Fantasy Baseball Today - Late-Season Standouts & Shōta Imanaga to the Cubs! (1/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

Japanese lefty Shōta Imanaga is signing with the Chicago Cubs (2:03)! ... Cole Ragans was ridiculous down the stretch (12:42). ... Nolan Jones costs a hefty price (23:55). ... Seiya Suzuki put everything together over the final two months (27:40). ... The Orioles have two studs in Grayson Rodriguez and Kyle Bradish (30:47). ... Which of these late-season pitching standouts do we like most (38:31)? ... Elly De La Cruz really scuffled in the second half (47:00). ... Any concerns over Randy Arozarena (52:55)? ... What about Christian Yelich and Lane Thomas (56:00)? ... We wrap up with late-round pitchers that finished poorly (57:48). 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/ Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 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 becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. What happened later in the 2023 season? Let's talk it out.

Welcome in to a delayed edition of Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, January 11th. Everybody is present once again, Frank Scott and Chris. Today on the show, Japanese starter Shota Imanaga has finally signed. Which team will talk about that? And we'll be taking a closer look at everything that happened later in the 2023 season. I know things happened, football started up, maybe you were out of your fantasy baseball league at that point. This will act as a bit of a refresher.

But first, here we are, one day late, and let me just kind of set everything up and let everyone know what happened. This was about 15 minutes before we were. about to go live last night. There was a big storm outside of my building where I live. I mean, not just outside of your building. It was pretty nuts. There was a huge storm in New York yesterday.

And I heard a huge bang right outside my house. And boom, electricity just shut off, did not turn back on until 2.30 in the morning. And honestly, I'm just happy that it didn't happen while we were recording because that would have made things a lot tougher. Yeah, I don't know how we got to come up with. a contingency plan because I don't have neither of us has any control over the podcast right now. So we just have like a stream going indefinitely until you get power back. Yeah, basically. Actually, I do want to say that was my, I was just walking around and I tripped.

I knocked something over. It was my bad. I'm sorry. That was the loud pop was Chris falling. Yeah, I just, I knocked something over. How dare you, Chris? Anywho, let's start with Shota Imanaga, who has signed a deal with the Chicago Cubs and a pretty interesting contract. Four years, $53 million. And after the first two years of the deal,

the Cubs have the option to extend the contract to $80 million over five years. So essentially, if they like what they've seen, they can tack on one more year where $27 million as the fifth year in that deal, which would bring the total to $80 million. Shota Imanaga is a 30-year-old lefty coming over from Japan, where this past year he had a 266 ERA, a 102 whip, 10.5.10. 1.6K per 9, 1.4 walks per 9, 3 3 3 ERA. He sits 91 to 93 miles per hour on the fastball. It is a deceptive fastball that comes from a lower release point.

We've heard of more pitchers doing this in recent years, that vertical approach angle. Imanaga has a really good one. And as a result, a deceptive fastball, he pairs it with a sweeper and a slider. Might not sound like much, but according to Eno Saris, IMAGA led all pitchers in Stuff Plus in last year's World Baseball Classic.

So I put some stock into that. I think it's pretty interesting. The early ADP for Imanaga, 242.7 over at the NFBC. I think there will be a bump now that he signed, obviously. But going right around pitchers like Trista McKenzie, Nick Ladolo, and Charlie Morton. Scott, your thoughts on I'm Imanaga, maybe where he's going to wind up in your rankings. I'm pretty excited. I'm bullish.

He's going to be a top 50 starting pitcher for me. Well, yeah, I was going to say top 60, but I'm enthusiastic about him. So if you're saying top 50, maybe I need to move them up. I don't know. I feel like there wasn't all the enthusiasm was for Yoshinobu Yamamoto. And so Shoda I'm Shoda imanaga was just kind of the also ran. And I remember in our mock draft about a month ago, I took them, but I took them very late. And I don't know.

I gathered from some of the chatter in the chat room that maybe I shouldn't have taken him at all. But it seems like maybe because of Enosarison that stat that he did have, Imanaga did have the highest stuff plus in the world baseball classic better than Yamamoto, better than any major leagher who was pitching there. Maybe that alone has created this new enthusiasm for him. It's, you know, it's an interesting profile because he is kind of a soft tosser. by modern standards. And so by those traditional measures,

Yamamoto, sorry, not Yamamoto. Yamamoto is amazing by every measure. But Imanaga doesn't really rate. And so I could see why, you know, I could see taking a more pessimistic angle with him because of that. But in addition to having those fastball characteristics

that are so valued in the modern game, He also has like incredible control. His 1.4 walks per nine last year in Japan, granted, but it would have ranked fourth among qualifying major league pitchers, walks per nine. His 8 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio would have ranked second, I believe. Looking at an article I wrote first, but I think it's actually second.

I think he was behind George Kirby for strikeout to walk ratio. Again, in Japan, that doesn't mean that's exactly how it's going to go into majors. But the point is, for what he lacks in those traditional indicators, Imanaga really stands out in two areas that I think could make him a surprise contributor in fantasy. And so count me among the optimists. And yeah, I would say, I don't know, the fact he's going to the Cubs doesn't really change anything for me. He is a bit fly ball prone, so maybe he could have some bad home run games there. but, you know, for where he's going,

I'm not inclined to worry about that for Imanaga. I do think that there is a chance that with Yamamoto coming over in the same offseason that Imanaga has kind of been overshadowed a little bit by him. And look, Imanaga is not the same level of pitcher as Yamamoto or even K-a-Senga, who came over last year. But just to, again, put some numbers on it, his K-per-9 and Walk-P-9 were both just better than Yamamoto

over in Japan this past year. So again, he's not as good, but he has a way of getting strikeouts and he's a really good control pitcher. So I'm a fan so far, everything that I've read. Chris, what do you think about the fit? So I think the NL Central is a good landing spot just in terms of competition for Imanaga,

but heavy fly ball pitcher, we know the ball travels when the wind is blowing out in Wrigley Field, and according to Stackcast, Rigley has the 11th highest home run park factor. So there were some teams that were a little bit scared off by that fly ball tendency, but maybe it'll kind of be a moot point based on like the strikeout to walk ratio that

Immanaga poses. Well, I think it's going to, it's likely to be an issue. You know, the home runs, you look at, he only gave up one home run per nine last season. You have to take into context that Japan is kind of in like a deadball era right now. I think the league average ERA over the last three seasons was 3.26, which is significantly lower than the majors. So that's something to keep in mind with all pitchers coming over from Japan. And the, you know, he gave up one home run per nine. The league average was 0.8 home runs per nine.

In the majors last season, it was 1.2 per nine for starting for pitchers. So, you know, it's 50% higher. So I do think home runs are likely to be a pretty significant issue for Imanaga. And that's without even accounting for a significantly more difficult quality of competition. If he gave up 1.7 home runs per 9, it wouldn't really surprise me. It's not impossible to succeed in that way. It's just you have to be really, really good at limiting base runners. You have to be really, really good at pitching with runners on base,

because if your home runs are predominantly more tilted towards when runners on base, then it's going to be an even bigger issue. So, you know, you look at some of the pitchers who succeeded last, season with home runs per nine in like the 1.5, 1.4 range. Like Freddie Peralta gave a 1.4 one home runs per nine last season. He was pretty good. I don't think Imanaga is likely to be an 11.5K per nine guy. So, you know, I think it's a somewhat narrow path.

But like Logan Gilbert might be a high end comp. You know, a guy who doesn't get a ton of strikeouts but isn't necessarily a terrible strikeout pitcher doesn't give up any walks the home runs you know sort of make up for that so so i think that's like a ceiling play maybe a chris bassett i'm thinking like bailey ober i'm thinking immanaga could have like a bailey ober type outcome or maybe maybe be kind of nester cortez like sure which is i know nestor cortez is a difficult profile to pin down because the last two years we're disparate but disparate how do you pronounce that word um but but um but um but um You could tell I'm a writer first because then I drop these words I use in writing.

There's a lot of words like that for me. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway. I got called out on Twitter once for saying apropos of nothing. One of my biggest most shameful moments on this podcast. It's apropos guys. I don't think I'ma Nagas going to be competing for Cy Young Awards.

I think my expectation of what he's going to cost is a big driver of my enthusiasm. for him. And so I think that's important to keep in mind in this discussion. Yeah. A few other things here. For those who care about projections, if you look at steamer and you run it through an auction calculator, they have Imanaga as the SP 29 in projections. So obviously that's very bullish. Maybe they'll kind of change some things based on him landing in Chicago with the Cubs. But as of now, that's where they stand on Imanaga. And it's funny you bring up Nester Cortez Scott just as like a comp because Lance Brzeowski did a great breakdown on Imanaga on his YouTube channel. And he brought

brought up Nester Cortez's fastball as a comp for Imanaga as how it's kind of been like a deceptive fastball for Nester Cortez. And obviously it worked two years ago. Last year he was hurt. And we'll see if obviously that can work for Imanaga here in 2020. I didn't even read that one. Yeah. I didn't even read that one. It's and it's disparate.

I had to write the first time. You guys probably knew that. But I needed I needed to know. You know, me Scott. Big, uh, big vocabulary guy. Uh, big knower of all things that are not baseball and like Pokemon. you know, that's me. Chris, any last words before?

It sounded like you wanted to say something. Oh, I mean, the sirens were going off. I have two things to say. One, a couple of other comps I was thinking was like, Edwardo Rodriguez or Brexon and Garrett, like getting there a little differently, but like a mid to high three ZRA, not necessarily a ton of innings.

Those are a couple of them. And then, sorry, this is totally unrelated, but Frank, you said something. Have you watched Pokemon Concierge? No, I have no idea. that is. It's delightful. Check it out.

It's on Netflix. It's like the total turn your brain off. Your brain turns into mush while you're watching it is great. That sounds great. And I will check it out. A lot of side duck. Yeah. And look, no one probably cares about this.

I'm in an early draft over at the end of BC and just, I guess, money where your mouth is. I drafted I'm in my SP5 on this current draft that I'm doing. It's a 15 team league. I think I got them in like the 14th or 15th round. So again, I think the price will go up. I like him. He's going to be a top 50 starting pitcher for me. Shota Imanaga to the Chicago Cubs.

Let's get into what everybody missed down the stretch of the 2023 season. Chris left us in August. Some people fell out of contention in their league. We get it. Football started up. So again, this will be a little bit of a refresher. And you can read Scott's article on the site because he goes way more in depth and talks about way more players.

It is a super long, thorough article. And I highly recommend you to check out. I appreciate that Scott writes it for me. every year. We're going to talk about maybe 50% of what's actually on that article today. And let's not much, huh? Yeah, maybe. I mean, it's a 25 minute read according to the estimate here at the top of the articles. So, I mean, if we just straight up read it, we might run out of time. Let's start with some of the strong finishes. And there's only one place to start. Start, honestly. And that's with Cole Regens.

In his 11 starts, once he was up for good, Regens had a 270 ERA, a 106 whip. 11.6k per 9. He throws five different pitches between 10% and 40% of the time. His fastball was up almost 5 miles per hour year over year, from 92 miles per hour to 96.5 miles per hour. This is a player you are going to hear us talk about a lot. He is a polarizing player. Scott loves him, and I spoke about some of the reasons, Scott,

but I guess if you want to give people another reminder why you love Cole Reagan's with what he did down the stretch. I mean, gosh. Where do I start? Where do I start? He looked like God's gift to pitching, honestly. It was the slider that really brought everything together because he wasn't throwing it much during his time with the Rangers working mostly out of the bullpen and the numbers were kind of meh. but he did show those huge gains of velocity during his time in the ranger's bullpen,

like a four mile per hour increase across the board from one year to the next. And I remember taking note of that last spring and thinking, man, maybe Cole Reagan's could be this like super deep sleeper if he could ever find, if he could ever find his way into the starting rotation. Well, it took him being traded to the Royals. And then him incorporating the slider, after joining them, that immediately became his best swing in this pitch. It just seemed to improve the effectiveness of all his pitches,

rounded out his arsenal in the perfect way. So now you have a left-hander whose fastball peaks at 99. I think it hit 101 at one point. Yeah. So, I mean, among the hardest throwing left-handers ever is Cole Reagan's. And he has this full arsenal of swing in this pitches, and what it amounted to in his 11 starts once he was up for good, starting for good with the Royals, 11 starts.

He had a 270 ERA 106 whip 11.6K per 9. And yeah, I mean, if you kind of tuned out once football got going in August, you missed all of that. And Cole Reagan's is still a nobody to you. He is far more than a nobody. There are some risk factors here. control has been an issue for him throughout his career and it became more of an issue in September specifically

he's also had two Tommy John surgeries and if he's throwing at velocities he never used to throw at you would think that would put more strain on the elbow and maybe with that health history that would be a concern for Reagan's but I've told you before Frank I was telling everybody listening throughout the offseason, my approach to pitching this year is all in on upside, maximize strikeout

contributions, and let the ERA and WIP fall where they may. Because in this environment, I don't think you can count on anybody to have a reliably low ERA and WIP anyway. And so with that approach, Reagan's makes sense for me as a top 12 pitcher. All right. Devils Advocate. Gosh, I was going to ask Chris, where do you think Scott has Reagan's ranked? But Scott gave me a I was going to guess like 15. I know. I said too many things. It's all good.

All right. Devil's Advocate. You guys remember 2020, right? Yeah. Most starting pitchers made around 12 starts, right? I think that's how many Cole Reagan's made. Here are, here's a random selection of pitchers who were top 20 and wins above replacement in the 2020 season. Denelson LeMette was fifth, 209 ERA, 12.1K per nine.

Armand Marquez was seventh Dylan Bundy was ninth Kenta Maita was 10th Let's see Marco Gonzalez was 15th Junjin Ryu I mean he was he was actually good Dallas Kichel had a 199

ERA for the Chicago White Sox that year Carlos Carrasco's last good season Zach Davies had a 273 ERA I think Cole Regans is probably better than all of that. I would think so. I mean, it's a good thing.

My argument wasn't really about the numbers, but a lot of us, a lot of people, I don't want to say a lot of us. A lot of people thought Zach Plyzac was really good because he had eight great starts in 2020. And now, look,

we're going to talk about Tarek Schuble at some point, I assume, right? That was going to be my devil's advocate to the devil's advocate. I have Tarek Scouble as a top 12, starting pitcher and he made 15 starts. However, Terrick Scoobel had also been a top prospect and had a pretty good 20-22 season. True. Obviously, it was a very, very different type of very, very good season.

But I'm mostly with you on Regens. And, you know, the deeper I dive into it, the more I will probably like him. I certainly don't have him as a top 12 starting pitcher. But it's hard to argue against the stuff. There's a lot of fluctuation in monthly pitching splits in general and especially with Regans. Like you look at the swing and miss rates

with his cutter were only good in September. And that was when he started throwing it more. So those things might be related. His curveball swing and miss rate before September was pretty. What I'm saying is before before September, it was like the fastball was really good. the change of and slider were really good. And then after that, it was pretty iffy.

And then September, all five were really good. And so, you know, it's one of those things where I could see, like, does he have too many pitches? Does he, like, we're devil's advocating, advocating here. You know, we're, we're trying to make sure he doesn't just walk through beatification. Yeah. That's where the devil's advocate comes from. I get it, but like, we could, we could do this with all of my pitching range.

rankings. Oh, yeah, for sure. We start here because, like, I mean, if there was a pitcher who had done over 30 starts, anything close to what Reagan's did in those 11, I ranked them ahead of Reagan. It's just that there's not many pitchers like that. Yeah, something you will learn, Chris, as I have already this offseason, is that Scott does not care about downside for his starting pitchers at all. It's just give me the upside, give me the strikeouts, and we see that. Scott is finally seeing.

things my way. With the ranking of Cole Reagan's. We've been working together for 14 years, 13 years, and he's finally seeing it my way on starting pitcher. Well, maybe. I mean, you could, that's that, yeah. Chris, have you. It's been, it's been, it's been a journey.

I haven't done this for 16 years. My approach to pitching has had its, it's, it's ups and downs, it's ins and outs. And I kind of, I kind of think this is. a way returning to the roots of pitching evaluation, you know, the sorts of things I was doing before the juice ball era, basically. But I know, yeah, you have made a similar case before that, that given the inherent risks at starting pitcher, you're mostly going to focus on upside. Now, I think the question really isn't, where do you have Cole Reagan's ranked?

it's if the number 12 starting pitcher goes off the board 50th or 45th on average, are you taking him 45th or are you taking him 65th overall? Well, you don't have to. Or 80th or 90th. Like that's the question. Yeah. Yeah. So I get the question,

but the thing is why would you knowing that his, I can pull up the ADP here. on Reagan's, it is 113. So in every draft that Scott is in, he could just say Right, that's what I mean though. Is he jumping five rounds or two rounds? Well, I've been

drafting him where I rank him so far. I mean, I've only done a couple of mock drafts at this point. But what's probably going to end up happening, if I remain kind of out on a limb on, like what's his ADP right now, just among starting pitchers? Where do you rank

according to ADP? I think it's a around it's between 30 and 35 yeah he's 49th in picture overall I have 10 closers I have met SP 28 so oh my gosh which is I think it's a fair range if you look at years past like starting pitcher rankings 20 to 30 is where you typically find a lot of the quote unquote breakout starting pitchers well okay and that's where I have why that's where I have grace and Rodriguez and you're well as I can I can afford to move I can afford What I was going to say is if I remain this far out on a limb on Reagan's,

it's even further out on limb than I thought, I can afford to move him down quite a bit and still basically always get him. I think that's from a strategic standpoint. That's what I'm going to have to do, because if I keep Reagan's ranked 11th, 12th, wherever I have him, I'm probably never going to be able to draft like a Freddie Peralta or Kodi Senga or a bunch of other guys that I'm higher on than the consensus because of their strikeout upside.

And so just to maximize my opportunities at getting those pitchers, I might have to move Reagan's down, even though that's not where my heart wants him to be. All right, we've got to move on. We've talked about two players in 20 minutes. A quick note here, FBT is a finalist for the best baseball podcast category in the sports podcast awards.

Thanks to all of our listeners, we actually won this award last year, and now we're looking to go back to back. So you can help us bring home the hardware by clicking on the link in the podcast and YouTube descriptions, or you can scan the QR code, which is on the top right screen,

top right of your screen on YouTube. The whole process should take you less than a minute, and we really would appreciate it. Thank you for your continued support. And just a quick reminder that you can go back and listen to everything we did earlier in the offseason because we never stopped podcasting. So we have position recaps.

We have Scott's early rankings. We broke down top prospects at each position with the Welsh. I did a podcast last week with Lance Brasdowski, where he broke down Shota Imanaga in depth, so you can go back and listen to all of those podcasts on demand. Let's take our first break when we return. We'll talk about a few outfielders that finished very strong. We'll do that right after this.

Welcome back in. We're doing what you missed later in the 2023 season and wanted to pick back up with a few outfielders that finished really strong. Nolan Jones in the month of September, hit 349 with seven homers and 12 steals. He recorded both his 20th home run and 20th steal of the season on the final day of the season,

making him a 20-20-player in just 106 games. Scott, I know that you're a big fan of Nolan Jones. I noticed you haven't ranked 18th at outfield. His ADP over the last month over at the NFBC, 14th outfield are off the board. So if you want Nolan Jones, once we get drafts up and running, you might have to pull him up a little bit.

I might have to. And looking at some of the players I rank ahead of him, you know, Christian Yellich feels like more of a floor play, which I'm surprised in a 15-team league that they want to lean on the floor play a little more because obviously, you know, Nolan Jones not exactly proven. That may turn out to be a totally waste of pick.

I have Kyle Schwerber ahead of him. I could be talked out of that. There's some malleability in my outfield rankings from 15 to 20. And I may end up moving Nolan Jones up a few spots because of that. I'll also point out we have one source of ADP right now and eventually we'll have more sources and there's going to be there's going to be differences among the sources. So I don't want to get so sucked on this one source of 80s. Like, you know, so what's the word? fixated on this one source of ADP that I totally

rearrange my rankings around it. But yeah, I mean, the bottom line is what Nolan Jones did with the Rockies once he was in the lineup full time was pretty spectacular. And the data pointed to it being a possibility, hits the ball very hard, good on base skills, obviously makes the most of the speed, was aggressive on the base path.

strikes out too much, but you don't worry about that as much for a Rockies hitter because of the Babbit boost that comes from playing at Coors Field. So I think there's five category potential and a lot of upside here. What did I say? You almost said like Baboo. I'm sorry. I don't even know what Chris said, but I'm just... I think it was.

Probably should have repeated, I guess. You almost said like baboo boo or something. Baboo? It sounds like just baby babble basically. Like a robot up? Sorry, this is why I can't be on the show. Babip boost for Nolan Jones,

which is what he will get in course. It's a hard combination of syllables. That is true. The one thing I would say is like he was actually better on the road last year than at home. That's not going to happen. Like, I don't know, maybe he's like a 935 OPS true hitter and what he did away from Corsefield is real. In which case, he might be a first round pick.

That's probably not the case, though. And it's probably more that he's like a 928 OPS hitter at Corsefield, probably more like a high 700s or low 800s guy away from course field. So like the overall line, I think, like we're not going to get a 931 OPS from Nolan Jones again. I think. But he doesn't have to do that to justify this spot. If he's a 931 OPS bat again, we're probably way underdrafting him, even in the fourth round. Absolutely. The other outfielder here is Sayas Suzuki, who, look, he was going through it last year, the middle part of the season. I remember at some point, David Ross gave him a couple of days off as like a mental reset. And then Sayas Suzuki just

hit the ground running after that. So from August 1st on, he hit 350 with 20. 12 homers in OPS over 1,000. He lowered the ground ball rate. He was hitting more fly balls, more line drives, and just crushing the ball. 91 average exit velocity, 13.2% barrel rate during that time. Chris, I know that Say Suzuki is someone that you and I have been on in the past.

And just the way that he finished the season kind of gives me some hope that, all right, maybe he's starting to figure things out. You know, coming over from Japan, maybe it took a couple of years. But if he has a skill set where if he puts everything together, I think we can get like 25 homers, 10 to 15 steals with a really good batting average. Yeah, he's a really good athlete 79th percentile sprint speed. He was one of my favorite breakout picks last season. I guess it kind of ended up being an okay pick in the end.

Once everybody stopped paying attention. Yeah, once everybody stopped paying attention. But like he was a guy who the quality of contact metrics as a ruffie were very good in a way that wasn't necessarily reflected in the overall numbers. like you said, Frank, I think it's reasonable to assume, especially with hitters. This is something that you see when guys change leagues. You know, more so, I think, in the pre-balanced schedule era, when guys just didn't face pitchers from the other league as often.

There was often an adjustment period, you know, whether it was a full season or a couple months, guys who switch leagues tend to do worse. And it's not unreasonable to assume that a guy who's playing, brand new competition for the first time in his life, you know, might need more time to get acclimated. And I think that's a reasonable explanation for what we saw from Sayas Suzuki.

And I think, you know, you look at the quality of contact metrics. They're all pretty much backing up what he did overall last season. I don't think you look at what he did in August and September and say, hey, we've got an 1,100 OPS bat here. It's probably more like, hey, he can be a mid-800s OPS bat. but like you said with 25 homer upside and, you know, the speed to be a 15 to 20 steal guy.

If he, you know, he's been very inefficient so far, that's something that I tend to not care too much about inefficiency unless it leads to the player not running more. So that's the unknowable thing. You know, stolen base percentage tends to fluctuate quite a bit from one year to the next. So if he goes out and steals, 18 out of 23 bases next season.

I wouldn't really be surprised, even though he's been much worse than that so far. I do like the fact that the Cubs brought in Craig Counsel as their manager, and the Brewers have been really aggressive on the base paths under him, you know, the past however long he was there. So I think there's a chance that, you know, some of the Cubs hitters could improve their stolen bases a little bit here in 2024. I want to move on to two Orioles pitchers who both finished really well.

I mean, Kyle Bradish, it was really like the final three months. months of the season. But Grayson Rodriguez, after returning from the minors, a 258 ERA, a 110 whip, and specifically his final six starts of the season, a 180 ERA, 111 whip, nearly 10 strikeouts per nine. Kyle Bradish, I mentioned it, his final three months, 16 starts with a 214 ERA, a 0.93 whip. If you look at the season long numbers, Braddish was second in Stuff Plus, Enosaris's stuff plus metric behind only Corbyn Burns. and he made some big pitch mix changes lowering his four-scene fastball usage.

He threw his slider more, his sinker, he has an elite curveball. I think there's so much to like about both of these guys. The ADP over the last month, Grayson Rodriguez, the SP21 off the board at 71.5. Kyle Bradish, SP 27, as at pick 95.5, both going inside the top 100. Scott, does that surprise you for both of these Orioles pitchers?

inside the top 100, you say? Yeah, for both. For Grayson, it's top 75 too. Look, I have them both ranked high, but maybe not quite that high. Braddish, I have ranked higher than Grace and Rodriguez. So I guess just comparing those two players against each other, I'm higher up, Bradish.

I think my concern with Grayson Rodriguez is that while he definitely looked better coming back from the miners, throwing more strikes, having a good swinging strike rate. The strikeout rate itself, the actual number of strikeouts he was getting, was a little underwhelming for a young pitcher of his stature. And it could just be, I mean, look at the high end of the pitching ranks, guys like Garrick Cole, Corbin Burns, guys we've come to know as 11, 12 k per 9 guys were more like 9.5K per 9 guys this past year.

And it could be that the environment's changing in a way that you don't see those crazy high strikeout rates from really good pitchers. But I think it's a vulnerability for Grayson Rodriguez until he's really proven himself. And so I wouldn't want to invest in him as more than like a, ideally like a number four pitcher on my roster, but more realistically a number three pitcher. and I think I could probably, in that range you're talking about, I think I could find pitchers who still have a lot of upside that I believe in more.

Kyle Bradish being one of them just because I think he's just a little more experienced. And I trust him to take on the workload that would allow him to maximize his win potential for the Orioles a little more than I do, Grayson Rodriguez. and I mean that stuff plus indicator that you mentioned you know Saris was pointing that out for for Kyle Bradish even before the season it kind of had they kind of put him on my radar as sort of a fringe sleeper I didn't

end up with him on any rosters but like it was it was a seed was planted in my mind when I saw that prior to the season that hey maybe Kyle maybe there's something I'm missing here with Kyle Bradish and he could become a worthy fantasy pitcher and certainly over the final two-thirds of the season, that seemed to happen. One thing I want to point out on Grayson Rodriguez is he doesn't look great by K-per-9. He was just under a strikeout per-nine innings in August and September, 59 strikeouts and 59.

29-2 innings, league average K-per-9 last year was 8.74. So he was, in terms of K-per-9, really, really close to league average. league average strikeout rate was 22.7%. He was at 24.8%. So he was about 10% or 2 percentage points, however you want to frame it, better than Lee average by K rate. It's just that when you're dealing with small sales, this is a good example of why K percentage is better than K per 9 in smaller sample sizes.

The larger sample sizes it tends to come out in the wash, but he had a 1.09-ish whip. but I don't know what it was exactly because I just didn't click that part. League average whip was 1.31. So this is one where K per 9 probably underrates him as a strikeout pitcher because he was pitching so well otherwise. He was seeing fewer batters per inning leading to fewer Ks per 9, if that makes sense. So that's one where while he was, I think still a little underwhelming in terms of strikeout rate, he's someone that certainly you would think is in that like 27 to,

28% strikeout range more than 25%. Yeah. He was above average on a per batter basis. It just, he pitched so well that it didn't show up. And I think Grayson Rodriguez is probably someone who needs to, there's probably some tweaking left in the arsenal and how he deploys it because the sliders are really good swing and miss pitch. He only threw a 14% of the time.

The curveball, pretty good swing and miss pitch. He only threw it 8% of the time. That's probably something where as he gets a little more experience, he'll probably most pitchers throw their fastball less, the more experience they get. So that's something that I do think it's him and Yuri Perez stand out as guys who I think will take a big step forward in their strikeout rate in 2024. Yeah.

I mean, I could. I don't even know how much I believe the idea that, oh, Grayson Rodriguez, he's not. a good strikeout pitcher because, I mean, you look at what you were talking about. You look at the swinging strike rate, which I pointed out. You look at the Arsenal, which is full of swinging miss pitches. But until he does it, I've never been a big fan of the until, unless he's actually done it, we shouldn't pay for him like he's done it, you know, which will make me miss out on Bobby

Witten round one sometimes. But, you know, it'll prevent a lot of a lot of misfits. fortunes as well. And once he came back from the miners, Grayson Rodriguez never had more than seven strikeouts in a game. And so like that's, I have a hard time, uh, just presuming that those strikeouts will come when, when as a top 75 pick would require me to do. I think I would expect that though, Scott, because you did see it in the swinging strike rate, right? His final 13 starts after returning 13% swinging strike rate. If you just compare that to, qualified starting pitchers, that would have ranked ninth among all starters.

So if he can maintain that level of swinging strikes, I do think you can project, you know, 9, 10, pay per 9. Okay, but he's for Grayson Rodriguez. I think the bigger thing is going ahead of Kodai Singha. Yeah, he's being drafted in. I don't have him ranked ahead of Singa, by the way. Like, I wouldn't do that either. Yeah.

Well, that, I mean, that's my point is I see the upside. I think he's probably going to meet the upside. But what are you giving up in pursuit of that upside? side and it's too good for me. If we're just going by ADP, it's too good for me. Yeah, it's the opportunity cost for Grace Rodriguez. And, you know, when we get down to other ADP,

you know, it might turn out to be the same thing for Yuri Perez and Bobby Miller. I mean, these are pitchers that are really talented and we like them. But, you know, you do have to pay the price so far in early drafts to get those guys. Let's stick with the pitching. I want to take a look at five late round starting pitchers that all ended the season really strong. And I'm just going to rattle off a few. stats from each of these guys. Michael King's final eight appearances were all starts. A 188 ERA, a 110 whip that included a 13 strikeout performance against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Michael King is now with the San Diego Padres via the Juan Soto trade. Nick Povetta from June 28th to the end of the season, 335 ERA, a 0.97 whip, 12.9K per 9. And when I had Lance Bresdowski on, someone who I think we all respect, really smart pitching mind, I asked him for some early sleepers, and Nick Povetta was the first name that he mentioned. So he is in on Nick Povetta. Ryan Pepio, now with the Tampa Bay Rays, severely lowered his walk rate,

and we saw just flash with the Dodgers late in season, and obviously he was enough to be the main key piece coming back in the Tyler Glassdown trade. MHGN, also with the Dodgers, finished the season really strong, as well as final three appearances, 15.8K per 9, flashing some of those numbers. on the minors.

And then Christopher Sanchez, who came on strong with the Phillies, really out of nowhere, changed up who he was, increased control, like something we've never seen from him in the minors. Final 17 starts a 332 ERA, a 102-whip, 58% ground ball rate. Lots to like with all these names. Chris, is there maybe one or two that has stood out to you when just kind of diving in, doing your rankings, just some kind of early standouts, I guess, based on, you know,

these strong finishes from these five. So my bold prediction is that in March, Ryan Pepeo's ADP is going to be sub 150. I just, I don't think there's any way a guy who had this kind of run at the end of the season and pitches for the raise isn't going to get just a crazy amount of helium to the point where his ADP in January is about 200. that's perfectly fine. I love it. I will draft him.

I think he's going to get pushed way up draft boards. This seems like a perfect combination of factors that the fantasy baseball community is going to fall in love with. We're going to get some good reports. You know, he's going to look good in spring training and all of a sudden his ADP is going to skyrocket. So I think it's unlikely I'm going to draft him too much. Michael King, I know he was great. I'm surprised. I guess this is another one where the price isn't so outlandish.

He's the 61st pitcher 150.63. It was a weird way to say ADP. We never say it that way. Michael King has had a lot of trouble staying healthy over the course of his major league career. I guess we haven't noticed it because he's been a relatively low profile middle reliever slash setup guy. I, even 150, I think, is hard to justify. Even given the upside that he showed, he's never done this, anything close to this,

over anything like two months as a starting pitcher. I mean, we're talking about a sample size that, like, Zach Plex 2020 was bigger, right? Like, I just, there's no way I can buy into 38 innings. It's a different situation because we have seen Michael King be a really good reliever for a long time. And so now it's just being tested in a different role. And so far he's passed the test with flying colors. Actually sustaining his velocity unlike pitchers normally do when they move from the bullpen to the rotation.

Now, the durability is a major question mark. but I don't know that the performance is that much. And since I am trying to maximize the upside of my staff, my fantasy staff, not wanting to fill it with a bunch of globby pitchers, wanting to kind of identify the pitchers who could potentially transcend the glob and load up on as many of those as I can, I'm probably going to be more invested in Michael King than you are. And probably Pepio, too.

It's unfortunate because, I mean, the conceit of this, of the article that we're talking about here in this podcast is that these are the things you're probably not aware of from late in the season. But because Michael King and Ryan Pepio got traded, they were the centerpieces of trades for much higher profile players. It kind of put what they did late in the season under the microscope. So I'm not sure it's going to sneak up on people the way it might have. was if they just stayed put because people had to look into, oh, why was this team so interested in this guy? And oh, look at what he did. That's why.

So far, I'm fine with the ADP where it is, but if you're right, Chris, that these players will be elevated from where they are now, then I may not end up with as many shares of them as I presume I will. I will just say this, if I'm going to make that bet, mid-round starting pitcher with durability questions, but high upside. Carlos Rodon's going two rounds later. And they're not mutually exclusive. You could take both.

But Carlos Rodon has done that for more than 38 innings as a starting pitch. And the injury track record for Carlos Rodon is significant, but it's really significant with Michael King, who has also never done it for 180. I get what you're saying, but like, come week one, I'm much more likely to start Michael King. than Carlos Rodon. I mean, depending how spring training goes. If Rodon looks like Rodon again, it's a different story.

But if that happens, then Rodon's moving way at my rankings, too. Chris, something interesting that you said about Ryan Pepio and his rise. I'll just quickly mention two names in relation to that. Jeffrey Springs, Drew Rasmussen. Remember what happened with those two? They both shot way up last year in spring. Crazy because of what they did. They obviously looked great in spring.

If Ryan Pepeo looks great in spring too, you get that Tampa Bay race tax on top of it, then I agree. I think he's someone that could move up quite a bit. Christopher Sanchez just wanted to give him another quick shout out. I mean, he's going about the latest of that group. Him and Emmett Sheehan right around pick 250 over the past month. If he stays here, I am all about it. I just love what Christopher Sanchez did, wipe out, change up,

great ground balls, nearly a 12% swinging strike rate, 10 strikeouts in two of his last three stars as well. One once against the Atlanta Braves too. He was awesome because, like, I was on the show until, like, what, mid-August. And every single Friday, it was like, hey, sleeper pitchers, Christopher Sanchez. Or like every time he was up, his roster rate would still be like 52%. And so it'd be like, streaming Christopher Sanchez.

And it worked out great for like a month and a half in a row. Yeah. Yeah. And like it just kept getting better. And like it's one of those. Okay, Christopher Sanchez, 26 year old nobody who's suddenly striking out 10 braves. My gut tells me this is probably a. a Zach Plessack situation.

And so, you know, I'm not inclined to rank him that high, but just like intellectually looking at what he did, my brain likes him more than my gut, I guess is what I'm trying to say. And so what does that amount to on draft day? It probably amounts to me investing no more than a late round pick in Christopher Sanchez. But luckily for me, he doesn't require more of an investment. Well, yeah, the difference is Zach Plex ADP was 80.8. in 2021.

And Christopher Sanchez is not. I wonder what the over under on Zach Plesack mentions was for today's podcast

because I feel like we mentioned a crush in the over five times already was not expecting that. Let's take our final just signed him. Let's take our final break

when we return. We'll talk about a few flops towards the end of the season. Players who did not finish so well, we'll do that right after this. Welcome

back in. Let's take a look at some of the players who kind of stumbled to the finish line, and we will start off with one, Ellie de la Cruz, who again, we've already talked about him a good amount this offseason. We will continue to talk about him a lot. He'll be a very polarizing player because over the past month he has an ADP of 23. So if you're playing in a 12-team league, still a second round pick, despite what happened in the second half, batting 191, with a 36% strikeout rate, big struggles against left-handed pitching. Now, I understand the enthusiasm, the hype. He's a very fun player to watch.

He had 35 steals in just 98 games. But Scott, obviously, we can't look the other way when it comes to how L.E. Dela Cruz finished the season and big struggles against left-handed pitching. No, we can't. But he's so prolific at a base deal. I mean, did you see the last note in me talking about his struggles there? even during that time in the second half over the final two months I should say where Ellie De La Cruz was batting 200

and striking out 35% of the time he was still the 13th best shortstop in categories leagues and the 17th best in points leagues as a 200 hitter striking out 35% of the time because he was such a prolific base dealer and that makes up for a lot of

warts and it's kind of new or at least unfamiliar to us because it's been so long since we've seen players steal bases in these quantities that we're not familiar with how much it can make up for flaws like that. And I think in Ellie De La Cruz's case, you know, as long as he doesn't slump his way out of a job completely, I'm just not that stressed about the downside.

The ADP is more than I want to invest in him. So like if we're just doing it purely on the, okay, are you, are you drafting L.A. de la Cruz at cost or not. I'm not going to because I think there are better players to draft in that third round range. But, you know, if he slid to round five, I'd be happy to draft him because I think, I think his out, his fantasy output is going to be good. Yeah, the only way I could, batting average isn't. The only way I could see him sliding to round five is, I mean, it'll probably happen. It's not, it's never going to happen.

It'll happen in a points league, but yeah, I think any kind of categories league. he'd have to get hurt. The latest he'll go is like maybe he could slip to the fourth round in some drafts. But even that, like maybe you can kind of, you know, buy him in the fourth rounds. Chris, coming back after the... A lot of weird things happen in drafts. You guys are so colored by the numbers. Weird things happen all the time.

Chris, coming back from football, what was your initial reaction just seeing, okay, L.A. LaCruz, ADP, still kind of like borderline second, third round pick. what was your reaction on that? I'm surprised that's not higher, especially when you're talking about high-stakes leagues where people tend to chase outliers and tend to chase breakouts and tend to chase really, really talented young players

because, you know, there were, you know, those, I don't know what they call them, but NFC does like restart drafts at the All-Star Break and they'll have these competitions where you, maybe not the NFC, maybe one of the other providers, I don't know, but he was going first overall in some of them. Not all of them, certainly, but he was a consensus first rounder at the midway point in the season when he had played like a month. And so I think that's why I don't think there, I think it's much more likely he goes in the first round than the fifth round of any given draft.

And so do I want to draft him there? Like Scott said, no. No, I don't want to draft him 24th overall. And I was thinking like, well, O'Neill Cruz is 50 spots later than him or 60 spots later in drafts. But like Scott said, Elie Dela Cruz, even when things are going poorly. And as a hitter, he was worse last year than O'Neill Cruz was two years ago. But that's stolen base upset.

I can't get Jose Ramirez in my first round. I don't know how Ellie de la Cruz is getting in there. Someone's going to get 30 homers and 60 stolen bases in their heads and talk themselves into it. You know, like, I happen in drafts. Yeah. I think that's more likely, but it's not particularly likely. He's likely to be a second or third rounder. And because of the prolific stolen basis, because he's the fastest man in baseball,

probably not the fastest man in the world that he likes to say, but still plenty fast. and because he hits the ball so hard, I think there are people who are going to talk themselves into him in the second round every single draft by the time we get to where it counts. And it probably won't be me, but I put together a content plan for the next month and a half or so.

And one of the things I'm going to do is a YOLO players or a FOMO players, excuse me. He's definitely going to be on there. I got my acronyms wrong. Like, L.E. De La Cruz, you know, I'll probably play 11 or 12 leagues, whatever it is this year. I'm going to have to have L.E. D.A. Cruz on at least one of them. Just, just, it's, it's not going to be fun to have 11 teams with no L.A. Dela Cruz. Yeah, I was just thinking about it in my head. I'm like, if this ADP stays there, I will not have a single share of L.A. Dela Cruz, which sucks, but. Now, you got to. Come on. You can't play every, you can't do every draft with optimal efficiency. Sometimes,

you gotta say Yolo. All right. We'll see which draft. Chris actually winds up with L.A. De La Cruzen. Wanted to mention Randy Rosa Rana, who kind of scuffled

in the second half, I guess didn't kind of. He did scuffle. He hit 220 with a 700 OPS, but maybe it was just kind of regression from him getting off to a hot start because at the end of the day, it's three straight years

of Randy or Rosarana going 20-20 with an OPS between 773 and 850. he's finished as a top 50 player in Roto each of those years. It's kind of annoying the way that he gets to that finish line, but at the end of the day, he just kind of does what he does. Scott, is there anything that you actually saw that legitimately worried you about Randy or Rosarena's second half? Well, I mean, I think I think I've been worried about Randy or Rosarena for a long time

because he is far outperformed his expected stats, basically from the start of his time with the raise. And in a year where stolen base totals were going up across the league, they were becoming more common, Randy a Rose Arena became less prolific on the bases. He went from stealing 32 bases in 2022 to stealing 22 bases in 2023. And that drop is even more than it seems, because again, there are more stolen bases available throughout the league.

So if Randy a Rosarena is just a kind of good base dealer instead of a very good base dealer, then there's a lot of pressure on his bat to deliver optimally. And I think there's a wider range of outcomes. I mean, look, he ended up with a 254 batting average. He hit 23 home runs. Is that good enough in this environment to justify the cost? Just straight up what Randy a Rose Arena's final numbers were based on that. with that very poor finish dragging them down.

I'm not so sure about that. His ADP over the past month is 46.8. So, I mean, I guess technically, again, he's finished as a top 50 player three years in a row. Maybe he doesn't give you as much room for profit. So if that's something you're worried about, maybe Randy or Rosaraine is not for you. But I think he's pretty safe in what he's going to provide.

Again, I think it's a 2020 profile. but given his swing decisions, it wouldn't surprise me if he kind of goes on this Javier Baez path. One of these years, it could just completely fall apart for him. He's 29 on opening day,

which is surprising because he hasn't been around that long, but, you know, that's not, oh, no, range. He's not a running back, but it is... It's not, oh, it's not, oh, no.

It's like, oh. Oh, yeah. It's a little surprising. And so if he fell off entering, you know, his late or his potential kind of what am I trying to say? A year away from turning 30, that wouldn't be surprising. No, not terribly surprising. I think there's more room for downside than upside with the Rosarena at this price. I want to quickly talk about two other outfielder's here who scuffled towards the end of the season.

Christian Yellich from August 1st on hit 248, three homers, six deals. the power and speed I guess was still okay, a 723 OPS. Quality of contact came way down. The ground ball rate went way up, and it sounds like the back was acting up and causing him issues once again. The other name is Lane Thomas, who in the second half hit 223 with a 705 OPS,

and he's someone that just has huge splits. He crushes lefties, he was awesome at home, obviously the opposite against righties and on the road, and then we have these second half numbers. Chris, are you concerned about either in the way that they finished? Christian Yelich, Lane Thomas. I am not concerned about Lane Thomas and how he finished because Lane Thomas will be on exactly zero of my teams this year. I want nothing to do with him.

This was, I'm making an assumption that this was Lane Thomas turning back into who Lane Thomas has always been. And that is just not a player that I'm particularly interested in. Christian Yelich, I don't know, we've been through this a lot. And he was still on a 19 run pace and a 24 stolen base pace. And so that's from August 1st on. So it's like, I think even if he struggles, Christian Yelich is likely to still be a very good player or at least a useful player. I just don't really want anything to do with Lane Thomas. I didn't buy what he was doing last season.

I thought the nationals absolutely should have traded him at the deadline. And I think it's more likely you're dropping Lane Thomas than that you're starting him by August. All right. Let's wrap up with four pitchers who finished the season on a down swing here. And we mentioned one already. Carlos Rodan overall, he had a 685 ERA and a 145 whip in his debut season with the Yankees. I'm not sure that he was ever healthy. Maybe I'm just making excuses.

that was kind of capped off with his final start against the Royals of all teams where he allowed eight earned runs and did not record a single out. It was just yikes, big yikes on Carlos Rodon. Hunter Brown, you know, got off to a good start, but over the final three months

had a 695 ERA, which brought his overall ERA up to 509 by season's end. Lucas Gialito made 12 starts with the Angels and Guardians combined, 696 ERA, 148 whip, and now he's pitching in Fenway Park in Boston in the AL East. Don't love that.

Andrew Abbott also got off to a great start. His first 10 starts 190 ERA, 0.96 whip. Final 11 starts 642 ERA, 178 whip. Scott, is there a name here of these four that you're looking to maybe capitalize on them having a rough finish of the season? I think... So wait. Let's go through the names.

It was Carlos Rodon. Okay, I got him right. Hunter Brown, Hunter Brown, Lucas Gellito, Andrew Abbott, right? I mean, Rodon would be the one who I'm most hopeful for just because we've seen him be a legit fantasy ace multiple times in the years leading up to this very disastrous and injury plagued, 2023. I have no idea what to expect from him. and I wouldn't want to make a sizable investment in him. But fortunately, I don't have to. I mean, where I haven't ranked is actually a little bit higher than his ADP right now.

And so I think it's not entirely no risk. I mean, we're talking about a top 175 pick. But it's late enough that particularly if you've really already formed the foundation of your pitching staff, you can afford to luxuriate on the upside of Carlos Rodan. just the hope that it was a total, total lost year where he wasn't right and he bounces back completely. And that would be amazing. It might win you your league. Chris, of those four names, I think the only other one I might be willing to invest in, just to capitalize on this, is Hunter Brown, just because some of the underlying numbers

were still really good, 352, X-FIP, 374 Sierra, over 10K per 9, lots of ground balls, 53%. The one thing I don't love about Brown, the ADP over the past month, it's still relatively, high, it's 190 inside the top 200. And we've mentioned other names already that are also going in that range. So you got to pick and choose. I don't know that you can wind up with all these pitchers that you like, you know, from let's say 175 to 250. But Hunter Brown does live in that range.

What are your thoughts? I think the thing you have to keep in mind with Hunter Brown, I believe his career high in innings was like 131 in 2022. And obviously a lot of his struggles last year came after. he had already reached that point. So I do think that doesn't necessarily excuse or explain his second half struggles, but it's a possible explanation for why he was so bad. And yeah, I think Hunter Brown is someone in the 190 range of starting pitcher.

You know, if I take, I think reasonably you could take like two starting pitchers in their first 100 and then load up on a lot of these upside guys because I really like Rodon's price. I really like Hunter Brown's price. I really, I love Andrew Abbott at 267. Like that, it looked for a while like he was going to be a top 150 pick. You know, it looked like he was going to be a top 30 starting pitcher in ADP with the way he started off. And then obviously a lot of the things that we were warning about at the time came to pass. He was a fly ball pitcher pitching in arguably the worst part to be a fly ball pitcher in who wasn't missing enough bats.

the thing is he had an 800 OPS against Ritey's last season. That's really, really bad. And that's part of the problem when you rely on a sweeper for your swings and misses is sweepers are just death against opposite-handed batters. His change-up was actually really good last season. 39.4% whiff rate. It was his best pitch. I think he needs to throw that pitch more,

especially against Rite's to try to neutralize that. But if he can do a little better with that platoon split, all of a sudden, I think there's a path for Andrew Abbott to be a top 30 starting pitcher. I'm certainly not ranking him that way, but he's a very talented young pitcher who threw 162 in a third innings last season. So I have no concerns about the workload. I do think Andrew Abbott, look, there's a chance that he just wrecks your ratios and it's not worth the price,

even at 276. It's not worth having on your team. But the upside is absolutely worth chasing with one of your final round. picks in a standard 12-team league. I think for sure with Andrew Abbott. Yeah, looking a little bit at the pitch mix here, Andrew Abbott against Ritees last year. He used his change up 19% of the time, 197 batting average against 268 slug and a 39% whiff rate. It's really good. His curveball, which he also used 19% of the time, got crushed against Ritees, which makes sense, right? It probably just like falls right into that kind of happy fun zone for right-handed pitchers. So I think maybe

tweaking the pitch mix a little bit. I also think the Reds kind of overworked him. If you remember, when he first got called up, he was going six plus inms every time out, 100 plus pitches. Dude, this guy's a prospect. Don't run him into the ground, and ultimately it seems like that's what the Reds did with Andrew Abbott.

So I mentioned we were going to get to like half of Scott's article. No way. We got to about a quarter of it. So if you want to read the rest of what happened down in the stretch again, go to CVSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball and make sure to read Scott's article. We're going to wrap there for Scott and 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'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.