 5 on Friday, February 9th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Chris Towers, and we'll start things off with a legend. Clayton Kershaw signed a one-year deal to return to the Dodgers. He is three months removed from surgery to repair the glino-humeral ligaments and capsule in his left shoulder, which I can't tell you anything about, but it sounds very scary. Kershaw began a throwing program last week and is targeting a return in the second half.

Starting point is 00:00:37 He turns 36 in March, but Chris, he was still really, really good last year. I'm not sure if the velocity will still be there, but my guess is, Kershaw will have some fantasy value by the time we get to July or August. I mean, the thing about Clayton Kershaw is, one, people have tried to write the story of his career

Starting point is 00:00:54 and he is not done with that part of his career. He had a 246 ERA, a 1.06 whip last season. I don't think he's thrown more than 140 innings in like the last five seasons. He's obviously not going to do that. This year as he's recovering from this injury and who knows. Maybe he comes back from this. He's just not the same. But we've seen a version of Clayton Kershaw throwing 88 miles an hour max still posting low to mid-3s ERAs.

Starting point is 00:01:23 That would be my expectation for him right around a strikeout per inning. It's really hard to draft him because if he's not going to be. able to pitch until July. That means you've got three months where you've got an IL spot taken up. And that's easy the first couple of weeks of the season. But once those injuries start rolling in, you've seen the last couple of years,

Starting point is 00:01:44 unless you've got like six IL spots, it gets really hard to manage. So it's really hard to invest anything in Kirschall on draft day. But the nice thing is, if you're drafting late in March, Dodgers first series is on March 21st, I believe. They're going to have to put them on IL before that. So you should have

Starting point is 00:02:03 the ability to move him to an IL if you draft that late immediately. So if you've got that luxury, he could be really useful in the second half. Gary Sanchez signed a one year $7 million deal with the Brewers. That one kind of surprised this came out of nowhere, likely

Starting point is 00:02:19 to be the backup catcher and get some DH opportunities. Last year he hit 217, with 19 homers a 780 OPS, still hits the ball hard, still barrels it up quite a bit. My guess is he will D.H against left-handed pitching because he crushed him last year. Chris,

Starting point is 00:02:35 any interest in Sanchez in deeper two catcher leagues? And any concern this affects William Contreras? Yeah, I think it's an interesting question with Contreras because last year, the Brewers really only had one other catcher on the roster. If you look at

Starting point is 00:02:51 a, Victor Caratini had 226 plate appearances. William Contreras had 611. The question is, with a new manager, Pat Murphy, and with the Brewers, how willing are they going to be to either have Gary Sanchez at DH and William Contreras at catcher and risk, you know, not either losing the DH if one of them gets hurt or, or what have you? I think it's a little bit of a risk for William Contreras. I don't think it should be enough to drop him down draft boards, but I'm not particularly interested in drafting him at his cost. I think he's a really good player, but it's just I don't love drafting a catcher that early.

Starting point is 00:03:29 usually. So if you're looking for reasons to not draft William Contreras, I guess this maybe gives you a small one. We did have some reliever news, so I'm just going to throw a bunch of your way, Chris, and you can tell me which of these names, if any, you're actually excited about for fantasy. So the White Sox traded away Gregory Santos and they received a prospect named Zach Deloche and prelander Barroa. Prelander Barroa is a name I think we need to know. Good ratios in the minors, lots of strikeouts, also lots of walks. The White Sox went out and signed John Brebia this offseason as well. So between those two, I think one of them will lead the team in saves.

Starting point is 00:04:06 We had Padres manager, Mike Schilt, mentioned Robert Suarez and Yuki Matsui as possibilities, but declined to name a closer when asked about it last week. And the A's GM mentioned three relievers as candidates for saves. Mason Miller, Danny Jimenez, Trevor Gott. So I just threw seven names your way, Chris, any of that stand. end up. Yeah, I mean, I think we need to get to spring training for both the A's and the White Sox situations just because none of these guys are proven high, high leverage relievers. We don't know what to expect from them. That's what I want to let sort out. Yuki Matsui, I do think,

Starting point is 00:04:49 is I would guess the most likely option to get the first save for the Padres at this point. And he was a good closer overseas. So I'm interested to see what it looks like in spring training. But if I had to handicap them right now, I'd say of the ones we've mentioned, Yuki Matsui is the best option. Mason Miller, though, is someone that needs to be on late round, especially 15 team roster consideration because we haven't seen him hold up as a starter. I'm not sure he would hold up as a reliever.

Starting point is 00:05:23 the strikeout rate in the minors is like 50% for Mason Miller. So if he gets a chance to be the closer for the A's, not going to get a ton of opportunities, but he could be really, really good in a one-inning roll out of the bullpen. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, the Odyssey app, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today and five,

Starting point is 00:05:50 and we'll be back again next week. Bye-bye.

Fantasy Baseball Today - Kershaw Re-Signs With Dodgers, Gary Sanchez to the Brewers & Reliever News (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

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