Fantasy Baseball Today - Latest MLB Moves: Haniger, Bellinger, Heaney & Many More (12/8 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: December 8, 2022

Does The Welsh have any thoughts on Aaron Judge and Trea Turner (3:50). ... What can we expect from Mitch Haniger with the Giants (8:00)? ... Can Cody Bellinger get back on track with the Cubs (15:02)? ... Masataka Yoshida is headed to the Red Sox (21:26). ... Is Josh Bell undervalued with the Guardians (29:13)? ... How do we rank Jameson Taillon, Taijuan Walker, Andrew Heaney and Jose Quintana (37:59)? ... We had some other smaller transactions as well (50:13). ... News (53:10): Paul Sewald had heel and elbow procedures. Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection 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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 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 lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. It's just the craziest winter meetings ever, because it kind of feels like the craziest winter meetings ever. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, December 8th. I am Frank Sample joined by Scott White and Chris.

The Welsh. We've been doing some emergency podcast. Hopefully you've listened to them for the biggest moves that have taken place so far here this week. But we do have a bunch more moves to get to, which we'll be breaking down in just a little bit. And if we have time, we'll get into the Welsh's top five pitching prospects in Dynasty Leagues. Either way, we'll either get to those later on today or next week. So we've got some time to obviously break down the prospects. Wellshy, where's your Senta hat, bud? It's right here. It's hitting on my shirt.

A little bit of if everyone can see it, that's Jack Skellington. It is a household tradition. You're right. I did say I was going to get it. I completely forgot. Now I'm going to put a reminder on my phone to get it, but at least I am sporting my Christmas hat on my shirt with Jack Skellington.

Which, by the way, I found out from both of these guys. Frank doesn't remember and possibly thinks it's overrated. And Scott has never watched a nightmare before Christmas, which I may. and pleaded my case beforehand, was it a Halloween or Christmas movie? I say it's a Christmas movie because it is Halloween world

set around the baseline of bringing Christmas in, not the opposite. So I say Christmas movie with my Christmas hat. I got to go back and rewatch it because I know that it is beloved around the world.

So I haven't seen it since I was a kid. I've got to go back and check it out. Scott, you haven't seen it. So maybe we should just do a watch party, Scott. That'd be great. What time a year was it? it released. So, 1993 was the year.

Hmm. But I'm good, look, I'm on IMDB here. I have no idea. Mark and the chat, by the way, brought up what I said behind the scenes. I said, if Die Hard is a Christmas movie, uh, how nightmare before Christmas is 100% of Christmas movie. So I see October, October 29th. Hmm, a little too close. I mean, it's how, okay, it's around Halloween, but you know what? You don't drop a Halloween movie on, uh, October 29th. if you're trying to get the whole Halloween vibe, I would just like to point out that. I mean,

that's kind of a lead up. Some people, some people would say October 29th is the start of Christmas season. And you know, back in the 90s back then, uh, you didn't have movie runs of six weeks and then it goes to, you know,

Netflix or anything like that. You would have these like 12 week runs where you keep movies in the theater. So one more point for the Christmas. Some might also say that October 29th is two days before Halloween. They might say that, Frank, but you don't do a Halloween movie with only two days left in Halloween. November 1st marks Halloween over. Your point is invalid. All right, fair enough.

And with that, I did just look up the release date of Die Hard. July 22nd, 1988. Not really close. Doesn't really help my argument that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. I'll save that for some kind of Adam Azer podcast. I'm sure he's talking about it somewhere. Anyway, before we get into all these moves, we've got like Mitch Hanigar, Cody Bellinger,

a bunch of, I guess, lower-end pitchers, that's what I'll call them, being moved to different teams. Whilst you have any takes, any hot takes for the biggest of the week so far, we've had Judge, we've had Trey Turner, we've had Kenley Janssen, we've had Wilson Contreras to the Cardinals.

Do you have any takes? You know, I mean, my biggest take, like I'm kind of paying attention to the Trey Turner when I said this to you guys off air. You know, he had a lot of, run hitting out of the three spot, which up, I think it was a career high in RBIs. He had 100-100 season and run an RBI, which is great. If he were to go to a lead-off spot, I guess I wouldn't love that for getting all five of

those tools. But I think with Harper out for a time, there's definitely a possibility he just jumps right back into the three-spot, which I'd love, like Kyle Schwerber do his lead-off stuff. So I'm going to be paying attention to that. It's theoretically going to be not a big thing. But, you know, we're talking off air, this big one that I said, I don't know what you guys feel and maybe I sound like a nutball, but I had just moved judge above Julio Rodriguez after this. And Julio obviously beloved in fantasy and giving real thought to keep continuously going.

Not that I needed Judge to not go somewhere else, but the thought that he's going to stay in New York. And I've been, you know, lotting this all off season. Listen, projections are destroying, destroying, I use quote, air quotes, judge because he's not going to hit 60. projections have him hitting like 40. You take off 20% of his production from last year. Just think of that. Think of how many guys at that level lose 20% of their production. He still might be the number one overall player.

He still leads baseball in homers. He's still double-digit homers. He's a factor in all five categories in a great-hitting environment. And ice lopped off his fantasy production. That to me is staying in New York and getting to kind of go with that. It just kind of gave me a little reiteration of how, how I want to put him. And I know there's a certain person on this panel here that appreciates and probably thinks even higher of Aaron Judge. Oh, yes. Yeah, I'm moving on the head of Julio Rodriguez's take.

Very vanilla for this podcast. I am of the radical mindset that the number one player by far last year deserves to be the number one player drafted in 2023 as well. Are you judge number one, Frank, I'm not sure. I've actually heard your take. I've just kept giving that. Yeah, let's hear this. Let's hear this, Yankee guy. You know, I'm a little wishy-washy right now.

I don't have a definitive take yet. I'm still kind of diving into the rankings and creating mine, but I think there is a case for either Jose Ramirez or Trey Turner ahead of Aaron Judge in Roto leagues. In head-to-leagues, I think judge's slam-down number one overall pick. Completely agree in head-to-head points. If you're doing points leagues, Judge is the number one guy. NFBC currently, judges going off is the fifth.

player on average across all of the NFC NFPC drafts, which is 77 of them. And this is about two months of data going through. It's Acuna at the top, which I know that was something we were talking about. Scott was kind of like, was Coonio going higher? He's going number one. You've got Trey Turner, Julio Rodriguez, three, Jose Ramir. I'm sorry, Julio Rodriguez is two. Ronald Acuna is three.

Trey Turner is one. I screwed that up. Ramirez is four and Judge is five. But either way, Acuna, Julio, and Trey all going above Judge. as well as Jose Ramirez. And that's not a big surprise because obviously in NFBC leagues are paying even more for stolen bases. All four of those guys, 20 plus stolen base options with significant 20 plus power. So that's kind of the rhyme and rhythm, even though a judge going to out home or probably any two you collectively put together and is stealing double digit stolen bases.

It's just a really interesting clump of the top five. But Judge's case was just made better. And I think it warrants even the top spot. outside of points leagues. So I will bring up this last stat on Aaron Judge. According to the Razwell player rater, last year, he earned $62 worth of auction value in a 12-team league. The next closest was Paul Goldschmidt at $40.

So even if you take off one-third of Aaron Judge's production last year, he would have still arguably been the top player in fantasy baseball. So just to put that in perspective for everyone. And with that, let's jump right in, because the San Francisco Giants did not get Aaron Judge. Instead, they got Mitch Hanager on a three-year deal worth $43.5 million. And last year, he hit 11 home runs over 56 games, which is a 29 homer pace over 150 games.

It's just been some bad luck for Mitch Hanigar the past couple of years. Remember everything that was going on? He had the core surgery. He had something way worse going on than that, too. Below the belt, he got hit with a foul ball, so that was rough. Last year, he missed three. three months due to a right high ankle sprain. It's just not really something you could predict.

It's kind of a flukey injury for Mitch Hanager. Scott, I still think he's really valuable. He crushed the ball last year. He hit it extremely hard. His barrel rate up over 11% three years in a row. The early ADP for Mitch Hanigar, 175. Even in San Francisco, I kind of like that. I think that's a pretty good bargain.

Yeah, that seems too low. I think the most, the best thing Mitch Hanigar has going for him. And by the way, I don't know if you pointed this out, Frank. We did an emergency podcast, you and I, where we broke down the Aaron Judge signing and Wilson Contreras and Kenley Jansen. So if we don't get, the reason we're not going to get into them as much on this full-length podcast is because we already did them. So go back and listen to that one. If you want more on them, it's well worth listening to. But anyway, back to Mitch Hanigar.

I think the best thing he has going for him is just that he's an outfielder. and there are only about 30 quality outfielders, 30 or so quality outfielders, and then you're really stretching to get anything worthwhile at the position. And obviously there are a lot more than 30 outfield spots to fill. Hanager is injury prone. He's pretty much power only at this point. He was on a 29 homer pace last year.

As you point out, he had 39 homers in 2021. There is power there if he can stay on the field long enough to get to it. Going to San Francisco doesn't help in that regard, but Seattle's not a great place to hit either. So that's probably not a big deal. It's just the fact that he is barely on the right side of that top 30 in the outfield, that makes him worthwhile to me, makes them worth drafting well earlier than 175 because there comes a point where there's

just nobody worth reaching for anymore. So this is interesting. I pulled up park factors according to Staccast from the right-handed side over the past three years. Oracle Park in San Francisco ranks 12th and T-Mobile Park in Seattle ranks 29th. So just kind of interesting. I mean, obviously we think of Oracle Park as a bigger park specifically for left-handed power. It's a complete drain, but you know, for right-handed hitters, maybe it's not so bad. Well, so I'm going to put you on the spot here. I mentioned that I will mention that it's 12th for overall park factor. For right handers last three years, it's 29th for home run factor specifically,

which is normally what we're talking about when we're talking about park factors. So it hasn't been a good place to hit home runs, which is obviously what you're looking for from Hanager. All right. That is a fair point. Welsh, I've got you on the spot here. We have three outfielders that are all kind of bunched up right now over at the NFBC. It includes Mitch Hanager, Harrison Bader, and Oscar,

Gonzalez. Which one do you like most of those three? Ooh, you threw Oscar Gonzalez in there. That throws me off a little bit. You know, for my, well, I don't want to be contingent about it because I always hate having those conversations, though I will point out. I think there's, I would be a little contingent about it. Like, if I'm trying to seek power, I think Mitch Hanigur's draft spot for what you can get with elite power is kind of silly, if we're being honest. But the batting average is always a little bit of a concern and the injuries are big concern. In a vacuum, I think Oscar Gonzalez is actually probably my guy right there in that offense. I will say on

Hanager's side, interestingly enough, he had a higher expected slug, an X-slug than his normal this year was 429, which was his second lowest since his major league debut with the Diamondbacks. It was 429 this year. But he had an X-lug of 450, which is 21 points higher. That 450 among outfielders would have ranked him 14th in all outfielders and X-Lug. And he was maintaining, he's relatively maintained the last couple of years at like 240, 250 average. So that's nice, except I think it's really interesting like a little sword fight we had there where it's like, hey, you know, right-handed left field, left field 12th. And then his home run is back to 29th. That kind of brings you back down a little bit.

My worry is just the overall playing time for him. And I kind of don't like the offensive options that are going to be in front of him for RBI opportunities like I would in Seattle. So I'm probably going to project a guy like Mitch Hanigar to get me 120 games. I think it's really great elite power. But I just think Oscar Gonzalez, it's just more of a complete player right now. I would rather take my risk if I had to pick between the three as the overall piece. I mean, I like Bader Stolen bases and stuff like that. But I'm probably going Bader for more speed.

I'm going Mitch for more power. and if I want to have that perfect porridge, I'm going to probably go with Oscar Gonzalez. So when you mention playing time concerns for Mitch Hanigar, are you talking? Injury. Injury. Health.

Yeah, yeah. If I didn't make that clear, it's more about the health with him that I'm not convinced. Kind of like you just said, I'm not convinced that's going to be something he's going to be able to positively do. He's played 150 games twice in his career. And the guy is going to be 32 when he starts this season. And that's not good.

I mean, obviously one of them is a COVID season, and he only played 57 last year coming off of 157 the year before. So maybe he's got a little bit every other year. Giants fix it. But still, I just don't feel like crazy, crazy optimistic about it, plus a, you know, kind of a negative on the batting average in general. Well, the reason I brought it up is because the thought occurred to me, and I didn't write about it or I hadn't said anything about it. Like, who plays every day for the Giants? Part of it is a personnel issue. they don't have anybody worth playing every day,

but they platoon like crazy, and is there a chance Hanager could fall into that? I doubt it because they signed him three years, 43 and a half million, but I wouldn't put it past a meter. At the top of your head, can you name the other outfielders in San Francisco right now? Jack Peterson.

I can only do it because I'm looking at it right now. Stremski. Yeah. Oh, yeah, Restremski. I said Ristramski would have just left my mind. And Hanager's going to DH. Henniger might be kind of locked into being a DH on that team. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, Jock is pretty bad in the outfield, too, so I guess they can kind of cycle those two between a corner outfield spot and DH. You're right. I mean, this lineup is bad. I think there's still a chance that they make a big splash the Giants do with like a Carlos Correa or some kind of other short stops, Zander Bogarts,

whoever it might be. That would help, but still not a great lineup. Let's talk about another outfielder and a former MVP at that. Cody Bellinger signed with the Cubs on a one-year, $17.5 million deal, and there's not really much I could point to when it comes to Cody Bellinger that says that he's going to get back on track.

I did see a video on Twitter the other day of his swing via Eric Cross. Shout out to Eric Cross. It was just on his fan tracks Toolshed podcast. Follow him on Twitter. And it looked like a better swing for Bellinger. I'm not going to discount that. It looked like a more compact swing.

So definitely could potentially help with the strikeouts. But since the start of 2021, Scott, 193 batting average, 611 OPS. 27% strikeout rate. Bellinger has never been the same since dislocating his shoulder in the postseason and there's not really any reason to think that he's going to get back on track.

What do you think? There's not any reason to think he's getting to get back on track, yes. But the reason he's gone bad is because he's been a mechanical mess since suffering that shoulder injury. The exit velocities are still pretty good. The strikeout rate has started to creep up a bit

but when this rough stretch started, it was still great. I think it's the sort of thing where it could all just click and he could be back. And that's obviously what the Cubs are banking on by giving him a big one-year deal, medium-sized one-year deal, I guess.

Certainly bigger than his numbers would justify. 17 million ain't nothing. Yeah. So that's certainly what the Cubs are banking on and if it doesn't work out, obviously it's just a one-year commitment for them. But I think that's kind of the consensus thought on Bellinger is it's going to take work and nobody knows exactly what the solution is, but there is a solution that exists out there to turn him into an MVP caliber bat again.

And I think after repeated failures, repeated fakeouts, do you have his ADP so far? It's 197, 44th outfielder off the floor. Yeah, very low cost. Very low cost. I don't think it's a bad idea to take a flyer on Bellinger like the Cubs are doing. I think that video that you referred to, you know, we can only take so much from a video, but the swing, we can at least say the swing looks very different. And specifically, he's working out with Matt Holiday in Oklahoma, which is something Matt Carpenter did before coming back and going,

on this toured stretch with the Yankees last year. So there may be something, there may be something good happening there. It's obviously, it's kind of just a hope and a prayer at this point, but there may be. I'm always like, go ahead.

I was just say, I'm always like, I'm very cautious, especially like BP batting practice video, which that was, that's something you should be careful about. I can tell you the amount of times, the example,

it immediately jumped to my mind, as Luis Garcia with the nationals. I remember when he was out here in the AFL, and he had this completely different approach in BP that he took, which by the way, was crushing baseballs. He was hitting homers like crazy. And it was completely different than his normal approach,

his stance, his everything that he would do. And it's not uncommon for guys in BP sessions, especially, I remember watching Seth Beard do a similar thing during, during a coaching session, where these guys will just have a more tame down thing. So I think it's fun,

but we've done two years of this, with Bellinger where we're like, hey, there's a swing change and he's doing some medical stuff different. Like, it's all fun. But at this point, I think the best thing you said is it's a hope and a prayer. Like projections won't do.

Ironically, though, we have this whole off-air projection thing. Projections are actually not super against him. His counting stat wide steamer has him at 19 homers and 11 stolen bases. That's of the 220 batting average. If you believe that Bellinger can reestablish and refine his bat in Chicago, and he's going to hit better than that.

And I want to say that, I mean, the BABIP, this past year was 255, which, you know, the last three years he's had a sub 250 BABIP. His career is around 270. And in his good years, he was around 300. So you fall into some luck. Maybe there are some swing changes that he gets in Baltimore. I mean, this is a guy whose potential, I think, flies. But he doesn't even cost what he did last year.

You have to be a believer in the talent of that MVP player, still resides in this young bat who has fallen apart for the last two years. There's a, you know, there's a breaking bad reference in there when you said he was going bad. Like, there is something that can be reestablished, but you have to believe,

but we've been burned so much. I tend to be the type of person that believes in a multi-year talented player can refind it. If it's one year, it's one year. I want to believe. And you're right, he completely lost his swing ever since the injury,

but I just don't think it's like completely far away and a change of scenery might help. That cost is so cheap. I'm actually curious, Scott, Cody Bellinger or Mitch Hanaker, they're almost the same ADP. I mean, Bellinger gets you a round extra cheaper,

which one would you rather take your shot on? Assuming your team has already been kind of constructed, 180 picks through. You can envision what your team already looks like. Yeah. So which side would you go with? I mean, I'm going to take Hanigur. Particularly if it's a five outfielder league,

The fact is I'm not going to let Hanager fall to his ADP because I see him as kind of the last bastion of at outfields, you know, and much more bankable than Cody Bellinger. So Bellinger for me is more of, okay, I've already filled out my roster. Let me just take a shot on upside, which is the ADP allows for that. Hanager to me is more for that. And I suspect Hanneger's ADP is going to go up now that he has. has signed.

I have a cop-out answer as well. I was going to agree, Scott. I think the shallower the format, the more likely I am to just take a shot on Cody Bellinger. But in a deeper league, five outfielder's or a 15-team league, you just need bankable stats. And I'd rather just take the shot on Mitch Hanigur because I do think his stats are more bankable than someone like Cody Bellinger at this point.

Let's stick in the outfield and talk about an international recruit to the Boston Red Sox, Masataka Yoshita, a Japanese outfielder signed a five-year $90 million deal, and this past season in Japan, we saw a triple slash of 336, 449, 559, 21 homers, OPS just over a thousand, a very unique player, that he's kind of like Luisar Rise, but has a little bit more pop than Louisa Rise. 82 walks to 42 strikeouts, over 515 played appearances in Japan. Only Louisa Rise had a better strikeout rate in Major League Baseball this past season. obviously those things are not completely comparable. I'm sure Yoshida will strike out a little bit more here in the States,

but it's worth pointing out he has a very unique skill set. Contact, he walks a lot and has a little bit more pop than someone with that profile than we're used to seeing from that profile. Scott, how do you see this translating in the majors? And do you think Yoshita will be worth drafting in fantasy? One of the most difficult things is trying to decide how a player from Japan, how the stats are going to translate to the majors, because they always look breathtaking, right?

They look like, oh, this is the most amazing player I've ever seen. It's way easier to hit home runs in Japan. The ball is smaller. The stadiums are smaller. And so you almost never see a player come over from Japan. and Homer at anywhere close to the same rate in the majors. So we're talking about a guy who had 21 home runs in Japan last year. Career high is 29.

Maybe he'll get to double digits. But I think what really helps, let me see, Masataka Yoshida, I had to look up the name again. Masataka Yoshida, I think what really helps him is that, like, power is, not really his game anyway. His contact rate is so good. His plate discipline is so good. He had like a two to one

walk to strikeout ratio this year, and it was his worst ratio in three years. So he is more of like a lead-off type, I think. Maybe a rise is a, makes for a decent comparison. Maybe he trades off a little of that batting average for a little more power,

because he does at least, you know, he knows how to put the ball in the air, and maybe he could pull it enough to get power out. out of it. So maybe he turns out more like Alex Verdugo, his new teammate in Boston. But I think the bottom line for Masataki Yoshida is you don't want to overrate him based on the numbers he put up in Japan because that's a trap we've fallen for over and over and over again. So I think about the range where we're talking about Mitch Hanigur or Oscar Gonzalez,

obviously he's not that type of hitter, but that's what I'm thinking for Masataka. Yoshida. So you think he gets up inside the top 200 in terms of ADP, Scott? Yeah, I do. Okay. Yeah, I was going to say, I think he gets inside the top 300, but maybe I was playing it a little bit conservative there. Welsh, any thoughts here on Yoshita?

And, you know, where do you think the draft cost winds up? Because, again, I was thinking, you know, maybe 250 to 300. Scott thinks he gets inside the top 200. What are you thinking? Yeah, I think there's a possibility. I mean, he's a Boston player. I wouldn't put that past anybody. So I actually, before this, gone through phases just watching it.

I decided to watch some more video before we did the show, just reestablishing just my brain and what it all looks like. And, you know, it's not the same league, but I do think there are a lot of comparisons with Hassan Kim. Obviously, Hassan Kim came from the KBO, but he put up some big power numbers there, hit 30 homers before he signed over, had two straight years of hitting over 300,

had an almost 400 OBP. He walked more than he struck out in his final year, but there were definitely more strikeouts in it. And I was just watching some at bats. And, you know, the bat speed is incredible. He's a smaller stature guy. He's a little bit more filled out than a Hassan Kim. He has absolutely no speed.

He definitely has a home run approach. And he just reminds me of like a really solid doubles hitter. You know, the Louisa Rice comp is actually kind of interesting because Arise shows no real ability to run. And he doesn't want to run. I don't think we're going to see. really any of that from Yoshida. And I do love the bat speed, but kind of like you said, I don't know what it's going to

translate. I think this is probably a 15 homer guy who maybe even looks better in like a super util type of mode. But listen, you know, doubles power and contact works and it plays. And it's probably going to be dependent on where they put him in the order. So I think batting average is in play. I think runs are in play if he's at the high end of the order. Yeah.

And, you know, if Bogart's returns, he might be a prime number two hitter. But if he moves to six, I'm not really sure how I think the offensive output is. I just think we have the potential because I've done it before. We're going to overrate because of the potential of what we don't know. And I think people really need to understand the translation of these numbers are just impossible. And I just don't see. I'll be wrong. That's totally cool.

But I'll be, I don't think I'm going to see 25 plus homers because he hit 21 in Japan from this 5-8 hitter. I think it's in the teens at best. Yeah. The thing that gets me about this signing, and maybe the Red Sox are just falling for it. I mean, that's part of the, part of the reason I know there's not a good way to evaluate

how these numbers translate is because teams keep shelling out for these players. And by and large, it doesn't go the way they hope. They just made a, when you factor in the posting fee, Going back to the Orix Buffaloes, this is over $100 million the Red Sox are committing for this player, $90 million just in the salary over five years. So they're paying him to play a big role on their team. I'm thinking leadoff hitter,

given he was like a $450 on base guy the past three years, which is obviously going to be a good thing for his fantasy value. It's just going to require that hit tool to play up to the max, because I don't think there's going to be enough power there. And if the hit tool does play to a max, I wonder if like the high-end test case is like Jeff McNeil. If he's like a Jeff McNeil in fantasy is maybe your high. And that's what I think you're not going to be able to conceptualize, right?

Yeah, I mean, yeah, exactly. They're all kind of the same guys like batting champion type of players, 10 to 15 homers, no real stolen bases and run an RBI totals are kind of contingent on where they are in the lineup. And guess what? Those guys usually aren't in predominant RBI situations. So you're probably playing for two solid categories. If you get one other, you're feeling good.

But that's how I, how I'm going to approach him is this is a two category, little above average player. And I don't know if I want to risk any crazy draft capital to find out if there's a third or fourth category. The early Rosser resource for Boston Red Sox does have Yoshita leading off for Boston. Actually, three lefties in a row, Yoshita, Alex Verdugo, Raphael Devers. I don't know how likely that is to happen. but I think Verdugo's okay against lefties the last I checked. So that would be a pretty interesting start to a lineup.

If Bogart returns, that's kind of nice. That's like one more piece for, you know, for runs being driven in. I'd feel a little bit better about that as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And the Red Sox are still in contact with Bogart. So we'll see what happens with that over the next couple of weeks.

And let's get to one more hitter here before we get into the pitchers. Josh Bell went to the Cleveland Guardians on a two-year $33 million deal. I believe there's an opt-out after the first season. And speaking of this past season, it was a tale of two seasons for Josh Bell. With Washington, fantastic. 301 batting average, 493 slug, 14 home runs in 103 games.

In San Diego, he hit 192, 371 slug, only three homers in 53 games. Still only one year removed from having a pretty big year in 2021, 27 homers that year finished inside the top 100 in terms of Roto. as well. The early ADP is 193. I don't know if that's because he wasn't signed or he just left a bad taste in everyone's mouth because of how he finished a year. That seems aggressively low. Scott, if these two things were reversed, if he finished the season the way he started with the nationals, he would be going 50 to 60 picks higher than this right now. So I actually kind of like where

Josh Bell is going right now. I think it's a bargain. Yeah, I mean, I think the low ADP is partly just a product of NFBC because you're not it's possible he could do it he hits the ball very hard and he's done it before but you're not counting on a big home run total from Josh Bell and if you're like you need those real loud totals in NFBC

to you know when you're competing against hundreds of other teams as opposed to a dozen I think that's the typical fantasy player is going to look at Josh Bell as a top 10 type first baseman even if you know that that's projecting him for closer to 20 home runs than 30.

The inconsistency, yeah, that's kind of been the story of Josh Bell the past few years. He hits the ball very hard. He has very good plate discipline, both in terms of walks and strikeouts. But the launch angle is kind of all over the place, and sometimes the production just isn't there because of it. This is the best park he'll be playing in ever, right? So that, you know, it's not like Cleveland's a great. plays to hit, but it's better than the three places he's gotten to hit so far.

So that helps a little bit. But I think the way to approach Josh Bell, points league, very solid, top 10 first baseman, five by five leagues, not as solid, but probably makes it by default after, you know, after like, certainly after Jose Brayu, Reese Hoskins, C.J. Kron, kind of in that same range as them. It was the same way place he was coming to this year. Yeah.

I think there's still a chance he winds up behind names like Andrew Vaughn and Anthony Rizzo and Thai France. So it is a very deep position. Just looking at it right now. Like first base is so deep. Welsh thoughts on Josh Bell to Cleveland here in the early price egg. Yeah, and FBC. He's the 20th first baseman.

And I do think the climb will be interesting to see if he, like, I think he can go above some of those names we talked about like Miranda. Like, there's a couple that I wonder if he should. Like I really like Jose Miranda. Routi Tellez is someone that I'm really turning on as well. Like a Thai France one. It feels like Thai France's ceiling is Josh Bell's floor, basically, roughly. Big old no thanks on Thai France either.

So I can push him into, I think he's a starting, you know, Roto League, first basement. It's no question. It's a better lineup around him. There's a couple things that are kind of concerning. Like one of the things you can see is positive. He had a big BABIP change. 333 in the first half went down to 231 in the second half. Obviously, he tanked with San Diego. That's part of it. But a couple concerns like just I have is you saw a bit, you know, you talked about him hitting the ball really hard. We saw a massive decrease this past year because he dropped 11 points in his hard hit year over year from a 52 down to a 40.8 and also his exit velocity dropped from 92.5 down to

88.9. I mean, those are some pretty big decreases on two hard. Average exit velocity isn't something like we massively care about. It's more of like the max to just see where the ball really gets hit. But still, the under 90, having an almost three point, having an over three point difference or mile power difference in your average X velocity is a little concerning, which also plays in a babbib. But the hard hit rate was a huge drastic decrease, which I think it's just something to watch overall. If you're someone that's going to over-project him, like, oh, now he's in Cleveland and now he's going to hit a whole bunch of homers, it's like, how much did that back turn of the year and that trade? How much was that in influence of the hard hit and the exit velocity decreases?

That also might be part of the profile that's starting to change. And he actually might be more of the poor man's Jose Abrae. you know, Jose Abraeu, you're not going and projecting like, hey, we're projecting 30 home runs and he's in Houston. It's like, no. It's like a low 20s, high batting average. I mean, maybe you are. Maybe Scott's face is maybe like high-end homers. I think there's a much better chance Jose Abraeu hits 30 home runs than Josh Bell does.

A thousand percent agree with that. That's not my point. If we're just measuring the, if we're just looking at the raw data for Jose Abraeu, he is still the 30 homer guy. He's, he had been prior to this past. And I would rather have him. Yeah, for sure. The point, regardless of what we might project now that he's there, I mean, he was a low 20s homer hitter. That might be Josh Bell again. So I'm just saying I have a little bit of cold water on the

idea if he's going to have this major, major bounce back. But, you know, in work in favor of him was a hundred point difference in Babbitt from first or second half. The negative is overall hard hit that not only affected the hard hit in a dramatic way, but it also took off. Like it wasn't like, hey, the average exit velocity stuff kind of stuck, but the hard hit change. Like, no, they all kind of came back down. So let's see what the new destination is. He'll definitely jump up from an NFBC data,

but I don't know if he's someone I'm going to be like, man, this position is so great. I'm going to just get Josh Bell later. No, I'll be like, man, I want Jose Abraeu is kind of my bottom. And then if I, I'd rather guys like Reese Hoskins and Christian Walker and Josh Bell be my corner infielder, then I would waiting and letting them be my starting first baseman this year. And I completely agree with that, by the way.

Again, this position is deep. Like, there's going to be a lot of names that I have ranked ahead of Josh Bell, but if I just miss out on everyone else and he's my fallback, I don't have a huge problem with that. One thing that really stands out, the difference between his Washington data

and his Padres data, ground ball rate went from 47% with Washington, 57% with San Diego. And when Josh Bell is off when he's not going right, that's the problem, is that he's just beating the ball into the dirt. So if he can lift the ball,

if he can hit line drives and get in the air again. Like, I think he could be a 20 to 25 home run guy. And honestly, in the middle of a pretty good line, a pretty pesky line up there from the Guardian. So I do like it. I like Josh. 193. 193 ADP in NFBC right now.

No way that's going to stick. But I will agree again, even pouring any cold water, that's still a value. It's interesting. We're talking about a lot of guys that just signed that seem like their values that you wonder, is it because of their questionable place that they're going to go,

that people were just moving away from them and how much, it'd be really. interesting, like from this day on and then a month from now, come back and look and see how that's risen because all these guys kind of have a trend, very good values. December 7th, let's say on a podcast right before Christmas, like two to three weeks from now, let's revisit this and see where all these players are kind of going after they signed their new contracts, obviously. December 7th will be an easy date to remember. It's a day that'll live in infamy. Is it? What's, am I missing something?

Isn't it? Do I have the day wrong? I don't know. I'm all for this. Keep going. I'm going to throw to a break. And Scott, I don't know,

right to me in the private chat or something. Maybe there's something I'm missing right now. Anyway, let's see. For Harbor Day. What? Oh, okay.

1941. Yeah. That, yes. That would make sense. I had the right day. You know, I mean,

guys, you're, like, you're throwing stuff like this at me in the middle of a baseball podcast. Like, there's no way that's going to be like, the first thing. You made me doubt myself, Frank.

No, I mean, but that was excellent, though. Like, that type of awkwards. Like, that's what I'm here for. This is what I'm here for. I'm just breathing that in. That was fun. I mean, that's, honestly, that's exactly why we brought you on the podcast so that you can just enjoy that. Payday, baby. Payday. All right.

Let's take a break. And we'll be back right after this. All right. Well, let's talk about some of the pitchers now that have signed new contracts. Let's just kind of bunch this group together because I kind of feel like they're similar. fallback options, maybe one or two of them have upside. I don't know, you guys can decide and let me know what you think. And let's talk about it.

James and Tyone went to the Cubs on a four-year $68 million deal. Finally, he was able to stay healthy, put up nearly 180 innings this past season. Solid for the Yankees. I don't know that there's much upside 3.91 ERA, 1.13 whip. For Jameson, the early ADP is 258. Next up, we have Taiwan Walker, who signed a four-year, $72 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies. It was actually a little bit better than TIE own this year.

3.49 ERA, 1.19 whip. Both of these guys, not going to give you many strikeouts. Both under eight strikeouts per nine. Really benefited from this newer environment. The early ADP for Walker. Much later, 360 in early drafts. Andrew Heaney, the next one up here. Man, if you could figure out Andrew Heaney,

let me know because I don't know what to make of Andrew Heaney. two-year $25 million deal with incentives, includes an opt-out after the first year with the Texas Rangers. He had an ERA approaching six in 2021. Then the Dodgers worked their devil magic on Andrew Hini, as they always do, and he goes out and throws a 3.10 ERA with a near 17% swinging strike rate. The early ADP for Hini is 247,

and then we have Jose Cantana, a two-year, $26 million deal with the Mets. Actually, had a sub-3 ERA, Surgeon season for Jose Cantana, much like the first two. Lower strikeout rate, not expecting much there, but does pitch for a pretty good team now in the New York Mets. Scott, four names here. Heaney, Kentana, Tyone, and Taiwan Walker. What do you think about all four? And who would you rather have out of all of all of them? One of these names is not like the others. And it's the guy who's getting paid the least in 2023. Not like the others in a good way. I mean, Andrew Heaney.

is the only one of these that I would be... Look, none of them are high draft picks, but Heaney actually has the potential to outperform his draft position and become a mainstay in fantasy based on what he showed last year with the Dodgers. They would work their magic. Specifically, they introduced him to a new sweepier slider that became like this incredible putaway pitch for him and unlocked the potential that he had going back to his Marlins days,

finally. 310 ERA 10-1-9 whip. and most notably 13.6K per 9 for Heaney. Now he only threw 72 and two-thirds innings because of injuries. And even when he was healthy, it was generally four-inning starts, five-inning starts. The Rangers are going to not baby him as much as that, I would assume. So hopefully, like, we don't have to worry about the early hooks for Heaney anymore.

But is he going to stay on the field enough to deliver on his potential? Is it going to maintain the shape of that pitch without the oversight of the Dodgers? Fair questions. But of these four pitchers, he's the one who I see real potential in. The others, I mean, especially Tyone and Walker, like those contracts,

and I know this isn't fantasy-specific analysis, but those contracts don't make a lick of sense. to me. Because we're talking about number four starters here basically in a five-man rotation, and they're getting four years, 70 million each roughly. And wow, good for them, I guess. But yeah, it seems like an overpay. It seems like there's this theoretical idea of what these pitchers should be and then

what they actually are. And they were paid for what, I don't even know that should be is the right word. I mean, should be based on what? Should be based on their very best. Like, Tyone had an awesome first two months last year. But over his final 22 starts, he had a 470 ERA. And, you know, his value is still held up in fantasy pretty well because he won 14 games with the Yankees.

He's not winning 14 games with the Cubs. So, yeah, I mean, get him out of here. They're nothing more than streamer types next year as far as I'm concerned. The Andrew Heaney thing is just so weird, man. I mean, you just talked about it, Scott, the change in the pitch mix, throwing this new slider that he went with. He basically got rid of a change-up in curveball

that he had used in the past. He went straight up four-scene fastball and slider for Andrew Heaney. Among pitchers with 70 innings this past season, his 13.6K per 9 second-only to Spencer Shrider, 16.8% swinging strike rate. The most among all pitchers with at least 70-enings pitch. It is just crazy, crazy stuff

with Andrew Heaney. Welsh, your thoughts on these four? Are you interested in drafting any of them? There are some ripple effects too, but I'll save that for after this. Yeah, I mean, I just want to throw out like, Heaney was my guy.

I actually wasn't sure where Scott was going to go. Heaney's 100% my guy here. That slider was a huge uptick, four miles per hour. The adjustment that they made, it just moved up into another tier because I think like fan graphs would kind of loop. Like when it was a 79 mile an hour,

you know, slider isn't something that you really see. So I think the curveball and slider would kind of get like looped in together. It looks like it became more of a actual traditional slider and that upticked it about four miles per hour. And the usage went up like 10% more. And you said he kind of scrapped the change up. He also got an uptick on the velocity on his fastball, which was up a full thing. So that's kind of that like devil magic that the Dodgers do. And I'm very hopeful of that coming over. Though I would be curious at the level that the Rangers are going to be comfortable and they don't tinker and they don't say, hey, we really want you to be more than a two-pitch

pitch or you hope the success is just going to be able to carry over. I think he's a deal right now. The K numbers are ridiculous. He's also got almost a two walk per nine, which I think is a fantastic number. Home run rate's a little bit high, but it just is what it is. And he had a 2.83X FIP, which was lower than his ER. Right, lower than his FIP numbers out there. So I feel good about that.

The other guy I'd point out, I'm kind of a Jose Quintana guy. I think he's just a great deal, a back-in piece. for us, our fantasy rotations. He had a huge windfall leaving Pittsburgh into the Cardinals. When he said the Pirates, he had a three and a half ERA. In his starts with the Cardinals, which was 12, he sported a two ERA. His strikeout numbers came back down,

but I think also it becomes more about pitching to your defense. And I'm kind of a Jose Quintana guy. He's not a great strikeout option, but in great destinations are opportunity. I think he's one of those guys that puts himself he puts himself in the position to pick up wins. And if your offense can carry you, those changes he made with the Cardinals,

I think are going to push in there a little bit. That I'm saying, I think he's a value. I know you seem to disagree. You seem to agree. But I think he's a value based on his draft position, based on all these guys. But, you know, my rank of interest is probably Heaney,

then Kintana, because I think you said he might probably is the lowest ADP of all of these guys. And then it's just kind of whatever. I will push back on he puts himself in a position to get wins because Kentana had only six wins last year. And the reason he had

only six wins is because he was rarely allowed to face the lineup the third time through and that was true both in Pittsburgh and in St. Louis. So while he finished with and this is Kentana, he finished with a 293 ERA

those early hooks really took a lot of the bite out of it. And then you look at the fact, okay, 293 ERA, but his XERA was like 390. His ex-fip was like 390. Can't he even repeat that ERA? Yeah, I have my doubts. So I'm not. Half of those went. I would say he had about a 15% it's roughly, I'm not doing the math completely right here because I'm just trying to tell off the top of my head. It's like a 15 to 18% win rate with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He had three total wins with them. And in 12 games,

which is eight less than the Pirates with the Cardinals, he had three, which would be a 25% win rate. So I mean, that win rate just increased with a better team while the ERA got better, which by the way, point out, we're talking about a lot of those other things. It's mixed between those two teams. You have better defense. You have better run support when he was with the Cardinals. And you're going to a Mets team that has better defense, better run support, a, you have a great staff that you're going to be working.

I mean, there's just, I mean, a lot of it is maybe just like existential stuff you're starting to put on with him. But, you know, he showed the signs of a pitcher that leaves a bad team and gets exponentially better on the. new team. And I'm going to take some of that and put that over. And if he were to at least repeat, by the way, that 25% win rate on a good team, you're going to get back into the double digits and you're getting him for free. And that's what I like about Kentana. I love that little tidbit you brought up to Welsh where joining a team with other just ridiculous pitchers. I really like

this too. Like it's kind of anecdotal, whatever, but for hitters when there's like a young hitter and they bring in a veteran and then, you know, that guy kind of takes him under his wing. would surprise me if Jose Cantana can maybe learn a thing or two from being around Justin Verlander and Max Scherzerz. Let me throw this out. Look at Alec Bohm. Alec Bohm was almost becoming this weird call. And then Bryce Harper took him

under and Alec Bohm, not an elite fantasy player, but was able to change the profile. I would also argue, imagine if a guy like Jared Kelnick had like leadership, nothing against the Mariners, but there's never really like a leader. Like Mitch Haninger was the closest thing. Jesse Winker was the closest thing. I mean, if you were to have put

Jared Kelnick on a team, like Philly that had established hitters. I just wonder if that type of stuff rubs off. It's just anecdotal, but sometimes the anecdotal plays in and Quintana's just going into, I think, just a really, really solid spot

that hopefully can repeat off of the Cardinals. But Andrew Haney is the guy of all these. I agree with Scott completely on that. We do have a poll right now in the, on the live YouTube stream, which of these starting pitchers will you draft first next season? And am I reading this correctly?

Taiwan Walker. Oh, I always say Tyone might be the top guy. Taiwan Walker is winning the vote with 35%. Then it's James and Tyone, 27%. Andrew Heaney, 25% of the vote. Scott, just some quick ripple effects here. I was looking at the Cubs rotation now that Tyone signed there. Rosser Resource has it.

And again, these things can change. As Stroman, Tyone, Kyle Hendrix, Justin Steele, Adrian Samson. That makes me very sad because I don't see Hayden Wisniewski anywhere on that list. And then for the New York Mets, Samson. It seems like one of Tyler McGill or David Peterson will be out of the mix, which maybe Peterson is more of a sixth starter anyway.

But I think both of those guys still have upside. So what do you think? You worry about it? You want competition. You want to have more than one, more than five viable starters going into a season, even if you're not a good team. The Cubs are kind of acting like they'll be able to contend.

I don't really think that's possible. possible, but, you know, they're at least not counting on being a bottom feeder again. So if they brought, if they got Xander and Correa, there's that rumor that they're looking at two infill. If they bought both of those guys in, would that change your perspective at all on like what they can do? I mean, say, if they brought both of those guys in, then they'd basically be what the Rangers were going into last, last year, which obviously, uh, turned out to be not such a great team. Actually, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, Hayden, you don't want to just. I understand why they don't want to just hand a rotation spot to Hayden West Nesky.

Even, you know, he had a few good starts down the stretch. But like Adrian Sampson won't be difficult for him to beat out. And then we'll just see who performs better between David Peterson and Tyler McGill. All right. Some smaller deals. I wanted to quickly mention here. Vince Velazquez. Yeah, that Vince Velasquez, he is signing with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The A's are making moves. They signed two utility men, Jace Peterson and Aledmus Diaz. The Pirates also signed left-handed reliever Harleen Garcia. Tommy Canley is back with the Yankees on a two-year deal. The Phillies signed left-handed reliever Matt Strom to a two-year $15 million deal, and he joins Sir Anthony Dominguez and Jose Alvarado

at the back end of their bullpen. Kind of feels like maybe they need some kind of lockdown closer. Dominguez is fine. I just, I don't know. Maybe they need someone with more name value. Or maybe I'm just making things up. The Mets acquired reliever Brooks Raleigh from the raise in exchange for minor league pitcher Kishon Askew.

And just before we started, the Braves acquired reliever Joe Jimenez from the Tigers for cash considerations, as well as outfielder Justin Henry Malloy, and left-handed pitcher Jake Higginbottom. I don't know that there's anything huge to take away from them with these moves. I think maybe if anything for the Tigers

just cemented Gregory Soto as the closer for now, I guess. Yeah. I mean, Joe Jimenez ended up, having a pretty good year, but he was never really in the discussion for saves last year, while other relievers were. I would guess he becomes the, I'll double check the depth chart here. They still have AJ Mentor. So either Mentor or Jimenez, probably more likely mentor, would be the backup for saves

behind Reiselaglacius in Atlanta. I think this is them coming to terms with, okay, we're not bringing a Kenley Jansett back. So let's get another late inning right hander back there. You know, I would just throw in too. Justin Henry Malloy is a really interesting prospect. He was out here in the Arizona Fall League playing for the Braves. And I actually think them acquiring him,

you might see Malloy this year. He's a really versatile. I just call him a super utility player. He played left field out here. Had a couple diving catches. can play second, can play third. I'm pretty sure he could play first and short. I think out here he played second, third, and left field when I saw him.

Makes a ton of contact. He's a doubles hitter, has a little bit of power, a little bit of speed. And it's just when I look at that Tigers team, I actually think this is a position where he could have some value this year. Probably not something to think about him breaking any stuff with the team out of camp, but watch for him because this is now a spot where a super utility player like him would fit very well with the Tigers and just kind of their mess of stuff. So I actually think that's a sneaky little pickup by them.

I do have some other news and notes. We're obviously not going to get to the Welsh's top pitching prospects today. But, you know, let's save it for next week. Let's let it breathe a little bit. I don't want to rush anything. Obviously, there's a lot of names to talk about. So we'll save that for next week. But some news and notes here before we wrap up.

The Mariners announced this week that Paul Seawald recently underwent procedures on both his elbow and heel, but is expected to be ready for the start of spring training. Something to watch. Can I ask you? Can I ask you on him? What is your thought? Are you a Paul Seawald guy or are you an Andres Munoz guy? I am a, the Mariners don't have a closer guy. So it's probably, it's probably going to be both. I mean, but I think, I think Munoz, I think they're kind of grooming him to be like the closer for years to come. It's, it's funny because at this time last year, we were all like, man, if only they'd just install Paul Seawald as their closer, that would be awesome.

And then they sort of did in the second half, and now everybody's wanting them to turn the page to Andrus Munoz. And I don't know. Like, Seawald was still awesome this past year. The fact he had something done to his elbow, I think maybe opens the door for them to start messing around with it again. But I was pretty firmly in the Seawald's camp before that. Not that Munoz is going to be a great closer.

It's just like, you throw 104 miles an hour. I don't know. I'm a Munoz, guy. I think he was built to be a closer. I think he's ready for it. The body has gotten bigger. He's just a big fireball pitcher. It's always beyond me.

I mean, I'm not a coach or baseball mine, but when you see guys like Johan Duran throwing 103, and you're saying Munoz throw 103 with that type of power with a second pitch, I just don't see how you can't put it out. And also, with how baseball's gone nowadays, why don't you let Paul Sewell be kind of the fireman? You know, get him in the eighth inning,

especially if you've got kind of a top of the order and let Munoz kind of close it down. So I don't know. I'm a Munoz guy. I think they're going around the same spot. But Closers could be the fireman guy. He could be the fight. You're 100% right if that team wants to institute that. I don't know. I just think those young big fireball pitchers are great in the ninth and have like a

solid veteran dude that can get in there and be the eighth inning guy to set him up. Is something I would love to see. But that's me also like pushing for Munoz here. The only reason why I kept saying no, no, no, no, no, no while you were talking, Scott is because this guy, this dingus last year, thought that Ken Giles would be the closer of the Seattle Barrettors. There's a difference between predicting who will be the closer and then saying who should be the closer. And I think, I think even you would have said, well, the easiest solution would just be to make Paul Seawald the closer.

Yeah, I mean, he was awesome the year before. He was awesome last year as well. I guess this year, last season per se. Cade Cavali, who is a pitching prospect with the Washington Nationals, is expected to open the year in their rotation, a little sneak peek. but the Welsh just has, does have Cavali inside of his top five pitching prospects for redraft leagues. So for next season, obviously not overall for dynasty purposes. But again, we'll talk about Cavali next week. Rockies manager Bud Black told reporters that Ezekiel Tovar is tracking towards being the team's opening day shortstop,

which means they'll probably try and lure Derek Jeter out of retirement and play him over Ezekieltov. Which means Jose Iglesias is resigning guaranteed, guys. Yeah. Tovar starts from opening day. I am very excited about him as a middle infield option for fantasy purposes. I also sent this to the Welsh recently, an article written by Derek Gould

who covers the Cardinals for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, stating that there will be an opportunity available for Jordan Walker to win an outfield job during spring training. Jordan Walker's early ADP is 256, Ezekiel Tovar's early ADP, 275. I like both a lot. Yeah, well, I mean, look, Tovar probably will have the job.

But, I mean, this was a nice admission from the Cardinals. They, like, they're trying to keep a path open for Jordan Walker to win the job in spring training, which means he probably will unless he just falls flat on his face. Right. So, yeah, I mean, stock up for both of them, for sure. I'm not really sure what the Cardinals are going to do because they just have a lot of, like, corner infield DH types. they got to make a move. I don't know what they're waiting for.

Sean Murphy would have made sense, but now they signed Wilson Contreras, so I'm not really sure. Yeah, they are tough because it's like they, they went full on Lars Newbar, which by the way, in my mind could be a little bit of kind of trade, you know, uh, game play where they're like, large new bar is going to play every single day and da da da, and then they go off and trade him. But you've got, you know, Carlson in center. You've got your pez out there. Looks like he would lock down the DH spot. Obviously still Tyler O'Neill. They've just got too many in there, which does make it a little bit convoluted. And it might be one of those things if Walker shows off early.

Maybe they do pull the trigger on a trade, which I don't mean to go off on a rail service. But if you had to pick one guy to leave that team, who do you think? Yeah, Pez being the obvious easy one, but from a return perspective, Dylan Carlson, probably. Do you think Carlson's the top guy that would get moved? Yeah, that's where my mind went first. Who would play center if he's moved? Walker, you see, that's the interesting thing. Walker started playing center field out here.

They could easily go to Tyler O'Neill if they want. Lars played center field out here as well. All those guys can play some center field. But Walker specifically in the final two weeks of the AFL was playing like nothing but center field, which I thought was really fascinating because I think they wanted to see how he would play out there. Yeah, I don't feel like he's athletic enough for it. Scott, I had the same idea when I went out to the AFF. this dude is athletic and he can run man I saw him running the bases he's fast like he definitely is fast enough to play center field I don't know like rangy like defensive um just if he's ready to like handle that at the major league level but he is definitely athletic enough to get he's new to the position everyone does need to remember like he only started playing right field like the final couple weeks of the season so that's why he played exclusively in the outfield um in the afl so I mean he probably has

equivalent to like 40 games playing outfield, if you really consider it. So spring training. So that would be, I think that would be a tough immediate transition. But I think what they would look at it is we have a team of three guys that can play out center field. If they wanted to start with Tyler O'Neill out there or Lars Neupar, they could transition Walker there over time during the season and they could kind of rotate. Speaking of prospects, having a shot to play a lot and make the opening day roster,

Did you see the note from Ken Rosenthal for the Dodgers? It's kind of buried in a Carlos Correa. Rumors article, Frank. Did you happen to see that one? I did not, but I hope it involves Miguel Vargas. He's not mentioned by name, but here's the quote from Ken Rosenthal on the athletic. The Dodgers are planning to incorporate a number of young minimum salary type players this season. I did see that one.

what you're talking about. Yeah. Miguel Barker. So basically he was saying they're probably not going after Carlos Correa. They got Trevor Bauer's salary that they maybe have to worry about depending on how things play out there. And it doesn't seem like they are going to be a big player this offseason. And they're wanting to usher in the young guys.

So that, I mean, Miguel Vargas, top of the list, but also like Michael Bush. Yep. I would think it's a chance. And there's also rumors that Justin Turner is already looking at other spots. Craig Mish had reported that the Marlins are looking at Justin Turner. So if Justin Turner comes off the market, that's going to be more of a telling piece that they're going to be able to start implementing some of those young guys. God, I would love to see Bush and Vargas.

But to your point, if you hear the words, young controllable with the Dodgers, it starts with Miguel Vargas. He's the number one piece that you're going to unleash on that team, whether it's in the outfield, third or first, whatever, obviously not first. But if they wanted to do that, it's Vargas. That's a great point. And someone, one of my friends recently sent me in a piece of an interview

that was done on Sirius XM MLB radio, and they were talking about how the Dodgers are not going to make a big move this off season because they just want to go all in on Otani next off season. Yeah, that was mentioned in here too. Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me one bit either. So I think that makes sense as well. The first ever MLB draft lottery went down on Tuesday night. The top five picks are the,

Pirates, the nationals, the tigers, the Rangers, and the twins. So if you refer any of those teams, congrats. And the latest rumors, we have the Cubs, Cardinals, twins, and Red Sox all showing interest in Danesby Swanson. And then the Red Sox Cubs and Padres are the biggest takers on Zander Bogart's right now. So I'm sure, you know, within the next couple days, weeks, we'll have a bunch more to report on and break down here. But that's the latest as of now.

We're going to wrap there for Scott and the Welsh. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening. And watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again on Tuesday. Bye-bye. Ho-ho-ho.