Fantasy Baseball Today - Name-Brand Stars vs. Generic Values! Randy Arozarena vs. Akil Baddoo (3/5 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 6, 2022

Download and follow Fantasy Baseball Today in 5! You can find FBT in 5 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else podcasts are found. Wander Franco is awesome but should he really be going 25 picks ahead of Ketel Marte? Can Akil Baddoo really provide what Randy Arozarena does 100 picks later? Why not draft both Jarred Kelenic and Jo Adell? 'Fantasy Baseball Today in 5' 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/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 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

Why pay for the name brand when you can get the generic for much cheaper? Find out next on Fantasy Baseball Today and Five. Welcome into MPT and 5. As always, make sure to follow and stream us on Spotify. Today is Saturday, March 5th. I am Frank Stanfield, joined by Chris Towers, and Chris wrote an article on the site. Why draft the earlier player when you can get similar production later on? It will start with Wander Franco, who's got an ADP of 54.9, and you can get Catelle Marte at 81.9.

Chris, what's the difference? Why pay up? Well, Wander Franco's younger. And so there's always the intrigue of the young guy. And there's the potential for some speed. But I actually don't think Wander Franco is going to be much of a base stealer. So I think him and Cotel Marte are probably going to be pretty similar there. Look, Wander Franco was awesome.

As a 20-year-old, he was 27% better than the league average hitter. That's amazing. But Ctele-Marte was just a better player last season. He's been a 900 OPS or better two of the past three seasons since his swing. change. He hits the ball really hard. He's one of the safest bets for batting average. I just think when you look at the five by five value for both Cotel Marte and Wanderfranco, I think you're likely to get a better batting average from Marte, probably more power. And the run production should be very similar, as should the stolen basis.

In a points league, it's a little closer. But even then, Cotel-Marty does not strike out very much, and he walks a decent amount. So I think he's probably just the better player in both formats. Yeah, I would rather have Wander-Franco, over Catelle Marte in a points league. But I think that's more about Cateel Marte just being undervalued in both formats. And I think there's the, you know, Wanda Franco could be anything.

And he's such a talented player that you don't want to miss out on like a Juan Soto-esque leap. But it's worth remembering that Catele-Marte in 2019 was one of the best players in fantasy. He was a first round value that season. So I don't think there's a lack of upside there either. Right. Let's move on to the next one, Chris.

you have nearly a 100 spot difference in ADP. Why draft Randy a Rosarena at 59.1 when you can get Akele Badoo at 158.2? Yeah, Akil Badoo if you look under the hood, there are some worrying signs. He doesn't seem to be able to hit lefties. He's very raw. It's all tools.

But Randy and Rosarana doesn't really benefit from a look under the hood either. His surface numbers, 274, 8, OPS, right around 800, 20 homers, 20 stolen bases. But his expected batting average was just 222. His isolated slugging percentage was just 147. Both of those, I mean, obviously 222 average, even in today's game is very bad. But a 147 isolated slugging would be below average as well.

And so you're looking at a guy who 20 homers might be an optimistic projection. 20 steals, that's probably okay. But he might be an active detriment in batting average. He might not score a lot of runs or get a lot of RBI. and it's the raise. He could lose his spot in the order. Keelba-Doo is a very raw player who made the leap from high A to the majors and held his own for the most part. He crushed Ritees, 82nd percent on max exit velocity, 91st percent down sprint speed. He's got that same power speed combination that Randy or Rosa Raina does.

I'm not saying he's going to be better or as good because the platoon splits may limit his counting stats and that's a concern. but it also wouldn't be surprising if A Kilbad Duh just put up very similar numbers to Rania Rania Rosarena. This is mostly about not being interested in a Roserana as a fifth round pick. All right, let's move on to our last one here.

And this one's interesting because I really like both players that probably shouldn't be this much of a disparity. Jared Kelnick at 1.33.8 versus Joe Adele at pick 229.3. Chris, I think my question to you is, why not both? Well, yeah, absolutely both.

But I think the problem is that Jared Kalanick is this big name prospect who got called up last season and was awful. He had a 181 average, a 265 on base, 350 slug. He wasn't particularly good at anything. And that was with a pretty good September that buoyed his numbers. So he was just about as bad as you could expect for a minor league player. Now, it's worth pointing out, Joe Adele was worse. In his career, he has a 593 OPS compared to a 615. OPS for Jared Kellanick.

So I guess if you want to make that argument, Jared Kalinick has been better in the majors than Joe Adel. But they've both had big struggles making contact, 31.9% strikeout rate in the majors for Joe Adele versus 28% Jared Kellanick's case. But they've also both crushed it in the minors. Last season at AAA, Joe Adele just hit 289 with a 592 slugging percentage of 45-home or 15 steel pace.

So I just think there's not much of a difference between them, both in terms of their prospect rankings. We're talking about two of the best prospects of the last few years, Joe Adele. I think there is some prospect fatigue with him because we've been telling you to draft Joe Adele basically since 2019. And he hasn't made an impact on the major league level. But it's only two months older than Jared Kelnick, despite that. So I do think, yes, Jared Kellenick at a 12th or 10th or 11th round pick. I think that's fine to take the gamble. Would much rather take the gamble on Joe Adele 100 picks later.

For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Stitcher, your smart speakers or anywhere else podcasts are found. And thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today in five. We'll be back again on Monday morning. Bye-bye.