Fantasy Baseball Today - Players We're Fading at Each Position in 2026 Drafts! (3/8 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)
Episode Date: March 8, 2026Frank Stampfl and Chris Towers reveal their top fades at each position for 2026 Fantasy Baseball drafts! We give out one for each infield spot, a few outfielders, starting pitchers and relief pitchers.... Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Players, we are fading at each position.
Up next on Fantasy Baseball Today, Express.
Welcome in to FBT Express on Sunday, March 8th.
I am Frank Stample joined by Chris Towers,
and let's do it, Chris.
Fades at each position, we will start with Catcher.
Who you got?
But we're going to get yelled at.
No, Alejandro Kirk is the easiest fade at the catcher position for me,
assuming, you know, it depends what format you're drafting at.
If you draft over at the NFBC, his catcher, his ADP is the number 12 catcher off the board right around 150th overall.
I just can't get on board with that.
Alejandro Kirk is like classic number two catcher.
He's perfectly fine, but he's not particularly good.
You'll get a decent batting average, but everything else will be pretty subpar.
When we've got Francisco Indoor and Carter Jensen, Samuel Bessio, and Gabriel Moreno and Kyle Teal,
and there's a lot of interesting catchers this year.
I can't take Alejandro Kirk over any of those guys.
Yeah, the fade for me is one that people won't like, and that is the big dumper, Cal Raleigh, an ADP of 13.4.
I just think it's very obvious he's going to regress, regress to what?
Maybe he hits 40 home runs and goes back to his two 30-ish batting average, and he still might be the number one catcher in fantasy, but he's, is that worth the second round pick?
I don't think so.
So, Cal Raleigh, going to be a fade for me.
Let's go over to first base.
Who do you have here?
I kind of think you can fade all three of the top guys, at least at their current prices, right?
Because Nick Hertz and Vladimir Guerr are like top 20 picks, Pete Alonzo, like top 25.
I don't think any of those guys are so much better than the tier behind them that you have to reach for them.
But Nick Kurt specifically, even if he's still very good in 2026, he's probably not going to be anywhere near as good as he was last season.
The batting average could be a liability.
Look, 40 homers is 40 homers.
He's probably not going to be bad,
and I think he's a very good bet for 40 homers,
but you're not getting any steals.
You're probably going to get a pretty bad batting average.
For a second round pick and a mid-second at that,
I think he's a fine pick around the two-three turn,
but he's going too high for me.
We are in agreement.
Nick Kurtz's ADP 18.4.
The strikeout rate got worse down the stretch last year.
The XBA was more like 245,
so no doubt in the power,
but I think it could be a lower batting average here
and lots of strikeouts for Nick Kurtz.
And he's just one of the least proven players
going in the early round.
So typically that player is not for me.
Let's go over to second base.
Chris, who are you fading here?
Senator Raphael.
It feels like an easy one.
He's got some speed, a little bit of pop,
but he's not really a standout in either.
Last year it was 16 homers, 20 stolen bases,
came with a 249 batting average.
The underlying number suggests
he was probably a little lucky to hit 249.
I think there's a world where Saddam Rafael is just a below average player
pretty much across the board.
Maybe stolen bases are somewhat valuable,
but he's not going to be a stand out there.
So Sena Rafael is a fairly easy fade for me.
I don't have a great answer at second base.
I will say Bryce Tarang.
His ADP is 45.6.
Again, I'm not very convicted in this pick,
but it's how much of the...
the power was real last year. It does help that he showed up and hit two 400 plus foot home runs
already in spring training. But I do have some questions about what type of skill set? Who is
who is Bryce Terang this year? So as a result, I'm just probably not going to use a fourth
round pick on him. Let's go over to third base. Chris, who are you fading at third?
Snow Evie Marte, who's a somewhat interesting young player who I think in theory I like.
there's, you know, some, some pop, some speed.
There's some decent bat to ball skills, at least what he showed last year.
But we basically have three stretches at the major league level.
He was pretty good in 2023 when he called up for the final 35 games.
He was a disaster last in 2024 when he got called up.
2025, he's pretty good in July.
He's very good in August.
It's 297.
and it's like, okay, I can start to buy in.
The underlying numbers look pretty good.
And then September, he just falls apart.
He puts up a 501 OPS.
It's a 233 expected Woba over his final 100-plate appearances,
basically covers the entire month of September.
The swing and miss came back.
This is a guy I would feel okay,
Nouve-Marte taking like a 160-170-friar.
He's like a top 125 pick right now.
So I can't get on board with that.
Yeah, at third base, Alex Bregman,
in Rigley.
Look, I don't think he's going to completely fall apart there,
but going from other stadiums that have played very well for his swing
as a pull-heavy, right-handed hitter.
And now going over to Wrigley,
I just expect the numbers to come down a little bit across the board.
He still has an ADP inside the top 100.
So he hits 250 to 260, around 20 homers.
Counting stats should still be all right.
Fine points league player, but in a category is the league,
I just feel like there are more players to get excited about
going inside of the top 100.
Let's take a quick break and we'll return right after this.
Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Going over the players, we are fading at each position.
And let's take a look at Shortstop.
Chris, who are you fading at Shortstop?
There's nobody I'm really actively avoiding at Shortstop,
but it's pretty unlikely I'm going to be drafting Jacob Wilson
whose ADP is about 170 right now.
I think he's fine.
I think he's kind of a one-trick pony.
He will give you a very good batting average.
I don't really buy that he's like a 15 homer guy like he looked like last season.
If you look at the underlying quality of contact metrics,
he actually doesn't even hit the ball as hard as Luis Arias on average.
It's 84.6 miles per hour average exit velocity.
He doesn't hit the ball to the pull side in the air particularly often.
Last year, it was 9.3 expected home runs compared to 13 actual home runs.
I just think you're getting Luis Arias in Jacob Wilson.
And we've all agreed that Luis Suras is no longer particularly interesting.
And Luis Soraya is at least going to have second base eligibility.
So, yeah, I can't get excited about Jacob Wilson.
Yeah, Chris, you might want to go for a walk when I talk about this next player.
Haraldo Perdomo is the player I'm fading at shortstop.
And ADP of 61.2 coming off the career year,
I just don't see enough in the underlying numbers to support what he did.
the average exit velocity, the barrel rate,
still just not great.
I think the power is going to come down.
Maybe it's like 12 to 15 homers.
Should still run a little bit, like 15 to 20 steals.
I just think he comes down across the board
and you're paying for the career year
that we just saw from Perdomo.
So it's a no for me, dog.
Let's go over to the outfield.
Chris, do you have a name or two
that you fade in the outfield?
Yeah, O'Neill Cruz for sure.
I think that's maybe my biggest fade in fantasy this season.
and there was maybe a little bit of bad luck in him hitting 200 last season,
but his expected batting average was 218, so it's not like it was good.
It's not like we'd be happy if he had 218 last season.
It's a seventh percentile mark.
He strikes out as much as anyone in baseball he has shown.
I think it's fair to say no ability to hit lefties at the major league level.
It's not like he's such a good defensive player that he has to stay in the lineup.
I think there are real downside risk for O'Neill Cruz where he's just straight up,
not in the lineup every day.
I know the underlying skills, the athleticism is very impressive, but there are so many ways
things can go wrong for O'Neill Cruz and not a demonstrated ability for things to go really
right.
And he's a top 100 pick, so.
Yeah.
For me, Riley Green, who has an ADP of 60.2, I know he's coming off another career year.
who clearly traded off some contact ability for home runs and leaned into that power approach.
But even the bad at ball data didn't really excite me and he regressed in the second half.
And I just see a world where he goes back to the hitter that he was in 2024.
And then if he does that, he's just, he's not worth anywhere close at top 60 picks.
So just another player.
I don't want to buy coming off the career year there in Riley Green.
What about that starting pitcher, Chris?
You have a few names here that you are fading at SP.
Yeah, the most obvious one would be Spencer Strider,
who we talked a lot about on the full episode of FET on Friday.
I would be okay with taking a flyer on Spencer Strider
if it was like the 45th pitcher off the board.
But we saw a whole season from him in 2025
where he just did not look like the same guy.
His fastball went from being a legit plus pitch to average,
maybe worse once you account for his pretty poor command.
And so far, two spring starts,
I haven't seen any reason to believe that that's going to be different this season.
I know he's holding back.
He's not pitching full effort yet, all that stuff.
That's fine.
But when I'm talking about a top 25 or top 30 starting pitcher,
which is where Strider is still going,
I just can't justify a complete blind faith pick for someone who has not looked like a
a difference making pitcher in over two years.
I'll also throw Zach Wheeler in there just because he still costs around 125th pick.
Him and Strider actually over the last week at NFBC, back to back at starting pitcher right
around 30.
And I just have to see something from those guys to justify that kind of price.
For me, it's if they were 40th, that's fine.
But there's plenty of upside in that range of pitchers.
You got Nick Ladolo, you got Jacob Mizirowski, Michael King, we've seen be a,
an ace.
Like, maybe Zach Wheeler and Spencer Strider have higher ceilings if they can get back to who
they were before injuries, but I don't know if they can.
So I just can't justify that cost.
Chris, I know you can relate to this for those watching on YouTube.
You might see my eyes light up and I'm looking in the corner of my room.
My cat is currently trying to break my door down.
It is, she is the hungriest cat right now that has ever lived.
She is just barging it down.
How dare you not feed her?
It is insane stuff.
that I am fading here, Nick Povetta, who is going inside the top 90 picks.
The Babbitt was low last year.
The ex-FIP, the XERA, they were both a run higher than his ERA last season.
So I don't think he's going to crush you by any means.
I just think that we're going to get some regression here.
Maybe it's an ERA in the 3, 6 to 3-8 range.
Probably is still a good whip, but is that someone who should be drafted as the top 24 starting
pitcher?
Probably not.
And then Sonny Gray is the other name that I'll mention.
ADP on fantasy pros is right around 100.
He's a top 30 starting pitcher, and he's getting a little bit older.
The fastball velocity is declining.
That fastball got destroyed last year.
Now he's going back into the AL East where he'll have to face.
I know it's a more balanced schedule, but still a few times per year.
I'll have to face the Yankees and the Blue Jays and the Orioles.
And we just saw some of these snowball starts last year where things just really, really got out of control for Sunny Gray.
So I think the strikeouts will be okay for him, but the ERA and WIP,
A little bit of risk there with Sunny Gray.
How about some relievers?
Any names here that you are fading?
Yeah, me and everybody are fading Carlos Hesdevez of the Kansas City Royals.
Guilty.
His velocities way down this spring.
He had a 254 ERA last season, I believe, led the league in saves.
That was all great.
The underlying numbers were significantly worse.
They were actually pretty bad.
I think there's a pretty good chance.
Carlos Estevez is not even close to the best reliever in the Royals bullpen.
Which, hey, that doesn't mean he's going to lose his job, but I think he does not have a wide margin for error.
I will be trying to draft Matt Strom at the end of a lot of drafts.
Yeah, I have Carlos Estevez on this list as well.
The other one is Aroldus Chapman, who is coming off one of the best seasons of his career.
And this is a Hall of Fame worthy resume if you just look at what he's done on the field in his career for Aroldus Chapman.
But he made huge strides in control last season.
I just don't know that he's going to be able to maintain that.
If you look at the pitcher he was from 2021 to 2024,
the walks were untenable at points there for Arolda's Chapman.
So, yeah, as the seventh or eighth reliever off the board,
top 85 pick.
I want to be more pick and choosy about the relievers
and the closers I draft this year.
And so I'm fading Arolda Chapman, Carlos Hesdavez,
and even Devin Williams is someone I have questions
about him pitching in New York this season.
I agree.
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Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express, and we will be back again next week.
Bye-bye.