Fantasy Baseball Today - Projecting the 2023 First Round! How Early Should Juan Soto Be Drafted? (9/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 25, 2022

Download and follow Fantasy Baseball Today in 5! You can find FBT in 5 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else podcasts are found. How is the first round shaping up for 2023? Should Aaron Judge be the first overall pick? Is there a consensus top five? How early should Juan Soto be drafted? No pitchers in the first round? 'Fantasy Baseball Today in 5' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: 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 our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The season is winding down, so you know what that means. Projecting the first round for 2023. Let's do it on Fantasy Baseball today in five. Welcome into FBT and 5 as always. Make sure to follow and stream us on Spotify. Today is Saturday, September 24th. I am Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White. And you can find this article over on the site.

Scott, in fact, projected the first two rounds if you want to find out both of them. But we're just going to focus on the first round, Scott, and your top four picks. This is for 5 by 5 Roto leagues for next season. You have Aaron Judge, Jose Ramirez, Mookie Betz, and Trey Turner, which I think will wind up being a consensus top four. I just, you know, some people might just change up the order. Yeah, yeah, I think it should be. I had a pretty easy time with the names, but less the order.

I do think Judge should be the number one pick. I mean, he's such a distant number one for, for home runs and even did contribute some steals this year. I don't know that we can rely on that year after year. But, you know, it's been apparent since he broke into the majors a few years ago with over 50 home runs that he's the best power hitter in the game. We're just seeing the impact of it more now. That means more now than it used to during the juice ball era when you didn't have to hit the ball that hard to hit it out. You have to hit it harder now and nobody hits it harder than judge.

and that's always been true. And so that's helping separate him from the pack in a historic way. And then the next three Ramirez, Betz Turner, look, I think you could take him in any order. I value the position scarcity for Ramirez most, which is why I have him the first of those three being eligible at third base, obviously, that's a position you're going to need to fill early. It's pretty deep in studs,

but the studs are all going to be gone by like the end of round three. So I'll get it done with Ramirez right away. And Turner, I'm ranking last of this group because there's a good chance he's lured away from the Dodgers, so he's not going to have that supporting cast anymore. It's going to lose second base eligibility, which is more valuable in the shortstop eligibility. And I don't think stolen bases are going to be as valuable next year because with some of the rule changes being implemented, I just think we're going to see a lot more of them. So that's obviously the main thing Turner excels that.

So I'll put him fourth overall. What if that means that Tray Turner can steal like 40 plus bags? I don't think it's impossible. I think several players are going to steal 40 plus bags. I mean, Turner before has stolen 40 plus bags before. That's right. So, I mean, Turner might be able to steal 60, 70, maybe. He is.

Even so. I just don't think they're going to be as valuable as we've seen them in recent years. Yeah, obviously we have all offseason to talk about this, but Tray Turner has 25 steals. this season. He is still the fastest player in baseball, according to statcast. So 100th percentile in sprint speed. I think depending on where he goes, where he bats in the lineup, we could see him get back to stealing 30, 40 bags, something like that for Trey Turner. Picks five through eight in the first round for next season. We have Julio Rodriguez, Ronald de Cunia, Yordaunha,

Yorda, very polarizing, Juan Socho here, Scotty. Talk to me about these four. This is a much tougher group. Not Julio Rodriguez. I think he's locked in at number five for me. He's got combination of upside and not many risk factors, the way somebody like Ronald Acuna does. Of course, we know Okunia has number one overall potential, but he didn't look right in his first year back from a torn ACL.

Hopefully, an off-season of rest corrects that, and he's back to being the Roto standout we've always known him to be. So in that case, sixth overall would be a pretty nice discount. Jordan Alvarez, I think, is the one hitter in baseball

who could approach Aaron Judge production. And I just said Aaron Judge is the top overall player. So I'm fine taking Jordan Alvarez seventh overall. He's had some issues with his hand this year.

But he's finishing strong. So that's a good sign. Yeah, Soto is going to be a tough one. And some are going to rank them lower than eighth. that's, I mean, let's put it in perspective, though. I mean, he's had a career through age 23 that would stack up to anybody's in history. And we all regarded him as like the best pure hitter in baseball coming into this year.

And there aren't really obvious red flags that explain his struggles. Plus, the shift reduction next year could potentially help him. But even without that, I just think we know Soto is better than this. And we're not going to, I'm not going to be. able to let him slip to round too. The last four picks for the first round of next year. You have Shohei Otani, Kyle Tucker, Rafael Devers, and Freddie Freeman. It's worth pointing out, and you make this point in the article, Scott, that if you play

in a daily lineup league or any league where you can get both Otani's hitting and pitching stats at the same time, then he is likely the first overall pick in that type of format. But in the traditional sense, Scott, you don't have a starting pitcher in the first round. What's going on? Yeah, no, not for the first half of the second round either. What? I'm out on starting pitchers, drafting them early, which is traditionally, that's been the norm in fantasies,

is to not take pitchers early, just the juice ball year kind of skewed our thinking with everything. But we're getting out of that now, and I think the high-end hitters are scarcer and more impactful. So, yeah. Otani and Tucker, I think they're controversial here at 9 and 10.

Devers and Freeman, you know, you could make an argument for different players there. Again, I value a third baseman early, so that's part of the reason I have Devers this high.

Plus, I think he is the capacity to contend for a batting title while providing big power numbers. Freddie Freeman might win the batting title in all next this year, and it's, of course, maybe the safest bet for batting

average of anybody. Power's been a little disappointing in his first year with the Dodgers, but even so, he's been the third best player in rotisserie league. So imagine if the power comes back next year, which it very well may. All right. Again, that is your first round for next season. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Stitcher, your smart speakers or anywhere else podcasts are found. And thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today in five. We'll be back again on. Monday morning.

Bye-bye.