Fantasy Baseball Today - Players We Love in 2023! Chris Sale, Corey Seager & Other Targets (2/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: February 14, 2023

Happy Valentine's Day! Let's start with the hitters we love (5:55). First up, Oneil Cruz. ... How far will Miguel Vargas move up draft boards (11:10)? ... Get yourself a Lars Nootbaar this year (19:50). ... Don't leave your drafts without Corey Seager (28:10). ... News (34:30): AJ Puk was traded to the Marlins for JJ Bleday. ... We start the pitchers we love with Chris Sale (48:15). ... If you're looking for the young flash, Edward Cabrera is your guy (53:45). ... How does George Kirby take that next step (57:00). ... We wrap up with Jeffrey Springs (1:03:30)! Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. The Super Bowl is over, which means it's baseball season, baby. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today. Frank Sample joined by everybody, Scott White, Chris Towers, and Chris the Welsh.

Today on the show, it's Valentine's Day. Or if you're watching us live, it's almost Valentine's Day. You know what that means. Players, we love 2023 edition. We're going to keep it going strong here. Something you guys have done since way before I was here on the podcast, and I enjoy it quite a bit. So that's what will be the main focus on today's show.

Plus, we had a bunch of random moves and news this weekend, so we'll get to all that a little bit later on. Chris Towers, you are our resident football guy. Thoughts on the Super Bowl. What do you think? It was a hold. It was. It was the right call.

It was kind of a disappointing way for the game to end. It was very kind of let all the air out of the out of the building. I thought the broadcasters did a poor job of explaining that yes, in fact, it was a penalty. And that calling a penalty, a penalty is not a problem, even an important part of a game. But it was a great game up until then. Yeah, it was awesome up until they. Probably were going to win either way. in that circumstance.

Everything minus the, like the halftime show is, eh, you know, whatever. Oh, no. Were you big on the halftime show, Crit? Oh, I just, I just, the internet loves Rihanna, and I think you're opening yourself up to some hate. I thought it was great. We got an appearance from a mailbag, Nuno Betancourt, lead guitarist of Extreme. I had no idea he was Rihanna's guitarist. So that was a nice surprise.

I don't know if anybody remembers the hair metal band Extreme, famous for their. acoustic rock ballad more than words nope not on this you guys don't know that song I mean I might know if I heard just saying just saying those words means nothing to me I might know it if I heard it

but can you sing it can you sing us a ballad it is a Valentine's Day more than words is all you have to I'm not going to keep doing it but that's that's the song I want to get your flash you guys know that one that was a great song I do know that song and that was a great rendition

And Chris, I've been attacked on Twitter and the internet for way worse than not liking a Rihanna halftime show. I mean, sometimes you just got to kick the Hornets Nest, right, to feel alive. Yeah, why not? Yeah. Scott, last year, one of my favorite things that we did all year long on the podcast was the fact that you had a certain wandering eye when it came to players we love. I tend to get the wandering eye this time of year. Yes, you want me to commit to one player I love. But there's, you know, I have a lot of love to go around.

And so I don't know if I don't know if the wandering eye is going to come into play on this particular Valentine's Day episode. I'd like to think I've grown as a person. But, you know, sometimes that eye just has a mind of its own. She's doing an episode. It's like The Bachelor. It's like Scott White's the Bachelor of Fantasy and just you're giving them all flowers and you have to slowly tick them down. And I think that might be something in the future, Frank. I do have to say I'm disappointed in all of you.

I mean, Valentine's Day and not wearing red. I guess I'm kind of wearing purple, which is more red adjacent. But like, you know, I at least look a little more on theme than you guys. There's red on my shirt. That's my, I love FIU. That's how I'm going to justify it. That is fair, Scott. I told you guys my face.

I feel like my face is extra red right now. So I've got the red face, but maybe that's just my monitor or blah. blood pressure or the sun. Yeah, I don't know what it is. By the way, the Super Bowl was in my backyard. Just want to point out to everybody that it was amazing here. Wow, you're a really big backyard. How was the traffic?

Yeah. How was the traffic? My son, it was the worst thing you've ever seen. My son kept looking at me during the Super Bowl, by the way, and going, hey, I can't believe that it's right over there. And I'm like, I know, dude. And we're not there because that would be $10,000. And we would never celebrate a Valentine's Day or any holiday again if we ever got

those tickets. All right. I didn't need to derail us. Let's get into the players that we love. We'll start off with the hitters. The first half later on in the podcast. We'll get into the pitchers that we love. And Scotty, we will start with you.

Who is a hitter that you love this season? Well, I just, I want to preface this. I'm going to have to give away Chris's with my, my preface. Well, then maybe I should go first. Let's go. Go first. Let's have Chris go first. Because I don't want Scott to ruin his relationship immediately.

So, I mean, look, sometimes you just, just see someone and the first time you see them, you're just like, that is the most beautiful person I've ever seen. And that is how I feel about O'Neill Cruz. Everything about him is a perfect. He's an Adonis. He's a specimen.

And look, I don't know if he's a great baseball player yet, but he does so many baseball things about as well as you could possibly hope. The stat that I threw out the other day that just blew my mind is every single season of the stat cast error, which only goes back to 2015, but still, you know, it's eight seasons or so.

Every single season leading up to 2022, John Carlos Stan had the hardest hit ball in baseball. 2022, he did not because O'Neill Cruz did. He also, that was also the hardest hit ball in the history of the stat cast era, harder than any ball that Aaron Judge has hit or John Carlos Stan or Vladimir Guerrero, Shohay Otani, any of those guys, they pale in comparison to the greatness that is O'Neill Cruz. Now, yes, he doesn't make contact as often as you would prefer, necessarily, but even that we saw towards the end of last season, if he can get his

strikeout rate down to a just bad rate. If he can be a 30% strikeout rate guy, like early Aaron Judge, he can hit 270. You know, we saw in September, he had a 288 batting average, six home runs, five steals. He is the kind of guy who absolutely could hit 40 home runs in a best case scenario season. I'm not saying that's likely. That's really, really hard to do, especially when you strike out as often as he does. But he reminds me a lot of Aaron Judge when he was young. The underlying, the minor league numbers don't necessarily jump off the page the way you would expect, given the type of player they are.

But clearly, an incredibly talented player and someone that just, we talked about it the other day, it's just fun to have him on your team. It's fun to watch him. He gives you a reason to watch baseball. I mean, that is the type of player O'Neill Cruz is. I love him. I am smitten. And he plays for the Pirates.

Like, when's the last time we could say the Pirates Ham Player? We were excited to watch. I mean, it was only a couple years ago the player I loved was Guy Brian Hayes. But we don't need to talk about it. I still love to Brian Hayes. Chris mentioned that if O'Neo Cruz could just get a strikeout rate down to 30%.

We could potentially see a huge season out of him. Well, from September 1st on last year, he played 29 games. He struck out 30% of the time. And he hit 288 with six home runs and five steals with a 17.7% barrel rate, which is just absolutely ridiculous. That is a 30-homer, 25-stale pace,

over 150 games. There's a lot of variance here. Chris mentioned it, you know, look, sometimes a person you love, let's be honest, they might have some warts. That's O'Neill Cruz. He strikes out a lot. He struggles against left-handed pitching,

but, man, when he makes contact, he's going to hit it extremely hard. The ADP is 86.6. Scott, come to you with this one. Because I know you like O'Neil Cruz. You borderline love O'Neill Cruz as well. Would you rather have O'Neill Cruz or Wander Franco, nearly the same ADP right now? Well, it entirely depends on the scoring format.

But I'm presuming you're talking about a 5-by-5 Roto League, then definitely Cruz by probably like four rounds. If you're talking to points league than Franco, because that strikeout disparity is so big. Welsh, O'Neo Cruz versus Wander Franco. Yeah, frankly, everyone on this podcast loves O'Neil Cruz. I know you like him as well. What about him versus Wanderfranco?

Well, Frank, I actually, it's funny. When I looked at the show sheet, I was like, oh, I guess we're doing like multiple of our Valentine's Day because I see Chris with O'Neo Cruz and then Welsh with my guy. And I thought you just put my other guy because I emailed you some names. And O'Neo Cruz was one of those guys because I absolutely do love him. Yeah, O'Neo Cruz is over Wander Franco in, I would say the same thing as Scott said. Like every format except points I'm going to probably prioritize Wanderfranco a little bit.

but I have O'Neill Cruz very high. He is a very, very big priority of mine. I love the idea, too, because shortstop is so deep that, like, you can take what could be perceived as, like, a risk with him. And then you can pair him with, like, a lot more of a solid option. You could get injury crazy if you want, but like Tim Anderson is someone that jumps out to me, but Tim is obviously a little bit injury prone. But, like, his floor comps is like your middle infielder with O'Neill Cruz.

I think the power insulin bases are too crazy. And, you know, you talked about. about what he did in that last month, it's a lot of what has also pushed and kind of, created a lot of the projections, the crazy projection stuff we saw. Based off the Steamers projections, that's a first round talent. That is first round production. That is, there are only a handful of players that have even close to have put up those numbers last season.

And that's first round. And that's why O'Neill Cruz is so beautiful and really is all of our Valentine that we're all, we're like in grade school again. We're all fighting over the same guy and Towers got him first. and he gets to give that Valentine. We all are just going to have to pick our second best, Scott. And Scott, with that, you are up with maybe your second favorite. I'm sorry.

Well, I mean, that's the thing. Like, my initial thought when you texted me, okay, give me a hitter and a pitcher you love was O'Neill Cruz. But Chris did respond before I did. And I got to thinking, you know, like, do I really want to be in love with the most popular girl in school. Like, because that's the most popular girl in school and I'm, you know, me.

So I should probably set my sights a little lower, be a little more realistic about this. And so I'm going with a prospect who hasn't really earned the looks of everyone on the playground yet. And that is Miguel Vargas.

Miguel Vargas is the player I love. And I, you know, I base this on more so than even Cruz, when I'm drafting and somebody else gets to Miguel Vargas first, that is when I feel the most pain. You know, like that's supposed to be my pick. Yes, yes. Miguel Vargas, as I've talked about before, hit 300 everywhere he played in the minors, great contact skills, good on base skills on top. of it. Power that I think is being underestimated because of, you know, it's just a really, really good looking, like just has such great hitting instincts and has the size and the athleticism, I think, to add on power, a very fast runner who hasn't run a ton in the minors,

but has run enough to think he's going to be a help in that category. And then the most, the thing for Miguel Vargas that really puts it all over the top for me is that while he's only eligible at first base now sounds like he is the leading candidate for second base for the Dodgers this year that's according to Andrew Friedman himself and if he picks up eligibility at that position

I mean that's that that's really going to set Vargas apart and beyond that like he primarily played third base in the minors and the Dodgers like to move guys around. Is he going to pick up eligibility at third base at some point this year? There's been talk of him maybe playing left field in the long run. Does he pick up eligibility in the outfield at some point this year? This guy, in addition to just being an impressive hitting talent, could end up eligible at the three weakest positions

in addition to first base this year, which would make him supremely valuable in fantasy. So Miguel Vargas is the hitter I love this year. And there's a lot to love about him, Scott. As you referenced, makes a lot of contact, hits a lot of line drives. Last year in the minors, 304 batting average, 404 OBP. So not only does he hit well, but he has a great eye at the plate as well. 17 home runs, 16 steals, a 915 OPS in 113 games at AAA.

The ADP as of now is 273.2. But Scott, I will remind everyone, we did a mock draft. after a couple of weeks ago, and he went at pick 186 in that draft over the past two weeks over at the NFBC. It's up to 225. So Scott, at what point does it get too high? Like, what price are you willing to pay

when it comes to Miguel Vargas? I haven't ranked higher than either of those. I haven't ranked, I think, in the 170 range, which, you know, I don't follow my rankings strictly when I'm drafting because I want to maximize the value of every pick and if I know that Miguel Vargas normally goes outside the top

200 then I'm going to try to hold out until then but if this becomes a trend and I will point out that the last two mock drafts we did Miguel Vargas got pulled way up I think it was the same guy who took him both times so there's somebody else

who Miguel Vargas has caught his eye as well and maybe there will be a little competition there but I think I think I can come out ahead in that one. So we'll see. We'll see where the trends go with Miguel Vargas. But wherever they wind up, I think I'm going to be the leading contender to smack him.

Second suitor. You won't be the second suitor. I won't be. I'm looking at your rankings right now, Scott, which people can find on the site. CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball slash rankings. There's a lot of slashes. Miguel Vargas is going, is pick 160 in your ranks. Oh yeah.

I underestimated. I underestimated my own love for him. You do. You do love them. I have him at 190. Coming into the off season, I thought I loved him, but turns out it was false love.

I only like him. Welsh, I'm going to give you two names here because obviously we know that you specialize in the world of prospects. Everyone go check out the Welsh's Prospect Podcast, Prospect One. Who would you rather have just for this season,

Miguel Vargas or Tristan Kossis from the Red Sox? Ooh, that is actually a very, very good question. I'm going to go with Miguel Vargas. I'm also on the Miguel Vargas uptick train right now. I love the idea that he's going to get that second base spot. I also think from like a floor standpoint, Miguel Vargas just brings a lot to the table. I mean, it's not a big high strikeout guy. He's a much bigger contact player.

Dodgers team creates a lot of great opportunity. Obviously, Tristan Casas with the big power. I just think there's even a better floor. And it's actually really fascinating. positionally like what he can provide you this year. I moved him up pretty dramatically. And he's actually one of those guys that just does not equate to what other, what any really draft system,

wherever you draft, obviously here CBS even, that you wouldn't see like where he's dropping up on boards and in draft rooms compared to where he's actually going. Like everyone is trying to get him. He's pushing up until those like 180s, one, I wouldn't be surprised if he's in the 130s if it's a really good camp.

everyone feels really comfortable with it. I love Miguel Vargas and I would go over. I don't like to hear this Chris Welsh. I'm sorry. I'm sliding in the DMs. You're making Miguel Vargas the hitter you love. Is that what you're saying right now? No, I didn't say, well, I'm of this scenario I am.

I will tell you this, which is going to probably not make you feel happy. Right now he is like my number one prospect target because Corbyn Carroll is at an all-time high. I want to have my shares. Gunner Henderson. might be number one because I actually think he's still being a little bit undervalued. But after that, like, yes, everyone's sleeping on Jordan Walker, but Miguel Vargas is all but guaranteed. So if I'm going for a rookie right now at a position that is not great at second base,

it's Miguel Vargas over anybody else. Now, is this just, but is this just like an attraction you're feeling, or is this the player you love? Listen, I have to, I have to take them out a little bit. I've got to figure it out. Like, I don't know what my full love of prospects is going to be until I spend enough time and we're close. Listen, we've known each other for a long time, Scott.

Me and Miguel have back in the backfield. So you have, it sounds like you might even have a little more of the wandering eye than I do. Because I got to tell you, within this group here, given the lack of competition for old Vinnie P., who I thought was going to be too attractive of a target himself, my eye might be wandering over in Vinnie P's direction I don't know sounds like everyone else is given

old Vinny the cold shoulder I don't I don't you know he deserves to be asked to the dance at least you said something I think it's actually really interesting about this like as soon as a guy goes and you in like your heart you go oh like it just hurts when the guy goes that really tells you the thing I will say this I don't think I have like a, like I get punched in the stomach when Miguel Vargas goes. I definitely go, like I'm a little.

You don't deserve them. Yeah, so maybe. So maybe we're not meant for each other at the end of the day. You and Miguel seem to have that set. The guy that I have when we get to it is a gut punch whenever I don't get him. So that's why I, you know, I put my eyes to a certain outfielder in the NL. I'll stick to Miguel for now. But, you know, I got old Vinny P in my back pocket just in case, just in case.

I like to keep my options open, you know. We can tell. That player, Scott White. Anywho, let's get back to the Wells. Find out the hitter that he loves this season besides Miguel Vargas. That player is Mr. Lars Neutbar. If I can even say the name, that just sent me into a rattle here. Lars Neupar, every time he goes, I'm absolutely devastated if it's not on my team.

I want to have all the shares I possibly can. It's a beautiful savant page. You'll see 14 homers last year. Only hit 228. Had an expected batting average that was a little bit closer to 250, which is nice. An average EV that was close to 92, some great max EVs at 113, a really great 46% hard hit percentage. Barrel, I think, was a little over 12%. All of these things equate to this really, really solid lead-off hitter if they give him that spot.

That's what I saw back in the Arizona Fall League. Projections are pretty decent on him, even the lowest of the lowest, which tends to be the Bat X. and it's only around 120 games. I don't really care about the outfield mix that they've got out there. Obviously, Jordan Walker plays a role in that. Tyler O'Neill is coming back and where does Dylan Carlson go. Lars Neutbar is the guy that I think is locked into this. Frank even has on his notes that he's been working with Drive Line.

This is the guy that I want with really manageable K numbers, good walk numbers. I think he's a prototypical leadoff player. And I think he can be a 2010 player in the majors that is going way, way late. So I've got him. I'm probably one of the highest in the space, if you look at all, like, consensus ranks on Lars Newt Bar. He is my Valentine. I have to have a Lars Newt Bar every Valentine and in every draft. And if I don't, I'm going to be disappointed.

And I will tell you this, my eye doesn't wander. I don't. When it is Lars Newt Bar time, I'm not looking around in anybody else. No rookies, no old Cougar players. I'm looking at Lars Newt Bar. So we're locked in. It is fitting because it sounds. sounds like a candy bar also.

It does. Right. Yeah. You know, like, you know, when you used to hand out. No, because it's Valentine's Day. When he used to hand out the little Valentine's cards, you know, it'd be like, you know, you'd have, you'd buy a pack and they'd all be with a certain cartoon theme on them, you know, and you'd have four different choices.

And you'd pick out one that you'd give to the girls you have a crush on. You'd pick out one that you'd give to all your best friends. Yeah. And then the other two were like, whatever, you know. And sometimes kids. would include candy with it, right? And those were the rich kids. No, those were the kids you wanted to be friends with.

And, you know, yeah, exactly like Chris was saying. Like, maybe, maybe someone included a little new bar. Hey, with there. I literally, I'm not even joking. Before we started this show, I was downstairs helping both of my kids do all of their Valentine's say stuff, making, helping my son make a Valentine's box, which by the way, shout out to him for wanting a Rubik's. cube box. That's what he wants because he loves Rubik's cubes. So I helped him make a box for all of that.

And we've got the candies and we're signing all the candies. And listen, I'm not going to say I didn't put one of the warhead dipping sticks for Lars for later. I'm not saying I stole one to send Lars, but I'm not saying I didn't, my friends. Yeah. He sounds like a real like, you know, like an Austrian hunk too, right? Like I can, I mean, it is one of the one of the, I think upsets of the World Baseball Classic is that the guy named Lars Newbar is not on the Netherlands team. He's actually playing for Japan.

Yeah, he's playing for Japan. His mom, I think, is Japanese, so I think that's really cool. Yeah, that is awesome. You know, Welsh, everything you said, I echo I had him in breakout 1.0. Not going to try and steal your thunder here. I wouldn't say that I love him. I like him. I like Lars Neupar quite a bit.

But for all the reasons you mentioned, he walks as much as he does. 14.7% walk rate. sixth best among hitters with at least 300 plate appearances last season. So, man, if he's hitting well, there's a chance that he is leading off for this team. And he could be really, really special, specifically in a head to head points league as well. You know who he reminds me of? And it's a fitting comp because they both came up with the Cardinals, kind of out of nowhere,

is Tommy Fam. That's who I think of when I, it's a different swing profile. And obviously Tommy Pham's a righty, large new bars, bats lefty, and large new bar is a little more pull heavy, which that was always one reason why Tommy fans really impressive quality of contact numbers never quite led to the kind of production we'd hope for, especially as a power hitter. But like very, very good athlete, incredibly strong. You know, that's the. And, you know, Tommy Fam, I think was a little bit older when he finally got his chance. But Newbar was like a non-entity on prospect rankings before 2021.

I mean, you look at, I was looking at baseball prospectus. he wasn't listed before 2020, 2022's list, preseason list. I don't think he ever made fan graphs like top 30 prospects for the Cardinals. So, yeah,

he's kind of, you know, a little Cardinals Devil Magic. Yeah, so not just Cardinals Devil Magic, but driveline baseball devil magic because he had been working with them since 2020,

I believe, to increase the velocity of his swing. And so that's where this power came from for new bar. after already having a good batting eye. Yeah, he's a player. You know, look, I wrote down six hitter names as potential hitters I love.

Newpar was on that list. Oh, you're looking at my guys there, Scott. I'm just saying, you know, you stick to Newpar, I'll stick to Vargas. I want to point out one of money business. I only did O'Neill Cruz, so I'm, my love is most pure. It does sound most pure.

You have a lot of competition, Chris. You may You may wind up with no date to the prom, just saying. On large new bar, one thing I've been waiting for since the AFL was during the AFL, there was a rumor that went out from a couple of reporters when he was here, because he really started to get some more traction, that he copyrighted his full name to, obviously, this is his name likeness, but for a candy bar,

for like a nutrition bar. I'm sorry, not a candy bar, but that he had copyrighted to have his own branded nutrition energy bar or whatever made and we haven't had that. We get a big breakout year. We might officially get the Lars Knickr. Who's the last player with a with a candy bar?

I know we had an O. Henry. There was something, there was something since O. Henry, right? Sounds like a Hank Aaron thing, right? Yeah. I'm making that up. I don't know. Somebody had a candy bar.

Somebody had a candy bar in the 90s. I'm going to look this up. I was like, yeah, Babe Ruth is a little bit too obvious for me. If it's, if it's pop culture related, I probably don't know. about it. So, uh, do you say the Wilk clerk? Oh, the Reggie bar. That was another one.

There you go. Are these real? These are we should have like a, a round table of all athlete candy bars and we can try them all two of them. I was going to say. There's no way there's that many. Can we even count them on one hand or? Henry was not a Henry, Hank Aaron thing. I just made that up. I'm a liar. How many athlete based food products have been created then? They moved past candy bars for a second. There was an Albert Bell bar from Malley's There was a weight bogs 3.52 bar. Okay. There was a Jose Canseco 40-40 bar.

Uh-oh. That probably had more than chocolate in it. Yeah. Artificial sweeteners. And the Warren Crow-Marty Crowbar, which was sold at the entrances to Olympic Stadium. That's good. Cecil Fielder had one. I remember that one.

That makes sense. Why can we get a Prince Fielder bar? That went. Yeah, exactly. When Henry Rodriguez broke out for the expos in the mid-90s, and he would hit home runs in Olympic Stadium. They'd shower the field with O'Henry bars for him. That was a thing.

Okay, maybe that's what I was remembering. All right. And there was the last but not least, certainly, the Travis Hafner Prank Bar. What is it called? A prong bar? That was his nickname. You remember?

That was a project half donkey. It was prong. Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, man. The show just went off the rails. Anywho, let's rein us back in here. Players we love, we've got one more hitter I want to talk about.

And frankly, I thought I would have some competition for this one, too. You know, Scott might have a few words to say about this one. But I'm going to check out your girl over here. I'm going with good old Corey Seeger. He is the one player. He is the one. Every draft that I enter, regardless of format, he is the player that I want to come away with. Awesome first season.

Well, not awesome. It was a successful first season with the Rangers. call it, career high, 33 home runs, 91 runs, 83 RBI. The one blemish, he hit 2.45. However, the expected batting average, according to Stadcast, is 283. Last year, Corey Seeger lost 25 hits to the shift, according to Sports Info Solutions. And if he had those 25 hits, you can't just assume he would have got all of them. But let's just assume that.

His batting average would have been 287, which is very close to his expected batting average. hits the ball hard, hits the ball hard in the air, and oddly enough, had some weird home road splits, a 901 OPS at home last year, 6.45 on the road. Maybe at home comes down a little bit, but he's going to be better on the road this upcoming season, and he's going to be better in general, now that there are shift restrictions.

So Scotty, me and you might have to duke it out for this one, but Corey Seeger is the player I want in every draft this season. It's so hard, you know, because I've brought up Vinny P. in the context of the wandering eye. I've brought up Corey Seeger and O'Neill Cruz as two players that I'd like to love. If it wasn't so difficult, because here's what makes it difficult. You know, I've stressed a lot, position scarcity at the start of dress, the need to get a third basement early,

the need to get, you know, a good part of your outfield filled early. I'd like to get a second basement pretty early, too. That's more of a want than a need, the more I look into it. that leaves first base and shortstop. You can't draft every position early, and those are the positions that most afford you the chance to wait. So as much as I love Corey Seeger, O'Neill Cruz,

Vinnie Pass Quantino, you know, it's unless, like, my best chance of getting them is if things go wrong early, you know? Because, because I, at some point, I have to draft some pitch, pictures, right? It's hard to drift. It's hard to fit them in, is what I'm trying to say.

As much as I may love them in theory, it's hard to fit them in. Is Scott White, the Leo DiCaprio of this podcast? Is he just like, he just continuously burning and churning through different players? I mean, I suppose they're not all under 24, especially when you bring up Corey Seeger, but Scott, you definitely have an eye all around you. I don't, you don't stick too long into one love. Well, the fact that Scott chose Miguel Vargas is very Leonardo DiCaprio-esque. It is very. Yeah.

I mean, I'm not going to say. It's fine. We'll just move on. I've been told that my eyes are set similarly to Leonardo de Caprio. I couldn't think of a 19-year-old prospect off the top of my head. So we'll just, we'll just keep moving. Well, so we have any 19-year-olds? What, Jackson-Turio?

Drew Jones. Drew Jones. Yeah, Jackson-Jurio. There you go. That works. Anywho. That'll be next. Last point on Corey Seeger.

His ADP is 50. point two, Scott, the only problems that I've run into are what you're saying is the fact that shortstop is one of the deepest positions. But even with that, I just need to start training myself that if we get into the fifth round of a points league, I'm going to take him, you know, depending on where I'm drafting and if I have stolen bases early, you know, maybe I have to wait till like late fifth, early sixth round in a roto league and a categories league. But either way, I want Corey Seeger. I want him on my team this year. Frank, I did want to tell you, on Wednesday, the camp's open out here in Arizona, where I am. And I, I'm, and I, I'm, and I,

I actually plan to go to the Rangers on Wednesday. So maybe I will try to find Corey and maybe I could get a little special message just for you from Corey Seeger if I can get around. Maybe just a little like, hey Frank, all right. Shouts up. I'll be, I'm going to look for it.

I will be texting you after this podcast and let you know a little special message from a man, Corey. We'll try. We'll try. All right. Before we hit the break, I want to remind everyone to join our Facebook group. If you haven't already, Fantasy Baseball today,

We've got a whole bunch of people asking questions right now. Keeper questions, dynasty, draft related questions, anything that you have. You can join up Facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball today. Ask away and have fun with the community. Speaking of community, if you have subscribed or you checked us out here on YouTube, thank you. We appreciate it. We have a community tab here on YouTube where we put out a bunch of polls and ask questions and graphics, ask for your favorite players. So there's a lot going on there.

Make sure to interact on our YouTube community. community poll if you haven't already. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. All right, let's get into those news and notes. I mentioned there was a lot going on this weekend, and we had a few trades, a few signings. We'll start off with AJ Puck, who was traded to the Marlins in exchange for J.J. Bladay, former first round picks, both of them being swapped here between Oakland and Miami, obviously. Chris Towers, there was a recent report that Puck was going to compete for a spot in the A's rotation. Find that a little bit tougher now that he's headed over to Miami.

Yeah, I think that'd be pretty unlikely. I mean, you can never have too much starting pitching. I think that's one of the things that, you know, the Marlins have plenty of starting pitching. Well, last year they didn't. You know, like that starting pitchers get hurt and they might reach a point a week into training camp where they're down to starting pitchers and it wouldn't really surprise me.

So we'll see there. But I was reading a piece in the Miami Herald today about the Marlins. And it actually sounds like there's a pretty good chance they're going to go with a six-man rotation, at least to start the season. But it was not AJ Puck who was mentioned in that. AJ Puck was mentioned as one of their relief options. So was Baxter and Garrett, who seems likely to open the season in the rotation. So you've got obviously San Diego, Johnny Quato, Hayses Lazzardo,

Edward Cabrero, Trevor Rogers, and Braxton Garrett. I would think A.J. Puck is going to be in the bullpen. I think there's a decent chance he's the closer because, you know, he's a hard thrower, good stuff, could, you know, could profile in that. in that way. I know there are some concerns about whether he'll be able to pitch like every other day or something like that

with his injury history. But I do think there's a chance he's just the best pitcher out of the bullpen for the Marlins. I like the trade. I think there was a lot of confusion around the trade, but I don't really think Jay J. J. J.L. Day is going to become anything.

And I certainly don't think he's going to become anything in Oakland for fantasy purposes. So I think there's a chance AJ Puck is the more relevant of the two players for fantasy this year. It's meaning the Marlins bringing in Puck and Matt Barnes just feels like, you know, and they have a new manager. It's not done Madagly anymore. I don't really know what the plan is for the night then. Dylan Flora was doing fine at the end of last season.

I think the presumption is he'll just get the first shot out of the gate. But I don't know. It doesn't feel like I have a very firm grasp of that bullpen. I'm going with Barnes as the guy. But I think Craig Mish had also reported that they might view AJ Puck kind of like in how OG Josh Hater was originally kind of treated where, you know, Hayter wasn't like a actual closer. Sometimes he'd become like Fireman, you know, sometimes you come in the seventh and the eighth. I kind of feel like Puck might be used in a role like that. Like early on, it's going to be in a seven or eight.

Barnes probably has the most closing experience out of the group. That's why I think he's going to close. But Puck is a guy that at the end of the year, maybe we look at having like 10. 10 to 12 saves overall, and then he's a guy for next year because he still has a lot of trust to build back up. He's got to be able to throw strikes again, and he's got to be able to stay healthy. So I just don't think he's an early season option, but I really do think he's like, he's a good Keeper League by right now because he might be closing for this team in July, or at least next year. Again, that is AJ Puck getting traded over to the A's. The other side of the deal,

Scott, J.J. Bladay played 65 games with the Marlins last season. He hit 167 with five homers, four steals. A lot of walks, 12.6% walk rate, but also lots of strikeouts, 28%. Ross of Resource has the A's outfield as Bleday,

Esté Uri Ruiz, and Ramon Luriano. Anything here with J.J. Bladay. And he had 229 at AAA Jacksonville last year. You know why they got him because he walks a lot, as you pointed out.

This is an old school money ball acquisition. But I'm with Chris in that it's I don't have a lot of confidence that JJ Bladay is going to amount to anything in fantasy and certainly I have to see some evidence of that

before I make any kind of investment in him. The Dodgers had a busy weekend. They signed David Peralta to a one-year deal. Peralta was fine last year. He hit 251 with 12 home runs and a 731 OPS. Some interesting things kind of under the hood. He changed the launch angle. Finally, career high 41% fly ball rate

and he hits the ball really hard, so it would not surprise me if the Dodgers kind of figure David Paralta out, at least against right-handed pitching. Welsh, I'm kind of worried about who loses playing time here.

As of now, Rasta Resource has Chris Taylor on the bench. I think they're paying them $12 or $15 million a year. I probably, I don't think that I buy that. They have Trace Thompson in center field as of now,

but I think it's probably going to be Taylor and Center and Miguel Vargas at second base, like we mentioned earlier. Yeah, I've never got the Trace Thompson stuff, so I just like, don't know why he became anointed, the can't leave outfielder. Because as soon as this went down, everyone's like, oh, RIP James Outman.

Like, yeah, maybe, but I would rather have James Outman out there than Trace Thompson. So I'm not really sure. I don't also believe that Chris Taylor's a guy that's going to lose an exceptional amount of playing time. I think he's the guy that plays at super util. You know, the thing to think about with this Pralta deal, and just kind of overall, they have so many pieces that are moving around, that outfield doesn't really have a great defensive, like, mindset. And David Pralta comes in as like a gold glove. outfielder that can come in and really be a big piece to that and gives them a little bit more

stability so they can have everything focused in one area and that can be center field. I mean, there's also talk about Mookie Betts playing more second base this year, which is going to mess everything up as well and might take it away from Argus if that were to happen. That's one thing that like, I guess we'll talk about it when we get to the starting pitcher preview a little more, but like Dodgers up the middle defense looks kind of shaky right now. Like, I don't know, Gavin Lux, he's probably fine at short. but Vargas is going to play a lot of third, even Vargas is going to play a lot of second.

They don't really have a good center fielder on the roster. This is a team that I mean, you look at the success that their pitchers have had over the past couple of seasons, and they've had guys really outperform their peripherals a lot. And I think Julio Reyes is going to continue to do that because he's one of those guys who gets a lot of soft contact. But like, if it's not to the extent it has been in the past few years,

and it's not, you know, we don't get that Tyler Anderson kind of outcome for some of those lower end guys. You know, it's, it's one thing to keep in mind with, you know, Noah Cindergarde who, Frank, I know you like a little bit, and, you know, Tony Gonsolin who outperforms his peripherals pretty regularly. It's a situation where that they could go from, between that and the shift, they could go from being exceptional outliers to just being maybe just a good defense,

which could cost their guys some runs. Yeah, no, that's definitely a fair point. Something we'll talk about in the pitching preempties. previews. The Dodgers also signed former top prospect Alex Reyes to a one year, $1.1 million deal, which comes with a $3 million option for 2024. And apparently he will miss the first few months of the season as he rehabs from a shoulder procedure. Scott, let's not forget, you know, Reyes had 29 saves with a 3.24 ERA just one season ago in 2021. The problem, lots of walks and lots of injuries. So we just don't know when we're going to see.

This isn't the kind of move you like to see the Dodgers make, though, just because the Dodgers shouldn't be rescuing these high-upside players from the scrap heap for nothing. You know, like any team could have signed Alex Reyes, but it's the Dodgers who, you know, of course it is. Yeah, so we'll see if they can get anything out of him. But wouldn't surprise me. Right now they have Daniel Hudson and who's the other name?

Evan Phillips. Evan Phillips is someone that we've heard rumored. Bruce Star. Bruce Star Gratterol, Alex Vescia. So they've got some names back there, but they don't really have a lockdown closer. The Dodgers do. Not a clear frontrunner, I agree.

Like, just statistically, Evan Phillips is the one he'd like to see when it. He was one of the best relievers in baseball last year. But I'm thinking Daniel Hudson's the front runner coming back from injury just because he was the front runner going into last year. and then he got hurt and that's why they ended up with Kimball. And I think they've also, they've kind of been a little bit dicey about Evan Phillips jumping into that role because I think, again, that fireman type of thing being able to move them around.

I will tell you one thing out here in Arizona, the reasons to go out to extended spring training is usually not big. I mean, there might be an international guy or two. Alex Ray, as I expect to be rehabbing here during extended spring training for the first month or two, that is going to be a reason for me to go out and see if I can ever get him throwing my friends. and I will be watching because I loved Alex. He had the,

I believe he had the second most 100 mile per hour pitches as a starting pitcher last season in baseball. He was way, way behind Hunter Green who had, this is one of my favorite stats, 46% of all 100 mile per hour pitches thrown by a starting pitcher last season, which is just an absolutely bonkers stat. But Alex Reyes was second.

All right, Christian Javier signed a five-year $64 million extension with the Astros, which seems like, I mean, on paper, a great get for the Houston Astros. We'll see, you know, Javier, it's a little bit unproven. But, man, what we've seen so far, he's been awesome for Houston. The Cubs signed Michael Fulmer, which is another bullpen. It's pretty wide open for saves right now. It was Brandon Hughes to end the season last year.

They signed Brad Boxberger and Julian Meriweather this offseason. They still have Adbert Alzali and Rowan Wick on the roster. Scott, do you have a feel here for who you're targeting for saves in Chicago. I mean, if I, if you have, if I have to pick somebody, I'm going to pick Hughes, Brandon Hughes, but you know, he's left-handed. And it's not like he was getting every single save chance down the stretch. This is one of those really messy situations. And there's about how many is there. There's about seven or eight of them where like it, the only, like, the only, like, you're only going to draft them very late in a deep rotisserie league because

it's just a stab in the dark almost. Another very kind of messy bullpen right now is the Diamondbacks. Andrew Chafin signed a one year $6.25 million deal with Arizona, and he's been really good two years in a row now. I have no clue who will lead this team in saves either. Welsh, my latest flavor of the month has been Scott McGuff. Some people, who is Scott McGuff? Scott.

He had 69 saves in Japan the last two years, and I've heard his name kind of, mentioned when, you know, throwing around closer and saves in Arizona. So he's a name that I'm looking at. It's one of those out there. Kevin Ginkle's been my guy. I'm actually banking on Kevin Ginkle. I will say this, though. I think it's really interesting bringing another left hander into the bullpen because up until this, it was pretty much Joe Mantiplied. And he was their best reliever last year. It makes me wonder if getting another serviceable lefty to get in there would make the team a little bit more comfortable giving that roll over to Mantipa. I don't know if they're going to

end up, you know, picking one major guy that we forget Malanson is still there. I think Ginkle was one of the best. So, Malanson might steal some. I think Ginkle gets an opportunity. He made a bunch of big improvements. But Mantipal was the best reliever of all the guys. I actually think coming back, I've said it three times now, but a lot of teams are implementing this like fireman role of guys that they want to put in the highest leverage

situations. I think Mantipal could be the big leverage situation guy, which could take him seven, eight, or nine and get saves. And I think Chafin actually gives this a little bit more of an opportunity because in you're not just destroying your only lefty in the bullpen by saving them in the ninth inning. So just something to throw out. Yeah, fair point there. Much like we've heard this offseason, Jordan Walker will attend big league spring training

with a chance to compete for the Cardinals' opening day starting role in right field per John Denton of nlb.com. Vaughn Grissom might begin the season at AAA if the Braves decide to start Orlando Arcea at shortstop. That is obviously a spring training position battle to watch very closely. Bobaichette plans to be more aggressive on the base pass in. in 2020. According to Kegan Matheson of MLB.com, Freddie Peralta has, quote, no injury concerns leading into camp.

Peralta was limited to just 78 innings last season due to a recurring shoulder injury. Nestor Cortez will not pitch for Team USA due to a hamstring injury, which will shut him down for a few weeks. Per MLB.com, Ryan Nelson, Dre Jameson, and Tommy Henry are candidates for the Dback's fifth spot in the rotation.

Welsh, notice they left back. Brendan Fatt out of there. I think we all really like Fott. I don't know that he will realistically be considered for the fifth starter job, at least on opening day. Agreed. I completely agree with that. Marlins manager, Skip Schumacher, said that Joey Wendell will be the team's starting shortstop.

Fun times. Sixth O Sanchez... I mean, look, when you got 19 short stops on your roster, one of them, or second baseman on your roster, one of them's going to have to play shortstop. That's just the fact of the matter. It'd be like that sometimes. Sixtho Sanchez told the reporter that he lost 40,

pounds this off season. That is a lot of poundage. Sanchez hasn't pitched since 2020 and has had multiple shoulder surgeries over the past couple of years. A few smaller rumors just to pay attention to the Yankees have maintained contact with jerks and pro far while the Padres have checked in on Michael Waka, which frankly makes a ton of sense because as of now, their fourth starter is Nick Martinez and their fifth starter is Seth Lugo. So Padres could use some help. Let's get into pitchers we love. Last time, Chris starter us off. Let's go with Scotty. Who is a pitcher that you love here, Scotty? Yeah, so I think it's, there's always, there always tends to be a lot of love for the young guys, right? The up-and-comers, maybe they got a lot of sizzle on their pitches and, you know,

that gets the steam coming out of your ears. And that's, that's the one they love. But I'm going, you know, I'm going to somebody who I think has been given up on a little too soon. And I don't know if it's a she's all that situation because there's former glory

that can be restored here. It's not like... Kind of an opposite. Yeah. She's all that. It's more like a Stella's got her groove back. Okay. Okay.

Good. Yeah, that's better. Chris Sale. Chris Sale is the pitcher. And frankly, I think there should be more people sniffing around him because he hasn't really done anything to fall out of favor other than be hurt.

And last year, it was a stress fracture in his rib cage. It was a fractured wrist later on. Remember, he came back and made like two starts and fractured his wrist. These are not on a bicycle, right? Am I remembering that correctly? Yes. Yeah, and then he punched the thing at the minor league spring training. Like, he's got a cavalcade of interesting ways to get hurt.

Yeah, these are not normal pitching injuries, though, you know. These are not the sort of things where you worry about lingering effects or recurrences, really. These are just kind of fluky things that Chris fail, that Chris Sale has suffered. Chris fail. Chris fails. Ooh, Freudian slip there. I didn't mean it, Chris. I didn't mean it.

And remember, like at this time last year, we were all pretty enthusiastic. about him returning because he had come back from Tommy John's surgery the previous year, SRA, 11K per 9. The whip was kind of high because the control was a little off. It was pretty normal coming back for Tommy John's surgery. But I feel like we should be in the same place as last year enthusiasm-wise because the stress fracture in the rib cage and a fracture wrist. Like, that's just not something.

It just feels like fatigue, right? like hype fatigue for Chris Sale, but I'm not fatigued. I think he's beautiful. Still, and I want every bit of him I can. And it hurts. It hurts, kind of like I was saying for Miguel Vargas. When Chris Sale is taken, that's how you know it's love.

Because it hurts when somebody else gets their first. That's a more. Love hurts, baby. Nine starts for Chris Sale in 2021. Each of his FIP, X FIP, Sierra, and XERA were 3.69 or lower. and the velocity, something we've focused on a lot throughout Chris Sale's career, has looked great.

In the limited 2021 and 2022 sample sizes, the ADP is 159 as the 48 starting pitcher off the board. Scott, real quick, 48 in a third innings pitched the last two years for sale, 147 and a third back in 2019. What is your innings expectation this season for sale? I think it's going to be like I was saying for Justin Verlander last year. I don't think you can apply the usual

innings management rules to somebody like this who has several years of accumulating 200 plus innings and is clearly in the latter stages of his career. 170, 175, kind of like we saw from Verlander last year. I think that's within the realm. As long as he doesn't do anything crazy, punching walls or falling off bikes. But I don't think he will.

I think he's, you know, I'm going to help him get his head right. Part of the concern, I guess, is just that we haven't really, we haven't seen him pitch like a really high level pitcher since 2018. And we haven't seen a full season of it since 2017. So that would be the only real knock against him. But I agree. I think the price is fine.

And I think there's some delayed, like, we always thought he would get hurt. Now he got hurt. And this is just like time catching up to him. I don't know if that's actually fair because like you said, the Tommy John surgery, that was bad. That's not what you want.

But the injuries last year were mostly bad luck and bad decision making, which, you know, Chris Sale's a weird dude. I guess I can't say for sure. He won't go on, you know, off-road biking or punching TVs.

It's, you know, it's within the realm of possibility for Chris Sale. You know, he's a bad boy. And, you know, Scott loves a bad boy.

That's right. But I just, Chris Sale. One of the funniest things that's ever happened in Major League Baseball is Chris Sale, like, almost demanding a trade because his teammate's son wasn't allowed in the locker room. Just the funniest thing that's ever happened. I forgot about that. Shout out to Adam La Roach. Yeah. Drake La Roche.

That's the funniest thing that's happened in his career. No. I think I'm cutting up the jerseys. The jerseys was very funny as well. but like I believe former White Sox outfielder Adam Eaton referred to 14-year-old Drake LaRoche as a leader in their clubhouse. That tells you everything that you need to know. Chris, let's stick with you here. Who is a player, a pitcher that you love this season? Scott was disparaging about our love for the young sexiness and the hard throwers and whatnot.

But I'm going to go right to it. Edward Cabrera. Very few pitchers throw harder than him. perhaps no pitchers throw a change up harder than him. If anybody does, it's Sandy Alcantra. And like, that's a, that's an interesting comp. You know, obviously I don't think Edward Cabrera is going to become the, you know, innings eating dominant ace that Sandy Alcantra has. Edward Cabrera might have fewer career innings than Sandy Alcantra had last season.

Don't fact check me on that, but it might be close. But as a pitcher, he shares a lot of similarities. He throws really, really hard, does a very good job of limiting hard contact. He's got that change up that he can throw 95. I think he had one in 96 miles per hour last season. Average 93 with it has the potential to be a very, very good pitch. Obviously, we've seen with the Marlins over the past couple of years. Every single person who pitches for them seems to come up to the majors with a very, very good change up.

That's what they do. But last season we saw his curveball start to develop a little bit more, swing and miss pitch. The fastball usage actually being pretty low, I think is a good thing because, you know, the fastball is kind of always the thing that the young pitchers lean on. And Edward Cabrera last season only through his fastball, if you combine the sinker and the four seam are 31% of the time. I think that's a sign of maturity as a pitcher.

It's a pretty good pitch. It doesn't get the kind of swings and misses that you would necessarily think for someone who can dial it up to 100. But Edward Cabrera, I think it's a very, very good skill set. And I think the Marlins have earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to developing pitchers. So when you get a chance to take a swing at a very talented young pitcher who has shown the ability to get out to the major league level and he's outside of the top 300. I'm pretty sure in 80P or top 200 and 80p. I'm going to do that every day and I'm going to love it.

Yeah, it comes with the prospect pedigree too. You mentioned a lot of these things, Chris. He throws extremely hard. He's got the secondary pitches, gets ground balls, limits hard contact, the one knock. is the control. 4.1 walks per 9 to this point. In his career, three plus walks in 8 of 14 starts last year.

You made the Sandy Comp, right? And some people might not remember this. Prior to 2021, Sandy Ocanser had a four walks per nine on the nose, and he improved. He got better. So it's possible for a young pitcher to improve their control and their command.

I'm not saying it's going to happen all in one season for Edward Cabrari. He's going to still have his hiccups, but he is someone that I do like quite bit myself, Chris. The ADP is 243.2. He's the 69th starting pitcher off the board. Going around some other interesting young pitchers as well, Chris, Reid Detmer's, Hunter Brown, would you rather have Edward Cabrera over both of those guys? I guess Brown, maybe you'd rather have him just because he does have that spark eligibility for

your points leagues. But other than that, I think Cabrera is a, I think it's just a more talented pitcher than either of those two guys. So I'll take the chance on him. All right. Well she, you are up. A pitcher you love this season. Well, I'm going to preface this that my eye is wandering a little bit because who Frank is going to bring up is my number one. It is my number one of number ones. Frank has it. Frank knows we've talked about this off air. He is the number one guy.

But I will talk about one of my favorite young pitchers in baseball right now because the inverse of what you just talked about with Edward Cabrera. I mean, this guy does throw pretty hard. He's got walk issues. This guy does not have walk issues. And it's George Kirby with Mary. earners, 4% top 4% in league and walk percentage as a rookie. Now, the K percentage just wasn't great. It was 24.5%.

So if you K minus walk, you're in the 20s, which is not a fantastic number. But you've got four plus pitches. We've got six pitches overall, but four pitches that he's throwing at a 10% or higher clip. And then if you get all of them, six at eight percent or more. And really what you're looking at is like a high command pitcher that can hit every point in the zone. It's really fascinating looking at the charts where he has got a pitch for every point of the zone and it's pinpoint, you know, changeups on the left side, everything on the end, fastballs he can bring up. That's something he really worked on early on. I really like George Kirby.

The floor is so immense because of the great command and the low walk numbers. You got a great offense behind you. You also have great pitchers as far as tutelage goes around. He's kind of a student of the game in general. I love Logan Gilbert because of the hard worker he is. Luis Castillo could bring a big part of the game to him. And he's got an ADP that's outside the top 100. So it's like it's a little dangerous getting in on young pitchers. But this is a guy that I want to do that with. Side note to Nick Ladolo, that would be another one of those guys that I kind of put into that list. But I wouldn't want both of them. I don't want a whole bunch of rookies in a redraft. And Kirby would be my priority. So George Kirby, if I can't have who Frank has because he's already

claimed him, George Kirby does have my eye. I do have. I do have. a concern about Kirby that I've brought it before on the podcast. That is not yours. I just wonder with Kirby if there's more than one trick in the arsenal. You know what I mean? Because if it's just, you know, Kirby's another popular one, everybody's looking at him. Is it just the looks? Because when you dig deeper, you know, I really only see a fastball there.

It doesn't have a lot. Yeah. Doesn't have a lot of finesse going on that's going to help him. I don't know. I think maybe he might Peter out if he doesn't. I think you're kind of painting it as a pessimistic angle. I don't think there's much bust potential here because it's not your standard command profile where he throws 91. you know, this isn't Kyle Hendricks where like things could get really ugly.

He throws 95. He's averaging 95 miles per hour with his fastball. He started using the sinker slash two seam last in the second half of last season. And it didn't help him get whiffs, but it, you know, helped him give hitters another look, kept them off balance, created more weak contact. And he was able to throw it for strike. So it wasn't like he was sacrificing anything there. My issue, the thing that keeps me from loving George Kirby, I don't know where the next step comes from

is the way I put it is it's got to be one of the slider or curveball. He threw the slider more as the season went on, but he never really got whiffs with it. I mean, he had a 12.5% whiff rate with his slider in the month of September. That was when he used it the most. And like,

that would be a bad whiff rate for a four-seam fastball or a sinker. You know, 12.5% like that. And it wasn't far off from that for the season as a whole. It was 11% or not 14%. And the curveball was at 13.7%. So he needs, I think, one of the two breaking balls or, you know, if the change up takes a big step forward, which he was at 8% usage last year. He needs one of those pitches, I think, to become like an out pitch. Or he could just be like Brandon Woodruff has kind of gotten away with not having a great secondary or breaking ball as an out pitch because his fastball is such a high whiff pitch.

there's a little bit of that in George Kirby with the 4th seam fastball, 26% whiff rate with a force team fastball is a pretty good number. But I think he needs to take a step forward with one of those secondaries. And the good news is he's got a lot of them. Yeah, he does. And one of the things was coming off of COVID,

he was the first guy I got to see in person back when I got to see players again. And something that really popped for everybody is in that first session. He was hitting 101 on radars. He was hitting 98 101. Obviously he's back. off of that. You can't come back off of that on command. But I would also point out this is a guy that can add more to the fastball when he feels comfortable and when he gets to that point. So I don't think

it's out of the realm of possibility that you see an increase on the fastball. Also, one of the things that's unique is all of his pitches, this is something I'd love to see him work on. And frankly, I'm going to ask him about if I can catch him in spring training is of if you want to just quantify this as six pitches, five of those pitches all have about a 2100 RPM on them. They all have have about the same type of spin that's working in different things, except the changeup, which he deadens at 1400. So that's really the big difference. What you'd love to see is a little bit more variety. He's got kind of an EV. He's got like a velocity change across his pitches, but maybe he can add a little bit more spin here or there. You've got a great deaden change up

that hopefully that can become a little bit more. And if there's any velocity change on the fastball in the positive direction, he's got the makings of a guy that can move up into like an Aaronola type of range. So I love the command. There's a floor. And I do think this is just a young guy who's still learning the game. But he is one of the best young guys who has already set a baseline in this game to get a lot better.

You hope he just doesn't peter out. What I was trying to say is I like a guy with some curves. Okay. George Kirby doesn't have them. That's why Scott likes me so much. Well, not yet. Not yet for George Kirby. We'll see if he can add it to his repertoire.

I know you brought up the name Aaron Nola Welsh. He feels very Shane Bieber-esque, right? Just really good control. But, you know, the breaking pitches were already there by the time Bieber got to the majors. And they became even better. So hopefully that can happen for George Kirby as well. Welsh, I apologize for stealing the man of your dreams. This has been our guy all season, though.

We've been doing this like since I've been on with you guys. You and I have been going on about this guy. Yeah, I think he was one of my ADP gifts around Christmas. And nothing has changed. I still really like him. that is Jeffrey Springs. Among starting pitchers with at least 130 innings pitched last season. Springs ranked 15th in K-minus walk rate, 13th in swinging strike rate,

and each of his FIP, X-FIP, Sierra, X-E-R-A, with 3.32 or less. Everything lined up for Jeffrey Springs. The one drawback for him is the innings. He is a converted reliever now into a starter. He went from 44 and 2 thirds in 2021 to 135 and a third. this past season. He made 24 starts from May 9th on.

He only went six innings in seven of those. So Scott, I know that's something that kind of worries you about pitchers, so maybe you dock them a little bit in a points league because he's not giving you that volume. But when he pitches, I think Springs is going to be really good. Good ratios over a strikeout per inning. And he is in an organization

that frankly does really, really good work with their pitchers. So I really like Jeffrey Springs. The ADP is 164.8. actually I don't just really like him I love Jeffrey Springs He better love him That's the whole concept here The 80s

51st starting pitcher off the board I have him as my 43rd So I am going to get a lot of him Yeah there's He's totally fine with where he's going I mean I don't really understand The Brady Singer love He's going after Brady Singer

He's going after Pablo Lopez He's going after Jordan Montgomery I'm fine with all that I see him ahead of Like Man is he head of Chris Sale I don't think so. No, just behind.

But Charlie Morton's in that same range, too. Scott. So, you know, I think it's fine where he's going. I think it's more or less fine. Do I need to remind you who the pitcher you loved last year was? It was Charlie Morton. Charlie Morton. And all he did was break your heart.

And you're going back to the well? Someone who broke your heart, Scott? How can you do this? Well, he's not the pitcher I love this year. I think he and Chris Saylor in a similar category. I'm just, but I'm, You know, I like sale more. It's fine.

Like Charlie Morton's the backup plan. If somebody else has eyes for sale and gets to them before me, then I'll go back to back to Charlie, you know, for old time's sake. But it is going to feel like a bit of a concession after the way last year went, for sure. Rekindle the old flame that is Charlie Morton. So the pitchers, we love Jeffrey Springs for me, George Kirby for the Welsh, Chris Sale for Scotty and Edward Cabrera. for Chris the Towers.

The hitters that we loved, Corey Seeger for me, Lars Newbar for Welsh, O'Neill Cruz for Chris and Miguel Vargas for Scotty. And I liked them all, really. Hey, that's a good thing. Agreement is good.

That means we've got the right players. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. We're going to wrap there for Scott, Chris, and Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching. Fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.