Fantasy Baseball Today - 🚨Matt Olson Traded to the Atlanta Braves! - Emergency Podcast (3/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 14, 2022

Join our FBT March Madness Bracket for a chance to join our listener leagues- cbssports.com/FBTbrackets Matt Olson has been traded to the Atlanta Braves (1:00)! What does this mean for his Fantasy value? ... What happens now with Freddie Freeman (5:22)? ... What do you need to know about the four prospects the Oakland A's received (11:17)? ... Who will play first base for the Oakland A's (15:50)? 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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

Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Matt Olson is on the move. The Atlanta Braves have acquired the slugging first basement, but what happens next? Welcome into another emergency edition of Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, March 14th. I am Frank Sample joined by Chris Towers and Scott White. Matt Olson traded to the Braves in exchange for four prospects,

outfielder Christian Patche, catcher Shea Lang Lears, and two pitchers Ryan Cusick and Joey Estes. And I will preface all of this by saying, Scottie is struggling right now. So let's take it easy on my guys, Scott. But let's get into the fantasy implications of everything, of course. Okay, so Matt Olson, who finished as a 17th overall player in Roto last season. He averaged 3.6 fantasy points per game.

Tied for second among first baseman is headed to the Atlanta Braves. Scott, your instant fantasy reaction to Olson to Atlanta. Well, I mean, it can only be. Good news for him. He had been held back previously in his career by his home park in Oakland, which is one of the larger parks in the majors. Interestingly, the splits last year were pretty much dead even, so it wasn't clear that that park was still going to hold him back, but going to a smaller park can only help. And, you know, the lineup figures to be better than the one he was dealing with in Oakland as well. So, yeah, I don't know that it really moves him up or down the first base rankings at all,

because we're not going to move him ahead of Freddie Freeman. And, you know, now that he's in a better situation, we're not moving him behind Paul Goldschmidt either. So his stock probably is about the same. But there is a higher potential outcome here now that there was before, I would say. Scott, recently it appeared that Pete Alonzo was closing the game. gap on Matt Olson and they were almost going, you know, at the same point in the drafts at at this time. Does this just further cement Matt Elson over Alonzo? I think that's how we all had it anyway all along, but does this move just further cement that? Yeah, I mean, I still don't

think I'm going to, I guess recent ADP shows them going about the same spot like you said. So, you know, I'm not sure how much passing up Olson to get Alonzo was really a consideration anymore. But I don't think my thinking changes along those lines if, you know, if you do think you could get Alonzo around later. But again, I don't know that you should think that anymore. All right, Chris, Matt Olson had a monster year. Last year he hit 271. 39 homers, 101 run scored 111. RBI made huge strides in terms of strikeouts and against left-handed pitching.

He absolutely crushes the ball. The ADP currently on Fantasy Pros is 33. for Matt Olson. Do you think that this change to Atlanta does anything for his fantasy value? Are you planning to move him up? Probably not down. Definitely not down.

I think the one, and I think Scott hit the nail on the head with like it helps his fantasy value, but it doesn't like, it helps his fantasy value relatively, but it probably doesn't change where you're going to rank him. Like 31, that's a problem. probably fine. And I think, you know, you look at the guys who are going ahead of him and,

you know, you could talk yourself into like, I don't know, man, the spot he's in. It's hard to move. Because like, the guys right ahead of him are Salvador Perez, Aaron Judge, and Yordon Alvarez. I don't think him moving to Atlanta changes him enough to move him ahead of any of those guys, given, you know, especially with Perez, the positional gap that he gives you. Maybe you could put him ahead of Aaron Judge. I think that one's an interesting one. They're somewhat similar players. The thing that's interesting, if you look at the expected home runs by Park for Matt Olson, over the past three seasons, his expected total in Oakland is 93 home runs. That's obviously including the short in 2020, and that is one more than he actually hit, which is surprising.

Oakland's a tough place to hit. It's one of the biggest outfields in baseball. Atlanta, his projected number is actually 82. That's a pretty significant difference. That's 14% or something like that, if I'm doing the math in my head correctly. So I don't know, maybe it's not as much of a park upgrade as we would think. My expectation is it is. My expectation is that it will be better for him to hit somewhere besides. Scott, you told me the name of O. Dot Co.

I just, I just call it OECDICO.P. I think it's Ring Central Coliseum. That's what it was. The Ring Central Coliseum in Alameda County of Oakland, California, or whatever. It's got a really long name officially. So I think it's an improvement, but probably doesn't material impact his value enough to move him up enough that it matters. All right. Now, let's talk about some of the reverberations of this deal.

Freddie Freeman has been linked to the Dodgers and the Yankees. We don't know where he's going to wind up yet. I think that we can say confidently he will not be back. with the Atlanta Braves, even though some people are tweeting at me, like, never say never, like, okay, whatever. Scott, if Freeman winds up with the Dodgers or Yankees, are you moving him up the rankings?

I mean, he was already in a good spot with Braves before, but I guess you can argue that he would be in an even better spot with one of those teams. Yeah, I mean, you'd think especially with the Yankees, a lot of his powers to the opposite field. That's just kind of the way his swing is geared, but, you know, that short porch and right field for left-handed hitter would be pretty good.

Now, I was, I was, you know, I guess it kind of depends if you're talking about ADP or where I rank Freeman, because I ranked Freeman right on the border of being a first rounder when I think his ADP has something like 17th, 18th. Yeah, it's 16.4 right now. Yeah. So it's between Freeman and Raphael Devers

probably Kyle Tucker is part of that mix Walker Bueller, Corbyn Burns could be in that same range and just where do you put Freeman among them it seemed like the consensus had Freeman going last of that group of names I mentioned and I've struggled with that especially with Raphael Devers just knowing how hard

third base is to fill I do think I would predict better for numbers for Freeman you know even if he did stay in Atlanta but just you know

would I rather fill third base early I've kind of been leaning more that direction recently but I could see how particularly if he goes to the Yankees I don't know that the Dodgers changes that much but if he goes to the Yankees maybe other people would

I don't know maybe we'll see him start going around 12th or 11-e potentially. There's some really interesting stuff in the expected home runs by park numbers for both of these guys because the gap between Atlanta and New York for Freddie Freeman would be 95 to 87. So not nothing, but not a significant one, especially when you're talking about only half the games. Los Angeles, he would have projected to hit 105 home runs over the past three seasons if he

played all his games in Los Angeles. So that's pretty interesting. Now, that doesn't take into account environmental effects, which can matter. But, I mean, LA is not a great hitters park. It's not a bad one. It's a good home run part. It's a good home run park. It does boost home runs.

And so, you know, that's the kind of thing where, like, if there's one place Freddie Freeman falls short as a hitter, it's over the fence power. It's not power. But, you know, the raw power is as good as anybody in baseball. You know, not, maybe not. Not Aaron Judge or John Carlos Stanton, but the next tier, certainly the Matt Olson's of the world. He could be that kind of power hitter. And so it is possible that like moving to the Dodgers, which does seem like the more likely outcome at this point, you know, it could put a truly massive like 310, 40 Homer, 120 runs, 120 RBI kind of season in play for Freddie Freeman, given how good he is at everything.

So, you know, maybe that's a little more realistic in either Los Angeles or New York than it would be in Atlanta. Chris, if it were to happen, again, the ADP 16.4, Freddie Freeman, would you maybe push him into the first round around names like Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, and I guess even Kyle Tucker's kind of in that mix? Yeah, I've got him 11th, so I would push him into the first round. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah, it sounds like. Yeah, he's already there. He's, I think there's, you know, kind of a little gap between him. And so the way I have it is like, Bobeshat, Mookie Betts, Mike Trout, Bryce Harper,

Shohey Otani are basically all the same price. They're all $36 players. So that's kind of a tier for me. And then Freddie Freeman's that started the next tier with Kyle Tucker. So I don't know, maybe I push him ahead of Garrett Cole and I just make the whole top 10 hitters and he's a $35 player. But yeah, it wouldn't take much for me. But I don't know, both of these guys, like this is a huge deal. You know, Matt and Olson getting traded and wherever Freddie Freeman ends up, it's a huge deal for baseball.

For fantasy, these guys are so good that it doesn't matter all that much. Like, Freddie Freeman's going to be one of the best hitters in baseball anywhere. If he played in Oakland, he'd be one of the best hitters in baseball. So it doesn't change. They're so good that it's hard to get too many changes on the margins. Yeah, I'll tell you one place he's not going to wind up. That's Oakland. He will not be playing in a race.

Central Coliseum. Probably not. Probably not. That is for sure. I will say, you know, speaking of the Yankees are obviously in this mix. This move does get us one step closer to Luke Voight starting against. So Matt Olson will not be with the Yankees. They've been linked to Anthony Rizzo, so ultimately we'll see what happens. But some hope for your guys, one of your favorite sleepers in Luke Voight. Before we get to the-trade him, hashtag free Luke. Free Luke. Before we get to the prospects, make sure to join our March Madness bracket game. The winner not only receives a

$100 gift card to Paramount Plus, but they also get to choose which FBT listener league they want to join this upcoming season. We've got a 12 team points league. We've got a 16 team head-to-head categories league. That is the for the people league. The link is in the podcast and the YouTube description. If you want to compete against us, Scott, Chris and myself will all be in there playing in the March Madness game. All right, what about the prospects that the A's are receiving here? Scott, I know that you obviously follow them very closely. They come from the Atlanta Braves. Christian Patche, 23. year old outfielder, Shea Lang Lears, a 24-year-old catcher. Ryan Cusick, a 22-year-old pitcher, and Joey Estes, a 20-year-old pitcher. Anything to know with this group? I mean, those are some of the best prospects the Braves have. In terms of fantasy relevance, I think there are major questions at this point about how much Christian Pache will hit. There are raw tools there that maybe he could still grow into and like he's a player I'm thinking of

Carlos Gomez, right? He pretty much reached the majors as a great defensive center fielder but it wasn't clear he'd ever develop into an offensive threat. So that's, I mean, that's the dream scenario for Christian Pache that he follows that sort of development path.

But I don't think it's what anybody should be counting on in Dynasty. This probably improves his chances of making the opening day roster. of course he was on the opening day roster for the Braves last year and just didn't hit enough to stick around. Great defensive center fielder, as I said.

I mean, considered like a potentially best in the league kind of defender. Yeah, he may not have to hit really to be a starting. Yeah, could be like a Kevin Kiermeyer. Right. Right. And then Kusick is a pitcher who's been clocked, I think it's hard as 103 miles per hour. He was the Braith's first round pick last year. So legit pitching.

prospect, you know, obviously has some hurdles to clear in the miners. So it'll be a little while before we see him. Shea Langalears is part of that excellent crop of catcher prospects across the entire league. And he's, he was considered a glove first guy when the Braves drafted him in the first round, I think two years ago. But he upped his offensive game last year. And that same list on baseball America of the average exit velocities for the top 100 prospects.

I was surprised, like Shea Langalear hits the ball really hard. So, you know, I don't know that this really changes his value at all from a dynasty perspective. And because they have Sean Murphy that they've just broken in at catcher, you know, if anything,

it might delay Langalear's timetable a little bit. But yeah, I would say the most immediate effect for the prospects is just Pat She has a better chance of making it. making the opening date roster for whatever hope we're still holding out for him. All right.

Yeah, Sean Murphy is, the A's are trading everyone, it seems like. Yep. There's rumors about both Frankie Montas and Shamaniah being traded. Sean Murphy doesn't make enough money that it would seem necessary to trade him, but I don't know. You never know. And then Shay Lang Lear's got to AAA last season. Basically, once you've hit AAA, once you've gotten there, I'm always of the opinion that you could be a good two weeks in the minors away from getting called up now.

I don't know if the A's are in a place where they want to push this guy, especially catchers are always so tough developmentally because they tend to take longer to develop both in the minors and the majors. He's still only 23. That's relatively young for a catcher. It's interesting. I'm reading his baseball prospectus scouting report, and their take is that his defense is quite a ways behind his offense, specifically with his pitch framing,

which is not something we generally care about for fantasy, although it can matter for a pitching staff. I don't think the A's are likely to have anybody in their rotation at this point that we would really care about the marginal effects of that. But it's worth noting. I mean, the bat does look really good. So if he does get the call, he'll be, I mean, gosh, if you're a prospect catcher who gets called,

up, and you're of any note. You're almost like by default, a top 15 guy just on the potential that you might be better than an Omar Narvaez or something. Yeah, Shea Langalear is last year in 97 games in the minors. He hit 22 home runs with an 833 OPS batting average. Probably still needs to come around a little bit, 256, but does definitely have some popping that bat. Scott mentioned the exit velocities there for, again, catcher prospect.

Shea Langalears. Just wrap up here with the. Oakland A's again, looks like they're officially gutting the roster. They traded Bassett to the New York Mets over the weekend. It seems like they're shopping Matt Chapman, a couple of pitchers as well. Make sure you stream all your pitchers against the Oakland A's this upcoming season. But Chris, who do you think starts at first base for this team? And it doesn't really matter.

It might be just deeper leagues. But Seth Brown, Eric Thames, it looks like. I think there's a pretty good chance both of those guys will be in the lineup, at least against right-handed hitter pitchers. I'm not sure either of them matters enough to, you know, change anything about how you're drafting even in the late rounds. Like, Seth Brown did have a 37 homer season in 2019 at AAA. It was in the now AAA West, former PCL.

So, you know, take it with a grain of salt. That happens. You know, numbers get inflated there. But there's an interesting power potential there that's worth keeping eye on. Eric Thames can also hit for power, but I don't know how much, you know, how much he matters anymore. We'll see. Seth Brown is just a late round guy, someone who, you know, you can target as a corner infield or probably an AL only, but even in a 15 team roto league, I'm not sure Seth Brown cracks the fantasy relevant discussion, but certainly someone to keep an eye on.

All right. Scott, any quick thoughts on these guys? Seth Brown, Eric Thames? No, I mean, I think Chris pretty much summed it up. All right. One thing to keep an eye on would be Ramon Luriano. He is coming back from a PED suspension. I think he still has like 40-something games to play, but he's obviously a fantasy relevant player if he's, you know, playing. But do they opt to move him now?

Does he play every day in left field or right field? That's something to keep an eye on because it does seem like, Christian Pesche is probably just going to play center field from opening day on. I don't know. Christian Pachet is one of those guys where a lot of his prospect profile has just been a bet on baseball skills translating into production at some point.

It hasn't happened yet, but Luriana is someone I'm going to keep an eye on for playing time and potential trade purposes because I do think he's still an interesting fantasy option. All right. We're going to wrap there. Again, Matt Olson traded to the Atlanta Braves for four prospects. We'll see what happens next with Freddie Freeman.

For Scott and Chris, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching this emergency edition of fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again later on with a head-to-head categories mock draft, and we will see you then. Bye-bye.