Fantasy Baseball Today - LIVE From First Pitch Arizona! Toughest Questions Entering 2026! (11/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

It's a LIVE Kokomo Friday from First Pitch Arizona! Kevin McGonigle has flashed in the Arizona Fall League (2:55). ... Let's get into tough questions for 2026: Who should be drafted as the SP4 (4:14)? ... Is Nick Kurtz a first-round pick (13:35)? ... What should the roles be for Roki Sasaki and Mason Miller (21:06)? ... Where to draft James Wood and Pete Crow-Armstrong (25:56)? ... How many steals should we expect for Juan Soto and Josh Naylor (31:52)? ... Which prospect debuts first (39:34)? ... Who should be the first rookie drafted (46:58)? ... Where in the world is Scott White (51:10)? ... We wrap up by playing some Scotty Doesn't Know (55:05)! Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@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/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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

Happy Cocoa Friday and live from First Bitch, Arizona. It's fantasy baseball today. I am Frank Sample, joined by Chris Tauer. Today on the show, we are answering or trying to answer the toughest questions for 2026. And later on in the show, we'll play a game of Scotty doesn't know, even though Scott White is nowhere to be found. Chris, true story, the question that we have received most this weekend so far, where is Scott White? Every time we go to one of these events, it's always the question. And it's really Scott doesn't want to leave his grandma's bedroom.

A bedroom would be a little bit weird. But yes, grandma's living room. That's correct. As mentioned, we are live at first pitch, Arizona. Big thanks to Baseball H.Q. Producer James Gale over there. We appreciate you. Chris, we've been out to a few AFL games so far since we've been here.

And Kevin McGonagall, what do you know? Tiger's top prospect last night, we got an RBI triple earlier today. Two-run Homer. It was like an RBI triple. It was a hard hit ball that probably should have been a single misplayed, but Friday, a legit, smoked two-run homer out to right center. He's a smaller dude, but he gets the most out of it because he's like 510, I think. So it's more hit than power, but there's clearly enough power there. He has looked as advertised so far.

He's been playing third base in the AFL, hopefully with a big spring training. Maybe we see him up on opening day. So it would be pretty cool to see that and see how the rest of the AFL plays out. Let's jump into the toughest questions for 2026. We actually created a Google survey gathering data for each of these questions. If you participated, we appreciate it. Thank you so much. But just to kind of poll the general public and see how people are feeling early on heading into 2026.

We will reference those results throughout the show. We got 427 responses, which is an okay sample size. Yeah. True story. We had like 150 the other day. We asked Scott White to tweet it out. Of course. We got us to support.

Scott White Bump. That's the Scott White Bump. He's a dude. All right, here we go. First, the number one question for 2026. We've heard it a bunch of times already. Who should be the SP4 in drafts after Terrick Scouble, Paul Skeens, and Garrick Crochet?

Originally, we had eight options for this question. Now we have two. Yoshinobu Yamamoto or the field. That's basically it. That's what it has become at this point. Who should be drafted as the. SP4 for next season. So by a show of hands, audience participation, should the SP4 next season be Yoshinobu Yamamoto? It's about half, maybe a little less than half. Maybe a little bit less

than half. All right, the field, I assume everyone else is part of the field. So all right, so let's talk about some of these options. The Google results say, by the way, a 57% chose Yamamoto to be the SP4 drafted for next season. The next closest was Christopher Sanchez, with 10.5% of the vote, Hunter Green, 10.3%, Logan Gilbert, 7%. And we did get a right-in vote for Ariel Cohen and his wicked screwball as the SP4 for next season. So it wasn't me, I swear. So if we look at early ADP, Chris, I mean, there's pretty obvious top three. There's scoobel skeins and crochet all going inside the top 12.

We dropped down to Yamamoto, who is at 26.2, and then we drop down again to Christopher Sanchez at 36. So even early ADP is kind of reflecting these early pull results. And what I think will be interesting to watch is whether this consensus forms and stays stable, the Yamamoto is kind of in a tier of his own, you know, maybe a round ahead of that next group. Or if we get a little further from how good he was in the World Series, because he was incredible. The whole postseason, two complete games, got three wins in the World Series, including part of why, spoiler, I don't think, Yamamoto should be the number four.

SP is the game seven win that he got was the very first time since he got to the majors that he's pitched on less than five days of rest. It was zero days rest. It was very impressive. But then given the way he was used in Japan, it might be the first time he's pitched on less than five days rest ever as a professional. So I don't know if we want to just get into that specifically now. But I do think the World Series is obviously weighing heavily on people's minds.

I'm fine with Yamamoto. is the number four SP, I don't think there should be a gap between him and the rest. I don't think, I think it should probably be three starting pitchers in the first round, probably none until the fourth round. But maybe the whole fourth round should be pitchers. And when we're referencing now, we're talking about 12 team leagues. I know people playing some 15 teamers and a lot of NFBC drafts are 15 team leagues. But most of the time when we talk about round value, it's going to be for 12 team leagues.

Just to remind people, I mean, you mentioned some of what Yamamoto did in the World Series. His overall postseason, 145 ERA, a 0.70 whip over 37 and a third innings that included back-to-back complete games, three wins in the World Series, as you mentioned. And I swear, this is the way I was leaning before the postseason, was to have Yamamoto as my SP4 heading into next season. I know that there will be some limitations in terms of workload, and I think that's a totally fair point. I think realistically, we're probably not projecting too many pitchers for more than 170 innings for next season anyway. so that's about where he got to in the regular season this year. But I think Yamamoto, again, even before the postseason, he just represents such a high floor.

And I think a pretty high ceiling, too, because he gets a lot of ground balls, he limits hard contact. And it's like a 10K per 9. He's not really a slouch in that way either. He's really good. I think the thing for me is when you're talking about drafting at this point, especially when you're talking about drafting at this point for starting pitchers,

I don't want to say nobody's safe, but I'll say it. They are varying degrees of unsafe, and they're mostly all unsafe. Maybe Yamamoto could be viewed as slightly more safe, certainly than Hunter Green. I think he's significantly safer. But I don't know if you should be drafting the number four SP in the second or early third round for safety. And I think if you line up Logan Gilbert, Chris Sale, Hunter Green, specifically those three guys, maybe DeGrom, maybe DeGrom, maybe Cole Reagan's, I think you can throw on there.

If they all hit their like 90th percentile outcome, I think they're all better than Yamamoto. And it just comes down to there is a hard ceiling on how many innings you're going to get out of Yamamoto. And just the year prior, he did have a pretty severe shoulder injury too. So it's, you know, we do have that kind of looming in the back of our minds. Like can he really be that much better than he was in 2025 when he was the number eight starting pitcher?

I think he's much more likely to finish as a top 12 starting pitcher than certainly Chris Sale giving his injury history, but I think Sale has a better chance to be the number four SP or number two, if things go right. We've seen that very recently. And when we talk value-based drafting too, if you consider Yamamoto in the same tier as Chris Sale or Brian Wu or Hunter Green or any of these other options for SP4, Cole Regens,

and you can get those guys a round or two later, why would you take Yamamoto in the early, you know, late second or early third round when you can maybe at the end of the fourth, you can just take like a Brian Wu or somebody like that. I would guess by the time we get to February and March, and especially, you know, with Shohei going to be a full-time starter, I think we're going to get a lot more discussion, a lot more reminders that this is going to be a six-man rotation.

And while most teams occasionally use a six-man, the Dodgers have the hardest ceiling in terms of how many starts they're going to get. You're going to get maybe 31 starts out of Yamamoto. Yeah. And that actually because it's a six-man rotation, but they want to spread him out. Like they want to spread Yamamoto and Otami out. So I totally get that. Well, the million dollar question, Chris, what is your answer to who the SP4 should be drafted?

I think it's Logan Gilbert or Chris. You had to know this question was coming, Chris. Yeah, it's Logan Gilbert or Chris. I think in terms of skill sets, both of them are just incredibly strong. Chris Sale, it's obviously been two straight seasons of a sub-25 ERA. He has the injury history, but in terms of like the kinds of injuries that I think are worrisome moving forward, there's just not that much for Chris Sale. He had the shoulder injury, I think, at the end of 2021. But other than that, it's been like, he broke his finger riding a bicycle.

He broke a rib making a play in the ninth inning. Like, it's just, it's been a lot of freak injuries for Chris Sale. And I know my only thing is like he's 37. Yes, he's 37. And maybe, look, maybe he's got like hollow. bones and like that's he's he's more yeah but like he he looks birdlike I can see it but I um and and then Logan Gilbert I mean it was like a 36% strikeout rate this season I think he had the third highest K minus walk ratio he did have the flexor strain this season that's a pretty big red

flag but it was 200 innings each of the previous two seasons I don't think he had missed a start with injury since becoming a pro before like may of this year so I think both of those guys there's risk involved. I think the skill sets just stronger for both of them than Yamamoto. So if I'm going to be fishing in that tier for pitchers, it's going to be for the highest upside possible

rather than kind of a higher floor like Yamamoto. Logan Gilbert was interesting too because I don't know if this is because he missed time with the injury, but they didn't really treat him like a workhorse this season. He went six plus innings in just eight of 25 starts.

In 2024, he went six plus innings in 26 of 33. three starts. So they relied on him much more the The walk rate was a little higher. The strike rate was higher. He was just less efficient this year. Yeah, I think it was more of an efficiency thing. And then obviously in the immediate aftermath of the elbow strain, he was, they were probably being a little more careful. Yeah. I mean, look, it's one of the biggest questions heading into next season. I don't know that there is a wrong answer now. Eventually

there will be a wrong answer based on the way guys perform and who gets hurt and things like that. I tweeted this out a couple weeks ago. I got a lot of angry Phillies fans. Phillies fans. Don't be so angry. Calm down, guys. But they all think that Christopher Sanchez should be, I think he's right in that mix. I think he's in that conversation. We were talking to Nick Pollock just before he has Brian Wu as his SP4. I think Brian Wu is right there in that group as well.

So a very interesting question heading into next season, but it now has become Yamamoto versus the field basically for that SP4. I will be surprised. I will say I was surprised how little Jacob de Grom there was. He got like 1% of the vote. And he stayed healthy. We got the full season. The upside wasn't as high.

but I do think there's a chance that the skill set might be a little better of another full year removed. So I could see there like the slider still has like a 50% whiff rate. The change up, which he doesn't use, I think probably nearly enough, had like a 45% whiff rate. The fastball was still very strong. He did kind of fade down the stretch and he gave up more home runs, I think, over his last 10 starts or so. And just have to worry about, you know, at his age, how will his body react to throwing 172 innings this past season? that's just something he hasn't done in so long. So I think he's in that mix.

I probably would have him lower down in that group, but I wouldn't really blame anybody if they wanted to take him as the SP4 for next season. Let's get into the next question here. And Nick Kurtz was a huge league winner in fantasy baseball this past season. Would you take Nick Kurtz in the first round of fantasy baseball draft? So the options we had here, yes in a 12-team league, yes, in a 15-team league, or no. So by a show of hands,

would you take Nick Kurtz in the first round of a 12-team league next season? Nobody here. He thought about it. I see it over there. Someone over there thought about it. You know. Yeah? Nick Kurtz?

Is it just because of his first name or? All right. Fair enough. What about yes, in a 15-team league you would take Nick Kurtz? All right. So we've got a few more hands there. And then everyone else is pretty much a no. But, you know, the way that people were talking about him towards the end of the season,

and it felt like a foregone conclusion that he would be kind of, you know, one of those late first round picks. I don't think he's going to be far off. He probably winds up as like an early to mid-second round pick. I think the early ADP on Nick Kurtz is... Right around 15, I think. 15.3.

So yeah, he's right there in that makes... When we were originally throwing this conversation around, planning for this, it was like, is Nick Kurtz a first rounder or Nick Kurtz versus Vladimir Guerrera? Yeah, was how we were framing it. And I think this was before. before the playoffs really were going.

I think Vlad's postseason made that a lot closer. I think that's going to make it a lot closer. Yeah, because in the mock draft that we did for FBT last week, Guerrero actually went ahead. I think it was the first pick of the second round. Kurtz was like 17th overall. I think Kurtz went in the right spot. I think 17 overall sounds great for him.

I think that's probably a round too early for Vlad. As good as he is, too early for him. Okay. Yeah, I think he's, Kurtz is more of a mid to late first rounder. I think Vlad's two, three turn in the 12 team league. I think if that remains the case, I'm much more likely to take Vlad.

Vlad, I mean, while he flashed in the postseason, he's just so frustrating. Every regular fantasy season that we get is, you know, he's, he kind of fluctuates, and we just don't really get that big power output from Vlad, and we know he's capable of it. We just saw it in the playoffs. Like, he's immensely talented. The last hundred games of 2024, all of 2021, but it's together for a whole season. It's just, uh. Nick Kurtz, by the way, 36 homers, an OPS just over 1,000 in 117 games.

His full season pays 49 homers, 124 runs scored 119 RBI. The power is insane. The average exit velocity, the barrel rate, he can hit home runs

to all fields as we saw. But I do think there's significant batting average risk for Nick Kurtz. His XBA was 255 that was while hitting 290. His strikeout rate was 31%. And while it got better in August,

I thought he would build off of that, it jumped back up to up over 30% again in September. So if Nick Kurt's remains an early second round pick, I'm probably just going to be out at that price. Yeah. So here's, it never feels good to like Poo-Poo, the hot young rookie because I think Nick Kurtz is an incredible hitter.

I think that A's lineup, I think there were 12th and runs scored this year. I would take the under, which is to say they would finish higher. It was an annoying way to say that. I think that ballpark's going to be a huge help for him. I think it's basically the best hitter. ballpark outside of course field. I just, I look at this stat. Nick Hertz was the sixth rookie to have at least 450 plate appearances and a 1,000 OPS.

And the list of guys is really impressive. It's Aaron Judge, Albert Pooholl's, Ryan Braun, Ted Williams, and of course, Bernie Carbo. Who could forget, Bernie Carbo? 1977, I think. 104 OPS. Judge's next season, 919. Poole's 9. 955, Braun 888, Ted Williams, okay, he's the best hitter ever, 1036.

Bernie Carbo, 677, it's probably not a fluke, but I think you should bet on 100 points of OPS regression from Nick Kurtz, and that's probably mostly going to come from batting average. I think he's more like a 260 hitter than a 290 hitter. He's probably one of the safest bets for 35, 40 homers in baseball. He's going to drive in a bunch of runs. he's going to score a bunch of runs. I just think he's likelier to be Madelson than Aaron Judge, I guess, would be the con.

But it could be kind of that high-end Madelson season, maybe not necessarily with the batting average. The one thing I do wonder with Kurtz, and we've seen this with Judge, not that we want to comp anybody to judge the hitter that he's turned into, but even early career judge, while striking out 30% of the time,

he was able to run a high batting average just because he hit the ball so hard. So is there a chance that Nick Kurtz, despite striking out 30% of the time, can still hit 270, 280 just because he hits the ball as hard as he does? It's possible. It is possible. His bad-ups and the minors were sky high. He might just be a really, like Mike Trout was always a super high babbip guy early on in his career as well. So it's certainly possible.

It's just you shouldn't bet on outliers, especially if you're betting how much profit is there on the 15th pick with Nick Kurtz. I just, I think you're betting that's pretty close to the ceiling for a guy who won't steal bases. And even like an optimistic batting average projection is probably more like 275, 280. All right, let's move on to the next one here. And we're going to be talking about Roki Sasaki and Mason Miller. What should their roles be in 2026? So the options here, both should be starters, bolts should be closers. Roki starts, Miller relieves, or Miller starts and Rokey Relieves?

That's definitely not confusing at all. But by a show of hands, how many people here think Roki Sasaki and Mason Miller should both be starters next season? We got two. Two. All right. What about both should be closers next season? All right, that is a lot more than two.

I think Roki and Miller should be relievers for next season. What about Roki starts and Miller relieves? Okay, quite a few for those as well. And then the last one is Miller starts and Roki relieves. You got a couple. just too. All right. So, look, most people either think that it should be both should be closers or Roki starts and

Miller relieves for next season. And the survey results, 46% say that Bultchby closers, 35% say Roki starts, Miller relieves, the other options, 11% Bollch Boll should be starters, 8% Miller starts and Rookie relieves. For me, Chris, this one's interesting

because I think there's two ways to answer this question. What I think they should do is that they should probably I think Roki should get a chance to start again. I think Mason Miller should relieve. What I think is going to happen is that they're going to try both out as starters next season. Unfortunately, my concern with Miller specifically is I just really don't think he could be a starter.

He's just never shown the ability to remain healthy while starting a starter's workload. I want to say when he got to the majors, he had thrown like 40 innings professionally because of injuries. I just, I think he's a closer. Like, he's built. He's gigantic. Like he's got, yeah, Mason Miller. Yeah, he's built like an NFL safety.

He's really big. It's just, he, he came to his velocity late, and I just don't know. We just haven't seen him be able to hold up. I think it's, it would, it makes sense why the Padre is given what they gave up for him

and given their very obvious needs in the rotation. It makes sense why they would want to use him that way. I just think it's inviting disaster. As for Sasaki, I agree they. should start him or try to start him as a starter. He's just still so young, you know. Yeah, you shouldn't give up on that.

I don't think he's going to be effective as a starter, at least based on what we saw, even in the postseason, like the ERA was pretty low for Sasaki, but it wasn't a lot of strikeouts. It wasn't as many whiffs as you'd like. And this was pitching in, you know, usually one inning roll, sometimes two inning roll, being able to max out and air it out. I didn't think Roki Sasaki, like, even if he was going to be in the bullpen, okay, you draft him pretty high because he's the Dodgers closer, presumably.

I don't think he was all that impressive pitching out of the bullpen. I expected with the velocity back, I expected there to be more whiffs. I expected there to be more strikeouts. And it just, he looked better, but it wasn't like shut down closer, at least what I saw. Yeah. And just to remind people. people what the Padres gave up to get Mason Miller in that trade was Leo DeVrys, who is like a top 10 overall prospect in all of baseball. I just, even if Mason Miller, they had four years of,

however many years of team control as the best closer in baseball, I don't think that's worth giving up Leo DeVries. We don't know what Leo DeVries is going to be, but so far, I mean, even since being traded over to the, to the A system, I mean, he was mashing it in the minors. I just think that's a really risky way to view it. I understand they may view it, but that feels like it was the gambler's fallacy. You're pot committed. You've got to keep chasing it. I think Mason Miller's likeliest high value role is going to be as the best closer in baseball.

Yeah. I mean, I wonder if the way they look at it is they had success doing this with other pitchers. Now, granted, I mean, Seth Lugo, when he transitioned from being a reliever to start, didn't throw 103 miles per hour. So it's not exactly the same thing. They did have Michael King who came over from the Yankees. and obviously the Yankees transitioned him as well. On the Dodgers side of things,

I also think that they're just going to be pretty aggressive this offseason in the reliever market. Yeah. Whether that's a trade or Robert Suarez is available, Devin Williams is available, Edwin Diaz, while I think is going to wind up back with the Mets, what if the Dodgers just throw a crazy amount of money at him? Like we've seen that happen before. So, yeah, I do think that they're probably going to wind up trying to sign a closer in the offseason and perhaps Rokie's sock doesn't sign that chance.

Signing two closers last off season. Worked out great. Didn't work out for them somehow. Tanner Scott and Kirby Hates, yeah, did not work out so well. All right, next question. Here we go. We have, where would you draft James Wood and Pete Crow Armstrong? I mean, just a reminder, these guys were two of the best players in fantasy baseball

in the first half of the season and then really collapsed down the stretch here. The options, top 15, top 24, top 36, top 48, outside the top 50. again for both James Wood and Pete Crow Armstrong. So by show of hands, top 15. Anyone drafting both PCA and James Wood top 15? No, you shouldn't. Nah, you shouldn't do that. Top 24?

Probably shouldn't either. All right, all right. We got one. We got one. What about top 36? All right, a lot more hands there. We're, you know, third round of a 12-team league. Early third round in a 15-team.

What about top 48 for PCA and James Wood? and then outside the top 50? All right, we got a couple of haters. We do have a couple haters. Sam, what did they do at your mariners, man? Come on. Anything there? Yeah.

So the results that we got from the Google survey, 42% went with top 36 as well, which by a show of hands, I think that's the most that we had here as well. 32% said top 48, 14% for top 24, 12% outside of top 50. Only 1% for top 50. And this was, when we did our, you know, we did a re-ranking the first two rounds at the All-Star break. And I think

PCA was number 17. I want to say Wood, Wood was definitely also top 24 at that time. They were both on at least 30, 30 paces. PCA was on like a 45, 45 pace at the All-Star game. And I remember people in the comments being upset that we had PCA as low as 17, that we were doing him a disservice. I actually think James Wood's second half might have been more concerning, though. And I'm still waiting for some kind of James Wood was playing through an injury report because his sprint speed fell off.

He was like 65th percentile this season. He stopped running nearly as much. He got worse in the second half against lefties, although he's pretty bad the whole time. The quality of contact wasn't because it's just the whole game really took a step back from James Wood in a way that felt less like what happened with PCA, which I think was just he's a volatile player. I don't think PCA was much different in the first half versus the

second half. There were some changes in his batting stance that were noticed. But for the most part, I think that's just kind of who PCA is going to be. And you've got to live with the ups and downs. He's going to be volatile because he's got really bad swing decisions. But on the whole, I don't think the second half of the season told us something new about PCA. and I worry that maybe James Wood struggles in the second half if he wasn't dealing with an injury could portend some real risk there. Yeah, and we heard this about his profile

when he was in the minors, right? He's just, James Wood is such a massive human being that he's just obviously going to have some holes in that swing. And so in that second half, 223 batting average, 690 OPS, 39% strikeout rate, 79% zone contact, 14.4% swinging strike rate. So just across the board, very worrisome numbers there for James Wood. I mean, there is a chance that he was playing through an injury, like you said.

Or maybe he was just being exploited a little bit and just has natural holes in his swim. And it's, I think we can sometimes forget these guys are humans. He was playing on a very bad team that I think entered the season with some expectations and certainly some hope that they would take a step forward. And I feel like the vibes in Washington were just rotten all season. So it's like it's entirely possible. that the 22-year-old just didn't respond well to that in a way that maybe doesn't tell us anything moving forward.

What percentage chance would you put on the home run derby just completely ruining James Wood? No, you're a big home run derby guy. 2%. I don't think that's the answer. Well, I tried. Cow Raleigh still got his 60 homers, you know? Yeah, that's true. Early ADP, by the way, James Wood is at 29.8 and PCA is at 31.5, just to give people a little...

I think it's surprising. Surprising why? that Woods ahead of PCA because PCA at least has the stolen base floor if they're you know I think they're relatively equally volatile maybe Wood is a more talented hitter certainly but PCA

would seem to have a much higher stolen base floor what if people are just chasing the power ceiling with James Wood right like the opportunity to hit you know 45 50 home runs with I don't know 15 to 20 seal or something like that that's entirely possible and I think there's basically no risk that James Wood playing

for a mediocre Nationals team is ever going to playing time. PCA's got some really startlingly poor numbers against lefties. I think it was like 55-5-strikeouts to five walks with like an 85-mile-per-hour average velocity against. But he's just so good defensively. I can't imagine overall would they ever sit him, yeah. But they do, even if they let Kyle Tucker leave, they have more majorly caliber

outfielder than they necessarily need any given day. So I think there's just a small amount of playing time risk with PCA if he continues to be, you know, that bad against him. lefties. Just to put some names around here in that ADP range, P. Lonzo, Mookie Betts, Cotel Marte, Zach Netto, that's kind of an interesting point. Yeah, certainly some safer guys. And then you have Netto who has a similar power speed combo. Does that sound right? That feels right. Just depending on what you're kind of maybe what your first round was, whether you're chasing, you know, upside with wood especially. Yoron Alvarez going behind both.

I will take Yorda and Alvarez ahead of both of them. Personally. Little injury risk. I know that is a lot of injury risk, but I will, I don't think there's more than four hitters who have a better chance of a 300 average and 40 homers

than you aren't an hour for us. Let's keep things moving here. And one of the craziest things I think that happened in all fantasy this year, Juan Soto and Josh Naler, all these stolen bases. Where did they come from? Both guys ranking bottom 15% in sprint speed?

I mean, in Josh Niller's case, he's like second percentiles. Prince Be legitimately one of the slowest players in all of baseball. And we had Soto give us 38 steals. Josh Naler went from six the previous year to 30, which is insane. So we set some over unders for stolen bases for these two. Juan Soto, the over under is 19 and a half stolen bases. Over, over 19 and a half for Soto next year.

How many people think he goes over that number? We got a few. Definitely a minority. what about under 19.5. It's everyone else. Yeah, so a little bit more people think he's going. Under the results agreed. 60% said Soto, expected to go under 19.5.

And for Josh Nailer, we set the over under at 14.5. So how many people think Josh Naler goes over 14 and a half steals next season? Looks like that many. Almost the exact same people. Sam the Mariners fan is going to say over on Josh Nailer. And then everyone else is going to say under, obviously. So the results there, 67% said Josh Nailer, under 14.5% based on the polls that we ran. And you know what, Chris, we put these numbers out before steamer projections came out.

Steamer has Soto for 20, Josh Nailer for 15. That's very good. Look at us. We got to move to Vegas. Fantasy odds maker right here. I don't know. I might have a future in it. What do you think right now? What is your lean for both Soto and Josh Nailer?

Both of these made so little sense that I can't even like, intellectualize my thoughts on what like one sodo should not have stolen 38 bases Josh Naylor shouldn't have stolen 30 the before those two the slowest player in the stack cast error with 30 steals in the season was Kyle Tucker he was like 33rd percent out sprint speed I think Juan Soto was 15th percent out this season and Josh Nader like you said was second percent out like these were by far but like and the craziest thing about uh Josh Naler in particular was like I had a running joke with my friend

where we just text each other every time he stole a base. And when he got to Seattle, it was like every other game. And usually no throw. Like, I feel like half of his steals, he didn't even slide. He was just getting like these outrageously good jumps. And I have no idea how sustainable or predictive any of that is. I know the Mets lost their first base coach, which a lot of people have credited for their incredible base stealing,

especially Soto. And I have to take these. under on both just because they're slow. They have no track record of this before. And also, I think with Naylor, I will add, there's a little bit of what we saw with Willie Adamas in 24, where it's a contract year. One of the things you can control is how often you run, because it's about skill, but it's also about wanting to do it. And there's some financial incentive in being able to say, hey, I stole 30 bases last year. Look at what a positive I was on the base. Just to prove how unlikely this was, again, even more unlikely. Soto had 34 total steals in his previous

four seasons combined entering this past year. And again, he had 38. Josh Naler, his previous high was 10. He went from 6 to 30. He had 25 total steals in 598 career games entering 2020. It ruled. It was so fun. I mean, that's the beauty of baseball, right? I mean, it's just like two of the slowest guys is going out there and stealing 30 plus bags. It reminds me of like pools back in the day. Yeah. One of the slowest players in baseball, but just baseball savvy IQ. He was able to steal 12 to 15 bases.

Lake career Freddie Freeman has consistently been like a 12 to, I think you had 23 a couple years ago while not. It's just it's not just about speed. It's about jumps and and getting good reads and all that stuff. I just, I can't bet on this happening again or anything close. And I don't think you can. value them as if they're going to do it again. That's what makes it really tough, especially for Naylor, who I think was the number three

first baseman this season. But if he had had 11 steals instead, which would have been a career high, he's probably the number nine first baseman. So I think that makes it much more difficult to try to figure out what our value these guys. I'm going to guess I'm going to be out on Naylor at price this year just because I don't really think I can buy him expecting him to contribute much. for Stolen Base. The early ADP 71.4 on Josh Neeler,

that's not terrible. I feel like he was later the year before and was worse as a hitter in 2025. So that's my concern. Just that if the steals are going to get cut in half, we obviously need to figure out where he lands also. I would take the under for both as well. You mentioned the Mets lost Antoine Richardson

as their first base coach. He went to the Atlanta Braves. And not only Soto, but other Mets players credited Antoine Richardson for helping them kind of improve. their their their jumps that they were getting the leads that they were getting draft matt olson for speed yeah man that was Ronald Ocuna bounce back for speed maybe we'll see what happens there uh Josh Naylor I will say under as well with a caveat that if he goes back to Seattle yeah

I could see him going to over 14 a half I can see like 15 to 20 for josh Naylor if he goes back to the Seattle Mariners well because like I mentioned lily adamas I think his second highest total was 25 he just lost about 10 from his 2024 total so yeah All right, let's move on and talk about some prospects here. And the next question, which top prospect makes their debut first in 2026? The options, Connor Griffin of the Pirates, Kevin McGonagall of the Tigers, who we spoke about earlier, J.J. Weatherholt with the Cardinals, Colt Emerson with the Mariners, Andrew Painter with the Phillies or other.

And the results, well, before I guess the results, I guess, which top prospect makes their debut first? I'll ask you guys, we'll go with Connor Griffin of the Pirates. Okay, we got two hands there. I will say you can, you can vote for multiples because they could, you know, they could all debut on opening day, I guess, yeah. Kevin McGonoggle with the Tigers.

All right, quite a few hands on McGonogical. What about JJ Weatherholt with the Cardinals? I think he's definitely, he's the one who gets confirmed first, I think. Yeah. Next up we have Andrew Painter, the Phillies. And lastly, we have Colt Emerson with the Mariners. No surprise there. I love it.

So the results, JJ Weatherholt was the leader and who makes their debut first next season at 33%. Andrew Painter was second at 28%. Kevin McGonagall at 26% and Connor Griffin at 8%. We did have a write-in vote

that said like multiple people just make their opening day debut, which I think could totally happen. I could see Weatherhold and McGonagall up on opening day. It's not going to be Painter because he's unlikely to be the open day starter for the Phillies. But I think there's a decent

chance he's in the like you could look at it as when do they get announced as being like who gets announced first i would say that's probably weatherholt but i think weatherholt i think mcgonigal i'm painter i'm i need to pick the brains of some smart people because i i thought his season was really discouraging even knowing he was coming back from tommy john surgery even knowing how young he is i think he's turns 22 on opening day or something like that um 23 on april 10 yeah So, you know, there's still a lot of room, but it's giving me like Shane Baws post Tommy John surgery vibes where like the skills are still there. The velocity is mostly still there, but just he just wasn't really good at anything. 526.

Yeah. And it didn't get better. That's one of the things for me is just if you struggle first coming back, Yuri Perez, Sandy Alcantra this season both were not great early on, but both started to click in. And you just never saw that with Andrew Painter at AAA. We thought it was guaranteed that he would be up at some point. He just never forced the Phillies hand. So I'm a little worried about Andrew Painter. I think you and I have the same answer for this one.

And honestly, I don't think we have the time of games on opening day. I mean, I was going to get really technical. I'm like, what time do guys play on opening day? To the Cubs and Dodgers again? No, someone's playing in Japan. I don't think there is any games overseas because of the World Baseball Classic is going on. And this is weird. I don't remember this ever happening before.

There's an opening day. Okay, yeah. The night and four opening day, and it's the Yankees and Giants at I think like 8 p.m. Eastern Time or something. And maybe Spencer Jones. Maybe that's the right answer. Oh, well, no, Bryce Aldridge already made his statement.

So yeah, that one wouldn't count either. Both of our answers are JJ Weatherholt. That's the guy that we think. But I could see Kevin McGonogel as well. Why do you think JJ Weatherholt is the top option to be up on opening day? He's one that there's just plainly, of all these guys, I think he's had the most success at AAA. He got there at the end of the season,

more than held his own. It doesn't seem like there's much left for him to learn at the minor league level. And whether it's second base, whether it's third base, if they, you know, find someone to take Nolan Aeronado and convince Nollanato to take someone on, I just think Weatherholt is all but guaranteed a starting spot to the point where I think it's a Christian Campbell situation, more. Even if he's not great at spring training, I think they're just going to ride with him. Yeah, we spoke about Kevin McGonoggle earlier, what we saw him do in the AFL while we've been out here. I mean, his numbers overall, he's hitting over 400, I believe. Arguably the top prospect of baseball. OPS over a thousand here in the AFL.

And the only thing about McGonigel, he's only played 46 games at AA. So. And I think the batting average was a little low. Yeah, it was 250. There was a little, yeah. He hit a speed bump for the first time. It's nothing concerning. I think strike a rate was still very. solid, plate discipline's excellent, but he's mastered the high miners slightly less than JJ Weatherholt, even though he is probably the better prospect. Yeah, my answer is Weatherholt as well. He's older than these others. He's 23 years old. He already got 47 games in at

AAA, got better each time he got promoted in 2025. Overall numbers hit 306, 17 home runs, 233-0PS. He's got a great eye at the plate. Nearly as many walks his strikeouts is incredible. could see two 60, 270-ish, 15-15 as a rookie for J.J. Weatherhole, which, you know, would be useful player. A borderline, you know, starter in a 12th team league or like a corner or middle infield or something like that. I will say for next season. Connor Griffin, when Scott and I did our, I think you were out of town in September, so we did like an early bold predictions for 2026. And one of mine was Connor Griffin is on the opening day roster for the Pirates. I'm, I think he'll just have turned 20 on opening day, if, if that at all. He,

He's super young. He's barely played. I think, did he get to AA? He might have just gotten to double A. That one, though, I just, the pirates need to look like they're trying. I just, like, I know that's not like the most. One, like, can you count on the pirates to look like they're trying? Maybe not.

But I just think, like, there were two different appearances that Bob Nutting had at PNC Park last year. And I think he got booed by everybody at the stadium at both times. Like the pirates are not in a good place, PR-wise, despite having Paul Skeens. I think they have to have some forward momentum this year. And I do think getting Connor Griffin on the opening air roster might be a way to get a little cheap heat from the fans. It's been a popular question this weekend, too. Just, you know, lots of prospect people out here. We've been, you know, asking people what they think.

And it's pretty split. I mean, some people think that the pirates could be really aggressive in Connor Griffin. is up on opening day, possibly signing an extension this offseason and kind of, you know, starting that clock and gives them a reason to be up on opening day if they really want to be aggressive. But again, we don't really have a track record of the pirates doing things like that. Or just keeping him down all the way into like August or September and then, you know, not starting his clock until 2027. They might burn the north side down. Like that's just like I just I don't think the pirates can get away.

Like I look at this point, maybe they just view it as like, sunk cost, who cares, their fans hate them anyway, it doesn't matter. But I just, man, that would feel so, especially if he holds his own at spring training, I just, I don't think they can go into the season not trying again. Like, Paul Schen is going to demand a trade. Like, that's, it's the worst case scenario. Might happen this all season. He probably should.

Non-zero chance. Well, while we're talking prospects, let's wrap up our discussion on the tough questions for next season, with one final prospect question. Who should be the first prospect drafted in 2026? First rookie eligible. Rookie, yeah. Prospect E player in 2026. And lots of options here.

There's Bryce Eldridge with the Giants. Trey is Savage with the Blue Jays, who was exactly that in the postseason, a Savage. Nolan McLean with the Mets, Bubba Chandler with the Pirates, Sam Bessio with the Orioles, Kevin McGonigal with the Tigers,

Connor Griffin with the pirates, J.J. Weatherholt with the Cardinals. Lots of names here, so I'm not going to pull the audience once again, but I will just reveal the results. And it was basically a two-man race here, Chris. It was 36% for Trey Savage, 34% for Noah McLean.

The next closest was Bubba Chandler at 8%. So I guess what do you think about those results? Is it a recency bias who just saw Trey a Savage? Or is that your answer too? Do you think he should be the top rookie prospect player drafted next season? I would go on Nolan McLean. I think it's a little bit of an upside versus floor thing

where Nolan McLean, just more proven at the highest levels. Gets a ton of ground balls. Gets a ton of ground balls. Has a great team around him, although we suspect Trey Savage will as well. I mean, as a Yankee fan, I hope they suck. Probably not going to happen. But I just, I really like Nolan McLean's skill set,

that deep arsenal. He reminds me a lot of Logan Webb in the way he attacks hitters, has a great four-seamer for WIFs, has multiple breaking balls. He can throw for strikes. It's like Logan Webb with even more strikeout upside. maybe yeah i mean because you know web took a step forward this year but he's kind of peaked around 26 28 percent maybe nola mcclain can be a little better than that um so i think mcclain you have a i think

you have a higher innings floor you savage just didn't throw a ton of innings this season so i think mclean just a little safer with plenty of upside of his own i do want to highlight Bryce Eldridge just because I think there's something you see there. This is just a name to remember because Bryce Eldridge coming into last season, Midway, you know, whenever before Nick Kurtz got called up, very similar prospects. Nick Kurtz might have actually, or Bryce Eldridge might have actually been ranked higher on at least a couple of lists. And obviously Nick Kurtz, you take Nick Kurtz over Bryce Eldridge, what he did at the major league

level. But I do think what we're seeing with Bryce Eldridge a little bit is he got called up for those 10 games at the end of the season. We learned after the season he needed wrist surgery. He was bad in those 10 games. And I think it's one of those situations where if he doesn't get called up and he just finishes the season with, you know, an 850 OPS and 25, 30 home runs, whatever he got at AAA. He probably goes earlier than he will in this timeline where he got called up for 10 games, which is nothing. You can't learn anything about a player in 10 games. So Bryce Eldridge is someone will be a very popular sleeper pick for me. We'll be on all my sleeper.

superless and I'm very excited even if I don't think he should win this poll obviously. Yeah, and the early ADP, again, we're dealing with a very small sample size so far. It's 20 NFBC drafts that have been completed to this point. Nolan McLean is far away. The answer to this question, he's 118.4 is the early ADP there. Traeus Havage, 161.7. That's going to keep going up, though. Yeah, that's going to keep going up.

Yeah, I think so. Struck out 12 in the World Series. Probably some of those drafts hadn't even finished by then. Yeah. How about Bubba Chandler? his ADP is actually a few spots higher than Trady Savage so far. I think that will obviously switch. But that's another one where like Chandler had that weird funk midseason, but then he got

called up to the majors and looked okay. Because he should have been up in May. I think I think, yeah, he just got, I think he probably got in his own head. I don't want to like armchair psychologist eyes or anything. But I think he probably just realized, okay, they're not going to call me up no matter what I do. So I'm not going to give my best. I don't think it was like a conscious thing.

But yeah, he probably was not at full. All right, so those were the toughest questions for 2026. We are going to play Scottie doesn't know if you've listened to the podcast before. You know how this usually works. I give you one statistical clue. You try to guess the player. The point is actually to get it wrong so that I could play the sound clip. Scottie doesn't know from made famous by the 2004 classic Euro trip, of course.

But I mentioned earlier, Chris, that the question we have received most this weekend is where is Scott White? why don't we try to find out where Scott White is? I think, do it, call him. Scott might be really mad about getting a call at like, you know, it's 7. It's almost 10 o'clock. It's almost 10 o'clock in South Florida right now. The odds on favorite is that he's not going to answer this call. I mean, normally like, if he saw a call for me, he probably wouldn't answer it anyway.

But at 10 o'clock on a Friday while he knows we're together in Arizona, there's virtually no change. I think if he finds out you're playing it on a Bluetooth speaker in a, room full of people he's going to hang up immediately. Yeah, what do we got? What are the odds? Three and a half rings before he sends it to voicemail. All right, so where in the world is Scott White? Let's see if he answers here. All right.

It's coming out of the speaker. We are calling Scott Way live, first pitch, Arizona. All right, we've got two rings. 9.52 on the East Coast. That's three. So, Scott, if you haven't figured this out yet, we are podcasting live at First Pitch, Arizona. We are calling you through a Bluetooth spoof. And everybody here can hear you right now.

And they want to know where is Scott White. So that's why we called you. I am in South Florida, where I live in the living room. How's it going? In your grandma's living room? I'm eating some of my kids' Halloween cans. Love it, love it. We won't tell them. We won't tell them.

All right, Scott, now look, we are ecstatic. The odds were that you, there's no chance that you were going to answer my phone call at nearly 10 p.m. Eastern time on a Friday night, but we are so glad that you did. So glad that we're going to ask you for 30 seconds. I did not prompt you for this, so I do apologize in advance. A quick 30 seconds on why you love Ben Rice for next season. Why I love Ben Rice for 19 and well, he's catcher eligible, but I think there's a good chance he's just the Yankees every day first base. I think he's awesome.

I mean, even if you look beyond just the top line stats he put up in 2025, like stack assets suggest he's so much more than that. Because like the underperformed all of expected stats and there's nothing tricky in. the profile, like the full air rate is awesome, and he's a left-handed hitter at Yankee Stadium. So, like, I buy the expected set. I don't think there's a little trick in the numbers there. And so I think he could

be even better and quite even more. And if you catcher eligible, it'll be amazing. Guys, round of applause for Scott White. Let's go. We love you, Scotty. Completely unprompted. He did not know this was coming. In fact, Chris and I thought of it, like, an hour before we were going to podcast. We're like, yeah, let's give

Scott a call and figure out where he is. So Scott, we appreciate it immensely. Enjoy the candy. All right. I'm glad I can't get true. Yes, and we're actually about to play Scott. He doesn't know, so. All right, man, have a good night.

Have a good Cogamo Friday. All right, that was amazing. There was no way I thought he was going to add. That went way better than I expected. To be completely honest, check my text messages with Scott. He had no idea that was coming. Like, I did not prompt him at all. He's probably going to text me right now and say how much he hates me.

Don't ever do that ever again. but it was totally worth it. So, let's play Scotty doesn't know. We are going to have... Have anybody in the audience named Scott, by the way? Anybody in the audience named Scott? No, Scott, okay. We were going to give first priority to answering questions.

I was like, yeah, if your name is Scott, you automatically get to play first. So anybody want to lie and say their name is... Scott? Scott? Scott? Scott? Scott? No.

All right. All right. Well, who would like to play? Scottie doesn't know. Come on up. Come on. Come on. It's okay.

Yeah, let's go! There's your microphone. You can grab that over there. Come play the game you're designed to lose. Yes, everyone loves this game. I want to lose. All right. What is your name?

Where are you from? Jonathan from Orlando, Florida. Give it up for Jonathan. We appreciate you. All right. So, Scotty doesn't know. Again, I will give you a clue. You will try your best to answer it.

It's totally fine if you get it right. Not really. But if you get it right, okay, if you get it wrong, we play the sound drop. All right. So, I was the fourth biggest underachiever in Wobah versus X Wobah this past season. It could be anybody.

So I will say, there was a hint. Don't help him. Wobah versus X Woba? Yeah. Who was an underachiever in Statcast this season? It could be anybody. It's a stage fright. It's totally fine.

So opposite of Ben Ruff? I'll just say Cody Bellinger. You know what? He plays for the same team. It is Ben Rice. that's why. Yes. So the answer was Ben Rice.

We appreciate you. The batting average for Ben Rice was 255. The XBA was 289. The slug for Ben Rice, 499, the X-Lug 551. As great as he was as a rookie, Chris, he might be even better next year.

I mean, there's a legitimate chance he hits 280 with 35 plus homers. Yeah. Top 20 in Ex Wobah. The one thing I will point out is he did also underperform his expected stats in 2024. It was a much smaller sample size. He got better across the board at everything.

But we do have two samples of Ben Rice underperforming his expectations, which is surprising left-handed hitter at Yankee Stadium. That's kind of the opposite of what you would expect. Great pull-dair rate with Scott. I mean, we did. Yeah, if you were playing your FBT drinking game, we got a pull-dair rate from Scott.

You are going to get that a lot this off-season, by the way. like Scott's pet stat, pull there, right, you're going to get that a lot. But that is the one hesitation I have in saying, oh, yeah, Ben Rice is just a superstar because it was a little bit of underperformance, but he got so much better in his second season. And we saw it in spring training. I remember he had four batted balls in spring training that were harder hit than any batted ball that he had had tracked. And his swing speed was a lot, too.

And so there were signs that this was going to happen. And look, I saw a quote from Aaron Boone that they're going to play him like 10 to 15 games at Catcher in 2025, or 2026, that's the hope. It's making an even 20. Yeah, let's get them even 20. That's the following season, right? 20 for Ben Rice, 20 for Augustine Ramirez, and then no more.

Neither of them should be playing catcher more than that. The early ADP, by the way, Ben Rice is going at 77.6 as the catcher 5, right behind Hunter Goodman. Who would you take right now? Just snap decision, Hunter Goodman versus Ben Rice. Goodman, I think, is my number. I think so, too, but you can just dream on that upside there

with Ben, All right, Scotty doesn't know. Any other participants? We have three other questions. So anybody, all right, let's hop on up. Let's do it. All right, what's your name? Where you're from?

Jim, Indianapolis. All right, Jim, like that Cardinals hat, too. You were very excited about JJ Weatherhole. All right. I led all qualified hitters in OPS in the second half of the season and 1121 OPS. Hmm. Who did it?

Did you get a hint? Was it? Was it Kurtz? Nick Kurtz? It was not Nick Kurtz. Jim doesn't know. Jim doesn't know. Jim doesn't know. Jim doesn't know.

No, it's a great job there. It was George Springer, who carried everything over into the postseason where he was ridiculous. And Chris, to be honest, we could have totally just had a tough question about George Springer for next season, too. Yeah, I really don't know what to make of it.

Bounced back at 36 with arguably the best season of his career. The underlying number is completely back it up. kept it up in the postseason despite playing through multiple injuries. And that's one thing to keep in mind with George Springer is early in his career, we missed a ton of time from him with injuries. That hasn't really been an issue the last like four seasons. It hasn't been like 162 games, but it's been mostly 135, 140, 145. Last year was almost certainly a best case scenario for George Springer.

And I don't think you should expect a repeat of that. But 25 homers, a 270. batting average, 15 steals, that all feels pretty doable. And it's probably going to make him, you know, I think his early ADP has been outside of the top 100 still. So there's still room for George Springer to provide some value. The early ADP is right at 110 as the 24th outfielder off the board. Steamer projections came out the other day.

They had Springer as the 10th best outfielder based on steamer projections for next season. So he is a crazy one. I mean, if you look at the OPSs by year, the previous four seasons, starting in 2021, 907, 814, 732, 674, and then all the way up to 959, which is crazy. Started hitting the ball harder. It was, yeah, the plate discipline was as good as ever. It was wild.

All right, we have two more questions. Scotty doesn't know. We got two more. Anybody, yeah, come on down. Woo, let's do it. Someone wearing a Hawaiian shirt. We love it. Thank you.

Yes. All right, there is the microphone. sir what's your name where you from Mike Scottstale and Mike by the way has been on the podcast before so he is a repeat offender we do appreciate everything that you did and having you on previously so thank you do you know let's find out I had the fourth highest stuff plus among qualified starting pitchers in the second half of the season

stuff plus fourth highest stuff plus fourth highest not the highest okay yeah that's just very specific, like, the fourth highest. I don't know. Who had the fourth highest stuff plus? I'm going to go with Garrett Crochet. Garrett Crochet. Wrong!

We do appreciate you coming down. You can definitely tell who made this list based on all the Yankees on this list. It was Cam Schlittler. He had the fourth highest stuff plus in the second half of the season, carried that into the postseason as well, dominant out.

against the Boston Red Sox. Pretty good outing against the Blue Jays and get nearly as many strikeouts. But he is right in that conversation for next season with Nolan McLean and Tray and Savage and Jacob Miziarowski. Who is that next young starting pitcher that you want to draft is maybe your SP3 for next season? And this crop of second year, you know, these guys who were called up in the second half or haven't been called up, there's a lot of really interesting names on there, even beyond those guys you mentioned. and Schlittler, the one red flag I have is just he was so dependent on having a dominant fastball.

And that fastball has gone from, he averaged like 95.5 miles per hour in AAA last season, gets to AAA this year. He's throwing like 96.9. And then the major thing, he was the second or third hardest throwing pitcher in baseball among starters. He was averaging like 98.5 or something. And that's the one thing where it's just his velocity has just. jumped up so much over the past couple of years.

Maybe he was just holding something back. Maybe it was just, you know, he took a step forward. But if that fastball takes another step or takes a step back in 2026, the secondary arsenal was more good as a rookie than great. And he really relied on having a dominant fastball. I don't think he had a pitch with a whiff rate over 28%. So that's the one. But 28% for a fast rate.

Oh, especially. But he needs that, perhaps he needs that velocity to be at 98. 99 consistently to get that many whiffs on his fastball. And we actually heard earlier this weekend, Ron Chandler, the great Ron Chandler, made a great point. I believe one of the people that he's going to have in the baseball forecaster for next season is a doctor.

And one of the biggest warning signs was actually fastball velocity jumping up multiple miles per hour like year over year. So perhaps there's even more injury risk with someone like Cam Schluiler, as much as I hate to say it. But he looked dominant. But I think there are a little risk. It's a little scary.

Does the fastball come down a little bit and the fastball velocity going up as it is just the whole profile sustainable based on what he did. I think it's a fair question. It was exciting. It was crazy. All right. We are on to the last one. Scottie doesn't know. We got one more.

Come on, guys. Who do we got? Yeah, let's go. Paul Spoor in the building. What is your actual name and where are you from? My name is Andy and I'm from Detroit. Yeah. It's like Paul Spore.

Let's go. Love it. So I will just let you know right now. this is not a Detroit Tiger, so that's the only hint that you're going to get. I had the very specific, ninth best expected ERA. Yeah, the ninth best XERA was. The ninth best XERA among qualified starting pitchers.

This is for the entire season, not just the second half. Frank, was it, was it Max Fried? Was it Max? No. That's a good guess based on the way it's a guy who used to pitch for my team. But it is someone that used to pitch for Chris's team. You are wrong! So the ninth best XERA among qualified starting pitchers

was Jesus Lozardo. So, Jesus Lozardo had a 3.92 ERA, a 3.31 XERA. We knew he had those multiple, just brutal blow-up starts in the middle of the season when he was tipping his pitches, whatever was going wrong. But the underlying skills were tremendous for Lozardo. I think it's usually a mistake to play the, if you take out, you know, the three worst starts. Scott loves doing that, by the way. Yeah, with the Billy Ober one last year, you know, if he wanted, he could defend. offend himself if he was here.

Yeah, I know. I'm kind of piling on. Come on, Scott, answer the phone at 10 p.m. We love it. I think that's usually a mistake and you're usually better off

not trying to figure out, oh, that doesn't count. But in Luzardo's case, it was 20 earned runs across two consecutive starts. We had an explanation for why it happened. And then after that,

it was, you know, mid-3s-ZRA or better the rest of the season. So I do think, I'm not going to say you just throw those two starts out. They happened. They are part of his risk profile. Maybe he is prone to those kind of blowups.

We've seen that throughout his career. He's very dependent on hitting that like 96 mile per hour fastball because he has the worst extension of any starter in baseball. He's got like not great shape on his foreseamer. But the skills last year that he showed were really strong. And it was really, if you take those two starts out, maybe you shouldn't. but if you do, his ERA was basically right in that 3.30 range. And so I do think, you know, maybe this is a case where it's not the worst idea to do that, although if I'm being consistent, you probably shouldn't do that.

Yeah, Jesus Lazzardo, by the way, 28 years old entering a contract year next year, has dealt with a lot of injuries throughout the course of his career. And he's got a little bit of that Blake Snell, Dylan, Duce, where it's like you're usually better off buying the dip. I was exactly going to say, like, last year was the time to buy Jesus Lozardo when his ADP was outside of the 250. His early ADP now is 95. Yeah, that's, it's gone up quite a bit. Yeah. He's going just behind Dylan Sees, Nick Povetta, Yuri Perez.

It's fitting. I think that's the right range. Yeah. You would be comfortable with, well, maybe not comfortable, but would you be right with Hazus Lozardo as your SP2 in drafts? Oh, I'd have to feel really good about my SP1, or I would have to really, really feel like I'm going to invest a lot in my SP3 and four after that. Or maybe he's your SP3 and you're just aggressive early on. Yeah.

Whatever. SP3 and the eighth or ninth rounds like that. All those guys you mentioned are super volatile. I think, you know, Nick Povetta was great this season. First time in his career, he had Niari Bill of Four. Some of the peripherals weren't quite as good. Cease is maybe the most maddening pitcher in baseball. I can't watch him pitch.

It makes me angry. And Yuri Perez, I think he's awesome. but we're still waiting for it. We're still waiting, especially for the secondaries, to get to the point where the foreseamer already is. So I think that's a risky range that I may not draft much of, but I think it's the appropriate range for a guy like Jesus and Lazardo who clearly has a ton of upside.

All right, that's going to do it. Give yourself an awesome round of applause. You guys are great. Appreciate you being here. Thank you so much. We are going to wrap there for Chris Towers, producer, James Gale. I am Frank Stample. Thanks, as always.

for tuning in to fantasy baseball today, and we will be back again, I guess, next year live in person. We'll be on the podcast later this week, assuming our flights will get canceled. Bye-bye! Mount Podcasts.