Fantasy Baseball Today - Rankings Debates! Don't Forget These Winners (05/08 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 8, 2020

We're talking rankings debates but first another bad music take from Adam! We know of Mike Clevinger and James Paxton but who are some of the peripheral players who also benefit from the season being delayed (4:18)? ... We've got an update on Jameson Taillon (18:32). Don't forget about him late in your keeper and dynasty drafts. ... Rankings debates! How do we break down Matt Chapman vs. Josh Donaldson vs. Eugenio Suarez (25:35)? Is Chapman just hoping to become Donaldson? ... Next up we have a trio of shortstops with Javier Baez vs. Xander Bogaerts vs. Gleyber Torres (32:30). Are the Red Sox being too discounted? ... Who wins among the trio of Brandon Woodruff, Jose Berrios, and Sonny Gray (40:20)? Which SP has the most upside/downside? ... We also have a quickie between Scott Kingery and Byron Buxton (47:50). Why no love for Buxton? ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday 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/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! 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. I drive, center field, at the wall, grand slam. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

Welcome, everybody. Happy Friday, Fantasy Baseball today. It is May 8th. Frank here. We're joined by Chris, Adam, and Scott. Chris, we missed you yesterday. We were talking about jock jams to start the show. And now, just before we started recording this podcast,

I found out a very, very disturbing opinion from Adam who doesn't like toxic by Britney Spears. Adam, so Adam is, the thing you have to understand about Adam is he's a little wimpy guy who makes up for it. by crafting these traditionally masculine opinions. And so he can't like Britney Spears' classic 2004 single Toxic. And really, Adam, just embrace it, man.

It's a great song. And even better music video. I really like Katie Perry. You probably don't know that about me. Of all pop singers? I like the song, Firework. I think it's just an amazing song. I mean, Roar is a, is a banger.

Whatever, Chris. But I don't mind liking some girly music or whatever or just music by girls. If that's girly, you know, I don't think it is. But I don't mind like the teenage pop songs. But Britney Spears does not have one good song. They're all bad. Toxic is one of the worst. That is circus.

Circus is the worst song ever. This is such a bad Adam Azer take. And like, I can't. I don't even know how to respond to it because it can't be real. You can't be a real person. I'm going to have to make Heath Cummings aware of this opinion. I'm not sure if he knows this about you, Adam. I wonder if Heath would agree that it's a bad opinion.

Yeah, I think Heath would agree with that one. No, I think even Heath could. Britney Spears doesn't have a good song. Is that with the hot take that you're trying to expose? Yeah, it's true, though. I don't, I've never worked with Heath, but I would have to assume that even he thinks toxic is a banger, as Chris would say. Scotty dubs is here. Scott White.

Scott, do you have any controversial music opinions when it comes to female artists? I don't think so. I don't think so. We did learn that Scott had never heard you ought to know until very recently. It's true.

It's true. I had heard people sing lines from the song before because, I mean, some of those lines are iconic, so I'd heard that. But I'd never actually taken the time to listen to the song. I mean, it wasn't a song.

I don't know. It wasn't one of those songs that you hear played on like commercials and in stores or everything because, you know, there's some cursing in it. So I hadn't really, I had, it hadn't just hurt by walking around in life. So I actually had to make a point to listen to it. I did five years ago. I think it might be the best song ever. Question.

Is it cross-eyed bear or is it cross-eyed bear that you gave to me? Oh, it's the cross-eyed bear. The bear that had to have surgery on his eyes. Yeah. Like a stuffed bear whose pupils were positioned so that they were facing each other. Yeah, that's very good. I like that, Chris. Bangor of a joke there.

Banger of a joke. All right, let's get this back on track. There's a lot I want to get to today here on the show. I want to talk about some of the other players who were, who are benefiting from the delay in the MLB season. Guys that I feel like are not being talked about enough. and then we'll have some rankings debates a little bit later on and an email I want to read regarding this whole nickname

that we're trying to figure out for me. Yesterday at the end of the show, we kind of figured out that I was going to be the Tramp Stamp. But, you know, I went through that tweet thread that you had, Adam, and I found some other really, really awesome ones that I liked. We got a few emails too, so I'll read some of those, but let's start with this. On this day, two years ago,

James Paxton threw a no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays. Paxton is one of the more obvious players who benefit from the season being delayed. Yesterday we read an email regarding Michael Fulmer, who was not in my mind. I don't know how many minds he was in for this upcoming season, but it got me thinking about some of these other players that we really haven't talked about enough who are going to benefit. And I wanted to start with one that, Chris, I know you like a lot. And that's Luis Urias of the Milwaukee Brewers, ADP at 379,

former top prospect for the San Diego Padres was traded for Trent Grisham in late November. He's still just 22 years old, kind of off to a rocky start in his major league career. It's only 83 games. It's a small sample size. But Urias is someone who broke his hamate bone late in January wasn't going to be ready for the start of the season,

but now he likely is going to be ready, obviously. So Chris, remind some of the people why you like Urias and, I mean, frankly, like, why is nobody talking about him? I feel like we should be talking about him. It's kind of, it's a little bit of like the Rudnett-Odor pre-breakout situation where he got up to the majors and looked so bad that people had pretty much written him off.

But there is still, I think, a very promising fantasy skill set here. You know, he had a 998 OPS last season. Yes, it was in AAA with the juiced ball. But he's got an 830 OPS, a 308 average for his country. career. He very rarely strikes out, 306 strikeouts and 2400 plate appearances in the minors. That's about, what, a 13% strikeout rate? That's very good. He struck out quite a bit in the majors, though, and that's the problem is everything that made him good in the minors just hasn't followed him to the majors. He started hitting for a little bit more power once he got to the high

minors, even before last season. He's been hitting for a little bit better power. He's been hitting for a little bit better power since getting to AAA. And so the question is, if he has a plus hit tool, which the minor league track record does suggest that he does, will that help the power play up? I believe it will, playing in Miller Park, playing with the major league baseball. It's something that we've seen a lot with guys who put the bat on the ball. It's just a question of actually putting the bat on the ball more once he gets to the majors. And I believe, you know, he's a only 23 years old. So he's not even 23, actually.

He doesn't turn 23 for another month. I still think there is a lot of potential there with Luis Urius. I always get confused. Yeah, it's tough with the Urias, the Luis, the Julio. And the Luis Arias. Yes, and we have Arrias, too, of the Minnesota twins. So it gets a little bit tough with some of these names. But Chris, are you confident he's going to play?

every day in Milwaukee because that is maybe the one drawback because they still do have Orlando RCA on the roster. So pretty much everything I saw in the offseason did suggest that the starting shortstop job was going to be Urias's before the injury. And then RCA obviously got off to a very good start in spring training and there was talk about him reworking his swing. So I do have some concerns, but, you know, if the plan was for Eureas to start every day, I can't imagine 12 good games from Orlando Arcia against like fringe AAA competition was enough to change that plan. We'll see when, when spring training starts up. Again, that is Luis Urius of the Milwaukee Brewers hit 315 with 19 home runs and seven steals

in the minors last year with a 998 OPS, has struggled some in the majors. but 9.3% walk rate in the majors is something that I do like to see out of a young player again. He's still just 22 years old. Scott, I wanted to give you Andrew McCutcheon. You get the fun one of the bunch. Andrew McCutcheon. He's 33 years old. He's coming off a torn ACL.

However, last season, I don't know how many people realized this. Career high, 16% walk rate for McCutcheon last year. 378 OBP was his highest since 2014. And he was also on pace for 27. home runs and 123 runs scored. His ADP is 232. He's the 64th outfielder off the board. He averaged 3.26 fantasy points per game last season. That would have been tied with Tommy Fam, Whitmerry Field, and Michael Conforto. Fam has an ADP of 80. Whitmeryfield, ADP of 47, Michael Kenforto at 120. You're getting Andrew McCutcheon at nearly double where you're getting Michael Conforto. Why no

love for Andrew McCutcheon? Andrew McCutcheon has settled into being a pretty boring player at this stage of his career. On base, yeah, he does a great job getting on base, but he's kind of boring otherwise. His power has receded to the point that particularly in today's environment, it's not a great asset for him. He doesn't run anymore. He should play a lot and bat at the top of the Phillies lineup. should be of help and run scored. And of course, any league that rewards on base ability directly,

he could be a value pick there. But he's pretty boring. I don't know that he's the exciting one here, like you said. Andrew McCutcheon, your basic. That's what I think of him right now. He was the number 14 outfielder in points leagues at the time of his injury. But he was number 34 in Rodo. So he's a big points versus Rodo guy,

not just because he's better in OBP than batting average. But, you know, I think he was batting lead off. He batted lead off in all 59 games. So that's a lot of played appearances. That's a lot of runs. Played 59 games and scored 45 runs. So I think if McCutcheon were to bat lead off, I'd be interested in him as like my last pick

in a three outfielder league. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Points League is one of those that does reward the on base ability directly. So it's, he has the chance to be, Well, I mean, he's not going to be as good as Carlos Santana in that format, but it's probably similar to Shin Suu. Yeah, how we regard Andrew McCutcheon. He's old and you don't expect him to get better at this stage of his career.

He's more likely to get worse. But he still does some useful things that maybe get overlooked because he's basic. Yeah, look, I mean, averaging 3.2 fantasy points per game and being tied with the likes of Merrifield Tommy Pham last year. I mean, that's pretty high praise for someone who has an ADP of 232. He's 33 years old. He's coming off a torn ACL, but the home runs and the run scored pace was pretty nice to see out of Andrew McCutcheon.

So, again, just name to remember later on, late-round flyer in your head to add points leagues. Adam, pocket aces. You get the joy of talking about two players with the same last name. Aaron Hicks and Jordan Hicks. Aaron Hicks had Tommy John surgery in October, 8 to 10 month recovery, which puts him at about anywhere from June through August. So if baseball does start back up sometime in July, we could see Aaron Hicks back. Not sure if he'll ever be able to stay healthy, but 12 home runs, 41 runs scored in 59 games last year.

That's 150 game pace of 30 homers, 104 runs. And in 2018, he played 137 games. He averaged 3.3 fantasy points per game. that would have been good for, that was tied for outfielder 12 in 2018. His ADP is 463. And then Jordan Hicks. Jordan Hicks is another one who was expected to return around the All-Star break this season. He's 23 years old.

He was enjoying a breakout year last year. Low 3 ZRA, 0.94 whip, 14 saves. I know that we, you know, you guys generally like Giovanni Gallegos. But I think if Jordan Hicks is healthy, he's probably. probably going to figure back into that closer roll. So Jordan Hicks and Aaron Hicks, what do you think, Adam? Both of them, I guess, have a lot of competition. The Yankees outfields obviously very crowded.

But Hicks, I think they really like him. They signed him to something like a seven-year, $70 million deal. He's 30. He's not young, but he's really streaky. So I think if you look at Aaron Hicks playing, what do you play, 59 games last year, he didn't really hit well. He had bad at just 235. He did hit for good power.

you mentioned. But, you know, he could have just been missing that hot streak. He's just, he's annoying like that. In fact, it seemed like he was on a hot streak as I look at his fantasy points by week. 8, 16, 6, 28, 8, 6. Those were his first six weeks, then 27, 22, 4, 22, 20. Those were his last five weeks. Four of his last five weeks were good for Aaron Hicks. He's similar to Andrew McCutcheon. I thought, going into last year, one of my bold predictions, I don't know if it was official, but one of my bold predictions that Aaron Hicks was going to be a top 10 outfielder in points leagues. I thought he was going to lead off. for the Yankees. He gets on base. He's really, really high walk rate. I think he was fifth in

walk rate in 2018. I thought he was going to score a ton of runs. I mean, I thought the guy could have scored 115 runs or something like that, batting leadoff for the Yankees. And he has some power. He's just, he's annoyingly streaky. And I thought he was going to play every day because he's a really good center fielder. All those possibilities still exist for Aaron Hicks, except I don't think he's going to be the leadoff hitter. I think he's going to bat more like seventh or eighth when he's healthy. But he's not a bad player. I think he's better in points leagues. He'll give you some good on base percentage. Very good, but not a good batting average.

And the steals, you know, I'd pencil them in for like at a 162 games, 12-ish steals, something like that. He'll give you something. He's a solid all-around player that could honestly be close to great in points leagues and usable, you know, solid in roto leagues. I'm kind of an Aaron Hicks skeptic. He makes some pretty weak contact. And the year that he was of the most value in fantasy 2018, he hit 27 home runs despite having 18 doubles.

He had 248. I'm not sure he can meet that home run level with consistency. And I'm not sure there's enough there otherwise. And in fact, I'm not rooting for this to happen for Aaron Hicks to be ready near the start of the season. I think it's a long shot for both him and Jordan Hicks because they're both coming back from Tommy John surgery, and because their Tommy John surgery was, you know, it happened, we're pretty deep into last year when they had their Tommy John surgery. I think Hicks was October.

No, wait. Aaron Hicks was in October. Jordan Hicks was mid-season. Yeah. So it was like around July. Yeah. And the thing is, I like the alternatives better. Not so much Brett Gardner.

Right. You don't like Brett Gardner better. You don't like Mike Tockman better. I don't think Brett Gardner would be the one to suffer most from an Aaron Hicks return. I think Brett Gardner is kind of a fixture and the Yankees will always find a spot for him. I don't know. Miguel Anduhar or Mike Tockeman. Those guys losing playing.

You'd rather Tockeman be in there than Hicks? I just, yeah. No, no, no, no. I feel like we're... Hicks is much better than Tockemen. We're going too far on the, like, buying into these Yankees small sample guys from last year. Like, Aaron Hicks was the Yankees small sample guy before last year, you know? Like, there are, it's just like, I feel like we're, we're kind of ignoring the cautionary signs that,

that exist when, like, Aaron Hicks was the, the breakout in 2018, comes back in 2019. And I was a skeptical of him then. I was, I'm saying I've long been an Aaron Hicks skeptic. I'm not saying what Mike Talkman did last year, changed my mind about Aaron. Higgs. I mean, Mike Talkman walks a lot too. Yeah, Mike Talkman is not Aaron Hicks. I mean, Aaron Hicks is much better than Mike Coughman. Mike Tockeman is benefiting

from you not really, like, having known much about him before last year, so you couldn't have been a long time Mike Tockeman's get. I guess so. Well, yeah, but I mean, he put up interesting numbers in the Rocky system. I mean, he was not, he was somebody people were rooting for to get

playing time for a long time before the Yankees finally gave it to him. So, yeah, you still have Stanton, Judge, Gardner, Talkman, and Duhar, like, all these guys, plus Aaron. Clint Fraser. With the, yes, Clint Frazier with the DH in there as well. It's a lot of names. You're not going to make me like Aaron Hicks, all right? You're not going to do it.

I think he has to hit toward the top of the order for me to really like Aaron Hicks. Jordan Hicks, I don't think is as good as Giovanni Gajegos, and he would just kind of mess things up there. Not that Gallegos has assured the role, but I would rather him get it than Hicks, and I would certainly rather him get it than it becomes some kind of split situation here. Talk about small samples. Like, look, how can anybody have any faith in Giovanni Guy? He goes, doing what we know about closers and just looking at, well, how can anybody have any faith in Jordan Hicks?

Because he throws a hundred miles per hour. I know, but he wasn't nearly as good as Giovanni. He was pretty good. He was pretty good. He was good. He was good last year, Jordan Hicks. This is nonsense. This is nonsense you're spouting here.

He was good last year. I am like... He's already had success in the role. I'm like a land developer breaking ground in rural Georgia. Get these Hicks out of here. That's what I'm saying. Get him out of here.

That was excellent, Scott. I did not expect Scott to be the one to make that joke. He's from Georgia. He's allowed to bake it. Yeah, I was worried someone would make the joke. I just didn't think it would be Scott. It was very good. It was all building up to that.

All right. That's a great way to just put a bow on the Jordan Hicks conversation. I did have one. news item I wanted to mention Jameson Tynes, remember that name. Blas from the past, throwing four times per week recovering from his second Tommy John surgery. Tionne indicated Thursday via his personal Twitter account that he's resumed throwing off flat ground four times per week. Just remember the name late in your keeper dynasty leagues. He's 28 years old. Again, it's second Tommy John, so there's no guarantees he's going to return to the player he was before. But he did break out in 2018, had

3-20-E-R-A-118 whip and 191-1-ennings pitched. Started using that new slider that season as well. So I'm rooting for James and Tyone. He's someone who I kept in a league last year, but remember the name if you are doing some startup dynasty drafts or keeper leagues where you can keep that player for the round value and yada yada. Just remember the name, Jameson Tion.

An email I wanted to read. This came in earlier today from David Cray. I have heard Frank apologize a couple of times for the way that he pronounces certain words such as didn't and innings. Actually, I think didn't was about Scott. Yeah, I was made fun of for Charlie Morton and John Carlos Stanton.

You'll find this out, Frank. Nobody can tell us apart for some reason. They always think I'm Chris. They think Chris is me. I think it's because they're listening to us on 1.5 times speed or something. So we all just sound like chipmongs. Well, yeah, because Scott clearly

is the most distinctive person on the podcast in terms of like his speaking. style in his cadence. So I'm always shocked when people can't at least identify Scott. He's on the episodes at the most. He's got a very distinctive, you know, that that's slower, more deliberate talking style, whereas Adam Frank and I, we're, we're New Yorkers. Get the hell out of here, Chris. Well, no, but in terms of the way people from South Florida speak, it's more similar to the way people from New York speak and that it's very fast-paced. People from New York, people from South Florida.

There's so many New York transplants in South Florida. We get uncomfortable with pauses and silence. And Scott just like luxuriates in them. It's like a warm bath. Yeah. Yeah, I don't like I listen to podcasts and I don't have trouble telling the people I'm hearing apart. So I honestly don't understand this phenomenon. But you'll find it happens a lot, Frank.

I want to get back to the email. I says my wife is a former. linguistics professor who would regard these renderings not as mistakes, but as regional variations. He speaks this way because that is how the people around him spoke when he was a child. There is no single correct way to pronounce these words. So leave Frank alone. He is carrying on the proud tradition of wherever he comes from. That's right, Ridgewood, Queens, New York. He also adds, I spend four or five months a year in Australia where nicknames are an obsession. Usually they are sly references to one's name, but not too obvious.

A friend's baseball team acquired a player named Royd. He was instantly dubbed Himmer and was known by that name by all of his teammates. So Frank should become postal. That's what my nickname should be postal, not just because of stamp, but also because to Frank, a letter means to put a mark on it so that it can be sent for free. That comes from David, aka Big Red.

You my boy, Red. I like that. I agree that we shouldn't. We shouldn't criticize people for the way they say specific words. I actually don't care, but I like the email. Maybe we shouldn't pull, you know, sound bites and make them drops. Chris, you don't make that person feel bad. You don't have a lot of pool at this discussion.

Dead pool. Yeah. And, you know, I, you know, I actually like, The whole idea of like proper English and like making fun of people's grammars or the way they speak, it's, it's very elitist. You know, there's no one right way or wrong way to speak. There are, there are literally millions of variations of the English language. We should embrace them all. They're all beautiful in their own way.

Pronunciation is just a construct man. It is. Here were a few other nicknames that stood out to me that I found yesterday. Frankie Tuttoes, look, I'm partial to anything where it's like, Like Frankie and then there is a word after it, Frankie 2 something, or this one, which was tweeted to, I believe it was Scott and myself, Frankie no vowels.

It's pretty good. Yeah, Frankie no vowels. I like that one. Huba Frank? No. Like it, yeah, that's good. Is there a reason you don't like that one, Adam? It's because it's not going to be his nickname.

Like, it's clever, but it's not going to call him Huba-Frank. I was making a joke. Do you want to call me Stanfulupagus? No, I don't. That's pretty good. And then Ballpark Frank. Oh. It's pretty obvious.

That's a good one, too. I still think the best nicknames are ones you prefer to say when you're addressing the person over their actual name. So I think Frankie NoVowels works in that regard. It kind of reminds me of like Joey Bats or Jimmy Grapps. Like, it feels like it's in the same vein. Does anybody call you Garoppolo Jimmy Graps? I think so. Definitely not.

I'm pretty sure I've seen like Meena Kimes or somebody like that. that do it. I made it up a couple. I feel like I made it up a couple years ago, though then other people made it up independently of me. Wow. I don't have that much clout that I can actually get a nickname to take off. But that should absolutely be.

You knew who I was talking about, didn't you? I guess. But nobody calls him Jimmy Garapolo, but if you call them that, I wouldn't know what you were talking about too. According to pro football reference, his nicknames are Jimmy GQ, Prince Aladdin or Great Garoppolo.

It should absolutely be Jimmy Grapp. What is Great Garoppolo? I don't know. Jimmy GQ, I have heard before. Frankie Stamps isn't bad. Frankie Podcast isn't bad. How about Frank Frank? The Fantasy Baseball, the CBS Fantasy Baseball podcast hosts.

I like that one. That's very catchy. I think Going Postal is a new Frank segment where Frank just flips out about something. Yeah, it might be about toxic if you keep this up, Adam. All right, we've got to take a break. We've got rankings debates coming on specific groups of players coming up right after this.

All right, we're back with some rankings debates. I want to start at the third base position, Josh Donaldson versus Matt Chapman versus A. Eugenio Suarez. And, you kind of brought this to my attention that I should just kind of let a timer go, you know, and everyone just, it's a free for all. We talk about these three players and we ultimately come to a conclusion over who's our favorite player going in this range. Scott, we've talked about this cluster of third basement.

There's a lot of people in this group. Josh Donaldson, ADP of 92, Matt Chapman, ADP of 91, A Eugenio Suarez, a little bit higher, but I think that he's a similar player in terms of what he brings to the table. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to start a timer for, let's go with eight minutes. Eight minutes.

Eight minutes per debate? Per player? That's a whole show. No, eight minutes for all of them, for all three players. No, but you've got four groupings here. That's 32 minutes. All right, you want to go five minutes? I think, Frank, I think eight minutes is too long to just talk about Scott Kingery.

I think five minutes. Because you know what? You're going to force us out of our comfort zone. You're going to make us make quick points. All right, here we go. Five minutes on the clock. Josh Donaldson versus Matt Chapman versus A Eugenio Suarez. Scott, go.

Well, only one of these guys hit. 49 home runs last year. So that, I think, immediately puts Suarez out front. And, you know, what he did in 2018 was pretty similar to what we saw Donaldson and Chapman do last year. The thing that might move Suarez behind either or both is just concern after he had that sudden shoulder surgery in January and accident in the pool, supposedly. But since he's obviously going to be ready to play again by the time the season starts

I'm comfortable moving it back to the front of that group. I actually have Donaldson last because I think 34 years old missed most of 2017 and 20, or much of 2017 and 2018 with injuries. I think we're being a little too sanguine based on that history that 2019 is the new normal for him again. He's old, he's injury prone, and I think the most could go wrong for him.

Chris, aren't we kind of hoping that Matt Cheshirene, Chapman just kind of becomes Josh Donaldson. Donaldson last year, 259 batting average, 37 home runs, 190 RBI plus run scored, and now joins a twins lineup that was ranked first in home runs, second in run scored, first in ISO, second in OPS, and second in Wobah. Don't we just want Chapman to be who Josh Donaldson already is? You know, it's tough to say what Matt Chapman is yet. I think to a certain extent he already is what Josh Donaldson was when he was with the A's.

And we saw how much the Coliseum held him back. And when he got to Toronto, he just blew up as an elite fantasy. I think the numbers are very similar for the two of them. And then the question for Chapman, ultimately, I think, was what happened between the All-Star break in 2018 and the All-Star break in 2019? a glimpse of what his upside could be, because he was, for that stretch, I mean, really one of the two or three best players in baseball. You know, not necessarily for fantasy, but first half of 2019, he hit 268 with 21 home runs and 900 OPS. Second half of 2018, 14 home runs, 309 average, 961 OPS. Last season, his babbip was really, really low, pretty much across the board.

So I love Matt Chapman. I think his park holds him back is the biggest thing. And yeah, I would probably put him third on this list and what the most likely outcome is. But I think I would take him over Donaldson just because of the age and injury related concerns like Scott said. For what it's worth, Matt Chapman, Stackast loves this guy, 96th percentile in average exit velocity,

94th percentile in hard hit rate, and 85th percentile in Bowero rate. That is Matt Chapman, who averaged 3.2 fantasy points per game last season, which was tied for 14th at the third base position. Adam, Eugenio Suarez, he did hit 271 last year and had a 572 slug. However, his expected batting average was 248,

and his expected slugging percentage was 503. I think we all kind of expect the home runs to regress a little bit. How do you break down these three guys between Suarez, Chapman, Josh Donaldson. Well, Suarez is not great in points leagues. He strikes out so much. His points per game among third baseman last two seasons been eighth and fourteenth.

So I don't think he's someone that you really target in points leagues, but I do think in Roto, you know, you go after him a little bit more heavily. I'm still going to take Suarez number one in this group because I'm worried about Donaldson's age, obviously. He's 34. He's hurt a lot. And I'm worried about the way Chapman finished

the season. 734 OPS batted 193 in his last 57 games. August was good, but September was horrible. And it seems like pitchers may have figured him out. And he said, according to MLB.com, Chapman said he's working on his mechanics so he can be better against high fastballs and off-speed pitches. And that just scares me a little bit. I don't want a guy having to make big mechanical adjustments going into a season if they kind of figured him out a little bit toward the end of last year. I don't know if that happened, but it's a bit of a red flag. I'm going to take Donaldson ahead of Chapman, even with the injury concerns.

Donaldson, what concerns me there is he's been a slow starter three straight years, and I can deal with that in a long season. But in a shortened season, he might not have time to really catch up. I don't know if that's going to hold up, or if it's just a fluke, but it's something to keep in mind. Suarez, to me, it seems like he has the least downside, because he doesn't hit a lot of doubles, but he had 49 homers. So if eight of those homers became doubles, then all of a sudden he's a 30 double guy

with still 40 home runs. So I'm going to take Suarez, Donaldson, Chapman. Wow, that was five minutes on the dot. Oh, nice. You finished right there as we hit five minutes. But if we're done, that's fine. We can move on. No, you can make some final points, Scott.

No. No, no. You stick to the rules. I will just say who I like the most out of the group, and that is Josh Johnson. I have him ranked the highest. Yes, he's a little bit older, but I really like the lineup that he joins,

and the stack has numbers for him last year were also ridiculous. So you're kind of making the upside argument for Donaldson, while the rest of us, or at least Chris and I are making the downside argument. Yeah, that sounds accurate. Next one. Here's what we got. At the shortstop position, Glaber Torres also eligible at second base. But Javier Baez versus Glaber Torres versus Zander Bogartz.

Javier Baez, ADP 33.2, Glaber Torres, 27.6. Zander Bogart's, 33.4. I am starting the clock right now. Chris, Glebert Torres versus Zander Bogarts versus Javier Baez. How do you break it down? Man, it's tough. I don't really find myself drafting any of these players with any regularity. You did say Zander Bogartz has the lowest ADP of the group, right?

He does. It's just barely behind Javier Baez. They're very close. And he was the best player of the group last season. By far. top 12 hitter. So it kind of seems like it should be Zander Bogarts. Now the weird thing with Zander Bogarts is

we don't really know what kind of hitter Zander Bogart's is. He's such a weird hitter. I feel like we've been doing this for five years where every single year we're like, well, what he did last year won't be sustainable. And it proves out to be true, but then the next year he just does something different

and ends up being a fantasy stud anyway. He's a really strange player. I don't necessarily buy what he did last season, but I think he does have an edge on these two guys, especially if you can get him after they're both off the board. Now, the thing he doesn't do is steal bases as much anymore, so that hurts him. But I still think you go with Bogartz.

Zander Bogartz was the third best shortstop in Roto last season. for the second best shortstop in head-to-head points in his fantasy points per game, average 3.8. That was tied with Fernando Tatis, Trey Turner, and Marcus Semyon, Zander Bogart's 52 doubles last year. That was the third most in baseball, still just 27 years old, and it looks like he is continuing to get better. He's the one that I prefer most in a points league, but the one that I actually like the most in Roto is Javier Baez. Scott, you have Javier Baez at 13 in your shortstop rankings, in your Roto rankings. Yes, I do.

I have him sixth. So, you know what I say? You've got to get to the bottom of this. Yeah, basic. You're just like everybody else overrating Javier Baez in Roto because, oh, he might steal me double-digit bags. Okay. All right. You go ahead and count on that.

He was like 11 for 18 last year, so I don't know. that we can be confident he's going to steal a base ever again. But, okay, of these three, you just endured him. Of these three. He's never going to steal a base again. Scott is feisty today. That was hyperbole. I know the internet doesn't understand hyperbole anymore,

but for young lads and lasses out there, I'm sure he will steal a base again, but my point is not going to be a great source of them. He's the best bet of these three for stolen bases. I will give him that, but I think it will be too insignificant of a number to care about, and he doesn't really have as safe of a profile as a hitter. For him to be a high-end fantasy contributor,

it relies on an outlier home run to fly ball rate, it relies on an outlier Babbitt. He's managed to do that with consistency, but it's a tight rope walk, and we're talking about the safest hitters. You can imagine being drafted, some of the safestitter, some of them are risky in other ways, but many of the safest titers you can still imagine are being drafted in the same range as Javier buys.

And it just doesn't seem like enough reward to pay up for. And yet there's a lot of risk there that could make it potentially a devastating pick for you. So I like Bogart's the most of these three. I agree with Chris that I don't know exactly what he's going to provide. And this was actually the point I was going to make about Suarez. So I'm fitting it in there anyway. 2018 and 2019 Suarez were both great, but they were great in different ways. And that's kind of what Xander Bogart's has been doing too.

But I know he's going to be a must-start shortstop with ease. And I would even though I'm not the sort of person who can just eliminate that Glaber Torres has second base eligibility, and that's maybe the most valuable single thing that any of these players contributes, even taking that into account, I still rank Bogart's just a little bit ahead of him. You know what's standing out to me looking at Javier Abias? No, you're not a lot to talk, Chris, because Adam has not had to talk and there's 30 seconds left, so go Adam. Thanks for leaving me so much time. In a points league, it's very easy. It's Bogarts 1, Glaber Torres 2. This is not counting second base eligibility.

That's a different situation. But in points leagues, it's very simple. Bogart's one, Torres 2, and a distant third, Javier Baez, because this plate discipline is so bad. I expect Torres to make some strides there this year, but he won't be Bogarts, who's already established himself as very good in that category. In Roto, it is tougher. You know, they're all pretty damn close. I'm going to take Glaber Torres, one,

Bogarts to Javier Baez three, but all really close, all justifiable to go in any order. I think there's a bit of a negative cloud around the Red Sox this year. Without Mookie Betts there, I don't know how much it matters that Alex Corr isn't there, but I just think they're going to have a doubt year and the counting stats were so huge for Bogarts.

So I think those are going to go down a little bit. That lineup's still going to be really good, though. Yeah, better than the Cubs, I think. Something about them is just, it's just scary me. It's like the fans are mad at them and... The fans aren't going to be there anymore. That's true. Don't worry.

That's true. Adam, you went over by 21 seconds. Yeah, that's not my fault. That's not my fault. What a jerk. Your punishment is you have to listen to toxic on repeat. Glaber Torres, the last point, the Orioles point I wanted to make this. He had 13 home runs and a 1512 OPS against the Orioles last year against everybody else.

He hit 25 home runs with a 786 OPS. So take that for what it is. But Glaver Torres, yes, he still faces the Orioles this year. And one of my favorite parts of the baseball season in 2019 was hearing Gary Thorne just gets so angry at Glaver Torres hitting home runs over and over again. We've got to come back to Javier Baez at some point. Like I just want to do a whole Javier or Bia's podcast because this is... You've got to defend your position at some point. Oh man, this is crazy. Tough being the host, isn't it?

It is. It is. Before we get to our next ranking debate, UFC 249 is nearly here. The best way to get ready for the event is with the State of Combat podcast with Brian Campbell. Go back and listen to this entire week of great content, including Storytime with Rashad Evans Part 2,

the UFC 249 preview, and the interviews with Anthony Pettis, Donald Seroni, and Steve Babe Miocchich. That's not all. Brian Campbell will be, will also, immediately after UFC 249, will be back with his instant reaction podcast,

download and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever else podcasts are found. I cannot blame the emailer for writing that read wrong. That was just me. So there you go. Any of you guys watch UFC? Are you going to be watching UFC 249 this weekend? I am not.

I never got into it. But I watched Rocky 3 the other night. It was a lot better than I remember to be. I thought Rocky 3 was kind of crappy. It wasn't. It was good. The next ranking debate we have. Brandon Woodruff versus Sunny Gray.

Cool story, bro. Brandon Woodruff versus Sunny Gray versus Jose Berrios, who I've kind of dubbed this group the, if they're your SP2, something went wrong in the draft group. I want one of these guys as my SP3 or later. I don't know how realistic it is that they'll be your SP4, but I think these guys are perfect.

They're Scott's SP7. Hey, my SP1 in the draft we did yesterday is Mike Soroka. I did notice that. All right, Brandon Woodruff versus Sunny Gray versus Jose Barrios, Woodruff, 80P of 85, Jose Burrios, 71.2, Sunny Gray, 94.8. Scott, no, you know what, I'm going to give Adam a chance to lead off this time because he needs to redeem himself and get as much time as he wants in here. Berrios versus Gray versus Woodruff.

What do you got at him? Here's three minutes on each guy. Berrios won with a bullet. Actually, like Jose Burrios. I think he's just like one tweak away from becoming a great, great pitcher. And you know you're going to get a lot of innings from him. You're going to get strikeouts by way of the innings and a respectable ERA. And I think they have such a good bullpen and such a good offense that he could win 18 games.

So Burrios won. I'm going to go with Woodruff too. Sonny Gray is just a little bit too difficult for me to trust. I understand that Woodruff has the Lance Lynn problem where he basically has one pitch. But he pitches deep into games. He had a 12-star stretch with 11 of them where six innings or more. He went seven in mornings and five of those 12 starts. He's got an electric basketball.

So I like Woodruff 2 and Sunny Gray 3. I know Sunny Gray, man, he really finished so strong. But I don't know. It's still a bad ballpark. And yeah, I just, I'm not feeling. But it's just a gut thing for me with Sunny Gray. I just don't trust him. So, Perrios, Woodruff, Gray.

It's probably because he spoke bad about the Yankees that Adam doesn't like him. But I have these guys in my ranks, 21, 22, and 23 with Brandon Woodruff at the top. And Chris, Jose Burrios, is he just kind of, is this just who he is at this point? Is he a high three's ERA? Because Adam keeps saying, and I hear this from a lot of people, that he's one tweak away from taking that next step. But we haven't seen that next step yet. can this be the year for Jose Berrios? Well, we've been doing that with Jose Brrios for the last three seasons,

where he's kind of gotten credit for the flashes that he's shown. And this is the first year, I think, when expectations are a little more fair, because he's struggled with inconsistency. He'll go through these stretches where he racks up a ton of strikeouts, and then he'll have these random, like, five-inning one strikeout games. And it's really weird to see from a guy. whose stuff seems to be really good.

And that's something that he addressed this offseason in trying to rework his curveball. You know, he's got that curveball that kind of, it's more of a slurve. And I feel like if you don't have a slider or a curveball, you don't have a good breaking ball. He's also trying to work his changeup too. Like he's just, you're right.

He needs a better. Yeah, he has been working on the changeup for years. That's one that, I don't know, he just doesn't seem to have the feel for this. pitch and the biggest problem for him. He's got great command, great control. He just doesn't have that second pitch that can really be a difference maker. And, you know, he was working on the curveball to make it more of an up and down vertical pitch rather than that big sweeping, slurvy type pitch. And if that makes a difference, and he explicitly said it was to get more

swings and misses. If that does generate more swings and misses, he absolutely has another level to go, but the, the weird thing about Jose Rios is he's kind of, he's not a soft tosser, but he has below average fastball velocity. He really is kind of a, I made the comparison earlier in the offseason, and it doesn't really jive with how we view them, but he's kind of like Kyle Hendricks. He throws five miles per hour harder than Kyle Hendricks, but, you are eating into Scott's down here. Well, because I'm making good points. You know, he doesn't get as many strikeouts as you want. He's got great control, but the biggest thing that Jose Brieus brings to the table is he does a really good job of limiting hard content.

He's one of the best just like Kyle Hendricks, and, you know, it gives him a safe floor. The upside is if he can start generating swings and misses. You have it right? So how about ranking? What do you like the most of the group? Gray, Barrios, and Woodruff. I'm very skeptical of Woodruff, and I imagine Scott's going to have the same ranking. Scott and I actually both have Brandon Woodruff ranked the,

highest of this trio. Do I? You guys mentioned that the change up for Burrios last year. I do not, Adam. I do not, Frank. Let's see. Slander. This is slander. I'm wasting everyone's time now.

You have... Gray first, then Woodruff, than Burrios. Oh, I miss your sunny gray there. But, all right, you have Brandon Woodruff higher than Burrios. All right, I'll give you the rest of the time here. Just say whatever you want about the three. All right. So, Burrios, like Chris is...

Without skills improvement, Burrios is not really an ace caliber pitcher. The thing that keeps him in this ranking is that he's efficient. He goes deep into games. That's the main thing. But the strikeout rate, ERA, the whip, they're all going to be underwhelming. Maybe not so much the whip, but the other two.

The most upside is Sunny Gray. I think the most downside is Woodruff. And Barrios is just, let me, should I say it again, Burrios, you basic. Woodruff is basically just a really great fastball and not much of a secondary arsenal. The secondary arsenal exists mostly to set up the fastball, and we saw that wild card game start against the Nationals.

Woodruff just basically through fastballs. And it was effective because the fastball is so good. But what happens if he loses anything on the fastball? Anything at all, half a mile per hour? Like how much? Over time he's going to lose it And we don't know exactly how long it'll take But it happens to every pitcher

They start to lose a little bit of their stuff And when it happens to Woodruff Will there be anything to fall back on It probably isn't an issue for this upcoming season But the thing is we don't really know Because it's hard to time out those things How would you describe his arsenal Woodruff's?

Yeah Woodruff's arsenal You base It's a lot like Lance Lynn Who we spoke about It's a lot like Lance Lynn. To put in perspective how good the fastball is for Brandon Woodruff, it had the third best P-Val pitch value on Fangraphs last season,

and his 257 Wobah against the fastball was the same as Garrett Coles. So that's just let you know. I'm not sure I'd compare it to Lance Lynn's. Lance Lynn's got more of an ability to, like, change the shape and speed of his fastball. He throws cutters. He throws two seamers. And he doesn't really have any off-speed pitches. Woodruff does.

They're just not very good. I'll take Woodruff in Roto among the rest. And Jose Berrios, I'll take in points because he just goes deep into games. He gives you a ton of quality starts. But there you go. Those are our little rankings debates. We don't really have enough time to get into Scott Kingery and... 20 seconds per analyst.

Scott Kingery versus Byron Buxton. Go, Adam. 20 seconds. I'm going to take Scott Kingery. here. I just kind of feel like there's a better chance that he's actually still going to become a good hitter. And he was pretty good last year. 258, 315, 474 in just his second season. Not bad. And he stole 15 bases. Yes, Buckson will steal more bases, but Kingery can be a more well-rounded player. Done.

I've got to take Kingery because he seems safer and because he's eligible in a few different places. But I actually like what Buxton was doing last year before the inevitable injury came up. he struck out a lot less. He hit more line drives, and he improved his batta ball profile in a way that I think might finally allow him to take off if he can ever stay on the field. I just have really no hope of him doing that

based on the way his career has gone to this point. Kingery doesn't have near the upside that Byron Buckson does. Byron Bucson is still one of the most physically gifted players in baseball. He's incredibly fast. He can hit the ball hard when he makes. makes contact with it. And like Scott said last season, he did start making contact more. Kingery, you're hoping he can just be kind of a B plus power and speed guy in either category. And he still needs to take a step forward as a contact hitter to not hurt you in batting

average. So I think it's Buxton by a long shot. I like both of these guys in Roto quite a bit. I have Kingery as my outfielder 37. I have Buckson at 38. To put that in perspective, Scott has Kingery at 43, and he has Byron Buxon down at 53. So I like them a decent amount. And shout out to Matt Modica at CTM baseball on Twitter.

Tweeted this back in like February, but I haven't written down for some reason. Before the All-Star break last year, Starling Marte, 12 home runs, 13 steals, 279 batting average. Byron Buxton, nine home runs, 12 steals, was 253 batting average, which with a much higher slug and a much higher ISO. So for what it's worth, it looked like Byron Buxton was finally putting it together. It's just a matter of can he stay healthy, which is a question we have for a lot of people.

But I agree with Chris that. I think Byron Buckson does have a ton of upside, especially in that lineup. All right. We're going to wrap up the week with a few more emails. We'll do that right after this quick break. All right, we're back here. This question's from Joe in Indiana. in my 2019 season just before the trade deadline,

I traded Marcelo Zuna in order to receive Anthony Rendon. Needless to say, my league commissioner was not happy and the team who accepted it with the team that accepted it and wanted to know his reasoning. It helped me eventually win the title. We have a all trades are final policy, therefore making the losing team pay for their mistake. How mad would you be with this person in your leagues?

do you expect reasoning from the person who made the mistake of accepting a trade that seems egregious? I mean, they let people make their own mistakes. You can be annoyed at them, but you don't need to explain yourself unless if people want to accuse you of collusion, but anything short of that, you don't need to explain yourself. I mean, Ozuna for Rendon, it's pretty bad. Yeah, no, it's a terrible trade. I'm not defending the trade I just don't

I don't think adults making decision of their own volition need to explain them to other people now if this guy cut a check to the other guy then we gotta start having

some investigations but you know I mean the only way you can find that out is if you question them I guess right Chris I mean look no just like make okay all he has to do

is turn over his checkbook or give access to his bank account And then he doesn't have to explain the trade at all. Look, I, like, I've got a Slack channel for one of my fantasy leagues. We give each other crap all the time. I just made fun of someone yesterday for making a crappy trade. But I didn't, I'm the commissioner of that league. I didn't force him to explain himself and, you know, throw himself before the mercy of the league.

I think it's okay to do that, though. I think it's, even privately, be like, yo, dude, this trade's crazy. people were going to be up in arms. What were you thinking? I think that's okay. I think that's fair again. And he doesn't even have to give you a satisfactory explanation, but make the guy, like, at least know there's some basis for it.

And it's not like, oh, well, I just didn't care anymore. So I figured why not that'd be a bad. But that would be, like, just kick that guy at the league. Yeah, but you never know until you ask, right? The only things that would raise an eyebrow for me is if this is a guy who is just, like, normally a dead owner and he's, he's just like the bane of this league's existence basically he's either consistently making horrible trades or he's consistently not setting his lineup and then this bad trade comes out of the blue

but if he's as active as anybody else and as motivated as anybody else like just you know he made a bad trade and you just have to live with that if you want a league with trading oh great great by trade uh was trying to do my bane the bane this next one's from robert williams dear brent Phil, Mickie, Phil, Bob, and Jerry. They feel very golfy to me. Oh, no. When I search them, I'm seeing a lot of Grateful Dead pop up. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Bob Weir, Jerry Garcia, yeah, yeah, I think that's it. In the absence of baseball and employment, I am playing a season of MLB the show 20. I recently got to the All-Star game and noticed Timla Castro is leading the MLB in steals with 28. It got me curious. I haven't heard his name as much. Scott, Tim LaCastro,

does that get the wheels turning for you? 17 steals in 91 games last year with the Arizona Diamondbacks? Perfect 17 for 17. Yeah, he can steal bases. And let's see, in the miners last year, he had nine. He's had a couple 30 steel seasons, a 40 steel season in the miners. Not a guy with much power to speak of. So, like, steals are what he brings to the table.

He gets on base a fair amount. If the plan, if something goes wrong in the outfield for them, and especially in center field, I could see LeCastro playing a big role, but he's not in a position to right now, which is why we don't talk about him in fantasy.

You know, he would have fit the mold of the backup player that was interesting that I did last week. Tim Lecastro, you know, if something were to happen to Marte or Colcassi or Cole Calhoun and they throw LeCastro out there. In a Roto League, he could get you some steals at him. But not just that.

What if he's one of those backup players who is going to definitely be interesting because the roster spots that are needed that are required and the amount of players that these teams are going to have to play? Maybe LeCastro becomes one of those guys. Maybe. Just because there are more roster spots being filled, though, doesn't mean they're going to get a lot of playing time. And we shouldn't be rooting for that, by the way,

Because if more bench players are getting more playing time, that means more star players are getting less playing time. Yeah. It's not a great outcome of fantasy. Depends how many double headers you have. I mean, I don't know what it's going to look like. If there are two double headers a week, then Tim McAshler's going to be in there, you know,

maybe enough to matter. Maybe. Phil Lesh is another guy from the Grateful Dead. I just remembered. There's your Grateful Dead update from Chris Towers. This next one's from Rob. Hey, Frank. First off, welcome to the podcast.

You're fantastic. Oh, well, thank you. I play in a 16-team 30-man roster, Dynasty Auction League. Would you give up James Paxson to get Michael Kopeck? Or would you give up James Paxon to get Casey Mize? Chris, what do you think about this? It's going to depend on the salary. If it's just straight up, I definitely wouldn't do it for Mize. I think Scott probably might not agree on that.

I just have real concerns about Casey Mize. is with the health of his shoulder, and I think he's had elbow issues as well. And his velocity was down. His numbers were bad after coming back from the injury last year. So I might do it for Kopeck if I'm looking towards the future. But if I'm trying to win in 2020, I'm probably hanging on to James Paxton.

Yeah, the biggest thing for me is, are you keeping, and Chris kind of referenced it, but just to drive the point home, are you keeping these players on equal terms or the prospects much cheaper to keep than Paxton. Because if it's equal terms, unless you know you're not going anywhere this year, just stick with Paxton.

If you're definitely set onto trading Paxton, no Mize would be my preference. Yeah, I think it comes down to how competitive you're expected to be. If you think that you can compete this year and the next year, maybe you want to keep James Paxton on your team. I agree with the points that Chris made on Casey Mize. I'm worried about that shoulder as well from a dynasty perspective. I'm in a startup dynamic.

slow draft right now, and Casey Mize went in the 10th round, and I actually took Nate Pearson over Casey Mize, so I do worry about him a little bit more in this format. So if you're going to, if you're looking for the future, I would trade Paxson for Kopeck. If you are competing now, I would keep James Paxson. That's how I would go with this. Last question, not really a question, just an email. Last email here from Patrick Kiege. Hey, Gerald, Vesimir, Lambert, and Dendelion. That is the Witcher I looked it up Have you seen it Chris?

Did any of you guys watch The Witcher? I have not seen it But I know the name Garalt is from the video game I never watched it It looked like It looked like a cheesy Game of Thrones That's fair I mean if I just saw a trailer

And nothing else I would probably think the same But you should give it a shot at him It's actually pretty good I enjoyed it quite a bit So this is what Patrick has to say Scott said it right When it comes to Wyvern

The S.K. Wyverns in the KBO. So shout out to Scott. You got it right there. And Adam, May 4th is not as old as Cinco de Mayo. It is one day older. Yes, it is. Very good.

And I would say, you basically nailed that one. You basically nailed that one. That's going to do it for this week, great week of fantasy baseball today. For Adam, Chris, and Scott, I am Frank. Nicknames still pending. I don't know if we're going with Frankie Novo. vows if we're going with the tramp stamp, the Machado Man, was an interesting one that I kind of

like too, which I haven't mentioned till right now. You may not like him next year. Who knows? Have a happy Mother's Day for any mothers out there listening, but make sure to take care of the great women out there, the wives, the mothers. So enjoy that over the weekend. Thanks for listening. Talk to you all on Monday. Bye-bye.