Fantasy Baseball Today - Rookie Report Card! Evaluating Corbin Carroll Kodai Senga & Many More (10/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

Chris Welsh and Scott White are handing out grades for the top rookies from the 2023 Fantasy Baseball season. Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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/ 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. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today, October 11th edition. It is still the well, sure does not, Frank Stanfold.

Frank is out in Poland. He has to share pictures with him. It looks quite lovely, but he misses you all. He thinks about you all. And it's definitely like, hey, did you destroy the show or anything like that? And I said, no, Frank. We were good. We were golden.

He will be back next week from the Poland. That is Scott White. And today we are talking about rookie report cards. So get your, I don't know, what a, I would say you have like a teacher vibe. Scott, I don't want to like present to you. I think I have a very, I have a substitute teacher vibe. And you have a teacher vibe here. So get the rest of it.

apples out and let's start grading my rookies that's why I'm wearing the glasses gonna be a tough grader watch out rookies I was you know you and I didn't get to talk ahead of time I feel like you are going to be a lot tough tougher grader I was going through I have pre done yeah get ahead of my work I'm a substitute teacher I don't want to go on the fly here and I was going through and I'm like hmm these grades might be a little too nice across the board I don't think I have any Fs and probably should or any completes, I feel like you're going to be tough. How many, let's see, 20 players, I bet you two A's.

I bet you we see a maximum of two A's. I can think off the top of my head two A's. Well, I mean, the fact I put it that way shows that we went about this differently. You actually inserted all of your grades here while I'm going to do this entirely top of mind. I guess I'm not really, it's not much of a teacher vibe

because I'm a total slacker. Oh, I think it's a very teacher vibe. I think it's a very teacher vibe, actually. I think it's a teacher that's been in that seat for 12, 15 years, whatever it's been for a very, very long time and knows exactly what they're in for. Like I said, I'm just getting prepped. Yes, yes, I hear teachers can be the biggest procrastinators of all. Okay, well.

I'm curious, I'm curious why Frank sent you pictures and not me. Well, I asked for them. I asked for them. No, no, no, he texts me and just like, hey, how's every person? everything going and I was like, we're all golden, we're golden pony boy. And then I was just like, how is it? Because I don't know, I just didn't have a concept of Poland. I mean, I will tell you, it's very, um, it's very Europe like exactly like any place. He could have sent me a picture and been like, this is Wales or, you know, this is this or that. And I would have been like,

okay, that seems like that. But lush big green hills and, um, I think he's having a good time. This would be a good recovery time for teacher. The principal, Frank. We can call him the principal here as we're passing out these rookie report cards. And I will tell you, it's amazing how many rookies and relevant rookies there are to talk about. It's actually overwhelming. I don't know if we'll even get to all of them to really, really be able to break down because we had such an incredible impact from the rookies.

Not even just like, Scott and I were talking a little beforehand, And not even just from a like, okay, you know, there's going to be like 10 that are going to be relevant and then it's going to start falling off irrelevancy. No, like we are going to have to probably burn and turn at the end of the show because so many had big impact from different points. And I'd mentioned we saw 35 plus come just from the Arizona Fall League, which I'm out doing right now out here in Arizona. And I mean, you are talking like at least 30 plus of like relevant rookies that are going to go into next year. So harsh grades actually might be in store here, Scott, because I think our brains might be a little preoccupied that like, oh, this rookie was great here and this was here and here.

And then we'll look at all these guys. And at the end of the day, the varying stories of like first half production versus a month of production. There were so many rookies, it's making them all feel awesome when we know that's not necessarily the case. All right. So let's calibrate this beforehand. Okay.

is a C grade basically, okay, this guy had a standard rookie season, didn't blow away our expectations, didn't fall flat on his face and have to keep returning to the miners. C is just, all right, you did fine, rookie. Let's see you step it up next year. Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah, I think that's about, I have a little caveats, but let's move on to B. All right, let's get to it.

Okay. Oh, no, do you have any of the caveats for B or A? No, no, no. Let's get to it. We got a lot of names to get through. Yeah, I think there's a value perspective that needs to be thrown into this as well. But we'll talk about them. And of course, the number one on the rookie report card has to be who is going to be a unanimous rookie of the year in the NL. Corbyn Carol, everybody. Preseason Fantasy Pro's ADP was 69.8 moved up a little bit towards the drafts. 285, 25 homers, 116 runs, 76 RBI, 54 stolen bases. He was only caught five times in 155 games. He finished fifth overall in Roto, and he was the eighth best hitter in head-to-head points.

Corbyn Carroll, let's start with you, Scott. What grade can you give him that is an A-plus? It's got to be an A-plus, right? This was one of the great rookie seasons ever. he'll be drafted. You said he'd finished fifth in Roto. I have him ranked fourth for next year. He was 25 homers, almost 55 steals.

There have only been 30 homer 50 steel players in history, but he is, you know, within shouting distance of that, could do it in a sophomore season. There was the shoulder thing, and the power production dropped off a little in the second half, but he was so useful in so many ways. and never at any point doubted whether you'd start him. So A plus for Corbyn Carroll.

And pretty interesting path from this show, too, of like you and I, almost like 10, 11 months ago, you and I literally sitting here kind of debating, not is Corby and Carol good, but the intangibles. You know, you were curious about the power. I was very defensively about the power. This was something that I just pressed my feet down on. And honestly, it'll be hard for me to have a, as, I mean, knowing this is going to be,

it's going to be hard for me to have as right of a take. next year on anything as I had on this specific one. This is the one. I get lots of stuff wrong. We all get lots of stuff wrong, but this is the one where I said more stolen bases than anyone on the Diamondbacks. Projections had him at like 16, maybe 20. I said the power is real.

It's 20 plus. He's a table setter, and he defied every expectation. And that's why we almost talked about him as the fantasy MVP, because Acuna was incredible, but you look at 68 spots of value between him and Akuna. and what he did, it was otherworldly. So it's an easy A-plus. Once I saw him play in spring training,

and he was actually walking a ton then, which was part of what got me so enthusiastic about him. He was walking a ton. He was running a ton. He ended up being one of my must-have players. I kept pushing him into round four, and then, okay, I got to reach him round three to get Corby and Carol.

And usually I'm not that eager to take the unknown that early, but obviously it paid off. He was certainly the MVP of a couple of my fantasy teams. Yeah, and me too. You know, the same thing. I don't like taking rookies necessarily, even though I'm a prospect guy early on. The other really interesting thing about him

is how he progressed throughout the season. He walked like all in spring training. And then remember, he didn't walk for three straight weeks. All he did was strike out and get hits. And he's recovered from the, like his level of recovery at every stop and every piece of adversity also shows you like the elite level guy that he is. So he is our role model student.

He is the one that we unfortunately grade everybody against because he was top notch. He was the class president A plus for Corvin Carroll. Now, this guy came in as almost like a one B for a lot of people. And it was because of his past. We're talking about Kodai Senga with the New York Mets. This was a guy that we knew was going to be here the entire time. He was going to be in the rotation, huge strikeouts, a ghost fork. What was that going to look like?

Well, it was a preseason ADP of one. But he ended up with a 2-9 ERA, a 1-2-2-whip, 200 strikeouts over 166 innings pitched. He was 19 in Roto, SP-22, and head-to-head points. And he had a pretty solid second half where the strikeouts kind of came down a little bit, but he was maintaining some of the wildness. And he was one of those players when I had created my perfect player, the monster player. He was one category off from the top 30. average of the best outcomes in roto of all five categories.

So what grade would you give Kodi Senga? It had, it was kind of, it wasn't a tail of two halves, but there definitely was a much different second half from the first Kodi Senga we saw. Yeah, I'll give him an A. He ended up being one of the most reliable pitchers in a year with very few of them. The fact he did it as a rookie, I think is, uh, it makes it all the more impressive. And, you know, sometimes we say, okay, is it? fair to call the people the players who start in Japan they come over here in their late 20s is it

fair to call them rookies still well that's a big adjustment i think especially for a pitcher you're talking about the different size ball i mean that the actual object that they're manipulating with their fingers is is very different and uh that was part of the reason why i was concerned about kodai sanga coming over that and he had a history of injuries in japan he had a history of walks in Japan. I didn't doubt whether he'd have a good strikeout rate, but would it be a usable strikeout rate in fantasy if he was getting hurt all the time if he was being inefficient, not pitching deep enough into games?

And that turned out to be not an issue. He did take a leap with the control. Did Senga first 12 starts 5.6 walks per 9, and I was feeling pretty validated by that. But then final 17 starts 3.3 walks per 9. Still not great, but much better than 5.6 walks per 9, and he had a 2, 74 ERA during that 17-start stretch for the year 298 ERA, a sub-3 ERA in this environment, I think, is very impressive, particularly when you're going to strike out as many guys as he did over 200 in just 166 innings, 10.9K per 9 for Kodai Senga. That ghost fork was exactly as advertised.

The only reason I don't give him an A-plus is because of, you know, he was, he kind of staggered out of the gate without high walk rate was still useful but uh didn't really turn it on until the final four months or so yeah i think he said everything perfectly 12.3 walk uh or i'm sorry 12.3 walk percentage in the first half he did cut it down to 9.6 so both aren't great the first was really bad era was in the three threes i think in the first half and it was under three in the second half so i'm also going to give him an a almost deserves an a plus just based off of all the expectation that might have been lying there and the ADP. The ADP's crazy.

I think it moved up quite a bit right around draft time, but the value was there, the production was there. There were some pretty bad starts that put you in some bad spots early on in the season, but he really found consistency. And he is an A model student on the rookie report card. How about Gunner Henderson? Because this is a little bit more dramatic because the Gunner Henderson in the first half, this is a student, this is comeback student of the year,

because this report card would have looked quite different if we were looking at just the first half. The second half, it was a turnaround. He had a preseason ADP, though, of 86. 255, 28 homers, 100 runs, 82 RBI, 10 stolen bases. He was the 39th overall player in Roto, 8th, 3rd baseman in head-to-head points. But these were two completely different players on the half.

So that first half, we probably have to ding in some capacity. What grade are you going to give Gunner Henderson? Yeah, I'm going to give him an A minus exactly for that. I draw the cutoff. I think the cutoff is most dramatic at a different point, though. I know first second half is kind of just traditionally how we'd have split up the season. But the first two months, Gunner Henderson, so on June 1st, Gunner Henderson was batting 201.

He had five home runs and two stolen bases in 50 games. games. And I remember there were people asking, should we drop Gunner Henderson? And you know what? And some of those shallower head to head leagues, I said it was okay to do it. I didn't think, you know, he was going to be waiver fodder all season, but I understood you couldn't start him. And you need, and you can't always devote bench base to hitters who are not performing well in those shallower leagues. So that was a real, uh, tension early on with Gunner Henderson and his rookie season. But, But then he did turn it on very. So it was, you know, it was actually similar to Bobby Witt and Julio Rodriguez both as rookies in 2022.

It was about that same two-month stretch. I don't know if that's, if we need to start thinking of that as maybe the necessary adjustment period for rookies reaching the majors at present. Like don't judge them before July, maybe? Like you got to give them that June month to. I mean, it depends when they get called up. But yeah. So from June 1st on, Gunner Henderson hit 276 with 23 home runs, eight steals, and 8-56 OPS, and obviously was must start,

whether it was at third base or shortstop. In the end, about a 255 overall with nearly 30 homers. Only 10 steals. I think he has the potential for more. He's very fast, and he ran more in the minors. So we could see that go up in his sophomore season. I haven't ranked short stops yet for next year. where Gunner Henderson is eligible, but he's also eligible at third base, and I have him fifth there.

There's a lot of high-end third baseman. I have Gunner-Henderson fifth, just in anticipation of him taking another step forward next year. Yeah, again, you kind of nailed every point that you need to hit with this one. Gunner's production through the first 150 at Bats, maybe that's the number. You know, it was 154 at Bats were really atrocious, and it was a complete turnaround. say in the longstanding as a dynasty person, like you, yeah, you shouldn't judge this player completely off of 150 at Bats and you should look for buying opportunities. From a redraft perspective, it did make sense where we were at. Like, if there's viable options, you could move on. There's still some warts in the game. He only hit like 209 against lefties, and he's going to

have to make an improvement on that. But you saw, you really just saw consistency change because the overall numbers were so deflated in those first two months that picked back up. His batting average differential from the traditional first and second half was like 12 points. And then the homers were like two. You know, there wasn't that big of a difference. He just, he was able to click and he hit at least five homers every single month, June on and was pretty consistent. I would also give him an A minus. So we are, we are lockstep on our grades here, but maybe they will start to change. Let's go over to a surprise of the best actual rookie, you know, the non-playing overseas. pitcher Tanner Bybee.

Tanner Bybee was the surprise. I would not have thought we would have thought it would have been Gunner or Jason Rodriguez or Taj Bradley, but no, it was Tanner Bybee who did not have a preseason ADP, but he finished the year with a sub three ERA, 298-1-18 whip, 141 strikeouts over 142 innings. Pretty dang good. Had an interesting from ERA to FIP differential

where it was a 352 FIP, but a 4-9, 1.1. 19 Sierra. That's a huge differential between ERA and Sierra, something to watch. An 11% swinging strike rate. He was the 35th SP in Roto, 32nd in head-to-head fantasy points. What grade are you going to throw out to Tanner Bybee, who wasn't even on any radars? Yeah, I think I'm going to give him an A-minus. Obviously, you know, the first three were drafted everywhere. Tanner Bybee was a mid-season pickup in most leagues. Well, mid-season is it right? He got called up in late April.

That was about the time he got picked up in all leagues. And the fact he had an ERA under three in this environment, very impressive. I think we were a little unsure how much we could rely on him at first. There were some ups and downs. The walks were curiously high, considering that was his biggest selling point as a prospect, how good his control was. He had four walks in three of his first 11. starts did Tanner Bybee, but over his final 14 starts basically from that last, it wasn't his last four-walk effort of the year. He had three more. But over his last 14 starts,

man, seven total with four walks or more for Tanner Bybee. That's, you know what that reminds me of? It reminds me of Zach Gallen when his career was first getting started because he was a similar thing where he walked basically nobody in the minors. And then he was having these four-walk outings in the majors, but still putting up good numbers. numbers, and that's kind of how it's gone for Tanner Bybee, too. So that's reason to be hopeful, I would say, that he could get even better with the control. Final 14 stars for Tanner Bybee at a 240 ERA. He went seven innings in four of those 14, which is also pretty good to see from a young pitcher like that.

I wish he had a strike out per inning. He was a little below. I wish a swinging strike rate was a little better. And like I said, I wish the control was a little better. but for a rookie entering a difficult environment for pitching, not so much Cleveland, but just, you know, the league as a whole, I think it was very impressive. Yeah, I gave him an A. I went one step above simply because I think the expectation for quite a few other pitchers was out there.

I think people were expecting, like Tanner Bybee might be a guy at some point, but for him to be thrust in, have a sub three ERA, and have the amount of starts that he did and be relatively consistent, where we saw some inconsistent guys. We obviously like huge performances from like Taj Bradley, but then you would see him get lit up for six. Like we, Tanner Bobby was pretty consistent.

Was probably only on like, you know, the NFBC like season and hold type of drafts. Like not a lot of redrafts because he didn't even register on a lot of ADPs. I would say this was a worthy. We'll have to monitor him next year as far as like, you know, Sierra over four. But he had two pitches of double digit usage with over 30%

with rate that weren't the fastball. Curveball was almost in the double-digit percentage range. I mean, four pitches to be able to command, which he did a really good job at, spins him. I like him. I'm going to give him an A. Now we get fun. Ellie Day LeCruz. This is like the exciting kid in class.

This is the very exciting kid in class. But how much are we going to be able to jump on the grade? Because it was an up and down, up and down year, even though statistically, like if we just look at it on paper, it's like, oh, that's actually not that bad. ADP of 406, but he hit 235, with 13 homers, 67 runs, and 35 stolen bases, which was huge. Another negative, 34% K rate. In the second half, it was even worse.

He hit under 200, but he had 19 stolen bases, and then a 36% K percentage. Wild swings of the type of player he was. But all of this ended up because of stolen bases, got him to be 130. 13th overall in Roto in just under 100 games. He was the 12th points per game shortstop. Again, those stolen bases did some wonders, but huge strikeout problems mixed with some of the best talent in baseball. How are you going to grade L.A. Dela Cruz? I'm going to give him a B-plus.

I think on the whole, there was a lot to be encouraged by. Now, there were issues, I understand. The strikeouts, we knew those were going to be an issue nearly 35%. And it impacted the batting average more than we'd like. Remember, he got off to a great start. Actually entered the All-Star break batting 325. After the All-Star break, Ellie de la Cruz hit 191, which sounds terrible, but he was so prolific as a base dealer that there wasn't much justification to sit him still. and most of the leagues where you had him,

even while he was struggling to hit 200. For example, in September, L.E. Dela Cruz hit 202, stole 12 bases. How are you going to sit a guy who steals 12 bases in a month? So he's going to need... Like, this isn't the full extent of his potential,

obviously. We think he has first round upside. He's going to need to improve to reach it, clearly. But even as he is, I don't feel like a fourth round pick is going to hurt you too much. Even if he just kind of repeats who he was as a rookie with the 235 overall batting average, I ranked third baseman. Like I said, I had Gunner Henderson fifth.

I believe I had Ellie De La Cruz seventh with only Manny Machado in between. And you can make the justification for De La Cruz ahead of Machado. I think, particularly with Machado coming off elbow surgery. I'm kind of torn on Ellie. The numbers are video game-esque as far as what he did for the stolen base markers. It's pretty hard for guys to be continued successful with like a 35% strikeout rate. Seems like he's one of those guys that can do it. Yeah, he gets on.

He hits the ball so hard. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, every hit is with impact. Only two players hit a ball harder than Ellie de la Cruz. Jake Berger and... It wasn't Berger. Was it Matt Olson? Louis-Roy.

I think it was John Carlos Stanton and Matt Olson, actually. It's always... Yeah, but I can double-check that while you're talking. Yeah, it's not that big. I was just... Like, the guys with the big hard hits were Jake Burger, Ellie De LaCruz, Jean-Cardos Stanton. I felt like Olson was in there for one of them.

Those were a couple of those players. But, yeah, I mean, everything is with impact that Ellie does. It was Acuna and Stanton. It's a good player. Those were the two. Matt Olson's max exit velocity was fifth. Okay. Jake Bergers was sixth.

Shohei Otani was fourth. So now you got the top six. And then Ellie's just sandwiched in between all of those guys. And if he could cut the, that's what I think is encouraging. Like if you can cut that strikeout rate, which is totally obtained. But we actually saw him do it, I think, in AAA this year.

We saw that start. The ability to work on your pitch recognition and cut down your strikeouts is 1,000% obtainable with video game first round skills. I also, we really are not parity here. I'm giving him a plus. I'm got B plus because of the exact same things that you said. I'm a little bit, you know, the second half really hurt you. We got into even cut territory,

but what he did in a very short stint was otherworldly. Let's do one more before we go to our first break. And let's talk about a pitcher that is still in the playoffs right now. I'm looking ahead at your grades here. and they're like exactly what I had in mind. Are they? Okay, yeah. We're like right in this area.

I don't know. I might kind of flip a little bit as we go. There might be, you can talk me into some, you know, maybe slight adjustments here. Yeah, exactly. But hopefully he won't be around much longer in the playoffs. Bobby Miller, preseason ADP, outside the top 500, finished with a 3-7 ERA, one-one whip, which is pretty good. 119 strikeouts over 114.

innings had a 48% ground ball rate and 11% swinging strike rate. He actually had a better expected ERA than what he performed at. And he was a 43 SP and Roto 30 in head-to-head points. What is your grade on Bobby Miller? Gonna go with a B here. He started out great, then hit kind of a rough patch, then finished great. did Bobby Miller. And I was encouraged to see that the Dodgers really let him go because they were so cautious with Bobby Miller when he was coming up through the minors.

Very restrictive of how deep he pitched into games and how many innings he threw in his minor league seasons. But in September alone, he had three starts of seven innings. and more often than not went six innings from, you know, at the time he was up in late May on, that September is really where he found another gear. So in that final month, Bobby Miller with those three, seven inning starts and six chances, he had a 319 ERA. He had 9.8K per nine. and I think

I think it's pretty easy to get excited about the like we haven't seen Bobby Miller in his final form yet I think it's easy to get excited about the upside he has five different pitches that he leans on 16% or more of the time

which is crazy by the way yeah and the whiff rate's good on the curveball and change up especially but the slider has a pretty good width rate the fastball is a pretty good with really there's a lot to like here from Bobby Miller, particularly if they aren't going to play games with his workload, as happens for so many young pitchers. Of course, we'll have the Dodgers backing them up, which is great for his win potential,

combined with pitching deep into games. So I think it was a very strong start to Bobby Miller's career, and there's a lot to look forward to. Yeah, you got it, and he's going to have a rotation spot looking like next year. Most encouraging thing, too, was the walk percentage dropping. In AAA, this year, he had a 9.8 walk percentage. the year before, 7.1 in AAA and an 8.1 in AA. So that is across to probably the most important levels for him over the last year and a half.

And then he comes in and he has like a 6% walk rate when he comes to the majors. That's a huge, that is an effective way the Dodgers were able to use him while being a strikeout guy. And there is more in the tank because he's a flamethrower. And, you know, he didn't have more strikeouts than innings pitch this year. I think, I think him unleashed in the offseason is going to be a very exciting pitcher. on a sophomore campaign to invest in with an expected ERA that is better. You know, I mean, it's a beautiful baseball savant page, but also that pitch mix usage with the Dodgers and the win potential.

I'm all about that. But I also gave him a B. So I have the exact same grade on Bobby Miller. Let's take a break. When we come back, we're going to be talking about all the rest, a little bit of news and notes. We got tons more on the rookie grades.

We'll even kind of power through at the end because there are big names you haven't heard, and I know you're waiting for. So more rookie grades on the report card right after this. A few news and notes to talk about before we jump back in. Nate Eivaldi cruised to a victory over the Orioles in game three in the ALDS, and the Rangers are moving on to the championship series against the Astros or the twins. Scott, the Rangers really kind of were halting back at the back end of the year, and they are on some other little tear right now.

Any takes you want to throw out on that Ranger series? Yeah, such a reversal of momentum there, because they really limped into the playoffs. And I think Nathan Avaldi sort of encapsulates that because he came back from the injury. I can't remember what injury was. But he came back and he was like, it looked like a total dud, was unusable in fantasy,

was getting throttled every time out, his velocity. That velo, yeah, Velo dip like crazy. Yeah, but in the playoffs, it's been a dramatic turnaround. And Lance Brozdowski,

our guy on Twitter, he's not really our guy, but I refer to him a lot because he has a good pitching analysis. He noticed that Nathan Avaldi, his release point was down. So was the extension, actually. But he thinks basically they made a mechanical change with him.

The velocities come back up. the release point being low is good to get swings and misses on the fastball and just seems to be fixed all of a sudden. So that's good news for the Rangers, good news of all these fantasy value next year. Yeah. And what they've done also just with the roster and the boost that Evan Carter has provided them. I'm telling you right now, I think Evan Carter is going to be so highly ranked that's going to surprise people. When you get all the grouping of the rookies, the guys that maybe haven't come up that we're going to put an expectation on breaking camps, some of the rookies that just have those qualifications. I think Evan Carter, I might be throwing a futures bet on rookie of the year.

I'm not saying it's going to be a Corbyn Carroll-like season because that's ridiculous to think. But if there is a player to have a Corbyn Carroll-like jump, I think it might be Evan Carter next year. And that'll be someone I'm going to be very excited about. One thing I've also noticed with the Rangers so far in the postseason, it seems like Jose LeClerc is their closer now. Which was their preseason stuff? They were literally using LeClerc as like the closer in spring training and then going into the season and then now they've just come full circle.

Yeah. So that's if you're not really paying close attention to the playoffs, that might surprise you when we rank players for next year. Can you imagine, too, that you traded Cole Regens for a Roldess Chapman and now you're closing LeClerc in the game. And it just, it's, it's a blunder. It's a blunder. It's a blunder.

Your Braves were able to bounce back off the Phillies and get a 5-4 win. Darno, Riley, both with homers. He had a game-ending double play. That series is all tied up at 1-1. And they're actually, as we are doing this show, they are going to be the first up here. How are you feeling about your brave? That comeback was critical, critical time for it.

Oh, yeah, I'm going to get emotional time. talking about it, maybe. Because they got the, so they got shut out in game one. It was the first time they were shut out at home all season. They were hitless through six innings in game two, down for nothing. And, you know, Ronald de Kuhna kind of stole a run, a couple two-run homers, and then that great play from Michael Harris at the end of the game, which looked like at least a double off the bat from Castianos, if not a two-run homer to put the Phillies up,

doubled Harper off first to end the game. I believe I saw from Sarah Lang's. That was the first time of postseason game ended with a double play that involved an outfielder. It was exciting. I kind of feel like, I kind of feel good. Kind of feel good about the rest of the series. Do you think that momentum swing is going to carry

through the rest of the series now? That's kind of like they've, I don't know if they were playing nervous at first or what they clearly weren't performing up to their usual standards offensively. But now they've kind of taken the pressure off, and obviously we're very excited at the end of the game, and I think they're just going to be themselves now. Aaron Nola in game three, of course, he's had his share of blow-up starts

if so many pitchers have this year. Things can really snowball for him. And I'm thinking the Braves take two in Philadelphia. That's what I'm thinking happens. Yeah, Scott is wearing his Braves jersey in here. And also had a great shirt, by the way. That him, Michael Harris shirt is fantastic. Was that a rhodower?

That's a fantastic shirt that you had. And I just realized, I'm not supporting any Diamondbacks gear. So we're going to change out hats if people are watching on the video, which you should be. Because I don't know if you heard, but my Arizona Diamondbacks have a 2-0 lead against the Dodgers. And the game is here. I messed up because I thought the tickets were out there. They were cheap. I was going to go tonight.

And then the minute the game two closed out, the tickets were sold out. And I was waiting for the time because I have things going on, like if it was the 2 p.m. game. But the Arizona Diamondbacks have a chance to close out a series with the Dodgers at home and wait for it, haters. Brandon Fought is the pitcher tonight. Brandon Fott. So you guys will all get, yeah, I know, you were thinking about it. You all get your thing against me when he blows it and Lance Lynn goes. But if he doesn't, I hope to also hear from all of you with your congratulations for the people that got mad about my like of Brandon Fott.

So thank you. I like that hat. Thank you. Yeah, this is the Serpiente's hat that I got an opening day. So diamondbacks going tonight. So I don't know. What do you think? Brandon Fott's been a little dicey.

But the minute that Brett Strom moved him on the rubber, we've seen a change from Fott. He still gives up homers. They're not putting out an ace like, you know, like, well, I said Gershaw, but Lance Lynn is going out. So I don't think they're in the greatest pitching spot that the Diamondbacks are not going to be able to get to because they have been scoring runs like crazy. But fought is a little bit of a concern. So just any quick Diamondback thoughts and why we'll win? I think there's, I think there's going to be a game for.

Come on. It's going to be hard for the Dodgers to come back. They do seem like they've been sleepwalking. kind of what we talked about with the Dodgers all years, as good as they are, it's so much bets and Freeman. And, you know, everybody's going to have stretches where they're not performing like themselves. And so they both go cold at the same time. That's a problem.

But maybe fought will be what wakes them up. I don't know. Still, I'd rather be up 2-0 than tied at 1 like the Braves are. You guys already have one foot in the NLCS. Here's the deal. We have a shot that both of our teams could be playing each other like next week. We could be doing a show together. It could be very contentious.

It could be very contentious. It could be very exciting as well. It's a worrisome spot. Brandon Fott, I would just point out not to belabor this, in 96 innings gave up 22 home runs, which is like, it's absurd. Let's go ahead and give Brandon Fought a rookie grade. Okay, yeah. Brandon Fought's way, way down there. I would say I had really high expectations for Brandon Fah.

I would say it's probably a C minus. And it might need to be a D. If I'm being like brutally honest. It's an F. He was the most disappointing rookie this year. He was one of the most, among the starting pitchers, he was one of the most, I think it was my number one prospect stash coming into the year.

Well, because the dude struck out more than anybody in the minors of previous year. he had like 180 innings pitch. You could foresee him going 200 this year and he had the multiple trips to the money. You're right. You know what? It is an F grade. It was an F grade two on my take on him.

You might be able to talk me into a D just for the fact that he ended the year on the roster. But I'm going to give him contextual extra credit the wrong way given expectations versus reality for thought. Yeah, I think it'll be something interesting to watch with him next year. But I don't know if the rubber changes were just like quite enough. He had a 9.82 ERA pre-all-star break in six starts.

He did have a 4-22 ERA in 12 starts post-all-star break. So something to think about. Nine of those 22 homers came in the first 25 inning. So it's all not quite as bad as we think. But, okay. Go D-backs is what we're saying here. I'm going to stick with an F. I don't know how many Fs I'm going to give.

Okay, that's fine. Also, we've got the Astros and Twins in a potential dividing series that's coming up today. Houston's got a 2-1 lead. Little other quick notes. We have some surgeries. Francisco Lindor underwent surgery on Tuesday to remove a bone spur from his throwing elbow and Jazz Chisholm underwent right foot surgery on Tuesday. I feel like that's like his 12th right foot surgery.

He's a robot down there. Probably nothing lingering. Scott, I need one of these players. It's good to get these cleanup surgeries so everybody's clear. But also important to know any of these guys. guys that do go under the knife in the offseason, just so we can take it into camps. Do you agree? Yes, it is good to know.

I will also mention that Brandon Woodruff and the Brewers sound optimistic that he's going to be ready for opening day. Remember, he had a surgery to repair a capsule injury in his shoulder, which can be pretty scary. So I was encouraged to hear that they're optimistic about the timeline. If that's the case, he might still need to be ranked as the top. 10 starting pitcher for next year just because who else are you going to rank in the top 10? Yeah, but can you do that with the worry?

I don't think you can do that with the idea of like on a dime something can change and I there's no way. I mean, I haven't started my SP rankings yet, but there are not, my just kind of gut reaction is there aren't 10 pitchers to fill out a top 10 and Woodruff at least has that kind of upside. I don't know that I'm going to be eager to draft them, but he has that. I feel like more than ever, we are going to have to contextualize, like, where we're taking these guys. Like, just because this guy is number nine on my SPs, like the tiers and where they are in the draft board is probably going to be more important than, I don't know, than the last couple years.

Maybe it's a recency because we're thinking about it right now. But because I agree with your point. Like, there's this little group that you're going to want. And then it's going to turn into this. I'd rather probably have four rounds of hitters than really invest in these guys are overpaying for them. So that'll be a part of the off-season process. So those are a couple surgeries that are going on with Lindor and Jazz Chisholm. Let's do a little grouping of Reds.

And then we will take a break and then we will be powering through because the night is getting late. Scott and our grades need to get in. But the couple Reds, a double dose of Reds here. Let's start with Spencer Steer. Preseason ADP of 440, ended with a 271 average, 23 homers, 15 stolen bases. Pretty good. 86 RBI might surprise you. under 22% K percentage, double-digit walk percentage, low barrel, low-ish barrel rate.

But he finished as a top 50 player in Roto. He was the 12th third baseman in head-to-head points. Lots of positions to play, but also kind of seemed like he was a little bit on the chopping block as far as where he would play with all these guys coming up. But Spencer Stier was pretty awesome. We just want him to have a home and play every day. Hopefully that'll happen next year. What grade are you going to give Stier?

I think I'm going to give him an A-minus. You know, not like I'm, I'm, I admire the pluck of Spencer Steer. Like he, he came to me, he wanted, he wondered how he could get some extra credit to maybe bring his grade up from a B. And so I'm going to do it. I'm going to give him an A minus, in part because I think this might be his career season. He doesn't hit the ball particularly hard. he has benefited he has helped by the fact that

you know he plays in the most homer friendly ballpark but I think from a pure skills level he is outshined by a lot of these players that are getting called up by the Reds certainly Elie de la Cruz I would say Noel V Marte also and I could see him

getting crowded out his versatility is going to keep him at least semi-regular but are there always going is there always going to be room for spencer steers an everyday part of the line particularly if his power production slips at all which seems possible just given me the data what the data looks like for him um and i think that's i that's my concern for spencer steer moving forward i don't want to like bury the guy but i i do think a step back is more likely than a step

forward so you think he peaked in school you don't think there's much of an outside career that's very sad. That's very sad you don't believe in him. He's not, he's not an Ivy Leaker, that's for sure. Here's the problem I guess we have is you give him a higher grade, but I feel like I have more belief in him. I'm going to give him a B plus. You talked about the home factors. Just want to throw this out. He actually hit more homers on the road this year. 10 homers and 282 at bats at home, 13 homers and only 300 at bats away. Batting average didn't really change a whole bunch. You actually stole more bases at home. I see what you're talking about as far as like you could foresee him being positionally put out because first he was like a third baseman, then he was a first baseman,

then he's a left fielder. And it's like, you know, you got to find a spot. Right. They're trying to hide him in places while these more talented players come in. You could see that, but also it's like, they might also have the value that we can't get him out of the lineup. And that's what I'm hopeful for. I think very highly of Spencer Steer, but I guess I'm only giving him a B plus. But how about the guy that, how did he play the whole season, might have given a little bit of a run for the money to Corbyn Carroll. Matt McClain. who had a preseason ADP on Fantasy Pros of nothing. But he had 290, 16 homers, 14 stolen bases.

Did have a little bit of a higher walk rate, but at over 10% barrel rate, finished 130th overall in Roto in just 89 games, and he was tied for fifth among second baseman in points per game. So Matt McLean did it in just a tad bit over half of a season. If you were to play the project-out game, he probably would have pushed, you know, maybe a 30, 25 guy, at least a 25, 25. I think he would have easily projected him out as, and he, you know, wouldn't have

gotten the rookie of the year, but he would have been in the conversation. A quietly great season that was, it's masked a little bit by him not doing anything because he got hurt on the back end of the year, which might give him a little bit of a cushion as far as how we draft him next year. But what grade are going to give him? I'm going to give him an A-minus. he loses points because he wasn't available when we needed them most. He also got worse the longer he was up.

His strikeout rate got close to 30% over... Let me see if I can get the time period right here. The strikeout rate was climbing as he was up and ended up being higher than you'd expect for somebody with his profile. I don't know that it's going to be a long-term issue for him. but he loses some he loses some points for that but overall attendance he's losing points for attendance yeah you can put it that way but you know he was a must-star player basically from the day he arrived multi-eligible uh deserves a good grade matt mclean i'm gonna give him an a i i think

had he played the entire year this would have been an a plus maybe i should ding him a little bit more for that attendance and the injury but i i don't think it's something that it that we've looked at as like following him. But I think he's going to be a really, really good value in fantasy next year because I think he's one of those guys that could have pushed top 50, and I don't think ADPs are going to have him there. I haven't paid attention to his draft stock as far as some of the early mocks go. But I feel like he'll sit around 75. He might even be post 100, but anything outside the top 50, I think is a value. So he's my fifth second, my number five second baseman right now is Matt McLean behind just mooky.

Bet's Jose Altuva, Ozzie Albiz, Marcus Simeon. The obvi is four, the top of the position. McLean leads off what is a very deep tier of seven following that. Does that probably put, do you think that puts him as a top 50 guy in your eyes? Maybe I'm off here. It puts them close. It depends how many pitchers get mixed in there.

Well, it doesn't sound like a lot without you been talking, Scott. I don't think it will be for me. Okay. All right. Yeah, I mean, I'm hopeful, but you know what? Everybody might just be in on it and we can't get away from it. So that is Matt McLean. Let's take one more break.

When we come back, it'll be lightning round. It's probably going to be a pass-fail grade. I think we're going to have to give to a slew of rookies, smaller breakdowns. We got a bunch of them, so don't go anywhere. One more break right here on fantasy baseball today. It would be like kindergarten, like pass or fail, or what is it, like E for excellent, or I don't remember how. I'm not that far removed from having a kindergartner, but we'll have one of those grades we're going to put on,

which is going to be a lot of good players. And we've got a double dose of pitching. Maybe the two biggest of expectations or two biggest of talent coming in from prospect and dynasty ranks, Grayson Rodriguez and Yuri Perez. Grayson, I would say you want to talk about disappointments. Grayson would probably fit that mold overall, even though things did get fixed. But he had almost four and a half ERA, 129 strikeouts over 122 innings. 13 starts after being recalled again.

He had a 2.5 ERA with a 13% swinging strike rate. Yuri Perez kind of shut down towards the end. 4-1-ERA or 4-1-fip off of a 3-1-5-ERA strikeouts quite a bit over his innings pitch 108 to 91 after he was recalled and being managed a 426 ERA so pass-fail Grayson Rodriguez Yuri Perez you can give a great if you want after being recalled he had a 258 a right um which one who you're talking about Grayson Rodriguez July yeah two yeah I was yeah didn't I say that I thought you said for something okay

Yeah, because of that strong finish for Grayson Rodriguez. That was Uri, by the way. We're doing pass-fail. Yeah, pass-fail for both Uri and Grayson. Okay, okay. They're both passes. I mean, Grayson Rodriguez looked rough early on, as you pointed out, but he was so useful down the stretch,

and there's a lot to be encouraged by heading into next year. If you had to give a grade grade, what would you put on both of them? I feel like these guys might be needed. We might need these for grades. I would go B-minus for both of them. For both. Okay. I actually thought Yuri was a little bit even better than Grayson. I probably would. What did I ended up putting? I think I gave a B plus to Yuri and a C plus to Grayson Rodriguez. It was kind of the opposite story for Perez. He started out like gangbusters, but then kind of fumbled down to the stretch. Yeah. I mean, and they did have, like Graysion was much better on the second when he got recalled and Yuri was not.

How about a couple of hitters? The hitter edition, Royce Lewis and Josh Young, Royce in the playoffs. You got to kind of get that out of your head, but all the grand slams in season. 15 homers, six stolen bases, but lots of injuries. He did the 15 homers in 58 games, so you can clearly play a 30 plus if you project him out with double digit stolen bases. Josh Young, 23 homers, 75 runs, 70 RBI in 122 games because he missed five weeks with a fractured left thumb. So this is the injury edition.

I would like to get your grades on these two as well. So Young and Royce Lewis. I've got to go B plus for Lewis. I think the enthusiasm for him heading into next year says it all. You'll be surprised the caliber of third baseman I rank him ahead of when those rankings come out. And I mean, if we're just grading him on skills, he looks like he does it all well. Obviously, concerns about the health history there. But Royce Lewis certainly left a positive impression on all of us.

Josh Young. Real quick. Who would you rather have next year, Royce Lewis or Matt McLean? I think, gosh, I think McLean. I think McLean. But it's close. Okay. Josh Young, I'm going to give a B-minus because while he looked like he was the breakout third baseman early on, he crashed hard.

And I didn't even really notice how hard he crashed until I was putting together my third base rankings. You know, I had a lot of skepticism about Josh Young early in the year. and got some grief for that. But over the final four months, I know there was the injury in there. He hit 244 with a 712 OPS. So B-minus for Josh Young. Okay.

I gave them both B-pluses as far as my grades here. Another hitter edition, Hunter Brown, tale of two stories, I guess. Hunter Brown versus Gavin Williams. Brown, a 5.09 ERA, a 136 whip. His first 15 starts, though, a 362 E. for Hunter Brown, 97 strikeouts over 87, and then the final things fell apart. And almost seven ERA, a one five whip really, really wasn't able to get once you got past the

beginnings. He wasn't able to get it going. Gavin Williams had a 329 ERA, a 12-6 whip, a 12% swinging strike percentage. And he looked like one of the best rookie pitchers out there. Grades for Gavin Williams and Hunter Brown, we can go to pass fail. Now we'll go to official pass fail. I think they're mostly going to pass if we do that. Okay, then go back to grades.

We'll just stick with latter grades. Hunter Brown, I'm going to give him a C-minus. Tempted to go lower because he finished with an ERA over five, but he was useful for a long stretch of the season and just completely collapsed. I'm hopeful that it was a workload situation because he does have some definite skills there, it gets brown balls in an ice rate. So C-minus for Hunter Brown. Gavin, William.

I'll go C plus for Gavin Williams. He was pretty hit or miss from start to start, but the highs were very high. Ended with the 329 ERA, which is a reason to be occurred. I gave almost the same grades. I gave a C minus to Hunter Brown and a B minus, though, just a little slide up for Gavin Williams. I'm very torn on how I'm going to be about Hunter Brown next year

because of the absolute collapse of the second half. I want to maybe chalk that up to just rookie and innings and, you know, being able to hold the entire workload over a season, but I'm just not so sure because it got really gross. Gavin Williams, I'll very much be a fan of. Masataka Yoshida, there's three hitters that were drafted inside the top 755 picks. Number one is Yoshita, 15 homers, 71 runs, 72 RBIs faded in the second half, hitting only 254.

Jordan Walker had a 276 average with 16 homers. We know he got sent down after hitting well, but not. hitting any for power and defensively. And then Anthony Volpe, who ended up putting up a 2020 season, but the batting average was low. He had a scary 666 OPS, and the 209 batting average was the third lowest among qualified hitters. So these are guys that were drafted inside the top 175.

What grades are you going to give Yoshida, Jordan Walker, and Volpe? I'll give Yoshida a... a B minus. I wasn't expecting much more than this from him. He basically lived up to my expectations. Jordan Walker, I'm going to give a D too. He came in with all the hype and obviously was useless for most of the season. Did come back with better numbers after that stint in the minors,

but still wasn't quite like must start level. You couldn't justify even like having to pick him up, especially with the guys that were available out there too. Yeah, certainly in three outfielder leagues. And at third base, became much deeper of the course of the year. So D for Jordan Walker, Anthony Volpe, I'll give a C-minus. It was one of the ugliest 20-20 seasons I can remember. But at least he kept the job all year.

I gave Volpe a B because of the counting stats and having one big negative. Maybe it needed to be closer to a B-minus. See, this is where I think towards the end I fail a little bit. Like I'm a little too lenient. I don't want to be too mean to these guys. where I had a C plus on Jordan Walker, but the more you talk about it and I think about it, you're probably right.

It probably is like a D and maybe it's a C plus for Volpe. It was ugly, but it was still under 30% K rate. The counting stats, if you didn't look at the batting average, were still pretty so. I mean, low run, low RBI, but the guy was hitting like ninth a whole bunch. So I think it was actually pretty dang good, especially to get all those stolen bases.

So I don't know, probably more qualified to be a C plus. Just put actual numbers on. Jordan Walker, when he returned at the start of June, 277 batting average 14 homers, 802 OPS, five steals. That's better than it felt. How many games was that? 97 games. 802 OPS. Yeah, it's okay.

It's not great. It's okay. All right, three pitchers who were promoted mid-season and made an impact. Andrew Abbott with his 387 ERA, but he had a final 11 starts a 178 whip and did make the Fantasy Award show. If you guys missed that. Bryce Miller for 32 ERA and Logan Allen a 3.81 ERA grades for our mid-season SPs. I'm going to go C for Abbott and Allen.

I think the final numbers are basically a C performance from a rookie we had any expectations for. They were very globy. They were both very globy. Abbott was more started out great and collected out great and collections. lapsed at the end, but I think the net of that is still deserves a C grade. For Bryce Miller, I'm going to go C minus. I think we got, I think what made his season so frustrating is that he came up. He struck out 10 in six innings in his first start, had two dominant outings after that.

So three great outings to begin his career. Then a ERA near five for the final 22, but we stuck with him for a long time because he looks so good at the start. That's a C-minus to me. I'm going to go C-plus for Miller, C-minus for Abbott, and a D for Logan Allen,

because Logan Allen wasn't even startable. Like, he was barely in the streaming options of anybody being comfortable with. I suppose you could argue Abbott and Bryce Miller started to get to that range, but I think you would have easily picked them over. So, Alan is a D. Yeah, no, that's fair. Yeah, I can go along with that.

The inefficiency for Allen was an issue. Even when he pitched well, it wasn't always deep into games. Exactly. Names who were on the opening day roster, Tristan Kassas, who ended with 24 homers from June on, hit 299 with 18 homers. James Outman started the year. Hot 23 homers he did finish, though, with his May and June, he was able to settle back, or I guess it was a rough May and June,

and then he settled back in the second half of the 264. Estuary Ruiz ended up having 67 stolen bases, second in baseball, and Ezekiel Tovar had a nice little quiet season. 15 homers, 11 stolen bases. Looks like he's a much better hitter, but kind of doesn't match up with the rest of these guys. Let's do some quick grades on these opening day rookies. I'll give Tristan Kossis a B.

He was huge in the second half. I'm very high on him going into next year. my first base rankings. I believe he's ninth at that position. Yeah. So B for Tristan Kossis with a lot of upside moving forward. James Outman probably deserves a B as well. He was pretty useful all season.

I don't think he gets much better than this. But I'll give him a B for what he actually did. Estuary Ruiz, who is the Freddie Fleetfoot winner for 2023. Go back and listen to the last podcast if you don't understand that one. Uh, Esty area. B, B. Just the stolen base total was so useful. It would have been a higher grade if he didn't lose it bats over the final month.

And if he contributed it some way other than stolen bases, but the stolen bases were huge. So B for S de, I make myself same again, Estuary Ruiz. And then finally, Ezekiel Tovar, that's probably a D grade from me, if not another F. I was very Like I talked about Tovar coming into the year Like he was the best bang for the buck pick out there And he clearly didn't live up to that I'm gonna give my first F

I'm gonna just say to exactly what you said I just don't like you weren't rostering Tovar most of the year I don't see it's a fine number I guess at the end The 79 runs are encouraging but I'm gonna say that's an F Ruiz is like in the B territory Outman's a B Kossus Kossus is like a B plus he's kind of close in into it. Let's end with this last category. We had a couple others. I'm going to skip, but I think

this one's really exciting. Hitters to be excited about for next year, we're talking very small sample sizes. Most of these players, not all of them, but most of them were final month guys. So this is going to be difficult to grade, but the grade will probably represent excitement. They are. Nolan, let's do little clumps of three real quick. Nolan Jones, 297 batting and rich, 20 homers, 20 stolen bases, and 106 games. Zach Gelloff hit 267, 14 homers, 14 stolen bases in 69 games, and then Christian and Carnaccio and Strand

hit 13 homers hitting 270 in 63 games. So between 60 and 100 games played on these three, we saw a little bit more production out of them. What are some grades you want to throw on these guys? Nolan Jones A plus, obviously. I think so. It has to be. Obviously, he wasn't around the whole year,

but he came through when we needed it most. September was huge. a 2020 season in just a little more than 100 games. Yeah, I'm going to give Nolan Jones an A plus. I'm going to give Zach, I'm going to give Zach Gelloff an A. You know, I gave Matt McLean an A-minus. Their production was very similar, but Gelloff was available we needed the most. And also just like expectations versus reality, you get some extra credit for that.

And when Gelloff got called up at the start of the second half, remember all the hype in fantasy was around, Tyler Soderstrom instead, who probably is an F-grade rookie if we were to grade him. Gelloff, though, became a must-start second baseman. Christian Incarnausian Strand, that was the other you mentioned, right? Yes. I'm going to give him a C-plus. C-plus. His September was what I hoped to see for the whole time he was up.

with that big power production. It gives me a lot of hope for Ancarnautio and Strand going into next year, but it took him a couple months to find his footing, really. Yep, I'm kind of with you. It's A plus, A minus, and then I would probably give him a deep D or something, maybe C minus for Strand just because it was hard to be rosterable and positional stuff. The final one are the low-level guys that we didn't get a bunch of games out of. Evan Carter, five homers, three stolen bases in 23 games.

Ronnie Maricio stole seven bases in his short, stint with a 117 max EV and Nelvi Marte who also showed off some big power 115.6 max EV had six stolen bases and three homers in 35 games while hitting 316 quick grades on Carter Maricio and Marte

got to go A for Evan Carter I did not think he was necessarily ready for his big league opportunity but he proved me wrong clearly I'll go B for Ronnie Maricio showed a lot of skills with the hard contact

and he ran his aggressiveness on the bases, I think is very exciting. If we could trust Marisi is going to be a base dealer, we can wait on that power to come for him, which is evidently there, given how hard he hits the ball. Noel V Marte, I'm going to give a B-plus.

I think this is the one who might sneak up on people. He has launch angle issues, but they got better in September. and I think he had all three of his home runs in the last two weeks, hit the ball very hard, consistently very hard. And like Ronnie Maricio was aggressive on the bases, stole six bases and 35 games. So Noelvi, Marte, you're going to be very surprised

to see how I rank him at third base when those come out. I'm kind of with you across the board. I think Evan Carter was like an A minus. Noelvi, I think, is an A to B plus because of beating expectations. And Maricio was like a B for being very, very streamable during a very important time. Do we just want to run through a few just give a letter, nothing else? Sure.

Okay. Francisco Alvarez. I'm going to go C plus. C. Yonnier Diaz. Yiner Diaz, let's go B plus. B plus also, Bo Naler. Let's go C.

C plus. Logan O'Hoppe. B. Okay, NL, the pitcher, Ryan Pepio. I'm going to go A-minus for him. Wasn't around much, but big improvement. B-plus. Emmett Sheehan.

B-minus. C-plus and Kyle Harrison. C. I'd give like a C. And then I think it's just appropriate, because I obviously skip some for time. How about the very, very final name, probably one more exciting names coming in for the CBS crew. Edward Julian. B-minus.

C plus C plus C minus F defense for the expectations we had big expectations but there you go report cards are in grades are set rookies are there

we'll do it all again next year thank you guys for hanging out with us for the rookie report card session that is going to wrap it for Scott I'm Welsh thanks for always tuning in defensive baseball today please make sure to follow and leave a five star rating on Apple or Spotify we will be dead again next week

Drink. Bye, friends.