Fantasy Baseball Today - Projecting Rafael Devers & Early 2026 Rankings Questions! (9/23 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

What are our expectations for Rafael Devers next year (3:03)? ... Ronald Acuña is finishing strong (12:42). ... Could Dylan Crews go 20-30 next season (15:09)? ... Justin Verlander let us down against the Cardinals (18:00). ... News (22:28): Ozzie Albies fractured the hamate bone in his left hand. ... Drake Baldwin is finishing strong and Michael Harris had a big game (33:22). ... We got clunkers from MacKenzie Gore, Chris Sale and others (37:14). ... Let's talk rankings questions for 2026, starting with Cal Raleigh (43:38). ... Should Nick Kurtz go ahead of Vlad Jr. (47:22)? ... Ketel Marte or Jazz Chisholm (53:51)? ... How will Junior Caminero perform in Tropicana Field (55:00)? ... Geraldo Perdomo is one of the hardest players to rank for 2026 (1:00:50). ... We wrap up with bullpen updates, streamers and Team Name Tuesday (1:09:34). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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 league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Just a three-game slate. Let's get weird.

Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, September 23rd. I am Frank Stanfield joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. and the show. We'll recap Monday's action, but not too much to talk about. So we will discuss the biggest rankings questions heading into 2026. Let's jump in. Is this happening? It is. All right, we'll start things off with players of the night. I think this might be the only time all season that all three of us chose hitters just because pitching was not very good here in these three games. But Scott, we will start with you. All right, let's talk about Rafael Devers, who didn't have the biggest game here on Monday, but he hit a home run.

It was his 33rd of the season. And if you look at his overall stat line, it's, it's pretty studly. The batting average isn't where we're used to seeing it, 252, but there's an 844 OPS, like I said, the 33 home runs. I'm not trying to suggest Raphael Devers is having a bad year. but I do think we're overdue for the discussion of just how much worse things have gone for him since joining the Giants. With his new team, Rafael Devers is batting only 234 with a 790 OPS. He's striking out 29.6% of the time. You round that up, that's 30%.

That's bad. That's obviously not where. we're used to seeing it for Raphael Devers, and it might explain why he's hitting 234 with his new club. Also, you do the month-by-month breakdown for Devers. So remember how this season started with him? It was way too many strikeouts, and everybody was freaking out,

and then things turned around suddenly, and, okay, Rafael Devers is fine. This is clearly nothing to worry about. You do a month-by-month breakdown of Rafael Devers' strikeout rate. It's pretty concerning. So, April, let me pull it up here, April 27%, May 18%. Okay, yeah, things are going the right direction here. June 29%, July 28%, August, 27%, September 32%.

It's really been a whole season of Raphael Devers striking out way more than he usually does. And like I said, it's gotten even worse since joining the Giants. Oracle Park, famously, a really tough place to hit. Rafael Devers numbers there this year, 229 batting average, 774 OPS. I was just ranking first baseman for several hours prior to this show starting. And so this is where it really caught my attention because there is this massive first baseman after what I think are the clear top two, Nick Kurtz and Vladimir Guerrero in some order. and then the mass is Pete Alonzo, Matt Olson, Bryce Harper, Raphael Devers.

Maybe you could put Freddie Freeman in there. I kind of have them in the next tier now, I think. But it's kind of, it's the old had the position. I guess Devers is new to the position. But you know what I'm saying? Guys who have been drafted in that round two to three range for years. And what order do you want to put them? I have Devers behind Alonzo Olson and Harper.

because I think he has the clearest warning signs here with how much the strikeout rate has jumped and how much worse he's looked at San Francisco. And, you know, obviously first base eligibility isn't quite as attractive as third base eligibility. So I guess I'm coming out as somebody who's kind of down endeavors now. Not that I want to draft him in round four next year,

I probably would. But it's noteworthy how things have played out for him. and so I am noting it. I think it's, yeah, I think the right way to phrase it is he is that there are some warning signs and their warning signs that were there last year. His zone contact rate collapsed from 76%, which is still a pretty bad mark to 72%, which is he was one of the worst zone contact guys in the majors last season. He just has relatively good swing decisions and does a lot of damage on contact.

And this season, it's gotten a little worse. it's within the same range 71.1% versus 71.9%. He's chasing less often. He's swinging less often overall. I think where I'm at with Rafael Devers is where he was once a clear standout in batting average. I don't think you can draft him as if he is that anymore. And that's not necessarily surprising. One, given the changes we just talked about from last season, but two, the move from Boston to San Francisco.

you know, San Francisco is one of the toughest place in baseball for lefties to hit in general. Boston's actually one of the tougher home parks for power for left-handed hitters. And actually, if you just look at home runs over the past three seasons, Fenway's 25th, Oracle Park's 26th. That's just home runs for lefties. Of course, Fenway is still the second best park in baseball for left-handed hitters because while you lose a lot of lot of home runs, you gain a ton of singles, a ton of doubles, and just generally boosts offense in general. And so what we've seen from Devers in Oracle when he's played there is a, you said it was like

a 229 batting average, 774 OPS, I think. That's probably- The OPS was lower. But yeah, the batting average was right on. That's probably what you should expect from Raphael Devers. Maybe you push it to 800. He is still. Oh, you're right. It was 774.

You had it exactly right. He's 29, 70, 74 at Oracle. But we expect, you're not going to expect a 230 batting average heading into next season. No, no, no, no. But I'm saying at Oracle Park, he might hit 240. And he might hit 275 everywhere else. And it comes out as a 260 hitter or something. I have no idea what the math on that would be.

But it's just to say that I think at this point, you're hoping Rafael Devers holds his own in batting average and hits 35 homers, which is basically what he's doing this season. But there is real downside with the batting average. In a way that I don't think is true for those other guys at the position except for we've seen some seasons like that from Pete Alonzo and Matt Olson, obviously, are the two guys with real batting average floors. And then we don't know what the floor looks like for Nick Kurtz.

It is not hard to imagine a guy that strikes out 29, 30 percent of the time. having some batting average difficulties in an off year. We don't know what the off years for Nick Kurtz look like. So I get that we don't want to think about what a downside scenario could look like. But there could be some Matt Olson in Nick Kurtz's game is the way I would put it, I guess. But yeah, I don't think you can draft Devers as a batting average standout. I still think you're going to get. I mean, we might get 200 combined runs and RBI from him this season, despite how weird it's been.

We might get 35 homers. So I think those are still good expectations. It's just the batting average. Yeah, and I think you laid out the best case scenario, but I think there's a worse case, an even worse case scenario, no T on the end of that. I'm not saying it's necessarily the worst possible outcome for Devers, but the guy who hit 270 was also striking out 20, 21% of the time.

So if Raphael Devers is striking out 28, 29% of the time, now. I don't know that you can even pencil him in for a guy who hits 270 away from Oracle. It might be it might be 230 at home 250 on the road and then it might be. And then he's he has the same batting average downside as Alonzo and Olson but without quite the same home run upside. The swing and miss is undoubtedly a becoming a bigger part of his game. I do want to give him a little bit of the benefit of the doubt just because he started the year coming back from injury. He's kind of been nicked up all season dealing with like knee and back stuff too. Maybe I'm just making excuses, but he's still, you know,

28 years old. And if he's fully healthy, I don't want to rule out the possibility that the batting average does bounce back a little bit. Maybe it's like 275 or 280 in a best case scenario. Whereas that's been higher in the past, his higher range of outcomes there. So I don't want to completely bury his potential for, to hit for batting average. But I think the expectation should be a little bit lower playing in Oracle Park. I just want to point out with Matt Olson. He did hit 54 homers two years ago now. 29, 28, the last two years.

He's going to be 32. My expectations for those guys are basically the same. Maybe you can argue Matt Olson has a higher home run upside just because he does have that 54 home run season. But that's a pretty big outlier for him at this point, given where he is on the aging curve versus Rafael Devers. I would still take Devers ahead of Matt Olson because I think there's the same batting average downside. You know, let's not forget Matt Olson hit 247 last year. Right, but he's hitting...

276 this year. He and Alonzo are going to hit about 275 this year. So they're giving you the batting average you used to get from Devers. That's one year. It doesn't mean they're going to do it always. But I just think they're better than Devers at this point. I think Alonzo definitely is. Well, I mean, we'll see.

I assume he's heading back into free agency. We'll see where he lands. I assume the Mets just. pay him in November and avoid the downside from last off season. But I think that's a big tier. Alonzo through, I would say Freeman, so three through seven at the position. I think it's just a big tier now. All right, Chris, let's go over to you for your player of the night. Ronald Acuna, and we don't have to spend nearly as much time on Ronald Acuna because I don't think he's particularly interesting from a discussion standpoint. And I say that because

I think he's just fine. I know there have been some ups and downs. I know the Braves dropped him to seventh in the batting order at one point, which seemed silly at the time. He's gotten red hot over the past couple of weeks. He's looked like himself. Ronald Ocuna is going to finish the season with like a 925 OPS, a 290 batting average.

20 homers and 10 steals and 100 games. He's still first rounder for me. That's all I want to. say. I know there was a lot of consternation about his slump coming back from that calf injury, I believe it was, but I have basically zero concerns about Ronald Acuna. I don't know how many bases he's going to end up stealing next season. You know, we've talked about him versus Juan Soto and setting the over under at 19 and a half for both of them and having no idea which direction to go for either.

But I think he's one of the, I don't know, eight best hitters in baseball. And I kind of view Ronald Cunez, whatever I get in stolen bases is a bonus at this point. I know I'm going to get a good batting average. I know I'm going to get a bunch of

homers. He might lead the league in runs next season. If he steals 30 base is awesome. If he steals 20, that's fine. Yeah. And he's finishing strong too. Last 14 games, 3.60. batting average, four homers, 13 runs, two steals, an OPS over 1100 during that time. And if you just take what he's done since returning, he's played 90 games a season.

If you paste that out over a full season, it's 34 homers, 127 run scored, and 14 steals. Obviously, that would be a very, very useful player and a first round player with the batting average and the OPS that he's providing as well. The only thing with Akuna, I feel like his range of outcomes might be a little bit wide. wider for other players in the first round just because of his injury history. He's dealt with so much leg stuff that I guess that has to be factored in a little bit.

But when it's all said and done, yeah, I think he'll probably be a mid to late first round pick next season. I mean, I have him. I think you have him six, right, Scott? I put him six. So I think that's the right place. All right, player of the night for me is Dylan Cruz,

who went one for four with his 10th home run. Last 15 games, he's hitting 283 283 with three homers, three steals, and 824 OPS, just a 9% strikeout rate during that time. So just reminding people that he does have that bat to ball skill. I know the overall batting average is still very low at 215. His XBA is 247 for the season. And if you take his numbers, he's right out of a half season right now. Pace those out.

It's 20 homers, 86 runs, 34 steals. So I kind of feel like we're just in a holding pattern with Dylan Cruz. and we'll probably treat him similarly to how he was entering this year, maybe a little bit less fanfare, but I still think, based on his prospect pedigree and what he's doing here to end the season,

there's still a chance that he can go 20, 30 next year and hit 250, and I wouldn't really be all that surprised. I wouldn't either. I have a hard time picturing him being drafted in three outfielder leagues. When, like last year we were drafting him as a top, or I'm sorry, coming into this year, drafting Dylan Cruz is like a top 30 guy right like he was around there yeah like a top

125 pick I think like you could dream on him as a second outfielder even in a three outfielder league if you wanted to go light at the position and I just think they're not that his upside has changed but I think there are a lot more outfielders who feel more you can feel more confident in them giving you starting caliber production than there was at this time a year ago and so So five outfielder leagues, Cruz will be a great sleeper as like your fifth outfielder, but I don't think he's going to be universally drafted next year. I think you just kind of draft him for steals and hope everything else comes, you know?

Yeah. And like you said, Sky, I mean, it's a loaded position, right? How many times have you already said, heading into next year we're going to have, you know, 30 outfielders that we want to, you know, put in within like 10 to 15 spots, right? It's just that, I don't know, outfielder 25 to 50 is going to be pretty loaded at the position. I haven't been able to get Trent Grisham in my top 40 outfielders all year, and he's hit, what, 33 home runs? Yeah.

And he's going to be a hard one to rank too, especially if he leaves the Yankees. But that's just one example. I mean, everybody's forgotten about Kyle Stowers because it's been a couple months since he played. He has like almost a mid-900s OPS on the year. with the underlying numbers to fully back it up. Yeah. Yeah. It's, there's, there's a lot of really interesting outfielders,

more than can possibly be drafted in a three outfielder league, I think. Before we hit our first break, I would be remiss not to mention. Justin Verlander, thanks for nothing. We've been kind of looking forward to this two-start week for a while now. And against the Cardinals, which should be a pretty good matchup, not a great start here. Four in a third inning, six runs allowed. Four of those earned here.

velocity down quite a bit between 1.5 and like almost two miles per hour on all of his pitches. And look, previous 11 starts before this for Verlander. He was great. 217 ERA 112 whip. If you start him for the two-star week, obviously this one was very bad. He does have a chance to remedy all of this because he gets the Rockies in San Francisco this weekend. So hopefully that happens. Fingers crossed because he was the top sleeper pitcher for the last week and one I had been hyping for weeks, weeks what he's going to do for you the last week. Gosh. The average exit velocity was 77.1 miles per hour.

When I dug into the start, it didn't really look all that bad. Like there was some bad defense behind him. I think maybe the velocity being down did affect him quite a bit. But it was down last start too. Yeah. Didn't it really. Oh, well, that's fantasy baseball for you. He got a lot of weak, like really, especially,

Lee Wheat Contact, five different batted balls with an exit velocity below 51 miles per hour. That's a lot. The hits were mostly earned. Looking at it, most of them had an XBA over 450. A bunch of them had it in like the 900 range. So there was, you know, a little bit of bad luck, I guess. But I don't know. This is always the problem with like sleeper or streamer pitchers is that they're not good for the most part.

Like guys who get called up and are low rostered as a result are an exception. But like, Jeff Verlander's been around quite a while famously. It's 42 years old. He's pitched all season and has been useful but not especially good. So this is always the risk when you go that way. Like even, you know, before this start, three strikeouts, four strikeouts and four walks. He had a six strikeout game in there. He had the 10 strikeout one at the end of August.

but this is always the risk when we put our eggs in the streamer pitcher basket, which is why we prefer not to have to do that. Yeah, he was definitely kind of towing that line through this 11-star stretch. I will point out his stuff plus 107 during that time, too. So the stuff has actually been really good. He continued to rate out really well by those metrics. I don't quite get it. His fastball, I think, has really good shape still,

but yeah, I don't, I don't quite understand. All right, big thanks to those watching live and for being here, you know, it's the final week of the season. There's not too much going on, so we do appreciate that. Make sure to hit that like button and subscribe if you haven't already. Let's take a break, and we'll hit some news and notes right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. News and notes, Ozzy Albee's left Monday night after an awkward swing,

and it turns out he suffered a fractured hamate bone in his left hand. And remember, just last year, he suffered, fracture in his left wrist. So now we have another potential problem to worry about, I guess, heading into next season. He was already going to be one of the tougher players to rank. And now this just kind of throws another wrench in the mix here for Ozzy Albies. Yeah, I had a lot of enthusiasm for drafting him because I think the way he was closing out the season and the explanation we got about still feeling the lingering effects from that wrist injury early this year.

kind of explained everything. And so I was going to have a lot of shares of Albies next year. But this dampens my enthusiasm because it doesn't always happen this way, but a lot of times coming back from a fractured hamate bone, it can take a hitter like a few months to regain their normal strength. I think that might explain some of the issues Austin Riley was having early this year because he was coming back from a broken handmate bone and we've seen it

with so many hitters in the past but there are exceptions too so I think it's just going to have to be a situation next year like Ozzie Albiz is going to have to be a Brandon Nimmo level discount for me to buy into him which means drafted like 120 to 150 something like that

something like that yeah pretty much here are this will be the I mean I guess maybe he won't be added to the IL there's only five days left in the season, but he will probably be added to the IL. And this will be the sixth time Ozzie Obbies has been on the aisle in the past four seasons. Fractured left foot, fractured right pinky finger, strain left hamstring, fractured right toe, fractured left wrist, left hamlet bone fracture. A lot of, can we get, can we get my guys some milk? I was just going to say. Yeah.

I mean, a lot of them were catastrophic collisions. Hamate bone was a non-contact injury, usually. It certainly wasn't it looked it didn't look like much on the swing where just a swing which that's pretty normal yeah for a hammock I remember John Carlos Stan it was the same thing you see this fairly regularly I don't know the hamlet bone I think is just isn't that like a vestigal thing like isn't one of those like if there's no structural reason why it exists and that's why they just remove it if I'm remembering correctly I think typically when players get the hamate bone fracture they just remove it hmm so I don't think it's like a necessary. I don't know if vegetable's the right word.

But can we just sound it right? Let's just get rid of them. I'll give it to you. No more, no more hammate bones. Everybody, every off season, we just remove all the hamate bones. Then we won't have this problem anymore and it'll be fine. But now this is seemingly bad luck, but it is I was with you Scott. I was I think rang him six that second base when I went through that. and I still may just because there's a pretty big drop-off after that point. Like Brandon Lowe is 7th. Luke Kishel was 8th for me. I don't think I'm going to drop him.

Maybe behind Brandon Low just because, you know, we'll see where he. I probably put him behind Kishel, too. I mean, I'm pretty excited about Kishel. Certainly. But obviously, I think that's- second base. Mikel Garcia is not going to be there next year. Jordan Westberg's not going to be there next year.

so it's, it wasn't, it wasn't a loaded position to begin with, and now it's going to be even worse. I mean, I think I still have Xavier Edwards and Glaber Torres in the top 12. So, yeah. I'll take Albies over them. Yeah, yeah. Jackson Holiday might be 12th. It's a second base is not great right now. Oh, for those still playing for something in daily lineup leagues if things haven't locked for you,

or I guess in weekly leagues if they haven't locked, although I guess Ozzy Albies would already be in your lineup. but Hassan Kim, Caleb Durbin, Lenin Sosa, Matt McLean, were the top second base replacements that I noticed that are available. Late season prospect promotion, the pirates are calling up pitcher Hunter Barko, who is a 24-year-old lefty, a second-round pick from back in 2022. He's had an impressive season, 281-ERA 120 whip, over 10K per 9, also over four walks per 9. So control looks like a bit of a problem here.

My guess is he'll pitch out of the bullpen. That's where he was pitching most recently at AAA. He also hasn't thrown more than three innings in an appearance since August 13th. I think this is more so just excitement for next season. Let's see what he can do. And maybe he's in the mix for a rotation spot in spring training. If he is and he is working out of the bullpen as you say, Frank, then he might get a little spark bump in those head-to-head points leagues.

So, yeah, I would say he's definitely worth. monitor, Hunter Barco. The Pirates rotation, by the way, just thinking about next season, obviously Paul Skeen's amazing. Baba Chandler has flashed here. Obviously, had one truly terrible start, but most of his appearances have been pretty impressive.

Mitch Keller, Johann Oviedo, and then one of Mike Burroughs, Hunter Barko, Braxton Ashcraft. Jared Jones will likely be back midseason at some point. So they have a lot of options. I think it makes sense to maybe move some pitching for hitting or just spend money, which

And some money, pirates. Come on. Which they never do. I will point out two things. One, it would be extremely pirates to not trade Mitch Keller at the deadline when his value will never have been higher because he was actually pitching really well. And then trade him this offseason. And I feel like they're almost certainly going to do that.

And then Jared Jones had the internal brace. Internal brace in May. So. Okay. Could be closer to like opening day or April. I think he's going to be pitching by opening day and probably in the majors by May. Maybe the end of May, but, and obviously worth keeping in mind that he might stink because lots of pitchers coming back from the internal brace procedure, certainly Spencer Strider

stunk this season. Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's a little strong. He had a really rough three-star stretch, but he's... It's like a 450 ERA, right? So it's pretty bad. Yeah, that's pretty bad. pretty bad. I stand by stuff. Look at the game log. I stand by stunk. Stunk, stank, stunk.

We're not doing the, if you take out these three starts with aeer and runs each, we're not too. You don't have to do that, but I am doing it. A 210 ERA in his last five starts, Spencer Strider. Yeah. And there were three terrible ones before that and then there was a nine start stretch with a 291 ERA and well more than a strikeout per end. So there's been a lot of good in there for Strider. If you started him for every start this season, I think you'd be pretty underwhelmed with the numbers you've gotten. Yeah.

No, but yeah, they have to make some kind of trade. They can't go into next season with this offense again. I think we're going to see Connor Griffin extremely early next season. Maybe opening day. That was one of my bold predictions a couple of weeks ago. They got to do something, man. Andrew McCutcheon, your cleanup hitter on opening day for the Pirates next season. Trey Turner could be activated from the IL Friday ahead of the final series of the regular season.

Get him some at bats there before the playoffs begin. Kyle Tucker has yet to resume running and is not expected to return until at least Wednesday, if that. I mean, even by Thursday, if he's not running and he's dealing with this calf thing, it seems pretty optimistic to me. Fernando Tatez Jr. was out of the lineup Monday due to an illness. And speaking of the Padres, that game just wrapped up. Padres walked it off and they just clinched a playoff spot. So congrats to the Padres and their fans.

William Contreras was back in the lineup after missing Sunday with a left wrist bruise. The Orioles activated Adley Ruchman from the IL, which means he should be in the lineup on Tuesday. More on him a little bit later. Toughest players to rank for next season. Zander Bogartz was supposed to be activated Monday, but now it sounds like it'll be Tuesday instead. Brendan Donovan was scratching the lineup with, I just wrote blank here, because I don't think we ever learned what he was scratching the lineup with, but he was out of there. Kyle Stowers is unlikely to return the final week of the season.

He originally went on the IL in mid-August with a grade one left oblique strain. One game into his rehab, he injured the other oblique. So just a name to remember for next season. As Scott pointed out, Kyle Stowers was amazing before he got hurt. Mason, win. He was kind of this year's Brent Rooker before the injury. Yeah. And Rooker hasn't been quite as good as last season, but I think he certainly proved it wasn't a fluke.

You know, he has, I think, 33 homers and decent run in RBI numbers. So, yeah. Mason Wynn will undergo arthroscopic surgery on the meniscus tear in his right knee this Thursday. The brave sign, Charlie Morton, for the remainder of the season. Have not seen any indications whether or not he's going to retire, but obviously it's been a pretty bad year all around. It's a little weird. Just because, like, if it's a ceremonial thing, I get it.

But usually they say that. Like he's signing a contract so he can retire as a brave. Like usually they'll just say that when they announce the sign. I think he might make a start this week or be used out of the bullpen or something. Yeah, I don't know. He might cost Chris Sale a second turn this week if he does make a start. That's true. Yeah, that would be unfortunate since, you know, like sale,

a two-start sale the final week at the season seemed like easy money. then he has kind of a bad one against Washington and maybe he'll miss, he won't get a second one. Hopefully not. Hopefully, I mean, hopefully he does get a second one. Not fantasy news, but big baseball news. MLB owners have unanimously approved Patrick Zolupskys. I don't know if I'm saying that right.

Purchase of the Tampa Bay raise for a reported $1.7 billion. We'll be interesting to see what this means long term for the raise. It sounds like they want to remain in Tampa Bay. I guess potentially moving and getting a new ballpark out of St. Petersburg. But, and will they increase their payroll? I think that's going to be a big question as well with a new owner coming in. So we'll see. I will just say as a Marlins fan, a new owner does not necessarily change the underlying realities of the franchise.

And don't get your hopes up, guys. All right. Some hitting standouts here from Monday. Drake Baldwin continues to impress. two for four with two runs and two RBI. Last eight games, he is hitting 406 with three homers. 14 RBI in his last eight games. That's insane.

Just a great rookie season all around there for Drake Baldwin. Michael Harris had slowed down quite a bit here in September, but had himself a big game, three for five with three RBI and three steals. His second half numbers still pretty impressive. 291, 11 homers, seven steals, 807 OPS. He is just so. streaky and I do not think that's going to change. Yvonne Herrera finishing strong as well.

He hit another home run here last 22 games, 282 with eight homers, 18 runs, two steals and OPS over a thousand. He's just, he's really exciting. I know we mentioned him yesterday, but he's 25 years old. He makes a lot of contact. He hits the ball hard. Expected stats are great. I mean, there is nothing not to like about Yvonne Herrera.

outside of, he doesn't start the season with catcher, but he should get it pretty early on next season. And there's just some playing time questions. You know, hopefully we get some answers to that in the off season, but is he going to be the primary catcher? Is it a... I think between catcher and D.H? I would hope so.

I mean, the way that he's hit this season, he's, I mean, he's cemented himself, I think. He's been an everyday player. I think he's sat at one game. Looking at it now. I think Ivan Herrera set out one game since he returned from the IL in mid-July. So like literally everyday player. And that's without making any appearances a catcher. That's four appearances in left field, but the rest were all DH.

That's what I'm hoping. Let's just catch twice a week and DH the rest of the time and be awesome. Yeah. Elliot Ramos, I wanted to mention two for five with his 19 home run and three Ramos. RBI. He is kind of done the same thing two years in a row. Got off to a great start. First three months, 275 batting average, 13 homers, five steals, 805 OPS. And from July on, Elliot Ramos has hit 237 with six homers and OPS around 650. And you put all that together, 258, 19 homers, 726 OPS, one of the worst defensive outfielders in baseball. I just,

I don't know. We have Lordus Gurriel at home. That's how I feel about Elliot Ramos. He's fine, but he's just like, he's like the last starting outfielder, you know? Yeah, just just fine. Deeper, like, fifth outfielder or something like that. You're saying when the kids are like, mom, look at Elliot Ramos.

Can we go through the drive-through? Yeah, can we get a Lord of Scuriel? Yeah, okay. Or the scurial we have at home is Elliot Ramos, yeah. Anything else you guys would like to add on these other names here, Baldwin, Harris? I guess we spoke about Herrera and Ramos. Yeah, I mean, you kind of summed it up with Harris already.

I think he was the most interesting of them here. I'm interested to see what... Interested to see what the discount is on Harris next season, though. I'm going to guess pretty steep, would be my guess. I would think so, too, just because you're going to have to push some outfielders down to get some of those we're eager to rank higher. high enough given the depth of the position. L.A. Ramos is not one that I think

we have to worry about forcing some interesting outfielders down in the rankings because I just don't think he's that interesting anymore. All right, this next group, not really pitching standouts. I'll just call them performances because they weren't very good. But McKenzie Gore got chased early by the Braves, two innings, four hits, four runs, four walks, across the board here.

You know, he looks solid in his previous two starts before this one after returning from the IL, but, you know, 417, ERA 135 whip. He's another one that's, you know, two years in a row. He's just kind of faded here. His name came up in trade rumors around the deadline. I think he would be a great change of scenery type player, but we'll see what the nationals think about that. Chris Sale, you mentioned this guy.

He struggled against the nationals. Did face them two starts in a row, so perhaps they were just kind of picked up on some. something the last time they saw him out, but five innings, five runs allowed, two homers allowed, three hit by pitches. He just clearly was not right here. There was one inning that got away with him with all the hit by pitches, and he only allowed three hits total, so that kind of, yeah, it was just kind of a weird start, but he's fine. Hopefully he gets that one more start.

Four starts before this since returning, by the way, 175 ERA, 0.7-4 whip, 12.6K per 9. so Chris Sale, pretty good. Freddie Peralta, solid at the Padres, five innings, two runs with six strikeouts here, 13 whiffs on 76 pitches. I did just notice his velocity has been down pretty consistently over his last five starts. I don't think it's like a workload thing.

He's thrown about the same innings this year as last year, but just notable. He still has pitched well during that stretch, but the velocity has been fluctuating recently for Freddie Peralta. And Nick Povetta on the other, side struggled with his control against the Brewers, five and two-thirds innings, three runs allowed, but five walks to five strikeouts. Five walks were a season high, just a second start with more than three walks all season here for Nick Povetta. Anything to add anything that stands out?

Povetta, Peralta, Sale, and McKenzie Gore. I will just say, Peralta has a lot in common with like Dillon C's and Blake Snell, and I think you should apply the same mindset with him as you do those guys fade coming off the great years by coming off the down years he's coming off a great year so it's not to say freddie peralta will be bad but he could add a run to his current era and i wouldn't really blink right like that's mostly what he's been right like a mid three's year right yeah if he has a 370 er a next season but everything else is basically identical it really would not surprise me so it's just i think he's hit on a lot of good luck this season and that probably won't continue next year kind of feel a little bit

the same way about Nick Povetta where he's been great it's been awesome uh first season in his career with an ERA below four it's 287 I think he's fine you know a fringe SP2 is probably where we'll come down on him as as a ranking and if you're talking about him as like the hundredth player drafted, that would feel pretty reasonable. But, you know, if people see it as a sub three ERA and elite whip and expect him to repeat that, I'll probably be a little out on Pivotta. Not entirely. It's not a fade or a bus situation, but it'll just be, I think he's probably more like a 350, 360 ERA guy, even in San Diego. Yeah. Yeah, I would be surprised if people drafted him any earlier than you're talking about.

But he has been, what, a top five pitcher, top 10 pitcher this year? Just, but I'd be surprised. Yeah. We're pretty, we're pretty, uh, everybody's pretty sharp these days with ERA, I think, especially. Yeah, according to the player raider on Fangraphs, Nick Povetta has been the eighth most valuable pitcher in fantasy baseball this season. So, uh, great year all around. And I've talked about this kind of, it's kind of a cycle.

logical thing that I deal with every off season where I just know in the back of my mind last year was the year to draft Nick Povetta because you know he was obviously he had this huge season and you know you reaped all those rewards getting him around pick 200 or whatever it was

and now you cut that ADP and have and I'm like ah I don't know if I want to pay that price for Nick Povetta even though he might be worth it I don't know all right let's take our final break when we return we've got some big ranking questions for 2026 we'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today.

Three games late, so we're going to change things up here. Take a look at next season a little bit. The biggest rankings questions will go by position. We have all off season to talk about this stuff. So I will present options to you guys, and we can choose one and talk about, and then we'll move on to the next position, so on and so forth. At Catcher, I have just how early will Cal Raleigh be drafted? Adley Ruchman, just what to do with Adly Rutman?

Did you guys see the home run he hit yesterday? No. It was like the only time I've ever seen a player hit a home run and everybody clowned on him for how bad his swing looked. It looked like a beer league softball swing. I don't know what. It was so weird. That was Adley-Rutchman? Yeah, it was down at Norfolk.

Got you, got you. I don't know, man. I want to believe that 26-year-old superstars don't just lose it like that. but he has not given us anything to be optimistic about in about a year and a half now. Yeah. The other one I have here is Drake Baldwin. It's just are Sean Murphy and or Marcelo Zuna there

or I guess another DH that they can bring in. So you have those three. What do you think is the most pressing at catcher? One of the biggest rankings questions. Raleigh. Just because that's such a high stakes one. Like if he goes back to being even a third, 40 homer guy who hits 2.30.

It's not worth a second round pick. Probably not a second round pick. As awesome as he is. And he might be a first round pick. So I just, I'd feel more comfortable with him getting pushed to the second, like the end of the second round. But I understand I might be in the minority on that one. I have him 16th for roto, Cowellie. So more like early second round. But I mean, part of that's because,

You know, right after I have Nick Kurtz, who's not especially proven. Junior Cominero, who's not especially proven. Gunner Henderson, who raised questions this year. So it seemed like the appropriate place to slot Cal Raleigh, but I don't know what the future holds for him, obviously. He's had a historic season that, by virtue of being a historic season, you can bet it won't be repeated. but, you know, he gives you three quarters of it. It's probably a second rounder. I will point out, even in the second half,

he's already kind of taken a step back. With the batting average for sure. From the first half, it was 259 with an OPS over 1,000. Second half, 227 with an 853 OPS. So he's also a catcher. And, you know, maybe he's faded a little bit. And it's also a really demanding position. and obviously like, I don't know, there's just,

there's other ways that things can go wrong for a catcher, so I don't see myself drafting him in the second round. He probably deserves to go there coming off this historic season, but it's probably not going to be me. Did just want to point out with Adley Rutchman. Last 156 games since that hand injury in June of last year, 210 batting average, 13 homers, 627 OPS. That's a full season's sample size at this.

point so I yeah it's gonna be just blind faith like this was one of the best catcher prospects ever former first overall pick seemed to stick the landing right away and lived up to it yeah so are you just going to bet on that pedigree of it writing itself and it's it's harder to do that given the current state of catcher and how many high upside options there are. I'm going to, yeah, I think Rutchman is the hardest player to rank because you have to rank them at that point

where you feel like it's not a huge sacrifice to take them. And figuring out what that is going to be tough. Moving over to first base, the two that I have written down here, I guess Adley, not Adley, Raphael Devers, would be part of this

discussion as well based on what we spoke about earlier. But Nick Kurtz, is he the top first basement drafted next season. I guess it's him versus Vlad Jr. And Josh Naler, just between the steals which are just completely out of nowhere, 28 steals,

his previous high was 10, and his landing spot. Although, I don't think that matters as much. I kind of made that mistake last offseason where I was worried about him going to Arizona, and I think his skill set just kind of plays anywhere. Just based on he makes so much contact, he's just a good hitter all around. So

what do you guys think? Kurtz, Josh Nailer. So the thing with Kurtz is Vladimir Guerrero has had really awesome 105, 110 game stretches in his career, too. And this is the thing that I want to stretch because Nick Kurtz has been phenomenal. I wrote this last week, so the numbers are slightly out of date, but just bear with me. He is hitting, he was hitting 298 with an OPS of like 1020 through his first 105 games. That's incredible. Second best woman baseball, 31 homers, remarkable stuff.

Getting better, cutting the strikeout in the second half, all that stuff. Well, Vladimir Guerrero had 105 game stretch last season where he hit 358 with a 1050 OPS, 25 homers, 82 RBI, 73 runs. Vladimir Guerrero in 2021, first 105 games of that season, he hit 32 with 34 homers, 85 runs, 85 RBI 83 runs. I only point that out to say, as good as Nick Kurtz has been, it's not like this is so much better than other first basemen are capable of. Matt Olson has had similar runs. I'm sure Freddie Freeman has had similar runs.

Pete Alonzo has probably had similar runs in his career. He's been awesome. I think he's certainly in the discussion to be number one overall. I get the feeling he's going to be a first round pick. And that's a lot for a guy that I don't feel confident will be the batting average standout. He has been so far. Who is he getting drafted over between Paul Skeen's, Ellie de la Cruz, Julio Rodriguez? Yeah, I think those, like which of those three, it would have to be one of those three,

not to mention Francisco, Linder, or Cal Raleigh, to get Nick Kurtz in the first round. Mm-hmm. And I don't, I don't see that. I don't see people take it over Ellie Dela Cruz in a roto league maybe I mean he went we've referenced that that draft that a couple of analysts have done he went 17th in that one so look if he's seven exactly where I have Kurtz if he's 17th that's probably fine I would think Vladimir Guerrero is right in that same range I have back and forth on those two I have Guerrero 24th like here's the thing about Guerrero like obviously he's had one monstrous season he was the best player in fin to see that was back in 2021. The most home runs he's hit in a season since then is 32. I kind of throw that season out too because they were playing the minor league park where it was like everybody's,

everybody's numbers were inflated by for the blue days that year. Sure. This year, this year, which is probably the third best of Guerrero's career overall, he's sitting at 23 homers 83 RBI. Yeah. Like that doesn't sound like,

I have a. them as the number two first basement for roto next year, number one in points leagues, because the strikeout rate is so low and the walk rate's getting to be good too. But like from a first baseman, those kind of home run and RBI numbers just, it's just so underwhelming. Sure. And it's kind of, so, you know, the question for me with Nick Kurtz, should he rank number one in roto for next year? If not him, who? Because I just kind of made the case for, against Vladimir I think it's just the other one. How likely do you think it is that Nick Hurts hits 250?

I think that's more likely than not. That's that's the if Nick Kurtz hits 250 but with 38 homers, that's an awesome season. It's not worth a second round pick probably. Yeah. Now he plays in a phenomenal ballpark. He's a great power hitter. That all like I could just be underselling him and his floor might be 40 homers. Yeah.

Pete Alonzo. If you're just saying he's risky and unproved. for a second round pick, yes. But I think the upside is there, and I think the upside is clearer for him than the other guys, apart from Guerrero, that we might consider, like Pete Alonzo or Matt Olson or Bryce Harper or whatever.

For me, it's mostly, it's not making a case against Nick Kurtz or making a case for Vlad Guerrero ahead of him. It's just, it's a reminder that Pete Alonzo's career high in home runs is still his. rookie season. It is not necessarily the case that you have a great rookie season and then build from there. It is not necessarily even the case that you have a great rookie season and that's just

your baseline. Some guys' best seasons are their rookie seasons. That's not to say Nick Kurtz will be, but like I've seen comments saying that he has to be a first rounder. And I just that is an overreaction. They may be thinking a 15 team context. Yeah. But. certainly not in a 12-team league. And even in a 15 league, like I said, I have Kurtz 17. Yeah. Now, Naler. I think Frank wants to move.

Yeah, sorry. No, I mean, if there's, I mean, if you want to make it quick on Nailor, go for it. I have no idea. It's just the point. Like, without the steals, without the steals, he'd be like the ninth best first basement of fantasy right probably. He's going to finish with 20 homers and 90 RBI and a good batting average. And he's going to steal maybe 30 bases.

And I have no idea what to do with that. So I think you just write it off. I mentioned I have Freddie Freeman in a separate tier from the Alonzo's and Olsons now. Freddie Freeman is in a tier with Josh Naylor and Vinnie Pasquantino for me now. And I think being in that tier, you don't need him to be a base.

You don't need a Naylor to be a base dealer necessarily to be in that tier. At second base, we spoke about Ozzy Albies, who again, I think is probably the biggest question at that position. Another one is Katow. Marte versus Jazz Chisholm just for to be the number one second basement

drafted, which will probably be like a mid to late second round pick, something like that. And Chris, you highlighted this in the article in the newsletter that you put out. It's kind of a safety versus upside play where Marte is the better all-around hitter. He's going to give you batting average. He's not going to give you

speed. Obviously great power. And Jazz just went 30-30 with missing a month of the season. He's also entering a contract year next year with the Yankees. So it's, you know, with which one, which skill set do you like more? Do you want to shoot for upside or not? Points for Sordo.

It could be as easy as that, yeah. I agree. I have Cotell-Marte one for points. I have Chishol-One for Roto. It came down to me, like, if we could pencil in Cotel-Marte for a 295 batting average, then he might edge out Chisholm and Roto for me, but I think he's just as likely to hit 275. Yeah.

It's still really nice, but I'd rather have Chisholm's 30 steals in that case. Yeah. At third base, there are lots of questions here. I think, you know, Junior Camerro returning to Tropicana Field, I think it's a pretty big talking point. This season, at George Steinbrenner Field, he's hit 313 with a 954 OPS, and on the road, 206 with a 722 OPS. We only have a 19 game sample of Junior Camerro playing in Tropicana Field.

So I don't want to doubt the talent. I understand what he's done this year. And at such a young age is amazing. and super impressive. It adds a sliver of doubt, another variable, another question there for Camerro. Other ones,

A. E. E. E. E. E. Hennio Suarez and Alex Bregman landing spots. Bregman has an opt-out. I think he's probably going to opt-out. Austin Riley, just what do we make of his last two seasons? They both have ended with injury, and he's honestly just been kind of mid the last two years. It's a 258 batting average with a 760 OPS collectively over the past two years for Austin Riley.

Lots of questions at third base. Yeah. Yeah, because a lot of the best players are in their 30s. A lot of the best players are... Changing teams is not necessarily a bad thing. It just introduces some uncertainty. And I think that's the way to think about it with Camerro. It's just we just don't know how he's going to play at Tropicana Field.

And it's a park that impacts everyone differently. And he could be one of those guys like Willie Adamas. It just does not see the ball well there. In which case, that would be really bad for him. But he's such an overwhelmingly talented player that I'm not going to hold that against him too much. That might be enough to put Jazz ahead of him in the overall rankings for me. I think that's going to be really close and I don't know what to do with it yet. But that's the one that jumped out to me.

So I want to, I feel like we should focus on Austin Riley here because I have a feeling Chris and I are going to be butting his. about Riley all off season because I and I hate that it's a Braves player so anytime I say something positive about a wear a different shirt yeah right the wrong day Scott the wrong day to wear a brave shirt really they don't trust my ability right or two and I regret that like I kind of wish particularly in recent years I hadn't worn my fandom on my sleeves so much so that people could actually trust what I'm saying about Braves players but I took another look at Austin Riley and I I don't see what there is to worry about. Like, you could just look at the top line numbers and say,

okay, OPS has declined two years in a row. But if you remember the way 2024 played out for him, his, like, underlying data points all basically exactly what they've always been. And he got off to a really slow start. He was killing it from, like, the final 53 games. It was MVP-Caliber Riley production. And then he broke his handmade bone. And so we didn't get the full return to form because it was interrupted by that broken bone.

And then what were we just saying about the handmade bone earlier today with the Ozzy Albiz injury? Like a lot of times there are continuing effects from that. Like even though the players back on the field, they don't quite look themselves for a few months. And he looked back especially early this season for Riley. His strikeout rate was super inflated. And I think it's reasonable to give him a pass, given that he was coming back from the broken handmate bone, ended up suffering another season-ending injury. So we didn't get the chance to see it fully recover either.

But long story short, I think 2024 Riley was still Riley. And then 2025 lingering injury from the previous year interrupted by injury again. Given that he's still 28 and has the track record that he does, I think he deserves a pass, particularly at a position where there aren't a lot of studs to begin with. And his quality of contact is still amazing, by the way, for Austin Riley. So didn't really see a drop there. Scott, where'd you rank Austin Riley, if you have already? I have third base is the one position I've done completely.

And I have Austin Riley fifth. Okay. Yeah, there's a, I have him seventh. Depending on where Bregman and Suarez signed, like if, if last year's offseason. rumors come true and Bregman ends up in Detroit, I'm not 100% sure he'd be a top 12 third baseman, even in the state of the position. Suarez, I think you can make a perfectly reasonable case for Riley ahead of Suarez.

If Suarez lands in the wrong spot, there are, I think, bigger red flags for Suarez, but obviously he's also been significantly better. So I'll still take Suarez, but it wouldn't take a ton to change that. Megman has had a weird season, too, because I was looking at his splits. We all thought he would be amazing because of Fenway. He's been much better on the road this season. He has an OPS over 900 on the road, 761 at home in Fenway this year. So that was weird.

And then since coming back from the quad injury, he also hasn't been great. It's a 743 OPS and 59 games. I'm not so sure he's going to opt out because he's opting out of $42 million next year. Yeah, he might not. It's only two more years, right? Yeah, he can opt out after each one. So I think the bigger thing is, can he get more than $84 million? Probably.

Yeah, probably, but... He's 31 years old, but he's still, like, productive from a war standpoint. It's not like he can't get another contract after next year, you know, when he's banked $42 million. True. Yeah, so we'll see that. That's a pretty big talking point this offseason. Shortstop, there is a lot going on here as well. Heraldo Pernomo, maybe the biggest league winner.

this season just where is he going to rank? How high is he going to be drafted? Mookie Betts had that mysterious illness before the season, perhaps derailed his entire first half, and now he's finishing really strong. He's last 42 games, 325, batting average nine homers, 936 OPS. Trevor Story, another league winner, finally managed to stay healthy, 25 homers, 31 steals. He's the 26th overall player in Roto this season. He also has an opt-out, So we'll see if he actually does that. And Boba Chet, who reminded everybody, he's still an amazing hitter and that last year was just an injury-riddled outlier for Bobbichette.

He's entering free agency. So where will he land? What position will he play? I think that's a question as well. But lots of questions at short stuff. You didn't mention Ellie de la Cruz. Yeah. Who's been kind of a disaster for the last couple of months.

Gunner Henderson. True. Huge disappointment. Trey Turner, hamstring injuries in consecutive years. He's 33 or 34, I believe he might be. You just mentioned three second rounders for me next year. No, L.A. DeV. Cruz, actually, late round one. Yeah, I think he should still be a late round.

I think it's all of the quad injury. I think just everything points to him just not being healthy, but you've all, Corey Seeger, what do we do with him? What do we do with C.J. Abrams? Who's had a terrible second half. Second year in a row. We get to do a whole show on shortstuffs. These are all good short stops.

But when you're trying to rank them, and they all have glaring enough issues, or, you know, there are limits to Boba Chet's upside, so are those limits going to keep me from ranking them ahead of, um, uh, mooky bets just on, on the principle of upside? Or perdomo? Yeah, perdomo. So like, basically,

How do you order C.J. Abrams, Zach Netto, Geraldo Perdomo, Jeremy Pena, Mookie Betts, Boba Chet, Corey Seeger, Trevor Story. By the way, Mike L. Garcia's potentially going to be eligible. He needs three more games, yeah. Yeah. Probably not, but there's a chance. I still think Perdomo is probably the biggest question. Of the ones that I mentioned. But yeah. And I don't know how to feel about it. It's a complete outlier. Like, he has not. had a Wobah as good as his current one since 2019 when he was a 19 year old at A ball. Like he, this is so far out of what we could have reasonably expected for Rolder-Prodomo, except the underlying numbers completely back it up.

And he is 25 or 26 years old. He's in a good, a decent ballpark. It's like a weird ballpark, but it tends to be spanning average. It's a good lineup. I kind of just want to buy it. especially because I know it's kind of like Jurex and ProFar last year. Nobody is going to take it at face value. Because if they did, he'd be a top 25 pick.

Do you need to rank him as high as seven then? Well, that's the thing is I want it. This is definitely one where my ranking is number seven. If we get to start drafting and he's going outside the top 100, then I'll probably just move him down. and it might just be like Boba Chet this year where everybody ended up way too low on him and we benefited as a podcast.

But I get the feeling that Geraldo Podomo is just going to be way undervalued relative to what he did this season. Like he's legitimately been like a $30 player. Uh-huh. And if he falls to like 120th, that's like a $1012 player range. And so, you know,

someone made the comp to Luis Garcia. last year where a lot of the underlying numbers backed up what he did and he's been a huge disappointment this season. But like the difference is Luis Garcia was a $12 player last year that you had to buy for a $10 price. Herald or Pardomo might be a $30 player that you have to buy at a $12 price. And so if all I have to do is pay $15 for him, I think I'm just going to do that because he's been so good this year and the underlying numbers back it up. It's still seventh is at this position especially so high.

And I feel like you've been the loudest detractor of Pardomo on this podcast. So I'm surprised. Seventh means, all right, do you have them ahead of, let me just list off a few players. Do you have Pardomo ahead of C.J. Abrams? Yes. Do you have them ahead of Zach Nettow? Yes. Jeremy Pena.

Yes. Mookie Betts? Uh, no. Bo Bichette. Yes. Corey Seeger. Yes. I mean, that's a lot of good players, yeah.

That's some star power. I'm totally uncertain about it. I'm writing about it for tomorrow's newsletter, and it's really tough to come to the right answer on this. Yeah. But I kind of just want to air on the side of this year being real just because nobody else is going to. I think I would put Netto ahead of him just because we've seen it two years in a row. Sure. And we've always seen one.

I think I would put most of those guys ahead of him. That's perfectly reasonable. And I mean, and maybe that's just a difference in ranking philosophy because I don't want to rank a guy in a way that's going to cause me or the people going off my rankings to reach for. And I will say these are first draft. Like I'll publish them next Monday. They'll be on the site.

They'll be out there. This is a very rough draft. So like by the time. I assume we'll do some drafts in the coming weeks, but... Hey, first pitch, Arizona, Chris, let's get a draft. Yeah, but by the time we're, like, drafting, drafting, I'll have a much better sense because I want to take into market and all that stuff.

But just based on re-analizing him as a player, I mean, he's been the third best shortstop this season. I agree that Perdomo is probably going to be faded so hard. that I'm going to end up wanting to draft a lot of him exactly like happened with Jerks and ProFar this year. But I still faded Profar relative to his 2020 for performance in my own rankings, and so I want to do the same thing with Perdome.

All right, that's going to end it for rankings discussion today just because we're up against it here. But I'm going to list off a few other ones that I had at other positions, and maybe we'll get to them in coming weeks. I don't think the rest of this week, just because the rest of the schedule is pretty loaded. Like, there's actually a bunch of games on Thursday.

I think 12, right? Yeah, yeah. So we'll have a lot of stuff to recap on those days. But in the outfield, Juan Soto's stolen bases, I have no idea. Peacrow Armstrong and James Wood's second half swoons for both of those guys. Kyle Tucker, free agency, George Springer, resurgence. O'Neill Cruz has just imploded from June on.

Jackson Merrill, injury-riddled season. How high will Jacob, Marcy be drafted next year at starting pitcher. Who is the SP4? Framber Valdez has free agency and second half struggles to talk about. Big jump and workload for Jacob de Grom. How much does that factor in? Trevor Rogers, just what do we do with him?

He's a league winner from the moment he joined the Orioles rotation. Dylan C. Sinfrey agency, Spencer Strider, a big talking point. Kate Horton, incredible in the second half here. Players returning from injury at starting pitcher. Big names. Jack Wheeler, Garrett Cole, Corbyn, Spencer Schwellenbach, Shane McClanahan,

Nathan of Aldi, Pablo Lopez, Grayson Rodriguez, Jared Jones, Justin Steele, Chris Bubbage, Joe Musgrove, many more that I did not even mention here. And then at Relief Pitcher, some interesting ones as well. Emmanuel Class A in this gambling investigation,

Josh Hader, a left shoulder capsule sprain. Robert Suarez can opt out of his deal. And Mason Miller, is he a reliever or starter? So lots of talking points. Look, outfield and pitching is obviously probably the biggest talking points across the board. But we'll have all offseason to talk about those. Some bullpen updates here.

I just have one for the Cardinals. Jojo Romero got the ninth inning with the one-run lead. He struck out one for his eighth save. It's been him and Riley O'Brien kind of mixing and matching. I feel like Riley O'Brien more recently. But Romero has actually had a great season. And we'll see what the Cardinals do this offseason. and whether or not they add to their bullpen or not.

To stream or not to stream on Tuesday, we have Dean Kramer up against the Rays. Johan Oviedo is at the Reds, Shane Smith at the Yankees, Zebby Matthews at the Rangers, Christian Javier at the Athletics and Jeffrey Springs, home against the Astros. Don't feel good about this day at all.

Even for feeling good about Justin Verlander yesterday, we see how that went. So exercise extreme caution here. like the lowest risk is Johan Oviedo actually at Cincinnati. I think Kramer and Javier are fine, but not more than fine. And then on Wednesday we have Bryce Elder up against the Nationals, Tyler Wells, home against the Rays, Ryan Weather is at the Phillies, Max Schurzer against the Red Sox, Togh, Bradley at the Rangers,

Stephen Kolek at the Angels, Jonah Tong at the Cubs, and Yusay Kikuchi against the Royals. Wells? Yeah, I had Tyler Wells and Stephen Kolek as sleeper pitchers for the whole week. So I'm going to call them streamers for Wednesday, too. Yep. I like those. I think Bryce Heldor against the Nationals could be fine as well. That's a really early game, too.

I have always wondered if there are stats to back up. Who does that favor? Does it favor the pitcher or the hitters in a really early game? I think it's like a 1215 first pitch or something like that. But, yeah, I think Bryce Ler has been pitching well, and it's a pretty good matchup there against the nationals. But he could get blown up. When he doesn't pitch well, he pitches very, very poorly.

That is true. I have two names here for Team Name Tuesday. This one's from Nick. He said Chris would like this one. He sent in Prefab Sprote. I believe this is a musical reference. I can't say I'm super up to date on the works of Prefab Sprout, but I believe that's what we're referring to here.

And one from Patrick W. Marcy Plus. That's solid. I like that. We are going to wrap there for Scott Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify.

And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.