Fantasy Baseball Today - Redrafting The First Two Rounds For The Second Half! (7/18 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

Before we get into the draft, any thoughts on the All-Star game (3:00)? ... Let's get into the first pick, Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani (5:42)? ... Breakouts from Gunnar Henderson and Elly De La Cruz land them both in the top six picks (16:20). ... Julio Rodriguez eighth overall (22:34)??? ... When might Kyle Tucker return (30:30)? ... Let's kick off the second round with two corner infielders and our first pitcher (40:07). ... Francisco Lindor has been consistent again (45:59). ... Corbin Burnes lands in the middle of the second round (51:12). When might Mookie Betts return? ... Can Austin Riley pick things up in the second half (58:55)? 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, @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 on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. It's All-Star Week. You know what that means. Redrafting the first two rounds, a tradition like no other. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today. On Thursday, July 18th, I am Frank Stanfield, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers.

Today on the show, that's right. You guessed it. Redrafting the first two rounds for the second half. A little tricky because there are some high-end hitters who are currently hurt, but they'll still, I think, work their way into the first two rounds. More on that in just a bit. But the All-Star game was yesterday, if you're watching us,

this two days ago, if you are listening to us. And the American League won again. I think it's, what, 10 of the last 11 All-Star games have been won by the American League. they won at five to three. Jaron Duran to continue his storybook breakout season. He won MVP of the game. But did you guys have any thoughts overall?

You know, I used to think, like my theory for why the American League always dominated the All-Star game, because this goes back even beyond the last 13 years. It was a big thing when I was a kid as well. And my theory was always, well, not always. It's developed, you know, after I was a kid. But my theory as a sentient adult was that the American League has the And so there's just more talent in the American League by default. And now both teams, both leagues have the DH and it's still happening.

So I don't know. I don't know if does the inner league thing still exist? Because I know the American League dominated interleague play for a long time. And that was part of it. But I don't know if that's still a thing. So maybe maybe it's just random because it's one game a year. Yeah. That's probably right.

Yeah. I think it probably is. I imagine the run differential isn't great during that. time, a lot of close games. So I think there's a lot of just randomness to it. I did. Speaking of Jaron Duran, probably my favorite moment from the game was when David Ortiz went wandering through the American League dugout, just grabbing random guys and talking to him.

And he grabbed Jaron Duran, who could not have been less comfortable in that moment. It was just like it was a classic extrovert to introvert interaction that I've lived through so many times where you're just trying to be pleasant and agreeable and wait for the moment to pass. That's what Jaron Duran was doing. That is every interaction between Scott and I, really. I actually didn't see that, but my buddy texted me. He said, why is David Ortiz just ragging on the Yankees with all these players? Oh, get over yourselves. All right. I wasn't me who said it. I thought that was delightful. I thought it was very funny. David Ortiz just randomly talked, just had a full conversation with Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

in Spanish on an English broadcast. I thought it was hilarious. I thought it was a great bit. All right. Well, the All-Star game is over. We've got a couple days off here. Games will be back on Friday. But let's have a little fun.

A second half redraft, this will be for 5 by 5 Roto leagues. If there are anything that's any things that stand out from like a head to head points perspective, we obviously could point those things out. And yeah, last year I looked back at the rundown. Chris had the first overall pick so you will not have the first pick this year instead it will go to Scott White

and with that you are on the clock all right all right it's a two-man race here at the top I think but I'm going to go with the person I said I'd go with when we were on CBS Sports Network the other day and that's Aaron Judge

who yeah Aaron Judge who has those outlier barrel rates that we talked about year after year, far and away the best as far as that goes. And if 2022 and now 2024 is indication, that effect is heightened when offenses down as a whole when the ball is having trouble carrying in general. Now, the interesting wrinkle here, because obviously Judge Far and Away, the best player in fantasy in 2022, I think when all is said and done in 2024, he could be again.

But the interesting wrinkle is that in July, suddenly offense is surging. And so, you know, we saw that to some degree in 2022. We see it to some degree in every year, but it's been kind of a night and day difference. So if that continues the rest of July into August and to September, maybe Judge loses a little bit of that power advantage that he's enjoyed to this point in the season.

But when you're talking about the ball and how it plays, there's really no predicting how that's going to go. So I'm trying to just remove that variable from the equation, and I'm going to take Judge here. Plus he plays outfield. How about this? Everyone else has stepped up in July. Judge is batting 238.

What a bum. Three homers, only three RBI. Nobody getting on base for him. Obviously, his May and June were just completely ridiculous. He had around a 1400 OPS each of those two months. So he's taking a little bit of a step back. But obviously, we all think he's going to be totally fine. And he was the first overall pick.

And Chris, I will go over to you, Olive Garden Breadstick. second overall. Yeah, I'll take the guy who's been better than Aaron Judge so far this season. Actually, surprisingly, I would assume not in points per game, but Judge, Judge has a big advantage just in points, straight points. I'm looking at the points league I'm looking at, Otani has a three and a half point lead, but I assume he has played more games. Oh, you know what? You're right. I'm sorry about that. Otani has more points scored and more points per game, 4.6 to judges 4.4. That is. I, I was comparing Judge to other outfielders, which Shohei Otani is not. So my bet.

So, yeah, Otani, I mean, the power hasn't been quite as good. The RBI production hasn't been quite as good. But it's still been better than anyone else in baseball. I guess he's third in RBI, so not quite everyone else in baseball. But he's hitting 10 points better than Judge. He has 18 more stolen bases. Shohei Otani might go 50-40 this season. He's not far off of a 40 stolen base pace.

He's on a 50 plus home run pace. He's having an absolutely bonker season. You know, you do wonder, like, is he better as a hitter this season because he's not having to focus on pitching? Will he take a step back as a hitter next season if he has to pitch? Well, he was actually better last season in terms of OPS. So I'm not actually sure that that's a reasonable concern. It's just on a completely different planet.

The only knocks against him are utility only and in the long run injury risk, but he's not pitching right now, so I don't actually think there's any injury risk. So I think he's a candidate for the number one pick the rest of the way. I think he's a candidate for the number one pick next season. And the problem is in that CBS format, right, where we're talking about, you have to pick Otani as a hitter, versus Otani as a pitcher.

And that's always tough, right? Like, you don't get the benefit. But I think you can make a case that even in a league where you have to pick every week, hitter or pitcher, that does add a very small amount of value, but it's still there. Like, if there's a week where the Dodgers are only playing five games next week, you might be able to justify putting Otani out there as a pitcher. And, hey, that might make up for having only utility value. So he's just a completely different monster than anything we've ever seen.

It's very funny that the National League's only runs were off of a Shohei Otani home run in a game he lost. You can take the angel, the man out of the angels. We can never take the angels out of the man. And yeah, he's incredible. What else can you say? I'm so frustrated that, and look, it's not his fault, everything that happened. But that betting scandal that happened like right before the season. I was really warming up to the idea of like,

Otani just being a top five player, right? Seeing him come back and he looked great in spring training. And I had this exact thought that if he doesn't have to focus on pitching, he might be even better as a hitter. And, you know, hitting him the Dodgers lineup and all that. And, you know, I got scared off a little bit with everything that happened. And for what it's worse, worth, he has, the underlying numbers are actually better than they've ever been,

which is remarkable. Average X velocity is up to 95.5 miles. per hour barrel rate. Is it higher than Judge? It's a hundred percentile on baseball Savant, but I don't know if that's actually... I think he's behind Judge. Okay, but 335XBA previous career high 295. It's, it's incredible what Shoha Tani's doing. All right, I'm going to take the third pick, obviously, and I'm going to select Bobby Witt Jr. who continues to improve. He's currently the third overall player in Roto this season, batting 323 with 16 homers, 75 runs, 63 RBI, and 22 steals, that's where his value has really gone up this year,

is the counting stats. Because he is on pace for 127 run scored, 107 RBI. He has improved the quality of contact, 92.6 average exit velocity, nearly a 15% barrel rate. Both of those are career highs for Bobby Witt, Jr. The only thing that kind of stands out is a little bit weird is that the steals have taken a step back. He's got 22, he's on pace for 37.

last year he had the 49. So most people coming into the year probably expected something like close to 30 home runs and 40 plus steals. And there's still a chance he can get there if he just runs like a madman in the second half. He's certainly talented and capable enough to do that. That was the only thing that

stood out to me as a little bit weird for Bobby Witt is the steals being down. Yeah, I mean, it could change, like he said, and he's still 100th percentile sprint speed. So, yeah, stolen bases are a big part of his game. when you get that high up that many dozens of steals,

then losing or gaining a dozen can happen rather easily from year to year. So I don't find it terribly surprising. Either way, you're talking about Witt as the best player other than Judge and Otani, and that's pretty special. I will point out this is the first pick that would be different for me in a points league. Yeah, but only by one spot. There'd be one player that I insert ahead of wit. And Bobby Witt, you know, one thing that I think has probably held the stolen bases back.

One, he's just a better hitter. So there are probably just fewer opportunities, although even if you account for that, he's running less often. He's made a lot of outs on the bases this season. He's been caught stealing nine times, 71% success rate down from 77 last year. He's also been picked off a few times in addition to that. So he's actually been weirdly kind of not a great base runner despite being super fast and super athletic

and stealing a bunch of bases. I think that's probably just noise and he will steal bases at a higher frequency in the second half. All right, big thanks to everyone watching us live. Make sure to hit that like button and subscribe to the YouTube channel if you haven't already.

YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today and a reminder to sign up for the FBT newsletter. Chris puts a lot of work into We would appreciate that. Scan the QR code. Go to the website. Click on the FBT logo, punch in your email address,

and it's easy as that. You'll get a newsletter delivered right to your inbox every single weekday for free. Let's take our first break, and when we return, we will continue on. Scott has the fourth pick. We'll do that right after this.

Welcome back in, redrafting the first two rounds for the second half of the season. First three picks, Judge Otani and Bobby Witt. No surprise. And Scott, you are back up. Well, we've talked about the player who's number one in home runs, Judge, number two in home runs, Otani,

going here with pick four with the player who's number three in home runs, and that's Gunner Henderson. And he's kind of improved his game all over here in a sophomore season, but the biggest jump is in that home run production. He's already equaled his total from his rookie season with 28. Of course, he's dual eligible, shortstop and third base. he is viable base dealer as well. He's stolen four more than he did last.

Yeah, I mean, viable is probably underselling it. When all of a sudden done, he might have a 40 homer 20 steel season, and that's being a little conservative. So, yeah, I have him here. Fourth overall in Roto, Gunner Henderson. Yeah, I think he's totally worth that. He's taking the quality of contact to the next level this year. He's 97th percentile on average exit velocity,

91st percentile in barrel rate. He is on pace, Gunner Henderson, for 47 homers, 131 runs, and 233 steals. He's been so good, and he's improved against lefties. I love seeing that from a young hitter. Chris, you are up with the fifth pick. This has been an extremely boring discussion so far. We've just gone chalk. First four players have been the top four players in fantasy so far this season. I'm going to break the streak. I'm going to go off the board. at number five, I'm going to take the guy who fell all the way to sixth in fantasy scoring so far this season. I'll take Jose Ramirez. Just I think after this four, I think there are three players you can reasonably make a case for.

I will go with the guy who one, I think just has the most well-rounded skill set of those three. And two, just has the longer track record of the guy who technically L.A. de la Cruz has been one spot. better than Jose Ramirez, but I think Jose Ramirez is the better hitter overall. Obviously, I think he's the better overall player and just has a longer track record, a little less volatility. And the thing with Jose Ramirez is

progressive field, right? That's what it's called still. Yes. It's just a completely different place than it was in the past. And I've seen some discussions about what is causing that. And I think the best explanation that I've seen

is they removed these, we talked about this on the podcast recently. They removed these like shipping containers that were up in left field, I want to say, and it's caused like a wind tunnel effect. Yep. That has created specifically to right field,

more power, which helps Josh Naylor and Jose Ramirez and Stephen Kwan specifically. And to put some data on that, it's gone from last season. If you just look at the one season park factors, which is super noisy. we usually don't do that for analyzing parks, but for this point,

it was the worst park in baseball for home runs last season. It is the fourth best so far this season. That is a gigantic, gigantic swing. It might just be a small sample size, right? Maybe, you know, Stephen Kwan has three extra home runs that he shouldn't have had and they've just been wall scrapers. And then there's, but I think there might be something here. There's been some research into the wind of fact.

and how the ball is carrying there. It seems to be carrying much better than any other park in baseball. And that has helped Jose Ramirez to the best power production of, I believe, of his career. He also 77 RBI. He's just having an absolutely bonker season. He has three fewer RBI than he did all of last season and one fewer home run. It's great. It's incredible.

And it was very good last season. Yeah, I mean, he was still awesome, but probably fell further than he should have. of in drafts and also still has 18 stolen bases. So he is like batting average is the worst category for Jose Ramirez now. And he's still hitting 271, which is perfectly helpful. Yeah. And we said that about Jose Ramirez coming into the season is that counting stats year over year. They could be fluky. It was not really anything that we saw in his game from last year that said he deserved to have that bad of run an RBI production. So we had the feeling that it would improve to this level. I don't think we saw this coming, but Jose Ramirez has been awesome so far. And just shout out to the

guardians, man. They've been so good under first year managers, Stephen Vote. They have the best record in the American League. And from top to bottom, Stephen Kwan, Josh Naler, Jose Ramirez. They're calling guys up and getting the most out of those. Like, Anhele Martinez came up. Yeah, all these, they have all these, like, weird middle infielders that you've never heard of. We're all coming up and hitting like $2.90. Yeah. Tyler Freeman and David Frye and all those kind of name. So yeah, shout out to the Guardians and Jose Ramirez. Sixth overall in this draft, I am going to slight. I think there's a few different directions I could go in, but I'm going to go with Ellie De La Cruz, who currently

ranks as the fifth overall player in Roto. He's batting 256. He's got 17 home runs, 64 run scored, 46 steals. That is more than five other teams total at the break. He has 16 more steals than the next closest hitter, Bryce Terang, who has 30. He's also on pace for 28 homers, 106 runs. He still does strike out quite a bit. That's going to lead to some volatility in his game week to week, month to month production. 31% strikeout rate is still really high. But he has improved in other places, lowering the ground ball rate, improving against lefties.

He's got a 752 OPS against lefties. Not that that's good, but it's serviceable. I mean, he was striking out like 40% of the time against lefties last season. If I did the math right, he's down to 29%. He's better. He has a better strikeout rate against lefties than he does righties this season. Which is a testament to him. It's crazy to think about this because he's just like taking the league by storm.

He's only 22 years old, right? Like he's going to continue to improve. And I like the improvements that he's made so far. So shout out to Ellie, a big breakout season for him. I was a skeptic coming in. I've pretty clearly been wrong about his upside so far. And yeah, he's been amazing. He's the sixth overall player.

And Scott, you are back up with the seventh pick. Yeah, I'm going Juan Soto here. And I probably would have taken him over the last two guys myself, but that's fine. I'm happy to take the little discount. It's nice to fill the outfield, obviously. That has been the hardest position to fill, especially if we're talking about a roto league with all the five outfield spots. Things have gone about as well as we could have hoped for for Juan Soto in his first season with the Yankees. Getting out of San Diego does seem to have fixed his issues with batting average.

He's on pace for career high in home runs. He's put up massive, massive run in RBI totals on pace for 125 runs, 110 RBI. Of course, a very good source of batting average again like he used to be in his Nationals days. Not much of a base dealer, so that holds him back a little bit. But I think you can trust him to sustain his paces in everything, maybe a little better than some of the others who, rank ahead of him so far. And I think he's, I think he's great. I'll make up for the lack of steals elsewhere.

And in points, I think you can make the case for Juan Soto as early as third. Third, yeah, that's the one I have ahead of Bobby Witt, who I referred to earlier. The only thing with Soto, and this is splitting hairs, part of the reason why I ranked Ellie Dela-Cruz ahead of him for this exercise. since that forearm injury, last 30 games, he is batting 243 with six homers and an 887 OPS. Now, I understand. An 887 OPS is still really good for someone who's put on a lot of homers. Slumping.

How many games? And 30 games. Yeah, so basically his usual home run pace. Does that worry you at all? That he just, he hasn't been as dominant since the injury. It sounds like it's, it sounds like other than the batting average being a few points down, everything's been fine. So, I think it's, I think it's just a happenstance.

During this stretch, by the way, this 30 game stretch, 93 mile per hour average exit velocity and a 16% barrel rate, which would be better than most people just to this point in the season. So not overly worried about Soto, hopefully a couple days off. He's also dealing with like a hand injury, so I think that's kind of factored in. But overall, yeah, I think he's worthy of a top six or seven pick. And Chris, you were back up eighth overall.

And this is where things really open up. I think there is a clear top seven, and then I think there's a drop off here. And that's mostly because of injuries, right? Like, if it wasn't for injuries, I think we already would have definitely said Kyle Tucker's names, and we definitely would have said Muki Betts's name. We might have said Fernando Tatis.

I think that one's a little more open. And obviously Ronald Ocuna, he's not going to play at all the rest of the season, so he's not in that discussion. But I'm going to go maybe off the board a little bit. I don't know where you guys have Julio, Rodriguez ranked. Oh, but I'm going to show faith in the young kid who. The people are yelling at their phones, Chris.

A contender for the number one pick this year. And look, I get it. It's been a very frustrating and difficult season for you if you have Julio Rodriguez on your team. He's not running quite as much as he did. The power has completely disappeared. He has a 105 ISO. That is a really bad mark.

And it's not just bad. I wrote about this a couple weeks ago, and he's shown signs of improving that. But the biggest issue is pitchers are pitching him inside more than ever before, and he has not been able to generate power to the pull side as a result of that. And that's frustrating. But if you look at the underlying metrics, everything about Julio Rodriguez still suggests, one, he's an elite athlete. And two, that he's still a really, really good power.

hitter and he's just not doing it right now and there are reasons for that and it's not just a fluke. I have a lot of faith that Julio Rodriguez is going to figure it out. His expected Wobah is 3.41 last year, it was 345. And the thing about Julio Rodriguez is he does not have to be an elite batter to be an elite fantasy option. Because he's going to steal, because he's going to provide five category production, I think he just has to be pretty good. And I think he's, will be very good moving forward. I understand the frustrations and concerns about Hulia Rodriguez. If you're yelling at your

podcasting service, I understand. You should be trying to trade for Julio Rodriguez. And he has... Go ahead. What's funny about this is, so I basically did an article version of this two weeks ago. And I thought I was showing strong faith in Julio Rodriguez. Like, I thought I was making him

making a statement by having him 21st. And Chris is here taking him, what, eighth? We're at eighth now? Yeah. He might have gone eighth in some initial drafts at the start of the season. Hey, I would say that's unlikely. I like it, man. Trust the process.

You're sticking with it. I'm not saying that was his ADP, but in some drafts. Yeah, sure. I ranked about 30 players before. for doing this exercise. I had Julio at 17th overall, so I wasn't far off from you, Scott. But look, so far in July, he's looked a lot better.

Julio Rodriguez, 447 batting average, three homers, one steel, he's hitting the ball hard, more fly balls, pull rate is slightly up so far in July, so that has looked good. And if you are someone who believes in the expected stats, as you mentioned, Chris, a 280XBA 458 expected slug,

those numbers are still really good. They're, you know, those are Julio caliber numbers. So maybe you want to hire. slug, but yeah, he hasn't lived up to those standards. If you trust the expected stats, then maybe he gets there in the second half. I have the ninth overall pick, and there are a few different directions we can go here. I'm going to go with Trey Turner, who is on fire since returning from that hamstring injury. 50, nope, I didn't write down the numbers since returning from the injury.

But 57 games overall, he's batting 3.49 with 11 homers, 41 run scored, 12 steals, and a 9. 49. OPS, much, much improved from last year's mark 778. You almost wonder where would Tray Turner be at this point in the season if he never got hurt? I mean, he could be having a truly massive season. It's been a good year, but obviously he missed some time. The one negative, I guess, is only two steals in 24 games since returning from the IL, a hamstring injury.

I don't know if those things are correlated. It's hard to steal bases when all you do is hit home runs. Well, he had a setback during his recovery, right? So that was one thing I was concerned about when he was coming back for sure. And the Phillies this year are kind of every year we have one or two teams that just dominate in terms of run production. And the Phillies lineup is just ridiculous. So Trey Turner batting near the top of there. I'm going to take him ninth overall.

Scott, you are back up with the 10th pick. Oh, man. I'm not sure what I want to do here. I think I can afford to wait on one guy have my sights on. so I'm not going to take him. I think I am going to take, I'm going to take a first basement. It's just, am I ready to,

because I know my rankings page doesn't currently show it this way. Am I ready to move Bryce Harper ahead of Freddie Freeman now? Do it. Do it. Or should I just take Freddie Freeman? Back to back Phillies. Do it. I am going to be the contrarian.

and take Freddie Freeman. Yeah. That's, I still have Freddie Freeman ahead of Harper for what it's worth. I do too, but for weeks I have contemplated moving Harper ahead. Maybe I'm not the contrarian then. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, Freddie Freeman's numbers are just kind of a little down across the board. Certainly the run an RBI production where he bats in that lineup is great.

He's not running like he did the past two years. and the power production's been a little down to. But we've seen that in the first half, and then he goes nuts in the second half. And of course, he's a safe bet of for batting average. He'll find it all the majors still. And just really, I think really safe pick. I feel comfortable using a round one pick on him.

Yeah, Freddie Freeman currently on pace for eight steals. Last year had the career high 23, so not going to come anywhere close to that. The quality of contact has taken a little bit of a step back, the expected numbers. They're solid. They're not as like otherworldly as we saw last year.

I think he's totally worth this pick. It just creeps into my mind the fact that he's turning 35 in September. Are we starting to see just a little bit, a little bit of Freddie Freeman maybe taking a slight step back here. I think it might be possible. Chris, you are up with the 11th pick.

So if I updated my rankings before this, and if I go with that, I would take Kyle Tucker. I don't feel comfortable going with a guy who I have not seen, like, run in a month. So I am going to take, we have not taken Trey Turner yet, right? No, Frankton. Oh, well, then I'm taking Kyle Tucker. Chris, are you on the podcast?

What are you doing? I'm talking about it for like three minutes. I don't have, you know, I don't have a list or anything. That's not my job. The rundown is open. I'm getting track. I wasn't looking at that part of the rundown. Whatever.

Trey Turner is the pick. Live with it. No, it's Kyle Tucker who, look. See, that's who I thought I could wait on. Yeah, the concerns about this shin injury are significant. It was supposed to be a day-to-day thing that was like 40 days ago. So I am concerned about that. But, man, before the injury, we were seeing probably the best version of Kyle Tucker that we've ever seen.

it is worth noting that that might have just been a two-month hot streak and he was bound to cool off and we just didn't get to see that, right? Like that's possible. And Kyle Tucker had been remarkably consistent for three years prior to this one. But play discipline was better than it had ever been. He has walked 18% of the time prior to the injury. Quality of contact had been up 441 expected Wobon contact. That was the second best mark of his career. I just think as long as Kyle Tucker can get healthy relatively quickly,

you're talking about a guy who we were ranking as a top five player before the injury. So I still feel like getting him here is the right choice, even though obviously it comes with more risk than you'd prefer from what is ostensibly a first round pick. And now I regret taking Freddie Freeman. I thought you guys were going to laugh at me. Mistake. It is a mistake. But you're right.

Like, I've barely moved him down my rankings because it seemed like at the start it was going to be just day to day, then a minute of my L-Stent, and suddenly it's a month. And he's still, what's the last report on him? He played catch. Yeah.

That's the last thing anyone's seen. I saw an interview earlier. Well, it was from before the All-Star game that says it sounds like he's going to go on a rehab assignment shortly after the hospital. He has to go on a rehab assignment with how much he's missed now. Yeah.

But I've been hearing for a few weeks that he's about to be back. So even then, like he's just been, he's been, you know, he's been dragging, pulling us, having us on a string. What's, what's the, what's the saying? Like, keeping us on a leash or. Yeah, something like that. Something like that. He's kept us on a string, strung us along. Yeah.

All of those are in the same vein. Giving us enough rope to hang ourselves with. There's lots of rope and string idioms. Before he got hurt, by the way, I just want to. point out the pace stats, 150 game pace for Kyle Tucker, 47 homers, 25 steals before he got hurt. Who even wants to take Trey Turner? Returning.

Numbers like those. I did want to ask, returning from a shin injury, let's say he's back late July. He's at 10 steals now. Let's say he gets close to 60 games over the final two months or whatever. Probably like 50, 55. Do you think he gets to 20 steals? Does he get 10 more steals the rest of the thing?

Well, what is the injury? shin, right? But like, did he really miss a month plus with a bruised shin? Or is there something? Because that's the only thing we've known, right? It was a shin contusion. I think it had to be some kind of stress fracture or something. I don't know.

Hairline fracture or something. There had to be something. Yeah, no, that's, but that's what I'm saying is it's just the whole situation is frustrating. Because it's, yeah, I don't, I don't really know what a bone. like is a bone when bone bruise when your bone gets bruised is that like is that a dumb question i don't know it's a worst bruise it'll keep you out for weeks well because like a bruise is like to your muscle or your skin and i guess it's a bone but like i don't know like how how the mechanism of that is different this is beyond my scope of understanding but like this is what's frustrating about

the kyle tucker situation is everything that they've like if you just went by every public statement from the Astros, it's a minor injury and there's nothing to be concerned about moving forward, except that he's missed a month plus. And so that's the thing that makes it hard to trust him here. But I don't trust that guy. I don't know. Maybe that's just being too concerned or maybe we're,

maybe he shouldn't be in this discussion at all. I had him 10th overall. So I think it makes total sense. Just give me a yes or no. He's at 10 steals. by the time he returns, rest of season, does he get to 20? Does he double that number?

No. I bet against it, but I wouldn't put it past them. Okay. That wasn't a answer to nice guy. I have no idea. Maybe. All right. Well, let's keep the Astros rolling here.

To finish out the first round, I'm going to take Yordon Alvarez, who is batting 296 with 19 home runs, 56 runs, 52 RBI. He has chipped in five steals as well. He had two career stolen bases entering this season. I don't know how likely it is

for him to steal five more bases the rest of the way. Probably not likely. But he's still crushing the ball. Some things have taken a little bit of a step back, the barrel rate, but the expected stats are still awesome. Expected slug actually

looks like there should be more power to come in the second half, and he's hitting in the middle of one of the best lineups in baseball. So, Yordon Alvarez, pretty, I would say, boring, safe pick, but worthy of being a late first rounder here.

Yeah. No, I mean, it was between and one other guy who I'm going to take. Remember back in like April when it seemed like we'd be free of the Astros in the playoffs? And now they're a game back of the Mariners. Yeah, I never thought we'd be free of the Astros in the playoffs. I mean, it was wishful thinking. I bet them to win the division when they were like eight games out.

So I'm pretty excited about that. All right. The first round, who do we wind up with? Aaron, Judge Otani, Bobby Witt, Gunner Henderson, Jose Ramirez, L.A. Dela Cruz, Juan Soto, Julio Rodriguez, Trey, Turner, Freddie Freeman, Kyle Tucker, and Yordon Alvarez. Let's take our final break, and when we return, we will head into the second round right after this. Welcome back in, redrafting the first two rounds for the second half of the season, and we move into round two.

Scott, you are back up 13th overall. I mean, this worked out great. I was hedging between Freddie Freeman and Bryce Harper. It took Freeman. You guys left Harper for me, so I guess I'm taking Bryce Harper, who's been like Freddie Freeman, but better. more power. Stayed healthy. What's there not to like? Great lineup. I agree. Completely.

Huge first half in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. Obviously returned midway last year. Currently the 13th overall player. That's where he gets drafted. 13th overall. He's batting over 300. He's got 21 homers. Counting stats look great. Everything looks awesome for Bryce Harper. And Chris, you are up.

Round two, pick two. 14th overall. You know who's having a correct? career season, who isn't getting talked about enough, except when he homers off Yankees, which seems to happen every time he plays them. Rafael Devers. I love him so much. He is just having a great season.

Better quality of contact than we've ever seen from him. 495 expected Wobah on contact. 94.3 mile per hour average exit velocity. Strikeout rates up a little bit, but you can take that trade off when he's hitting for the kind of power that he is. it's, you know, kind of like Yordon Alvarez and a couple of the other guys that we've talked about, where they're clearly a tier down from the top tier hitters in baseball, mostly because they're not standouts in batting average in the same way like Wonsoto should be,

or they don't steal bases. That's the biggest thing. But I think Rafael Devers, if you don't have, you know, one of those first seven or eight players, Rafael Devers, you can make a case for him, you know, being in that next group. And I think he is. I think that this is an extension of the second tier of players with the way that he's playing right now. I'm very impressed with what Raphael Devers is doing. I think it's especially impressive when you consider he's been playing through nagging injuries all season long. He sat out the All-Star game because of a shoulder that he's been dealing with.

He had the knee earlier on in the season and it kind of felt for a little bit there like, Uh-oh, is this just going to be a lost season because he's dealing with all these injuries? But, man, this is arguably the best version of Raphael Devers we've ever seen. So wasn't there a stretch where he missed like 10 days in a row or something? I don't know if we got to 10 days, but. Yeah, very early on, there was one of those. Yeah, he missed a one. Why not to just put him on the aisle already kind of stretches.

But yeah, no, he's been. He's been. And he didn't even get off to a great start. Like, his OPS was only 847. in April. He wasn't really hitting for power. He only had five RBI in the month of April Raphael Devers did. And he's up to 61 at the All-Star break. He probably didn't play the Yankees in April, Chris. That's why. That's probably fair. Yeah. All right, here we are. Pick three of round two. This would be 14th overall. And nope, 15th. Math, bad. I'm going to take the first

pitcher. That will be Terrick Scoobel, who is currently the SP2 in Roto. He's 10th overall, a breakout season. Last year returned, we got about a half of season of elite production from Scoobel. There was a little bit of all right, will he keep that up? Will he be that good again coming into this season? And he has. A 241 ERA,

a 0.88 whip, 10.9K per 9. He keeps the walks down. He gets ground balls, elite swinging strike rate. Fastball velocity remains up. It's up to 96.8 miles per hour last year. So up one mile per hour. The best change up in baseball, a really good slider.

the only argument against him is that, all right, I guess the tigers haven't been very good. But even with that, I think he has like nine or ten wins. He's 10 wins, yeah. Yeah, so that's... Well, I mean, the other argument, particularly for looking at this from the rest of season perspective is, among the other pitchers you could consider for the top pitcher,

Terrick Scoobal has... One of the lesser track records workload-wise. I mean, we don't really know if he's capable of a cumulative. the innings that are going to come to him in the second half here. That's really the time of year where it matters most, frankly, is the final couple months of the year when those innings begin to accumulate. Having said that, I think Terrick Scoopal is just going to... It's such a clear ratio standout that he would be my choice to

over somebody like Zach Wheeler or Corbyn Burns who we can trust to deliver those innings more. Yes. Go ahead, Chris. He's made 32 starts over the last calendar year, 188 in a third innings, 268 ERA, 0.903 whip, 231 strikeouts. And he's 17 and 6 pitching for the Tigers, although the Tigers aren't terrible. They're like, what, four games under 500 right now? They're not like a disaster.

That's why I don't, this idea that they should trade him, I don't understand. Like, they need to get like a, this is a situation where they need to get like a one Soto type offer. to even consider trading him, I think. That seems like wishcasting, right? A lot of baseball commentators want the biggest players to go to the biggest markets. Yeah. But I think the tigers are very close to being very good,

and I don't know why. They'd give up Terrick Scoobel now. Yeah. He's up to 116 innings this year, Terrick Scoobel, and he only threw 80 and a third last year, 117 and two thirds in 2022. Did get up to 149 in 2021. So, yeah, once we get up around, you know,

know, 130, 140. We're entering kind of uncharted territory, so we'll see how Scoobo holds up, but he has been elite thus far. Scott, back to you, fourth pick of round two. All right, I'm going to go with Francisco Lindor. I think it's a pretty easy call at this point.

The power speed production has certainly been there. The runs in RBI there. The batting average is, what, 254? He's never really a batting average standout, is Lindor and yet we're used to seeing him drafted in this range for everything else

he contributes and along the lines batting average he actually has a very high expected batting average 280 it's the highest we've seen from him

since 2018 so there is ground it's more likely he makes up grounded that department going forward rather than I think

staying in that 250 range and when all of a sudden done he might be a 30-30 guy again hold he's people close to it. I'm rooting for it, man. I was going to bring that up. He's on pace for 29 homers,

31 steals. But yeah, if we can get a little bit more power in the second half, back-to-back 30-30 seasons for Lindor. Barrel rate is a career high. Expected stats are awesome. As you mentioned, yeah, I think this is slam-down. He's lived up to our expectations as much as any player drafted in the first two rounds has, I would say. And it was a really slow start. So all the more credit to and that he's been able to bring those numbers up to standard. And by the way, the Mets lineup as a whole

is looking awesome. Pretty good. He is one of those players that like people freak out. Like I don't know what like short term amnesia people have about Francisco Linder but he has not really gotten off to great starts at all since getting to the Mets.

And there was one year where he didn't pull out of it. Really. It kind of did in the second half the first year, I think. But every other year he ends up right around 30 homers and 20 plus steals and good run product. And it, stop freaking out about a cold April. It like, it just, I don't know, there's going to be a point where Francisco Lindor doesn't pull out of it, but it hasn't happened yet.

And I just, people freak out about Francisco Lindor every, every, every April. And it just never makes any sense because he always gets where you want him to go. Chris, back to you, fifth pick of round two, 17th overall. Yeah, so the first 14 picks that we did matched up with my top 14 and then we've gotten a little off the rails the last couple of picks. So I'm going to get us back on track with my number 15 overall player going back to pitching. And I'm going to go with Zach Wheeler, who I do have as my number one SP rest of season. I think Terrick Scoobal, yes, he is a better source of, I think really strikeouts is the

one place that I think he's definitely better than Zach Wheeler. I think even ERA and WIP, I think will be very, very close. and Zach Wheeler's just, it's been said many, many times, but it really is amazing how he's turned himself into a workhorse after all the injuries he had in his early career. Probably not going to get to 200 innings this season,

missed the start at the end of the half. Hopefully he's fine. It was what, a back injury? Yep. So hopefully that's a non-issue. It sounds like it's not really a concern and they just skipped him one time. But he is the best combination,

I think, of projectable ball. and upside at the starting pitcher position. And as you mentioned, he's a workhorse on the best team in baseball right now, the Phillies. So the wins should be there. Yeah, the ratios, the strikeouts a little bit, you know, 9.7K per night. It's still really good. But maybe not as elite as some of the other names. And certainly not as elite as this pitcher who I'm about to draft.

Chris Sale. I'm going to take Chris Sale here, sixth pick of round two. And all he needed to do was stay healthy. currently the SP1 at the break. He is the ninth overall player in Roto. The underlying data the past couple of years showed that Chris Sale was still really good. It looked like there was

talent there. Obviously the Braves bought low in the offseason and he has rewarded them with a Cy Young caliber season. 270 ERA. 0.95 whip. 140 strikeouts are fifth most in baseball. He's first in FIP, third in expected ERA, third in XFIP,

second in K-minus walk rate. Chris Sale elite. Just stay healthy. That's all we need. He stays healthy. I think he's going to continue to do a lot of the same here in the second half. That picks got me scrambling, Frank. Yeah. I'm expecting it.

I have my old pick lined up. Now I'm going to have to pivot here. No more Atlanta Braves for you. You can make a case for one more Atlanta Brave. Yeah, you probably could. Yeah, I, well, maybe even more than one, I would say. But I'm not taking a brave here. I'm not taking a brave.

I actually had a pitcher ranked ahead of Chris Stale, though I like it. I think if we can just trust Chris Sale to be healthy and exactly who he was in the first half, then he probably is the best pitcher in fantasy. I mean, obviously you said he actually was statistically. And I don't think there's anything fluky about it. He just obviously has that unfortunate history and the Braves have been pretty careful with his workload. So we'll see how it goes. But I think it's a – I like the pick.

I like the thinking behind it. I'm going to go with Corbyn Burns, who in my mind is the last pitcher who deserves to be drafted here. Maybe you guys will disagree. Nope. I will go ahead and take him, though. What's funny is he's kind of, and this has been a two-year trend, he's kind of gone from being like the electric big bat miss or the exciting pick and fantasy among starting pitchers to now just like a safe workload guy. Because he's less than a strikeout per inning.

And the swinging strike rate has been trending down. but you go to a stack house page it's still full of red the ERA estimators are great he works deep into games great offense backing I'm going to win a lot of games I think very clearly

an ace still is Corbin Burns and somebody you can trust to hold up in the second half do you guys find it weird that his swinging strike rate has gone up this season from 12.2% to 13%

yet his K-per-9 has dropped nearly a full strikeout I mean this is this is what the old heads want right they want guys pitching to contact and staying efficient and not chase, like, yeah, it's weird because you look at the pitch level data and, okay, the cutter is not the same pitch it was at his peak, right?

The whiff rate on that is down to below 20%. He was above 30% at his peak. Everything else looks unbelievably good. The curveball 40%, slider 46%. Change up only 36%, but that's with a 78.6 mile per hour average exit velocity allowed. So he's just, he's a different pitcher and I suppose a worse pitcher than the one he used to be. I think given the workload, given the projectable ERA and given the team he plays on, you can make a case for Corbyn Burns as the number two pitcher in any format, I think. All right, Chris, back to you, the eighth pick of round two. And I think we're what, 17 picks in, 18 picks in, 19 picks in, my math's not great. 19.

So I think there's one player in my top 19. We haven't taken so far. So I guess I'll go with Jose Al-Tube. I was making sure I got two more picks. Doing a little math. I love Scott doing the, no, Scott, you only have one pick left actually.

No, two picks. I pick 20. Wait, that's pick 20. You got one pick left. Oh, no. Oh, no. I counted wrong. Man, we can't count on this.

You can't count at the men. We can't count. We can't count. We don't know medicine. What are we doing? We don't know sayings, what to do with strings and ropes. I'm glad you were the bold one to take Jose Altuve. I mean, look. First among second baseman.

He's the number 15 player in Broto leagues right now. He's not the number one second baseman. It is true. But the number one second basement is three spots ahead of him in the overall rankings. And Altuve has been arguably the better hitter over the past couple of seasons. some concerns about staying healthy there, but obviously the guy ahead of him is Catalmarte, who has at his own troubles,

staying healthy over the year. So I don't know if that's necessarily a knock. Al-Tube just remains an excellent, excellent five-category contributor. He is not at this point outside of maybe batting average, not a true standout anywhere, but he is like a B-plus in four categories and then an A in batting average

at a position that is sort of shallow, deep. I don't like, there are a decent number of guys at second baseman. I don't know how many true difference makers there are at second base. It's been like, there are three in the top 50 overall players. I don't think we think Bryce Tereng is a top 50 overall player the rest of the way, but maybe. But yeah, so I do think getting an edge at second base still matters. And Jose Altuve does that. I was sitting there making my case for Jose Altuvae over Ketalmar. when Frank pulled out that Chris Sale pick and shifted my thinking. So I guess it wasn't a very difficult case to make.

I mean, look, Cateau Marte is an awesome hitter. I think he's the best, the most underrated hitter in baseball. Cotel Marte. He's average exit velocity is 93.5 miles per hour this season. Cateau is just crushing the ball. But I will still take Jose Altuve just ahead of him. Yes. And Altuve, as you mentioned, I mean, the batting average is.

still great, on pace for a near 20-25-25 season. And I noticed in the underlying plate discipline metrics, he has been much more aggressive this year. His swing percentage is up to 52%. That's his highest since his rookie year. And he's chasing a ton of pitches. Strikeout rate is up to a career high, 19%. But obviously it hasn't affected his ability to provide batting average. He still hits lots of line drives. And his zone contact is elite. It's right around 90%. So more aggressive. But, It's still worked out so far for Jose Al Tuve. I am up, and there are a few different players that I am debating here.

I'll go ahead and take Mookie Betts. Maybe controversial. We don't know when he's going to be back for certain. He's been out since mid-June with a fractured left hand. He was given a six-to-eight-week timeline, which brings us to early to mid-August, somewhere around there. He was having a fine season before he got hurt. 304 batting average, 10 homers, 50 runs scored nine seals in 892 OPS. There were some kind of weird things going on.

I mean, his barrel rate was cut in half from 12.4% to 6%. His pull rate was way down, much like Julio Rodriguez. Expected stats are still really good, and, you know, he would be leading off for one of the best teams in baseball. So I don't actually have concerns, but those were just some things that stood out to me. Kind of weird for moogie bats early on. Yeah, he was among the four that we were debating as the top player in fantasy before he went down. I know he kind of went into a little power drought right before then, but not long enough that anybody was worried. And yeah, no, I was geared up to take him.

That's why I had that big groan. We talked beforehand about, oh, can we even take Mookie Betz here? And I said, I'll take him in a round too. And the thing about Mookie Bat. You upstaged me, Frank. I was going to be the one to shock the nation. The thing about Mookie Bats, there's this old, I think it was Bill James in one of the historical ashtrax. He talks about Ricky Henderson, you could have cut him in half and had two Hall of Famers.

And that's kind of how I feel about Mookie Bats where like in the years where he doesn't hit for as much power, you know he's going to do something to make up for it. Or he's going to tap back into like there's just his skill set is so well rounded that like the shape of it might be a little different one year. it might be a triangle one year, it might be a sphere or whatever, but you're always going to be happy with the shape of his production, no matter what. Do you guys actually have concern

about, you know, coming back from a fractured hand, it could take him a little bit of time to get going and, you know, we're already going to be in August, I think, by the time he's back. I wasn't going to be the one to take him. Yeah, I was debating it.

I didn't know if I wanted to do it. It's an upside versus risk sort of thing because, yeah, you're not going to have them for the whole second half, but how productive is he going to be? Will the wrist impact his productivity? I would guess no, just because he's mooky bets, but it could.

Yeah. So I'm with you where you took him. I would have done the same, kind of thinking more from a shallow league perspective with that, though. All right, Scott, well, you are back up. The 10th pick of round two, 22nd overall, and it is your final pick of the draft. Man, I don't know who I want to take.

I was all geared up to take Mooki. I will consider a couple options here. Whatever you do, make the fun pick. Whatever I do make the fun pick. Okay. So I'm considering, I'm just going to throw some names out there, all right, just in case we don't get to them. I don't know if this is going to upstage you guys,

but I'm thinking CJ Abrams. I'm thinking Austin Riley. I'm thinking Jaron Duran, if I want to get another outfielder in there, maybe even Christian Elledge if I want to get another outfielder in there. And also Marcel Ozuna, get two DH-only players in the first two round, which would be a lot of fun.

Maybe that's the fun pick. No, I'm going to give a vote of confidence here to Austin Riley because I want to make sure he gets picked. I put him, remember I said, I put Julio Rodriguez 21st. I had Austin Riley right behind him at 22nd. they're the two high-end hitters who I feel like are most likely to just be their normal selves in the second half.

And we've kind of already seen it from Riley toward the end of the first half. We've kind of already seen him trending their right direction. But I think even maybe to a greater extent than Julio Rodriguez, there's nothing in the underlying data that you can point to to say, oh, so that's why he's messed up. You know? And for some of the other struggling hitters, you can't. Like Matt Olson, Matt Olson isn't in this conversation for me. that's not to say he won't perform like a top 24 player in the second half. He absolutely could, but I could come up with 24 players I'd rather have than him at this point.

I can't say the same for Austin Riley, who I'm looking up the numbers now, final 29 games before the break hit 333 with nine home runs. So I think he's already trending that direction is going to live up to this pick in the second half. During that same stretch, Scott, 94.9 average exit velocity, a 25% barrel rate. So yes, over the past month, we've seen Austin Riley get back on track. And if he just plays to those pace numbers or even close to them over the second half of the season, the final numbers are going to still turn out looking really, really good for Austin Riley here. Chris, your final pick, the 11th pick of round two. Yeah, there are three players who have not been picked who are inside of my top 24.

So I'll just rattle them off. CJ Abrams, Christian Yelich, and Corey Seeger are still all in my top 24. Seeger's another guy who the overall numbers aren't quite there. The underlying numbers absolutely are. And it's mostly just that he was awful in April. But since then, he's pulled it or pulled it out. I'm going with C.J. Abrams, who I wasn't sure if he would get picked. I did have Austin Riley inside my top 24.

So I would have taken him if he was there. But C.J. Abrams is one that I'm not sure where people are at on him, which is interesting because he's the number 23 hitter, or number 23 player in Roto scoring right now. And I think the only thing that we're really disappointed about is just only 15 steals. That seemed like the one thing he would be a true standout in. And I do want to address that.

He has run on 21% of his stolen base opportunities based on baseball references, stats. That's 25 attempts. Last year he ran on 28%. if you gave him the same pace last year, it would be 33 attempts. So he's running less often, certainly,

but the bigger issues he's been caught 10 times on his 15 attempts. And I don't really, like, that's noisy. That's the kind of thing that his speed hasn't gone down. I don't really think C.J. Abrams is just a 65% stolen base success rate guy moving forward. So he got caught four times in 51 attempts last year.

Yeah. So I, like, he's not a nice. 90% guy either, clearly, but I would guess he's going to be closer to 80%. You know, that break-even point. I think C.J. Abrams is going to be fine. And the steps he's taken as a hitter, I think, are real. He's tapping into much more pull-side power.

The overall quality of contact is much better. And I really believe in C.J. Abrams as a, you know, basically a first-round caliber player. You know, he's not going to go in the first round or anywhere close, but the all-around skill set I think is in that discussion. I don't want to double. Okay, so I did still have him in my first two rounds for points leagues. But that was when he was still hot.

Like what I wanted to point out for CJ Abrams is part of the reason why I can't decide how bullish I am on him is his month to month splits basically sum it up. April, you at 295, May 205, June 374, July so far, 185. So he's had a very up and down season. but what is undeniable is that he's pulling the ball more like he's that elevating it better, very low ground ball rate, which is generally what we want to see. He's also just like average in terms of power now. Like in the underlying, like his average ex velocity is right at the league median, 50th percentile.

So it's not even like he has to cheat to get to power. He's also just hitting the ball harder. Yeah. Hitting the ball harder this year, lots of line drives. The expected stats are great for Abrams. 282XBA, 4662XLug, and much like I mentioned for Gunner Henderson, I love seeing a young player improve against lefties.

That was a big concern that I had for Abrams coming into this season. He has been awesome. Better against lefties than he has against righties. 291 batting average, 832 OPS against South Paul's this season. So a big step forward for Abrams. We do want to see him run more in the second half, but the total package, the batting average, the OPS, the HADding average, the HAPS,

the hitting for power. Everything else has improved for C.J. Abrams this season. Here we are the final pick of the draft. 24th overall. 12th pick of round two. Is he going to do it? Is he going to shock the world?

I think so. Paul Skeens is going to be the last pick of this draft. And we were told that he was the best pitching prospects in Steven Schroftberg. He has lived exactly up to that. 21.3 fantasy points per game ranked first among starting pitchers,

a 190 ERA, a 0.92 whip, 89 strikeouts over 66 and a third. He's only made 11 starts, but he's looked great. He's gone, I think, seven innings in three of his last four starts going into the break. Average is 99 on the fastball. He's got the splinker. He's got the slider. Does he get limited at all in the second half?

I think it's possible if the pirates fall out of it. Maybe they shut them down in September, something like that. But, you know, if they're playing for a wild card spot up until the end, I think he's there. I think Paul Skeins is there, rest of season. They've managed his innings well. I feel pretty confident he'll be there. But I don't appreciate you, Frank,

wouldn't be saying this was the last pitcher we drafted. You didn't chime in in and say, not so fast, my friend. Well, I couldn't blow my cover. Now I have egg on my face. I couldn't blow my cover, Scott. You know, I had to keep it a surprise. Would you have taken Tyler Glass now?

If he was healthy? If not for the injury, which we think might just be an innings maintenance thing. I have them back to back. 21 and 22. I said I ranked like the top 35 players before this and I have schemes one spot ahead. So it's razor thin.

I think Glassnow is probably back when first eligible. He actually said something to that effect throughout the All-Star break. So really close between those two. I think there's a good case for Tyler Glassnow. A couple other players who we've already mentioned, but I think just missed the cut. Christian Yelich, Jaron Duran,

Ketel Marte, some players who got drafted early this season that haven't lived up to expect. Pet Alonzo, Matt Olson. I think, you know, Marcus, I mean. Vlad Jr. Since cutting the hair, I got to bring this up again.

June 19th, he cut his hair. 315 batting average. 7 homers, 25 RBI, 967 OPS in 23 games. So has been much better. He was just hot. That was the problem. Like he felt hot playing with the,

it was like, what was that movie? Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite. It felt hot he had to cut his hair. Yeah. I think Josh Nailer is in the conversation, at least for like a third, maybe fourth round pick. Matt Olson, maybe you get back on track.

And, you know, Fernando Tatis, we're still waiting to learn more about the injury. So he's a little bit tougher. One name we did not bring up at all, Corby and Carroll. Not that I think he's worth it, but... Yeah, there's a reason. Yeah, there's a reason. He finished the first half about as hot as he possibly could have. So maybe, maybe he will perform like a top 24 player the rest of the way.

I am surprised Jaron Duran didn't get more than just an honorable mention. I don't know if you guys have him in your top 24s or not, but I'm a little surprised by that. I don't have him as a top 24 player, but I would have assumed he would have been in the discussion. Probably top 30. That interview was so awkward at the All-Star game. I think it just knocked him down a couple spots for me, I think.

The thing that I realized about Jaron Duran the other day that I hadn't really, like, because it's like, oh, breakout season, he's been the exact same guy as he was last year. Now, obviously, he's playing every day and he's doing it against lefties and all that stuff. So it's not quite, but like the per plate appearance pace is basically dead on from last year. It's actually kind of amazing. It would have been a good time to take the partial sample data at face value, which usually comes back to bite you when you do. But it would have made sense in this case.

That was my next point is how often do we see second half breakouts, not live up to it the next year, right? but I noticed the same thing about Turin. That was the thing is you could draft him 150th. Yeah. When he played on a per game basis in Roto, probably a top 50 player. So I'm usually the one who's skeptical of the partial season breakouts, but I think I had him highest of us just because it was,

you didn't have to pay anywhere close to what he was doing last year on a per game basis. And remember the high end comp that we made for him coming into the season is, if it all works out, a Josh Lowe type season from a year ago, right? And if he continues this pace, he's actually going to exceed that. He's going to have an even better season than Josh Lowe did last season. That is Jaron Duran.

Let's recap again the first round. Aaron Judge, Shohey Otani, Bobby Witt Jr., Gunner Henderson, Jose Ramirez, Elie De La Cruz, Juan Soto, Julio Rodriguez, Trey Turner, Freddie Freeman, Kyle Tucker, Yordon Alvarez. That is your first round. And then second round,

Bryce Harper, Raphael Devers, Terik Scouble, Francisco Lindor, Zach Wheeler, and Chris Sale. Corbin Burns, Jose Altoe, Muki Betts, and Austin Riley, C.J. Abrams. and Paul Skeens. We are going to wrap there for Scott and 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. Mount Podcasts.