Fantasy Baseball Today - Second Base and Shortstop Tiers! Ranking Jazz Chisholm (1/26 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: January 26, 2023

It's time to pay up at second base (3:15). ... Jazz Chisholm or Ozzie Albies (8:30)? ... Can Andres Gimenez run more this year (14:40)? ... Who is most likely to bounce-back between Ketel Marte, Jorge Polanco and Brandon Lowe (16:55)? ... Who is Thairo Estrada (27:25)? ... News (34:02): Jeffrey Springs signed a four-year extension. ... Might Trea Turner run more with the Phillies (36:45)? ... Should you take the gamble on Fernando Tatis Jr. (38:48)? ... Oneil Cruz has massive upside (44:08). ... Willy Adames is undervalued again (48:30). ... Why does Scott hate Amed Rosario (55:08)? ... We wrap up with the top international prospect signings (59:50). 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 Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow 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. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Up next, we have Middle Infield Tears. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, January 26th. Frank Stample joined by Scott White and Chris the Welsh.

Today on the show, we'll hit second base and shortstop tiers. Plus, I want to ask the Welsh about the top international prospects, which signed last weekend, what do we need to know for Dynasty and our first year player drafts? For those who don't know, the Welsh has a few other podcasts that he hosts, Prospect One, in this league. I join him for a live mock draft. So Welsh, I'd like to let the people know when and where they can find this podcast

in case they want to listen. Yeah, we had a blast with it. This is going to air on Friday. If you guys want to check it out, the In This League, Fantasy Baseball podcast. It's a live mock draft. It's very different than anybody experiences.

We do audio clips that are put in it. It's very much Scott Bogman and I's brains. So like we might say something and then there's a movie clip that's associated with it. It's kind of a wild experience. And I don't know if you want to talk about it all. We don't have to. But the platform we played on, there's a fascinating thing across the board with it.

We don't have to get into it or anything. You can listen to the podcast if you want. but it's starting to get to season where different platforms are opening up. And boy, the herd is thinning itself out on where you should be playing fantasy baseball and where you shouldn't. And I'm very happy to be doing a show with you guys here on a platform that you should be playing fantasy baseball on in 2023. Ah, well, we do appreciate that.

Well, I'm going to leave it there. But if anyone wants to listen, you can go listen at in this league. Scotty, yesterday we put an emphasis on the third base position and third base tiers. I have a feeling we'll do something similar for second base. Yes, we will, because it is ugly. It is ugly. In fact, it's uglier than third base, because third base was, you know,

at least had that very strong elite tier that is so important to draft from, you know, probably has to be done in round two. But second base doesn't have even that. So it's bad news. Sure is. And that's exactly where we're going to start. By the way, look, these are Scott's tears, but I have a few qualms.

I have a few subjections, and we'll get to those a little bit later on. Well, Frank. If you'll... I thought we shared a mind and had the same impression of how every position breaks down. But apparently not. Fantasy breaking news, turmoil on CBS Fantasy Baseball today between, for example, and Scott White, They don't agree on tiers more on podcasts. Frank, like virtually choking out Scott over the...

Anyway, let's jump in. We'll start with the elite tier for the second base position. And you'll notice something very quickly in this tier. Jose Altuve, Marcus Semyon, and Ozzy Albies. Three names. The ADP ranges from 30 to 53. That's right. No second basemen are being drafted until pick 30 this year.

And that first one is Marcus Semyon, and then Jose Al-Tuvae goes a little bit after him, and then Ozzy Albi's a little bit lower down at pick 53. I, like most people, I trust Semyon and Al-Tuvae as third and fourth-round picks, but Ozzy Al-Biz is sliding down a little bit here in early drafts, going about 15 picks after Jose Al-Tuvae at this point. Why is that? Some of the concerns that I have heard, I'm just going to throw these out there, and then you guys can react.

Where does the power stand with Ozzy Albies in this new environment? He hit eight homers last year in 64 games. That's an 18 home run pace over 150 games. He had 30 back in 2021. You know, the ball was a little bit bouncier, and it was a little bit easier to hit home runs in 2021. He's never been a stat cast standout. His average exit velocity last season,

down to 87.1 miles per hour. His barrel rate was 5.4%. Both of those, well below league average. lineups are going to change, so I don't know how much stock you want to put into this, but the early projection, Rasta Resource has Azi Albi's batting in the lower half of their lineup. So those are the concerns with all that being said. Just two years ago, Azi Albies was the 16th best player in fantasy baseball. So there's a lot going on there, Scott.

Do you share these similar concerns with this recent Azi Albi slide? To an extent, I've said before on this podcast that my top, priority in every draft this year is to get one of Jose Altuve and Marcus Simeon because I just, I don't want to, I don't want to have to struggle to fill this very weak position. But I, but I've also said, Ozzy Albies is there as the fallback. If I don't get one of Altuve and Simeon. Now, so far in our mock drafts, I haven't managed to succeed with this number one goal of mine because all three of these guys go in round three in very quick succession

and I don't happen to be drafting in that range where they go so it's it's and and it's and that's one of the frustrating things when you're putting together the tiers is like it's supposed to really give you a guide for where you can afford to wait at a position and even though this is a tier of three names there's not you really can't afford to wait at it you have to draft it in round three

if you if it's a high priority for you to get one because regardless of what ADP says, my experience has shown that you can't count on Ozzy Albee's sticking around there until round, or till pick 53 or whatever it was. But to get back to your question of, are these concerns for Ozzy Albee's legitimate? I would say the one for me that I wonder about

is if that power bat plays in this post-juice ball league, since we didn't get a really clear big sample of him in the year where it seemed to affect hitters, much like him, these smallish middle infielders who put up surprising power numbers during the juice ball era, that's covered Albee's whole career up to this point. So we don't know what he's going to be like outside of that environment.

And early returns, even though it was just a 64 game sample, weren't good. I will point out that most of that 64 game sample came in the first two months when it was unseasonably cold and numbers across the league were dreadful. So Albies was hurt for pretty much that entire stretch of the season where offense came surging back because temperatures improved and everything. So I do share some of those concerns,

but it's not enough for me to pass him over in round three, if those other two in this tier are gone and then to just settle for mediocrity or likely mediocrity at second base, it's not enough of a concern for me to do that. There's a good chance, even if Ozzy Albiz power numbers do suffer in this environment,

with the new rule changes being introduced, the limit on pickoffs and everything, that his stolen bases could explode, and maybe that'll cancel it out. Both of those are hypotheticals, obviously, but that, like, he's such a, he has such a diverse skill set that it's not necessarily dependent on him being a 25 homer guy. And Albies is one of these weird hitters in that he's not a great actual hitter. He doesn't walk very much.

The batting averages haven't been great the past couple of years. He's very much so like a Francisco Lindor or a Boba Chet where they have a lower Ops usually, but they have a lot of power, they have a lot of speed. They're very toolsy players. So, Ozzy Albi is still 26 years old. in his prime, and the fallback is that he's part of a really, really good Braves lineup. So I think the counting stats should be there as well. Well, so I'm going to ask you about this next player who's part of the near elite tier,

and it's just one player. It's Jazz Chisholm, who has an ADP of 53, going right around the same spot as Ozzie Albies at this point. We've seen it with Jazz. I mean, the upside is sky high, but he hasn't been able to stay on the field. Last year, only played 60 games, dealt with a stress fracture in his back. also turned out that he had a torn meniscus in his knee, but he hit 14 home runs and 12 steals in those 60 games. That is a 35 homer 30 steel pace.

Welsh, are you willing to take the plunge on Jazz Chisham in round five? And what do you think about him versus Albies? So much so. You guys are probably, Scott's going to hate this. He's my number one second baseman this year. He's my number one second basement of all these guys. He is at the tippy top. My tier is the four guys, not the three.

He is in that tier with these guys. Part of the rank as well is probably built around understanding where these guys go. Like you just said, you're getting him in the 50s. In many scenarios, you are likely going to get him after those top three. NFBC total drafts, just throwing this out to everybody. He actually is going before Ozzy Albies. If I was just looking at that correctly, I believe he's going at 45 in the full 270 NFBC drafts, where Ozzy Albies was going 50.

or true ADP of 52, so he's a little bit above that. I'm a little bit of the belief. I know we kind of were having a discussion about jazz and his ability to stay healthy. I think that is obviously a concern you could have out there. I think part of the team's movement on this is not just built around, you know, flexibility and getting a true center fielder. I think it's also about health. Obviously, there's different injuries.

Fernando Tatis juniors is also built around that. There are different injuries that are going on. And jazz seems to be one of those guys. It almost looks like it's pulling. into like Jean-Carlo's Stanton. He just picks up something here, picks up something there, and we really want to hope

that he's not going to be an injured-prone territory. But he is a dynamic, dynamic, at least four-category player. With the potential to be anywhere from a two-elite to four-elite player, the batting average is always in question. And this position kind of stinks.

Al-Tuve is safer. Simeon has similar warts in how he struggled in the first half. He's got some of those swings, that I think Jazz has, swings as in, you know, ups and downs. And Ozzy Albies has got some major question about where the counting stats are going to go. So I look at Jazz, even in that time, he lowered his strikeout percentage a little bit last year. I believe, I believe in the counting stats.

I believe that move to center field, a little bit more flexibility, can keep him healthy. I believe I'm going to sit in that, that he's going to be able to be healthier. And this is a guy that seems and feels like a lock for 2020. And I want to lock that in on my second base. And I like him even a little bit more than Marcus Simeon. That's my top guy, and he comes at a little bit of a value. Look, I love the player. I have his jersey.

He's one of my favorite players to watch, but I am typically risk-averse when it comes to drafting. I wrote him up in my breakouts column. He's going in the fifth round. I think if you have two relatively safe hitters in the first two rounds, maybe you mix a starting pitcher in there, round three and round four, if you can get jazz as your third hitter in round five, I feel pretty good about that. At that point, I'm willing to take the risk.

If you have a Jose Ramirez on your team, a Kyle Tucker, and then, maybe in the second round you get a third baseman or Paul Gulchman. If you're getting jazz and the end of round four or early round five is your third hitter, I think you have enough of a base already built up where you can take that risk. Yeah. And you know, I just wanted to add too. There's an interesting situation that's going on with this as well. You know, you're talking about that third round.

Scott, you're saying if you, you got to commit to the third round. There's only so much to go around with the fantasy problems that we have in draft. Right. We don't like third base. We don't like second base. outfield is a disaster if you don't take care of it. And then there's a pitching question. Do you avoid the, do you do early starters?

Do you do late? Okay, turn it around. Where do you get relievers? You're going to get them in the third round. Late second or third. So you've got to decide who are you? Relievers, outfield, third base, second base. In the first four rounds, you have got to take care of two of those.

You're most likely not going to take care of all of those. So that is another reason. It's a little bit cheating as far as values and stuff go. but like I really am going to have a lot of shares of jazz more than any of these other guys because they fit my program of where I want to jump into drafts and the priorities I want to take instead of jumping into these guys because I also think these four are that tier and they're all good and you get the best value on jazz right now though he is a little bit more volatile. Yeah. I mean you could certainly make like I encourage people to make their own tears and obviously you're going to make your own tears. but just everyone listening out there based on your own comfort level. I think if you're tiering players with primarily upside in mind,

it makes sense to have Chisholm with Al-TuVe, Simeon, and Albi's. Particularly, I mean, Al-Tuve excels, I think, in ways maybe that Chisholm can't, but Simeon and Albies could end up with, Chisholm could end up with very similar statelines to them. But there's also a downside risk. that's causing me to drop Chisholm behind those two. And that's the fact that he hasn't. We haven't seen him play anywhere close to a full season yet. And it doesn't mean he never will.

But I would rather pay the two-round premium to get somebody who I am. I feel more confident will be around for the full season. And if it doesn't work out, I'm happy to fall back on Chisholm. I think I did take him in our latest Roto-Mock. and that's probably about round five. Unlike when we were at first base, we were talking about how I had Matt Olson tiered by himself in the near elite.

And I wasn't sure that I'd really be that eager to take him even though he had a tear all to himself. Chesim, I would say, it'd be more likely to do that given, given how much thinner second base is as a whole. Let's move over to the next best things tier, which includes Tommy Edmund, Andrus Jimenez, and Max Muncie, this is a big, it's a wide gap in terms of ADP, 74 through 142,

Edmund going at 74, Jimenez at 86, and Max Muncie down at 142. This one feels a little format dependent, Scott. You know, I have no issue taking Edmund or Jimenez in round seven or eight in a categories league. And then if it's in a points league, you know, maybe I'll jump Muncie a round or two to make sure I get him in that format if he's the last remaining second baseman. And the one I wanted to focus on here is Jimenez, who overperformed his stat cast numbers by quite a bit last season. But I do think that he is a candidate to improve his steals,

whether it's by five or 10 or however many. We know the rules that are coming in should lead to more steals. And Andres Jimenez was 94th percentile sprint speed. So he is one that stands out to me, Scott, where it wouldn't surprise me if we get 25 to 30 steals from him. No, it wouldn't surprise me if we got 25, 30 steals from him, but I don't think 2530 steals is going to be as impressive to us either, as useful to us.

I think, like, Hamedes is an early candidate to be in Busts 1.0 for me because of how much she overachieved as a hitter according to Staccast. And, you know, we've seen other hitters, Randy a Roserena, who show they can outperform stat cast year after year, but when you only done it once. it's a little harder to buy into that in Jimenez's case. And I've drafted Jimenez to be my starting second baseman once already for this year. So it's not like there's not a point where I would take him. But it does feel like a resignation.

Again, we're talking about a very small tier here through just three names after only four other second basement ahead of this tier. So at some point, you just have to. take a second basement and sometimes it is Jimenez for me. But yeah, I think he's a bit risky and not somebody I go into drafts targeting. All right, let's move over to the fallback options. This is another wide range of ADP from 123 to 220. This includes Catelle-Marte, Jorge Polanco, Brandon Lau, Glaber Torres, and Vaughan Grissom. It's an interesting group. I will point out, Gleiber and Grissom are one tier lower

in a head-to-head points league. The market is basically done with Cotel Marte. He's the one where the ADP is down at 220. It's kind of like what we said about Anthony Rendon yesterday where he was down in the same range. The market right now is that they're just basically done with those two players. There are some bounce-back candidates here,

and that includes Cotel Marte, Jorge Polanco, and Brandon Lau, Welsh. Let's say you don't get a jazz or an Altovae are one of those top four guys. do you like anyone from this group? Who is most likely to bounce back from specifically those three? Catele Palanco, Brandon Lau. Okay.

So, yeah, that's injury. How you said it, when you change it right at the end, bounce back is an interesting question because I think a lot of people that know me might think I would go to Cotel Marte. It's really not. I do think there's the bounce back potential. So from as far as investment goes, I'm probably not going to jump into it,

though I do understand it, especially if the diamond backs at the top of their order, if they're going to have Corbyn, Carol, and Jake McCarthy and it's going to go bang bang and they're going to be stealing at rates, especially Corby and I think they're going to. Gatel Marte is going to hit three. And that's a pretty good spot if he can return back to making the type of contact and not swinging through his shoes at every single step, which he does, absolutely trying to murder every ball.

He has, it says a million times. He always has some insane max EV. It's like 115, 118 every single year. He's near the top. But he doesn't tap into it at all times and he overpresses. So I don't see where they're going to start having him run, especially with the young guys they have on this team. So I don't see that.

I could see the batting average coming back and maybe he gets back to 20 homers. So I can see it, but it's not where I'm going to invest. Polanco is probably the one I think is the safest because Scott kind of said this. This is what's so gross about this position. We talked about four and then we fell off of a cliff. And then we hit a rock and we fell off of another portion of the cliff into this. range, it's so dramatic to think that Jorge Polanco and Catele Marte and even Max Muncie are the best back end options for second base right now. It doesn't compare to most other

positions what you can get at 8, 9, 10. And I think all of these guys are limited, I think, in their overall potential. But Jorge Polanco, I like the offense. I like what Minnesota does overall in general, 20 homer potential, maybe double digit stolen bases. Bat X has got him at 22 and nine for this upcoming season. Brandon Lau is another fun fun one to base off of, especially if you can get that 30 homers. I just struggle with the batting average on him. Polanco is my most likely player that I'm going to invest in of those guys

and kind of also ends a tier where I go, oh man, I screwed up. Like if you don't have like a Polanco, I've really screwed up. And you better hope that I've put the positions together in a really good spot because then what I'm probably likely to do in deeper leagues is try to get like a middle.

You know, I'm probably going to go with a higher-end shortstop to fill my middle and then just get a category boost. You know, I might go later into like a Rojas or something like that. But Polanco, to me, is kind of like a solid even, 2010, 250 to 260 second baseman that completely ends a tier. And I would take them over Ketel-Marte. And this is exactly why we break down the tiers the way that we do, Scott. And yesterday we talked about how we're more likely to wait at first base.

this is why you can get a Jose Altuve or a Marcus Semyon in round three and you could get, you know, like a Christian Walker or an Anthony Rizzo around pick, you know, 120, 130. Or you can take Matt Olson in round three as your first baseman, but then you have to take one of the second basemen as your starters and to me,

it just doesn't equate. I'd much rather just wait at first base where I think those guys are much better players at their respective position and get that lock in second basement. So that's really, the point of doing this exercise. Yeah, and if you're... I think where it gets tricky is if you're just looking at name value,

because a year ago, Coutelmarte, Jorge Polanco, Brandon Lau, these were all considered, like must-start high-in second baseman. And so, you know, they've done it before. Why can't they do it again? And yeah, they could do it again. It's very, very unlikely all three of them are going to bounce back. It's just the odds are against that happening.

I agree with Chris that Polanco is my favorite of them to bounce back. He's actually in Sleepers 1.0 for me, which is already published on the site. I talked about how Andres Hemenis underperformed or outperformed to stack house numbers. Jorge Polanco underperformed them, the expected batting average, the expected slug. He showed pretty good power in between injuries last year. I don't think we're going to see him be a 33 homer guy again. But he has a knack for pulling the ball in the air, which is a good way to maximize power in this environment.

And he actually had a pretty good home run pace last year, like I said. It's always been a high line drive rate guy. So I think there's a higher batting average ceiling than most people give him credit for. And he has 75th percentile sprint speed. So even though he hasn't been much of a base dealer in the past, He's somebody who I think could see his totals explode this year and maybe even approach 20 steals.

I think that's within the realm of possibility for Polanco. So there is certainly high end upside there, and I think his reasons for dropping off last year aren't as obvious as they are for Cotel Marte and Brandon Lau. So I like him as... I mean, he's in the tier here, the fallback options. I've called a few guys a fallback option here at this position. But I think using that term as accurately as I can, Jorge Polanco's maybe the best description of it.

This is like the I'm drowning territory. Like, please get me out. I'm really drowning. This is the last hand that can help you before it gets really bad. If Scott doesn't get one of his elite second baseman, he's like, all right, well, I guess I go with one of the fallback options, which is the rest of the position, basically. Yeah. Anybody else. I'm going to put up my Homer hat for a second.

I actually can't reach my Yankees hat from here. but Scott, I do think that Glaber Torres deserves a little more recognition. Maybe he should be in a tier higher than this, and I'll just make my case, and you can feel free to disagree. Last year, he bounced back in a big way. 257, 24 home runs, 10 steals. The accounting stats were okay, they were solid. Obviously, Yankees lineup. He changed his approach completely.

He was much more aggressive, which is how he played earlier on in his career when he was amazing. He hit the ball much harder than he had been the past couple of seasons. because Glaber Tor has finished 77th overall in Roto last year. His 80P is 123. And Scottie has him in a tier with these slubs. I feel like he should be a tier higher. But that's just my argument, Scott. He's a pretty good home run hitter for the position.

Below average batting average. Speed. You know, he did have double digit steals last year, but he's not, I don't think he's fast enough that I see him improving much. that area. So, I don't know. He seems,

he seems pretty boring to me. Boring is good, Scott. Can I throw in? Can I throw in? Can I actually, you're gonna, Scots can probably hate this. I have him at second baseman six right now.

And I have him at, in a much higher tier. I mean, technically if you're going by tiers, it's like my fourth tier, which you ended up calling it this. I don't quite see it as that. But a couple things that stood out to me

on Glaber was power numbers were interesting. He had the fourth highest slug among qualified second baseman with a 459, but X slug led all second baseman at 449. This is something I did. I actually did this in our buddy Joe PCPia's Blackbook. I wrote this. I enjoyed looking at this. When you go and look at other ballpark factors, this is a wild one.

When you look at the ballpark factors across players in other places, and Cincinnati is always the fun one to really see, like where could the power numbers build? 41 homers were projected in Cincinnati when you build that, which is just an absolutely absurd number for him. And also, he led all second baseman with average EV of 90.4. So, I mean, the hard hit numbers really were there. X-Lug was behind. I think there's, and the numbers were pretty solidly there,

and they haven't traded him yet. So I don't know. When he's in New York, I'm a buyer on Glaver Torres in those, like, later middle rounds. So is the argument, oh, well, I think he can hit more than 24 home runs. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I think the environment breeds to it is the highest X slug among all second

basement. I think there's more power potential in there. I've always liked Labor Torres could be in the general ballpark of a 30 home run hitter. I would not count that out. I wouldn't make the bet to draft that he's going to be that guy. But I would not be shocked if he's leading second basement in home run, or at least in the top three of these guys. I just think the environment, the team makes him.

a solid option. I actually label him as a solid option at second base when all things get screwed up. I'd rather have him than Polanco. I'd rather have him than quite a few of these players. I have him in the same tier as Andres him in his. Yeah. I mean, I don't know.

I guess, I guess it's just more faith in the player than I have because he was so disappointing for power prior to last year. Like it felt like him defying the odds just to get up to 24 that, to think he's going to approach 30 again. That's that's a stretch for me. But believing in him obviously makes approaching second base easier. So that's, I guess.

And also, like, I'm not like sitting over here. Like, I'm pro-g Labor Torres, got to have all the. No, I like him. I think he's a good out. I already said, like, you miss the top four. Woof, it's pretty brutal. Then you're going to have to start making some really tough cuts and some tough decisions a little bit later on.

I just think Torres is involved in those. difficult decisions before things really fall off the rails. All right, let's go over to the last resort tier. This is a pretty massive tier, so I'm not going to read off all the names. You guys got the rundown so you could see it. You know, it's the reason it's so big is because I decided to get rid of a tier

that we talked about in first and third base. I noticed that. Deep leaguers. Yeah. Yeah, I thought it was superfluous. And, you know, if you have so many tiers that they're all really small, they kind of become not helpful, you know?

Yeah, I mean, especially the deeper you go into a position too, Scott, I think you can start to clump more names together too. Right. Yeah, right. Because it's just so much personal preference at that point. There were three names here that stood out for me. Jonathan India, I would make a similar argument that I think he probably deserves to be in the previous tier as well.

He suffered a hamstring injury in April. I believe that that completely derailed his season. He was never the same after that. And we saw what his upside was back in 2021 when he was the 65th overall player and he won the National League rookie of the year. Tyro Esrata, he was a top 100 player last season. He hit 260 with 14 home runs and 21 steals.

Not really sure what to make of him. And I'll just quickly mention Gene Segarra. I will forever love Gene Segarra. I don't care that he's on the Marlins anymore. As a fallback middle infield option, he is boring, but he gets it done. It's a good batting average. It's 10 to 15 home runs.

It's 10 to 15 steals. And he's rock solid. So I will take Jean Segarra every year. A trend we saw too in the mock that Frank joined me on in this league was Louisa Rise went crazy high in the mock that we did. I mean, we're talking like eighth or ninth round. And I went to take a look. And NFBC, he has a high pick of 118. I mean, just outside the top 100.

So there's a little, I'm not saying I'm a big, listen, the empty counting stats don't really help a whole lot. But it's not out of the realm of possibility. that that game doesn't change a little bit as a batting champion, hitting on the top of an order. Maybe if we can get runs up, maybe he runs a little bit more. It's just interesting to see

and probably is more like, oh, this is a new guy that moves to a new team. We're seeing an uptick in Louisa Rise, I think, in drafts right now, NFBC, and we just saw it in a draft that we just did live. Scott, anything on Jonathan India and Tyro Ostrada? If Tyro Estrada didn't play for the Giants,

I'd like him a lot more. but he's it's where did he come from can he possibly continue this I thought you were going to start singing Cotton Eye Joe where you're here to go where did you come from Tyro Oshara I mean I hadn't heard of him before last year and even early on last year I mean former great Yankee prospect

come on Scott former great Yankee prospect how did you not know him AFL in 2018 baby there you go But, yeah, I mean, the Giants, they have so few lineup fixtures that it would take so, like, I was amazed they played him as much as they did last year. And, you know, they're going to be looking for opportunities to get one more floors in the lineup. So, like, if he doesn't hit the ground running at the start of next year, does he become just this part-time player who wasn't worth investing in? I think that's a very, very plausible scenario.

so it'd have to be pretty late for me to draft them. All right, fair enough. The leftovers here, another one filled with a bunch of players, three that stood out to me. Jonathan Aranda, I want to see what he could do with semi-regular playing time with the Tampa Bay raise. He's had some strong minor league numbers. Bryson Stott had 12 steals last year,

and he was 91st percentile sprint speed. I think he's a candidate to maybe jump up to 20 steals this season. Nick Gordon, just sneaky statcast numbers, 80th percent. average exit velocity, 86 percentile expected slug. Slightly interested. Deeper leagues, put them on your watch list, you know, maybe take a stash on them in the deepest of leagues,

you know, 15 teamers, AL only, something like that. But those are three names that stood out to me. Scott, anything with this group? Okay. I know you love Michael Massey, so if you... I do love Michael Massey. Got the gig, too, looks like now too. Locked in.

Right, with the Adelberto Montessy trade, that was one thing we didn't get a chance to... to bring up. I do love him. I do like him a lot. Let's see if he's able to get regular at bats because there's certainly still a scenario there with Nicky Lopez, where he doesn't for the Royals.

But I like the quality of contact, the fact he doesn't strike out much. And, you know, Chris was talking about the expected home runs by Park and Cincinnati is the fun one. But Michael Massey hit only four home runs in his nearly 200 plate appearances in the majors last year. If he played all those games in Cincinnati, it would have been 15. Now, he's not playing in Cincinnati.

He's still playing in Kansas City. But that gives you an indication of the sort of contact Massey makes. And if that distribution home in a way was just a little different, you know, he might have ended up with much more impressive. of numbers. Among second baseman with at least 100 batted ball events last season, Michael Massey's 13%

barrel rate was third best behind only Jazz Chisholm and Nolan Gorman. So again, in deeper leagues, I am with you, Scott. I think there is something there with Michael Massey. Let's take a break. Before we do that, just want to remind everyone. It's been a while since we've mentioned the Facebook group

that we have, but if you want to interact with the Fantasy Baseball Today community, you could do that at our Facebook group, Facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball today. You can ask any type of offseason type question that you have, keepers, draft strategy, dynasty leagues.

It's a fun group. There's people there asking and answering questions at this very moment while we're doing the podcast. You could also find the link in the podcast and the YouTube description. And we do have some mailbag podcasts that are coming up in the month of February. So send in your question, email

at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. And we'd really appreciate questions as part of five-star Apple podcast reviews. We're closing in on 3,000, which is a pretty big milestone, and the bosses like that kind of stuff. So if you want to help us out, five-star rating on Apple, throw a question in there. We'll answer it on an upcoming mailbag podcast. Let's take a break, and we'll be back right after this. Let's hit some news and notes before we get to shortstop tiers. And Welsh, our guy, Jeffrey Spring, signed a four-year $31 million extension with the Tampa Bay

raised, the deal can max out at $65.75 million if they pick up his 2027 option. And this stands out to me because the raise aren't usually quick to hand out money, which tells me they must like Jeffrey Springs quite a bit. And why wouldn't they? Among starting pitchers with at least 130 innings pitched last season, Springs ranked 15th in K-minus walk rate, 13th in swinging strike rate, and each of his FIP, X-FIP, Sierra, XERA, or 3.32 or less. I like Jeffrey Springs.

A lot. Is he the highest paid ray of all time now? Is he the richest ray in the history of ever? Also, sneakily, is a relief pitcher qualification. If you decide to be a saves punt guy in leagues this year, or you play in points leagues and you want to do the right thing at relief pitcher, if you have a relief pitcher spot and you want to get a starter in there, Jeffrey Springs even more valuable in those formats.

But good to see him get locked in. In the formats where he does qualify as reliever. However, that's not the CBS standard. He falls. I think he just, two relief appearances short of that, yeah. Yeah. So little sneak peek,

but we were doing our mock draft on ESFN, and that's where he is relief pitcher eligible. And he's in a couple other spots as well. He's in a couple other spots. I think fan tracks he's also. It would surprise me of Yahoo either. I mean, if you've ever thought about playing a position,

then you probably have that eligibility. Oh, You stepped on the base. You got it. Yeah. Stalling Marte, who is coming off core muscle surgery, will be a full go for spring training, which is music to my

ears, because I've already drafted him on like three or four teams that I've drafted. So I'm all in on Starling Marte. I think he's a good value. Similarly to Andrew Painter with the Phillies, Marlins' top pitching prospect, Yuri Perez, received an invitation to spring training camp.

Cesar Hernandez signed a minor league deal with the Tigers, and we do have some reliever news. Paul Seawald, who's recovering from minor elbow and heel procedures, could miss the start of spring training. Sounds like he'll be good for the start of the season, however. Michael King, recovering from a fractured right elbow, expects to be ready for opening day. T.J. Antone, remember that guy? Blast from the past. He's recovering from Tommy John surgery. He's been slowed by a right forearm injury. No Bueno. And Ken Giles. Yeah, that Ken Giles. He will throw for teams on February 8th. He only threw a while.

dropping four in a third innings last season. Let's move over to a shortstop, and we'll start with the best around. Trey Turner, who is now with the Phillies, has an ADP of two. You're likely going to see him go anywhere from one to three. I mean, maybe he could slip a little bit beyond that in drafts, but specifically in Roto leagues,

he is going to be a top three pick, and rightfully so. He has not finished lower than sixth in Roto each of the past three years. He averaged 3.4 fantasy points per game last year, which led the position. One thing I wanted to point out with him, he's still 99th percentile in sprint speed.

I think he's one of these guys, Scott, where if anyone blows up and we see a 40, 50 steel kind of guy, I think it could be Trey Turner. Very sneakily, the Phillies were fifth in steals last season. Think about that team. They're not loaded with burners or anything. It's like Kyle Swarber had 10 steals,

Bryce and Stott had 12 steals. I think even Castellanos had 7. they were really aggressive on the base paths. I think you could see that with Trey Turner this season as well. Anyway, we first got called up and was still playing for the Nationals. You look at those early career paces he was on, and he was somebody we were thinking could steal 70 bases. Then he kept getting hurt, so it never happened.

And then he kind of transformed his game as he became more powerful and was on better teams. But yeah, I mean, he's a candidate to, I think there are going to be a few. players who steal more than 50 bases this year, and he would be among the candidates to do that, I would say. Again, this is another position like third base with Jose Ramirez, where we have an extra tier at the top, you know, just with Trey Turner in it.

Those are, that's to indicate the players that, that's, you know, to set aside the players who clearly need to be drafted among the top five picks, like obvious first rounders. you don't even have to, they have to be all gone before you really even consider tiers. And Trey Turner, as you're saying, with an ADP of two, was it? Yep. Is among them. The elite tier at shortstop includes an ADP from 15 through 60s, so quite the range here, rounds two through five.

Fernando Tatsis Jr., Bobauchette, Bobby Witt, Jr., Francisco Lindor, and Corey Seeger. Bobby Witt moves down a tier in head-to-head points because of his play. plate discipline and Corey Seeger moves down a tier in Roto and Categories leagues because he doesn't run. It's a really good plate discipline. Obviously that helps in head-time points. You were inside my head for those little designations, Frank. That those are exactly the reasons why they would drop a tier in those respective formats.

Yeah, yeah. Maybe we're back on track a little bit here, Scott and I sharing a brain. Breaking news for all the podcasts. Scott and Frank are back. They're friends again. No longer choking Scottie out. Your moment is over. The Glaber Torres drove a wedge between us, but we've mended.

We're past that. We're past Glabertors. Let's talk about Fernando Tatis, who I believe to be one of the biggest wildcards in fantasy baseball this season. He finished fifth overall in just 130 games back in 2021. He hit 282, 42 homers, and 25 steals. Since then, just going to run through the timeline. He injured his wrist in a motorcycle accident last offseason. He had surgery to repair a fractured scaphoid bone.

He was getting ready to return in August when he got hit with an 80-game PED suspension. He then had his partially torn labrum in his shoulder repaired in September. He had a second wrist operation in early October to help that wrist, quote, hold up long term, which, why didn't they just fix it the first time they did it? I don't know. I'm not a doctor. Anyway, he's cleared for baseball activities. Should be good to go in spring training.

he's eligible to debut on April 20th. Welsh, are you willing to take the plunge early to mid-second round on Fernando Tate's Jr.? Well, I'm kind of a sucker. I'm a sucker for big, big tools and big potential, even though there's big risks. He was one of my favorite players. I hated the stuff that was going on with him. In 2021, it was such like a bonkers year. He had ranked top 1% in X-SLug of the league.

Remember X-Lug, not his actual slug. It's expected. top 2% in max exit velocity, average exit velocity and hard hit percentage, top 3% in Wobah and XWaba and XWBCon. All of that is to just be like every underlying stat was just in favor of the monster he was. But in that period of time, there's a PED suspension, there's injuries that put a lot of major questions in it. Projection systems are not with it, even with the missed games, essentially the missed April. He is going to outperform every single shortstop, the qualified shortstop.

the qualified shortstop in the game, according to, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I'm looking at the bad X, 36 homers, 22 stolen bases. This is Derek Cardi system over 125 games. And I really believe he's going to be, you know, back to himself. My problem is the investment in a guy that you don't get for a month. This isn't like Bryce Harper. We know he's going to be back.

Well, we know he's going to be back, you know, back to normal. He's not going injured in this case. I do think there's scenarios. I think Roto, I'm a lot more likely. 12 man roto, I'm way more likely to, or actually, but in 12 men, 15 man roto with like a, like a 10 to 11 pick or even in that 8, 9 range, somewhere in that clump, I would be willing to take the risk. In a head-to-head 12 team, what I was trying to say, I might do it if I had like a wheel pick and like the top three and I could swing back and get early picks. Those would be

the scenario. It would really be very specific because of the missed time, but I'm not really worried about the PEDs taking away from his game. I think he is an elite elite player. We didn't see crazy body changes as far as it just breaking apart that PEDs would have had a big change on. I believe we're going to get right back to it. Big hard hit numbers, big elite stats. And I think it's just a tiny bit more situational, which makes it yucky sometimes.

Like you don't like to have players that you're kind of situational with. You're like, well, you know, if I'm in this spot, then I can do it. You just like to take players where you can take them wherever. and you just got to be a little bit more careful with Tatis. Though he does also qualify it outfield if you really screw yourself up in drafts. The shortstop position is so deep that you can go, you can throw in. You get a Jeremy Payne a pass top 100 and Tatis can play an outfield for you. It should be in most formats.

Scottis, I don't think Tatis has outfield eligibility on CBS, does he? Not yet, but the expectation is they'll pick it up early on. So that's, you know, that's incentive to take a chance on him. I haven't a 17th overall player in Roto. I think that's aggressive. I'm actually surprised. That's pretty aggressive. I haven't actually drafted them yet, despite ranking them there.

There's always that one person who wants to take the big swing early and that I'm usually not the first person who does. So, in fact, I'm usually someone who shies away from the big swing early. And we could have said the same thing about Ronald O'Cunia at this time last year. He got pushed up into round one before things were all done. But I am inclined to think Tautis will be Tautis when he does return. And it'll be, by the end of the year, we won't even think about that month.

He wasn't available to you. The near elite tier is basically the seventh round of ADP, from 72 to 84 and a 12-team league. It includes Danes v. Swanson, Zander Bogartz, and O'Neill Cruz, who is one tier lower in head-to-head points, obviously because of his big strikeout rate. Danzy Swanson going over to the Cubs, Xander Bogart's going over to the Padres.

To be totally honest, I don't love the move for either one. Danzby Swanson coming off a career year. I typically do not buy in on the career year moving to a new team type player. That's just something I try to avoid typically. Zander Bogartz just hit 15 home runs in Fenway Park, a park that was 12th in home run factors for right-handed batters. Petco is 19.

So I really don't even know what the power looks like at this point for Xander Bogart's. If I'm taking a shot here, Scott, in this tier, it's going to be O'Neill Cruz, who like Tatis, not to the same level, he is an X factor for fantasy. He could return first round value. He could be in the minor leagues by June.

I mean, there is a massive range of outcomes here, but there is one where he hits 40 home runs and steals 30 bases. Yeah, based on the way his rookie sees, season went, and especially September when he got the strikeout rate down. I'm not as concerned about the downside risk for O'Neill Cruz as I thought I might be, as I might normally be for somebody who strikes out as much as he does, and his game just seems kind of all around kind of raw.

The upside is huge, and like, even if you just project his partial season numbers last year over a full season, I mean, it's still going to justify the ADP as a 230 hitter because there's going to be enough home runs, enough stolen bases there. I would say from this tier, he's also the one I'm most excited to draft, even though I only have him in this tier in 5 by 5 leagues and not points. This is a tough stretch of the rankings for tiers.

Even looking at it now, I don't feel totally comfortable with the way I broke it down. Of course, Corey Seeger, and if we're talking 5 by 5 scoring, is also in this tier. He was in the previous tier just for points. So that makes it look a little better. You know, we talk about shortstop being a deep position and a deep position, especially

during like the meat of drafts. And so that's, you know, I feel like this tier should be bigger. I look and see, oh, I have Zander Bogarts in this tier, and I have Carlos Correa in the next tier. And are they really that different, especially since like you, I don't know that Bogart's is going to be quite a 20 homer guy anymore in San Diego. do I need to combine because the next tier we're going to get into

is much bigger than this tier. Do I need to, I don't know, do I need to sort those two tiers differently? Is Dan v. Swanson? Our Dan v. Swanson is it, Zander Bogart, is really in a different class from Tim Anderson and Carlos Correa, specifically if we're talking a 5x5 context.

And I don't know. I don't feel totally comfortable with it. So let's talk about it with the next tier. I think there's an argument to just combine all these names together here, Scott, because you're right, there is a meat part of this draft, which now, if we just combine these tiers, it goes from 72 to 121. That is a pivotal point of the draft.

You're talking about from round 7 through 10 in a 12-team league. And if you don't get a shortstop by the end of round 10, which I will show you in the next tier, it falls off very quickly. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. if I just combine this tier with Swanson, Bogarts, and Cruz with the next tier, then there's basically no fourth tier at shortstop. Like, that's just kind of the end of the position

because the drop-off is so steep after that. And then there's also this annoying issue of Tommy Edmund, and I have him below this Swanson tier at second base. Yeah. So there'd be like an inconsistency. You know what I'm saying? Like, I have to keep the tier just consistent. consistent between positions as well. It's just a frustrating behind the curtain sort of thing

that makes it harder. Yeah, I was going to say. Let's actually, let's actually reveal the names from the next short stuff here so we can stop talking about it vaguely. The next best things tier includes Tommy Edmund, Tim Anderson, Carlos Correa, Wander Franco, Willie Adomis, and Jeremy Pena. Pena is one tier lower in a head to head points league. For this exercise, like, I wouldn't even consider Tommy Edmund a shortstop because whoever's drafting him is more than like using him as a second basement. There could be a situation where that person drafted Semyon and maybe they draft just,

they just want Edmund as a shortstop. But I think more often than not, Edmund is being drafted as a second basement. Yeah, that's true. And that's fine to do that in your head, but I can't leave Tommy Edmund, shortstop eligible Tommy Edmund out of the shortstop tiers. And as I was saying,

so this is the next best things to you, he's in the next best things at second base. So if I were to shift this next best thing's tiered shortstop up to the near elite, what would that mean for Tommy Edmund at second base? Does he need to be tiered with jazz chisholm? I don't think any of us would want to do that. No. So yeah, those internal consistencies that maybe nobody cares about but me,

nonetheless are very important to me. And so that's why I end up with this murky situation at shortstop, where it's really two tiers that don't have. a clear distinction between them, which kind of suggest they're not distinct tiers. And so, yeah, I'm not sure the best way to handle it. But I guess what I'm trying to say is, you know, if you're at the point in the draft where Dansby Swanson and Zander Bogarts need to be taken, but, you know, another position's active tier is nearing depletion as well.

Prioritize that other position instead because the next tier at shortstop is very deep and not as far apart as you'd think. And I love this here too. Tim Anderson, when he's on the field, he's still a really productive player. The problem, he's missed 32% of his game since the start of 2019 due to injury. Carlos Correa is back with the twins.

He was really good last year, hit for good batting average, you know, 22 to 25 home runs. Bad luck with the counting stats, but I think we expect those to get back on track. Willie Adomis was just the 48th best player in Roto last season. he now has an ADP of 92, which makes no sense.

It makes absolutely no sense. So I'm totally fine waiting and winding up with Willi Adomas. Whilst the one that I struggle with the most when it comes to ranking is Wander Franco. What do we do with Wander Franco? He had a quad injury pop up in April last year. I don't think he was ever right. Now maybe I'm just kind of simplifying it. I made the excuse for Jonathan in India.

I'm making the same excuse for Wander Franco, but I watch games where he just didn't look right. And then he had a ham eight bone injury in July. It was pretty much a lost season for him. He has played 153 regular season games. So far, he's hit 282 with 13 home runs and 10 steals. I mean, that's Gene Segaro. It's like we haven't seen this elite prospect hit his ceiling yet.

And I don't know if he's going to. It's obviously way too early to say. But what are your thoughts on Wander Franco? And, you know, how are you ranking him this season? Yeah, I think you kind of said it. It's a little too early to say because if you go back and look, he had like a monstrous start to the year. In that March, April, he hit 313.

He had four homers, three stolen bases in one month. Monstrous. It was Mooky Betts monstrous month that he can put up. But still, you know, you put that over the season, he would have been projecting out to look like a 2020 guy. And he looked like, you know, his body is grown a little bit bigger. He was still stealing bases. He was hitting an elite clip.

And then everything just fell apart last year. Injury, injury, never got right. I think timing got off, but he's also still a super, super young player. And I think that's something that's hard to remember for everybody. He's not 22 years old. He's still 21 years old as we're doing this podcast. It's crazy. So I'm not ready, especially with a guy like him, he's not in my eyes, a Louisa Rise,

who's going to be empty and counting stats. This is a different physical build. This is a different physical approach. He's an aggressive, want to swing, you know, ball out of stadium type of guy. that he's not just going to be looking for straight line drive contact his entire career. He wants to be an impact bat that's going to be in the middle of the order. With all of that said, the position is so deep,

we haven't seen enough where he's a guy that I want to make a big bet on this year. But in Dynasty, I do. Like Dynasty, I think he's an incredible buy right now because I think he's at an all-time low. People think he's going to be a 15-15 guy, and he might be. But I think the cost is good. In redraft, I just think there are so many better options. I'm fine if he falls.

He's a little bit lower in my tiers and a lot of these guys. He's in my tier four, which is kind of like what Scott was saying, where I just have a big clump of a bunch of these short stops. I've got like six guys that end up being in this. And he's near the bottom of this tier that's got, Zander Bogarts and Danesvys Swanson and Tim Anderson. He's at the bottom where I'll take him if need be,

but I'm just not sold. Like you said, I'm going to get more than Gene Seguerra out of him. I do believe it. though, but I just think this is more of a long-term thing. And he does have to prove it. This is a very big prove-it year. He's not Jared Kelnick. You know, Jared Kelnick can't hit. Joe Adele can hit. Wanderfranco can hit. We just don't know what the impact of those hits are going to be. And really multiple things worked pretty heavily against him last year that I'm hoping

it's going to improve. I still believe he can be a 2020 guy. So like that bet would be that he can be a 2020 player, worst case, 2515, if he goes a little bit more in power and stolen bases. I think that's where we can get, but that's still not the number one overall player. It looks like he's a little bit cap there. Really, really well said there on Wander Franco. Scott, anything else on this tier? I know there's a lot of names. Yeah, I agree with you that Willie Adama is and, you know, he's basically the last player in this

tier, so it makes sense. He's the shortstop I'm ending up with most often. I'm just content to wait for this fourth tier at this position. Wander Franco, since we brought him up, more attractive in points leagues, obviously, because the strikeout rate being so low helps make up for his power deficiencies, whether they continue or not. But he's still in the same tier for me.

Still the fourth tier in points leagues. He's maybe the order within the tier changes a bit, but I'm not willing to call Fronauton. go a third tier shortstop in that format either. All right. The fallback options, just two names here, Javier Baez and Ezekiel Tovar, who is one of the top prospects in the Rockies organization. Javier Baez was awful his first year with the Detroit Tigers. They made some changes to the dimensions in Comerica Park. So hopefully that can help. And you know, second year in a new place. You know, hopefully he bounces back a little bit. And this is, you know, you mentioned just two

players in this fallback options tier. This is normally a big tier at most every other position. So it's like you should probably have your shortstop by now. It is the thing because quickly running out of interesting options. And so we think of it, oh, deep position. That's true. But that doesn't mean it's one you can wait forever at. Yeah. That's exactly the point I wanted to get to.

When you get to this fallback options here, you just want to make sure you get somebody by the previous year, by the end of the next best things, whether it's a Correa or Wanda Franco, William Domingo, even a Jeremy Pena if you play in a Categories League. So definitely be cognizant of that in your drafts. Last resort, well, I would make the argument that maybe one or two of these names could be fallback options. So maybe we're going to go back to fighting here, Scott.

I could do. But for the last resort, Nico Horner, Ahmed Rosario, Jorge, Mateo, Adelberto Montesi, and Tyro Estrada with Mateo and Monase being one tier lower in head-to-head. Welsh, something you need to know about Scott. He hates Ahmed Rosario. I don't know what it is. Every year, I bring it up. When Amet Rosario gets off a slow start, he's kind of shrieky,

already starts to get going. I said, Scott, come on, Amet Rosario, he's picking it up. He's like, nah, no, boring, nope, I'm out, nope. He just finished 67th in Roto. He earned $18, according to Razball. And he has an ADP of 135. Scott, Maderozario is a valid. I don't get how any of that works.

He's a value. He's only once had a 12 homer season. 12. But he hits, he hits 280 plus. So it's just like really blah production that I guess, I guess the sum adds up to more than, the whole adds up to more than the sum of the parts.

Yes. But like, that's just not the way I want to build a road. Who would you rather have at cost, Amid Rosario or Andreas Jimenez this year? That cost. Jimenez, because he plays second base. Yeah, that's fair.

Rosario is one of those names that I think could run a little bit more, too. He's always had great screen speed. I don't know why he hasn't run more. I mean, Cleveland is typically pretty aggressive, but really good batting average and a good amount of speed from Ahmed Rosario. I mean, it's not even like he's giving you a Luis Arise-type batting average, you know, like, oh, this guy's going to, you know, it's 280. He's a help in the category,

but he's not going to make up for problems. He's not going to make up for a batting average problem on your team. 283 is really good, Scott. Two straight years. And something that Chris Towers says a lot, and he makes this point, is for players who don't walk very much, a 3.7% walk rate,

the batting average actually matters more for those players because those are at bats. They're not turning into plate appearances where he's walking. Those actually count more towards your batting. average where he's aggressive and he's putting the ball in play. So I think it just helps out a little bit more in that way. Also, like, he increased the battinger's essentially the same the last two years. He increased his XBA year over year, which is pretty impressive. He almost doubled his barrel percentage. And he's got a Cotel Martanis to him, almost a 116 EV he put up. That's no joke

for if you can consistently tap into that. He's just one of those guys that might consistently tap into that. He was a big breakout for me last year. He just didn't live up to the counting stats of what you want, but I just don't think 15, 25 is out of the realm of possibility for a guy like him. He's solid. He's rock solid. He's a high floor play. I don't know that he has a huge ceiling at this point. I think he kind of just is who he is. But specifically, if you play in a deeper league, if you miss out on shortstop, if you play in a 15-team rodeo league and you get a meda-rosario as your starter, you are fine. I think you're doing just fine if you get a met a Rosario in that format.

I mean, you probably have the worst starting short stuff. See, you see what I'm saying? I mean, he should. I will say he should be a middle infielder. You do want him as your middle infielder, but like deeper leagues, you can stomach it. Both of you guys hate a better rosario.

Anyway, the leftovers here is filled with a bunch of names. You can find them on the site. I did want to quickly just wrap up and ask the Welsh a few things about this international free agent class. First off, a lot of these kids are like 16, 17 years old. We won't see them for the next four to five years, but they are going to be names you need to know in Dynasty and for your first year player drafts.

Second, and Wells is a point I've heard you make on your Prospect One podcast. It's been a really rough go the past couple of years for international free agent prospects. I think there's many theories as to why that's happened, but the fact of the matter is that it is happening and that these guys haven't really turned out to be much in recent years. It doesn't mean it'll continue to be that way,

but it's just something to consider. Who are some names that we need to know from the international free agent signings for Dynasty and first-year player drafts? Yeah, it's been awful. It's been awful for years, and people are more put off by international J-15, as we call them, prospects than ever before.

This is the type of thing where these guys used to be top 10 first-year player picks. They're no longer there. People are wising up, I would say. But I do think the two names you need to know are at the top of the class. Ethan Salas, whose brothers with Jose Salas, who plays with the Miami Marlins. Ooh, no, I think he actually just got traded to the Minnesota Twins.

He was just involved in the Minnesota Twins. So he was out here in the Arizona Fall League. And Felon, Celston, who was one of the biggest names for the last couple of years who signed with the Seattle Mariners. So Padres and Mariners. A couple reasons. Both impact bats. Ethan Salas is my number one. I think he is phenomenal.

I think he's poised. He has big power. He's a catcher, which is a little bit crazier. but this is an offensive base catcher, catcher who also is a great defender, great bloodlines. Feldman Selston is physically growing into this really impressive prospect. He's got big power,

trained at the same camp that Robert Pawson did. I think he's a little bit more strikeout issues, but here is a unique thing about both these players, unlike a lot of these other guys. Both currently have invites to come to spring training at 16 years old. Felman, it's already been confirmed by the Mariners. that he is going to be here in Peoria during minor league spring training camps, which is not a common thing that happens with these guys.

And Ethan Salas said it on the MLB Pipeline podcast that his plan is to come out here to air. He's already out here in the States and that he is going to be coming to camp as well. Again, 16 years old, training with 18, 19, 20, 21 year old prospects. What that leads to is a possibility that they stay here for extended spring training. And then everything opens up. Jackson Churio was maybe going to play complex level ball this year. He stayed in extended spring trading.

He blew it up. And they just said, screw it. We're going to send him to A ball. And he dominated. Look how far he went. I'm not saying that's going to happen with 16-17-year-old kids. But this is what happened with Marco Luciano. Marco Luciano played a complex league.

I believe both Felman-Selston and Ethan Soss will play in complex-level state ball this year. And that is a big testament to things we did not see with the previous class like Roderick Arias. Christian Vicarro. It's all a risk. I'm going to take my shot. These are the two biggest names. There's other fun names out there that you could start to go with. Alfredo Duno with the Reds.

Yohandri Vargas with the Dodgers. Luis Guenoppa, I'm sorry, with the Braves. It's been a really high-rising guy that we talked about on my podcast. But Ethan Salas and Felman-Selston, if you're going to jump into the pool for J-15, those would be the two that I would. All right. We're going to wrap there for Scott and the Welsh.

I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again next week. Bye-bye.