Fantasy Baseball Today - Top First Base Prospects to Target in 2023! (10/29 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: October 29, 2022

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Which first base prospects will make the biggest impact in 2023? Find out next on Fantasy Baseball today in five. Welcome into FBT and 5. Today is Saturday, October 29th. I am Frank Sample joined by The Welsh. Make sure you follow him on Twitter at Is It the Welsh? Bet your sweet willy it is. First base prospects to know for next season.

The top five here we've got Miguel Vargas, who will have first base eligibility on CBS, Tristan Kossis, Matt Mervis, Michael Tolia, and Tyler Soderstrom. Of course, Sorda Strong is going to bounce around between catcher and first base. Let's start all the way up top here, Welsh. Miguel Vargas, how confident are you that the Dodgers will find a way to play him at least semi-regularly next season? I feel pretty confident about that, that he is going to be a part of the rotation.

The bad case could be that maybe they've set a precedent to like what we saw with Gavin Lux in the past about how they treated that. That could be the worst-case situation. So maybe he gets 300 bats this year. the best case scenario is the amount of free agents that they've got right now. We don't know how many are coming back and at what level. If they go all in on a guy, let's say, oh, I don't know, Frank, Aaron Judge. Can they bring back a Trey Turner? Could they bring back a Justin Turner at any cost?

Maybe not. And maybe they're going to have to have a couple big expensive bodies to go with a couple really good, nice, cheap players that they get in the minor leagues. And that's what Miguel Vargas provides. Good homers, stolen bases, great plate presents. batting average. He's a 4-5, 3-4-5 slash type of guy. He's played third base as most of his minor league career, first base as well. He started playing in the outfield. So you're going to get a first-base guy that can move around. I think he gives them the flexibility that they want because, like you said, we don't know of these guys who's really going to end up coming back

because it can't afford everybody. Can they? Can they? They probably can, but I guess we'll find out. Trey Turner, free agent, Justin Turner has a club option for, I believe, $16 or $17 million. So that is quite a bit. Let's take a look at Tristan Kossis and Matt Mervis, lots to like here. Well, Tristan Kosses got off to a slow start, only played 27 games with the Red Sox. His final 13, he hit 316, 3 homers, a 1069 OPS. Three of his five total home runs went to the opposite field, which I just love to see from a young slugger.

Matt Mervis, the hype train, is leaving the station because people are. are excited and rightfully. So he hit 309 with 36 home runs in the minors last season. And there's a chance that he is on the opening day roster for the Cubs next season. Which one do you like more for 2023? Tristan Cossis, Matt Mervis. I'm going to go with Tristan Kossis for this season. Even though I, as we are recording this,

I just got to film Matt Mervis hitting an absolute bomb and the Twitter people are all jumping on it. Cubs are liking the tweet about it. Everyone's liking it. Matt Mervis is the hot hand for a lot. lot of right reasons. But I don't want to give up on Tristan Kossis. And I think that prospect fatigue can make you forget about what a great player this is. They gave up on Bobby Dahlbach. I don't think they're going to do that with Kossis. He is a technician as far as his own approach goes. He understands his hitting approach. He's got best pure raw power, even of all these

first base when we're talking about. Miguel Vargas is a little bit of a tweener. Mervis has shown huge power, but I think it's not even in the same maybe range as what we've seen with Tristan Kossis before. the opportunity he's going to roll and a nice little plug. If you guys listen to the full podcast form where we talk about the first baseman, you can find out should you trade Matt Mervis for Tristan Kossis in Dynasty right now? Because this is redraft, but we do ask that question in Dynasty. Do you think you would feel comfortable with either one of those guys as your starting corner infielder? Let's say they're both on their respective opening day rosters.

Ooh. What I feel comfortable with them as a corner infancy? Yeah, I think I could be comfortable with them. Because if I did, my assumption is I probably went really heavy on my starters. And if Matt Mervis is there, the one advantage he has is I think he could hit higher in the order. See, I don't believe Matt Mervis is going to break camp. I know a lot of people want him to and there's a lot of thought that he could. He does, great.

But I feel like you're going to get more at Bats from Kossis in that I think Mervis could hit higher in the lineup than we're going to see from Kossis. So in that case, both would feel good if you're giving me the option that Mervis has already with the team. I could get down with both of the team. them as my corner infielder. All right. Last one here is Michael Tolia, who will have just outfield eligibility to start the season on CBS, but basically split his time evenly between outfield and first base. I have a feeling he's going to earn that eligibility as the season goes on. Big power. 30 home runs in the minors last year. He played 31 games with the Rockies, 37% strikeout rate. So Welsh just kind of just looks like the typical slugger. Lots of power,

lots of strikeouts. What do you think? Yeah. And the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, the, uh, one difference of everything you just said, because I agree, you know, big power, batting average issues or strikeout issues. There is one caveat to this. He plays in Colorado. And Colorado is always the extra boost that we are going to give a little bit of advantage of over other players. If he gets that first base qualification, that's great. We're kind of cheating here a little bit because talking about, you know, prospects are going to be first baseman. Like Tyler Sotom, is tough because he's young, but he got up to AAA. He could be exciting if the A's decided to move him up. But Tolia in Colorado with regular at bats, let's take that chance.

All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Stitcher, your smart speakers or anywhere else podcasts are found. And thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today in five. We'll be back in on Tuesday morning. Bye-bye.