Fantasy Baseball Today - More Free Agent Predictions! Matt Chapman, Sonny Gray & More (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:03 Last week, Scott and I did some free agent predictions. Now it's the Welsh's turn. Up next on Fantasy Baseball today in five. Welcome into FBT and 5 on Saturday. November 25th, I am Frank Stamford, joined by Chris, the Welsh. No pressure here, Welsh, and I absolutely mean that, because Scott and I already got Aranola wrong. I had him going to the Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:00:26 Scott had him going to the Braves. He already signed with the Phillies. What do you mean? You do this professionally and you got something wrong? Frank, you can't do that. Don't you know? Don't you know the rules? How dare you?

Starting point is 00:00:36 How dare you? The first name up here, we did the top five last week. I chose five more that we're going to talk about this week. Matt Chapman. He is arguably the top position player available, him or Cody Bellinger. Where do you think Matt Chapman winds up?

Starting point is 00:00:49 Oh, people are going to hate this because I'm in a homer out. I think the Arizona Diamondbacks take a long look at Matt Chapman. What is their biggest hole right now? Third base. They were dealing with it in the World Series, with Evan Longoria didn't fit that role. They moved off of Josh Rojas.

Starting point is 00:01:07 Perdomo can play it. He just doesn't really fit in that role. So what better than to go and fill that hole with one of the best free agents? They've got money to spend. They've got quite a bit of money to spend. They can sell you on a championship team. And that might open up the possibilities that they could even move a guy like Jordan Lawler in a trade for starting pitching because I think it's going to be harder for them to compete there.

Starting point is 00:01:29 So I think there's a lot to sell a top free agent. like Matt Chapman on with the Arizona Diamondbacks. For me, I am going to go with the San Francisco Giants. They missed out on some big names in recent years. Aaron Judge, they tried Carlos Correa. Last week, I had Yamamoto going to the Giants. You know, an offseason with both him and Matt Chapman, that would be pretty awesome.

Starting point is 00:01:49 Chapman has some familiarity out there in the Bay Area, so I do think it makes some sense for the Giants to be in. And that will be my prediction for Matt Chapman. Next up, we have Sunny Gray. Who you got? All right. Well, the Atlanta Braves were in on Aeronola, and I believe it was pretty close. So one of the top pitching guys out there is Sunny Gray, and I think Sunny Gray would fit that rotation really, really well.

Starting point is 00:02:13 This is who I've had for quite some time. So obviously, this would have changed if Aeronola would have signed with the Braves. But I think it is a harmonious fit, Sunny Gray going to the Atlanta Braves. All right. I had Aeronola going to the Cardinals last week, so they missed out on that big name. And I have Sunny Gray going to the Carbara. Cardinals. That's right. They missed out on Nola, but they do get Sunny Gray. They made some recent signings. They brought in Lance Lynn. They brought in Kyle Gibson. I do think that they still need

Starting point is 00:02:39 an anchor up top there. Sunny Gray, I think, probably not an ideal one, although he just finished top three in the AL-Syung Award winning, but very serviceable. The Cardinals get their guy in Sunny Gray. Next up, we have Jordan Montgomery, and he'll be headed where? In nowhere, because he'll stay. He'll stay with the Texas Rangers, the Texas Rangers. The Texas Rangers, they got, I mean, what easy stuff can they sell on as, hey, we're World Series champs, and you helped us do that. And they've still got some depth issues. Eivaldi and Scherzer lead the top of the rotation.

Starting point is 00:03:12 They could justifiably go in with John Gray and Andrew Heaney, but I think he was a massively important piece to that. I think you can easily sell him to return, and they would want him to return with some of those starting pitcher issues that might be floating around. So I think he returns to the Texas Rangers. I think that's actually a great call. consider the Rangers as well. You know, there are a few teams here where I didn't predict any one to get a starting

Starting point is 00:03:37 pitcher like the Atlanta Braves. I think they won a pitcher, but as of now, I have them missing out. Same thing with Texas because I have Jordan Montgomery going to the Red Sox. The Red Sox need pitching badly. We know they have some upside with Chris Sale and Brian Beow. They need somebody up at the top. Again, not that Jordan Montgomery is a one, but he brings some stability. He can give you innings and quality innings at that.

Starting point is 00:03:58 He's not just an innings eater like a Lance Lynn type. He's obviously really good. We just saw that down the stretch and in the postseason. I think the Red Sox really needs to get one of these big name pitchers, and they wind up getting Jordan Montgomery. Next up, we have the top reliever, top closer on the market. Josh Hader. Where does he go?

Starting point is 00:04:15 It's going to be boring the Rangers again. I'm giving the Rangers two of these top guys. This has probably been one of the most paired free agent signings this entire office. I'm actually surprised it hasn't quite happened yet. It just might be about Hayter. seeing if the market picks up even more. But the Rangers, they need that help. Chapman was a liability.

Starting point is 00:04:34 LeClerc definitely picked it back up, but I think they would like for LeClerc to go back into a setup role and get a lockdown closer for what is a hat and has been a dicey rotation that had a lot of injuries. Best thing you can secure that is with a good closer. So Josh Hader to the Rangers. And not to be boring, but I will also choose the Texas Rangers.

Starting point is 00:04:54 Every publication, everything that I've looked at, making free agent predictions, everyone has predicted this. It is a match made in heaven. As of now, they have Jose LeClerc at the back end of their bullpen. But if the Rangers are serious, which it seems like they are about competing once again, they run back a World Series team.

Starting point is 00:05:10 They're about to add Wyatt Langford to that team. Why not add the top tier closer in Josh Hader? I think that's a perfect fit. I'll also throw the Cubs out there. I think the Cubs could be a dark horse for Josh Hater as well. Last up, not nearly as exciting of a name here, but we needed a fifth one. We're going to wrap up with Reese Hoskins.

Starting point is 00:05:27 Where do you think Reese Hoskins winds up? Speaking of those Cubs, what do they do? They hate Matt Mervis. They hate him with a passion. Anybody that can play first base, they want to bring in so they can not give the job to Matt Mervis and what better way to do it than with Hoskins. This team wants to compete.

Starting point is 00:05:44 They want some more thump in that lineup. He's looking for opportunities. And they hate Matt Mervis. It's a match made in heaven. Reese Hoskins to the Cubs is going to be my prediction. I really like that call as well. I wanted to go a little bit off the grid. here and I was scrolling around looking for a team that could use some offense, some power.

Starting point is 00:06:02 And I found the Seattle Mariners. I think the Mariners could use some power in their lineup. They bring in Reese Hoskins on a one year prove it deal. He could play first or D.H. And Thai France could just do the other, whatever it might be. I think the Mariners need some lineup help. They've already sounds like ruled themselves out of signing Shohei Otani. If they're not doing that, I assume they're not going to trade for Juan Soto either. So they do one of these stopgaps and they bring in Reese Hoskins this off-season. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to

Starting point is 00:06:30 the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, the Odyssey app, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today and Five, and we'll be back again

Starting point is 00:06:41 next week. Bye-bye.

Fantasy Baseball Today - More Free Agent Predictions! Matt Chapman, Sonny Gray & More (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.