Fantasy Baseball Today - Redrafting the First Two Rounds! Julio Rodriguez's Value (7/20 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 20, 2022

If you support the show, please nominate Fantasy Baseball Today for The People's Choice Podcast Awards in the "Sports" Category: https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup/ Let's redraft the first two rounds for the rest of the Fantasy Baseball season! Are we worried about Yordan Alvarez's injury? How early should Julio Rodriguez be drafted? Shane McClanahan or Sandy Alcantara? Is Bobby Witt Jr. in consideration? Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 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 lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Back when we redrafted the first two rounds on Memorial Day, Julio Rodriguez didn't make the cut.

How high has he climbed since then? Let's find out. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today. Frank Sandfield joined by Scott White. and Chris Towers. Today on the show, you guessed it. One of our favorite exercises for redrafting the first two rounds for the rest of the season

gives us an opportunity to talk about players that we don't normally talk about as much, the studs in fantasy baseball, and kind of gets the wheels turning a little bit for next year as well. I know this is for the rest of the season, but I'm a maniac, and I'm already starting to think about

next year's drafts and getting ahead of myself. And so I think this is a fun exercise to do because of that. Full transparency. We're recording this podcast a week before because we're all on vacation right now when you're actually listening to this. It's an All-Star Week.

Can you blame us? Got to take a little bit of time off. Honeymoon for me. Of course, these guys are doing their own thing as well. But hopefully everybody we mentioned on today's podcast will remain healthy because we need them in fantasy baseball. All right, guys, let's get into it. The biggest difference, we did this back around Memorial Day,

the biggest difference or anything that has changed most from then until now, Scott will start with you. Well, the most obvious difference is Bryce Harper can't be considered for this exercise anymore. True. He was since the Sinch first rounder the last time we did it. And he probably will be back at some point in the second half, but not early enough for us to want to draft him this high. The other difference sort of like a more macro difference is that I was pretty freaked out about pitching. I think all were freaked out to some degree.

Back a Memorial Day still, we hadn't seen the home run rate rise across the league yet. And so I was conscious about pushing hitters down in my rankings and limiting the number that I would consider drafting in the first two rounds. And I'm a little more open to taking them this early now than I was then, now that we've seen a little bit more normalization, hitting versus pitching. I would say last time we did it too third base really stood out as the thinnest position and so I elevated like Manny Machado into the middle of round one for that reason. Third base still is like that but outfield I think is also like that

so I was kind of tempted to make my entire first round third baseman and outfielders. Of course Trey Turner's existence makes that impossible. I mean second base isn't. particularly strong itself. But those two positions, third base and outfield, they both have plenty of studs at the top, like really high-end types,

and then just this steep drop-off. So you get this stark divide between the haves and have-nots that make them worth elevating, I think, at least the ones who are legitimately high-end. All right. Chris,

how about for you? Anything that stands out from Memorial Day till now, you know, we have about a month, a month-and-a-half more data what stands out for you? Yeah, I think the biggest thing would be like the continued ascension of the guys who got off to really good starts.

Like Shane McClanahan, Aaron Judge, Jordan Alvarez, guys who, you know, I think have, I don't want to say, like, proven because anything can happen in the next couple of months. And, you know, we've seen high level performance from Aaron Judge that he hasn't been able to sustain. And we've seen, I mean, he's been a high level player. But I mean, like, you know, best hitter in baseball stretches from him that he hasn't been able to sustain. We've seen obviously injuries for both him and Jordan Alvarez. So, you know, we'll see what happens the rest of the season. But given what has happened since then, I think those are probably the two biggest things. And then like Scott said, just the general change in environment.

You know, the, I think one thing we're probably going to have to get used to moving forward is just that offense might not be good in April forever. If the current situation stays where it is with the humidors and the adjustments to the, baseball that they've made and so on and so forth. So like, it might be just that we need to remember not to overreact to April because the landscape is going to continue shifting, which is frustrating and unfortunate and I think kind of dumb on Major League Baseball's part. And they need to probably try to do something to change that to make it more uniform throughout the year.

But unless they do, I'm going to assume that things are going to stay relatively the same. In which case, like, yeah, like Scott said, offense isn't going to be as hard to find as we thought it was early on in this, when it, you know, what it looked like early on in the season. So I think that's the biggest structural change. Yeah, I think we've even seen that, you know, in our analysis recently, too, because early on in the season, a lot of the, you know, buy low, sell high opportunities that I was looking into doing was selling high on pitchers and trying to buy low on hitters.

And now that is kind of reversed a little bit. I, you know, a few might. And I think something that we often can forget. in April when pitchers are healthy is that the attrition rate is just always going to be so much higher at pitcher than it is at hitter. There are always going to be more pitchers getting hurt than hitter. So when we're talking in April and we're like,

wow, there's so many good pitchers. You know, Jesus Lazzardo, look how good he looks. And then Tyler McGill's making this big leap and all the end. And then it's like, oh, yes, some of that was fake, which happens more at pitcher than hitter. I think there are more just like weird, small, sample size jumps at pitcher because pitchers are less in control of their results than hitters are. And then there's just the fact that pitchers get hurt. And it's easy to forget that when there

are fewer injuries that we can't predict who's going to get hurt, but we know a significant number of the pitchers who are currently healthy at any given point are going to be hurt X number of days into the future. That's just how it works. And there's a trickle-down effect with that, Chris, because the more pitchers that get hurt, the more fill-ins we have, less, you know, thus there is, you know, less effective pitching. And then... Yeah, the more bad pitchers are out there. And then we get, you know, guys like Yerdon Alvarez

just teeing off every single night in Kyle Swarber, which we'll get into those names right now. Let's do our... We'll start with the first round redraft. We will do two rounds here today. This is for 12-team, 5-5-Roto. We will rotate through picks. Chris Wobb to first picks.

Scott has second, I have third, and then we'll just keep going, fourth, fifth, sixth, so on. and so forth. And, you know, if anyone stands out from a points league perspective, of course, we can mention that. And Scott has an article on the site to accompany this,

his first personal two-round redraft for the rest of the season. So make sure to go check that out as well. All right, Chris. Oh, yeah, I also want to emphasize because you said if there is a difference in points leagues. So this we're doing

with five-by-five categories scoring in mind. And it does make a big difference. I think, you know, there have been times in the past where it hasn't. But with stolen bases and starting pitchers especially, it does make a big difference what order you draft these players in. And in some cases, if they'd even be the same players in those two formats.

All right. With that, Chris, you're on the clock. Although I think you could make a case that the number one player in both points and Roto might be the same guy, at least right now. If we're drafting for the rest of the season, Jose Ramirez is my top pick for Roto. And I think he's probably the top pick in points as well. If not him, it's I think Mike Trout's in that discussion.

But yeah, I think Ramirez right now, he has slowed down a little bit by which I mean he's coming off a month of June where he hit 291 with 14 doubles Like you know he only had three home runs he had 14 doubles in that month he scored 16 runs he only drove in 12 so you know down month by his standard But he stole five bases like he's one of those guys that just when things aren't going well he's still going to steal a lot of bases and he's still going to not strike out and like he's just so good at everything that being said, if I think the biggest contenders for the number one pick next year besides Jose Ramirez are probably in some order, Fernando Tatis and Ronald Acuna. I just don't think you can necessarily make that case for them if we're drafting the rest of season versus early next year. If Fernando Tatis comes back, you know, after the All-Star break and hits like Fernando Tatis has hit at every single point in his career, it's not going to take the injury concerns

away, but I think he's probably, him and Acuna are probably the best players in a five-by-five context still. Yeah, that's why I'm not sure that we'll mention Fernando Tatis in today's draft, but let's get him back healthy and see what he could do for the season. I'm glad we're doing this before I actually wrote the article because I'm going to add Fernando Tatis to the honorable mentions at least. I mean, if we had a clear timetable for him, I think he, there's a good chance we would draft him in the first year round.

think about when people are listening to this rather than when we're doing this. There's about a weak gap. That next week could be huge. And by the time people listen to this, Fernando Tatis could be a week away from returning, in which case, I think we'd all probably have them in the second round, at least. So back to Jose Ramirez for a second.

We've established third base is the weakest position, certainly one with the starkest divide. And he is just such a distant first there. even with him not performing as well recently. You look at the head-to-head numbers, 4.17 points per game. The next closest is 3.8. A 0.37 difference between number 1 and 2 is huge.

And when we did this at Memorial Day, there was some talk of maybe Jose Ramirez should be the number one overall player then. I was a little higher on Mike Trout than I am now, so I went with him. But should have been. have gone with Ramirez because I think now it's crystal clear, especially when you factor in position scarcity. All right, Scott. Jose Ramirez is off the board. You have the second pick?

Yeah, well, since it's five by five, I'm going to go with Ronald Acuna. I know we had some talk on fantasy baseball today a few days ago that, okay, the hitting numbers haven't really been where we're used to seeing them. But they've been really good. And, you know, I think it's mostly just a matter of Acuna hasn't gotten hot yet. It's obviously he hasn't been around for the full three months. So and even since he's come back, there have been some nagging injuries that have cost him some time here or there. So it stands to reason he hasn't gotten in a groove yet.

I think the most encouraging thing, though, is that he's continued to run with reckless abandon, even coming off that torn ACL. And of course, in five by five, as in demand as stolen bases are, I mean, that's, that's gold. from a player with that kind of power potential. Plus, he's outfield, which we've established as weak.

If it was points, I could see dropping a Kuna out of the top five potentially, so this is one player that I do think it makes a difference. Not that he doesn't have the potential to be the number one or two player in points leagues as well. I just think, you know, weighing in the risk reward in points leagues, He's not as deserving of the benefit of the doubt, given the alternatives. But yeah, and five by five, I'm going to go Coonia number two. Yeah, it's really just been a lack of power in the first half. That has hampered Ronald O'Cuna, hitting way too many ground balls this season.

But he regresses closer towards his career norm, gets the ball in the air a little bit more. His RBI total is also very low, even leading off. I mean, the Braves lineup is one of the best in baseball right now. I mean, the ninth hitter is Michael Harris. Yeah. So I would imagine both the home run and RBI totals do increase in the second half for Ronald Cunia. For me, third overall, I think there's a pretty clear top three at least in 5x5 Roto. And it's Trey Turner, who has been a stud.

As always, he has sacrificed some runs scored the season for RBI hitting in the middle of the Dodgers lineup. But the power has improved throughout the course of the season. He's still running. Batting average is tremendous. He's in a contract year, so could be in for an even better second half. half if you know you are someone who subscribes to the contract to your theory but regardless he's having a great season and even a points league I think he's probably still like a top five top sevenish player he makes a lot of contact he walks a decent amount so either way I think he is a

clear top five top seven player regardless of format but still in that top three rest of season in rhodo and second base is really weak as well we don't talk about it as much I don't think there's that same stark divide that you see at third base and sure shortstop. I think maybe second base is weak in a way that's more widespread where you're not falling behind the pack in your league necessarily if you don't have a high-end guy just because there are so few high-end guys. But yeah, certainly the position scarcity argument would apply for Trey Turner as well. And while you almost certainly start him at second base, I want to point out he's my only shortstop. And at least we may see another one drafted between the three of us,

but in my article, he'll be the only shortstop depicted in the first two rounds, which I never would have imagined coming into the season. Worth keeping mind, you know, we're doing this rest of season. If we're doing it for next season, at least right now, Trey Turner will not be short and second base eligible for next season. True. Fair enough. All right, good point.

Top three picks. Though I don't think that really changes the answer either way. The top three picks so far, Jose Ramirez, Ronald McCune, Tray Turner, and Chris, you are back on the clock with the fourth pick. and I may be a little different from you guys in who I'm taking here, but I'm going with Mike Trout. I know Scott mentioned that he's lowered his expectations on Trout just a little bit. I haven't really.

I mean, he's coming off a month where he hit 10 home runs with a 1036. Yeah, he only hit $2.50, but that was with a 250 Babbitt from a guy who routinely runs a Babbup in the 320 range at least. So I don't really have any concerns about Mike Trout. I still think he's the best hitter in baseball. He's not running. That's disappointing. But I don't really see any reason to lower him at all. Like he's fifth and expected Wobah,

and he's behind Aaron Judge and Jordaun Alvarez, who I think would be the two guys who you guys might put ahead of Mike Trout and they're very similar players in that almost all of their value comes from their hitting production. But I'll go like Yorda and Aaron Judge. are having arguably the best three-month stretches of their lives, at least so far. And they're better than Nick Trout, but they're not so much better that I'm willing to just assume this is the new normal. So I think Trout is a bet on both upside and the track record. Here's what I've, here's what's changed my tune on Trout, who I still have eighth overall.

So, you know, obvious first rounder, of course. But back when we did this in Memorial Day, he was, I think we all had him as the number one pick. Back then, I was giving him benefit of the doubt for the elevated strikeout rate, even though last year it was elevated as well. Obviously, he played only a quarter of the season, so small sample size there. It was elevated early this year, but you look at the track record, okay, strikeouts isn't something Trout's ever had a problem with. But it's continued.

29.3% strikeout rate. I shouldn't give such an exact number since we're recording this a week ahead of time, but basically two years in a row, it's been closer to 30% than 20%. And that's a high strikeout rate. And I think it's gone on long enough now that, you know, we should kind of take it seriously. And so I'm not saying Mike Trout can't hit 300

with that strikeout rate, but I'm not expecting him to. And if he's not a big base dealer anymore and he's not a clear batting average standout anymore, then he's kind of pietal. Alonzo, who I'm sure will be drafted later on here as we go through this exercise. And I'm taking Trout over him because, you know, I do think there's a potential for more there with Trout. But in terms of what I'm expecting from him, it's more of the standard power hitter than I think we've come to think of him as.

I think your drafting of Mike Trout or how you value him rest of season will depend on where do you think the batting average will be. Do you think he, can get those strikeouts down. He also is hitting an enormous amount of fly balls, which, you know, if those don't leave the yard, that typically lends itself to, you know, lower BABIP and lower batting average as well. So if you expect that batting average to get back on track, then yes, it would make sense for Chris to draft him fourth overall. If not, you know, maybe a little bit lower in the first round. Scott, you were up with the fifth overall pick. Jordan Alvarez is the pick. When we did this in Memorial Day, I said looking at the data, he

He looks like a left. Oh, I'm sorry, I skipped Aaron Judge. Spoilerly. Chris didn't draft Aaron Judge fourth overall, so I will take Aaron Judge Fifth overall and save the Jordan Alvarez commentary for later. Yeah, Aaron Judge, he's done the opposite of Trout. He's for a couple years in a row now.

Strikeouts aren't no longer an issue for Aaron, Judge, and yet he's still the player who impacts the ball harder than everyone, and we're seeing monstrous totals as a result. And really my only concern with him is health. I don't expect him to slow down that much. It seems unlikely he's going to reach 60 homers just because that's so rarely happened in history. But I don't think he's going to be far off

as long as he stays healthy. And he's even contributed a noteworthy number of stolen bases. So he's not a zero for those in a way, you know, somebody like Trout has become. Yeah, no, I think the point about the steals is a good one because, I mean, he has seven steals. That's when we're recording this. Maybe he adds to that total over the next week or so.

But, yeah, I mean, the Yankees kind of team philosophy. They're being more aggressive on the base pass and that overall has helped Aaron Judge be quite literally the number one player in fantasy baseball in the first half of the season. I think the steals are probably. the biggest difference between him and Trout and like I don't know how sustainable I believe that to be So like if we're talking about what's happened since the last time we did this exercise Trout's been

I don't know it's been very close in in terms of who's been a better hitter because judge has slowed down You know he he was hitting like 300 through the first two months of the season He's hitting like 255 over the last month and half Trout's hitting like 240 but most of that's like a bad week in July so far so I don't think there's like I think those two are pretty much a coin flip and I just

expected batting average expecting a batting average just has about a 35 point edge on Trout in terms of sure right now yeah they deserve sure right now over the last three months but you know you look at their careers like last year was pretty much the same

and Trout has a massive edge for the course of their career so I think it's fair to like I'm not saying Trout is a better bet for batting average than Aaron Judge. I just I don't think Aaron Judge is a dramatically better bet. No, he's not. I agree. I agree with that. I think I think they're very, very similar players. And I think like maybe you, I think you could probably, I think you can make a better case for Yardon Alvarez ahead of either of them than either Trout or Judge ahead of each other. Um, if that makes

sense. Yeah, I think there is kind of a kind of mid tier after those top three picks here where I know Judge has stolen some bases, but maybe we're not expecting as many moving forward, where these guys are just going to be like tremendous three or even four category contributors with Alvarez and Trout and Aaron Judge. And Alvarez is my pick sixth overall here. The only concern I have really is, you know, for projecting him rest of season is do we have any concerned over this hand injury? He's dealing with some hand inflammation that's landed him on the IL.

I mean, outside of that, there really is no concern like performance-wise for me. Yeah. I mean, the one thing I would say is like, rewind this a year ago or, I don't know, eight months ago, I guess would be more accurate because Juan Soto was kind of iffy at this point a year ago, although I don't think any of us actually had any concerns about him. But at the end of last season, I think every single one of us, and probably 90% of people who write about baseball would have said, well, Juan Soto is clearly the best hitter in baseball.

Like, I think that was the consensus. And there was no question. There was like maybe Vlad Jr., but he didn't have the overall skill set. It was more power-oriented. Like in terms of who's the best hitter, like Juan Soto was clearly the choice. And now he's not. And so I'm always wary of overreacting to the most recent one month, two months, three months, et cetera. And maybe that leaves me behind.

Maybe Yord on average just is the best hitter in baseball. He's 25 years old. He's shown high upside before. His expected stats this season are like tremendous. radically better than anyone else is. He has a 485 expected Wobah, which is just absolutely ridiculous. But he's going to slow down.

I don't know. Maybe he won't. Maybe he's just an 1,100 OPS guy moving forward. But this is the thing with Judge and with Alvarez and with the next, the latest big thing is, I always want to see what it looks like when the slowdown happens. Because what we've seen from Soto this year is like, the slowdown has happened and he's still an awesome player,

but maybe he's not quite the power hitter we thought he was or something like that. So I want to temper my expectations just a little bit. But that being said, like they're all, like Judge and Alvarez are all top seven players for me. It's a good point you bring up about the hand, though, Frank. Inflammation in the hand is what they're calling it. And when he first suffered this injury, there was some fear he had suffered a handmade bone injury, which of course would change the complexion of his season

in a major way. He was so productive when he came back that I think we were quick to dismiss it. But Dusty Baker said the pain in his hands just been getting worse and worse. And so they're hoping this I-Elston over the All-Star break will calm it down enough that he's able to stay strong through the second half. But that's, I considered lowering Alvarez below this just because of that. I'm remaining hopeful for now that it's going to be a quick fix. All right. Top six picks.

There, Miraz, Ronald Acuna, Trey Turner, Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, Yudan Alvarez. Chris, you're back on the clock, seventh overall. And this one, I imagine, might be a little controversial, but I'll go with Wonsotto. Like, I get that people, there's much consternation about the way Wonsodo's season has gone, and, you know, he's not the power hitter he was last season, and the lineup around him is really bad, and yada, yada, yada. Juan Soto is still fourth unexpected Woba among all hitters

which is out incredible I mean the power isn't there for relative to Judge Alvarez and Trout but he still hasn't expected ISO of 293 so I have no concerns about Juan Soto continuing to be one of the best hitters in baseball moving forward

and yeah I think he's still easily in the tier with Trout, Judge, and Alvarez, and if you want to put him at the back of that tier, fine. But I think he's every bit as good as any of those guys. I have a couple spots lower than this in five-by-five, but if we were doing points leagues, I think there's still a case to be made.

Juan Soto would be number two, maybe behind Jose Ramirez. In that format with so many more walks than strikeouts, his play discipline, the best in baseball. He's been a top 12 hit. bitter even with a batting average south of 250 this old time. And like, we know the batting average is going to climb from there. So, yeah, he just...

Yeah, I think the thing with Soto is he's probably more like a 30 to 35 homer guy, where I think Trout and Judge especially are more like 40 to 50 homer guys. And Alvarez is, you know, maybe a little bit of a wider range, but he actually has more impressive quality of contact metrics than either of them right now, which is astounding. Yornavarez is averaging 96 miles per hour of average of exit velocity right now, which is just ridiculous.

So I think that that group of four, in any order, I think is fine. Scott, eighth overall, you're on the clock. I'm gonna go with Mookie Betts, who is the leadoff hitter for arguably the best lineup in baseball, and it shows up in his run scored, totals. He's not

as distant number one. He's not even number one in that category anymore because he missed some time there, but on a per game basis, like the guy scores a ton of runs. He doesn't steal as many bases. He doesn't run as fast as he didn't in his prime. But, like,

he's going to put up stud numbers as long as he's healthy. It just seems like a worry-free player. Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing that stands out, as you mentioned, Scott, I mean, the speed's starting to take a little bit of a step back here, so maybe that part of his game is starting to decline, but still could be like a 10 to 15 steel kind of guy,

and power has bounced back in a big way, solid batting average, helps you a little bit there, and going to score a ridiculous amount of runs. He has, at the time of recording this, nearly scored a run per game this season, which you will not find another run category producer like that in the game of fantasy baseball outside of Mookie Betts. Ninth overall for me will be Rafael Devers,

So I'm the one who's kind of jumping in on the injury prone, I guess, recently. Players, Devers, you know, dealing with his back injury on and off. He's been in and out of the lineup. But, I mean, regardless, I think he's right in that conversation with Alvarez and Judge and Trout, where he's not going to steal many bases. Sacrifices a little bit of power. I don't think he has, you know, 40 to 45 home run power. Maybe it's more like 30 to 35, but he's someone that can compete for a batting title and hit, you know,

well over 300. So he makes up for it in that way. You know, the Red Sox lineup has really, really come around as well. So lots of like there with Raphael. I have the head of Trout and Soto for what it's worth. Very clearly to me, the second best third basement at this point, a position that is, uh, is quite scarce. 10th overall, Chris, your backup? 10th overall back to me. And the player that I will go with is

Shohei Otani, who if we were doing this in a daily lineups league where you could get 80% of his hitting stats, and all of his pitching stats would be the number one player. Yep. But even if you only get his hitting or his pitching, he's elite at both. And there are occasions, like you're going to use him as a hitter more often than not.

And I think he's been a little worse as a hitter this season, so you could say maybe this is a little bit of a reach, but like he's still an elite power guy who's probably going to steal close to 20 bases this season. so I'm okay with him there and hey if things work out and you want to use him as a pitcher oh he's probably also one of the 10 best

pitchers in baseball on a per inning basis so yeah I think showy Otani is still a first round pick I am like I don't feel like we've talked enough about how much Otani strikeout rate has improved this year I mean it's not like the increase we saw for Matt Olson last year but it's significant enough

that his expected batting average is near 300. Like, he's, he's somebody who's on the hitting side, well underperforming his expected stats. And, you know, even ignoring that, and you could make the case for this high on, for him to go this high in five by five leagues, lower in points, I would say. Probably maybe by as much as a round, but.

I think the biggest thing is, among the players we've talked about so far, is he third in stolen bases? right now. Does Jose Ramirez have more than 10? Yeah, Jose Ramirez has more. Okay, so he's fourth and stolen bases among the hitters we've talked about. Like, that's, you know, I do wonder if like at some point that stops being a part of his game. You know, we see that a lot with superstar players and, you know, given the injury risk and the fact that he hasn't been as efficient as a base stealer this season, I wonder if we see that slow down.

But like he's still on close to a 20 steel pace and he's sold 26 last year. So, yeah, I think that's one way in which he makes up whatever he loses in. in, you know, batting average, I think, specifically would be the one place. But like Scott said, the strikeout rate improvement, even against lefties, is no worthy. All right. Scott, you are back up 11th overall. So I'm not totally comfortable taking the first pitcher here, but I will. I'll take Corbyn Burns, who I think is clearly the number one pitcher in fantasy. I think Shane McClanahan has definitely approached him in terms of inning per inning production.

But I think it's much more likely McClanahan sees his innings curtailed in the second half than Burns does. And so there's a pretty... I don't have Shane McClanahan going until 19th overall for that reason. But I'll take Corbyn Burns here. All right. I think any trepidation we had coming into the season regarding Corbyn Burns and his lack of a track record is now gone. He goes deep into starts. Tremendous strikeout rate. Pitches for a great team.

Run support should be there. Lots of potential wins. So I think undoubtedly, you know, one of the top three starting pitchers probably could make the case for a few others. But yeah, I have no problem with him being the first starting pitcher drafted. 12th overall, rounding out the first round. Do I want to do it? And I think the answer is yes.

Now seems about appropriate to select Julio Rodriguez, who, I mean, just very clearly looks like one of these next young phenoms in the game in the mold of a Ronald de Cunia or a Fernando Tatez. Since the start of May, he's batting nearly 300 with a, you know, near 30-30 pace. It's like 35-homer 27-steel pace. The steals have come down a little bit, but that's kind of, you know, correlated with the home runs going up. So it's, you know, he's not on first base as much.

He's not stealing as many bases, but instead he's hitting for more power. I know not as much of a track record, but based on his prospect pedigree, it just kind of feels like it makes sense that Julio Rodriguez is like one of the next big studs in the game of fantasy baseball. And I think this is an appropriate time to take a shot on him. Well, yeah, I mean, I have a couple players in between. I have Julio Rodriguez 15th and you have him going 12th here. I do think strictly for 5 by 5.

I think in points leagues, he might not even be going in the first. first two rounds, it's that steals total that really brings him up into this conversation for five by five leagues. The other thing I wanted to ask, Frank, is you feel good about Julio Rodriguez over Kyle Tucker, because that's a tough one for me. Yeah, no, I think that is a great question, and it's one that I was considering myself. It's like, at this point, Kyle Tucker seems like a similar player to Julio Rodriguez. He has power and speed, better lineup as well. And, you know, he's even running more this year. It is incredibly close. I wish it was, it's a better lineup.

The Astros have a better line up, not the marriage. I wish his manager would let him be in a better lineup, though, if you know what I mean. He's gotten almost all of his plate appearances batting fifth or six this season, which is just, I don't know. Like, I don't know if it's dumb that Kyle Tucker is hitting behind Alex Bregman and, and Yarnon Alvarez. And like, those guys are really good. But like, could we just hit him second and get him those extra. 50 plate appearances that he's losing out on. You know, like the counting stats would be

even more impressive and that's saying something for guys on a 30, 25 pace. Yeah. Although, I mean, I don't know that this is how it would play out, but theoretically, if he's batting in front of Jordan Alvarez instead of behind him, you don't want him getting thrown out on the bases. You're not as willing to take that chance. So he might run less if that was the case

and that would bring down his fantasy value, of course. I've been impressed with how much Kyle Tucker's run this year. It's been a much better steals pace than last year. Yeah, I think it's already matched last year. I think it's incredibly close, Scott. Tucker versus Julio Rodriguez, I think the upside might be a touch higher for Julio, maybe in the batting average department,

but that is razor thin for me. Let's take a break, but before we do that, we're a nominee for the Best Sports Podcast category in the People's Choice Podcast Awards. We appreciate all your support and hope that you'll nominate us to advance to the final round to nominate FBT, go to podcastawards.com slash app slash sign up and then toggle down the sports category.

The whole process takes less than a minute. And if you're watching us right now on YouTube, feel free to scan the QR code in the top right, technically to the left of, I guess that would still be right, of Scott's head. And yeah, that'll bring you right to the page where you can vote for us. And we've included the link in the podcast

and the YouTube descriptions as well. Let's take a break and we'll return with the second round right after this. Let's jump into the second round. Quickly recap the first round, which we had, Jose Ramirez, Ronald Acuna, Trey Turner, Aaron Judge, Yordaun alvarez, Mookie Betz.

Nope, that is not true. I was reading off Scots. This is the draft that we have. Jose Ramirez, Ronald Acuna, Trey Turner, Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, Yurdon Alvarez, Juan Soto, Muki Betz, Raphael Devers,

Shohey Otani, Corbin, Burns, and Julio Rodriguez. Just one starting pitcher drafted in the first round. And now we get into the second round 13th overall goes to you Chris and I'm still going to go with Vladimir Guerrera Jr who I know has been a disappointment this season But the expected stats actually aren't that much worse than they were last season even though there have been some changes in his profile He's hitting the ball on the ground more

Actually only 2020 did he have a lower launch angle in his four seasons so he's actually lower than he was in his rookie season but the quality of contact is still still so good that his expected Wobon contact is 438 still elite elite numbers there and I think he'll be better than he has been so far especially with the batting average 266 for a guy who makes the kind of contact that he does you know even if he's not hitting the ball in the air and he's not a 45 to 50 homer guy like I think he's still easily a 35 homer guy and he probably should hit closer to 300 so I think Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is still someone I absolutely want to draft this high. Yeah, we may be overreacting a little bit to this slower first half, but if everything's clicking, we're talking about Vlad in the same light that we are. Alvarez and Judge and Mike Trout

in that, you know, he's one of the best four category contributors in the game. The ground balls have really kind of, you know, peaked back up this year and that's limited his power potential, but expected batting average still near 300. I think that this is a worthy selection and spot to draft. Here's flat. Here's what I've had trouble wrapping my head around with Vladimir Guerrero. Because the strikeout rate's still low. You'd think that'd help his points league value.

He's averaging in points league's only 3.09 per game, which is not, it's good, but it's not high end. Like Freddie Freeman, by comparison, who hasn't had a great first half himself, 3.54. again, that was versus Vlad's 3.09. So I think it's more likely Guerrero's better in the second half than he was in the first half, more likely than not. But I don't know that he's the clear-cut number one first basement anymore.

And I'm not saying, well, there are a couple others who could contend for that spot. I think that mostly comes down to Vlad's counting stats are pretty mediocre. Not mediocre for the league, but mediocre for a player of his caliber. He has 100 runs plus RBI in 86 games. For comparison, Freddie Freeman has 109 and 85. But that's also partially that we think he's going to be better than he has been moving forward. And so I think like running RBI numbers obviously matter, but they're correlated with core production.

They're not directly, you know, the result of it. and there's a lot of fluctuation one way or the other. So I think that's probably the biggest issue. And in that lineup, I don't think that's going to be an issue moving forward. So I'm still comfortable with Ladd here. The problem, Chris, has actually been exactly that, the lineup,

because it's not turning over as much because the rest of the players have underperformed as well. Boba Chet, will he even be in the first two rounds here? I'm not sure. Not for me. And like Tiaska Hernandez has been a letdown. you know, Lordus Gueriel, it's like every year I think this guy's going to break out. It never happens.

And, you know, I know some people have pointed out to us that last year, Blue Jays players' production in their minor league parks when they were playing in, you know, Buffalo and Dunedin was much better there. So they may be on to something. You know, maybe this Blue Jays lineup is still very good, but just not head and shoulders above the rest like we thought they were coming into the season. Yeah, there's some weird stuff going on there because they're second in the AL and OPS, but they're only fourth in runs. like this is still I don't want to overstate like yes this lineup

has not been as good as we expected but if you look at the lineup itself of the nine players listed as their like everyday lineup eight of them are above average in OPS right now the only one actually is Matt Chapman

so like it's not an incredible lineup like it seemed last year it doesn't seem like the best lineup in baseball but I think Bo Bichette's going to be better than he has been. I think Vlad Jr. is going to be better than he has been. I think Springer and Teoscar Hernandez and Lordus Greal are all probably going to be better than they have been.

So I'm still very, very bullish on this lineup. So I think there might be a little bit of perception gap on what the Blue Jays lineup actually is. All right, fair enough. Scott, 14th overall. You are back up? You guys are going to make me take the second pitcher as well. I don't know that I feel great about it, but I think it's time to get Garrett Cole in there,

who's just as worry-free of a pitcher as you'll find. You could certainly make the case for some others ahead of them, guys who've had monstrous first-haps like Shane McClanahan, who I mentioned earlier, Sandy Alcantara, I think, is in this discussion. But you know what Garrett Cole is going to be. You know what's going to be studly. And, yeah, I think he's a... I think he is an easy choice to make here.

Aside from a few outlier blowups, he's mostly been Garrett Cole. I think we've kind of we've let this be known at this point that we don't think that he has that far and away SP1 upside as he once did, but he's still fine, very fine as like a top 3 to 5 starting pitcher. And given his track record, I think makes sense as the SP2 off the board as well. 15th overall for me, again, 5x5 Roto debated this guy with Julio Rodriguez. I would go ahead

and select Kyle Tucker, who is just running much more this season. And I know the batting average has been a little bit of a disappointment, but the expected batting average is much, much better for Kyle Tucker so far this season. One of the best lineups in baseball. Counting stats are going to be there. Power has been there. Batting gloves, no batting gloves.

It doesn't matter. Kyle Tucker is worthy of being, you know, one of the top 15 players drafted in fantasy baseball. And I think that's, you know, pretty easy. I think you could argue he should be a first rounder as well. So good with that. 16th overall, Chris, your backup. and 16th overall my pick will be

who hasn't gotten picked yet. Mani Machado, who I think it's a coin flip between him and Raphael Devers. I think Devers probably has a little more power, although I'm not 100% sure on that, but Machado's, you know,

like they have the same number of home runs and RBI, or home runs and steals combined. So I think, you know, if anything, the scarcity of stolen bases makes that, you know, tip in Machado's favor a little bit, but you know, the county stats aren't quite as good for Machado as they are for Devers. The batting average, not quite as good for many Machado as it is for Raphael Devers, but the expected stats line up closely enough that I think those two are are a coin flip,

especially with the fact that, you know, Machado has one, been playing through this ankle injury for the last couple of weeks, and two, he hasn't had Fernando Tatisan lineup. And that makes the Padres lineup so much more dangerous in a way that I think, benefits Machado's counting stats. So, you know, if the edge that Devers has on him is average and, you know, maybe runs an RBI, I think those are things that Machado can overcome. Can we just- Well, I actually think the expected stats are, are what pushes Machado further behind Devers for me.

Because expected batting average for Machado, 277, slug 489. For Devers, it's 315-590. I mean, that's a big difference. Yeah. yeah that's fair i think devers plays in a home park that probably suppresses left-handed power a little more than machado's does for righties so i think devers underperforming that isn't necessarily out of the realm of or out of the question and i think you know machado like his strikeout rates a little up this season his quality of contact his expected woe bond contact is basically the same as it has been the previous two seasons down like point one zero so i think given that and given the stolen bases, I think they're pretty close. All right. Can we just give it up to Manny Machado?

I mean, just absolutely carrying the Padres in the first half of the season. It's like Noamar Mazzara was batting three the other night. It's just like what is happening with this team? Like, can we get if Tate's returns, I mean, we could be looking at an even better second half for Manny Machado, believe it or not. 17th overall, Scott, your backup. How many pitchers will Scott take in a row? I don't know. Let's find out. Oh, no, you guys left a hitter for me.

Oh, okay. So I think the first baseman who needs to be treated as number one rest of season is Paul Goldschmidt, who I would guess would be an LMPVP if the season ended today. Sandy. I don't think he would be, but I could be wrong about that. Yeah, Goldschmidt is, you know, there might be some hesitation to draft him just because he's in his mid-30s, but, you know, 335 batting average, of course, the expected mark isn't that. It would be rare to see an expected batting average that high,

but when you just compare him to the other first baseman, who I think are in this discussion, Vladimir Guerrero, Pete Alonzo, Freddie Freeman, the expected stats are pretty close between all of them. And, I mean, Goldschmidt has just been unbelievable. It's just been unbelievable, and I'll give him that. edge for that reason. It's not as big of an edge as the raw numbers might lead you to believe. But yeah, I'll take Goldschmidt over the other first baseman. Yeah, and I think you can argue that Paul Goldschmidt has been the most valuable player in fantasy baseball in the first half, just based

on where he was drafted and what he's provided so far. I mean, he was like a top 50 or 60 pick, but as you mentioned, Scott, likely the NL MVP as of now, true five category production, fantastic in points leagues. I mean, there's really no argument to be made outside of just, you know, age. Can you keep this up? I think that's the only one, but Goldschmidt has been tremendous. Last year, if we had drafted him based on what he actually did last year, Goldschmidt would have been probably a second rounder. There was skepticism then too, so we didn't. Yeah, fair enough. All right, 18th overall comes back to me, and I know that this is going to disappoint some people. I'm going to take a pitcher, and it won't be either of my favorite pitchers in baseball.

it's going to be old and reliable. It's going to be Max Scherzer. It's just a matter of, can he remain healthy? I think that he is still in the discussion for, you know, SP1 being the best pitcher when he is on the mound. And we've seen a few starts since returning from the IL. The velocity has actually been up. Strikeouts have still been there.

It doesn't matter who he faces. He's been great. It's just, can the body hold up in the second half? And I think that's the biggest question mark. Do you want Scher versus some of these young bucks? I think that's a legitimate question. But for me, I'll go with old and reliable. Max Scherzer 18th overall.

And Chris, you are back up at Pick 19. Yeah, I wanted to look at like what point in Justin Furlander's career. We were kind of like, uh, is he finished and see if it like matches up with Scherzer because he had that point a couple years ago. And yeah, it's right like age 34, age 35 for both of them. I was like, oh, I don't know if they're still an ace. And then they both came back with just absolutely monstrous seasons. And yeah, Scherzer is right there.

I'm actually going to go with Justin Verlander with the next pick. So, yeah, I think this next group with Scherzer Verlander and McClanhan is obviously like, what are you looking for? Verlander probably less upside overall than Scherzer and McClanahan mostly because upside at this point means strikeouts. And Justin Verlander doesn't seem to be the same kind of strikeout pitcher. that those guys are. So, you know, I think that's an argument against him,

certainly a knock against him. But I just think what he's doing this season has been so impressive. He's, you know, still pitching so deep into games. He's on pace for like 100, probably close to 210 innings, which is going to be a pretty big edge on basically every non-Sandy Alcounter pitcher in baseball. I think maybe Aaron Nola is there with him.

But, yeah, I think Verlander, obviously we don't know. what next year's going to look like. He does have that. I think he has an option that vests if he makes a certain number of starts, right? Is that how it works? I think it's, I think it's, I think it's, I think it's, like, if he gets to 140 or 150. Yeah, but he, uh, he looks like an absolute workhorse and looks like one of the best pitchers in baseball again. So Justin Verlander right there, but I think any of the next two pitchers who get taken are right there with him.

Before the, before the show, I said, my, uh, I, uh, I, yeah. know, I keep my top 300 updated for the trade values chart. And so I'm kind of doing this rest of season exercise every week. And the gap between number 10 and number 23 in the rankings, they all have the same value. So I think the kind of second round is just you can kind of flip a 14-way coin in a lot of ways. I do think with Verlander, this is going to sound so cliche. I mean, what he's lacked in terms of strikeout rate this year,

he's just made up with pitchability. His ability to go deep into starts and limiting hard contact and limiting base runners. And of course, when you pitch for the Astros and you go deep, I mean, you're just going to have so much upside in terms of wins every single time that you go out that that is a pretty big advantage over a bunch of other starting pitchers. So I think Verlander makes a ton of sense here in the second round.

And Scott, you are back up 20th overall. So I'm going to take a pitcher who, I have ranked ahead of Verlander and ahead of Scherzer. By the way, I docked Scher a little bit for that oblique injury, a grade two. You know, he's looked great since returning, but that's, it seemed pretty hurried for a grade two oblique strain, and I just wonder if that could rear its ugly head again. But yeah, the pitcher I'm going with here is Sandy Alcantra. Wait, Scott, why did you say his name like that?

Who? Sandy Alcantara. How should I say it? Sandy. Oh. I just want to point out. that there are hundreds of people right now screaming at their podcast providers

or speaker phones or whatever about the pitcher who we haven't mentioned yet who's going to end up being what the number six pitcher taken people are the streets are on fire right now I'll explain that in just a second why that is that way but we'll get to it well Alcantra I want to say like people may have been screaming about this too because I was I conducted a series of polls

on Twitter to help me kind of iron out my rankings here. And Alcantra was winning basically every head-to-head matchup I put him up against. He slaughtered Manny Machado in terms of who people wanted more. He beat Julio Rodriguez. It was 50-50 between Sandy Alcantra and Rafael Devers. Now, that's going a little far for me, obviously. But you can understand why. I was just pointing this out to Frank the other day.

like he's been basically a cheat code in the first half because he's given you so much volume with a sub 2ERA like if I look at who's leading my leagues and like the person who has Sandy Alcantra is right up there and all of them he's just been such a big boost for everybody who's had him now if he could sustain that 170-ish ERA and never throw less than seven innings again then he'd probably be a top five player in family

Of course, I think that's unlikely. I think it's more likely he's a 3ERA the rest of the way. But 3ERI is still really good, and I do think volume-wise, he's certainly proven he's among the best, if not the best, in terms of how deep he pitches into games. So that makes up for not a great supporting cast and all of that. And strikeout-wise, you know, he doesn't measure up to

Corbyn Burns or Garrick-Cole, but he's right there with Justin Verlander. So, yeah, I think Alcona makes him. He only has, I believe, 13 fewer strikeouts than Garrett Cole this season, despite, I think, like, a 3K per 9 difference between them. Yeah. Just because he's thrown 27 more, I think 27 more innings than Garrett Cole. Because Garrett Cole is actually averaging fewer than six innings per start this season. I think that's entirely because he had two starts that he left, I think, before the third inning.

But Alcantra, I mean, if you go by runs per nine more instead of the, fit-based war that they use on fan graphs. He leads Major League Baseball and wins above replacement right now. And it's actually not that close. He has 5.2, according to baseball reference, Paul Goldschman has 4.7. Like, that, I think, sums up what Sandy Alcounter has given you this season in fantasy. Just the sheer volume.

Like, he's on a 250-inning pace. That hasn't been done in a decade. Yeah. And the gap between him and the next closest pitcher could be something like 50-enings pitched, which is just, so massive. I mean, this is a throwback pitcher in like the truest sense where, you know, he doesn't have this gaudy strikeout rate, but just his volume is so, so massive that it allows him to, um, you know, provide volume, you know, provide volume in terms of strikeouts in different ways because

obviously he just goes so, uh, deep into his starts. With that being said, the, uh, pitcher, I assume most people are yelling at their speaker phones about, I mean, Chris, that was like, boomer of all boomer things that you ever said. I love that you said, like speakerphone. 21st overall, I'm going to select my guy. You know who it is. Shane O. Mac, Shane McClanahan, a lefty who throws 97 miles per hour with this fastball and has three tremendous secondary pitches, two of which have a whiff rate over 40% this season. He's just absolutely ridiculous to watch.

He limits walks, he limits hard, not as much hard contact, but he does get ground, balls too. So like everything that you want in a pitcher, strikeouts, limiting walks, getting ground balls, he does all of it. He's going consistently deep into his starts as well. The only problem with this exercise is rest of season. We are drafting for the rest of this year. What happens in the second half? I mean, I know Tampa Bay, they need Shane McClanahan. They've had so many injuries and they're probably going to lean on him, which, you know, we'll change our perception of him, I think, next year as well. But, you know, how much can they lean on him? You know, how much do they want to force him and push him when he's one of their most prized assets in their

organization? So that is a question that they're going to have to answer and they're going to have to figure out. But I think because of that loan question mark, it makes sense that McClanahan would be ranked behind the other pitchers that we've mentioned. Right. If we were doing this for next year, I think Shane McClanahan might be my number two pitcher because the more I look at the numbers, the more impressive it is. He basically does everything right. So it would be. between him and Corbin Burns, who's my number one. But, you know, we got to leave the first half in the first half and consider he might only get 60, 65 innings in the second half,

particularly if they're planning for a playoff run, the race. So that's putting him down here. Is, you know, I wanted to make the, he's having the 2018 Blake Snell season in that he's pitching deepish into games. Mostly, he's averaging 6.1 innings per start. mostly because he's been so outrageously efficient in a way that probably isn't sustainable. But that's actually giving McClanahan more credit

in terms of the pitch counts than he deserves because I forgot Blake Snell threw 100 pitches 18 times. Oh yeah, he's still walked a lot of guys that science. I forgot about that. Shane McClanahan has thrown 100 pitches one time this season. So, you know, the volume that he has, it's good right now. but I think he's going to slow down in terms of the efficiency and that's not a knock against him.

He has a 173 ERA. If that was a run higher, he would still deserve to go where he does. But if it's a run higher, that probably means more five-inning starts and more six-inning starts as opposed to more six-and-seven-inning starts. So that's the one place that I think he does fall short. It's just he's not throwing as many pitches.

So he really does have to be out-fetched. outrageously efficient to remain in this range. I don't do this often, but if you guys will allow me, I've got to give myself a pat on the back. I mean, the way that this first half has worked out, Sandy and Shane O'Back, it literally could not have gone better for me as an analyst. So, I mean, it's been tremendous.

Let's hope that it did. Well, you're crushing in all the leagues we're in together, so that's probably why. Yeah, and you know what? I wish I listened to myself a little bit more because in the leagues with the most monetary value, I did not draft as much Sandy and Shane McClanahan this season. Anyway, 20 second overall, we've got three more picks here to round it out.

Chris, your backup. Yeah, this is, I think, a tough range. And I think you go a lot of different ways here. I'm going to go with Louise Robert, who hasn't been, I think, quite as good as we hoped. But I think that's mostly like he had a bad batting average in April and he was dealing with an injury. but he's hitting over 300 since the start of May. He's been running a decent amount. I think we wish he'd be running more,

and I think we wish he'd be hitting for more power. So there are places that Luis Robert has definitely been a disappointment, but I still think he is one of the true five category guys in baseball, and that's still a second rounder for me. Yeah, the lack of power has just really been the biggest thing. Go ahead, Scott. So the reason I left him out, well, you're mentioning lack of power, his sprint speed this year is only 67th percentile.

So he is literally slowed down. And, you know, we've seen guys with that kind of sprint speed still be good base Steelers. It's possible. But, you know, you're less likely to run if you're slower. And I think we may be seeing that from Luis Robert. Yeah, he was only 73rd percentile last year. Now, he only stole six bases in 68 games because of the injury.

But, you know, I do wish he was more like a 25 to 30 steal guy. And, you know, I think the. the upside would obviously be a lot higher there if he was. But like I have faith that the power especially is going to be better than it has been. And I think he's a 285 hitter. So I don't really think there are any like weaknesses in his game. But you know, I think it's fair to like ask is he, how much better is he than Randy a Roserena? Someone we've been, you know, pretty off on since the start of the season.

And, you know, I think that's fair. Like I think Louise Roberts a much better hitter than a Roserana in, in, in, you know, most ways. So I think that's where the gap is. But, you know, I think Robert's a fairly controversial pick here. Ground ball rate, man. Like, you know, there's just a few hitters this year. Luis Robert, Vlad, Acuna, where, you know, the ground ball rate has really, you know, kind of hampered the ability to hit for power. So I think if we could just raise that launch angle for some of these guys and we could see much better power for each of them in the second half. Scott, you're back up. 23rd overall and your last selection today.

Well, I'm going to go with Pete Alonzo, who I believe is the MLB leader in RBI as of now. I believe you're correct. Yeah, he's been for most of the season. And just a very easy, predictable source of power. I think he's validated everything anybody would have wanted who drafted him. He's validated them with his performance. Yeah

He's not gonna be a major help in batting average shortly Not gonna help in stolen bases But he's gonna be very good at what he does I don't know why I always line it up this way Where I have the last pick because there is a lot of pressure Because there's gonna be a few obviously players that are Considered snubs that we kind of left off and you know We'll mention them as honorable mentions but

If I was realistically drafting rest of season I would select Austin Riley Who I've just been 100% wrong about and he's been ridiculous But the players I'm gonna go with, especially if we're talking five by five roto, it's gonna be controversial. Bobby Witt, Jr. is who I'm going to select. And maybe I'm just leaning too hard into the upside and the power speed combination. But really, since the middle of April, he got dropped in the lineup. He's been hitting right around 270 on a near 30-30 pace, right? Like, that's not dissimilar than, you know, what we said about Julio Rodriguez earlier, except, you know, Julio's doing it with a much better batting average since that point. So I know there's limitations with the Royals lineup and the ballpark there, but regardless, this guy is a freak athlete.

He is the fastest player in baseball. He's going to steal a ton of bases. And I actually think more power is going to come, you know, the more acclimated he gets in major league baseball. So lots of different ways you can go with this pick and, you know, is he actually worthy of this? And there's an argument. But five by five, Roto, I'm going to go with Bobby Wood Jr. Maybe I should have taken Riley ahead of Alonzo for position scarcity reasons. I mean, Alonzo's done it for longer, but Riley's basically shaping up to be the same sort of player.

What do you think? Potentially a better source of batting average. Yeah. Potentially. I would agree with that, Scott. I think Austin Riley had to P. Alonzo is perfectly fine. Either way, I mean, Alonzo's probably an early third round pick, but yeah, I think based on position scarcity, you can make that argument. And here is our complete second round.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Garrett Cole, Kyle Tucker, Manny Machado, Paul Gulchmane, Max Scherzerzer, Justin Verlander, Sandy Alcanswra, Shane McClanahan, Luis Robert, Pete Alonzo, and Bobby Whit Jr. Of course, some of the honorable mentions, Austin Riley could have easily made the cut here. A few others, Jose Altuve, Boba Chet, not in the first two rounds. That's the one I would have gone with if I had another pick. You know what's crazy, Chris, though, if you think about it, right? From like a roto perspective, as of now, how different are Bobby Wood Jr. and Bobbichette? So since May 1st, Bo Bichet has played every day.

He's hitting 275 and here's what his 60, 162 game pace looks like. 96 runs, 30 home runs, 101 RBI. He only has five steelers. Yeah, that's the bigger concern for me with Bichet than the hitting is just, is he really that much of a base stealer anymore? Yeah. So that would be the concern, although he's still like, he's attempted six steals in stretch he's just two for four if he was on a 10 steel pace over that stretch you know I

think it would look a little different but like I think and the the expected stats don't look particularly different from last season he's striking out more but the quality of contact is actually arguably a little better than it was last season so I still largely view Bichette the way I did last coming into the season it's just like he was what the like consensus sixth pick or something like that. Yep. That was like, I didn't want the six pick. You know, like I felt

like there was a, he was being pushed up mostly for counting stat reasons and just there a drop in the rankings there, but I still think he's a first two-round guy. Yep. I didn't even mention Freddie Freeman who, you know, it's been a weird season.

Obviously, look, there's no mistaking it. Like, the guy wanted to return to the Braves. He did not want to be with the Dodgers, but either way, he's having a very productive year. Maybe in this environment, Scott, more of like a 25 home run hitter, but he's still been good. Yeah, his second half is going to be better than his first half. The power's already started to pick up, and he's stolen more bases than ever before. I'm not counting on that continuing, but I did have him rounding out my round two.

So yeah, definitely deserving of a mention here at the end. And a few others. Aaron Nola, I think in this conversation, Zach Wheeler, for sure, you know, could make the argument. Next starting pitcher off the board. Carlos Rodon has been tremendous. Can he remain healthy? Kyle Swarber, one of, if not, you know, the premier power hitter in the game of baseball right now. Dansby Swanson, I mean, will he keep this up?

I don't know, but he's in a contract year and certainly playing for a contract right now. And then Fernando Tatis, I mean, you know, whether or not we get some updates, it's all injury-related, but, you know, if he's healthy, he's very clearly one of the best players in fantasy baseball. And that will do it. Rest of season, top two rounds redraft. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.