Fantasy Baseball Today - The First 2027 Draft Recap w/ KC Bubba! (9/6 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 6, 2026

We're recapping the first 2027 draft with KC Bubba (2:30)! ... Here's what you need to know about this draft (6:10). ... PCA went first overall (15:04)? ... What does the first round look like (19:17)? ... How early did Konnor Griffin go (26:53)? ... Who stood out in the second round (30:57)? ... Merrill and Vargas at the 2-3 turn (40:12). ... These names fell into the third round (46:20). ... How late did Paul Skenes go (52:19)? ... We wrap up by recapping Bubba's first 15 picks (1:04:11).Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters

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. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Is it too early for 2027 draft content? It's never too early. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Sunday.

September 6th, I am Frank Stample, joined by Chris Towers, and a very special guest. We are here to break down the first official draft of 2027. And I hope everyone's enjoying the Labor Day weekend. Obviously, we will not be live today, later tonight, breaking down the weekend. We will be live again tomorrow on Monday night with a very, very long Labor Day weekend recap.

Here to help us break down that draft, someone who participated in the first 15 of 50 rounds of that draft, is Casey Bubba. What's going on? Bubba, how's everything? going? Everything's going great. Thanks for having me on the show to talk about this. I think it's, we talked about it off there.

It's a great exercise to get our brains going into something maybe positive if 2026 isn't going so well for everybody, but it's an exercise is the best way I can put it. Yes. Look, doing a draft in the middle of August for the following season is a near impossible task, but you know, it gets the wheels turning a little bit,

starts to get you thinking about where players are going to go, what the first couple rounds are going to look like. Obviously, everything after that, I think is kind of a crapshoot. you know, ADP will kind of take its place into the offseason and start to take shape and all that stuff. Obviously, if you listen or follow fantasy baseball content, you probably have a pretty good idea of who Bubba is,

but you can find his work at Baseball H.Q and Fantasy Pros. You can listen to him on the Bench with Bubba podcast, as well as Bubba in the Bloom, where he co-hosts with the great Ryan Bloomfield. You can follow him on X at BD Entric, and people don't know this, but Bubba and I actually watched Game 5, of the 2023 World Series together.

We were at the game in Arizona. We saw the game clincher, the Rangers winning the World Series, when we were out at first pitch Arizona, which was amazing. It was really cool. It was the first time I've met you in person. We've done shows together,

and it was one of those like, hey, we got these two tickets. Frank wants one you want one. Do you guys mind sitting together? No, we can watch baseball. It's fine. That's easy. And we had a great time.

So yes. It is, you know, that was only three years ago. And it is wild to remember that the Rangers and Diamondbacks played in the World Series three years ago. It feels like a whole lifetime ago. I had to Google beforehand. What year did the Rangers win the World Series?

It feels like a lifetime ago. I couldn't even remember what year it was. But yes, the Rangers did win the World Series against the D-Back. So that was really awesome. Chris, have you ever been to a World Series game? That's the only one I've ever been to. I went to, Frank. You may remember this game, Game 4 of the 2003 World Series.

Don't do that. Don't do it. Alex Gonzalez hit a walker. off home run off of Jeff. No, Jeff Weaver, right? Yeah, I mean, that would have been way too early for a Jared Weaver, I think. Yeah, that was an incredible game. It was, I believe, the highest attended World Series game of all time.

Miguel Cabrera hit a home run off Roger Clemens. In what we thought was Roger Clemens' final game, turned out, I think he pitched another five or six seasons after that. And, yeah, no, I have been to a Marlins World Series game. All right. Well, hopefully later this year, we're going to a Yankees versus whichever team in the NL World Series game. That would be great. It's going to happen again. Yeah, yeah.

Let's do that. Marlins are going to win the World Series in Yankee Stadium again. No, no, no, no. I mean, I would very much welcome the Marlins making the World Series against the Yankees. That would work out pretty well for the Yankees. I think that would work out pretty well. All of this is a promo for those who haven't been, you've probably heard about it. Even if you've been there before, first pitch, Arizona is coming very soon. It is the first, second, second weekend of November, November 5th through 8th, at the

Sheraton, Mesa Wrigleyville, and it's a great event every year. If you love baseball, if you love fantasy baseball, we go out, we watch Arizona Fall League games, there's live panels, there's live podcast, we play a wiffball game. There's just a lot of, we do way too early drafts. There's a bunch of people who are crazy about fantasy there, hanging out, talking, and drinking and having a great time. So that is my promo. If you haven't been, just go to baseballhcq.com, and you could search up first pitch Arizona, and that'll pop up, give you all the details. there. So if you haven't been there before, please come out. It is a lot of fun.

So the intro to this draft, this is the annual meatball draft hosted by Rob DiPiatro at Deadpool Hitter on X. He is a great high stakes player. And every year, this is the first draft for the following season. A very fun thought exercise, gets the wheels turning for 2027.

15 team roto, draft and hold. So it is a 50 round draft. There is no in-season waiver wire or trades. It's just you set your lineup. Obviously, pitchers on Mondays, and then you can hitters on Mondays and Friday, so the normal NFBC lineup. So, Baba, you were in this. It was you and 14 other great players, high stakes players, content creators. You drafted the first 15 rounds of this draft. And I believe the draft was done a little bit over two weeks ago, August 19th. So things have changed

even since then. But how does somebody even prep for a draft in August for the next season? It changes every year kind of the way we pencil it together. Everyone has their own way. Phil Duso and Steve Weimer and this and they have their own like quasi-projections for next year already put together in a computer, which way past my pay grade. I'm more of a, I watch things. I kind of use my patent paper and figure things out. This year, they had those mid-season gladiators on NFPC. So I kind of, I used that ADP. I had a player raider for like the second half and the full season.

I kind of had a conglomeration of things, but I had like 20 pieces of paper on my desk. I am not the gifted build a chart person out there. But yeah, everyone has their own way to do it. There's no perfect formula for this because we are trying to. We already play a game where you try to predict the future. Now we're trying to predict the future with so many uncertainties coming in front of us. So yeah, it's pretty good. I mean, it's hard enough when we're doing drafts in like October and November

because you're in the draft room, but you don't have like update. Like if we do a draft on CBS, we don't have updated rankings. We just have last year's rankings built. and so there's always guys that you just forget. Like, it's always tough to do that, let alone when there's still, at the point you guys were drafting about 20% of the season left. You know, it's not nothing.

I don't know how many players are going to drastically change their outlook between, you know, August 15th and the end of the season, but it's not going to change nothing. So, yeah, it's going to be tough no matter what. Yeah, it's basically there's no ADP. Ryan Roof, he creates the sticker board, that does it for us. It's all by hand. We're all winging it essentially to your point of we don't

like have anything to go off of in theory from like on a website or some browser to use. And it does make it quite challenging to do. But there always will be some that fall through the cracks. So there's like strategies of when you take your your KDS. Some guys prefer the back because when we restart, they'll get the first pick. And they're like, oh, look at all these guys that we missed. And once like Terrick Scruble a couple years ago was the first pick in the restart. Like that turned out to be pretty sweet. This year might be a little different. Last year, good buddy Domrello picked Randy Rodriguez. We found out he was the only, the only time he was ever picked in an NPC draft period,

because like a week later, he had to get Tommy John surgery. So little things do happen, for the most part, to your point, Chris, it's, it's not nothing, but there's still uncertainty to be hit. Yeah, I mean, building off that uncertainty, right, do you just kind of blanket, downgrade pending free agents just because, A, we don't know where they're going to land? I think it's even harder with relievers. And you actually drafted David Bednar, which is an interesting talking point. We don't know, like, the Dodgers might just sign him to be their seventh inning reliever for the next year.

But we also don't even know if there's going to be a next year. So there's just a lot of uncertainty right now. Yeah, and the Bednar is the example. I was going to go off. If I kept watching, like, I have him this year. He's been huge for me. He's been amazing. And I just kept watching him fall and follow him.

The skills are still good. But the uncertainty of where he's playing is the question. Now the Yankees, they should resign him. They might not. who knows. You would imagine he goes to a team where you can pitch, but to your point, the Dodgers do Dodger things. There's a few teams that can do that.

So, yes, that's why he fell and eventually gets to a point where you're like, the million dollar man says everyone's got a price. This was the price for David Bettner. How much does, like, one of the things we've talked a lot about is the just collapse of the entire first two rounds from the 2026 season. And it was something that was in the back of my mind the last couple years when you go through the first round and especially, you know, the first two rounds, how many of these guys were like in their 30s and we just were,

we kind of had like Jose Ramirez, Aaron Judge, are in the point of their careers where the decline phase might be here now. And how much does that impact how you're viewing the 2027 field right now? Because Aaron Judge is still out. Jose Ramirez, I think just by the time you guys were drafting, he hadn't hit a home run since like, June. Now that we're talking, you know, at the beginning of September, show He Otani is going through it. I think he hasn't homered in 12 games. The game on Wednesday night, I think that was like the worst he's ever looked as a big leaker. How does that impact how you're viewing the 2027 field? It does affect a lot of things. It's a combination of there's potential upside if you can take a chance on certain players. And then there's also a lot of falling. Like we'll talk about when you're, you look at this board, it's a whole different landscape in the early rounds because I was not

alone in these thoughts, but you mentioned J-RAM. I love those air mirrors. Always have. He is the model of consistency, but as you said, father time eventually will win. That's just reality. And J-Ram fell to pick 14 to my co-host, Ryan Bloomfield. And we were all in our stream going, that could be a great pick or it's one of those like, man, if he keeps falling, it is what it is.

But at the same time, again, could be a great pick. As you'll tell with my picks, I went a little more youthful early on to kind of go. that direction to kind of play the upside card with potentially a floor where other guys fell off. And if you look at the entire first round to your point, Chris, it's a lot of you. Like, I wanted nothing to do Atoni. I get the love. But outside like Otani and Judge, it's a ton of young players going through that first part of the round. All right. So let's get into the actual draft. And for those watching on YouTube, you'll see here we have the draft board up. It might be a little bit hard to see all the picks.

You might have to zoom in a little bit. We'll try to talk through as many of the picks as possible for those listening on the audio side of things. But I do recommend if you want to see the draft board, you can pull us up on YouTube as well. And also, I realize truly how hard it is for people to draft in mid-August for the following season. So for anyone who's listening who might have been part of this draft, I don't want to sound overly critical. It's just, we're all trying to figure this out together. So I just want to throw that out there as a pre-cursor. I haven't even started the process of ranking for next year. So who the heck am I to say that any pick was right or wrong, you know? Yeah, I mean, interestingly

enough, Chris, we had a conversation the other day and you're like, you know, Jordan Walker, he might go around pick 50 next year and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. He went, Bullitt, Bowlet just took him in the first round. Yeah, no, I was kind of like, can we delete that whole part of the pile? Like that kind of sound like an idiot.

It was, it was so funny though, because Ben did he gets, he's East Coast, so he listens to you guys first thing every morning. He texts me, he texts me on the show today. And I'm like, and literally Frank texts me like a couple hours later. Hey, you want to come on the show this was talking about the meatball draft. I'm like, fair, why not?

That's pretty. I know, but that's one of the, like, he's mostly running through the finish line. I mean, April's going to go down as Jordan Walker's best month of the season,

but he hasn't really fallen off that much. You know, he maybe doesn't look quite as elite as he did early on, but he's going to end up with, what, 35, 25, 25? It's an awesome season. Yeah. And that,

that's kind of where my brain went, I guess, if we want to go there for a second, is, um, I'm looking at a, guy that we have a 2020 floor. Obviously you want more than that

with your first round pick, but also the potential to go 30 to 40 home runs, but we haven't even seen it all yet. Obviously, it's a first year breakout out of nowhere, but it's a guy that's 24 years old. So I'm always, like last year, I had the 10th pick. I took junior Camerro and everyone thought that was the craziest pick

in the world. Now, is he going to, is Walker going to be as good as Camerro? Probably not. Like, let's just be real there. But could Walker be that good? It could be. So to me like Walker's could resemble like what we want Fernando Duttez to be in my brain at least. Yeah. Yeah.

No, there are parallels there too because, again, like, do you want to be the person to use a first-round pick on a player who's only done it one year? Yet, you just did it last year with Junior Camerrano, and it worked out swimmingly. And Jordan Walker, you know, the start to his career was obviously slow, but he was a huge prospect as well. Like, it took him a couple of years to figure it out. But, you know, him and Camerreiro were prospects like on the same level when they were coming up. and obviously it happened a lot sooner for Caminero,

but it looks like it's happening now for Jordan Walker as well. So let's walk through the first round here and just start things with the very first pick. Pete Crow Armstrong, followed by Shohei Otani, Bobby Wood Jr. and Aaron Judge. But Bubba, it's like this was done a couple of weeks ago. Obviously PCA has just gone off since then.

But when it's all set and done this year, he might wind up going 40-40 and hitting close to 300 and playing like platinum glove defense. it might shock some people to see him go first overall here, but when you actually think about it from a roto perspective, it's really not crazy. It's not crazy at all. And you said the word shocked,

and that's one of the things we've talked about a lot. A lot of this board is sticker shock. That's what it is, because we haven't seen these names here. And when you first see PCA at 1-1, you're like, whoa, like we got Otani, we got all these names are used to in that profile. But to their point, you mentioned what he did.

We mentioned the age. We mentioned the defensive skills that will keep him on the field, even if he's struggling to hopefully work through whatever struggles he finds. I think it's a great argument. I don't see how people can absolutely say, no, he shouldn't be. I can see if people want to put someone else there,

totally fine. But what PCA is doing, the Yeracuna was the quote-unquote unanimous one of one was a 40-40 profile. PCA is in that ballpark right now with what he's doing. I know it's only been one year to your comment earlier, and I totally agree with that. But he is showcasing that he has improved.

He's built off of the struggles, and he could be something special. And the skill set has gotten so much better for PCA that, you know, I mentioned this stat the other day on the podcast, but I believe before May of 2026, I think he had never had more than eight walks in a month in his major league career. The past four months, he's gone 13, 17, 16, and 16. He has transformed himself basically overnight into not just like a pretty good play. discipline guy, but like, an elite one, I had no idea this was coming. I admit, I thought this could be a struggle season for Pete Crowe Armstrong, and instead, it's a reminder that young players can just get better and skill sets are not static. And while I think you should probably bet on Peaker Armstrong taking a step back in 2027 relative to 2026, just

anytime someone goes 40-40, I don't know if anybody's ever gone 40-40 back. to back. The skill set is incredibly strong. He's hitting lefties really well. I don't really think there's all that much to be skeptical about with P. Kare Armstrong. And when you're just lining everyone up right now, I do kind of think he has to go one, one, just because your alternatives are 33-year-old Shohayotani, I believe,

who we've always talked about the fact that he's a pitcher is going to increase the injury risk at least somewhat and right now he looks like he's struggling Bobby Witt incredible player but we're seeing now that the ceiling outcome hasn't been there the last couple of seasons I think Aaron Judge you tell me he's going to play 150 games I'd probably take him 1-1 but he's going to be 35 I think

and, you know, has now missed significant time, I do kind of think PCA is just the default 1-1. Maybe it's not, maybe getting the 1-1 isn't the huge edge that you normally hope it would be because there is some risk for PCA, but I think it's the right pick there. Yeah, I think that last point in particular, and credit to PCA for all the improvements that he's made this season,

but it doesn't feel like there's another slam dunk first overall pick for all the reasons that you threw out there. Like Aaron Judge, to me, complete wildcard. At time of recording this, he still isn't back with the Yankees yet. This rib injury, like, is he going to make it through the postseason healthy? Are we going to find out something in the offseason that he actually needs a surgery and he's going to miss time next year? Like, we just don't know.

And a guy that big, too, it's like fair to question how his body is going to age and things like that. So I don't think that there is a clear, just like, slam dunk 1-1, and I think that's why PCA is definitely in that conversation. read off the rest of the first round. Again, the top five picks, PCA, Otani, Witt, Judge, Jr. Camerreiro. Camerreiro.

Six through 10, we had James Wood, Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis, Jr., Jordon Alvarez, and Jordan Walker, to Bubba, and then Ellie De La Cruz, Jacob Miziarowski, C.J. Abrams, Jose Ramirez, and Jackson Trurio. So we spoke about Jordan Walker and Bubba's pick of that. I think, like, the other one that really stands out to me,

Yordon deserves to be back in the first round now. Obviously, Tate's having a monster second half. Ellie De LaCruz dealing with a quad injury now. We didn't know that at the time, but I still think he'll be in that first round mix. The Miz has the first pitcher off the board. Well, but CJ Abrams kind of stands out to me too, because this is another one where like we've known for years that he's had,

he has the talent, the power, the speed, the contact ability. He was a highly rated prospect as well. He's never been able to do it over a full season. Now he did, but you have to pay the price of a first round pick to bet on C.J. Abrams doing it again. What do you think about him going here towards the end of the first round? I like it a lot if you want to

knock, like grab that shortstop outside of Ellie, you know, went earlier. The more you look at this board, shortstop's still good, but it's not as dominating as it's been in years past, if that makes sense as you look through it. Still a good, good position, but Abrams is that guy.

It's kind of like the Walker argument. I'll make arguments for others. It's the youth thing. He's still only 25 years old. feels like we've been talking about C.J. Abrams for a long time since he came over on that Juan Soto trade from the Padres. And the power is just like slowly come together, but the speed's always been there. So it has like a weird Bryce Terang feel to it. Like he might not ever get to like the elite batting average of Terang, but maybe as he's developed and changed his swing, the power has followed. The speed will still be there. It did help that the Nats had one of

the best offenses in baseball for like two thirds of the season that has dried up a bit towards the end here. But you're looking at a player going to be 26 next year. He's got some nagging injuries right now in the season. Hopefully that is not a lingering thing into next year. But that's the what ifs we do with the draft this early because we are crazy like that. But I think the skills are very, very good. And it is an elite like 30 30 profile, I think, with C.J. Abrams. All right. Let's take our first break when we return. We will do a quick recap of the first round and then we'll move up. We'll jump around to other picks as well. We'll recap Bubba's team a little later on as well. But let's take that break. We'll be back right after this.

Welcome back fantasy baseball today. We're here recapping the first draft for 27 with Casey Bubba. And we read off the first round. Chris, is there anything that you that stands out in the first round as severely out of place or anything that you would like to make mention of before we kind of jump into, you know, later rounds here and jump around to different picks? I mean, I do kind of have like a maybe dumb question about Jacob Mizierowski. And this is not really serious, but like, are teams just going to start like watering the front of the mound

right before he pitches every time? This is two starts in a row. I don't know if you guys talked about this last night, but this is two starts in a row where he's talked about how much trouble he's had on the visiting mound. It was in City Field two starts to go. Then Wrigley Field last night,

he really struggled when we're recording this. It was Wednesday night. That's kind of a joke. But it's also, you know, I do think, first round pitcher is always, you know, it's going to cause people some, some agita, I think. And that's the one that stands out.

And then obviously, like I was a huge Jordan Walker, sorry, Yardon Alvarez booster this year because he was, you know, you can get him like 40th in some drafts. Now he's ninth. This is something I always struggle with with injury risk guys. I think we saw it with Byron Buckston this year where he finally has the one healthy season and to a certain extent people are like, great,

injury risk is gone. And it's like, well, no, the injury risk is still there. So I'm going to struggle with Yordon Alvarez this season. I think the price is fine, ninth overall. Look, he might win the Triple Crown. He's an incredible hitter. I struggle with the price jumping that much with a guy like that.

So those are the two that, that stand out to me. And then Jose Ramirez, I mean, the skill set hasn't really changed when you look at the underlying stuff. Strikeout rate, okay, it's the highest. It's been since 2021. It's still 13%. Right? Like, that's still an incredible mark. His expected Woba, 342, identical to 2025. Pulled air rate, identical to 2025. All the stuff that we typically care about with Jose Ramirez looks the same as last year. except he's hitting 240 and he only has 11 homers.

So the actual production that clearly has not been there, the skill set doesn't look that different. And I do think that's one, especially if he closes the season strong. I could see Jose Ramirez creeping back towards the top half of the first round if he closes the season strong. And he has a pretty good excuse, right? Like having the hammay bone injury,

kind of stabping him of power, mid-season especially. It's really hard to come back from and just hit the ground. running and go back to being the Jose Ramirez that we know and love. One point in his favor is that the third base position is God awful. So if you want to push him up because of that in the first round, I have absolutely no problem doing that as well.

Let's jump around to different picks here. And the very first pick of round two, pick 16. Connor Griffin, which will surprise some people, but man, I listened to different content around this specific draft right after it happened. And it sounds like everybody in the second round wanted the chance to draft Connor Griffin. and didn't get that chance. So Bubba, it might surprise some people, but this was, you know,

the top prospect in baseball entering the season. Obviously, he dealt with the injury, but he flashed massive speed. We think the power is going to come. Obviously, good batting average profile as well. How high is too high for Connor Griffin? It's one of those that if he, I know, what spring training we have, who knows,

but if he finishes September strong, like as we're recording this, he could be back on Friday. So I know we're kind of messing with dates here, but he's real, close to make it something that happened in September. To me, everybody wanted him, to your point, there was a resounding, like we were all wondering when he would go,

and I was very ready to take him with the six pick at round two. But with Griffin, to me, I compare him to, I guess you could say a poor man's Ellie, just because he's got so much speed. And it just matters, does the power follow? Because if the power follows with his speed, there isn't a big difference to me. I've also quasi anti-Elli at times. They're very similar at the shortest opposition to me.

And I think Connor Griffin, we haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg. So it's a pure upside play, but one of those that he's going to go early in draft next year unless something crazy happens. Yeah. Chris, it does remind me a little bit of Bobby Wood Jr. when he first came up, right? And he was just like, boom, thrust right into the first round right away. And in fact, we actually had more of a sample from Bobby Wood Jr., his rookie year versus Connor Griffin, but I guess people are just dreaming on the upside. And I can't really blame them

with Connor Griffin. And, you know, when you look at the season that Bobby was a 254 average, 722 OPS, he only stole 30 bases. Griffin had 20 steals in 59 games. He had a 736 OPS. He hit 276. Obviously, right now, as we're talking, he only played 59 games. Most he'll get to if he returns on Friday is what, 80? Might get to 80? Yeah, I think that that might have enough time. We're going to get a half a season where you might only get single-digit home runs in a half season. But you might get 25 steals.

And it doesn't take much to project that out and say, this is a guy who debuted when he was 19, right? Right after he turned 20. He will be 20 on opening day next season, I believe. Yeah, we had this conversation, I think, around the All-Star break when, or maybe it was when Conner Griffin got hurt. And Scott was pretty skeptical that Connor Griffin was going to be a top 50 pick. And I said, regardless of where you think he should go, there is no question. Connor Griffin's going to be an early round pick. And it's just a question of what your specific risk profile is and how much you're willing to take that on.

but I don't think there's any draft next season. Barring something catastrophic happening, like the season not happening, where Connor Griffin is a second round pick at least. Yeah. I think there's no way he falls outside of the second round in any draft next year. So maybe points lead out.

That's a different, but we're talking about Roder right now, and I think he'll clearly be that. So Bobby Witt Jr., his rookie season, 20 homers, 30 steals. You mentioned the batting average. his WRC plus 98, and Connor Griffin, at this point, his WRC plus is 101. So just to put that in perspective, Bobby Wood Jr., the following year in 2023, the ADP was 10.56. So he was very firmly in the first round.

And I don't think it would shock me if Connor Griffin even moves closer to that number that Bobby Wood Jr. had back in 20203. Again, we'll jump around to different picks here, but Sal Stewart might shock some people. The 21st overall pick in this draft, I absolutely. love it. Bubba, he went to you, Sal Stewart. So what went through your mind making this pick? Sal Stewart over-established players like a Kyle Schwarber, obviously a downseason for Gunner Henderson,

Ronald O'Cunia as well. So why Sal Stewart over some of those names? It comes back to the, you mentioned that with J-RAM, how bad third base is. Everyone sees South Stewart as a first baseman, and my brain goes, he's straight to a corner infield. You see he can be flexible with this, but I'm probably playing them at third base.

when we're talking, Sal Stewart. The other thing was Sal Stewart, and this will be an echoing statement of mine, 22 years old, super young and he's still got 31 home runs to go 12 steals, 266. Oh, and that 105 RBI, no one's talked about that at all this year. But it just became, just got his second rookie of the month award, like the first time in Red's history. The kid is extremely good, as the way I would say it. And I don't know if we've even, and he almost got second base eligibility to top this off,

just to make things even more entertaining. So I think it's another bat. If Walker continues, these are all big ifs, I get it. If Walker keeps his trend, Stewart keeps his trend, I like to get as many close to five category guys as I can.

So I got 2.30 plus homerang guys, at least 2.15 plus steel guys. Averages that won't kill you. They both have over 100 RBIs this year. Oh, and Sal gets to play half his games in Great American Small Park. So that's a plus as well. Yeah, as we're talking,

he's played 158 games in his career. He has a 265 batting average, 36 homers, 91 runs, 113 RBI, 12 stolen bases. Sounds like a second round pick to me. Yeah, that is pretty awesome. And we've heard a lot. I've referenced this before the season. He's very close with Manny Machado, and Manny Machado is his mentor. He looks up to him.

And I said before the year, I think, like, long term, South Stewart can turn into a Manny Machado-esque player. I didn't think it was going to happen in his first full season, but here we are. He very much so looks like a Manny Machado-esque player. Continuing on, Cam Schlittler, when I picked 20, as the SP4 off the board here behind only Jacob Mizirowski, Terrick Scouble, Christopher Sanchez, and ahead of Yamamoto, Jesus Lazardo, Chris Sale.

Chris, what do you think about that price tag for Camp Slittler? Pick 24 as the SP4 off the board. I don't really see anything wrong with it. The Yankees, the only risk, I guess, would be he's young and he might get hurt. But we said that coming into the season, it hasn't happened. the Yankees do not treat their starting pitchers like the Dodgers do. Like the Yankees ride their starting pitchers. They are going to let you go deep into games.

He's going to end up making like 33 starts, probably get to 190, 195 innings maybe. So workload is not going to be a concern. Yeah, there's some injury risk, but the skill set looks legit. Okay, he won't repeat a 204 ERA. His peripherals are all sub three, which is really rare. It's really hard to have a Sierra, a FIP, X-FIP, X-Ira, whichever one you prefer, all be under three. So the skill set is extremely legitimate for Cam Schlittler. The workload is there.

He's on a good team. I don't really see any argument against it. You know, you look at some of the other pitchers in that range. Yamamoto's awesome. He's going to make like 28 or 29 starts. The Dodgers are going to be a six-man rotation. Look, Luzardo's awesome, but that's a little scary as a top five starting pitcher. Chris Sale, same thing as Yamamoto.

The innings are even worse. So, yeah, I think Schlittler kind of has to be where he is. Yeah, and I've talked about this a lot in previous years. It's kind of a mental thing in fantasy for me to kind of get over a mental hurdle. And I'm going to have to do it for both Sal Stewart and Cam Schlittler because I liked both of those guys a lot this year. but now that you have to pay a second round price tag to be in on them once again, it's like, can you get over that hurdle of,

oh, I could have got those guys outside the top 100 in previous years, now I have to use a second round pick to jump in. But the skill sets do look incredibly safe, as safe as it could be for a pitcher for both of those guys, for Cam Schlittler and for South Stewart. The two picks later after Cam Schlittler,

we saw Gunner Henderson go off the board, and I think this is an interesting one because obviously a downseason for, Gunner Henderson. That's two in a row. And honestly, dating back to the second half of 2024, I personally, I thought entering a draft like this, we might get more of a discount. And again, this is not gospel. You know, there are going to be a lot of different drafts in the offseason and ADP will kind of tell us where Gunner Henderson settles in. But Bob, were you surprised that there wasn't more of a discount here on Gunner Henderson at

pick 26? I thought he would fall more because there's a couple of short stops that go in the next round and McConnell go in the door. I would take over Gunner Henderson. I I've been kind of off Gunner for a couple draft seasons now, as you mentioned, the fall continues with him. Maybe something to click. Again, super young still. We know he does have the talent, but he's either playing hurt. He hasn't adjusted the way the league adjusted to him.

There's a lot of factors you can dig in and look at all the underlying metrics on when it comes to Gunner Henderson. But to be a second round pick to be the fourth shortstop off the board or fifth, I guess, because Gunner Griffin's there. Yeah, that doesn't do it for me with Henderson. I was kind of surprised. And again, Mike Mager is a Hall of Famer. Just conducted in the NPC Hall of Fame this past year.

He knows what he's doing. That's the thing is like you said, we're not critiquing picks. It's just what I would do personally, and I personally am not a Gunner Henderson guy. How many times in the four full seasons Gunner Henderson has played? Do you guys think he has been a top 50 player, according to FanGraft's player later?

Once? I'd say once. But with that question, it's probably zero. One time. The 2024 season, he was a top 10 player. I believe. Other than that, the best he's finished is 50 second back in 20, or sorry, 60 second back in 23.

That's rough. I'm not, I'm surprised that he's not lower is the way I would put it. I'm not saying, you know, I don't know where I'm going to rank him. That's going to be one of the toughest players to rank. But it definitely feels early for a guy who hasn't really been that kind of player. I've pointed this out, but second half of 2024, it was like a 799 OPS. And then this year, the stolen base has not being there is really killing him. Yeah.

It's weird all around for Gunner Henderson, just the Orioles in general, the way their hitters have progressed or not progressed, I guess rather regressed over the past couple of seasons. But he's still like in the prime age of his career. It's still a good ballpark for left-handed hitters to hit in. And Camden, it's just very weird the way the things have played out here for Gunner Henderson. So I do agree. I think he's a really tough one heading into 2027. The very next pick was Drake Baldwin, who went at pick 27. He was the first catcher off the board.

Reminder, this is a two-catcher 15-team Roto League. So there is usually an emphasis on getting an early-round catcher. And Drake Baldwin, you know, since coming back from the injury, the oblique injury, which there's a chance that it's just kind of like affected him longer than we thought. But he hasn't looked as good. But Chris still on paper, like the skill set looks really, really strong. makes a lot of contact, hits the ball hard, hits near the top of a really good Atlanta Braves lineup.

I don't know that it should be a second round pick, but I don't think it's crazy for him to be maybe the top catcher drafted now that Ben Rice does not have catcher eligibility. Yeah, and I think one thing we're going to have to talk a lot about this offseason is the way catcher has kind of fallen apart in the second half to the point where when I was looking it up the other day, I think Freddie Fermin has been a top 10 catcher in fantasy in the second half of the season

as like a less than a half-time player. So it's gotten, you know, one of the big talking points in the first half of the season was, oh my God, catcher is no longer a wasteland, all these breakouts. And then, you know, Langalears breaks down. And I mean, obviously, Kyle Raleigh's kind of been terrible all season with the exception of, I guess, the time since this draft happened. So it's, there is still an edge to be found at the catcher position if you are willing to pay the price. I don't know if I'm willing to jump that for Drake Baldwin, but he was, I think he's played every single day that he has not been on the IL.

He's de-hing a bunch in the second half since Sean Murphy came back. Like, if he is what we think he is, what he's looked like this season, that's a huge edge. So, yeah, I think there's very, very much a defensible draft pick there. Just for reference where some other catchers went in this draft, Shay Lang Lears went at pick 39 as the second catcher off the board. Then in the fourth round, we had Hunter Goodman, Dylan Dingler, Samuel Bessio, and William Contreras, all those names again in the fourth round. At the two three turn, we see two names again who have,

I was going to say have not been drafted this high before, but now I'm remembering two years ago Jackson Merrill actually was the second round. but Jackson Merrill back in the second round and Miguel Vargas here at the turn, at the two-three turn. So Merrill, since the start of June, he has been a stud. And he is entering the prime of his career.

Power and speed has been there. So you love all that. And then Miguel Vargas, much like we've talked about with a Jordan Walker, with a Sal Stewart, this is a former top prospect. He is finally figuring things out.

He plays on an ascending White Sox team, a pretty good White Sox lineup. And again, he has third base. eligibility. So Bubba, what did you think about these two? Again, we're not, Merrill we've seen in the second round before, but Miguel Vargas, it's like, whoa, whoa, now we have to use a second or a third round pick to get him on our teams. Yeah, the Vargas was the sticker shock in this one because Merrill, like, I wasn't going to take him over South Stewart, but I was kind of sitting there like, he's a second round pick for me right now because we're seeing him come back into form to when he was an early pick to your points. I'm still a believer, 23 years old. We're good there. Miguel Vargas was a surprise, but it's a lot. There's a combination of things first. Rob really wanted Vargas. He wasn't coming back to him on the turn. So you got that.

You got to keep that in mind at this point. The third base thing is tremendous, as you mentioned as well. Because in theory, if you don't put Stewart there, that's the third, third base went off the board. And there's not many more after that if you really want to get after it. But Vargas, we've seen the power. We've seen a little speed as well, which is engineering a little. The average hasn't crushed you like it has in years past.

So there's like an avenue where you're going. see a lot of success with him. The quality of contact metrics from Vargas are outstanding. He hits the ball hard, his barrel rate, his heart hit rate. All the things you want to see are great. He's just finally getting that extended run that we've wanted to, that the Dodgers just don't do with prospects because they have too many players they pay for.

So now Vargas is getting his chance. And maybe there's another gear, even if there isn't, though, that floor at third base, you can almost make an argument there that this, like, it's still surprised me when I saw it. I'm not going to say I didn't, but the more I've looked at it and thought about it, it makes a little bit of sense. I'm always a little wary of paying full price for the one-year breakout. It goes wrong pretty often, Jackson Mera last year. But I love that Miguel Vargas is running through the finish line.

I mean, look, there's still about three and a half weeks left as we're talking. Maybe he doesn't get another hit, although he had two more on Thursday. But entering play on Thursday, he had a 366 woe in the first half, 366 woe in the second half. That's what I want to see from my breakouts is, is it not just a couple of hot months propping up the whole line? No, he was fading a little bit in July, but even then 741 OPS is not bad. He's still hit for power. He's had a 224 ISO or better in every month of the season. So the power has been there the whole time

And it's just kind of When things have gone poorly for him It's just been the Babbat letting him down So this is about as legit Of a breakout as you could hope for Yeah I'm right there too I mean there was a little sticker shock

When I first saw it But man you dive in And it could wind up being a 35-15 season He's underperformed The expected stats this year XBA says he should be more like a 270 hitter The plate discipline is great makes a lot of contact.

Good eye at the plate. He walks as well. Again, ascending White Sox lineup. I think they're going to be even better. They have more prospects coming on the way next year. So, yeah, it's a big price, but I think I would be in there on Miguel Vargas as well. He stole two bases today. He's up to 15 now.

He might even go 3520, which is crazy. That's the biggest thing that I'm struggling with with him is, is the speed real? Agreed. He was a stolen base guy in the minors, I believe. Yeah, he had a 16 steel season. but that had not been there. He's like a 70th percentile sprint speed guy. 79th percentile?

That's pretty good. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. I like it. All right, let's take our final break.

When we're returned, we'll jump around to some more picks again. We'll talk about Paul Skeens. Where did he fall in this draft? We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy at Baseball. Today, we are recapping the first draft for 2027 here with Casey Bubba. And again, this draft,

the annual meatball draft hosted by, Rob DiPiatro at Deadpool Hitter on X. Great player as well. And he was the one who drafted Miguel Vargas. A couple of interesting fallers into the third round now. Ronald Acuna at pick 32. Nick Kurtz at pick 34. Francisco Lindor at pick 37.

So two veterans in Acuna and Lindor who down seasons, injuries for both of those guys. I mean, just lots of injuries for Acuna in his entire career. And then Nick Kurtz, a younger player who looked awesome when he was healthy, but we just kind of have some indecision. It's kind of ambiguous right now dealing with that thumb injury and whether or not he'll be healthy

for next year. I think we all assume that he'll be fine and obviously one of the best sluggers in the game when he's healthy. Bobba, what did you think about those three names in particular guys that we typically see in the first round or around the first round falling to the third in Acuna, Nick Kurtz and Francis Gouldor?

The Kurtz fall was interesting probably in line because of the injuries he was kind of limping to the finish line with, but in theory still the second first base went off the board which is a whole other talking point for another day that that might surprise some people over the rice and uh and others but uh curts okay i get lindor annoyed me i was so hoping he was falling to me because he's kept slipping and slipping i am i love lindon for like five straight years it feels like and i was like okay a third round the door would be so sweet because that's not going to happen now that he's healthy he's starting to hit again people are going to see this and be like okay he deserves to be back in the second round that's just my two cents with lindsor So that was a great fall. And then he asked about Acuna. Acuna is a wildcard, guys. You started the show talking about Otani and his injuries,

and I'm not saying Otani's not a first round pick. I'm just saying you've got to get the brain thinking that it's maybe not automatic. And that's what Acuna is doing to people right now because he has not bounced back from these injuries the way you would hope he would. And honestly, the way he's played right now, he's not a third round pick in my mind. And I'm not saying he can't get back to that. But his fall made sense. It was more like when was he going to get people?

picked was the million dollar question because he's not running as much as you like the power's not there he's just the total package isn't there with the kunea but he went early around three the one thing i will say is he does have five steals on six attempts i think since the start of august so that's because i i kind of thought after the second hamstring injury it might just be done like the the stealing might be done and you'd need him to be like a 40 homer guy to to justify you know the early round price tag. And, you know, if he's still going to be 20 steals, that does soften the landing a little bit. But I don't really know one way or the other about that. Stolen bases are, I think, the hardest thing to project because it's not just about physical ability. It's about how much

you want to run. And this season, Francis Gullendor, doesn't want to run. He's got three stolen bases. Is that just the new norm for him? And he's just a five-steel guy? If that's the case, I think it's going to be really hard to justify a third-round pick for a guy who has always kind of been, you know, a little weaker in batting average, maxes out around 30 homers, good player, but if it's a, you know, five-stolen-based player, I don't know how valuable that is as a third-rounder.

But he could come out and steal 30 bases next season, and I wouldn't be shocked. Acuna, there's a lot of volatility in the bat. You know, two of the last four seasons, I think, have been like a sub-7-50. P OPS now, that's not good. That's not going to get the job done. I still think he has number one overall player upside as long as the stolen bases are somewhat there.

You know, if it's 20 to 25, I think you can still do it. But that's a big question mark. So I think this is where you start to see a lot of the guys where it's like, oh, I don't know how I feel about that. But we're in a little bit of a transitionary period in the player pool. You know, a lot of the guys who have been stalwarts for the past decade are starting to fall off a little bit. And so how much do you account for that in Acuna's case? Because he's still relatively young.

I think he'll be 29 next season. I'm a little more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I think I also had him as a top four pick this season. And that's blown up in my face. So at some point, maybe I do have a lesson to learn about my continued faith in Ronald Acuna. that one's tough. I will say Kurtz is a little bit surprising how much he fell. Because I just think you can pencil him in for 40 homers if he stays healthy. I know he wasn't quite on that pace this season,

but I think the skill set is a 40 homer guy. And he got a little lucky last season. I think the skill set is just as strong as it was. And he's cheaper now. I don't really have a concern about that injury lingering into next season. So I would guess Nick Kurtz 34 here. I think that's going to be closer to the floor for where he's picked next season. I think that's a good call.

Yeah, yeah, I like that as well. I think in hindsight, it would make some sense for Nick Kurtz to maybe go where Gunner-Henerson went in like the mid to late second round. I think it's kind of a marker. Like once you see Kyle Schwerber go, I kind of feel like, all right, Nick Kurt should probably go in a similar range. obviously, Schwaburber is U-Till-only. Way more proven, but I think it's a pretty similar skill set between both of those guys, Kyle Schwerber and Nick Kurtz. Back to Lindor for a second, I will just point out,

I know the steals are down this year. He dealt with that cash train for a large majority of the season, and then once he was back, the Mets season was already over. So by the time he was back in late June, they were already pretty much out of it. So I don't think he really needed to push the envelope. I don't think he's going to get back to being like a 30-steel guy. If I had to guess now on whatever, September 6th,

for next year. Probably expect like 15 to 20 steals from Lindor. But yeah, I think he'll probably provide, I will bet that he will provide more seals than he did this past season. No mention of Paul Skeen's just yet. So we were already into like the end of the third round. Paul Skeens went in the fifth round of this draft at pick 71 as the SP 17 off the board.

He went just after Garrick Cole, who went to Bubba in this draft, and he went right before Blake Snell. and Logan Webb. I have no idea what to do with Paul Skeens. I'm pretty sure him going at pick 71 in this draft means nobody knows what to do with Paul Skeens right now. Obviously, he has not looked great for the past like 10, 12 starts.

His velocity has been down. Is he pitching hurt? I feel like this is one Bobo that can go either way. It's like, all right, if he has a strong September, maybe he'll push back up into the third, second third round, something like that. Or if he just continues to, fall off. He might even be drafted

later than this, or we'll find out that there's an underlying injury, and then maybe he's not even being drafted at all. Yeah, we started out of the show talking about uncertainty. And when it comes to Paul Skeens, he is near the top of that list. When it comes to starting pitching, like, so many pitchers already have question marks about, like,

is their arm going to fall off? When they're going to retire? Like, say, he's old, but eventually father time, right? So many questions, but at least they're healthy right now. Like, they're still dominating on the mound. Skeens is technically healthy for all we know. But that lower velocity, the recent lack of success is a massive question mark to schemes. Now, could he flip it to your point?

Yeah, he could turn the switch. Maybe he needs an offseason to relax. Maybe he becomes more of a pitcher than a thrower. There's all those kind of philosophies out there. I've seen a couple retire guys like Pedro Martinez and stuff tweeting about how he's fine. You can work with this. Who knows? But Chris Sales even come out and said, I'm not concerned about Paul Skeens.

Everybody that is, it's laughable. So who knows what it is? And they know way better than I do. about the game of pitching. But from a fantasy standpoint, and a draft is taking place in the middle of August, those uncertainties in Paul Skeens where I can go and get other pitchers that to me are still,

maybe not SP1-1s, but like really close to SP-1s, I'm going to take my chances there. I think Garrett Cole is on the verge being back to one of those top pitchers that we want in baseball of his injury. So I was willing to take that chance over Skeens that has so many question marks right now. Chris, we've talked a lot about Skeens.

obviously, like, we don't know what's going on. We have no idea. I think the rest of September will tell us a lot heading into next season for Paul Skeens. But, you know, just recently the other day, we said, we'll probably rank him as an SP2 in that, you know, 13 to 24 range. But honestly, I probably will just rank him there out of respect. I don't know that I will be the one to actually draft him in that range. It feels impossible to say definitively anything about Paul Skeens right now. He has the 397 ERA for the full season. That's two runs higher than it was last season.

Obviously, he's been even worse in the second half. And then the peripherals still look good. You know, like 10.8K per 9, 2.7 walks per 9. Less than a home run per inning. Like, on the whole, he doesn't look broken. But there are, there was a piece on baseball prospectus at this point last week. that kind of looked into what's mechanically changed for Paul Skeens. And there's some subtleties.

He's moved on the mound a little bit closer to the first base side, I believe. And he just doesn't look quite as fluid with his delivery, whether that's some kind of underlying injury. I've seen speculation about his conditioning. He just doesn't, he's not moving quite as well through his delivery in a way that he's lowered his arm slot and it's just kind of everything just looks a little worse in a way that's making everything worse

man I if we get through this offseason and there's no talk of an injury and everything's fine it's going to be really hard for me not to rank him as a top 12 starting pitcher we're talking about the best pitcher the best young pitcher since Dwight Gooden the guy that he had one good two-thirds of a season and was drafted as the SP-1

and then two bad months is enough to drop him to you know outside of the top 15 yeah I mean I'm not even saying it's wrong it's just it is hard for me to wrap my mind around it one way or the other I think he's going to be absolutely impossible to rank I think I'm going to guess

whenever draft season happens next year, there are going to be a lot of very strongly declarative Twitter threads about Paul Skeens. And this is a guy that I just, I don't think it's going to make any sense to have a strong opinion one way

or the other. I just, we don't know. And I know that's an unsatisfying answer and the audience wants us to have the strong, tell me exactly what to do with Paul Skeens, dude, I don't know. Like this is, I don't know if I can remember a pitcher going from best in the league to unusable without an injury at 24. It's like if Spencer Strider never got hurt, but all the results were the same, right? Like, it's just, it's so hard to make sense of.

I wish I had a better answer. And I think, again, you see that in this draft, kind of that, you know, uncertainty is Paul Skeins going at Pick 71 as the SP 17 off the board. These are 15 really, really good fantasy baseball players who all passed on Paul's Paul Skeens at least four times each. And then obviously you went in the fifth round. So it's... I will say, I think I feel better about Paul Skeens at 71 than Blake's now at 73.

That's fair. I will probably just never draft. I will never draft Blake's now again. I get it, but man, like, the two good months every year it's a big headache to get two good months out of a guy right yeah I mean I guess it's uh I guess it's easier to do when the person who drafted

Blake's now also took Terrick Scouble in the second round so you isolate yourself with that speaking of pitching I'm just going to very quickly run through the pitching landscape of this draft so Miziarowski was the SP1 he went 12th overall Terrick Scouble the SP2 he went pick 18 Christopher Sanchez, SP3 at Pick 22. Cam Schlittler at Pick 24. Yamamoto at Pick 25.

Hazus Lozardo at Pick 28. Chris Sale as the SP7 at Pick 29. Those were the first two rounds. Moving into the next two rounds, there was Dylan Sees at SP8, pick 33. Chase Burns went at Pick 40 to Bubba. Yuri Perez, the 10th starting pitcher off the board at Pick 45. Gavin Williams, SP11,

Pick 47, that went to your co-host, Ryan Bloomfield. and then Logan Gilbert, SP12, pick 56. So that's the first four rounds, only 12 starting pitchers drafted. Bob, but it feels like the room was kind of hesitant here to draft starting pitchers early, which I totally get this early out. It's like, you know, we could get injuries and many things could change between now and next year. But talk to us about your Chase Burns, SP9, pick 40, we know that he's, you know, being slow played for the rest of this season.

but when he pitched like a normal starting pitcher, he looked like one of the best in the game. Yeah, this is an unlikely Bubba pick is what this was for anybody that's listened to my shows. Ryan was shocked. I took Chase Burns because I've always scared of these guys to throw a million miles an hour and what's going to come of it situations.

And when it comes to Chase Burns, it's like with Ms. It's with Schlittler and all these guys. I keep saying it is, you know, you said, Frank, you need to change kind of your mindset on the price tags. For me, I always got to tell myself,

you know, these guys are healthy now, get what you can get out of them. If injuries happen, injuries happen. We can't predict these things. And with Chase Burns, to your point, when he was pitching, the ratios were great. The biggest concern entering the season

was kind of like the walks with Chase Burns. They're there. He's got his innings. Next year, he should be free to roam, bar any kind of injury. So I took a guy in round three where I figure if he puts together another good year next year,

it's a round one or two pick. And real quickly, you mentioned the hesitation. And yes, this room has always hesitant now because of so many questions leading forward. You guys know come March or whatever our month leading into drafting is, a lot of these guys are going to go earlier in drafts. So you just see it in this draft every time. But also, if you just look at the board, just look at the colors.

Once it starts, the faucet is on. And it's go time for some people. Yeah. And it's also worth noting relief pitchers are way cheaper right now than they will be in January, February, March. I do want to ask You went Jordan Walker, South Stewart, Chase Burns Andy Pahas, he's a little older

And then Garry Cole, what are those guys going to talk about? Garry Cole's like 20 years older than the rest of your team. This is going to be a weird locker room dynamic. Garrett Cole is just going to be told to be quiet. I need my nap. That's about all that one's going to be. But yeah, I know it's a very weird dynamic. But then you throw Jeremy Payne in there and it gets a little better for a second. Yeah, but yeah, no, that's always fun.

Again, I can go on side tracks. Dave. I love how you mentioned that. Like, when you build a team, do you ever just physically think like, what would these guys do hanging out together if they're a real team? That's a great, great point there. Uri Perez, I will just point out again, as the SP10 here, I think that will catch some people by surprise, especially, especially this draft was done two weeks ago. His last two starts, you know, he's had some blowups here.

Chris, I lean towards, I think Yuri is kind of wearing down a little bit here. He's up to up over 140 innings a season total. last year it was around 120. So I think it's kind of acceptable to think he's like wearing down a little bit. But, you know, for most of the second half, it looked like he's kind of stepping into that ace outcome. What do you think about him being drafted as a potential SP1?

Feels a little early, but then you look at the guys behind him and Gavin Williams has had an up and down season. Logan Gilbert has had his struggles. Zach Wheeler, the last month, has kind of been a disaster. for him. I can't, like, I don't know if I'm going to rank Yuri Perez as my SP10, but there are certainly ace outcomes in his arm. And if you can project him to get to 175, 180 innings next season, then, yeah, I think

the talent is certainly there, and it's not like there's anybody after him who looks like an absolute can't miss pitcher anyway. So it might be a little early, but anybody who listens to the podcast certainly knows, I'm not going to be pounding the table for Gavin Williams to go earlier. Because that's going to be tough. So it's a little weird for the starting pitchers especially right now. I will quickly read off the SP 13 through 23. These were the pitchers in rounds 5 through 6 here.

Zach Wheeler went at SP 13, followed by Drew Raspicin. Toley up at SP15. I think that's going to be a fun talking point as well. Garrett Cole at SP16. Paul Skeens, Blake Snell, Logan Webb, Logan Henderson, SP20, Kyle Harrison, Cade Anderson at SP22, and Jacob deGrom at SP23.

So just a very early look at the close to top 24 starting pitchers here being drafted in 2027. Let's wrap up with a quick recap of Bubba's first 15 picks. Again, they draft the first 15. This will be a 50 round draft. They'll pick it up again at some point in, what, like November? Bubba. Yeah, it gets earlier.

At first it used to be seven rounds. Now it's up to 15. And then it used to be November. Now NFBC opens their rooms in October. So pretty much once they open up the draft rooms, they create our room and we start drafting. Yeah. So your first five round picks, you had Jordan Walker,

South Stewart, Chase Burns, Andy Paix. This was before the fractured hand. And Garrick Cole, we mentioned those five picks just a couple of minutes ago. Round six through 10. You have Jeremy Pena, David Bednar, Liam Hicks, Zach Gelloff, and Cade Covelli, man. I love the Cade Covelli pick. That is, that feels really, really good. Talk to me about your top 10 round picks here and how you built this out.

Yeah, we kind of talked the first five, but like the first four hitters, it's all, you know, power, speed floors, hopefully the average. Stephen Pius runs. Like, we can work with that. And then we've got two ace pitchers to go there with Burns and Cool. But when I went six through 10, Chris mentioned he loves Jeremy Pena. That's been a player I've tried to roster everywhere I could this year as either a starting shortstop or my middle infielder. Like I double up shortstop quickly. He's just been banged up a lot this year, but he hits for average power speed going that late.

I'll take that for if it's without getting an early round shortstop. Bednar just a chance on late saves because it gets real bleak after that point. He fell because he was a free agent. Liam Hicks, because catchers, catchers. but I want to get Zach Gelloff is a player I love, multiposition out there, power speed, starting to click again this year. He'll be in that wonderful ballpark one more season

before they maybe make their voyage to Vegas. And then Cade Covelli, like I was over the moon that he fell. I was sitting there just watching the picks come through going fall, fall, fall, especially because he's my SP3. Like to me, he's not an SP3 in reality. Like when this, if this takes place in March, Cade Ciavoli is not around 10 pick,

unless something horrible happens the last three weeks of the season. But I love him. The strikeouts are legit. The ratios are getting there because his command has gotten much better as he keeps going. And like the last two and a half months have been elite pitching from Kate Kraboli. One question I do have is at the time of this draft, Bryce Harper had just moved to the outfield. And now he's going to have outfield eligibility for next season in all leagues.

I think he's up to 23. Probably going to get to like 40 by the end of the season. would you have taken him instead of Pahas there if you had known he would have outfield eligibility or is getting the five category contributions more important for you? For me at that point it was the five category plus love Harper. Don't get me wrong. Early on we talked to age. Harper's not as young as people think.

And he's been banged up a lot in his time. And it's just been a thing with me. I think he's a steady eddy. Like if you on boring is beautiful. Harper is one of those guys. But for me at this point in the season, like obviously we're drafting so early, I was going to take the upside with Baha's.

Sure. Yeah, but you got to think about it like this, Baba. If you draft Bryce Harper, at least Garrick Cole has someone to talk to in the clubhouse. There's that. And I only draft elite players.

So Harper's not not allowed, apparently. I don't know. Back over a 900 OPS, man. I kind of, I mean, fully sarcastic. No,

I know, I know. The GM saying that is like one of more knucklehead things you'll ever hear. Like, come on, man. Back to Kavala. Hey, it worked. It did work. Well, true. Back to Kavali for just a second. Chris, you and I spoke about him recently.

I was like, look, if he finishes out the season like this, he might be drafted as a top 24 starting pitcher. And I still stand by that. I think if he just finishes out the season with what he's been doing, I think it's a quality start in seven straight, seven or eight straight. I think he's probably going closer to that round six range with guys like Logan Henderson and Kate Anderson. and Nolan McLean.

I think he's more so in that as a... He's not as young as you think, but not as well-established pitcher who obviously flashed some really nice skills this year, strikeouts, ground balls, and obviously improving the walks as well. So I love that. Cade Covelli, I just want to add,

I believe, because Jacob Mizorowski's streak of three earned run or less starts ended last night. It did, yeah. Cade Covelli, I think he has three earned runs allowed or less in 27 of 29 starts to lead baseball. Wow. That's crazy. Wow.

Some of those three are like, there was one where he gave up three-on runs in two and a third inning. So it's like it's not, they weren't all great starts. Obviously, you know, he got off to a kind of rough start. But that is, that is one of the more surprising stats I've heard this season.

And then rounds 11 through 15. You took Shane Baas, Ozzy Albies, Kyle Teal, as Merlin Valdez and Walbert Arrania, I know your co-host, Ryan Bloomfield, gives you a lot of crap about Walbert-Arania. The whip is very scary. The dude is talented, man. Like, he's legit got awesome stuff.

And to get him here in round 15, I think it's worth a shot. Hey, so, SP5, like we're looking at a, like, we've played draft champions before. You need depth. Otherwise, it'll kill you. And that's what's killed me a lot, is pitchy death when I don't do well. And yeah, Ryan gives me a lot, a lot of flack for Urania. But I also got him back mid-season. We were kind of comparing blind players.

And he loves Jose Soriano. and I read Robert Uranus stat line and he's like oh it's Sarana said no that's the guy you hate and they're the same pitcher but he's younger and we had fun with that one

because they aren't identical almost and this is when Sir Ariana was doing his thing in Anaheim and yeah I'm pretty pumped on that it's just it's gonna be wild to see where this picks up from but it's always a fun draft

year five of doing this and yeah it's it's a good exercise to get the mind flown but then you gotta get back and realize we still have to finish this year that was the way to early meatball draft, again hosted by Rob D. Pietro. I want to thank Casey Bubba for stopping by.

You can find his work over at Baseball H.Q and Fantasy Pros. Listen to him on Bench with Bubba, as well as Bubba in the Bloom. You can follow him on X at BD Entric. Bubba. Anything else that you'd like to promote before we get up out of here? No, that's about it. Bubba in the Bloom is the main thing for me these days, me and Ryan twice a week. So come check that out. Support the show.

I look forward to seeing you all in Arizona. It's always a great time. If you guys haven't been there and you have questions, feel free to ask. It's a great time for baseball fans and fantasy baseball fans. Yeah, 100% again, first pitch Arizona hosted by Baseball HQ, November 5th through the 8th, the Sheraton at Mesa Wrigleyville. Wrigleyville will be out there hosting podcasts, having some drinks, watching Arizona Fall League games.

It's going to be a great time. I'm going to force everyone to go out to karaoke. That's my goal. I think that's time. I love to karaoke. I missed it last year. So I'm going to force myself to go to karaoke is what I'm saying. There you go.

All right, we are going to wrap there for Chris and Bubba. Thank you all for listening to Fantasy Baseball today. Make sure leave us a five-star rating and review, and we will be back again tomorrow night with a very long weekend recap. We'll see you then. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts. The world crowned its winner.

Now the Champions Play. Oh! It's the Champions League. We're the best players. It's Holland! From the best clubs. Carrie Sangement, take the league. Collide from September to June.

Brilliant play. And every match. A miraculous thing. It is Paramount. This is the world's best soccer. They've waited for so long. The UEFA Champions League. Stream every match live.

Exclusively on Paramount Plus.