Fantasy Baseball Today - The Champ Is Here! League Leaders, Playoff Predictions & AFL Updates! (10/6 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: October 6, 2022

The 2022 Fantasy Baseball season is over! Did we win any championships (4:15)? ... For our last OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS, let's highlight season standouts (19:52). Jake McCarthy was a league winner down the stretch. ... News (35:40): Nelson Cruz needs eye surgery but plans to play in 2023. ... What are our playoff predictions (40:45)? ... Who led baseball in the standard 5x5 categories (44:40)? ... Let's get some updates on the AFL (57:46). Jordan Lawlar looks like a stud while Kumar Rocker struggled.  Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Celebrate good times. Come on. Welcome in to a championship edition of Fantasy Baseball today.

I am Frank Stanfel joined by my two buddies. White and the Welsh. Chris Welsh. If you don't know who he is, you know now. The 2022 regular season is officially over. It's so bittersweet this time of year. It's a long, long season. And if you won your championship,

you really should be very proud of yourself because this is a daunting accomplishment. And it is very well earned. Scotty, my man, we did it. Three seasons together, kind of like two and a half, like two and a third, something like that. Oh, 20,

20 counts. 2020, definitely. You know, I get annoyed just in general by people, and it seems to be the majority of baseball analysts who just like act like 2020 didn't happen. You know, whenever they're doing like long looks at things, they just kind of skip over 2020, you know? Oh, that didn't count. But it definitely counted for the purposes of this podcast because we were doing daily

podcast that whole time from March through September, just like usually. will. Yes, yes. Let me just paint a picture real quick because I joined the podcast late March 2020. Pandemic is just starting. It feels like the world is ending. I have no idea what's going on. I'm joining this like Uber successful fantasy baseball podcast and we have to talk about fantasy baseball for God knows how long. We don't know when baseball is returning and we have to do a daily podcast. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I'm happy I did it because it's been a lot of fun. Third season in the book, Scotty. The Welsh is here as well. Buddy, how you doing, man? Arizona Fall League is up and running. The season is in the books. How you feeling?

Pretty good. I was just thinking here, you know, the same people that are like, uh, 2020 doesn't count. They probably also believe that 62 is a home run record. So we don't need to put too much credence into all of those. Probably all the same, but you know, whatever. Stir the pot a little bit. I'm doing, I am, I'm going to be a little sun drunk, if you will. I have been in the hot Arizona sun for three straight days, literally, I think, eight in the morning till 10 at night. My children act like I went to, like, war for a month. Like, I've been gone when they've seen me. They saw me on Wednesday morning, and they were just like, oh, my God, it's just that's how much baseball I've been consuming.

And I'm very happy that I'm not completely burnt to a crisp. Hey, don't look like it, no. Yeah, I'm amazed. Frank looks redder than you do. Yeah, I think that's just like a camera thing. Plus, I'm wearing a red shirt, so I think it just kind of brings out some kind of weird red. Yeah, I did the blue, the black. I got a lot of lights in here. I might probably bring it down a little bit. But trust me, if I were to, you'd see the real Welsh in me if I started to bring the shirt down a little bit down a little bit. You'd be blinded by the whiteness of the skin that would be taking out all of your eyes.

Well, I'm happy you're doing it right, man, because that's why we have you here. We're happy to hear that you are consuming all of that Arizona Fall League baseball. And we'll talk about that a little bit later on. Kumar Rocker, what's going on there? Jordan Lawler off to an amazing start. We'll talk about all of that. But just today on the show, we're going to bounce around a little bit. We're going to have some fun. Obviously, we are officially entering the offseason. We'll talk about our leagues, our championships. How did we do the league leaders?

They are officially set. We've got batting titles to award. Not that I'm like Rob Manfred. I'm not giving out any championships or trophies myself. But we will talk about all of that. Some playoff predictions. Again, we're going to bounce around, have a little bit of fun. And one last, oh my goodness gracious.

Just because we're not going to hear this soundbite for a long time into the off season, who is our, oh my goodness gracious, standout for the season? We'll talk about that in just a little bit. Scott, I did want to ask, just at the top. I mean, how did we do, man? What's the final tally? How'd you do in your leagues? Okay.

You know, I would have liked to do better, of course. But last year was probably my most disappointing playing fantasy baseball. And I'd been really vocal leading up to it. This is last year that, You know, it's very rare for me to finish in the bottom half of the league. And I don't think I've ever finished last in a league. And then last year, I finished in the bottom half in the majority of my leagues. And I finished last in like two or three of them because I went so heavy after starting pitcher and the landscape changed very abruptly.

And yeah, I was left to pick up the pieces. So, you know, moderated my approach as appropriate and got back. to I think a more typical performance for me. I ended up winning. So just looking at the redraft leagues, because obviously Dynasty leagues are a different animal. I played in 10 of them. I won two of them.

I finished in the top three and half of them. I finished in the top half in eight of the 10, so 80%. No high profile wins. I finished third in my TGFBI league. I finished seventh, which is still top half, but seventh doesn't sound great. Tout Wars, because it's a 15 teamer. So it's still top half.

It was within four points of fourth in Tout Wars, and I was going hard after it, because it sounds a lot better to finish fourth than it does to finish seventh. But I did pull out the win in two leagues. They were those two head-to-head points leagues where, remember, I ended the final week way down. I ended up coming back in both of them and winning them. I did lose by one point in the AL-only league,

rot a league that I led all year, basically, and I lost by one point. And that I'd won, if I'd won it, it would have been three of four years that I wanted. So that would have been pretty impressive. Damn. It'd work out. Overall, I'll grade my season a B minus. It was improvement.

But, you know, I think I can do better. And I think I will do better next year. I'm feeling I think we're getting back to a more familiar, as we get back to a more familiar aesthetic for baseball, like a more familiar home run distribution. more familiar, steel distribution, I think, with some of the rule changes that are being applied. I think I can settle back into my oldest, longest-held strategy, which focuses on things like position scarcity above all else

and definitely leans into hitting overpitching. And I think it's going to go better. So I'm looking forward to next year already. Scott came ready to go. He had a season grade and everything. I tweeted it out already. I'll give myself a B minus. I haven't gone that far.

I haven't given myself a grade yet. But you and I are alike in this way, Scott, that I think no matter how much we win, we're still not going to be happy, right? Like, the goal is to win all your leagues. It's never going to happen. There's just too many variables that happened throughout a fantasy baseball season.

But I kept telling my wife, I'm like, I'm in this really close matchup. I want to go back to back in Tout Wars. I really want to win. And I did it. And I'm really excited that I did. And I told her that. Unreal.

That deserves. around. I agree. I'm the only one clapping. There we go. No, I agree. I appreciate that, guys. That is rare company. Back-to-back-back-Tal Wars championships. I'm pretty sure Fred Zinkees done it before, but I'm not sure. I don't know the whole history of Tet Wars. I'm super glad to have been in both of those leagues that you won back-to-back, by the way.

I'm super happy to have stared up at the top for you, Frank, on both of those. The point that I was trying to make was just that, like, I told her, like, I won, and she's like, congratulations. That's great news. And then the next thing that came out of my mouth is I start telling her about all the leagues that I lost. But I'm like, you know, I lost this league. I lost this league. So I just can't even let myself be happy for a second.

But, you know, I think once this podcast ends, I'll take a step back and try to like let it all sink in. It was a crazy matchup. Shout out to Greg Jewett. Great player this year. He had a fantastic team. And I was giving people updates, you know, the past week or so about what was going on.

I had a huge first week. This was a two and a half week head-to-to-ad matchup, which is just massive for any type of championship. I was leading after the first week. By midway through the second week, I was losing. And I didn't reclaim the lead until Tuesday night, at the end of Tuesday night. And then I think I was up 30 points. And then I didn't relinquish the lead on the final day of the season.

But it was just crazy back and forth, back and forth. I took a big lead. He took a big lead. And then it was just like a really, really awesome matchup. So overall, I played in 17 leagues this year, which is way too many. All different kinds of variety. Draft and hold, best ball. There's a Dynasty League in there, Scott White Dynasty League,

and I came in first place in three of them. So I'm happy to do that, but of course, we're always striving to be better. Welsh, how'd you do, man? How was your season? Well, mine is exponentially less interesting to this audience about anything I did. I haven't been here, so no one's going to really care. So I'm not going to go into a big breakdown. I care.

I mean, I know, you care. I would say mine is probably kind of, I would equate to a little bit of what Scott was saying about his 2021. I think there was a lot of frustration. but I will say, I think mine might be a bit unique in I spread myself out into literally almost every different format. And I think sometimes that hurts me a little bit that I play in so many different things. Also about half of my leagues are very centric to my In This League podcast. And they're all very deep leagues from an 18 to a 16. There's nothing under 16 I do in this league.

And that is a whole other animal. It's a whole other approach and a whole other animal. So everything I do, and I didn't count up the leagues, was over half to maybe 60% was over 16. And I had a couple devastating losses. I had a couple really bad performances. I play in probably quite a few more dynasties than you do. I want to say, I think you said you play in one. I think I play in upwards of five.

And I think I was playoffs in four of the five. And there were some devastating losses in there. I did a lot better in best ball than I did in any other. And I would say I had a really bad showing in my first year of tout, which was frustrating, adjusting to, I have openly said it. I don't particularly care for auction. And I know for many people, auction is a purest way. Mine particular, maybe is an excuse. But when I play in so many leagues and I do so much in the fantasy to take away three or four hours, for me personally, is just not necessarily my thing.

And I'm in two auctions right now in the Scott White Dynasty. So that is the challenge. And the first year, I really struggled. And this year, I had a great plan. I loved my plan and immediately got injuries. And I came out the gates bad again. But then I went on a torrid run of it was, you know, whatever it was, eight, nine, 10 weeks of straight wins to end the season and just missed the playoffs.

And I was beating top three teams along the way. And I was dominant. The last, you know, like I said, two and a half months. months of tout, it just wasn't enough to get in and challenge anybody as I had got to Grom back and I had Otani and everything. Like I got Harper back. I mean, I would really struggle with injuries. So overcame a lot. Pretty disappointing, I think, in a lot of different respects. But, you know, maybe if I want to sound better on podcasts and I need to, I need to lower my leagues a little bit more. Like, I kind of would like to do a few more 12 team or just standard

15 road. It's a lot of head to head. It was way more head to head than I think I usually do. but yeah I literally I don't think there's a format I didn't play this year which I think was unique to me I think the dynasty format which you know you do a lot of prospect works so it makes sense that you play in

more of those I'm in probably like for myself and it's about one too many because dynasty leagues require so much more of attention. Boy do I agree with that yeah but I think the dynasty format

thrives on being deeper, you know? Like, that's kind of the whole point. I mean, if you want to get, if you want to really wait into the prospect pool, you need at least 18 teams, I think. And I think 24 is probably the sweet spot. So all of mine, all of, well, three of my four or 24. And one is 16. And the 16 just doesn't quite cut it. Yeah. I don't quite agree with that. But I know what you're saying because you can simply go deeper into player pools of what you do with minor leagues. I go as low in dynasty as 12 and up to yours in 24. And then there's like a litany of 16 teams in there and a 15 team as well. But I think it's, that's what's so unique actually I would throw in about the dynasties which can throw you off. Is they're all not created equal? Like I have one dynasty where

you draft five minor league players and you just keep playing the player pool. I have one that is an open universe. I've got another that it's 20. I mean, it's just it's all different ways to approach prospects and it really keeps you on your toes in that in the dynasty formats while also doing, you know, leagues with listeners, doing personal leagues, doing industry leagues. It's a lot. And I think finding the sweet spot for all of us is a challenge. Kind of Frank said, what did you do, Frank? 17 leagues or something like that? Yeah, 17 leagues. Yeah, finding the sweet spot. Look, and before people just assume that I'm crazy, which I kind of am, seven of those are either draft and hold or best ball leagues. So it's not like I need to do waivers and trades and all this

kind of things. Like there's 10 leagues that I have that are straight up redraft leagues where I need to do like waivers and things like that. So I really like drafting. That's the problem, right? Like throughout the off season, I always like being in a slow draft just to see draft trends and where players are going and compare different drafts

and all these different kind of things. And maybe it just turns out to be too much. But overall, I did really well in head-to-head leagues this year. Roto, I only won one out of 10. So I think I kind of had to refine the process there or something. I have to figure it out because Roto did not have a great season this past year. I do want to give, go ahead, Welsh.

I just want to ask a question real quick. I know a lot of people have been doing this. I don't mean to sidetrack us, but mock drafting is really important. And something I do very, very heavy and something I've been doing for eight, nine years of like, not just jumping in like Yahoo mock drafts and stuff like that, but there's a big trend,

and I definitely don't disagree with this whatsoever, of people being like, hey, you know, it's fun to mock draft and all, but why don't you go in at least to a $5 best ball? And that's where you're going to get real competition. The problem is best ball doesn't exactly translate all the time. in strategy to what your standard, maybe even roto or head is going to look like. But do you believe as an offseason strategy doing best balls over mock drafts is a way to go?

Yeah. So I almost take it, not almost. I take it one step further. Well, I do a bunch of NFBC draft champions drafts, right? So those are, they range from like $50 to $150. I usually split them with a buddy of mine, which again, it adds up throughout the offseason. But those are like really competitive.

And that's something I found is like the NFBC is just loaded with really great players. Like I have not been able to crack the code of the NFBC. Like that is where I struggle the most. And partially because a lot of those leagues are roto. So again, I think I got to refine the process. But that's what I like to do. Well, they have like $50 draft champions. They're like 50 rounds, slow drafts in the offseason.

And they go from 12 to 15 teams. And again, they're slow. Like you could take up to eight hours per pick, right? So like they last a month. and then you can look back on the draft and you could start a new one. So that's typically what I do. But I think your idea is right. Like do a best ball or something that has like a little bit of monetary value on the line.

So that people take it more seriously. Because like gambling became legal two September ago here in Arizona. But NFBC apparently could not get their license through. So I can go and bet on any game I want. I can play any DFS of Draft Kings fan. I can do anything except play NFBC for money cash leagues because they couldn't get their licensing. Arizona. So this is a state that is legal with that. So NFBC is just not necessarily legal in every spot. So even if you can't play it, that doesn't mean you can't play best balls if people get

frustrated. There are different places in formats that do it for as little as five bucks. And I don't know if I would promote that necessarily because the only thing is I do believe that drafting best balls can also sometimes create bad habits to specific formats if you follow me. But I do think if you want I know basic roster construction and the basics of where people are going and stuff like that, it really can be helpful to do outside of just only, only waiting until January, February, and then being like, I'm going to get in the CBS free mock draft, or I'm going to get in so-and-so's free mock draft. Like, you need to find places where you can find real players.

And if you can't do it in certain outlets, it's something I do within this league. If you can't do it in something like that, putting a little bit of money behind some of it, I think is helpful. I couldn't tell if you disagreed or agreed earlier when I said it by your face. Oh, I just, I just, I don't have much experience with best ball. I've never, let's see, Razball's had a tournament, donkey teeth tournament. Yeah, it's, what does he call that again? The Razlam?

The Razlam. I did that a couple times, but I missed, I missed the sign-up this year. So I didn't do a single best ball this year. So I don't even have that much experience with the format. Oh, don't worry, Scott. We'll get you in a few best ball traps this off-season box. Some fun with that. I do plan to move in the next year, Welsh, but I'm just going to go ahead.

cross Arizona off by list because no NFBC they're going to get it they're going to get it and it was really about everybody flooded the market and there was only so many licenses that Arizona did and NFBC just didn't there's no way they're not going to be I mean to be honest with you those dudes should be banging the doors down to get it done right now because in about three and a half weeks or so the entire baseball industry is going to be coming here to Arizona for you know four days and they literally do early drafts being able to do it with NFBC and everything like that. that would probably be pretty beneficial if it were legal. So it'll be there.

But you can cross it off if you want. Enjoy your weather while I'm getting sun. And if I'm at first pitch Arizona, well, you can bet your sweet Willie that I will be in one of those drafts. I just, yeah, baby. I'm looking forward to it.

All right, last shout out I wanted to give is just people who won a few leagues that we all playing together. For the People, Podcast League, Doug Rowe took that one down. I actually won the podcast listeners league, Scott. So take blood. No big deal, humble break. No big deal. And then wanted to give a shout out to RJ White,

who took down Scott White Dynasty League, just absolutely ridiculous season all year for RJ White. And Greg Lathrop, who was going up against RJ in that league, but he also won the Memorial Magazine, Roto League, Scott, which you can go back. We probably did it in early or mid-March. There is a salary cap auction-style draft that we did right here live on this podcast,

on this stream, on this YouTube channel. and that league played out. I famously bit on Sean Murphy when I thought it was Sean Minaya. That is correct. Kind of threw a hissy fit. Yes. It was not my proudest moment.

Boy, that sounds a lot better at the end of the season, though. I think Sean Murphy instead of Sean Mania, that worked out for you. Yeah, I ended up trading Sean Murphy before the season started. But you're right. You're right.

Yeah, I really did. But Greg Lathrop won that league two years in a row. So shout up to him. I think he's won at three or four. I think it is three or four. I think you're right about that. Yeah. Shout out to him.

Good. good fantasy player. All right. Oh my goodness gracious. Let's do it for the last time of the season. Oh my goodness gracious. All right, Scottie. Do you have a player ready to go

or I could start with the Welsh and I can come back to you? I have a player ready to go. Let's do it. I think my oh my goodness gracious player for the year, he hasn't been top of mind lately because he's been hurt.

But I think it's got to be Spencer Strider. Spencer Strider. You didn't look at the rundown. Did you, Scott? Oh, did I steal? What am I supposed to do here? No, I actually, I actually wrote a second one, so I'm fine. But I want everyone for the record to know that I literally, before anybody, wrote Mr. Spencer Strider.

But you know what? Scott's a Braves fan. You get him. But yes, I completely agree because I literally wrote it down. I think there's another guy I considered before this. But then I, no, you take him. You got him. I got him.

It's, yeah. I mean, Spencer Strider. Spencer Strider was a guy who wasn't on any high profile top 100 prospect list. coming into the season. I kind of wanted him in mine. I chickened out. I chickened out since he wasn't in anybody else's. It looked like he was going to open the year in the bullpen.

I looked at what he, you know, I followed what he did in the miners last year. I had like a 21% swinging strike rate down there. I thought, you know, this guy might be something pretty special, but it wasn't clear that he'd ever really get the chance to start. But then what he did, it was like, you know, like, you know, Like, he became the must-see pitcher, I feel like, of, you know, the entire final two-thirds of the season or whatever it was where he was starting. Just so much life on that fastball.

It ended up setting a franchise record for strikeouts in one-star with 16, ended up having the best K-per-9 rate of any starting pitcher. It was up there in swinging strike rate, too. I think if you qualified anyway, I think he would have tied with Kevin Gossman. for the top spot or I guess if you go out to enough decimals it'd be one or the other who actually leads it.

But the point is, he was a bat missing freak, just like he was in the miners. And it went so far beyond, even as somebody who was pretty high on Spencer Strider, and I know, like, on Twitter, I've gotten a lot of credit for him.

Oh, Scott White's been touting this guy. I wish I touted him harder. I feel like even considering the excitement I had for Spencer Strider, what he actually accomplished was so far beyond that, yeah, he's the guy. He was the guy who most often made my eyes bug out of my head this year, which I feel like is kind of the whole idea behind this selection.

So Spencer Strider, he's my guy. And the good news, particularly for you head-to-head points leakers out there, going to retain RP eligibility into next year will remain a spark. That's massive. I mean, he is far. far and away, going to be the top relief pitcher drafted in points leagues next year. And rightfully so, you mentioned the K-per-9. 13.8 led all-starting pitchers with at least 130 innings pitched.

That's nearly two strikeouts per nine better than the next closest. Carlos Rodan was at 11.98. So it is just ridiculous how awesome Spencer Shreder was this past season. Plus he's got a great mustache, quad father, awesome nickname, jacked up legs. Like, come on, who doesn't want to draft Spencer Shrider? And speaking of which, Welshie, you had them on this list. I can see the hype getting out of control

for drafting Strider next year. The problem is that Scott and I have references Glob, really, that there's like seven or eight starting pitchers that we think could all finish as the SP1. But then there's also like another huge group that is just like these quasi like SP1, like SP1Bs, something like that basically,

where there's like 10 to 12. and I think Strider is going to fall into that range. But what do you think? Will the hype get out of control? I could see him being drafted as like a near top 12 starting pitcher next year. Yeah. You know, I probably, that early mock I did, you know, I was on here. I mentioned to you guys, I took Strider in that one.

He was my first SP. And if I remember correctly, he might have been just outside. I want to say maybe top 15 he went. But, yeah, I mean, I had him on this list because. Wait, right, top 15 among SP? Yeah. But yeah, not overall. Just making sure.

Yeah, no 100%. Because overall, that hype really is out of control. Yeah, I mean, I had this, again, in my little universe, this famous thing that I keep reciting, but there's this moment very early in the season, very, very early where I get very,

I get little tootie sometimes. I poke back at people in the industry and sometimes where like it's tough sometimes when you want to bring up and you want to have a debate and a question. And everybody is so gung-ho on one way or the other. And I did it with Strider. We're talking May.

And I said, hey, listen, do we need to be consider? considering Strider or Aaron Ashby. And the vitriol I got for even posing the question at that time. I'm going to go find it. I'm going to retweet it now, as I think, especially if he wins rookie of the year, just so everyone can be reminded of the thread. Because there's some industry people that popped in and then their people popped in saying,

what a silly question it was. And how stupid do they look now? Because Spencer Strider. They thought it was obvious. It was Ashby. They thought Aaron Ashby to even pose the question that Spencer Strider was in the same breath this season as Aaron Ashby was insane to ask. And I hate that type of stuff because we should always be having debate whether you think it is so much more one way or the other. If any of us are posing

the question, there's some validity there. And look how it ended up going. I mean, Spencer Strider ended up with, he was only one of 11 players with 200 strikeouts this year. And of those 11, this is something I marked on there, had the fifth best ERA. The fifth best ERA of the top 11 who had 200 strikeouts. The worry is obviously the, you know, where the walk rate could go. And he's primarily a relatively too pitch pitcher, which you'd like to see more of, but he was so dominant. And there's room for growth there that I'm in.

And I do think the hype could get a little ahead. We always have to watch that. Paying this year for last year's performance can be dangerous. But we also have to be able to pick and choose elite talent. I think people are going to say the same thing about Michael Harris. And they'll be like, oh, walk rate, walk great. Well, I don't know. I mean, I care about walk rate,

but I don't know how much I'm going to care about it. A guy's going to just hit 300 all the time, be impactful at, every moment of the game and also steal 30 bases. Like, there's only so much we can pick apart to justify why we don't like something that we just have to step away and be like, listen, these guys are just good. And if you want to draft a player for 200 strikeout plus, Spencer Strider is a no-brainer. And he, you know, you use the kind of the Paul Spore famous term of the glob of pitching that's

in there. He is the one-b glop, like you said. That is exactly what he is. He's not the guy we're going to look at. He's not the very tippy top. He's not the burns or if you put Cole or DeGrom or McClanahan in there. He's not those, but he's the next tier. You could genuinely ask a question of cease versus strider, and it's not silly.

It's not a silly question. It's just, you know, how much do you want to be burned? He has a higher potential to be burned, but yet the highest K per nine in all of baseball. He probably also has the highest K percentage into next year if you see growth. Imagine if this guy could develop a, even suboptimal third pitch, a change up. He threw more than 4% of the time, and he threw it 9 to 10% of the time

and throwing hitters off. We could be looking at a completely next level pitcher. So, yeah, I put Spencer Strider in here. I completely agree with Scott, and I do think the hype is dangerous. And he's going to be probably one of like 10 players. You're going to put major focus on whatever early drafts or best balls or whatever exist out there

to kind of start to see where he goes. He only threw 109 changeups this year, but he had a near 50% whiff rate with it. He would love to see more of that. If he needed to throw it more, he would, you know, but like he just doesn't need to. I also think Michael Harris will end up winning an Rookie of the Year, which is kind of disappointing to me. Not that he doesn't deserve it, but I just like the amount of buzz that Strider created, I feel like that deserves an award. I think we should see co-rokey of the year.

I think personally, if I had my vote, I probably would vote for Michael Harris, if I'm being honest. But I think of all the justification, I always look back to like basketball back when Grant Hill and Jason Kidd won co-ro rookie of the years. And sometimes it's kind of just, meh.

I don't know. These guys are teammates. They were both so impactful for one of the best NL teams. I think of all times, this would be a very good justification of a co-rooky of the year award for two teammates that could share it. This is probably one of the few instances I would actually. actually like before that.

Stand out for me. Justin Verlander, we'll get to him a little bit later on. He was on my Tower team. He was, I'm sure this is actually something that I'm going to look into and we're going to get this data

after the season ends. Which players were on the most winning championship lineups on CBS? And I have a feeling that Justin Verlander is going to be on a lot of them just based on where he was being drafted, the middle rounds, obviously go out,

looks like he's going to win the American League, Say Young. He led the league in ERA. He led the league in Whip. He was a lot of, absolutely ridiculous. The only qualified starting pitcher under a two ERA this year, but we'll talk about Verlander a little bit later on. I wanted to highlight

a hitter, which I just don't think that we've given him enough due this year, and I have not, I did not have a single share. 17 different leagues did not have one. Adolias Garcia. Adolias Garcia finished as a top five outfielder in Roto leagues this year, 16th overall. 250 batting average, 27 homers, 25 steals, 88 runs 101 RBI. Batting average doesn't technically hurt you

in this landscape of fantasy baseball. And that's about average in your roto league. It's like whatever, fifth, sixth place, something like that. And he was a legit four category contributor everywhere else. So he was written off. I feel like nobody wanted to draft Adelae's Garcia coming into the year. And he was awesome.

One of, I don't know how many players I'll figure it out. One of however many. It went to five, 25, this year. Four. Four, 25, 25 guys. The others were Marcus Simeon, Julio Rodriguez, and Kyle Tucker.

Yeah, I was about say Kyle Tucker. Yeah, so awesome. Didn't Bobby miss it by like one homer, I think, one or two homeruns? Bobby Whit. I know he had the steals. He was definitely short on the home runs.

I don't know how close he was, but... 20 homers. Oh, okay, so five. She was off by a little bit, but yeah, the speed definitely there for Bobby Witt. And speaking of speed, well, also I know you did have just one of, player that you wanted to mention here.

Yeah. So I put Striders like my big name. If we were trying to go deep, because I know sometimes like this can be like, hey, the biggest thing, if you want to talk about, you know, a pop-up, impressive performance, and maybe it's a little homeristic that I pick a diamond back here. But Jake McCarthy, Jake McCarthy stole 23 bases this year, which got him to 13th in baseball in stolen bases. And he did it in under 100 games. He actually was tied with his teammate, Josh Rojas, who also. so still 23 bases for both of them to put up those numbers.

But he had a K rate that was just at 20%, just everything was 20.9% walking a little bit, hitting 280, 8 homers, which was double what Rojas had. And in 100 games, being able to put up those stats, I really thought from, you know, we're always chasing stolen bases and we're looking for the next guy. He's ironically one of those players that I thought put up an insanely impressive season that's not going to,

to be overly priced next year because we have questions. Is it going to be the major starting outfielder next year? They did option, Alec Thomas, which kind of maybe tells a little bit of the story, but they're crowded in the outfield. Corby and Carroll's got that locked down, whatever moves they make in the offseason. But I think we have some questions. Also, the Diamondbacks, kind of stinky. People are not super excited about them, even though they've got some decent players.

Hey, I was just talking them up on the last podcast, right? Well, they got, they got fun guys, but the team is just kind of eh for a lot of people. good for Dynasty future in minor leagues and stuff like that. But McCarthy, we're talking top 15 of stolen bases in under 100 at bats. And a shortened, really, he did a lot of this work in the last like 45 to 60 days. He's just one of those guys that I thought it was an insanely good year of a not big name player. That also I just don't think he's going to be 100 top 150. Maybe he'll touch that range.

No chance he'll be top 100. But he's just going to come at a crazy cost at a position that we are always, always chasing. and stolen bases. He did a lot of that on what, with a team that typically does not run. That was another crazy thing. Lavello is horrible at letting his team go. And he just gave all these green lights this year.

And you had Rojas and him combined for 46 stolen bases. And you have maybe one of the fastest players in baseball and Corbyn Carroll, who might help and lead off next year and could easily steal 40 plus. So this might be like the newfound royals, the Diamondbacks are, because they're going to have to win games by running. And they finally accepted it. and McCarthy is just one of the most impressive.

I pulled up the ADP for Adoli-Scarcia just to see what it was entering the year. 170. I could see something similar for Jake McCarthy next year, just because people don't really know when it comes to him. Let's take a break. We'll get to some league leaders and some Arizona Fall League stuff. But before we do that, just one more reminder. I still have people asking us, why isn't the podcast daily anymore?

We've moved into the off-season, everybody. This is our off-season schedule. We'll have two podcasts per week. a live stream on YouTube, Monday, and Wednesday night, audio podcasts in your feed on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and that will basically be our schedule through December. Once we get to January, we'll discuss doing more, maybe three podcasts per week, something like that.

But for now, the next three months, we're going two pods per week. And speaking of next week, we will take a look at what we got right, what we got wrong, some statistical trends. Once the dust settles a little bit, we can take a look at the data. And of course,

we will have our annual award show, which will be very fun. Let's take a break, and we will be right back here on Fantasy Baseball today. All right, so I do have some news and notes. Not much going on. Obviously, the season coming to an end, it's going to be stuff that either affects the playoffs or next season. Nelson Cruz will undergo surgery on his left eye around the end of October. He'll be able to resume baseball activity six to eight weeks after that, and he does plan to play once again in 2023. He will turn 43 next July.

What's dead may never die. Nelson Cruz. So is this to correct a vision problem? So he's missed like the, basically the final month of the season, Scott, dealing with some kind of left eye injury. I think it was like some kind of irritation. It's called old.

It's just, he's old. He's so old. And you need eye surgery and glasses when you're old. That's true. You're not wrong. Well, the reason I ask is because, you know, are we going to? to make that an explanation for why he struggled as opposed to him just being old.

Because, you know, for the past however many years, it was like, oh, well, this is the year Nelson Cruz may finally fall off. So you should probably avoid him. And he kept sliding and sliding and drafts more and more every year. And it was always wrong until this year. And age 42 might be the end of the road for Nelson Cruz. That's been my assumption. But now all of a sudden, I'm rethinking things. inflammation in the inner corner of his left eye

that's what I've got but I kind of want to agree with the Welsh and just say that he's old yeah I mean that sounds more like an injury as opposed to a defect you know yeah I mean I'm almost 40 and like everything is inflamed and in hurts and he's going away and I don't do the thing

so like I know he's an athlete and I'm this but you're getting getting older and like didn't he have like a blood transfusion a couple years ago like there's a lot of things you're trying out there I thought he did a lot of weird things. But yeah, I think I'm kind of thinking this might be the end of the road for the, you know, I mean, wasn't Julio Franco? Like, that would have been the guy. Like, we can't do this for that long in baseball. And Nelson Cruz is down the end of the line. Yeah, I think Franco played till he was what, 48 years old.

46, something crazy like that. He still looks pretty amazing, by the way. He did like a video not too long ago. I don't even know how old he is like 60 or something. He's in a 60s. Yeah. He looks great too. He's amazing. His eyes are probably fine. He's doing one-handed push up somewhere probably. Mike Clevenger was placed in the IL with an illness which puts his wild card status in doubt. Brian Hayes told reporters that he's dealt with back discomfort the entire season. He ended the year batting 244 with just seven home runs,

but the 20 steals, it's useful from the third base position. I mean, however you want to slice it, it's not a good year, but to get 20 steals from your corner infielder in a deeper categories league, it's still useful. So I don't know. If we get good reports on his health in the offseason, I don't know what the ups and the ups and the up.

side like two 70 with 15 home runs can he get there with with 20 steals that's a pretty productive player but probably not going to be the superstar or even star that maybe we thought a couple years ago seems like there's always an excuse that to have for could brian hayes and kind of over it all right by the way 64 is how old Julio franco is a year away from being a senior citizen oh geez he get like six dollar movie tickets at the theater Social Security. That's amazing. That's nice. Jesse Winker was placed on the IL with a neck issue and is unlikely to return

in the postseason. A very disappointing season for Jesse Winker. His first in Seattle, he hit 219 with 14 homers. And when we do what we got right and what we got wrong next week, Jesse Winker is actually one that I think we all got right. We were often coming into the year and especially once he got traded to Seattle.

It's a huge negative park shift from Cincinnati. The Angel Sign Manager, Phil Nevin, to a one-year contract, which kind of surprised me because he went 46 and 60 in the 106 games as interim manager. They need pitching. That's what it comes down to for the Angels. Like, Otani can do as much as he wants to,

but at the end of the day, it's still not enough for them. We'll see what the angel is weird. One thing to add on the coaching front before you moved on from it, I just don't know if you saw it. It happened. We're doing this live within the last 10 minutes. The Royals fired Mike Mathini

and pitching coach Cal Eld So I didn't mean to step on you. If you did see it, I was going to post it in the thing, but I didn't see it on the sheet here. So I just wanted that to be added to the coaching information. No, that is all good. I literally just got an update here on my watch. Royals fire Mike Mathini. So he is out.

I believe they fired their general manager midseason. They're president of baseball operations. So, yeah, they're going to go with a clean slate into the off season and they'll figure it out. They've got a lot of young talent as well. But now they have to put it together, figure out a way to get. all those guys working. We have three pitching matchups set for game one of the Wild Card Series on Friday. Shane McClanahan

versus Shane Bieber. Battle of the Shains. I like that. Luis Castillo versus Alec Manoa. Max Scherzer versus you Darvish. We are waiting on the matchup between the Cardinals and the Phillies, which brings us to the postseason, guys. I just want to ask you your predictions, right?

I feel like we don't pay enough attention to what's actually going on in baseball throughout the course of the season. I feel like this comes up at time, Scott, where, you know, we're so ingrained in this, like, day to day, we look at player analysis, right? We're so deep into player analysis where halfway through the season, if you ask me who's in first place in any division, I probably don't know. And it's, it's, like, kind of weird to admit, because we, we watch baseball every single day. But it's just, that's the nature of the beast, right? Yeah, it's just, we're so, like, individual, like,

focuses on the individual players more so than the team context. And we kind of, lose sight of that. It's like a sports talk radio type of thing. It's like a sports talk radio be like division talk. It's like no, we're just like it's isolated on the category, the stat and the individual player. I totally, totally relate with this. For the American League wild card matchups, we have again, the raise up against the Guardians,

the Mariners against the Blue Jays in the National League wildcard. We have the Phillies against the Cardinals, the Padres against the Mets. The top two teams in each league get the buy to the divisional round. That includes the Astros, the Yankees, the Gets. Dodgers and the Braves. And with that, Scotty, your World Series pick, is he going to do it? Is he going with the Homer pick?

Who do the Braves beat in the World Series? Don't do it, Scott. Go on. Do it. I think in all my years doing this for CBS, this was the first year. I picked the Braves to win the World Series. And I'm going back to my preseason prediction here,

referencing that. And both of my World Series picks from the preseason. season are indeed in the playoffs. So I could just stick with that, which was Braves over Blue Jays. Do I want to stick with that? I say you got to ride it out, right? Scott, come on, man. I mean, the Dodgers are just stupid good.

They sure are. Well, and the Astros are clearly the best team in the AAL, I think. But if I pick Braves over Astros, I'm just picking last year's World Series over again, which feels kind of lame. I'll stick with the preseason pick. There's an upset in the AL. Blue Jays get to the World Series. Braves over Blue Jays.

Welles, would you like to know my preseason World Series prediction? It's Yankee. I'd say Yankees over to Hudgers, actually. No, it was two teams that are not in the playoffs. Excellent. I don't remember who I had winning it, but I had the Brewers and the White Sox in the World Series.

Look at where that got us, right? Not great, Bob. Anyway, all right. Scott, he's sticking with it, Braves over the Blue Jays. Well, is what you got? I don't have a rooting interest. Both of your teams are in here. I'm a lowly diamond back guy over here and born in the Bay Area,

so I had the A's and Giants grow up on. So I'm just hanging out. I'm just hanging out watching some baseball. But I decided to just go with something a little bit different. And I agree, the Astros are the best team in the AL, and I got the Astros going. But I'm going to have a shocker and have the Cardinals get in. And the Cardinals beat the Astros in a Cinderella,

Swan Song, Albert Pooleholst moment. Paul Goldschmidt, one of the best players in baseball, pitching. I mean, everything about that team has been put together very well, even though it kind of tapered down on the back half of the year. So maybe a little Cinderella run. I'm just doing something a little bit different because the Dodgers are dominant, the Astros are dominant, the Yankees. I could pick any alteration of those three teams, even the Braves,

and it would sound smart, but I'm just going with something a little bit different. I'm going cookie cutter. I've got Dodgers over the Yankees in the World Series. And of course, rooting interest, I want to see the Yankees make it. I think the Astros are the better team, but you know, the better team doesn't always win in the postseason this time of year. So I'll take Dodgers over Yankees, you know,

East Coast versus West Coast kind of thing. And of course, New York Sports Talk Radio right now, the biggest conversation is who starts game one? Nestor Cortez or Garikoles? I don't know. Let's see. I do have some league leaders. Everything is kind of settled for now. But

let's quickly run through some of these and we can give some thoughts along the way. Batting average, Jeff McNeil narrowly beats out Freddie Freeman for the National League batting title. 326 batting average for Jeff McNeil 325 for Freddie Freeman. Luis Arise captured the AL batting title, finished with a 316 batting average. I have a nice little trivia question for you guys.

Are you ready? Sure. Luis Arise was one of six players with more walks than strikeouts. Guess the other five? He didn't have many of either, did he? Stephen Kwan Vlad Stephen Kwan is correct

Vlad is not okay I got Stephen Kwan without looking and cheating here those are my two big guesses I'm going to tag you in for one

I'm going to tag you in here for one I feel like there's a really obvious guy who I just can't can't come up with the game Vinnie Pasquantino does he qualify? I don't think he qualified he might have done it

but just talking qualifying yeah qualified okay Yep. Stephen Kwan. I'm surprised there's that many. No guesses, Scotty. I am two.

You caught me off guard, Frank. I'm sorry, bud. I'm not... I'm not... I'm trying to think of OBP and walks right now, too. Good thing. This isn't Fantasy feud we're playing right now. Should I give you one?

Oh, Juan Soto. That is correct. Should I give you one? That's the obvious one. Yes, Juan Soto and Stephen Kwan. You guys have two out of five. All right. All right Scott we're we're getting there

Anthony Rizzo Nope Oh no Freddy Freeman Could take quite a while I just want to call him Daniel Murphy Scott I give you No it's not Jeff McNeil

I'll give you a hint for one of them And the end end and we'll we'll just get into it But okay He used to be One of your favorite targets One of your favorite hitter targets I do like guys who walk more on the strikeouts Yeah

He was like consistently one of your favorites. I don't think he was this year. I think you were kind of indifferent on him. But he used to be one of your favorites. Routy Tellez? Not Roddy Telez, but I appreciate the guess. I don't know. I think for the sake of the audience,

you're just going to have to tell us. All right, it was Alex Bregman is one of them. Oh, of course. You used to love Alex Breggman. Come on. Yandy Diaz, which I don't blame you, you were probably never going to get that one. And another one, Scott, that you really like,

Alejandro Kirk. Yeah. Mm, okay. None of those surprised me now that you name them. It's just not having the word bank there. Are there any names that almost would have made it if they had qualified? I didn't like lower the plate appearance total. I just kind of looked into the qualifiers, but it's a good question.

I think Vinnie Pasquantino is probably up there. I'm looking right here to see if there's any name, not that this matters anymore, if any names pop up because I went to like a hundred. Ooh, there's Bregman. All right. this won't matter. I'll just keep us here all night. All right. The home run leader, of course, it was Aaron Judge, who finally hit his 60-second home run on the last day, a second to last day of the season. That is, he passed Roger Maris,

setting the American League home run record, not the home run record, although many people will try to argue with you about that, and none of us on this podcast are one of those people. I mean, if you, even acknowledging it's not the home run record, and it's not. There is a record on the books, and it's not this number. Correct. But still, Aaron Judge hits 16 more home runs than anybody else. Like that, that I feel like is the number to fixate on. You know, I think it's telling just how, like, the old environment, the juice ball environment,

where it was so easy for even these smallish middle infielders to hit it out, Aaron Judge's raw power was kind of wasted. And now we're seeing just how much more powerful he is than everyone else. And it's obviously something to be excited about when we're evaluating Judge moving forward. 16 more than the next closest, as you mentioned, Scott, which was Kyle Schwerber, who led the National League with 46 home runs. Last point on Judge, like, I kind of really wish I could go on a rant. We don't have that much time left on this. but just the people who, like, I saw Adam Azer tweeting about it, and Adam, you know, so watches the Yankees and he's excited, and he's genuinely excited that Aaron Judge accomplish this.

Everybody in the replies, why are you so excited about the seventh most home runs in major league history? Like, it's still exciting to be a fan of a team and see a player on the team at 62 home runs. Like, I don't know why everyone has to be so. Also the most prolific team in all of sports. Right. And he just became the number one home run hitter on the most iconic of sports teams. That's enough to be excited about. And that's enough to be, you know, shouting from the rooftops about it's just not the record.

And that's all that there is. You can be plenty excited and we don't need to dismiss it. It's just not the record. That is 100% true. Runs leader, Aaron Judge, no surprise, 133 in the National League. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman were tied for the lead with 117. Mookie Betts did it in just 142 games, which is bananas for him. I think he's probably a top five pick next year.

Freddie Freeman, around the turn, you know, late first, early second round pick. Once again, it's just kind of pencil them in there every year. The RBI leaders, leaders, co-leaders, New York, New York, Aaron Judge and Pete Alonzo, both finished with 131 RBI this year. Steels John Bertie, 41, in just 102 games. That is a 60-steel pace over 150. 50 games. Jorge Mateo led the American League with 35. His teammate, Cedric Mollins, just behind him with 34. It's a very good year for Cedric Mowens. It's going to be really interesting to see

where John Bertie is drafted next year because, okay, if you could just pencil him in for this year's numbers, he only plays 102 games, but he steals 41 bases. Fine. He probably deserves to be a top 12 second baseman or whatever. but he's not a good hitter. No. So how much is he really, like, is he even going to get a hundred two games next year? You know what I wonder? I wonder if he is the path of what the Royals should be doing with Mondesie.

Like this is look at what you can do and, you know, not utilizing a guy as an everyday player and making the impact you can on the game. This might be some, Mondi cannot stay healthy and they even acknowledge coming into the season. We can't count on them for 100 games. If maybe there's a path that Mondesie. could repeat Birdie, but funny enough to what you're saying, Mondesie will go well before Birdie in drafts this year because we are all masochus in fantasy,

and Mondesie's name is just still there. I didn't mean to make it about Mondesie. It's just Bertie and Mondesie are kind of like a really interesting interconnected fantasy duo that are just very far apart, but they really could be really close. Speaking of Mondesie, last point on this, Chris Towers made this comparison halfway through the season. He said, if you took Jorge Mateo's name off the back of his jersey,

why isn't he at Alberto Mondesie? At the time, I was like, that is a fantastic comparison. Mateo finishes 21 batting average, 13 homers, 63 runs, 50 RBI, 35 steals. You probably would expect more steals from Monassie, but that's about as Mondi of a year as you're going to get. And it was Jorge Mateo who was basically undrafted. Like, we should be so lucky to get that many steals from Mondesi,

because he only plays like a dozen games. Exactly right. Let's move over to the pitching side. ERA I mentioned at the ripe age of 39. Justin Verlander finishes at 1.75 for the year. The only qualified starting pitcher under a two ERA. Then for WIP, it was also Verlander. 0.83.

The National League leader, Zach Allen, ridiculous run in the second half. His whip ends at 0.91. Welshie. I don't know how much you actually consume Diamondbacks games. obviously, like, I could tell that you're very interested in like the Corbyn Carrolls of the world and their young players, but Zach Gallen, do you have any insight on Zach Allen? Well, I mean, this is a, the early, I still get over the PCL stuff when he first came up

and how a prime example, not to, I won't go on its long tangent, but when Drey Jameson came up, people were like, oh my God, he had like a five and a half ERA in the PCL, but it was like, we'll go look at his double A. It was like a two ERA. Zach Allen was one of the few players that I've ever seen that just dominated the PCL. and he is a command, command pitcher. He throws strikes. He keeps you off balance. He throws more strikes, and then he throws more strikes.

He's got a solid defense behind him. The pitch, the pitch mix keeps pitchers off. And I don't think his stuff is like dominant strikeout, anything like stride or anything like that. But, I mean, we saw this in quality starts at move up. He just pumps the strike zone. He's not afraid because he has a great deal. He's always had David Peralta had won a gold glove when he was here. Nick Ahmed had won a gold glove.

They've got roe. They've got speed. They've got gloves. They don't have deficiencies in the outfield. So I think you get more confidence with, you know, mid-90s fastball, multiple pitches that he commands. And that's how you find success even on a relatively subpar team. So I watched tons of gallon this year.

I've watched it since he became a diamond back in before when he was with the Marlins. And he's just gotten better. He's gotten better. And he went through a little bump for a period of time. But that confidence came back. He's also got really great pitching help with the diamondbacks and how they utilize analytics and Dan Heron has been there and kind of changed the scope of everything. I mean, that's why, you know, unfortunately, Madison Baumgartner can't get it together,

but guys, you know, with that mid-90 stuff and have secondaries like Merrill Kelly and Zach Gallen have found success. And then, you know, Ryan Nelson, Drew Jameson, I mean, they, they, they're finding guys and they're finding away. And they are actually a pretty interesting pitching team to take a look at in 2023. I noticed Gallin threw his curveball a lot more in the second half, too, which really spiked, uh, helped the numbers, obviously, his curveball is one of the best in baseball. So I think that could be a recipe for him moving forward. The wins leader, Kyle Wright, 21.

He is your only 20-game winner. And I have a feeling he will also be on a lot of those winning rosters once I get that data because someone who was either drafted in the last round, picked up very early in the season, goes on to win 21 games, mid-3 Z-R-A, good whip, strikeout per inning. He was awesome. He's absolutely a league winner this year. That is Kyle Wright. Your strikeout leader was Garrett Cole, 257 strikeout.

He also led the American League with 33 home runs allowed. That was second behind only Josiah Gray for the league lead. Josiah Gray allowed 38, which is like completely ridiculous in its home run. The home runs per nine. I'm sure we're a lot higher for Josiah Gray. But, man, 33 homers for Garrick Cole? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I mean, we talked about it recently. It, in third year now with the Yankees, it looks like everybody who, thought he'd be too vulnerable to the long ball in that park was to some extent right. He finishes this year leading the majors and strikeouts, but a 350 ERA on the dot. And that's why, even though I do think he's one of those seven, eight pitchers you were referring to earlier, Frank, who could finish number one next year, he's probably going to be toward the back end of that group for me. He's probably going to be like my seventh ranked pitcher just because he's, you know, he seems like the biggest ERA risk.

among that group. If Garikol is a borderline first round pick again next year, I can tell you right now that I will not be drafting Garacol. Your saves leader was Emmanuel Class A. He finished with 42. He had just seven saves through May.

34 from June 1.1st on. He finished with a 1.36 ERA, 0.73 whip, just over a strikeout per inning, one of the most dominant relievers in all of baseball. Emmanuel Class A, he was amazing. For anyone who's still listening

at the one hour mark, we're going to tighten it up a little bit. we're having a little fun last day of this season. So we're going to run long because I do want to get some updates here from our guy of the Welsh, what he's seen out there in the Arizona Fall League. I know we're actually holding him up right now. He's getting ready to go out to another game at the AFL. And speaking of which, if anyone listens to In this League, or if you haven't, you should go

check it out because they do a great job. But I noticed they use a lot of sound bites and you guys come up with like these interesting stings and promos and things that you put together. So I was like, I need to come up with something for the. the Arizona Fall League, whenever we talk about it. So this is what I came up with. Welsh, you could be entirely critical. Let me know if I did a good job.

I'm excited. I'm kind of torn right now. I don't think I did a good job with it, but you let me know. AFL updates. Next. That's terrible. Terrible. Terrible.

That's it. That's it. It's just Charles Barkley saying terrible a bunch of times. And there's a national lampoon's quote in there, which the Wells provided me. Not nearly as good as anything that you do Welsh, but what do you think? I liked it. I like the bing and the bangin of the, it's terrible. Charles Barkley, a fixture of a Phoenix for everybody to know.

It's very Arizona-centric. I enjoyed it. Everybody else is like, all right, we'll do that. We can keep going. Yeah, we keep adding to it. I don't associate Charles Berkeley with Phoenix, but that makes sense. I understand the connection now that you mentioned. I had suggested maybe a Raising Arizona clip or I went to National Lampoons where he's like,

ah, kids, look at the Grand Canyon. All right, let's go. And that was the, you know, that was the Arizona things I could think of. So if anyone else has any other ideas of Arizona-centric things you want to hear, feel free to let us know. All right, let's jump in and talk about some of these AFL standouts. We're only like three days in, so whatever. Like, we're going to have more data the next coming weeks.

But I referenced this earlier. Hot start for Jordan Lawler, three for six, two homers, four walks, two steals. I know that you were at a few of the games that he's played in. What have you seen from Jordan Lawler so far? Yeah, I was at pretty much, I missed his first home run video, but I have seen him. He didn't play today. I've been every single day, I've been to a morning game.

I've also a couple slipped over to another morning game, and then I've been to all the night games outside of tonight's, which there was some weather stuff that was going to go on. But a lot of it looks like the best player out here clearly. He is the most comfortable. He makes the best defensive plays. In his very first game in the AFL, he hit a huge bomb to left, and he stole two bases.

He very, it was like a single, stole a second, next at bat, single, stole second again, then he hit a homer. He is so comfortable, makes easy, easy decisions. He's the best player out here, and it's not even remotely close, even though there's some players

that are playing really great. And, you know, stolen bases are not necessarily a huge thing in the AFL. I just want to point this out. I do think there's something going on because if you don't know, what they're doing in the AFLs, they're testing out all the new stuff.

They're testing out the big bases. They're testing out a instant replay system. which, you know what, I should get a video of it. What happens is a catcher will immediately challenge it. And over the intercom, they'll go, the previous play is being challenged. And then you go over to the scoreboard. And what they do is they show you the, like the track,

you know, the pitch tracker. And it shows the pitch come in. But I'm saying all this to say that I think you're seeing teams potentially jumping in and being more aggressive to test out what the new bases are. Are they able to kind of get in? because Mason Hour, who's a Tampa Bay raised prospect today, got on base,

stole immediately second and then third. Brennan Davis stole the base, Jordan Walker still. I've never seen as many stolen bases as I have before. But coming back to it, Jordan Lawler, clearly one of the best players here. He has dominated every single day he's played.

He's at homers. And there is a funny video. I know we're running long and I don't want to sidetrack us, but I could do this anytime you want. We can add videos here and you could hear it. I got one of Lawler's home. on video yesterday and it's a great clip because he thinks he didn't hit it and you can hear him go

oh and then it goes and then as it comes around i just yelled to him i was i'm like you didn't think you got it and he's like no i did not so again i don't want to sidetrack us with it but we can do that anytime you want in the future on stream yard we can add them but you can go to my Twitter handle is at the whilst you can hear and see the video because i actually did a close-up of just him and not the pitcher so you can really get a look at his swing Scott quick thought from you on Jordan Lawler. He's 20 years old. He was the sixth overall pick in last year's draft, 2021, out of high school. Do you think there's any chance that we could see him with the Diamondbacks next year? Yeah, I think there's a chance. I mean, it's as polished as he looks and he continues to stand out in the Arizona Fall League.

I think that matters more than what age he is. And I think the Diamondbacks have demonstrated that with their treatment of Corbyn Carroll this year. So I don't know that it's going to be early in the year. I would doubt. that, but I think there's a good chance we see Loller next year at some point. Yeah, I could see, look, if the kids are hitting, the pitching is working out. Let's just say the Diamondbacks, they surprise everyone. They're playing for a wild card spot something. Yeah, you bet you. You could see Jordan Loller up late next season. A few other hitters I wanted to highlight. Well, Zach Veen, I know he had a monster four-hit game on Tuesday. Overall, he's gone five for seven, a home run. Those three steals, as you mentioned, seems like everyone's running out there. And we probably should have mentioned

this name last week. Hidders who have the most to prove, Heston Kirstead. He was the second overall pick back in 2020 with the Orioles. Did not make his debut until this season in the minors. Missed a bunch of time due to myocarditis. I think he had a severe hamstring pull. So he's missed a bunch of time. But so far he's four for 10 with a home run and a double. And I've seen some of your clips from him as well. What do you think about those who's Zach Fien, Hesson Kirstead? Yeah, it's actually funny you put those two together because they both. are very similar in that like Vien is not showing a bunch of big power. He, um, I, I'm making these notes and it's something I'm going to do on my,

uh, Patreon at In ThisLeak.com where I'm going to just make this notebook of just my mindless thoughts on every single day of things. And one thing I've noticed with him is he really has a contact approach. And it almost is reminiscent in summit bats, not every single one of almost like how Japanese players kind of approach it, where they get their front leg up and then you'll also have their body kind of moving forward when the leg comes down. It's really weird. He does it sometimes.

He's a very contact approach-based player that he's got some raw power. I just don't know if he's ever going to really step into it, but he makes all the contact in the world, beautiful singles. Kirstead's doing the same thing when he can't get under pitches. And I have a video I'm not going to share with anybody because there's some words that he says after, but he gets very frustrated. He's actually a very intense player on the field. But he is a pure raw player that is so different from Vien.

as far as how they bat because he's very upright and he's just very, I don't know, stoic in how Kirstead approaches it and he's got long arms and he can drive the ball if he can't get it up in the air. So Kirstead's a type of player, Kirstad, that is going to hit 30 plus homers and he's going to make a lot of contact in the majors. But I'm worried early on he's going to have strike at issues. I actually more and more don't believe Vienitz. I think he's going to make a lot of contact. He's still a ton of bases like he has in the minors. And I'm really questioning where the power is going to go. But maybe the best place you could potentially question power in Colorado. So Veen is on the uptick for me.

All right. Last one, I wanted to get you here. If there's anyone else do you want to get to, just feel free to tack it on. Kumar Rocker, obviously a big name. He was drafted by the Mets last year. He was a top 10 pick, did not pass his physical and did not wind up signing with the New York Mets. Goes back into the draft this year. He's selected as a top three pick by the Texas Rangers. And I saw this video that you put out. And it just, it looked like he was, just like throwing warmups. And is this, like, is this his normal delivery? I'm just trying to figure out, like, is this how he pitches?

Is this his normal delivery? It looks so weird. I know he walked three. He struck out one. This is technically, you know, his first appearance in any type of minor league baseball setting. So there could be nerves. I understand that.

But it was just kind of weird all around. What did you see from Kumar Rocker? Yeah, it's funny. Someone in the stands was like, oh, man. And they're like, well, he threw a no hitter. I'm like, Mark, you want to look at it like that. He threw a no hitter in one inning where he walked three. And so the delivery looks very different, not very, but it looks different from when he pitched at Vanderbilt.

I had a lot of people that when I shared it messaging me that like, is this his delivery, is very upright, looked very. It's funny you say that because when he did his warm up, his first pitches, he did this. And I was like, oh, those are those warmup pitches. And I was waiting, because pitchers would do this. I was waiting for him to get into his real motion. And he never did. And he kept throwing like that. which I've had some people tell me that that might be in like a shoulder favoring type of thing,

but it was a bad outing. And it wasn't kind of treated like that. Sure, you could look at it like, oh, it's his first pitching, blah, blah, blah. But listen, it didn't look like this when he was pitching an independent league. And he topped 97. He was sitting 96. His fastball had zero command. He had, I think, one pitch that hit the zone that induced a looking or swinging strike.

The only other strikes he got were foul balls. and the, I have to go look at the count. I don't think he threw more strikes than balls. It was bad. And lefties killed him, though. I think the first three badders were lefties, and he couldn't throw his slider, and he had to rely on his fastball,

and it was a disaster. He didn't feel comfortable throwing his change-up. Then he had a righty, got him immediately with three straight sliders, looked amazing, got the strikeout, and then it went back to garbage. And he started throwing the slider to lefties again, and he threw a couple change-ups in there.

He looked so, so, so raw. I'm very worried about a guy that I thought was going to be a pitcher. It's one outing. It's super important for me to see more to see what this looks like. I assume the plan was just to go one inning, but it was a disastrous inning in my eyes. But that is a big fastball if it could be commanded. So watch it and I put his strikeout on Twitter and I just decided to share with everybody. It's a two and a half minute clip of some of the craziness that went on past balls. And also his demeanor was weird. Like I just want everyone to go and look. He threw this pass ball that he didn't then come cover home plate and then just the slowest walk I've

ever seen going back. So I just don't know if he was frustrated. It's really hard to gauge what's going on, but I couldn't tell if it was frustration or injury or something, but it was one of the weirder pitching performances I've ever seen in one inning on a touted prospect like that. Scott, we'll have an offseason to figure out first year player draft rankings for those who play in Dynasty League, obviously. And again, we'll see more starts out of Kumar Rocker. You want to overreact too much either way to what he just did. But I would be cautious as of now. Just, you know, when considering, all right, who am I going to draft in my first year player draft? Just going to throw it out there. Even in a points league's got it, I'd be kind of cautious with

him. Yeah, I mean, my mind immediately goes to points leagues because the Scott White Dynasty league is the only one where we have anything like a first year player draft. And, you know, just top of my head, there's going to be. Six hitters. Five hitters? Yeah, at least five hitters immediately come to mind. He would definitely go ahead of Kumar Rocker, even in that format, that tends to favor starting pitching. Yeah, and I think we could start to see him slide down a little bit more.

But again, we have a little off-season to figure that out. All right, the season is in the books, guys. This was a lot of fun, some playoff predictions, league leaders, some AFL updates as well. That is The Welsh and Scotty. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again on Tuesday. Bye-bye.