Fantasy Baseball Today - Second Base and Shortstop Tiers! Is Brandon Lowe Undervalued? (1/19 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: January 19, 2022

Vote to help FFT win best social media award- https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8JGJJY8 Tiers week rolls on! How would we describe second base this season (4:00)? ... Second base elite tier (5:23): is Trea Turner a first round pick in a points league? ... Second base near elite (9:21): is Brandon Lowe undervalued? ... Second base next best things (17:08): how do we feel about Jorge Polanco and Jonathan India? ... Second base fallback options (23:16): what is Jazz Chisholm's upside? ... Second base middle infield options (34:06): don't sleep on Kolten Wong! ... Let's move over to the elite shortstop tier (41:52). ... Shortstop near elite tier (47:47): why is Corey Seager going so much later than Marcus Semien? ... Shortstop next best things (55:55): the disrespect towards Francisco Lindor and Tim Anderson! ... We wrap up with shortstop middle infield options (1:02:38). 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @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. I drive. Serafeas is magnificent. Got a fantasy question. Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. With fantasy. Now here's Frank Scott, Chris, and Adam.

Tears Week rolls on, this time with two of the deepest positions in the game, second base and shortstop. Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Wednesday, January 19th. I am Frank Stan. will join as always by Scottie dub Scott White and Chrissy Poo I don't know if you like that name Chris but I just gave it to you so Chris Towers

We used to call you CP3 But yeah I don't know I feel like Chrissy Poo works better I just it's not it's not a thing that would really ever bother me either way You know like like I've still got family members that call me by my like childhood nickname And it's ridiculous but it's still like what is it? That's what they know me as Kiki like my sister couldn't say Chris she was a year old than me. She couldn't say Chris, so she called me Kiki. And that's, that's, everybody calls me Kiki. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm at Scott Jr. And, uh, I grew up as Scotty. But that's,

you know, something people are inclined to call me still. My, my wife's whole family pretty much calls me Scotty. I, I didn't introduce myself as such. I have a, a close friend from, I've known him since middle school. And through middle school, high school and college, he was always Danny. And every time he meets someone new, he's like, I'm Dan or I'm Daniel, not Danny. And we've been playing video games every Sunday with him and a group of people that he kind of knows. And I call him Danny like six times per like session. And I always like, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. But it's just like, it's so hard to kick, you know? Like, and I get it. You know, you know, Danny like this little boy's name. All Danny. But it's just like, I don't know Dan. Who is Dan?

There are a lot of grown-ups, grown-men, famous Danny's, particularly in the athletic sphere. So I don't know that he needs to be. But that's what he wants. So I just want to go by his wishes. Of course. Of course. I'm a bad friend. I will say, Frank, what made, like, I think you're fine sticking with Chrissy Pooh as long as you do it in your most broadcastery voice like you did at the top of the show.

Chrissy Pooh. Chrisie poo. Yeah. Now we've got Chrissy poo. Two takeaways here. Scott, I did not know that you were Scott Jr. I am a Frank Jr., so we share that in common. That's good to know.

And... Frank Jr., Jr. That's correct. And Chris, I have a very similar style story, I guess. Growing up, I was Frankie. And now I'm Frank. Like whenever, you know, once I, I don't know what it was, I guess it was high school or college.

I was, nope, no more Frankie. I'm a grown man. I am Frank now. I think the opposite move. I went away from the... the standard name and towards the the the nickname I don't want I don't want to be a Christopher could you imagine you go by Christopher yeah I mean yeah I was always a Christopher like that in my school like my teachers would always refer to me as Christopher that's interesting I didn't

know many Christophers I mean they were all Christopher's but they all went by Chris yeah I could never be a Christopher like nobody would nobody would everybody would be like okay Christopher yeah no don't no don't do that we're gonna go with Chris or Chrissy Pooh or CP3 something like that. Anyway, those are three minutes that you can't get back. We're going to talk about tiers, second base and shortstop tiers today on the podcast. And I mentioned it's a much different pace than first base and third base, which we spoke about on our previous podcast. First base, not really a lot of talent up top, pretty deep position. Third base, not deep at all. Actually, not a great position at all. And let's start the same way that we did the other day and with a

little bit of word association. So we're going to start with second base. And we are going to go to hmm Scott Jr. White. When I say second

base you think blank. Oddball is usually the the word I associate

with second base but yeah I mean the way you introduced it along with

shortstop at the top of the show to the deepest positions that's true and that's

a big turnaround for me that just a year ago for second base

so I feel like there should be some word. I can't think of a single word. Turn around, except, you know, when was it deep? So I'm not sure what it's turning, you know, turnaround is getting back to something you were, whatever. You get what I'm saying. Maybe Chris has a better word. So we'll go with oddball or turn around. Chris, the first word you think of, go. Second base. I'm trying to think of like the

word that Scott was thinking of and I got derailed because of that. We're not good at word association. There's like a word for like surprisingly good But I can't think of it How about surprise Something like that, no? Better than you think All right, those are a lot of words But those are hyphenic

So let's jump into second base We've got quite a few words there The elite tier. It includes just one player And that is Trey Turner who has an ADP of 2.2.0 And he has second base and shortstop eligibility and Scott, I believe that he should be a top three pick in Roto. I think some people will make the argument he should be the first overall pick. Maybe he's a little bit safer than Fernando Tatez.

Nonetheless, he is a top three pick in that format. Does he, I don't know, maybe slide down just a tad in a points league? What do you think? Yeah, I actually have him as a mid-first rounder in both, so I don't have him as a top three pick in Roto. Even though, yeah, you're right. I've seen him go. I've seen him be the first player selected

in some early roto drafts, I think, because of uncertainty around a few players who would normally go ahead of them, Fernando Tatis being the obvious, and I do rank Tatis ahead, but of course Ronald O'CUNY and his recovery from a torn ACL and the possibility he's not ready for opening day,

pushes him behind Trey Turner as well. at this point, maybe like a full round behind him until we know more, until we have a clearer timetable. So Trey Turner is kind of the cowards. The cowards number one overall pick, I guess. Because, you know, he's going to give you a big steals total. Not as big as in his heyday, where if he would just stay healthy, you know, we kept saying, oh, look, he would be on pace for 60 steals, 70 steals.

Well, he's not going to give you 60 or 70 steals, it's pretty clear. probably won't even give you 40 steals but a pretty good bet for 30 and meanwhile he's gotten that power production up to where you could hope for like 25 home runs from him very reliable source of batting average

and now he's dual eligible up the middle it's going to be playing shortstop for the Dodgers now that Corey Seeger's gone but he retains that second base eligibility that he earned last year and that's part of the reason he is part of the reason why second base

looks so much stronger now because it's been a few years since we've seen a legit first round second baseman in fantasy. Trey Turner, one of six hitters to go 25, 25, 25 last season. That's 25 homers, 25 steals. And you are going to hear that a lot today. He hit 328, 28 homers, and 32 steals overall. The number three player in Roto last season, I mentioned he falls maybe a tad in a points league.

Still really good in that format. 3.7 fantasy points per game. And if you want consistency, he hit over 300 each month of the season. last year, so didn't really ever have a down moment. He was just really good all throughout. Chris, do you have anything interesting to say about Trey Turner or should we just move on to the next year? No, I just, I do wonder if we might not be underselling him just a little bit in points

if he falls out of the first round, especially, because I think he probably deserves to be a first rounder in that format. Definitely. I agree with you. Especially if you're buying the kind of second breakout that he's had over the last year and a, I mean, two seasons. but, you know, 210 games or so. Because he's hitting 330 with a 931 OPS since the start of 2020.

Now, what holds him back in points a little bit is just he doesn't walk all that much, 49 walks per 162 games in that stretch. But, yeah, I mean, if he's really a 110-run, 30-homer, 80-RBI, 30-steel guy, that's the first round or even in points league. And I think he can get a little bit overlooked in that. format. Yeah, I agree with you wholeheartedly. So I have the, I think there's like a consensus, top three or four hitters that I have in a points league, Soto, Tatis, Vlad, Jose Ramirez. Then it's the top two or three starting pitchers for me, however you want to rank it. And then I have Trout, Harper,

and Trey Turner. But I think Turner is very firmly in that next mix of hitters with Trout and with Bryce Harper in a points league this upcoming season. The near elite tier, this spans rounds two through seven. So quite a big range here, which includes Ozzy Albies with an ADP of 21.7. And then Marcus Semyon, Jose Altuve, Whitmerfield, Brandon Lau, Catell Marte, and Javier Baez. Catele Marquez is actually the one who rounds out the tier in terms of where he's being drafted. 82nd overall, according to ADP right now, Whitmerryfield and Javier Baez are each one tier lower in a points league. Scott, when a tier is this big and it spans this many rounds, is it six? to say that you won't have players who are ranked higher in the tier. So someone like an

Ozzy Albies or Marcus Semyon who is being drafted in the second or third round right now in ADP, if you're expecting somewhat similar production from all these players, then it's, I feel like it's safe to say that you'll just wait on someone else later in the tier. Yeah, I mean, that's that's the idea. Yeah, that's what the tiers are trying to signal to you to do. And I kind of like when there's a big tier like that. I want to give myself permission to wait at a position because it creates opportunities at other positions, right? And this was a tier I struggled with. I think across the infield, this is the single tier that I struggled with the most, because you have a few dual eligible guys there with Maryfield, Marcus Simeon, Cattel Marte, Javier Baez.

So you have to look at where they're tiered at those other positions and make it all match up, you know, or at least I try to. And then in the case of Whitmerfield and Javier Baez, I don't have them in this tier in points league. I have them a tier lower. So it's not quite as big if you're talking about a points league as opposed to a categories league where, of course, Maryfield's going to give you a ton of steals.

Bias will give you some two and his horrible. Plague discipline won't hurt you in that form. at the way it will in a points league. It's complicated. It's a little bit complicated. And, you know, Brandon Low could tell Marte, I thought they were kind of borderline tiering them here as opposed to with like Jorge Polanco

we're going to see in the next tier. But, you know, when it gets right down to it, I think those two are closer to Jose Altuve than to Jorge Polanco in terms of what I expect from them. And Jose Altuve, I didn't feel like I could tear with Jorge Polanco, right? So he kind of dragged those other two with him in this tier. So, yeah, ultimately I'm glad it's a big tier, like I said, because that makes drafting easier. And by the way, I tried to keep that in mind as I was putting together all of these tiers.

In the past, I would have a super elite tier at some positions above the elite tier. And I managed to avoid that this year. I think partly just the player pool allowed for that. But in years past, I may have had, like, Trey Turner as the super elite at second base and then had, like, Ozzy Albiz, Marcus Simi, and Jose Altuve as the elite. And then the near elite would be a smaller tier. But I think that ends up being a less, that makes tiers less helpful when you just have a bunch of replay or tears like that. Yeah, I think that's definitely fair.

And I'm happy you brought up Brandon Lau and Kutel Marte, because I wanted to ask you about them, Chris. And it feels like they're kind of the forgotten names in this tier, at least in the drafts, the few drafts that I've done thus far. I mean, they go later than anybody else within the tier. Brandon Lau is especially interesting because last year he had an ADP of 70. And he finished as the 33rd overall player in Roto. Mind you, I know there was a lot of ups and downs, but the end of season numbers, they were there for Brandon Loud. 247 batting average, 39 homers, 97 runs, 99 RBI, 7 steals.

And this year, his ADP has actually dropped a little bit. So he's going five picks later than he was last year. He finishes the top 40 overall player. Ketal Marte, you know, I think it's a matter of him staying healthy. I think we kind of know who he is at this point. So you know I love him. Yeah. And you should.

I think Catele-Marté is a great value. But let's just start with Brandon Lau. It feels weird that he was as good as he was, yet he's going a little bit later than where he was last season. I mean, I think the answer's kind of simple. Well, there's two answers, and I think they're both fairly simple. One is he just, he seems like a volatile player based on what we've seen so far, and it's hard to shake that.

It's hard to shake inconsistency. And two, this is a reminder that if any players are listening, if any baseball players are listening, I've got a tip for you. your fantasy value to be helped in the following season. Don't have your worst months at the beginning of the season. Have your, like, if you have two great months to start the season and then two bad ones and then you're just a normal version of yourself the next two, we're going to love you. But when a player gets off to a really bad start the way Brandon Loud did, you know, sub 700 OPS each of the first two months, that's really hard to shake just psychologically. Like that's the part

that we're paying the most attention to, that's the part that sets your, you know, your perception of the season. And so the fact that he was so bad early on, I think does cloud that for people a little bit. But, I mean, he started, what, 134 games and hit 39 home runs? I mean, that's astounding.

Yeah, 39 home runs is an all-time season for a second base. Yeah, and the thing is, he was consistent with the power at least. I mean, he had nine home runs through those first two months. that's not a 40 homer pace, but it's not terrible. It's a 30 homer pace. And so. And 99 RBI, 97 runs. Yeah, I think.

It's not like, it's not like, you know, he was pretty close to an everyday player, but I think people have it in their minds. Okay, Tampa Bay is going to mess with his playing time. There, I think there are, um, there are certain players who you are better served and never watching them play and like trying to not pay attention to what they're, doing over the course of a season. Just like, who was I thinking of?

There was a pitcher who just, oh, Dylan Seas. Like, just never watch Dylan Seas pitch if he's on your team. Because it's infuriating, you'll hate him. And you can analyze him because he's so inconsistent. He goes through these first endings where he throws 45 pitches. And Brandon Lowe is kind of the same way where he just goes through these stretches where he looks overmatched. And you just kind of have to ride it.

Like, it's a long season, you know, and you're not going to be able to to tell, oh, he's getting hot now or he's cold now. Like, that's not how it works. You got to just with a player like this, unless you don't believe in the skill set at all, you just kind of have to ride it. But we've got 287 games over the past three seasons with, you know, a 39 homer pace over 162 games. Even if you don't think he's going to play 162 games, like last season wasn't out of nowhere. Havier Baez is within this tier. We're not going to talk about Javier Baez. Again, like I mentioned on our previous podcast, we're not going to spend time on every single player because we're you know we're gonna save that for our position previews but another

player you should not watch yes you're I mean I'm not gonna say that well defense are on the bases well he's a pretty fun player to watch Chris but yeah he could be frustrating with the strikeouts at times Chris wrote about him on the site in his busts 1.0 so if you want to read more about Javier Baez you can do exactly that cbsports.com slash fantasy slash baseball the next best things here we have just two players Jorge Polanco with an ADP of 84.7 and Jonathan Indie with an ADP of 95, and Scott, only two players here, but I think two pretty interesting players,

because we spoke about Polanco a little bit already. We did a podcast. You know, can the 20-21 breakouts do it again? Took this massive step forward, specifically in the power department, but, you know, he ran a little bit as well. And then Jonathan India was great, even though he really did not put up big numbers in the minors.

So I think this is a pretty interesting tier to just try and figure out where am I at on these players? Yeah, it's it's it's it's two players that I tend to believe in as we talked about on that that podcast you mentioned before Frank I don't think I don't believe in Palanka to the extent that I see him hitting 33 home runs again but between 25 and 30 yeah I think I'll be very happy with him as your starter's second base and Jonathan India you know he actually was hitting 2 30 at the end of May.

So, you know, you compare that to his last four months when he had an 882 OPS, basically did all his power production, then had a combined 50 doubles and home runs from June 1st to the end of the season and showed terrific plate discipline, which was consistent in the miners, where, by the way, he didn't play all that much.

He got like two seasons down there, and they were kind of injury-plagued, and I thought people were writing him off as a prospect, quickly considering he was a fifth overall pick. I kept him in my top 100 all that time, so yay for me. But yeah, I would be happy with either of these guys as my second baseman. I find in the little bit I've drafted so far that it never comes to that because there's so many great values in that near-el-leap tier, you know, Jose Al-Tuve and Brandon Lau could tell

Marte are going so much later than Ozzy Albies. that it's very, you know, I don't have to push myself to wind up with a near-elite second baseman. But I have gotten like Jorge Polanco as my middle infielder before in a Roto league. That feels great because that, you know, that makes it probably going to have one of the best middle infielders in the league in that case. Yeah, for sure. Chris, how are you feeling about these two? Who would you rather have Jorge Polanco or Jonathan India? They're going about 10 picks apart right now. I think I would probably just default to the younger guy

just because we have seen Polanco You know he was pretty miserable in 2020 And we've just we've seen like mediocrity from him before Whereas India is at least you know An up-and-comer I will say If you look at his spray chart I mean he just didn't hit it to the opposite field He had

Looks like About six dollars hit the opposite way and three home runs, everything else. Most of his singles, most of his doubles, most of his home runs are hit to the left field side. And that does concern, that's India you're talking about? Yes. Okay. And that does concern me just a little bit because teams are getting more aggressive about shifting right-handed batters.

And I wonder if they just weren't doing it against him last season because they don't have the scouting reports out or, you know, it's early in his career. So they don't want to, you know, make these big defensive shifts. but the way he was beating them last year, I do wonder if we might start seeing three guys on the left side of the infield against Jonathan India a little more, and that just does make me a little nervous. Just anytime someone's like one-dimensional in that way,

if the opponents can figure out how to stop that one-dimension, it can hurt. You know, I'm not sure what. Like, it's like the kind of, you have to adjust to the adjustment. And so I think defenses and pitchers are going to adjust to him this season, and now I don't know what it looks like when he adjusts. So that's the one concern for me, the one red flag.

All right, looking at it now, he has a 50.8% pull rate Jonathan India did last season. That was sixth most among qualified hitters. So yeah, it's definitely high, higher than league average. But also helps playing in Cincinnati, especially when he puts the ball in the year. It's a really good ballpark to hit there. He probably wouldn't hit for much power if he didn't pull it. to that extreme. Like I feel like his profile

kind of depends on him pulling it that much. Not to, you know, Chris's, I'm not arguing Chris's point that shifting more against him

could, could hurt, but it's, so, I don't, he's not a player that you don't really, he's not really a player that you want to see pull it less than he is

because he doesn't hit it particularly hard. Right. That's always, for me, it's, what's the margin for error for that kind of player?

Yeah. Like, anytime you have to like, be extreme. extreme in a way, what happens if you're like 70th percent out instead of 90th percent down, you know? Yeah. And as much as India pulls the ball, Hori Polanco, even more, 52.7 percent, that was

third most among qualified hitters. And I've speculated that I think part of why we saw this big power output from Hore Polanco last year was that he pulled the ball as much as he did. I mean, he was below 40 percent, a 40 percent pull rate the previous three seasons. and all of a sudden he's up over 50%. So I think that actually helped with the power. I would expect a little bit of regression in that department. Maybe he's more of like a mid-20s homework kind of guy,

but I think that's part of the explanation for why he was able to hit as many home runs as he did. His spray chart is very funny because it's just like just a line of doubles all the way down the left field line and then a line of doubles all the way down the right field line and then it's just singles in the middle. Yeah, he is a switch hitter, correct?

Yeah, so that would make sense. Yeah, he's no matter what side he's hitting from, he is pulling that ball. Let's move on to the fallback options at second base. That includes Max Muncie, Jake Cronoward, Jazz Chisholm, Tommy Edmund, Chris Taylor, Brendan Rogers, and Thai France with Jazz Chisholm and Tommy Edmund, a tier lower in points leagues. Obviously, both of those guys can provide quite a bit of steel. So if you're playing in Roto or head-toed categories, definitely keep those two names in mine. And Chris, I'm going to come to you here first,

was reading through your bus article, and you have Jazz Chisholm on that list, a current ADP of 91, which, you know, some people, you know, for people who are just jumping back into fantasy baseball, they're probably going to be surprised to hear that Jazz Chisholm is going inside of the top 100 picks. But I think it just goes back to the hype of the power and speed around him.

18 homers, 23 steals, and 124 games. You know, that's, that tells me, you know, he has 20 homer, maybe 30 steel potential over the course of full seat. season, it's just can he put that together? It's a big price to pay. Well, you remember what I said about Brandon Lau. Jez Chisholm's kind of the opposite. He had this incredible April, 969 OPS, hit 311. His highest OPS the rest of the season in a month was 705. He dealt with some injuries. Maybe that was the part of it, but I think it was also just, you know, his approach kind of catching up to him. He's more of a, what's the right way to put it? More of a tools than a

skills guy maybe, if that makes sense. Like he's got the physical ability to be an incredible player, but he's still ironing out the actual skills and figuring out how to put them into use consistently. And look, I mean, anyone who can hit 20 homers and steal 25 bases, they're going to be interesting for fantasy. But, you know, the plate discipline is still an issue. There's still the question of, you know, can he hit lefties is still a question. so he's an incredibly exciting player.

He's one of my favorite players in baseball right now, but at his price, there's just a ton of risk. Yeah, I think that's fair. You know, you watch and play and the talent is evident, right? Like, you know, he hits a letter high fastball from Jacob deGrom. That's home running against Jacob deGrom. That's just all you have to know is like, how talented is this kid? Well, he hit 102 mile an hour fastball off Jacob deGrom into the upper deck.

And it was at chest high. Yeah. You don't do that. It's tantalizing. The upside is tantalizing, but I feel like we're almost maybe at this cost paying more for the upside than, you know, a short thing at this point. We just, we don't really know what Jazz Chittam is going to be. Absolutely. And it's a very different situation from Vladimir Guerrero last year where I know Chris and I were making the case that, well, maybe Chris wasn't.

I definitely was making the case that you're presuming the upside at the cost. you're doing that in this case with jazz chisholm, but you're also ignoring the downside, which is like a crater. I was surprised to see how jazz chisholm, how immediately he contributed at the major league level, because I've always presumed he'd be a guy who'd just get buried by strikeouts

and more likely than not fade into a relevant. because of that. And so, yeah, I haven't written my bus column yet, but he'll be in mine as well. I don't like the value. But, you know, you do have to account for that alternative scenario where he does put it all together, maybe does start making contact more.

And if that happens, then, yeah, there's potentially a 30-30 season in there. And I think the NFC ADP is sort of reflects the fact that, like, if you play in five leagues, you should probably have jazz chisholm in at least one of them. You know, like that, that's, that's how you should play it.

And a lot of people who play in NFC leagues are doing multiple drafts and stuff like that. So, you know, when you're playing an overall contest where you're trying to beat, you know, 1,500 people or however much it ends up being, you know, you need a guy like that who's just, if he hits,

he's going to give you a huge upgrade over the type of players who are usually available there. Yeah, I think it's a similar logic to, for anyone out there who plays DFS, right? Like, if you're looking for just that player to get different that has a ton of upside, that's jazzism. So I think you're exactly right, Scott. And Chris, he's being kind of perked up a little bit

in terms of ADP because of formats like that where you're kind of taking more swings for the fences. And speaking of those swings, Scotty, you still likened Brendan Rodgers as a breakout? I know he was someone we talked about quite a bit in the second half last season. Yeah, there's no way I'm backing down from them now. Obviously, the environment plays a huge role in that, also the pedigree, also the,

it makes a lot of contact. He really does. And in that environment especially, it's going to help. So, yeah, he's going to be a breakout pick for me this year. I would say from this tier, he's probably the one I'm going to have the most shares of in my fantasy leagues, which makes sense. I mean, he's going the latest on Haferge in this tier, right? So just that's the way the tiers approach works.

I do like Willie Adama's a lot, too. I think, you know, you have the upside case for Jazz Chisholm. You have the upside case for Bobby Witt. Maybe they could totally blow out expectations, and next year we'll be talking about them as elite players in that tier. But leaving that aside, leaving their upside cases aside, Willie Adama, I think, has the best chance of moving up the tier here because he had a near 900 OPS after joining Milwaukee last year.

It was immediate. It was just like he got out of Tropicana, and he had always hit well outside of Tropicana. And so he got out of Tropicana last season and just immediately started crushing the ball. Had an OPS, I believe, over 800 every month except September. Willie Adamas in 99 games... 856 every month from May through August.

In 99 games with the Brewers last season, he hit 285, 20 homers, four steals, an 886 OPS, and that is a 30 homer, six-steel pace over the course of 150 games. The weirdest part is that he wasn't even good in Milwaukee. So he hit 236 with an 802 OPS there. So think about how great that ballpark is.

There's a chance that Willie Adomis can be even better. next season, Scott. And I'm happy you jumped ahead to Willie Adamas, but I hate to inform you, Scott. I didn't mention him in this tier at all. And we're still on second base. Oh. But I'm happy you brought him up.

Just kind of... Edit that into the shortstop part. It's fine. Yeah, just kind of confirmed that we're all kind of on board here with Willie Adamas. But yes, I do like Willie Adamas quite a bit. And so mentioning Bobby Witt

didn't make a lot of sense either. Don't worry. We'll get to those guys a little bit later on, Scottie. The last resort's at second base. Let's move a little bit quicker through these tiers. so that we can get to shortstop as well. Eduardo Escobar and DJ LaMayhew,

just two names in this tier. DJ LaMayhew had, I believe it was core surgery right after the season ended. They didn't announce how long he was playing through that injury, but definitely could be a reason for why he was bad as he was. Scottie, what do you think in the chances of a bounceback for DJ LaMayhew are? Well, look, I'm saying they're pretty low. I have him ranked.

I'm surprised how high the ADP. is early ADP obviously so it could change a lot in the months ahead but still on average the 116th player off the board I think he's I think I have him around 175 you know that that's not even me ranking him at what his 2021 number showed him to be right he was even worse than that in 2021 so I'm giving him a little bit I'm showing a little bit of hope in him by ranking him as high as I do but he seems to me one of the obvious cases

of just getting crushed by the new ball because the guy who doesn't hit the ball very hard on average he relied on a lot of opposite field home runs those first couple years with the Yankees in spite of not hitting the ball harder but it's kind of the opposite of what we were saying for Jonathan India just a minute ago

where guys who don't hit the ball particularly hard can still end up with a decent home run total if they pull it in the air a lot. But DJ LaMayhew definitely doesn't. And you look back at his history with the Rockies, he wasn't much of a powerheader then either. So I just, I think he's very ordinary. I think 260, 270 batting average with 12 home runs might be all you can realistically expect from him. The actual batting average is underselling him. That's what I would say.

I think he can still be, I think he's going to be an average power hitter, you know, maybe not at best, but like, yeah, when you, when the ball travels five feet, you know, less and your average home run flies 380 feet or whatever it was, like a lot of home runs are going to turn into,

you know, kind of warning track shots. And so that really hurts him, but he was an 89 percentile on XBA. You know, he had a 282XBA. I do think he can still be a very good source of runs. average and RBI in that lineup. The actual surgery that he had was a sports hernia

right after the season ended. So keep that in mind. I'm with you, Chris. I still don't love the price, but I think batting average, if you're looking at it at that point in the draft, it's kind of an underrated category that maybe we don't pay enough attention to it

with our early picks, but yeah, definitely someone I think can contribute there and should be able to score a lot of runs assuming this Yankees lineup can get back on track. Wouldn't every hernia that he has be a sports hernia? I think so. Are there... Yeah, I don't really know much. I was about to say something about...

I don't know much about hernius. I'll just move on because I was probably going to say something stupid... You never heard the Weird Al Yankovic classic living with a hernia. You don't know that much about hernias. He goes through all of them for you, Frank. It's very educational. All right, well, I'm going to have to check it out. I listened to some weird owl growing up, but clearly not enough.

Scott, I know you're a big fan. Amish Paradise remains one of the funniest things I've ever heard in my life. It is great indeed. The deep leaguers tier, that includes Ryan McMahon, Jonathan Scope, Gene Seguerra, Jeff McNeil, Enrique Hernandez, Colton Wong, Luis Arias, and Gavin Lux. I mentioned on our previous podcast, I really like Luis Arras this upcoming season. I actually like both of the Milwaukee middle infielderers here.

Colton Wong, I think, is very solid. He was really good when he played last year. projects 15 homers, 15 steals, probably someone better as a middle infielder at this point if you play in a roto league. But yeah, I do like Colton Wong quite a bit. And I think some people are going to be excited to take a shot on Gavin Lux with Corey Seeger signing away. It seems like he has the opportunity to play every single day, which we've said at times in the past, but has it actually happened? I'm not so sure. Chris, what do you think about those two names, Colton Wong and Gavin Lux's in this tier. The concern with me, for me with Gavin Luxe when he was this big

hype prospect was really if you took out, was it a 2019 season when he really broke out? If you took that out, he was pretty bad against lefties. And I think in 2019 he had like a 400 bab-up against lefties or something crazy in the minors. And so it was just a big open question for me, whether he would be able to hit lefties. So far, the answer in the majors is no. And that's always going to be a concern, especially when you play for the Dodgers, who, are happy to just take a guy out of the lineup if they don't think he's gonna help them. And so we saw that with Jock Peterson

when he was a young player, and I worry we'll see that with Gavin Lux. And he hasn't been very good against Wrighties either. You know, you're still betting a lot on talent. The leftover tier, that features a lot of names. I'm not gonna read off all these names because it probably gets confusing for those out there that are listening,

but if you're following along with the article, then you know who we're talking about. Scott, 20 names here in this tier. Do you have a favorite, or two? Well, the prospects always stand out to me because those are, if you have the bench space for them, if it's a large enough league that, you know,

it makes sense to stash them away, then they're the ones who could at some point have the biggest impact. So Nolan Gorman is the most obvious one. I think he becomes the Cardinals starting second baseman sooner than later. And from the day he was drafted as a teenager, he's been hyped as this huge power prospect, rare power at the second base position. Originally was a third baseman, but obviously with Nolan Aronado there, they had to move from last year to second base. The minor league numbers probably won't blow you away, but they've moved him very quickly,

and it was one of those situations where, like, basically, anytime he got hot at a level, they moved him up. So better than the numbers would have you believe and also became... much better contact hitter in the upper levels after having a lot of strikeouts in the lower levels. So I think he could be a pretty big deal. Chris, a name or two here in the leftovers here that you are eyeing this upcoming season? Let's go in the exact opposite direction. Robinson Canoe, baby.

I don't know if he's going to play every day, but with the exception of 2019 when he had a 736 OPS, Robinson Canoe has basically just continued to hit. And oh, he's on steroids. fine, fine. I hope he's continued working out and has kept those gains. And if he plays, you know, as a regular DH for the Mets, based on what we know about Robinson Canoe, you're probably going to get a 280 average and you're probably going to get decent run in RBI production from him. Like, that's just, that's all we've ever seen from him, really. So I will take some late round flyers on Robinson Canoe for sure. Especially in deep leagues. He is going so, so late. So I've done three drafts so far. I have him in two of

of those and we're talking about 50 round drafts where he's going honestly outside the top 400 picks, something crazy like that. So with a universal DH likely coming to the National League, I think Robinson Canoe probably plays quite a bit. And I think the Mets are still going to make some moves this offseason, whether it's trading away Jeff McNeil, which they've already been rumored to do, or Dom Smith or any combination of those remaining players. Two names I'll point out here that I think are interesting if you play in deeper roto or category leagues. Josh Rojas, I think he could be maybe like a 15-15 kind of player for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

And Andres Jimenez, who had an ADP inside the top 170 last year, he's now going around pick 300. So not sure what the playing time is going to be with Cleveland yet, but another one where, you know, we've... You love that guy. He never deserved that price last year.

That was just, that was wild. Scott, you're right. I do like Andres Jimenez. He could break out. He's still 22, right? He's really young. He's, yeah, he's young. We got to see what happens

with the playing time, but I think we can get like a 15 homer 20 seal season out of him. I don't think that's out of the range of possibilities. And we saw a little bit in the second half from him. So again, super deep leagues

as like your middle infielder or a bench pad, I think you could probably do worse than that. Before we hit the break, our friends over at Fantasy Football today are up for the best social media award. It'll take you 10 seconds

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Vote now and win a free fantasy baseball today hoodie. The link is in the podcast and YouTube description, as I mentioned. I'll point out that the podcast schedule for next week, I know we've kind of been juggling things around, but for next week we'll have a podcast. in your feed Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings. So keep that in mind. And as always, we want to thank all of our listeners. If you're new, welcome, but also make sure that you follow our five-minute podcast.

That's Fantasy Baseball Today in Five. We choose a few of the biggest talking points from this full-length podcast, and we talk about those in just five minutes. So some people don't have time to listen to a full one-hour podcast, and if you're one-of-those people, then please check out Fantasy Baseball Today in Five. We're going to take a quick break when we return shortstop tears here on Fantasy. baseball today. All right, so let's jump back into shortstop,

and I'm not going to do word association. I think maybe we're past that. Let's just jump into the elite. Oh, I had such a good one. All right, Scott. Star studded. Star studded. High-finated.

Oh, because it's like SS also. Look at these guys. Chris, do you have a, I'll just let you guys go at this point. Chris, word association. Good. Good. It is good. And let's start there.

The elite tier for Nanot, Tatis, he's quite good. And he also has outfield eligibility this upcoming season. The ADP 1.3. So very likely going to be the first overall pick in your draft. If not, it will be Trey Turner, who we mentioned earlier, who's in this tier. And then Bo Bichette, who has an

ADP of 5.7. Scotty, are you one of those people that believes Fernano Tatis should be the first overall pick? Yeah. Yeah, I do. I mean, for all the fits and starts last year, he still ended up playing. He still ended up playing 130 games, and he had 42 home runs and stole 25 bases,

and now he's going to have an offseason of rest. And this is an injury, the shoulder that's been around his whole career, as I understand it, dating back to his days in the minors. So I think people are being a little too pessimistic all things considered. He managed it pretty well last year, and I think he will again. All righty, yeah, Fernando Tatis, Just how good was he? Scott mentioned he played 130 games.

He finished as the fifth overall player in Roto despite missing 32 games from the regular season. 42 homers, 25 steals. That's a 48 homer, 28 steel pace over the course of 150 games. He averaged four fantasy points per game that was tied for most among hitters with Vladimir Guerrero.

The guy is just absolutely ridiculous and deserves to be the first overall pick. I'm not going to say that there's no risk involved, but I think the upside. I mean, we're talking about someone that could legitimately go 50-30. I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility for Fernando Tatis.

The other name in this year we haven't talked about yet is Bo Bichette, and I have Bo Bouchet, and I have Boe inside my top six players in Roto, overall top six. And he was 29 homers, 25 steals last year, Chris, and Bobbichette's a unique player because he's really good for fantasy

despite having a low OPS, 828 OPS, ranked 44th, among qualified hitters. So he doesn't walk very much, hits too many ground balls, but he hits homers, steals, plays in one of the best lineups in baseball.

Do you believe that he should be a top six pig in Roto? Is he a first rounder still in a points league? He's a first rounder for sure in either format, I think. It's just the volume that he got in that lineup last year.

Maybe they won't turn around the lineup as much without Marcus Simeon, but I don't know. That lineup still figures to be incredible. and if he's going to get, you know, 680 plate appearances, the rest kind of doesn't matter. He's going to hit for a good average.

He's going to hit for power. He's going to steal bases. I don't know. He's probably a little better in fantasy than he is in real life, but he's really, really, really good in real life as well. So at some point, like, I wasn't high on him last season. I was clearly wrong. And I'm just, like, he's better than the sum of his parts.

and he actually does hit the ball really well. You know, you look at like the expected stats, and it's not like huge expected power, but he didn't over perform last season, and he's got a 10% barrel rate last season and a 48% hard hit rate. His max exit velo was higher than it had ever been. His average exit velo was higher than it had ever been.

So I think, yeah, he's clearly one of the best fantasy players in baseball. I actually do have Bo Bouchet as a second rounder, in points league because there are enough pitchers that push them out of the first round basically. But I also have, I'm also behind the consensus in Roto. I have them as more of a

late first rounder in that format because my rationale is if you set the over under at 30 for both home runs and stolen bases, I'm taking the under. And particularly for the home runs that bothers me. Like I don't,

I really don't want to underdo it in the power categories in the early rounds because it's we're getting to where those aren't as available throughout the draft as they were in the past. And yet you know there are going to be teams in your league that just have a ton of home runs. Like if you if you do any, any pick that sets you off course in home runs could kind of bear you in the category, I feel like. He's so weird. He has a third, he was in the third percentile in Chase right last season and 64.

first percent on strikeout rate. Like he's he's such a weird player, but yeah, I think I think that's fair. I also think there's room for a power breakout. You know, if he starts hitting the ball in the air more especially, I think that could, you know, the improvements we saw in bat of ball quality last season do make me think that there is room for him to, you know, be more of a 35 homer guy at his ceiling. Yeah, you read my mind completely. That's where I would caution, Scott, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

I guess pessimism for Bo Bichette is that he had a 49% ground ball rate and the previous all we have is 75 games before that that he played in the majors his ground ball rate was 42.6%. So if he lowers that ground ball rate again, then I think we could be talking about, you know, mid-30s in terms of home runs and obviously all the steals and the counting stats in that lineup. So yeah, maybe, but like to me it's not worth passing up Mike Trouder. It is worth passing up Freddie Freeman for, but that's a close call. I feel like. All right.

Yeah, I mean, look, if you don't want to put as much of an emphasis on steals, because you don't really need to in a standalone league, if you finish in the middle of the pack in steals, but you're really good in terms of the power production and batting average and all those other stats, then you'll be perfectly fine. So you don't have to over-emphasize steals, but if you're someone that maybe wants to build for more balance

in a deeper league or whatever type of format, then I think Belbushet probably gets a little bit more elevated in a league like that. The near elite tier, we are looking at a bunch of names here as well, Semion, Zander Bogart's, Corey Seger, Trevor Story, Wanda Franco, Carlos Correa, and Javier Baez, who is a tier lower in points leagues, and Chris will start with you. Why are we getting the Rangers discount on Corey Seeger, but not Marcus Semyon?

This seems odd to me. Seeger is going to pick 70. Semyon is going at pick 27.3. Is it really 10 steals, 10 to 12 steals that we're going to get out of Marcus Simeon that is causing a 45 pick difference in ADP? Well, I mean, if Marcus Simeon does what he did last season, then it's, you know, it's going to be a pretty big difference, and that makes sense. And so I think there's a little bit of recency bias there. I think Corey Seeger's got that injury prone tag that can lower him in people's minds. Simeon's a weird player, man.

I don't know. Like, he's had these two incredible seasons, sandwiched between them. He was pretty bad. he is he hit two home runs to the opposite field last season and like one home run to center so it leaves about 42 between left field and left center and really you're talking more like 35 just to left field it's all around the foul foul pole and you know is that sustainable for a 31 year old who doesn't hit the ball super hard all these like he he's another one of those guys like we were talking about with Jonathan Indy, obviously a much better player, Marcus Simeon, where it's just like,

is there room for a small slip-up in his underlying skills? You know, I don't know. He's, I feel like he's maximizing what he has, and he can continue to do that. He's a super-skilled player, but, you know, there's very little margin for error in his, in his skill set and approach, I think. Yeah, a little sneak peek. I have Marcus Semyon in my bus 1.0, R that's coming out later on this week. And he hit 45 home runs last year. If you look at Stackass, they tell you how many home runs he would have hit if he had all the same batted balls

from last season if he were in Texas, how many would it be? And it was 32. So obviously he's not going to play all of his games at home in Global Life Field, but so far the data we have is it's not a great hitters park. It was 22nd in home run park factors last season. And on top of that, he's leaving the ALE, so not getting Camden anymore.

he's not getting Fenway, Yankee Stadium, where he absolutely crushed in Yankee Stadium last year. I think he had an OPS over 1,200 or something in however many games it was, 15, 16. But yeah, he obviously leaves that and he has to go to all these bigger AOS ballpark. So he's done it before in the AOS, but I just really cannot get behind the price tag

with Marcus Simeon here. Go ahead, Scott. Yeah, I agree. I think the change in venue and the change in supporting cast are going to be a much bigger deal to him than they're going to be to be to, Seeger, whose batteball profile should play anywhere.

But, yeah, I mean, getting this back to the tiers, this is another, kind of like the near-elite tier at second base was large and spanned several rounds of the draft. The same is true here. I mean, the fact, Simian and Seeger are in the same tier, and you mentioned, Frank, they're going 45 picks apart on average. And I imagine Carlos Correa is going even later. than that, right? Yeah, the ADP is 88.

He's the lowest one in this tier. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, if he goes to a place like Detroit, you know, maybe, it gets a little questionable whether he belongs in this tier. But, you know, he put up numbers not that different from like a Xander Bogart. So I think everybody would agree is in this tier last year. And of course, Carlos Correa in the past has been, we've considered him a first round caliber player in fantasy.

he's still in his 20s. There's a lot to like there for Carlos Correa and I think very little downside. So, you know, another tier where I'm almost certain not to draft Marcus Simian both because of the risks you've mentioned, Frank, I've mentioned, and the fact that at both second base and shortstop, he's one of the highest players drafted

and what I see is a very deep tier. Carlos Correa, by the way, obviously still a free agent, not really sure where he's going to wind up at this point, and there was news earlier, we're recording this on Tuesday night, but Carlos Correa has hired Scott Boris to be his new

agent, so looking to make a splash potentially when the lockout is over, but where is that going to be? I know the Cubs have been linked to Carlos Correa, which is kind of a weird landing spot if something like that were to happen. I guess he could still go back to Houston. There's the Yankees, but it sounds like they don't want to spend money.

The Dodgers, maybe, to replace Corey Seeger. So we will see what happens with Carl's Correa and where he winds up. I did want to quickly mention, I feel like we got to talk about Wanda Franco, just because one of the top prospects in the game. And he wasn't, he was very good last year. I think he was much better in points leagues. There's no doubt about it.

His plate discipline for a player, his age is just outstanding. That's really the only way to describe it. But Chris, what do you think about maybe comparing Zander Bogartz who, he's been the steady veteran? he faded big time in the second half last year versus someone like Wander Franco who's going three picks behind him. So realistically, you have to decide

Zander Bogartz versus Wander Franco. I mean, what I would say about Zander Boggarts is like I don't care that he faded down the stretch. We're talking about a guy who's hit 288. Between 288 and 309, four straight years, he had $2.95 last season. He's a stud. And he's going to put up good counting stats

and he's just going to be great. I have no concerns about him as a 29-year-old. Wander Franco, I do, I wonder if he's getting credit for stolen base potential that probably isn't there. Because he's been a pretty bad Steels efficiency guy over the course of his career. And the Rays are not a team that's particularly interested in running into outs. So that's something that I would keep in mind on him. It's so hard to say what to do with a 20-year-old because he'll be 21, I guess, next season. because he's not a finished product.

So it's like, well, his batted ball stats were just fine. You know, he wasn't great. He wasn't terrible. They were fine. They certainly weren't worth this kind of cost. But he's 21, and he's incredibly skilled. And he, like, he's got that preternatural strike zone awareness and played discipline that just, why would you bet against him?

So it's really this is what, Wander Franco is one where it's just you're betting on the talent in the same way you were doing it with Vladimir Guerrera last year. But that being said, I would rather have Zander Bogart's. Give me, like, I don't know if Wander Franco has that much more upside than Zander Bogart's. You know what I mean? Like, Zander Bogartz is amazing. Like, he's had a 33-Homer 309 average, 227 run season. Like, maybe Wander Franco can be better than that.

I don't think it's worth paying to find out. Yeah, I think projecting Wander Franco. is probably one of the hardest things to do this upcoming season because you look at the steamer projection, which is a median projection, and it has him at a 288 batting average, 19 homers, good runs, good RBI, up over 80 for both, and then 10 steals. Is he going to get to 10 steals? I don't know. Is he more like a five to seven steel kind of guy? With that being said, I think there's a chance, you know, his 90th percentile outcome looks something like Juan Soto's second season, where he just goes absolutely ballistic. I think that's within the range of outcomes for him. So yeah, it's just, you know,

You have to pay a pretty big price when it comes to Wander Franco to find out what he's going to do. For what it's worth, he is 29 and 22 on stolen base attempts as a professional. That's what I was referring to. All right. Very low success rate. The next best thing's tier,

we don't have a lot of time here. We're kind of up against it, but we'll quickly talk about him. Jorge Polanco, Francisco Lindor, and Tim Anderson. Scott, the disrespect for Francisco Lindor and Tim Anderson. I mean, come on, my man.

What are we doing? and Scotty. Well, I just don't think, I expect them to put up numbers on par with the players ahead of them. Most of whom have 30 homer potential. I don't think Lindor and Anderson do. Lindor, obviously, has done that in the past, but as I've made the case many times on this podcast in recent weeks, I don't think he's equipped to do that with the new baseball. He doesn't have that kind of ability to impact the ball that.

he could put that many over the fence with that many regularity, that much regularity anymore, I don't think. It would severely cost him in batting average if he did, which would also hurt his value. And Anderson, you know, kind of like I said for, for Bichette, if we were setting the over under for 30 in both the home run and stolen base category, I would take the under.

If we're setting it for 20 in both the home run and stolen base category for Tim Anderson, I'd probably take the under. So I just feel like he's, he's got, of helping batting average for sure, but I feel like, I feel like people give him more credit in those other categories than he deserves. Yeah, he just needs to stay healthy. I think that's the biggest thing. He's missed 89 games over the past three seasons. That's 23% of, you know, the overall games available. So if he can never stay healthy, like, I think the White Sox this year can be

the Toronto Blue Jays of last year. Like, if everything clicks and like Luis Robert breaks out and Eloy Jimenez could stay healthy and Tim Anderson could stay healthy, I think the White Sox could just go absolutely ballistic. So what does that look like for Tim Anderson? Over 300 batting average, 20 homers, 20 steals, really, really strong, run scored, and 70 RBI, something like that. He can have just like a truly breakout season. It's just a matter of, can he stay healthy?

So I feel like that's the biggest thing for him. Lindor, I didn't really foresee becoming the Lindor guy, but I kind of feel like it's just kind of trending in that way. I wish he was going a little bit later, but I think the price tag is fine. The ADP is 57.3. Chris, anything you'd like to add on this tier? I'm a Tim Anderson believer. I think the biggest thing keeping him from putting up the counting stats

is just the fact that he hasn't played more than 125 games in the last three seasons. But as unconventional as his approach to batting average dominance is, it seems completely sustainable. And I think he's an easy 2020 guy if he stays healthy. And I think the upside's probably closer to 3025. So I'm happy. I would group him with that previous tier, like the upside, you know, the, the, the, uh, Marcus

Simeon 2021 season, if you will. Um, so yeah, I, I love Tim Anderson, happy to get him as a starting shortstop. Yeah, he finishes the 47th overall player in Roto last season in just a hundred and twenty three games played. So if he can get that number to 140 or even 150, then, yeah, I think, true five category guy. Yeah, I don't know how that's possible because he was, well below average in both home runs and RBI. His 162 game pace over the past three seasons is 25 homers, 22 steals. Yeah, but that's not how Roto ranking works. Yeah, but look at Scott. He scored 94 runs, 94 runs in 123 games.

I mean, that's like 110. Again, that's not how Roto ranking works. They don't pace it out over 162 games. No, I understand, but that's still a really good number. The fact that he hit 309 with 94 runs scored, I mean, that is a huge contribution for the Roto formula. Here's something that's worth keeping in mind

about both Tim Anderson and Boba Chet. In Roto, the fact that they don't walk is actually a big help because they're so good at batting average. That's a good point. That your denominator

is much higher. You know, he had 527 at bats in 123 games. So the 309 batting average helped you a lot. That's a lot of bats. And so that's the kind of thing where like Juan Soto might hit

for the same average as Tim Anderson. But when it comes to just what Tim Anderson gives you in batting average, it's going to be much more valuable if they play the same number of games. Did you say the 45th hitter or the 45th player? 47th overall roto players, what I have written down here. Well, it's written down. Yeah. You know, if I wrote it down, it's got to be true. No, I mean, there's definitely things I've messed up in the past. Let's see, I'm pulling it up real quick. But that is a big deal that that can be overlooked. 47th overall? Yep. That's where he finished on in terms of Roto

ranking last season. The fallback options. That includes Jake Cronoworth, Jazz Chisholm, who is a tier lower in points leagues, Willie Adomis, Danesby Swanson, Bobby Witt, Chris Taylor, and Brendan Rogers. Chris, we haven't got your thoughts on Bobby Witt all offseason. The ADP right now is decently high. I believe it's inside the top 100 picks, which actually, I was looking into this. It's not really dissimilar from where other top prospects have been in years past. So 109 is the ADP for Bobby Witt. You look at in 2020, Luis Roberts ADP was 81.7.

Vlad in 2019 was 51.1. Ronald LeCunia back in 2018, 100.5. So this is about the range that you could expect the top prospect in baseball to go. What do you think about this price tag for Bobby Witt? I don't really get it.

That guy hasn't played in a while. Bobby Witt? Yeah. Oh, is that? A little joke. His dad? The dad. It's a little joke.

It's a little dad joke about it, dad. I mean, he's clearly just an outrageously talented player, and nobody seems to disagree about that. We've seen one professional season of him, so how much can you put into that? Well, it was a 30-30 season, or 33-29. Who's counting? I think there could be growing pains, you know, with the strikeout rate.

He's so young. We haven't seen, he hasn't seen a lot of professional pitching, but based on what we've seen right now, I mean, the upside is clear. It's just a question of, can he force the issue? and make the royal start thinking about calling him up in spring training. You know, we thought that he was doing that last spring.

And so if he has another spring where he's the best player on the planet, you know, he might end up getting called up on, you know, God, I was going to say April 1st, but, you know, May 1st, maybe. But even if that's still early in the season, he's got huge potential. I'm not going to draft him in every league, but, you know, like Jazz Chisholm. He's someone that I'm going to have to get in at least. least one. The last resort's tier, that includes two names, Brandon Crawford and Nikki Lopez, who is a tier lower in points. Niki Lopez will give you 20 plus

steals. Don't know that he's going to give you anything else legitimately. Batting average should be okay, but really just a two category contributor there. And Brandon Crawford's got, I mean, I don't know, good luck. He had 298, 24 homers, 79 runs, 90 RBI, 11 steals in 895 OPS, career highs across the board. His previous career high, his previous high in OPS was 792. So this really came out of nowhere. I'm not sure how much we can, we know he's not going to do again,

but how close is he going to come to doing what he did last year? Yeah, the thing is, like, nobody buys what he did last year. So he's in a 12-team context, barely going to get drafted. So I might have a fair amount of Brandon Crawford just because of that, just because, you know, there's no cost to it.

So, you know, if there's something I'm missing, then, you know. Who cares? Right. Like, no harm, no foul. Right. Yeah, definitely someone that in later rounds as a corner infielder.

You should just take a flyer on. Yeah. Brandon Crawford, the ADP 200.3. So yeah, he's an afterthought, and you can get him very late in your drafts. The deep leaguers, A. E. E. E. Hennio Suarez, Luis O'Eas, Glaber Torres, O'Neil Cruz,

Gavin Lux and Ahmed Rosario. I'll quickly point out with Glaver Torres that he has not been good since the start of 2020. There's no doubt about that. He played 169 games during that span. 255 batting average, 12 homers, 15 steals.

He's had COVID, I think two times, maybe three times. So maybe that's something that has affected him to this point. But towards the end of the season, they moved him back to second base and played 19 games there, 300 batting average,

two homers, four doubles, and 8, 15. So it's a super small sample size, but if you are a Glaber Torres optimist, then maybe that's something that you can convince yourself on this upcoming season. His ex-Woba has not budged in his career. 337, 337, 3-337, 3-30. And that basically matches with Wobah dropping league-wide. So he's probably, if you just put X Wobah plus or whatever, he'd probably be like identical across his four seasons, which is very funny. I'll point out, definitely. Definitely. Glabertor is definitely not a fan of Camden Yards expanding left field

because he's someone that has just feasted there over the past couple of seasons. The leftover is there are 12 players in this tier. Kyle Farmer, Isaiah Kinder-Felefa, Jonathan V.R., David Fletcher, Gio Orchella, Paul DeYoung, Jose Barrero, J.P. Crawford, Josh Rojas, Jordan Groschens, Bryson Stott, and my boy, Andres Jimenez. Scott, anyone you'd like to highlight quickly here? Not really. No. From the previous tier, I want to point out that O'Neill Cruz has potentially a 40-home-or-20 steal outcome, I think.

But he's very tall and could strike out a lot against Major League pitching. So we'll see. Yeah, he's 6'7. He plays shortstop. It's going to be pretty interesting to watch him play. But, yeah, a very interesting prospect and one that the steamer projections like quite a bit. We're going to wrap there for Sky Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today.

We'll be back again tomorrow to preview the Outfield Tears. Bye-bye.